The present picture appears to depict three of the ten children of Sir John Whitefoord, the 3rd Baronet, who married Anne Cartwright in 1761. The family was of Blairquhan in Ayrshire, but Sir John was forced to sell his estate in about 1786 after the collapse of the Ayr Bank, in which he was a partner.

The spelling of 'Whitefoord' and 'Whitford' seem to have been interchangeable in the eighteenth century, both Sir John's father and uncle being referred to in The Gentleman's Magazine as 'Whitford'. On Sir John's death in 1803, the Baronetcy became dormant, all his five sons having predeceased him. Sir John was an early patron of Robert Burns and if one of the daughters shown is his eldest, Mary (called 'Mary Jane' in Burke's Landed Gentry, 1972, 'Mary Anne' in The Genealogist and 'Maria' in The Complete Baronetage) she was the heroine of Burn's Lass O'Ballochmyle. Sir John was, according to The Complete Baronetage, IV, 1904, the original for the character of Sir Arthur Wardour in Scott's Antiquary.

We are grateful to Thomas Woodcock, Somerset Herald, for his help in cataloguing this work