Edward Heneage Dering


Edward Heneage Dering. was a novelist of the Victorian era, although he is largely remembered today as a member of 'The Quartet' at Baddesley Clinton, with marriages to two artistic women.

Biography

Dering was the youngest son of John Dering, rector of Pluckley, Kent, and prebendary of St Paul's Cathedral. In 1859 he married fellow author Lady Georgiana Chatterton. Dering converted to Catholicism in 1865 and Georgiana followed in 1875.. From 1869, the couple lived at Baddesley Clinton with Georgiana's niece Rebecca Dulcibella Orpen and her husband Marmion Edward Ferrers. While living there, they paid for much-needed improvements to the house and also paid off the mortgages taken out on the estate. Lady Georgiana died at Baddesley Clinton in 1876 and two years later Edward Dering published Memoirs of Georgiana, Lady Chatterton
Edward continued to live at Baddesley Clinton, chaperoned by a Catholic priest after the death of Rebecca's husband in 1884; in 1885 the couple were married. Edward was responsible for more improvements to the house, including a new service wing in 1890. Edward Dering died at Baddesley Clinton in 1892 and much of his personal library, along with those of his wives, remains in the house today. The collections there also include several portraits of Dering painted by Rebecca Dering, including 'The philosopher's morning walk', which shows him in his favoured old-fashioned clothes in front of the moat at Baddesley Clinton.

Works

Dering's best-selling works include:
Dering also published English translations of works by the Jesuit philosopher Matteo Liberatore.