Andrea's father, Edward Stillingfleet (1635-1699), was the most prominent and important Bishop of the time. After St. John's College, Cambridge, he took Holy Orders and in 1657 received from Sir Robert Burgoyne the Rectory of Sutton. Here he wrote Origines Sacrae, a work which attracted great attention and through the fame it brought him, he was appointed to the Rolls Chapel, became Rector of St. Andrew's, Holborn, Reader of the Temple and a very popular preacher. Pepys, a lifelong friend since their student days, describes going to hear him preach: 'he did make a most plain, honest, good, grave sermon ....he is the ablest young man to preach the Gospel of any since the Apostles'; there was always standing room only for his sermons. On 21 April 1669 he became a Canon at Canterbury Cathedral and following the preaching of a sermon before the King, was appointed a Royal Chaplain. On 4 May 1677 he was made Archdeacon of London and on 16 January the following year Dean of St. Paul's. The popularity of his sermons continued to attract large audiences, and he remained a favourite at Court, although after the succession of James II he was less prominent. After William of Orange became King, he was again back in favour and soon consecrated Bishop of Worcester; he was active and energetic in the post. Ill-health, however, prevented him from being appointed Archbishop of Canterbury, but he continued in the latter part of his life to publish his writings and to add to his very large library of manuscripts and rare books. After his death this was largely bought by Robert Harley, later Earl of Oxford, and the Archbishop of Armagh. He married firstly Andrea, daughter of William Dobyns of Dumbleton; they had one son and two daughters, and the sitter in the present portrait is presumably a child of this marriage, taking her mother's name. He married secondly Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Nicholas Pedley; they had seven children.

A portrait of the Bishop by Lely of 1672 is recorded as being painted for the Beale family in Mary's diary (see R.B. Beckett, Lely, 1951, p.63, no.512)