Portrait of the Honorable Henry Carey (d.1653), styled Lord Leppington, with his dog

Although information regarding the life of John Weesop is scant, it is generally accepted that he was of Flemish descent and arrived in England shortly before the death of Anthony van Dyck, to whom his style is clearly indebted. Weesop worked exclusively as a portraitist and all of his securely attributed portraits depict staunch royalists; including Elizabeth Maintland, Duchess of Lauderdale, 2nd Countess Dysart (Ham House, Surrey, The National Trust, inv. no. 1139956), Marmaduke D'Arcy (The Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens, San Marino, CA, inv. no. 2002.16) and members of the Villiers family.

This painting was most likely executed for the sitter's mother, Mary Paulet, née Scrope, and descended in her family. After the the sitter's father passed away in 1649, Mary remarried Charles Paulet, 1st Duke of Bolton; their eldest daughter Jane married John Egerton, 3rd Duke of Bridgewater. The painting must have passed from Mary to Jane and entered the Bridgewater collection.