Dudleya North

The Hon. Dudleya North (July 1675–25 April 1712) Her brother was the soldier and Jacobite William North, the 6th Baron North.

She came of a more intellectual family than most aristocratic families of the day. Her uncle Francis North became Lord Chancellor as Lord Guilford, while other uncles were Sir Dudley North, an economist, John North, Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, and Roger North, a historian.

Career A natural linguist, she quickly became fluent in Latin and Ancient Greek following which she began to study Hebrew and some eastern languages. After a 'long and severe course of study' she mastered 'a competent share of knowledge in the whole circle of Oriental learning' collecting in her personal library a number of non-western language books. Other than the fact that she was devoted to her brothers and to her studies little is known of her life. While Lord North intended for her to marry, apparently Dudleya was uninterested in such a prospect, preferring instead to keep to her books and her studies.

Death She died aged 36 on 25 April 1712 at the home of her sister-in-law on Bond Street in London of consumption brought on, it was said, by her diligent studies and 'sedentary distemper'. Dudleya North was buried on 2 May 1712 in the North family vault at Kirtling in Cambridgeshire. These are now kept in the Bodleian Library at Oxford and Norfolk Record Office.