James Drake-Brockman, of Beachborough, Kent, on a bay hunter, with a terrier, in a wooded landscape

James Drake-Brockman (c.1760/70-1832) was the elder son of The Rev. Ralph Drake-Brockman (d.1781) and his wife Caroline, youngest daughter of Henry Brockman, of Cheriton, Kent. His father, who was the son of John Drake and a descendant of the Drakes of Bletchingley, assumed the surname and arms of the old Kentish family of Brockman by act of parliament in 1768 in compliance with the will of his cousin, James Brockman, through whom he inherited Beachborough Manor in 1767, the latter having died unmarried. A pair of 'conversation pieces' by Edward Haytley, of circa 1744-6, show James Brockman (1696-1767) and his family and friends beside the Temple Pond at Beachborough Manor (now in the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, see Manners and Morals, Hogarth and British Painting 1700-1760, catalogue to the exhibition at the Tate Gallery, 1988, nos 127-8, both illustrated). James Drake-Brockman was educated at St. John's College, Oxford, and was High Sheriff of Kent in 1791, the year before this painting was executed. He married Catherine, daughter of The Rev. William Tatten, Prebendary of Canterbury, in 1786, and was succeeded by his younger son The Rev. William Drake-Brockman (1788-1847).