Sir Francis Vincent, 1st Bt., of Stoke D'Abernon (d. 1640), was the eldest son of Sir Thomas Vincent of Bernach (d. 1613) and Jane, daughter and heiress of Thomas Lyfield of Stoke D'Abernon, Surrey. Upon the occasion of his marriage, Sir Thomas exchanged his land in Northamptonshire for the Surrey property of Thomas Cecil, Earl of Exeter, thus creating a large estate together with his wife's inheritance. Sir Francis was created a baronet in 1620 and represented Surrey in Parliament in 1625-6. He married three times: firstly Sarah (d. 1608), daughter of Sir Amyas Paulet, Governor of Guernsey and Jersey; secondly he married Mary, daughter of Sir Henry Archer, though the date of this marriage, and his final marriage to Eleanor, widow of Sir Arthur Acland (d. 1610) is unknown. As the present pictures are dated 1627 the later inscription on the portrait of Lady Vincent must be erroneous. It would seem that the Lady Vincent shown here is either Mary or Eleanor. Sir Francis was succeeded by his only surviving son, Anthony, who served as Sheriff of Sussex in 1637.

John Eycke (fl. 1618-after 1640) is a rare artist whose work has often been confused with that of Daniel Mytens. He was first identified by Lady Victoria Manners as the painter of the Oxenden portraits then in the Capel Cure Collection [see Connoisseur, September 1914, pp. 10-11]. There is a similar pair of portraits of the 1st Lord and Lady Fitzwilliam [Private Collection, England], signed and dated 1630. For discussion see The Burlington Magazine, LXXII, 1938, pp. 125-127, illus.