Thomas Hawker

The first British female composer to have her works published.

The sitter was the daughter of Daniel Harvey, 'a Turkey merchant of very eminent loyaltie, prudence, integritie and generositie', and his wife Elizabeth Kynnersley. Her uncle was William Harvey, the celebrated anatomist and physician who discovered the circulation of blood. In the 1640s she studied at Mrs Salmon’s school in Hackney, a hotbed of female education at the time and a notable breeding ground for blue-stockings, including her close friend and fellow pupil Katherine Fowler (Mrs Philips), who became an accomplished poet known as ‘The Matchless Orinda’. On 5th April 1648 she married Sir Edward Dering, 2nd Bt. of Surrenden-Dering in Kent, son of the antiquary Sir Edward Dering and his wife Anne Ashburnham.

In 1649 Mary began her studies with the great musician Henry Lawes who had known her father-in-law. Lawes was the most famous composer of his day, the link between Dowland and Purcell. Mary flourished under his tutelage, and when Lawes published his Second Book of Ayres and Dialogues in 1655 he dedicated it to Mary, commenting that 'those Songs which fill this Book have receiv’d much lustre by your excellent performance of them’. Lawes added that three of the 'ayres' were 'of your own Composition'. The words for all three of his wife’s 'ayres' were written by her husband Edward Dering, who was a talented poet. He and Mary were both prominent among Katherine Philips’ 'society of friendship', which she set up to include her closest friends, giving many of them a pet name - Dering being 'Silvander'. It was very rare in the 17th century for amateur composers to allow their names to be published, and Mary was the first woman to let her name appear so. Consequently, she is the first documented female composer in British history. Mary and her husband had seventeen children, of whom ten survived into adulthood. Their daughter Mary married Sir Thomas Knatchbull, 3rd Bt.

The present painting is a rare example of the work of Thomas Hawker, one of Sir Peter Lely’s chief studio assistants who took over both his house and studio between 1683 and 1685, following Lely's death. He was later patronised by the Duke of Chandos. Painted in 1683, this is one of only three known portraits of Lady Dering. The other two are a portrait by Lely of 1651 at Parham House, Sussex,¹ and an untraced portrait of 1641 by Cornelis de Neve.

¹ https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-1012795