Anna Josepha King was the wife of Philip Gidley King, third Governor of New South Wales. Her husband had served two terms as Lieutenant-Governor of Norfolk Island, before he was appointed Lieutenant-Governor of New South Wales.

While living in Sydney, Anna served on the board of the Female Orphan School established by her husband in 1801. It was the first welfare institution in the colony, set up to educate and care for orphaned and abandoned girls.

In 1818 the Reverend Samuel Marsden noted that he saw this portrait, and its companion of Governor Philip King, hanging in the Parramatta cottage of their son, Phillip Parker King.