The sitter is probably John Cotes of Woodcote, the son of Charles Cotes and his wife Lettice, daugher of Kildare, 2nd Lord Digby. He married Lady Dorothy Shirley, youngest daugher of Robert, Earl Ferrers. They had several children including Shirley, who took Holy Orders; James, a Colonel in the Army who married Frances, youngest daughter of William, 5th Lord Digby; Washington, Dean of Lismore and Chaplain to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, who married firstly Miss Corbet and secondly, in June 1750 Mrs Holland of Shrewsbury; Digby, who took Holy Orders, was the Chancellor of Oxford in 1738, and who married and had two daughters. John Woodcote also has two daughters; Dorothy, who married the Rev. William Pigot of Edgmond, and Mary, who married Wriothesley, youngest son of William, 5th Lord Digby