James Vere (d. 1779) published A physical and moral Enquiry into the Causes of that internal restlessness and disorder in Man which has been the complaint of all Ages (London, 1788). He was in partnership with Elizabeth Carter’s uncle John Carter as silk merchants in Bishopsgate, London. John Carter married his sister. His family claimed to descend from the De Veres who were Earls of Oxford until 1625, and according to Montagu Pennington, were supposed to have a claim to the title, which had been revived in 1711 for Robert Harley, “but their documents had perished in a fire”.