2 Nov. 1628, being buried at Campton Church, Bedfordshire, where a tablet to his memory still remains. Sir John Osborne purchased of Richard Snow before 1600 Chicksands Priory, in Bedfordshire, which has since his time been the family seat. He had married Dorothy, daughter and coheiress of Richard Barlee of Essingham Hall, Essex; she was a lady of the privy chamber to Queen Anne of Denmark, and by her he had five sons and one daughter. Francis, the youngest son, is separately noticed.
Sir John's eldest son, Sir Peter Osborne (1584–1653), was knighted 7 Jan. 1610–11, and duly held the family place at the exchequer; but having married Dorothy, daughter of Sir John Danvers, and sister to Henry Danvers, earl of Danby [q. v.] , he was by the influence of her family made lieutenant-governor of Guernsey in 1621, and about the same time secured a grant of the governorship in reversion on the death of the Earl of Danby. He was elected member of parliament for Corfe Castle, Dorset, in the parliaments of 1623–4 and 1625. In view of the needs of the war in the beginning of Charles I's reign, it was decided to strengthen the Channel Islands, and Osborne took two hundred men to Guernsey in 1627 (cf. Hist. MSS. Comm. 12th Rep. App. i. 315–6). The fear of a French invasion led to a further reinforcement under Danby in 1629, when Heylyn visited the islands and wrote his ‘Survey.’ On the outbreak of the civil war, while the island of Guernsey in general declared for the parliament, Castle Cornet, the chief fortress in the island, was held for the king, and there Sir Peter Osborne stood a series of sieges for several years. He had indirectly, however, done the king's cause considerable harm in the island, as the inhabitants had to pay for the soldiers he had brought over in 1627, and in 1628 he had attempted to enforce martial law. Active operations against the castle began in March 1643; but early in 1646 Charles, prince of Wales, came to the Channel Islands, and, probably owing to the influence of Sir George Carteret, Osborne surrendered the governorship the same year to Sir Baldwin Wake, and left for England. It is quite possible that the Richard Osborne who was engaged in the plot of 1648 to release Charles I from Carisbrooke Castle was Sir Peter Osborne's brother Richard. Sir Peter seems to have at once gone abroad. His estate was sequestered, and the proceedings in respect of the compositions to be paid in 1649 show that he was a rich man (Cal. of Committee for Advance of Money, ii. 1140; Cal. of the Committee for Compounding, 1647–50, p. 1974). They also show that he was engaged in family disputes as to his property. He died in 1653. By his wife Dorothy Danvers (1590–1650) he had eight sons and four daughters. One of his daughters, Dorothy, married Sir William Temple [q. v.], and is well known by her charming ‘Letters,’ which were edited by his Honour Judge Parry in 1888. His eldest son, Sir John Osborne (1615–1698), had a new grant of the office of remembrancer to the lord-treasurer, was a gentleman of the privy chamber to Charles II, was created a baronet 11 Feb. 1660–1, and died 5 Feb. 1698, leaving a son Henry, who is noticed separately.
[Cooper's Athenæ Cantabr. ii. 125; Bentham's Baronetage, ii. 150, &c.; Literary Remains of Edw. VI (Roxburghe Club), pp. 459–61; Acts of the Privy Council, 1550–75; Cal. of State Papers, Dom. 1547–80, p. 164; Hist. MSS. Comm. 4th Rep. p. 216, 6th Rep. p. 497, 7th Rep. p. 628; Gardiner's Hist. of the Great Civil War, iv. 92; Clarendon's Hist. of the Rebellion, ed. Macray, iv. 456; Tupper's Hist. of Guernsey, and Chron. of Castle Cornet; Hoskins's Charles II in the Channel Islands; Letters from Dorothy Osborne, ed. E. A. Parry, 1888; art. by his Honour Judge Parry in Atlantic Monthly, May 1890.]
OSBORNE, RALPH BERNAL (1806–1882), politician. [See Bernal.]
OSBORNE, RUTH (1680–1751), reputed witch, born in 1680, was the last victim in England of the superstitious belief in witchcraft. She acquired her reputation in the following manner. At the time of the rebellion in 1745 she went to one Butterfield, who kept a dairy at Gubblecut, near Tring, in Hertfordshire, and begged for some buttermilk. Butterfield, by a brutal refusal, angered the old woman, who went away muttering that the Pretender would pay him out. In the course of be next year or so a number of the farmer's calves became distempered, and he himself contracted epileptic fits. In the meantime he gave up dairy-farming and took a public-house, The wiseacres who met there attributed his misfortunes to witchcraft, and advised Butterfield to apply to a cunning woman or white-witch for a cure. An old woman was fetched from Northamptonshire, and confirmed the suspicion already entertained against Ruth Osborne and her husband John, both harmless old people over seventy years of age.
After some ineffectual measures, recourse was had to on expedient which should at the same time deter the Osbornes from their alleged malpractices and benefit Butterfield and the neighbouring publicans. Notice was given by the crier at the adjoining towns of
