Sir Aubrey de Vere

Sir Aubrey de Vere, 2nd Baronet (born Aubrey Hunt, 28 August 1788 – 5 July 1846) was an Anglo-Irish poet and landowner.

De Vere was the son of Sir Vere Hunt, 1st Baronet and Eleanor Pery, daughter of William Pery, 1st Baron Glentworth and his first wife Jane Walcott. He was educated at Harrow School, where he was a childhood friend of Lord Byron, and Trinity College, Dublin. He married Mary Spring Rice, the daughter of Stephen Edward Rice and Catherine Spring, and sister of Thomas Spring Rice, 1st Baron Monteagle of Brandon, in 1807. He succeeded to his father's title in 1818. He and Mary had five sons, including the third and fourth baronets, Aubrey and Stephen de Vere, and the poet Aubrey Thomas de Vere, and three daughters, two of whom died in infancy.

The Hunt/de Vere family estate for 300 years (1657–1957), including the period of the de Vere Baronetcy of Curragh, is the present-day Curraghchase Forest Park, in County Limerick. De Vere spent most of his life on the estate and was closely involved in its management. He suffered much trouble from his ownership of the island of Lundy, which his father, who was a notoriously poor businessman, had unwisely purchased in 1802, and which became a heavy drain on the family's finances. Sir Vere was never able to find a purchaser for Lundy, and it took his son until 1834 (or 1830) to dispose of it.