Mary Vere

Mary Vere (1581–1671) was an English letter writer.

Mary Vere
Born1581 (1581)
Died (aged 90)

She was born Mary Tracy, a daughter of Sir John Tracy (died 1591) of Toddington, Gloucestershire and his wife Anne, a daughter of Thomas Throckmorton (died 1568).[1] Her brother Sir Thomas Tracy was a member of the household of Anne of Denmark, as an usher of her privy chamber.[2]

She married firstly, William Hoby (died 1603). They had two children.

In October or November 1607, she married the veteran soldier Horace Vere.[2]

Their children included:

Mary Vere was a Puritan. She wrote "God will provide" at the front of most of the books in her closet.[3] In 1608 she donated a book to Sir Thomas Bodley's library, and asked that it be inscribed in Latin as a gift from the daughter of Sir John Tracy.[4] A number of religious works were dedicated to her.[5]

She was widowed in 1635. Mary Vere lived at Hackney. Her chaplain Samuel Rogers kept a diary. He much preferred her to Margaret Denny, the widow of Edward Denny, his previous patron.[6]

At the death of the widow of Lord Vere's eldest brother, John Vere, she inherited Kirby Hall, where she died on Christmas Eve 1671, aged 90.

References

  1. 'TRACY, Sir John I (d. 1591), of Toddington, Glos', History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1558-1603, ed. P.W. Hasler, 1981
  2. Linda Levy Peck, Court Patronage and Corruption in Early Stuart England (Routledge, London, 1993), p. 72.
  3. Jacqueline Eales, 'Mary, Lady Vere', Joanna Harris & Elizabeth Scott-Baumann, The Intellectual Culture of Puritan Women (Palgrave Macmillan, 2011), p. 84.
  4. Jacqueline Eales, 'Mary, Lady Vere', Joanna Harris & Elizabeth Scott-Baumann, The Intellectual Culture of Puritan Women (Palgrave Macmillan, 2011), p. 85.
  5. Jacqueline Eales, 'Mary, Lady Vere', Joanna Harris & Elizabeth Scott-Baumann, The Intellectual Culture of Puritan Women (Palgrave Macmillan, 2011), p. 88.
  6. Jacqueline Eales, 'Mary, Lady Vere', Joanna Harris & Elizabeth Scott-Baumann, The Intellectual Culture of Puritan Women (Palgrave Macmillan, 2011), p. 90.
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