1581-90, pp. 202, 411; Acts of Privy Council, Dasent, viii. 166-7, 194-5; cf. Lansdowne MSS. xxxviii. No. 16). Like other merchants, Osborne had considerable money transactions with the principal personages of his time (Hunter, South Yorkshire, 1828, i. 142). Osborne was knighted at Westminster on 2 Feb. in the year of his mayoralty, and was also elected to represent the city in parliament in 1586. He died in 1591, and was buried at St. Dionis Backchurch, where a monument existed to his memory until the destruction of the church in the great fire. Soon after his marriage he appears to have lived in Sir William Hewett's house in Philpot Lane, as all his children were baptised in the parish church of St. Dionis. The Yorkshire estates, also left by his father-in-law, were too distant for residence, and Osborne made his country home at Parslowes, where he built a manor-house of moderate pretensions. He left no will, and no grant of administration of his estate is on record. It is probable that he settled his whole estate by deed at the time of his second marriage.
Osborne was first married, in 1562, to Anne Hewett, then about eighteen years old, and her father's sole heiress. She brought him an estate in Barking, Essex, besides lands in Wales and Harthill in Yorkshire, and died at an early age, being buried at St. Martin Orgars on 14 July 1585. By her he had five children—viz. Alice, baptised in March 1562-1563; Hewett, afterwards knighted, born March 1566-7; Anne, born March 1570; Edward, born November 1572; and Jane, born November 1578 (Registers of St. Dionis Backchurch: Hart. Soc. passim). Osborne married, secondly (15 Sept. 1588), Margaret Chapman of St. Olave's, Southwark, by whom he had no issue. She died in 1602 (having married, secondly, Robert Clark, a baron of the exchequer), and was buried beside her first husband in St. Dionis Backchurch.
Osborne's grandson, Sir Edward Osborne, of Kiveton, Yorkshire, created a baronet 13 July 1620, was the son of Sir Hewett Osborne, and father of Sir Thomas Osborne, first duke of Leeds [q. v.] A half-length portrait of Osborne in armour is in the possession of the Duke of Leeds. A copy of this portrait is in Clothworkers' Hall.
[Thomson's Chronicles of Old London Bridge, pp. 313-16; Chester Waters's Genealogical Memoirs of the Chesters of Chicheley, i. 225-31; Clode's Early History of the Merchant Taylors' Company, ii. 209-301; Cullins's Peerage of England, ed. Brydges, 1812, i. 253-4.]
OSBORNE, FRANCIS (1593–1659), miscellaneous writer, born, according to his epitaph, on 26 Sept. 1593, was fifth and youngest son of Sir John Osborne of Chicksands Priory, Shefford, Bedfordshire, by his wife Dorothy, daughter and coheiress of Richard Barlee, esq., of Effingham Hall, Essex [see under Osborne, Peter]. Francis was educated privately at Chicksands. Coming to London as a youth, he hung about the court, and attracted the notice of William Herbert, third earl of Pembroke, who made him his master of the horse. Subsequently he was for a time employed in the office of the lord treasurer's remembrancer, which was presided over successively by his father and his eldest brother Peter (cf. Advice to a Son, pt. ii. § 45). In politics and religion he sympathised with the popular party in parliament; but, although a close observer of public life, took no active part in it. After residing for a time at North Fambridge, Essex (cf. Misc. Works, i. 15), he removed about 1650 to Oxford, to superintend the education of his son, and there printed a series of historical, political, and ethical tracts. His wife was Anna, sister of William Draper, colonel in the parliamentary army, and a parliamentary visitor of the university. Through Draper's influence Osborne obtained some small official employment under the Commonwealth, becoming 'one of the seven for the countie and city of Oxon., that was a judge as to all prisons and persons committed to any prisons in comitatu vel civitate Oxon. 1653' (Wood, Life, ed. Clark, i. 185). After the publication of his 'Advice to a Son' in 1656, he gained a wide reputation, and paid many visits to London, he reckoned the philosopher Hobbes among his friends. He died at Drapers house at Nether Worton, near Deddington, Oxfordshire, on 11 Feb. 1658-9, and was buried in the church there. His wife died in 1657. He had three daughters and a son. His son John was a demy of Magdalen College, Oxford, from 1648 to 1651; was installed in 1650, on his uncle Draper's nomination, fellow of All Souls' College, after a struggle between the parliamentary visitors at Oxford and the parliamentary committee dealing with university business in London; proceeded B.C.L. in 1654, became a barrister of the Inner Temple in 1657, and a bencher in 1689 (Burrows, Parliamentary Visitation, pp. 476, 517-18; Bloxam, Reg. of Magdalen College, Oxford, v. 211-13). He was prime serjeant-at-law in Ireland from 1680 till 1686, when he was deprived of the office. But he was restored to it under William III in 1690, and was again dismissed in 1692 (Luttrell, Brief Relation, ii. 617). He married a daughter of William Draper. One John Osborne published 'An Indictment against Tithes' in 1659.
