Lady Dorothea Du Bois (1728–1774) was an Irish poet, autobiographer and musical dramatist, whose claims on her father's estate were never met.
Life
Du Bois was the eldest daughter of
Richard Annesley, afterwards sixth earl of Anglesey, and Ann Simpson, daughter of a wealthy merchant of
Dublin. She was born in Dublin
in 1728, one year after her father had become Lord Altham. In 1737 he succeeded to the earldom. Dorothea was educated at boarding schools in Dublin.
[
At this time, the earl made provision for his countess and her children, assigning £10,000 a year to Dorothea, but about 1740 he repudiated his marriage, declared his children illegitimate, and turned them all out of doors. An action brought by the Countess in 1741 resulted in an interim order for a payment by the earl of £4 per week; however, this payment was never made, and the ladies suffered the greatest distress. About 1752, Dorothea secretly married Du Bois, a French musician, and became the mother of six children.
In 1759 she heard that her father had made a will leaving her five ]shilling
The shilling is a historical coin, and the name of a unit of modern currencies formerly used in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, other British Commonwealth countries and Ireland, where they were generally equivalent to 12 pence o ...
s, in quit of all demands, as his natural daughter; in 1760, on recovery from the birth of her sixth child, she undertook a journey to Camolin Park, Wexford, where he was lying ill, to induce him to acknowledge his marriage to her mother. She was repulsed with much indignity by the woman then claiming to be the earl's wife.
In 1761 the earl died, his estates devolving on the son of the wife in possession. Lady Dorothea then laid the whole story before the world in ''Poems by a Lady of Quality'', which she dedicated to the king In the British English-speaking world, The King refers to:
* Charles III (born 1948), King of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms since 2022
As a nickname
* Michael Jackson (1958–2009), American singer and pop icon, nicknamed "T ...
, and published by subscription at Dublin in 1764. In 1765 her mother died. In 1766 Dorothea published ''The Case of Ann, Countess of Anglesey, lately Deceased'', appealing for help to prosecute her claims; with the same object she issued ''Theodora'', a novel, in two volumes in 1770, dedicated to the Countess of Hertford. A writer in the ''Critical Review'' commented "as the ground-work of this novel has appeared lately in most of the news-papers, we think it needless to relate again the ngleseystory with fictitious names".[ in Grafton Street, Dublin, of an apoplectic fit, early in 1774.
]
See also
History of English grammars The history of English grammars begins late in the sixteenth century with the ''Pamphlet for Grammar'' by William Bullokar. In the early works, the structure and rules of English grammar were based on those of Latin. A more modern approach, incorpor ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Du Bois, Dorothea
1728 births
1774 deaths
18th-century Irish women writers
18th-century Irish novelists
Irish women dramatists and playwrights
Writers from Dublin (city)
Dorothea
Irish women novelists