Laurence Echard (1670–1730), Resident at Christ's (1688–1696), Geographer and Historian, Chaplain to the Bishop of Lincoln

Kneller's portrait of Laurence Echard (1670–1730), historian and chaplain to the Bishop of Lincoln, from around 1720 (though assigned in records to 1750, likely a later copy or misattribution), depicts one of the more significant intellectual figures of early eighteenth-century England. Echard was a prolific writer, best known for his History of England (1707–1718), his translation of Plautus and Terence, and his geographical works. As a Christ's College Cambridge alumnus, geographer, and Church of England clergyman, he moved in the scholarly and clerical world that Kneller regularly served with his portrait commissions.

The portrait likely shows Echard in clerical dress with perhaps a scholarly attribute such as a book or manuscript, rendered in Kneller's established male portrait format. The face would receive his characteristic direct, individualized treatment, capturing the intellectual engagement of a man of letters.