Flora Macdonald was a Jacobite heroine best known for her role in helping 'Bonnie Prince Charles', leader of the movement to reinstate the Stuarts to the British throne to escape after the Battle of Culloden.

The Stewart family (Margaret Brodie Herschel's family) had a historical association with the Jacobite cause and it is presumbly in reference to this that this portrait of Flora MacDonald is to be found in the Herschel collection. Margaret's great great grandfather, Rev. Nicholas Adee, had been a staunch Jacobite, almost according to family legend losing his job for his beliefs.

This print was published by the firm Smith, Elder & Co as were quite a number in the Herschel collection. The brother of Margaret Brodie Herschel (nee Stewart), Peter Stewart worked for Smith, Elder & Co as a printer. There are two identical copies of this print in the Herschel collection.