Dorothy Leigh

Dorothy Leigh (died c. 1616) was a 17th-century British writer remembered for The Mother's Blessing (1616).

Biography

Dorothy Kemp (or Kempe) was the daughter of William Kemp (or Robert Kemp), of Finchingfield, Essex. She married Ralph Leigh of Cheshire (or Ralph Lee of Sussex), who was a soldier under the Earl of Essex at Cádiz.

The Mother's Blessing was dedicated to the Princess Elizabeth, wife to the Count Palatine. It includes a prefixed a poem entitled "Counsell to my Children, George, John, and William Leigh". In 1626, her son William was appointed Rector of Groton, in Suffolk.

Selected works

• 1616, The mothers blessing, or, The godly counsaile of a gentle-woman not long since deceased, left behind her for her children : containing many good exhortations, and godly admonitions, profitable for all parents to leaue as a legacy to their children, but especially for those, who by reason of their young yeeres stand most in need of instruction