Edward, Lord Seymour, with his horse, groom and dogs, in a landscape

The sitter has traditionally been identified as Edward, Lord Seymour (1717/8-1792), the eldest son of Sir Edward Seymour, 6th Bt., and his wife Mary (d.1768), only daughter and heiress of Daniel Webb of Monkton Farley, Wiltshire. An alternative suggestion is that it may be his father Sir Edward Seymour, 6th Bt., who successfully claimed the Dukedom of Somerset following the death of his kinsman Algernon, 7th Duke of Somerset, in 1750. Edward, Lord Seymour, succeeded his father as the 9th Duke of Somerset on the latter's death in 1757.