the villager's social and political emancipation and its results was remarkable for its acumen. The last letters of the series addressed to the 'Times,' extending from 1844 to 1888, were on the subject of the Whitechapel murders. A selection from the letters, which were justly said to be equally a profit and a credit to the writer and to the paper in which they appeared, was published, with a brief introduction, by Mr. Arnold White. 2 vols. London, 1888.
Osborne's other writings include:
- 'Gleanings in the West of Ireland,' 1850.
- 'Lady Eva: her last Days. A Tale,' 1851.
- 'Hints to the Charitable,' 1856.
- 'Hints for the Amelioration of the Moral Condition of a Village,' 1856.
- 'Letters on the Education of Young Children,' 1866.
[Letters of S. G. O., ed. Arnold White, 1888, with portrait; Ann. Register, 1889, p. 143; 'Times,' 10 May 1889; Saturday Review, 24 Jan. 1891; Illustrated London News, with portrait, 25 May 1889; Men of the Time. 12th edit.; Brit Mus. Cat.]
OSBORNE, Sir THOMAS, successively first Earl of Danby, Marquis of Carmathen, and Duke of Leeds (1631–1712), was son of Sir Edward Osborne of Kiveton, Yorkshire, by his second marriage. The father, who was baptised at St. Benet's, Gracechurch Street, London. 12 Dec 1590, was grandson of Sir Edward Osborne [q. v.], the well-known lord mayor of London. Created a baronet 12 July 1620, he was made vice-president of the council of the north in 1629. 'I find your vice-president,' Sir John Coke wrote to Strafford 11 June 1623, 'a young man of good understanding and counsellable, and very forward to promote his majesty's service' (Strafford Papers, i. 81). In 1631 Wentworth himself described Sir Edward as 'a noble gentleman' (ib. p. 441), and thenceforth treated him as an unwaveringly faithful friend. In 1639 he strongly urged Osborne to visit him In Ireland. In 1639 and 1640 Osborne was at Berwick or Newcastle superintending the despatch of troops to the border to take part in the threatened war with the Scots (ib. p. 41l). He was subsequently appointed lieutenant-general of the royalist forces raised at York. Twenty-one of his official letters, dating between 1633 and 1640, are at Melbourne Hall, Derbyshire, the seat of Lord Cowper (cf. Hist. MSS. Comm. 12th Rep. pt, ii, passim), He died 9 Sept. 1647. His first wife (d. 1624) was Margaret, daughter of Thomas Belasyse, viscount Fauconberg, His second wife was Anne, widow of William Midelton of Stockeld, Yorkshire, and second daughter of Thomos Walmesley of Dunkenhalgh, Lancashire. The second Lady Osborne's mother, Elizabeth Danvers, was descended in the female line from John Neville, fourth and last baron Latimer [see under Neville, John, third Baron Latimer], and was sister of Henry Danvers, earl of Danby [q. v.] The second Lady Osborne survived Sir Edward, and was buried at Hart Hill. Yorkshire, 20 Aug. 1660. By his first wife Osborne had a son Edward, who was killed by the fall of some chimneys at his father's residence at York, on 1 Oct. 1638 (Strafford Papers, i. 231-2, 251, 265). Thomas, the issue of the second marriage, thus became the heir (cf. Foster, Yorkshire Pedigrees).
Thomas, born in 1631, was brought up in the country, chiefly at Kiveton, and shared us a boy his father's strong royalist sentiment. He succeeded to the baronetcy and to the family estates in Yorkshire on his father's death in 1647. He did not attend any university, but some part of his youth he spent in Paris, and be was frequently entertained there by Sir Richard Browne, the English ambassador, with whose son-in-law, John Evelyn, the diarist, he thus became 'intimately acquainted' (Evelyn, Diary, ii.392). In 1652 he was in London, paying formal addresses to a distant cousin Dorothy, daughter of Sir Peter Osborne of Chicksands Priory, Bedfordshire [see under Osborne, Peter]. The young lady, subsequently wife of Sir William Temple [q. v.], scorned his advances, and next year he married Lady Bridget Bertie, daughter of the Earl of Lindsey (cf. Dorothy Osborne, Letters, ed. Parry, pp. 30, 90, 127). On returning to his home in Yorkshire he fell under the influence of a neighbour, George Villiers. second duke of Buckingham, his senior by three years. After the Restoration Buckingham brought him to court, and he zealously identified himself with his patron's interests. In 1661 he served as high sheriff of Yorkshire, and in 1665 definitely adopted a political career on being elected M.P. for York. Joining the party of 'high cavaliers,' he readily aided Buckingham and his friends in their attack on Lord-chancellor Clarendon, and his active hostility to that minister proved the 'first step to his future rise' (Reresby, p. 78). Plausible in speech, sanguine in temper, although still' in manner, be displayed sufficient business aptitude to warrant his nomination as member of a committee to examine the public accounts in April 1667. Buckingham, however, deemed him worthy of higher responsibilities, and when Arthur Annesley, first earl of Anglesey, was suspended from the office of treasurer of the navy in 1668, the king, on Buckingham's recommendation, conferred the vacant
