Katherine Doyley Dyer (b.c. 1585-1654) notable for the epitaph she placed on her husband's tomb at
Colmworth
Colmworth is a village and civil parish in the Borough of Bedford in the county of Bedfordshire, England about north-east of Bedford.
The parish, including the hamlet of Duck's Cross, had a population of 393 at the 2011 census.
Geography
Colm ...
,
Bedfordshire
Bedfordshire (; abbreviated Beds) is a ceremonial county in the East of England. The county has been administered by three unitary authorities, Borough of Bedford, Central Bedfordshire and Borough of Luton, since Bedfordshire County Council wa ...
, England
Katherine was one of the four daughters of John Doyley (d. 1593) and Anne Barnard, and was a co-heir of the Doyley estate at Merton. After the death of John Doyley, in 1601, her sister Margaret Doyley married
Edward Harington of Ridlington
Sir Edward Harington, 2nd Baronet of Ridlington (died 1652), English landowner.
Edward Harington was the eldest son Sir James Harington of Ridlington and Frances Sapcote.
He married Margaret Doyley (c. 1578–1658) in 1601, in a double wedding ...
and her mother Anne Barnard married James Harington (1542–1614), the father of Edward Harington, in a double wedding. Her other sisters were Anne and Elizabeth.
On 25 February 1602 Katherine Doyley married Sir William Dyer, son of Sir
Richard Dyer
Richard Dyer (born 1945) is an English academic who held a professorship in the Department of Film Studies at King's College London. Specialising in cinema (particularly Italian cinema), queer theory, and the relationship between entertainment ...
of Great Staughton.
Sir William died on 9 April 1621. In 1641 Katherine placed the epitaph, which she may have composed, known as "My Dearest Dust" on their monument at the
Church of St Denys, Colmworth
Church of St Denys is a Grade I listed church in Colmworth, Bedfordshire, England. It became a listed building on 13 July 1964.
The four stage west tower is topped by an octagonal spire with lucarnes and is supported by diagonal buttresses. Ther ...
.
:If a large hart, joined with a noble minde
:Shewing true worth unto all good inclin’d
:If faith in friendship, justice unto all,
:Leave such a memory as we may call
:Happy, thine is; then pious marble keepe
:His just fame waking, though his lov’d dust sleepe.
:And though death can devoure all that hath breath,
:And monuments them selves have had a death,
:Nature shan’t suffer this, to ruinate,
:Nor time demolish’t, nor an envious fate,
:Rais’d by a just hand, not vain glorious pride,
:Who’d be concealed, wer’t modesty to hide
:Such an affection did so long survive
:The object of ’t; yet lov’d it as alive.
:And this greate blessing to his name doth give
:To make it by his tombe, and issue live.
:My dearest dust, could not thy hasty day
:Afford thy drowsy patience leave to stay
:One hour longer, so that we might either
:Have sat up or gone to bed together?
:But since thy finished labour hath possessed
:Thy weary limbs with early rest,
:Enjoy it sweetly, and thy widow bride
:Shall soon repose her by thy slumbering side,
:Whose business now is only to prepare
:My nightly dress and call to prayer.
:Mine eyes wax heavy, and the day grows old,
:The dew falls thick, my blood grows cold,
:Draw, draw the closed curtains and make room,
:My dear, my dearest dust, I come, I come.
In her will, Katherine mentioned, "her losses had become very great since those last troubles" of the
Civil War
A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country).
The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...
. She died in 1654.
Family
The seven children of Katherine Doyley Dyer and William Dyer commemorated by effigy on the tomb at Colmworth were;
* Sir Ludowick Dyer (10 March 1606-1670), who married Elizabeth Yelverton, and was the first and last Dyer baronet of Staughton. Katherine and Elizabeth were mentioned with other women of the Harington / Sidney family in the will of William Mason of Westminster in 1630. Ludowick and Elizabeth's only son Henry died in 1637 and is commemorated on the monument at Colmworth.
* Doyley Dyer (1613-1684).
* Richard Dyer (b. 1608) married Elizabeth (d. 1685).
* James Dyer (b. 1617).
* Anne or Anna Dyer (1611-1684), married William Gery of Bushmeade Priory. Their children included; William, Richard, Katherine, Ann, and Mary
* Katherine Dyer (b. 1619), married Sir Edward Coke of