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Gainsborough painted the work in the summer of 1785, when the subjects, William Hallett (1764–1842) and Elizabeth Stephen (1763/4-1833) were both aged 21, shortly before their wedding at the church of St Lawrence in Little Stanmore on 30 July 1785.  Gainsborough was commissioned by Hallett, and paid 120 guineas (£126). 
Hallett was the grandson of a successful cabinetmaker, also named William Hallett, and inherited his estate at Canons Park in Middlesex.  Stephen was an heiress, inheriting nearly £20,000 from her father, a surgeon, who had died before the marriage.  The couple never lived at Canons Park: by 1788, Hallett had let Canons and had bought the estate of Little Wittenham in Berkshire, but they resided at Faringdon House in Oxfordshire for almost 20 years.  Hallett was a gambler, lost money in business transactions, and worked his way through his fortune by 1830, although the marriage was reportedly a happy one.  They were married for almost 48 years, with two sons and four daughters.  Hallett remarried after Elizabeth's death in 1833.  
After his death in 1842, William was buried next to Elizabeth in the churchyard of the church where they had been married decades before.
Faringdon House church of St Lawrence Little Stanmore Little Wittenham Canons Park