Killigrew

, an English name for many ingenious persons of both sexes, and of the same family too. The first we meet with, is Catharine, the daughter of sir Anthony Cooke, who was born at Giddy-hall, in Essex, about 1530; and married to Henry Killigrew, esq. a Cornish gentleman of good abilities, who, for the service he did his country in the quality of an ambassador, was knighted. This lady having the advantages of an excellent education, joined to an elegant natural genius, became, like many other ladies her contemporaries, very learned. She understood the Hebrew, Greek, and Latin tongues, and was famous for her skill in poetry; a small specimen of which is preserved by sir John Harrington, in his notes to the translation of “Ariosto;” and by Fuller, in his “Worthies.” ²