The extensive reputation which this and her former writings had gained her, induced her friends to propose to her, the collecting and publishing them in a body.  And upon her consenting to the scheme, which was to be executed by subscription, in order to secure to her the full benefit of the edition, it met with a ready encouragement from all persons of true taste; but though Mrs. Cockburn did not live to discharge the office of editor, yet the public has received the acquisition by her death, of a valuable series of letters, which her own modesty would have restrained her from permitting to see the light.  And it were to be wished that these two volumes, conditioned for by the terms of subscription, could have contained all her dramatic writings, of which only one is here published.  But as that was impossible, the preference was, upon the maturest deliberation, given to those in prose, as superior in their kind to the most perfect of her poetical, and of more general and lasting use to the world.

The loss of her husband on the 4th of January 1748, in the 71st year of his age, was a severe shock to her; and she did not long survive him, dying on the 11th of May, 1749, in her 71st year, after having long supported a painful disorder, with a resignation to the divine will, which had been the governing principle of her whole life, and her support under the various trials of it.  Her memory and understanding continued unimpaired, ’till within a few days of her death.  She was interred near her husband and youngest daughter at Long-Horsley, with this short sentence on their tomb: 

  Let their works praise them in the gates. 
  Prov. xxxi. 31.

They left only one son, who is clerk of the cheque at Chatham, and two daughters.

Mrs. Cockburn was no less celebrated for her beauty, in her younger days, than for her genius and accomplishments.  She was indeed small of stature, but had a remarkable liveliness in her eye, and delicacy of complexion, which continued to her death.  Her private character rendered her extremely amiable to those who intimately knew her.  Her conversation was always innocent, useful and agreeable, without the least affectation of being thought a wit, and attended with a remarkable modesty and diffidence of herself, and a constant endeavour to adapt her discourse to her company.  She was happy in an uncommon evenness and chearfulness of temper.  Her disposition was generous and benevolent; and ready upon all occasions to forgive injuries, and bear them, as well as misfortunes, without interrupting her own ease, or that of others, with complaints or reproaches.  The pressures of a very contracted fortune were supported by her with calmness and in silence; nor did she ever attempt to improve it among those great personages to whom she was known, by importunities; to which the best minds are most averse, and which her approved merit and established reputation mould have rendered unnecessary.