The sitter was the eldest son of James Stopford, 1st Earl of Courtown and his wife Elizabeth, née Smith. He inherited the Irish Earldom of Courtown and his seat at Courtown, Co. Wexford, Ireland but he spent most of his time in England where he served as MP for Great Bedwyn and Malborough. He was appointed a Lord of the Bedchamber to George IV, Prince of Wales, and later Treasurer of the Household under William Pitt the Younger. In 1783 he was made a Knight of the Order of St Patrick and was admitted to the Irish Privy Council. In 1796 he gained a peerage when he was created Baron Saltersford of Saltersford in the County of Chester.

He married, in 1762, Mary Powys (c. 1737-1810), daughter of Richard Powys of Hintlesham Hall, Suffolk. She was a lady in waiting to Queen Charlotte.

The present portrait compares closely with a full-scale work on canvas by Batoni painted during the sitter’s Grand Tour in 1753-54. Now in the Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens, San Marino, California (inv. no. 94.3), the painting depicts the sitter three-quarters length in a blue coat with red collar and silk waistcoat, his right arm leaning against a column, his left hand on his hip. The sitter’s face is positioned and depicted identically in the painting and the miniature.