Date of Birth: 
About Lady Mary Dering
- Lady Mary Dering (née Mary Harvey) (bap.
- 3 September 1629 – 7 February 1704) was an English composer. She was born in Croydon on 3 September 1629, daughter of Daniel Harvey and Elizabeth Kynnersley.
- Daniel Harvey was a wealthy London merchant and member of the Levant Company, his eldest brother being the anatomist William Harvey.At school in 1640, at Hackney's "Ladies university of the female arts", she began a friendship with Katherine Philips (the Matchless Orinda).
- Mary studied with Henry Lawes, who dedicated his book to her; in the dedication he highly praises her compositions, and says that few of any sex have matched their perfection.
- Some of her music was published in John Playford's Select Ayres and Dialogues, and three of her songs were published in Lawes' Second book of airs; these are the first known published works by a woman in England.On 5 April 1648 Mary Harvey married to Sir Edward Dering.
- They had seventeen children, seven of whom died young.
- She survived her husband by twenty years, dying in February 1704 (1705 New Style); she also outlived her eldest son Sir Edward Dering, 3rd Baronet.Lady Dering was buried at Pluckley in Kent, and has a memorial inscription in the church there.
Read more at Wikipedia