Portrait of Peter, Mary and Anne Middelton, Peter holding a bow and arrow

Peter (1785-1866), Mary (1787-1796) and Anne (1788-1826) were the children of William Middelton (1760-1847) of Stockeld Park, near Wetherby, Yorkshire, and his wife Clara (née Grace). William was born William Constable, but assumed the name Middelton in 1760 on succeeding to the estates of his great-uncle, William Middelton of Stockeld Park and Myddleton Lodge. In 1792 he sat to Downman for a portrait alongside his eldest son, also William. In the same year Dowman made the present drawing of three of the younger children. A year later, the family was torn apart as William Middelton divorced Clara in one of the most public and dramatic divorces cases of late eighteenth-century Britain. Clara had fallen in love with a young groom at Stockeld Park, and when her husband found out, he instigated a 3-year long divorce process which destroyed the family.