The sitter was the nephew of Sir Samuel Cornish, Vice-Admiral of the Red Squadron, F.R.S. who was created a Baronet in 1766. On the death of Sir Samuel without issue in 1770, the baronetcy became extinct, but the manors of Sharnbrook, Tofte and Temple Hill in Berkshire, which he had purchased from Sir Philip Boteler, Bt. of Kent, were bequeathed to the sitter who subsequently assumed the name Cornish.