Sarah Scarvell, born in 1837, was the sixth child and first daughter of John and Sarah Scarvell. She was 18 when she sat for this portrait. The Scarvell family were very close to the Cape family, with several members of each family marrying into the same generation of the other. Both the younger Scarvell sisters married Cape brothers — Elizabeth Mary Scarvell to William Frederick Cape in 1863, and Sarah Winefred Isabella Mary Scarvell to Alfred John Cape in 1871.