Although Ormerod gave detailed information about the Holford and Cholmondeley family pedigrees he made no attempt to identify the sitters in this portrait. The style of the painting would seem to date it to c.1600–1610, and it might represent daughters or nieces of Sir Hugh and Lady Mary Cholmondeley; there is nothing in the genealogical tables published by Ormerod either to support or refute the assumption that the sitters were twins. They might only have married into the Cholmondeley family and the fact that they shared the same birthday could be explained as pure coincidence. Nevertheless, they share a strong resemblance.

Family group portraits of this type were popular in the Elizabethan and early Stuart periods. Traditionally employing emblems or symbols to show identity and status, they rarely offered psychological insights into the sitters. The pose is not known to have been used in any other British painting, but was frequently seen in tomb sculpture. John Hopkins (1991) suggests that the portrait may show two sisters, Lettice Grosvenor (1585–1612) and Mary Calveley (died 1616), who were the daughters of Sir Hugh Cholmondeley (1552–1601) and Mary Holford (1563–1625). The evidence is not definitive, however, and the identities of the sitters, like that of the painter, remain a mystery.

Further reading:John T. Hopkins, '"Such a Twin Likeness there was in the Pair": An Investigation into the Painting of the Cholmondeley Sisters', reprinted from 'Transactions of the Historical Society of Lancashire and Cheshire' [for the Year 1991], vol.141, pp.1-37, reproduced opposite p.1
 
Terry Riggs
March 1998