Killigrew, Katherine

Katherine Killigrew (née Cooke) (c. 1542–1583) received a thorough humanist education from her father, along with her Cooke sisters, and was skilled in classical languages, including Latin and Greek, as well as Hebrew. Fewer of her writings survive compared with those of her sisters, particularly in terms of her correspondence. A small number of the letters written to Killigrew by the godly preacher Edward Dering are extant. Nevertheless, Killigrew’s surviving verse reveals that she used her humanist education to communicate her political and religious priorities, and to bolster friendships with other poets, including the Scottish neo-Latin poet George Buchanan.