John Lodge Hubbersty (d.1837), Recorder of Lancaster, Fellow (1781)

John Lodge Hubbersty, Recorder of Lancaster, was a legal figure in the provincial establishment whose portrait for Queen's College, Oxford, documents the institutional portrait commissions that formed a significant part of Dance's practice alongside individual commissions. The Recorder of Lancaster held one of the principal judicial offices in the county—the chief legal officer of the borough and presiding judge of its quarter sessions. Dance's ability to serve both London and provincial clients, both private individuals and institutional patrons, reflects his position at the upper level of the Georgian portrait market without quite reaching the celebrity status of Reynolds and Gainsborough.

The institutional portrait employs the standard format of academic portraiture: three-quarter view, dark gown, and plain background, designed to hang alongside similar portraits in a college hall or combination room.