Although traditionally identified as being a portrait of Peter Brooke, because of the date, 1780, on the present picture, the sitter is most likely to be a son of Peter Brook of Mere (1723-83). His eldest son, Peter, was born in 1757, but died in 1766 and his second son Jonas, the founder of part of this collection, was born in 1758; but it is most probably of the third son Thomas who was born in 1769. Following the deaths of his two elder brothers, Thomas inherited the estate at Mere in 1783. He joined the 1st Cheshire Yoemanry and became a Lieut. - Colonel in the regiment. He married Maria, daughter of the Rev Sir Thomas Delves Broughton, of Broughton, Staffordshire, and Doddington Castle, Cheshire. They had six sons and two daughters. The eldest son, Peter, succeeded in 1815 on the death of his father.

Daniel Stringer was a member of an artistic family who lived in Knutsford. His bother, Samuel, painted landscapes and exhibited at Liverpool in 1774; four landscapes by him, dated 1781, were at High Legh Hall, and he also painted watercolour views of Tabley Old Hall. Daniel, born on 14 June 1754, entered the Royal Academy Schools and became a portrait painter. His self-portrait, signed and dated 1776, is in the Tate Gallery (no. 3137).