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.

In 1771 she published The Divorce, a musical entertainment sung at Marylebone Gardens in 1772; and The Haunted Grove, another musical entertainment by her, not printed, was acted at Dublin. About 1772 she brought out The Lady's Polite Secretary, preceded by a Short English Grammar. Meanwhile, the Anglesey estates were subject to lawsuits from various sides, but none of them benefited Lady Dorothea.

She died in poverty in Grafton Street, Dublin, of an apoplectic fit, early in 1774.