The Gentlewoman’s Remembrance: Patriarchy, Piety, and Singlehood in Early Stuart England

284 Pages·2016·1.796 MB·English

by  Isaac Stephens

The gentlewoman’s remembrance
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Politics, culture and society in early modern Britain
General Editors
DR ALEXANDRA GAJDA
PROFESSOR ANTHONY MILTON
PROFESSOR PETER LAKE
DR JASON PEACEY
This important series publishes monographs that take a fresh and challenging look
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Recently published in the series
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G EMMA ALLEN
Black Bartholomew ’ s Day DAVID J. APPLEBY
Insular Christianity ROBERT ARMSTRONG AND TADHG Ó HANNRACHAIN ( eds )
Reading and politics in early modern England GEOFF BAKER
‘No historie so meete’ JAN BROADWAY
Republican learning JUSTIN CHAMPION
News and rumour in Jacobean England: Information, court politics and diplomacy,
1618–25 DAVID COAST
This England PATRICK COLLINSON
Sir Robert Filmer (1588–1653) and the patriotic monarch CESARE CUTTICA
Doubtful and dangerous: The question of succession in late Elizabethan England
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Brave community JOHN GURNEY
‘Black Tom’ ANDREW HOPPER
Royalists and Royalism during the Interregnum JASON MCELLIGOTT AND DAVID L. SMITH
Laudian and Royalist polemic in Stuart England ANTHONY MILTON
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HUNTER POWELL
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Fletcher, the elder (1546–1611) FELICITY JANE STOUT
Full details of the series are available at www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk
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The gentlewoman’s remembrance
Patriarchy, piety, and singlehood in early
Stuart England
.
ISAAC STEPHENS
Manchester University Press
Copyright © Isaac Stephens 2016
The right of Isaac Stephens to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him
in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
Published by Manchester University Press
Altrincham Street, Manchester M1 7JA
www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data applied for
ISBN 978 1 7849 9143 2 hardback
First published 2016
The publisher has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for any external or
third-party internet websites referred to in this book, and does not guarantee that any content
on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.
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For Dorothy

Contents
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS—viii
ABBREVIATIONS—x
Introduction: finding and remembering Elizabeth Isham 1
1 ‘My Booke of Rememberance’: the spiritual autobiography
of Elizabeth Isham 20
2 ‘As a branch with a roote’: the Ishams of Lamport and their world 53
3 ‘The sweet private life’: singlehood in the patriarch’s household 101
4 ‘My own bookes’: Elizabeth Isham’s reading 144
5 ‘To piety more prone’: Elizabeth Isham’s religion 186
Conclusion: a memory restored 233
BIBLIOGRAPHY—242
INDEX—266
vii
Acknowledgements
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No book is solely the product of just one person, and this is definitely true
for this monograph. My awareness of Elizabeth Isham occurred well over a
decade ago when Tom Cogswell sat me down in his office and revealed that
he had stumbled on her ‘Booke of Rememberance’ while he spent a day on
Princeton University’s campus snooping about the Firestone Library’s special
collections. That meeting was fortuitous, for it ultimately laid the seeds for
this present study of Elizabeth’s life and world. Consequently, no words can
express my enormous debt to Tom – not only did he steer me towards the
foundational source of this book but he has also served as an inspiring
mentor since my time as a graduate student under his guidance. Equally
crucial mentorship has come from Peter Lake and Ann Hughes, who have
both intently listened to me talk about Elizabeth over the years and have read
many versions of the book manuscript. Their suggestions, insights, support,
and friendship have greatly impacted the final product, as well as influenced
my growth as a historian. I am also grateful for other colleagues, peers, and
friends who have served as sounding boards for ideas and have offered
thoughtful advice, particularly Bill Bulman, Elizabeth Clarke, David Como,
Anne Cotterill, Richard Cust, Michael Drake, Lori Anne Ferrell, Ken Fincham,
Paul Hammer, Heidi Brayman Hackel, Randolph Head, Steve Hindle,
Dale Kent, Krista Kesselring, Paul Lim, Erica Longfellow, Noah Millstone,
Rupa Mishra, Jason Peacey, Mary Robertson, Sandy Solomon, Tim Stretton,
Denise Thomas, Amos Tubb, and Vanessa Wilkie. Of course, without various
sources of financial support – especially those that came in the forms of a
postdoctoral fellowship at Vanderbilt University and a National Endowment
of the Humanities Long-Term Fellowship at the Henry E. Huntington Library
– this book would never have seen the light of day, since they have given me
the time and means to research and write. Moreover, I am conscious of the
invaluable research assistance that I have received at such repositories as
the British Library, Clarke Library, the Firestone Library, the Huntington
viii
Acknowledgements
Library, the National Archives, and the Northamptonshire Record Office. My
family has also greatly contributed, and I owe special thanks to my father,
mother, and grandmother, the latter to whom I dedicate this book. Finally,
no debt is greater than the one I owe Kathleen McGuire – she has lived nearly
as long as I have with Elizabeth Isham in her life, and has read and com-
mented on countless drafts and thoughts of mine. Thank you, Kath, for
always being in my corner and being a wonderful spouse.
Portions of this book have appeared in previous incarnations in the fol-
lowing articles: ‘The Courtship and Singlehood of Elizabeth Isham, 1630–
1634’, The Historical Journal, 51 (2008), 1–25; ‘My Cheefest Work: The Making
of the Spiritual Autobiography of Elizabeth Isham’, Midland History, 34
(2009), 181–203; ‘Confessional Identity in Early Stuart England: The “Prayer
Book Puritanism” of Elizabeth Isham’, Journal of British Studies, 50 (2011),
24–47. Quotations from the ‘Booke of Rememberance’ are here printed by
permission of the Manuscripts Division, Department of Rare Books and
Special Collections, Princeton University Library; quotations from materials
in the Isham Collection, Northamptonshire Record Office (NRO), printed by
permission of the Lamport Hall Trust.
ix