John Holles, Duke of Newcastle (1662-1711) was the eldest son of Gilbert Holles, 3rd Earl of Clare. He was a staunch Protestant and Whig and took an active part in promoting the accession of William and Mary. He was made gentleman of the bedchamber to the King and carried the Queen's sceptre and cross at the Coronation. In February 1689-90 he married Lady Margaret Cavendish, third daughter and co-heiress of Henry, second Duke of Newcastle. The Duke left him the bulk of his estate and his brothers-in-law, the Earls of Thanet and Montague disputed the will but Holles won. Holles asked the King to create him Duke of Newcastle and resigned his offices when the King did not act. He retired to his seat at Welbeck. In January 1693-4, he succeeded to the estates of his relative Denzil, third Lord Holles of Ifield which made him one of the richest men in the country. The King promised to make him Duke of Clarence but as this had always been held by Royal Princes, the title of Newcastle-upon-Tyne was substituted in 1694. He was created a Knight of the Garter in compensation. He died in 1711 from the effects of a fall from his horse while hunting at Welbeck and is buried in Westminster Abbey.

Cross painted several portraits of the Duke of Newcastle. Two miniatures of the sitter signed by Peter Cross are illustrated in R. Goulding, The Catalogue of Miniatures at Welbeck Abbey, Oxford, 1916, nos. 111 and 166, and for another portrait see J. J. Foster, Samuel Cooper and the English Miniature Painters of the XVII Century, Supplement, 1914-1916, p. 86, no. 56 and H. A. Kennedy, 'Early English Portrait Miniatures in the Collection of the Duke of Buccleuch', The Studio, 1917, p. 25.