Francis Ayscough was a courtier and Church of England clergyman who was elected a Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Oxford in January 1727. Ayscough tutored George Lyttelton, Wilson's early patron, at Oxford and married his sister, Anne. He was brought by Lyttelton into the circle of Frederick Prince of Wales, becoming clerk of the closet to Frederick and in 1744, tutor to his sons, the Princes George (the future King George III) and Edward Augustus. In 1748-49 Wilson painted Ayscouth with the princes (see P24 Dr Francis Ayscough with the Prince of Wales and Edward Augustus, Duke of York and Albany, National Portrait Gallery, apparently commissioned by Ayscough. Another version of the portrait (P24A) is now at Yale Center for British Art (Paul Mellon Collection). Sadly for Wilson these were to be exceptional examples of patronage in royal circles.
