Lord Chesterfield (1694-1773) was one of Hoare's first influential patrons. From 1740 Hoare was a neighbour of his in Pierrepoint Street, Bath, and from 1742 was a Councillor of the Royal Mineral Water Hospital, of which Chesterfield was President in 1744. Hoare did two other pastels of Lord Chesterfield, one very similar repr. E. Newby, William Hoare of Bath R.A. 1707-1792, exhibition catalgue, Bath, Victoria Art Gallery, November-December 1990, p.24, fig.1, the other facing half right and looking rather older, now at Knole. His brother Prince Hoare (1711-1769) did a marble bust of Chesterfield al antica (see Newby, loc.cit., no. 7 repr. and, for Chesterfield's patronage, p.11).
Philip Dormer Stanhope was born 22 September 1694, the son of the third Earl of Chesterfield by Elizabeth Saville, daughter of the Marquis of Halifax. He was an M.P., opposing Robert Walpole, from 1715 until 1726 when he succeeded his father as fourth Earl. He continued to play an active part in politics, usually in opposition to Walpole and to George II, until the mid 1740s. Subsequently he occupied himself as a wit and writer, mainly of memoirs and letters, in particular those to his natural son Philip (1732-1762), which were published posthumously in 1774, and to his cousin, godson and heir, also called Philip (1755-1816). He died at his London home Chesterfield House on 24 March 1773