Dorothea Du Bois

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 shillings, 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.