There seem to have been three women in Wolfe's life (other than his mother). It is likely that this phrase incorporates two of the three women Wolfe had relationships with.

During the winter of 1748 he rekindled a friendship with Miss Elizabeth Lawson, a maid of honour to the Princess of Wales. Wolfe confided in a friend that Miss Lawson had won all his affections. Wolfe was only 22 at the time and friends of Miss Lawson remarked about his youth.

Wolfe's "first experience of tender passion" seems to have been somewhat one-sided as Miss Lawson, after some delay, refused the offer of his hand (Dent, p. 218). Wolfe's parents did not approve of this friendship and actually had their eyes on someone else for Wolfe and though the relationship with Miss Lawson came to naught, it marked him. Three years later he confessed that while he thought he "recovered in a great measure from my disorder that my extravagant love for Miss Lawson threw me into, yet I never hear her name mentioned without a twitch or hardly ever think of her with indifference" (Whitton, p. 138). A full year later the sight of a picture of Miss Lawson at the house of Sir John Mordaunt he confided it "took away my stomach for two or three days and made me grave"(Whitton, p. 138). Elizabeth Lawson preceded Wolfe in death in March 1759. Undoubtedly, even though Wolfe's relationship with Miss Lawson didn't go as he hoped, he probably was affected by the news of her death.

The young woman whom Wolfe's parents hoped he would marry, Miss Hoskins of Croydon. This relationship didn't not come to fruition and Miss Hoskins married John Warde, a friend of Wolfe's, in February 1751. The reference to Wolfe's love being "married" seems to be unfounded. Miss Hoskins had married 8 years before the Battle of Quebec.

The third woman, Miss Katherine Lowther was engaged to Wolfe. Wolfe wore a miniature of Miss Lowther (a locket, perhaps) and his wish, the night before the battle was that it be returned to her, set in diamonds. She only married 6 years after the death of Wolfe.

 Works Cited