Dorothy Osborne

The Love Letters of Dorothy Osborne to Sir William Temple, 1652-54 (Dodo Press)

Dorothy Osborne, Lady Temple (1627-1695) was a British writer of letters and wife of Sir William Temple, 1st Baronet. She is notable not only for her engaging letters, but also for defying her family's wishes to marry a suitor of their choosing, despite undergoing intense and sustained pressure. She fell in love with Temple in 1649, when the pair were both about nineteen years old, but both families opposed the match on economic grounds. Seventeenth-century marriages, particularly amongst the upper classes, were frequently business arrangements, designed to bring land, titles and/or cash to the families involved. Much to the chagrin of her family, in particular Osborne's brother Henry, Dorothy Osborne stubbornly and steadfastly remained single until, after the deaths of both fathers, the families finally sanctioned the match. After nearly seven years of intermittent courtship - the latter two marked by the exchange of the famous letters - their marriage took place in 1654 and lasted until Lady Temple's death in 1695.