The Cotes family owned land in Staffordshire and Shropshire for many generations. Tenth in succession from Richard de Cotes was John Cotes, High Sheriff for Staffordshire who acquired Woodcote in the reign of King Henry VI. The property stayed in the family and was inherited by John Cotes, the sitter in the present portrait. He was the son of John Cotes and his wife Lady Dorothy Shirley, daughter of Robert, Earl of Ferrers. On 19 October 1777 he married Lucy, 2nd daughter of William, 1st Viscount Courtenay. He was Member of Parliament for Wigan and Shropshire, and his eldest son John succeeded to the Woodcote estates, and to his father's parliamentary Shropshire constituency.