William Dering

Very little is known about his life or career; what few details have been established are known primarily from newspaper advertisements, court records, journal entries, and ledgers and from his few surviving paintings.

[4] Dering is next found in Williamsburg, Virginia, where he moved in 1742[1] and continued as a dancing master, opening a school at the College of William and Mary "where all Gentlemens Sons may be taught Dancing, according to the newest French Manner, on Fridays and Saturdays once in Three Weeks";[3][2][5] he seems to have taken up portrait painting sometime in the mid-1740s.

[8] Dering is known to have been acquainted with members of some of the more important families in Virginia society; William Byrd II, in his diaries, records many visits by the dancing master to Westover Plantation in 1740 and 1741, and in the latter year records a visit to Henry Cary II at Ampthill,[3] at which Dering was present.

[6] However, he was plagued with debts and other legal issues throughout his time in the town,[2] and as early as 1739 is recorded as a party in numerous lawsuits from residents of Williamsburg and Gloucester and York counties.

[6] Fewer than a dozen portraits attributed to Dering survive, suggesting that painting may have merely been a sideline and not a main source of income for him.