Katherine Doyley Dyer information

Katherine Doyley Dyer (b.c. 1585-1654) notable for the epitaph she placed on her husband's tomb at Colmworth, Bedfordshire, 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 and her mother Anne Barnard married James Harington (1542–1614), the father of Edward Harington, in a double wedding.^[1] Her other sisters were Anne and Elizabeth.^[2]

On 25 February 1602 Katherine Doyley married Sir William Dyer, son of Sir Richard Dyer of Great Staughton.^[3]

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.^[4]

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.^[5]

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.^[6]^[7]

In her will, Katherine mentioned, "her losses had become very great since those last troubles" of the Civil War. She died in 1654.^[8]

^ Jane Stevenson & Peter Dyer, Early Modern Women Poets (1520-1700): An Anthology (Oxford, 2001), pp. 222-4.
^ John Dunkin, Oxfordshire: The history and antiquities of the hundreds of Bullington and Ploughley, vol. 2 (London, 1823), p. 5.
^ Lauren Kassell, Michael Hawkins, Robert Ralley, John Young, Joanne Edge, Janet Yvonne Martin-Portugues, and Natalie Kaoukji (eds.), ‘Lady Catherine Dyer (PERSON29811)’, The casebooks of Simon Forman and Richard Napier, 1596–1634, accessed 18 August 2019.
^ Susan Dunn Hensley, 'Katherine D'Oyley Dyer', in Carole Levin, Anna Riehl Bertolet, Jo Eldridge Carney, A Biographical Encyclopedia of Early Modern Englishwomen (Abingdon, 2017) p. 571.
^ “My Dearest Dust”: Lady Katherine Dyer and Her Epitaph to Her Beloved Husband, Johann Wiserr
^ "My Dearest Dust", Poetry Foundation
^ Jane Stevenson & Peter Davidson, Early Modern Women Poets (1520-1700): An Anthology (Oxford, 2001). pp. 223-4.
^ Susan Dunn Hensley, 'Katherine D'Oyley Dyer', in Carole Levin, Anna Riehl Bertolet, Jo Eldridge Carney, A Biographical Encyclopedia of Early Modern Englishwomen (Abingdon, 2017) p. 571.

[1] Jane Stevenson & Peter Dyer, Early Modern Women Poets (1520-1700): An Anthology (Oxford, 2001), pp. 222-4.

[2] John Dunkin, Oxfordshire: The history and antiquities of the hundreds of Bullington and Ploughley, vol. 2 (London, 1823), p. 5.

[3] Lauren Kassell, Michael Hawkins, Robert Ralley, John Young, Joanne Edge, Janet Yvonne Martin-Portugues, and Natalie Kaoukji (eds.), ‘Lady Catherine Dyer (PERSON29811)’, The casebooks of Simon Forman and Richard Napier, 1596–1634, accessed 18 August 2019.

[4] Susan Dunn Hensley, 'Katherine D'Oyley Dyer', in Carole Levin, Anna Riehl Bertolet, Jo Eldridge Carney, A Biographical Encyclopedia of Early Modern Englishwomen (Abingdon, 2017) p. 571.

[5] “My Dearest Dust”: Lady Katherine Dyer and Her Epitaph to Her Beloved Husband, Johann Wiserr

[6] "My Dearest Dust", Poetry Foundation

[7] Jane Stevenson & Peter Davidson, Early Modern Women Poets (1520-1700): An Anthology (Oxford, 2001). pp. 223-4.

[8] Susan Dunn Hensley, 'Katherine D'Oyley Dyer', in Carole Levin, Anna Riehl Bertolet, Jo Eldridge Carney, A Biographical Encyclopedia of Early Modern Englishwomen (Abingdon, 2017) p. 571.