Dering, Edward, Sir, 1625-1684

Sir Edward Dering, politician and scholar, was born at in 1625 at Pluckley in Kent, the only son of Sir Edward Dering and his second wife, Anne Ashburnham. Educated at Cambridge University, he was admitted to the Middle Temple in 1641. He inherited the baronetcy following the death of his father in 1644. After first being elected to Parliament as MP for Lisburn, he later represented the boroughs of East Retford (1670) and Hythe (1678). In 1662 he was appointed as one of the Commissioners for the Act of Settlement in Ireland and later succeeded Sir James Ware as Auditor-General for Ireland. He held other offices of state including Lord Commissioner of the Privy Seal. He was married in 1648 to Mary Harvey, (sister of the distinguished physician William Harvey). He died in 1684 and was buried at Pluckley.