Portrait of Lady Bowes, aged 24, and her son..., both full-length, she in an embroidered black dress with lace collar and cuffs, the child in a white dress and bonnet holding a rattle, in an interior

Lady Bowes was the wife of Sir Thomas Bowes (d.1676), a Justice of the Peace for Essex for fifty years, of Much Bromley, who was knighted on 19 July 1630. She was the third daughter of Paul D'Ewes of Stowlangton near Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, and sister of the distinguished antiquary Sir Simonds D'Ewes, 1st Bt. (1602-1650). Her father, Paul D'Ewes was one of the six Clerks in Chancery. Lady Bowe's mother was Cecilia, daughter and heir of Richard Simonds of Coxden, Dorset.

Sir Thomas and Lady Bowes had four children: Thomas (1627-1680); Cicely (b.1629); Martin (b.1631); and Paul (b.1624). Thomas may have been educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, where a Thomas Bowes was admitted a Fellow Commoner on 23 July 1646.