Sir Charles Sedley, 5th Baronet in 1702. The relationship with Ann Ayscough lasted to the end of Sedley's life. His reputation as a wit and dissolute was partially responsible for the Sedleys of William Makepeace Thackeray's "Vanity Fair". His most famous song, "Phyllis is My Only Joy", is much more widely known now than the author's name. While Sedley chiefly produced light amatory verse and pastoral dialogues in the 1670s, he turned to satirical epigrams in the 1680s and 1690s. His "Epigrams: or, Court Characters" are modelled on the works of Martial. In his epigram "To Nysus", for example, Sedley describes the function of satire
Sir Charles Sedley, 5th Baronet first wife, Lady Katherine Savage, daughter of John Savage, 2nd Earl Rivers, he had only one legitimate child, Catherine, Countess of Dorchester, who later became a mistress of James II of England. After his first wife had been sent to a convent in Ghent on account of a serious mental condition, Sedley tried in vain to obtain a divorce. He met Ann Ayscough, probably around 1670, by whom he had two illegitimate sons, William and Charles Sedley. William died in infancy, the brother Charles was knighted by William III of Orange after the coronation in 1689 and created a baronet