Bridget de Vere, Countess of Berkshire
Bridget de Vere, Countess of Berkshire (6 April 1584 – December 1630/March 1631) was an English noblewoman, the daughter of Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford.
Bridget was brought up by her maternal grandfather, the powerful statesman William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley.
She was also styled Lady Norris of Rycote and Viscountess Thame.
She married Francis Norris, 1st Earl of Berkshire; however, the marriage was not a success, and they separated in 1606.
Elizabeth de Vere, Countess of Derby
Elizabeth de Vere, Countess of Derby, Lord of Mann (2 July 1575 – 10 March 1627), was an English noblewoman and the eldest daughter of the Elizabethan courtier, poet, and playwright Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford.
She was the Lord of Mann from 1612 to 1627, and prior to holding the title, she had taken over many administrative duties appertaining to the Isle of Man's affairs.
Elizabeth was the first female to rule as the island's head of state.
She served as a Maid of Honour to Queen Elizabeth I of England before her marriage to William Stanley, 6th Earl of Derby.
Their wedding is one of eleven that have been suggested as the inspiration for William Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream", and the occasion of the play's first performance.
Elizabeth Trussell, Countess of Oxford
Elizabeth de Vere(" née" Trussell), Countess of Oxford( 1496 – before July 1527) was an English noblewoman.
As a young child she became a royal ward.
She married John de Vere, 15th Earl of Oxford, and by him was mother of the 16th Earl and grandmother of Sir Francis and Sir Horace Vere, the' fighting Veres'.
Elizabeth Trentham, Countess of Oxford
Elizabeth de Vere, Countess of Oxford, formerly Elizabeth Trentham( d. c. December 1612), was the second wife of the Elizabethan courtier and poet Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford.
Frances de Vere, Countess of Surrey
Frances Howard,(" née" de Vere), Countess of Surrey( c. 1517 – 30 June 1577) was the daughter of John de Vere, 15th Earl of Oxford, and Elizabeth Trussell.
She married firstly, Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, son of Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, and his wife Elizabeth Stafford, by whom she had two sons and three daughters: Late in 1546, while Frances was expecting her fifth child, her husband was accused of treason and he was subsequently executed in January 1547.
She married secondly Thomas Staynings, by whom she had one child.
Susan de Vere, Countess of Montgomery
Susan de Vere, Countess of Montgomery( 26 May 1587 – 1628/29), was an English court office holder.
She served as lady- in- waiting to the queen consort of England, Anne of Denmark.
She was the youngest daughter of Elizabethan courtier, poet, and playwright Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford.
Geoffrey de Mandeville, 2nd Earl of Essex
Geoffrey de Mandeville, 2nd Earl of Essex( d 1166) was an English nobleman, the second son of Geoffrey de Mandeville, 1st Earl of Essex and Rohese de Vere, Countess of Essex.
Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford
Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford (12 April 155024 June 1604) was an English peer and courtier of the Elizabethan era.
Oxford was heir to the second oldest earldom in the kingdom, a court favourite for a time, a sought-after patron of the arts, and noted by his contemporaries as a lyric poet and court playwright, but his volatile temperament precluded him from attaining any courtly or governmental responsibility and contributed to the dissipation of his estate.
Since the 1920s he has been among the most popular alternative candidates proposed for the authorship of Shakespeare's works.
De Vere was the only son of John de Vere, 16th Earl of Oxford, and Margery Golding.
After the death of his father in 1562, he became a ward of Queen Elizabeth and was sent to live in the household of her principal advisor, Sir William Cecil.
He married Cecil's daughter, Anne, with whom he had five children.
De Vere was estranged from her for five years after he refused to acknowledge her first child as his.
De Vere was a champion jouster and travelled widely throughout Italy and France.
He was among the first to compose love poetry at the Elizabethan court, and he was praised as a playwright,
though none of the plays known as his survive.
A stream of dedications praised de Vere for his generous patronage of literary, religious, musical, and medical works, and he patronised both adult and boy acting companies, as well as musicians, tumblers, acrobats and performing animals.
He fell out of favour with the Queen in the early 1580s and was exiled from court after impregnating one of her maids of honour, Anne Vavasour, which instigated violent street brawls between de Vere's retainers and her uncles.
De Vere was reconciled to the Queen in 1583, but all opportunities for advancement had been lost.
In 1586, the Queen granted de Vere a £1,000 annuity to relieve his financial distress caused by his extravagance and selling off his income-producing lands for ready money.
After his wife's death, he married Elizabeth Trentham, one of the Queen's maids of honour, with whom he had an heir, Henry de Vere.
He died in 1604, having spent the entirety of his inherited estates.
Rohese de Vere, Countess of Essex
Rohese de Vere, Countess of Essex( c. 1110 – 1170 or after) was a noblewoman in England in the Anglo- Norman and Angevin periods.
Married twice, she and her second husband founded the Gilbertine monastery of Chicksands in Bedfordshire.
Anne Stanley, Countess of Ancram
Anne Stanley, Countess of Ancram( d. 1657), English aristocrat.
Anne Stanley was a daughter of William Stanley, 6th Earl of Derby and Elizabeth de Vere, Countess of Derby.
Anne married Sir Henry Portman( 1596- 1621) of Orchard Portman, Somerset, Member of Parliament and Keeper of Roche Forest, on 20 July 1615.
Anne's second husband was Sir Robert Kerr of Ancram who became Earl of Ancram in 1633.
In November 1621 Prince Charles had written to Anne's mother, Elizabeth Countess of Derby, in favour of Sir Robert Kerr, who had leave from his court duties to visit her.
Charles indicated that Sir Robert's court position close to his person made up for his lack of wealth.
The Earl obtained a royal pension, this was stopped by the Commomwealth, Lady Ancram had to petition Parliament in September 1653 for money and she was allowed £ 5 weekly for her six surviving children.
Anne had to petition Cromwell again for this money in 1654.
Her husband, who was in exile in Amsterdam, died in 1654.
Anne died in February 1657 and was buried in Westminster Abbey.
Her daughter Henrietta Maria Kerr( d. 1647) was also buried in the Abbey.
There is no monument.
The Folger Shakespeare Library has a manuscript recipe book( V.a.612) connected with the family and according to the title, compiled in part by Anne's eldest daughter Vere Kerr( c. 1622-1708) who married Henry Wilkinson.
Another daughter, Elizabeth Kerr married Colonel Nathaniel Rich.
Her fourth daughter's name seems to be unrecorded.
Her eldest surving son Charles Kerr became the 2nd Earl of Ancram.
His younger brother was Stanley Kerr.
The Earl of Derby at Knowsley Hall had a version of her portrait wearing a black dress with red sleeves, ornamented with silver sprigs, dated 1638 and attributed( in the nineteenth century) to Gerrit van Honthorst.

Question: Who is the paternal grandfather of Elizabeth De Vere, Countess Of Derby?
Answer: John de Vere, 16th Earl of Oxford