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Osborne
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Osborne

ships in the distance for the Brest fleet, and, conceiving that his force was insufficient, drew back to Milford in time to allow the West Indian trade and five very valuable East Indiamen to fall into the hands of the French (Burnet, Hist. of his Own Time, Oxf. edit. iv. 278). The outcry against his Conduct was loud and angry, and the government affair to have thought it unadvisable to employ him again. His remaining service was mainly in connection with his regiment of marines. He was involved in another duel, on 7 June 1698, with one Captain Nash, in which he was severely wounded, and a month later he was still ill of his wounds, 'they being forced to be opened' (Luttrell, iv. 889, 399). On 23 March 1701-2 he was promoted to be vice-admiral of the white, but does not appear to have had any further service afloat. By the death of his father on 26 July 1712 he became Duke of Leeds, and was lord-lieutenant of the East Hiding of Yorkshire till the death of queen Anne, when he retired from public life. He died on 25 June 1729. By his wife Bridget, only daughter of Sir Thomas Hyde of North Mimms, Hertfordshire, to whom he was married in 1682 under somewhat romantic circumstances (Catalogue of the Morrmm MSS. iii. 132), he had two daughters and two sons, the elder of whom died of small-pox in 1711; the younger, Peregrine Hyde, succeeded as third duke.

[Charnock's Biogr. Nav. ii. 396; Edye's Hist. of the Royal Marine Forces, vol. i.; Collins's Peerage, 1768, i. 242: Burchett's Transactions at Sea; Lediard's Naval History; Doyle's Baronage.]

J. K. L.

OSBORNE, PETER (1521–1592), keeper of the privy purse to Edward VI, second son of Richard Osborne of Tyld Hall, Lachingdon, Essex, by Elizabeth Coke, was born in 1521. A tradition says that this family of Osborne came from the north of England, but as early as 1442 Peter Osborne was settled at Purleigh in Essex, and Peter Osborne, born in 1521, was his great-grandson. His eldest brother, John Osborne, left a son, through whom the inheritance was conveyed to females. Peter Osborne was educated at Cambridge, where he probably did not graduate. He entered at Lincoln's Inn, was called to the bar, but entered official life in July 1551, when he obtained the clerkship of the faculties for life. He was a strong supporter of the Reformation, and a great friend of the leading reformers, notably Sir. John Cheke [q. v.], and hence was promoted. About Christmas 1551-2 he obtained the office of keeper of the privy purse to the king; he also received a grant of the office of remembrance of the lord-treasurer in the exchequer in 1553. In Mary's reign he is said to have been in prison, but he was presumably at large in 1557, as Sir John Cheke died in his house in Wood Street, London, in that year. Under Elizabeth he was very busily engaged in financial affairs. He was occupied in minting in 1560, and in the same year was granted the manor of South Fambridge, Essex. He was made an ecclesiastical commissioner as early as 1566, and sat in parliament as member for Horsham, Sussex, 1562-3; for Plympton, Devonshire, 1572; for Aldeburgh, Suffolk, 1584 and 1586; and for Westminster, 1588. A letter recommending him as a suitable person to be elected is preserved at Bridport. He removed early in Elizabeth's reign from Wood Street to Ivy Lane. Osborne appears to have passed for an authority upon commercial matters. At one time he recommended the incorporation of the merchants trading to Spain; he was a deputy-governor of the corporation of mineral and battery works established in 1568; in 1573 he was a commissioner to settle disputes with Portugal. He was also one of the executors of Archbishop Parker. His knowledge of law probably led to his appointment on the commission of oyer and terminer under which John Felton was tried in 1570; the same year he was an assistant-governor of Lincoln's Inn.

Osborne died 7 June 1592. and was buried in the church of St. Faith under St. Paul, where an inscription was placed to his memory. His portrait is said to be at Chicksands, Bedfordshire. He married Anne daughter of Dr. John Blythe, the first Regius professor of physic in the university of Cambridge, and niece to Sir John Cheke. By her he had eleven sons and eleven daughters. His widow died in 1615. and a note as to those who were present at her funeral preserved in Cotton MS. Vesp. C. xiv. f. 196. Osborne designed to publish 'A Collection of all the Statutes. Letters Patent. Charters, and Privileges subsequent to the Third of Henry III' which concerned commercial affairs, but it never appeared. Various letters by him are preserved; some at Hatfield House, some in the Public Record Office, and one at Loseley, Surrey, among the manuscripts of W. M. Molyneux, esq. Many opinions which he delivered to Lord Burghley and others, chiefly upon commercial questions, are preserved among the Lansdowne MSS. xi. 17, &c.

Peter Osborne may be regarded as the founder of the fortunes of his family. His eldest son. Sir John Osborne (1552-1628), enjoyed his father's place in the exchequer, and was also a commissioner of the navy, He was knighted on 1 Feb. 1618-19, and died