Dudleya North 1675-1712

Dudleya NORTH 1675-1712

Biographical Note

Born in London, daughter of Charles, 5th Baron North and Katharine Grey. Privately tutored with her brothers. George Ballard (see Sources) claimed that ‘incessant as well as intense application to study’ caused the ‘consumptive disorder’ from which she died.

Books

Ballard referred to the ‘choice collection of books’ North possessed in ‘the whole circle of Oriental learning’, making specific mention of ‘one very neat pocket Hebrew Bible in 12mo. without points, with silver clasps to it, and bound in blue Turkey leather, in a case of the same materials, which she constantly carried to church with her.' After she died, her brother William, Lord North and Grey arranged for her books to go to the parochial library at St Mary’s Church, Rougham, Norfolk, established by their uncle Roger North,whose contents were dispersed later in the century.

Characteristic Markings

They bore a later inscription on their final leaves: ‘E. Libris nobilis & eruditæ Virginis Dominæ Dudleyæ North […] E. Concilio secretiori, & inter Locum tenentes Generalis Exercituum dominae Annæ […]’.

Sources

• Catalogue of books at Rougham, Norfolk Record Office DN/MSC/2/29.
• Ballard, G. Memoirs of the lives of several ladies of Great Britain, who have been celebrated for their writings or skill in the learned languages. Oxford, 1752.
• Perkin, M. A directory of the parochial libraries of the Church of England, London, 2004, p.333.