Quick Facts
Biography
Dorothy Durie or Dorothy Dury (1613–1664), born Dorothy King, first married name Dorothy Moore (c.1618–1645), was an Anglo-Irish writer on education. She had a talent for language and she was interested in the education of women, alchemy and in medicines.
Life
Durie was born in Dublin in about 1613. Her father was Sir John King and her mother was Catherine Drury. She had eight siblings. Her English father was based in Dublin but he had been granted lands by the Crown in Ireland under dubious circumstances. Durie was interested in education although she considered her own to be frivolous. Despite this she could read both Latin and Greek and she was fluent in French. When she visited France it was said that she the first educated woman there since Lady Jane Grey.
Around 1618 she married John Moore was owned 1000 acres in Ireland and he was known to enjoy his drink. He died on 9 April 1635 and Durie moved to London where she stayed with Katherine and Gerard Boate. She had some lands in Ireland but these seem to be lost and she would eventually sell land in Ireland to Katherine Boate.
In August 1642 she moved to the Netherlands in order that she could renew her friendship with Calvinist divine John Dury (who was a friend of John Milton). She had consulted him about the education of her sons, and she and Dury began a correspondence. In March 1942 he had taken up a job in The Hague as the child Princess Mary Stuart's chaplain. Dorothy followed him as he toured the Netherlands. She had to scotch rumours of a secret marriage between them, although one source says she was the Princess's governess.
She married John Dury in 1645 and they returned to England. She exchanged letters with the theologian André Rivet concerning the role of women in religion and she corresponded the Lady Ranelagh. For the latter she discussed both the education of girls and love in marriage.
They both took an interest in alchemy and later she dabbled in pharmacy, either because she was short of money or out of interest in selling medicines.
Durie died in London in 1664 while her husband was abroad.