Group portrait of James Herbert (1688-1721) and Maria Herbert, née Hallet (d. 1729), with their children, in the park at Tythrop

James Herbert (1688-1721) was the son of James Herbert of Kingsey, grandson of the 4th Earl of Pembroke, and his wife Lady Catherine Osborne, daughter of Thomas, 1st Duke of Leeds. After the death of his father, Herbert came under the guardianship of his grandfather, the Duke of Leeds. He was put under the tutelage of Peregrine Bertie, a naval captain, and sent to sea in 1706. After obtaining his lieutenancy in June of the following year, he set sail for Lisbon. The death of his elder brother, Thomas, in 1709, saw him inherit the Herbert estates, meticulously cared for by his grandfather. Soon after, Herbert received his captain's commission from his second cousin, Thomas Herbert, 8th Earl of Pembroke, then serving as Lord High Admiral. On 15 September 1710, he married Maria Hallet, daughter of James Hallet, a goldsmith of Edgeware. Herbert served as Member of Parliament for Queenborough, Amersham, and, lastly, Oxfordshire. He died from drowning in 1721, after suffering an attack of apoplexy, and was succeeded by son, James, shown on the far right of the composition. Sophia, the second youngest daughter, who was born in 1718 and is seen standing by her mother's knee, married Philip, 6th Viscount Wenman of Thame Park, Oxfordshire, on 13 July 1741. Viscount Wenman succeeded his brother-in-law as Member of Parliament for Oxfordshire and was one of the candidates who inspired Hogarth's celebrated series of four paintings: The Humours of an Election, executed in 1754 and now in Sir John Soane's Museum, London. Anne, the youngest child, here seated on her mother's knee, was the last member of the Herbert family to live at Tythrop, the south front of which is shown in the background of the present composition. A photograph, published in 1904, shows the portrait hanging at Tythrop above the house's remarkable staircase, attributed to Edward Pierce II (1630-95) and described by Nicholas Pevsner as 'one of the finest in the country' (The Buildings of England: Buckinghamshire, London, 1960, p. 180; fig. 1).