Sedley , Lady , Catharine , d.1705 , wife of Sir Charles Sedley, wit and dramatist

Sedley , Lady , Catharine , d.1705 , wife of Sir Charles Sedley, wit and dramatist

Catharine Sedley was the daughter of John Savage, Earl of Rivers, and was probably born in the late 1630s, or early 1640s.

She married Sir Charles Sedley, wit, dramatic author, and Member of Parliament for New Romney, on 23 February 1656/7 at St Giles-in-the-Fields. Her husband, favoured at the court of Charles II, gained a reputation as a patron of literature in the Restoration period, and was the Lisideius of the poet John Dryden's Essay of Dramatic Poesy (1668). His lewd, drunken behaviour brought him notoriety which rivaled his literary reputation. There are several references to Sedley's antics in Samuel Pepys's Diary.

Sir Charles and Lady Sedley had one daughter, Catharine, born in 1657. She became the favourite mistress of James, Duke of York, afterwards James II, who created her Countess of Dorchester.

Lady Sedley was eventually locked up in a madhouse, or confined in a convent, many years before she died (Guthrie, 1913, p.12; Boswell, 1929, p.1058). She is thought to have died in 1705.