BOVEY, (CATHERINE) Daughter of John Riches, of London, Merchant,
Married, at the age of fifteen, William Bovey, Esq. of Flaxley, in Gloucestershire. This lady is not noted either as a linguist or a writer, yet such were her qualities and accomplishments, that she may justly claim a place in the first rank of Female Worthies.
The author of the New Atlantis, gives the following description of her. "She is one of those lofty, black, and lasting beauties, that strike with reverence, and yet delight; her mind and conduct, her judgment, her sense, her stedfastness, her wit and conversation, are admirable; so much above what is lovely in the sex, that shut but your eyes, and allow but for the music of her voice, your mind would be charmed, as thinking yourself conversing with the most knowing, the most refined of yours. She is so real an economist, that, in taking all the duties of life, she does not disdain to stoop to the most inferior; in short, she knows all that a man can know, without despising what, as a woman, she ought not to be ignorant of. Wisely declining all public assemblies, she is contented to possess her soul in tranquillity and freedom at home, among the happy few whom she has honoured with the name of friends."
At the age of twenty-two she was left a widow, without children, and very opulent; and being likewise an heiress to her father, these circumstances added to her illustrious and amiable qualities, gained her crowds of admirers; but she chose to remain in a state of widowhood, that she might have no interruption in the disposal of her great riches, which she employed to the best purposes.
