Sir David Falconer of Newton was President of the Court of Session 1682, as Lord Newton. He was the brother of Sir Alexander Falconer Bt., of Glenfarquhar, father of the 4th Baron Falconer.
The commissary courts were established between 1564 and 1566 in Scotland after the collapse of the ecclesiastical or 'consistorial' courts during the Scottish Reformation of 1560.
It is likely that the present portrait was painted around 1730 as a posthumous depiction of the sitter and is probably after an original by George Jamesome.