Katherine Philips was born on January 1, 1631 in London, England. She was the daughter of John Fowler, a merchant of Bucklersbury. Her father was a Presbyterian, and Katharine is said to have read the Bible through before she was five years old.
Education
She attended boarding school from 1640 to 1645 where she began to write verse within a circle of friends and to appreciate French romances and Cavalier plays from which she would later choose many of the pet names she gave members of her Society of Friendship.
Career
Her home at the Priory, Cardigan, became the centre of a "society of friendship, " the members of which were known to one another by fantastic names, Mrs Philips being "Orinda, " her husband "Antenor, " Sir Charles Cotterel "Poliarchus. " The "matchless" Orinda, as her admirers called her, posed as the apostle of female friendship. That there was much solid worth under her affectations is proved by the respect and friendship she inspired. Jeremy Taylor in 1659 dedicated to her his "Discourse on the Nature, Offices and Measures of Friendship, " and Cowley, Henry Vaughan the Silurist, the earl of Roscommon and the earl of Cork and Orrery all celebrated her talent.
In 1662 she went to Dublin to pursue her husband's claim to certain Irish estates, and there she completed a translation of Pierre Corneille's Pompee, produced with great success in the Smock Alley Theatre, and printed in the same year both in Dublin and London.
She went to London in March 1664 with a nearly completed translation of Corneille's Horace, but died of smallpox on the 22nd of June. She was buried in the church of St Benet Sherehog, later destroyed in the Great Fire of London.
Achievements
Religion
On arriving at years of discretion she broke with Presbyterian traditions.
Politics
Philips was an ardent admirer of the king and his church policy.
Connections
In 1647 she married James Philips, a Welsh royalist. Mrs Philips had two children, one of whom, Katharine, became the wife of Lewis Wogan of Boulston, Pembrokeshire.