Author: Hunt, Aubrey de Vere
Biography:
HUNT, Aubrey de Vere (1788-1846: DIB)
He was born 28 Aug. 1788 at Curragh Chase, Adare, County Limerick, to Sir Vere Hunt, landowner and MP, and his wife Eleanor Pery. His maternal grandfather was the Bishop of Limerick. He was educated at home and by a private tutor at Ambleside, Cumbria, before entering Harrow School. He married Mary Rice of Mount Trenchard, County Limerick, on 12 May 1807 when he was eighteen. They had three daughters (just one lived to be an adult) and five sons, including Aubrey Thomas de Vere (1814-1902), a poet. On the death of his father in 1818 he inherited the baronetcy and an estate heavily encumbered by debts. With careful management, he was able to return the estate to solvency and he was known for attending to the welfare of his tenants. A moderate tory in his politics, he supported the Union and favoured Catholic emancipation. He was a friend of William Wordsworth (q.v.) who visited him at Curragh Chase and was lavish in praise of his sonnets; modern assessments favour his dramas over his verse. In 1832 he took the name De Vere. He contributed to literary periodicals and collected his verse in Song of Faith, Devout Exercises, and Sonnets (1842) which he dedicated to Wordsworth. He died of a bowel obstruction at Curragh Chase on 5 July 1846 and was interred in the family vault at Askeaton church. A final drama, Mary Tudor, was published in 1847. (DIB 14 Feb. 2022; ODNB 14 Feb. 2022; Wexford Independent 11 July 1846) SR
Other Names:
- Aubrey de Vere