Portrait of Mary, Countess of Westmorland, full-length, in a grey satin dress and a blue wrap, with a sprig of blossom in her right hand, by a draped curtain

The sitter was the second daughter and co-heir of Horace, Lord Vere of Tilbury, and the widow of Sir Roger Townshend, 1st Bt. (d.1636-7), of Raynham, Norfolk, Member of Parliament for Oxford (1621-2) and later for Norfolk (1628-9). She married Mildmay Fane, 2nd Earl of Westmorland (d.1665), as his second wife, in 1638. From her first marriage she had two sons and five daughters. Horatio Townshend, her second son from her first marriage, who succeeded his father in the Baronetcy following the untimely death of his elder brother. He was one of the keenest supporters of the Restoration in 1660, and was created Viscount Townshend in 1682. From her second marriage she had four daughters and one son, Vere, who succeeded his half-brother to become the 4th Earl of Westmorland in 1691.