WHARTON (ANNE), Daughter and Coheiress of Sir Henry Lee, of Ditchley, in Oxfordshire,
Who, having no son, left his estate to be divided between this lady and her sister the countess of Abingdon, whose memory Mr. Dryden celebrates in a funeral panegyric, entitled Eleonora.
She was the first wife of Thomas Wharton, Esq. afterwards marquis of Wharton, by whom she had no children. In 1681, she was in France on account of her health, as appears from several letters to her husband. The next year she held a correspondence by letters with Dr. Gilbert Burnet, many of which are made public. He wrote several poems, and sent them to her. This lady, among other poems, wrote A Paraphrase on the Lamentations of Jeremiah, which, as appears by a note prefixed to the original manuscript, was begun at Paris, March 21, 1680–1, and ended April 21 following. Also, A Paraphrase on the Lord's Prayer; Verses to Mr. Waller; and An Elegy on the Death of the Earl of Rochester. Upon which last piece Mr. Waller wrote a copy of verses to her, as likewise another upon her Paraphrase upon the Lord's Prayer. And his two cantos of divine poesy were occasioned by a sight of her Paraphrase on the 52d Chapter of Isaiah. The mother of John Wilmot, earl of Rochester, was aunt to this lady's father; for which reason Mr. Waller says they were allied in genius and in blood. Besides the above-mentioned, which have gone through several editions, she translated into English, the Epistle of Penelope to Ulysses, from Ovid. Also Verses on the Snuff of a Candle, made in sickness. She died at Adderbury, 1715, and was buried at Winchenden.
