The Weaker Vessel: Woman's Lot in Seventeenth-Century England (WOMEN IN HISTORY)

by Fraser, Antonia

  22 Thurloe Papers, VII, p.287; Brailsford, Quaker Women, p.116.

  23 G.E.C., Complete Peerage, XII/2, p.778, note 1; Collins’ Peerage, pp.384–5.

  24 Ross, Margaret Fell, p.226; see this biography in general for details of her life.

  25 Ross, Margaret Fell, p.24.

  26 cit. Knox, Enthusiasm, p.161.

  27 Ross, Margaret Fell, p.37.

  28 Ross, Margaret Fell, p.170.

  29 Ross, Margaret Fell, p.138.

  30 Spufford, ‘Portraits of Society’, p.12; Fox Journal, p.421.

  31 Athenian Oracle, I, p.33.

  32 Fox Journal, p.554.

  33 Ross, Margaret Fell, p.220.

  34 Ross, Margaret Fell, pp.228 note 2, 226.

  35 Sarah Fell Account Book, pp.xx, xix.

  36 Thomas, Women and Sects, p.48.

  37 Margaret Fell, Womens Speaking, pp.3 (sic: Joel 2, VS. 28 differs slightly), 4, 10.

  38 Margaret Fell, Womens Speaking, p.5.

  39 Margaret Fell, Womens Speaking, p.14.

  40 Braithwaite, Second Period of Quakerism, pp.270–72, 286–8.

  41 Letter of Isabel Yeamans, 8 August 1676, MSS, Religious Society of Friends, Nottingham Meeting.

  42 Fox Journal, pp.629, 647, 666–8.

  43 Ross, Margaret Fell, pp.313–14; Katz, Readmission of the Jews, p.238.

  44 Ross, Margaret Fell, p.318.

  45 Ross, Margaret Fell, p.370.

  Chapter 19: The Delight of Business

  1 Ede, Arts and Society, p.14; see Clark, Working Life, pp.32–3 for Joan Dant’s story.

  2 Brailsford, Quaker Women, p.15.

  3 Ballard, Memoirs of Several Ladies, p.287; Anderson, Friends and Relations, p.68.

  4 See Sarah Fell Account Book.

  5 Scott Thomson, Noble Household, pp.189, 199.

  6 Miranda Chaytor and Jane Lewis in Clark, Working Life, p.xxxi.

  7 Pepys Diary, I, p.30; X. p.241.

  8 i.e. see The Diary of Roger Lowe; its editor, William L. Sachse (p.7), describes the ale-house of this period, on the diary’s evidence, as ‘the unofficial club’ of both poor man and poor woman.

  9 cit. Bridenbaugh, Vexed Englishmen, p.195; cit. Pinto, Sedley, p.58; Gough, Myddle, pp.197–8.

  10 Finch MSS, III, p.438.

  11 Pepys Diary, V, p.62.

  12 Pepys Diary, V, p.266.

  13 The story of Mrs Pley and Colonel Reymes is told in Helen Andrews Kaufman’s biography of the latter, Conscientious Cavalier.

  14 Hutchins, Dorset, II, p.459.

  15 Kaufman, Conscientious Cavalier, p.182.

  16 Fraser, King Charles II, p.223.

  17 Kaufman, Conscientious Cavalier, pp.182, 247 note 7.

  18 Pepys Diary, VII, pp.199–200.

  19 Pepys Diary, VII, p.200 note 2.

  20 Balleine, All for the King, p.127.

  21 CSP Domestic, 1664–5, pp.500–501.

  22 CSP Domestic, 1664–5, p.525.

  23 Pepys Diary, VI, p.187: Carlingford papers, II of III, Osborn Collection, Yale.

  24 Defoe, Journal of the Plague Year, p.120.

  25 CSP Domestic, 1665–6, p.108.

  26 CSP Domestic, 1665–6, pp.219, 244; 1666–7, 66; 1665–6, pp.357, 272.

  27 Kaufman, Conscientious Cavalier, p.237.

  28 Kaufman, Conscientious Cavalier, p.184.

  29 CSP Domestic, 1665–6, p.207.

  30 ‘Of Persons one would wish to have seen’, in Hazlitt Selected Essays, p.532.

  31 See Howell, ‘Image of Cromwell in Restoration Drama’.

  32 Waylen, House of Cromwell, p.81.

  33 Waylen, House of Cromwell, p.77.

  34 Noble, Cromwell Memoirs, II, p.337.

  35 Nall, Yarmouth, p.154; Ogg, England of Charles II, pp.72–3.

  36 Collins, Salt and Fishery, p.61; Waylen, House of Cromwell, p.77.

  37 Costello, Eminent Englishwomen, III, p.55.

  38 Waylen, House of Cromwell, pp.82–3.

  39 Waylen, House of Cromwell, pp.82–3.

  40 Noble, Cromwell Memoirs, II, p.332.

  41 Sloane MSS, 2069, fo. 96 B; Baxter, Reliquiae Baxterianae, p.57.

  42 The Rev. Samuel Say’s account is printed in full in Noble, Cromwell Memoirs, II, pp.329–33, first published in 1727; the Rev. James Waylen in The House of Cromwell, 1880, suggests the explanation for Say’s hostility.

  43 Dr Jeremy Brooke’s account in full in Noble, Cromwell Memoirs, II, pp.333–8.

  44 Hewling Luson’s account in full in Noble, Cromwell Memoirs, II, pp.338–46.

  45 Noble, Cromwell Memoirs, II, p.346.

  Chapter 20: Wanton and Free

  1 Aphra Behn, The Feign’d Curtezans, Act IV, scene I; Allestree, Ladies Calling, p.26.

  2 Newcastle, CCXI Letters, p.76.

  3 Allestree, Ladies Calling, p.157; OED; Barker, Poetical Recreations, Part I, pp.12–13; Fraser, King Charles II, p.285.

  4 Evelyn, Mundus Muliebris, Preface; Womens Complaint, John Dryden, Marriage-à-la-Mode, Act I, scene I.

  5 North, Lives, II, p.164; Needham, ‘Mrs Manley’, p.276.

  6 Aphra Behn, The Town-Fop, Act IV, scene II.

  7 See Sidney, Diary, I, pp.xxviii–xxxiv, for the sufferings of Mrs Worthley.

  8 Pepys Diary, IV, pp.114, 270, 303.

  9 Pepys Diary, IV, pp.281, 387–8.

  10 Pepys Diary, V, pp.173–4.

  11 Pepys Diary, V, p.184.

  12 Pepys Diary, V, p.179.

  13 Pepys Diary, IX, p.455.

  14 Thomas Otway, Venice Preserv’d, Act III, scene I; Act II, scene I; Aphra Behn, The Rover, Part I, Act I, scene I.

  15 HMC, 12th Report, Appendix, Part V, p.158.

  16 cit. Pinto, Sedley, Appendix III, p.355.

  17 Pinto, Sedley, pp.120–25.

  18 Evelyn Diary, II, p.84.

  19 BL Add MSS, 30, 382.

  20 cit. Pinto, Sedley, p.129; Wolseley, Marlborough, I, pp.188–9.

  21 Dorset, Works, XI, p.16.

  22 Dorset, Works, XI, p.209.

  23 Wilson, Court Wits, p.113; Pinto, Sedley, p.137.

  24 cit. Pinto, Sedley, p.140 note 2.

  25 Burke’s Extinct Peerages, p.492; Pinto, Sedley, p.140.

  26 Turner, James II, p.142.

  27 Pinto, Sedley, p.238.

  28 Pinto, Sedley, p.158.

  29 Pinto, Sedley, Appendix III, p.355.

  30 Stanley, Memorials of Westminster Abbey, Appendix, p.507.

  31 Miller, James II (1978), p.151; F.C. Turner in his biography James II (1948), p.294, also thought the evidence came from Sunderland and was therefore suspect.

  32 Evelyn Diary, II, p.248.

  33 cit. Turner, James II, p.300.

  34 Pinto, Sedley, Appendix III, pp.355–60.

  35 Pinto, Sedley, Appendix III, p.360.

  36 Turner, James II, p.300.

  37 Pinto, Sedley, Appendix III, pp.346–7.

  38 Finch MSS, III, p.347; cit. Pinto, Sedley, p.174.

  39 See Pinto, Sedley, pp.204–5 and note 2.

  40 Finch MSS, III, p.34.

  41 Finch MSS, III, pp.348, 351.

  42 Hatton Correspondence, II, p.128 and note A; p.129.

  43 Case of the Countess of Dorchester relating to the Torrington Bill.

  44 Dorset, Works, XI, p.198; Pinto, Sedley, pp.218–19; DNB (Catherine Sedley).

  45 See Myddelton, Chirk Castle Accounts.

  46 Pepys Diary, VI, p.64 and note 2; Evelyn Diary, II, p.183.

  47 Ladies Dictionary, pp.219, 63; Pepys Diary, VIII, p.46.

  48 Aeneid, Book I, l.402 (trans. J. Middleton Murry); Hamilton, Gramont Memoirs, p.204.

  49 Cholmley Memoirs, p.12; Gardiner, Oxinden Letters, p.164.

  50 Hamilton, Gramont Memoirs, pp.109, 131; Newcastle, CCXI Letters, p.215; Ladies Dictionary, p.212.

  51 Pepys Diary, VIII, pp.286, 251; Myddelton, Chirk Castle Accounts; cit. Jameson, Beauties of Charles II’s Court, p.163.

  52 Lecky, History of European Morals,
II, pp.220–30; Mary Pix, The Innocent Mistress, cit. Morgan, Female Wits, p.266; Clark, Working Life, Introduction, p.xxxi.

  53 Macfarlane, Marital and Sexual Relationships, p.104; Quaife, Wanton Wenches, p.150; cit. Stone, Family, Sex and Marriage, pp.561–3; Wandering Whore, No. 1, p.12.

  54 Macfarlane, Marital and Sexual Relationships, p.105; May, Social Control of Sex Expression, p.110; Wilson, Court Wits, p.79.

  55 Pierpont Morgan Library MSS, R. of E., box IX, Part 2, fo. 55, 57, 62, 64.

  56 Wandering Whore, No. 1, p.10; No.2. pp.4–6; Otway Works, I, p.lxx; Wilson, King’s Ladies, p.167.

  57 See Hamilton, Gramont Memoirs, pp.131–220.

  58 Gouge, Domesticall Duties, cit. Laslett, World we have lost (1968), p.131 and note p.267; see May, Social Control of Sex Expression, p.132.

  59 Verney Memoirs, III, p.51; Humble Remonstrance of the Batchelors, p.481.

  60 Middlesex County Records, III, p.13.

  61 Wandering Whore, Prefatory Note, and No.2, p.9; Wilson, King’s Ladies, p.18.

  62 Stone, Family, Sex and Marriage, pp.616, 619; Pepys Diary, VIII, p.466, note I; Quaife, Wanton Wenches, p.150.

  63 Hair, Before the Bawdy Court, p.136.

  64 Pepys Diary, VII, pp.62, 142; IX, p.521.

  65 Pepys Diary, IX, p.132; Thomas Otway, Venice Preserv’d, Prologue; Whore’s Rhetorick, p.117.

  66 Wandering Whore, Prefatory Note; DNB (Cresswell).

  67 Whore’s Rhetorick, pp.29, 24.

  68 Whore’s Rhetorick, pp.58, 117.

  69 Whore’s Rhetorick, pp.108, 148, 96, 62.

  70 Wandering Whore, No.3, p.11.

  71 Dorset, Works, XI, p.205; cit. Greene, Rochester, p.121.

  Chapter 21: Actress as Honey-Pot

  1 Evelyn, Mrs Godolphin, p.97 (still Blagge in fact); Evelyn Diary, I, p.332.

  2 Having to appear in public still unmarried, see Hiscock, Evelyn and Mrs Godolphin, p.113.

  3 Nicoll, English Drama, I, pp.70–71; Roberts, Social History; Gregg, Charles I, p.275; Pepys Diary, II, p.5, note 2.

  4 Marvell, Poems, I, pp.125, 331.

  5 cit. Findlater, Player Queens, p.12; Nicoll, English Drama, I, p.70.

  6 See Wilson, King’s Ladies, pp.5–8 (although he does not totally dismiss the claim of Katherine Corey).

  7 Gildon, Betterton, p.7; Hamilton, William’s Mary, p.25; Pepys Diary, X, p.86.

  8 See Wilson, King’s Ladies, pp.17–19.

  9 William Wycherley, Country Wife, Act II, scene I; Wilson, King’s Ladies, p.14.

  10 cit. Wilson, Court Wits, p.80.

  11 cit. Wilson, King’s Ladies, p.16.

  12 Wilson, King’s Ladies, pp.9–10; Hamilton, Gramont Memoirs, p.314.

  13 Woolley, Queen-like Closet, p.134; Pepys Diary, IV, p.162; V, p.267; IX, p.268 and note 5; Wilson, King’s Ladies, p.146.

  14 Pepys Diary, VIII, p.503, note 1; Wilson, King’s Ladies, pp.110–11, summarizes the various stories.

  15 By J.H. Wilson in King’s Ladies, p.73.

  16 See Wilson, King’s Ladies, pp.68–70 for details of the actresses’ costumes.

  17 Wilson, Nell Gwynn, p.288.

  18 Pepys Diary, VII, p.463.

  19 Pepys Diary, V, p.240 and note 3; Wilson, King’s Ladies, p.34.

  20 See Wilson, King’s Ladies, Appendix I, pp.109–92, for a list of actresses, 1660–89, including biographical details.

  21 Wilson, King’s Ladies, p.127.

  22 Wilson, King’s Ladies, p.130; ‘Commentary’, C.H. Hartmann in Hamilton, Gramont Memoirs, p.338.

  23 Brown Works, II, p.303.

  24 Hamilton, Gramont Memoirs, pp.233–4.

  25 ‘Commentary’, C.H. Hartmann in Hamilton, Gramont Memoirs, pp.361, 233; Wilson, King’s Ladies, pp.12–13.

  26 Wilson, King’s Ladies, p.14.

  27 Hamilton, Gramont Memoirs, p.234.

  28 For the correct dating of her career, see J.H. Wilson’s article, ‘Pepys and Peg Hughes’.

  29 cit. Morrah, Prince Rupert, pp.400, 415.

  30 cit. Morrah, Prince Rupert, p.415.

  31 cit. Morrah, Prince Rupert, pp.416–17, 426.

  32 Brown Works, II. p.241.

  33 See J.H. Wilson’s article, ‘Marshall Sisters and Anne Quin’, where their careers are disentangled.

  34 Pepys Diary, V, p.34 and note 1.

  35 John Dryden, The Indian Emperor, Act I, scene II.

  36 John Dryden, The Indian Emperor, Act V, scene I.

  37 CSP Domestic, 1665–6, p.157.

  38 Pepys Diary, VIII, pp.91, 235.

  39 cit. Wilson, ‘Marshall Sisters and Anne Quin’, p.106.

  40 Pepys Diary, IX, p.250.

  41 Pepys Diary, IX, p.19 and note; see Wilson, King’s Ladies, Appendix A, pp.142–4.

  42 CSP Domestic, 1664–5, pp.139–40.

  43 Aston, ‘Brief Supplement’, in Cibber, Apology, II, p.302.

  44 Gildon, Comparison between Two Stages, p.18.

  45 van Lennep, London Stage, I, p.210; DNB (Elizabeth Barry); Cibber, Apology, I, p.159; Aston, ‘Brief Supplement’, in Cibber, Apology, II, p.303.

  46 Aston, ‘Brief Supplement’, in Cibber, Apology, II, p.303.

  47 Curll, Betterton’s History, pp.14–16.

  48 See van Lennep, London Stage, I, p.245; Treglown, Rochester’s Letters, p.29 for the point that it is unlikely Rochester saw Alcibiades as he was in the country.

  49 Thomas Otway, Caius Marius, Act I, scene II.

  50 Thomas Southerne, The Fatal Marriage, Dedication, 1694.

  51 Thomas Otway, Venice Preserv’d, Act I, scene I.

  52 Gildon, Comparison Between Two Stages, p.18; Wilson, King’s Ladies, pp.115–16, 61–2.

  53 Brown Works, III, p.39; cit. Otway Works, I, p.lxiv

  54 Rochester Familiar Letters, pp.90, 88.

  55 Rochester Familiar Letters, p.82.

  56 Rochester, Works, pp.11, 269, 277, 280. There is no direct evidence linking Rochester’s poem ‘The Mistress’ with Mrs Barry, despite its title; none of Rochester’s poems are dated by him and their dating from other evidence presents difficulties (Treglown, Rochester’s Letters, p.25). Graham Greene in Rochester, p.132, suggests the connection with Mrs Barry.

  57 cit. Pinto, Rochester, p.189.

  58 Rochester, Works, p.274.

  59 Rochester, Works, p.280.

  60 DNB (Mrs Barry).

  61 Cibber, Apology, I, p.160.

  Chapter 22: The Modest Midwife

  1 Rueff, Expert Midwife, Introduction.

  2 Midwives Just Petition: Midwives Just Complaint, 1646, cit. Aveling, English Midwives, p.30.

  3 Eccles, Obstetrics in Stuart England, p.121.

  4 See ‘Anonymous Business Diary of a Midwife’, Rawlinson MSS, D. 1141.

  5 Pepys Diary, II, p.110; Calverley Memorandum Book, pp.62, 67.

  6 Aveling, English Midwives, pp.31–4.

  7 Hamilton, Henrietta Maria, p.95; Fraser, King Charles II, p.13.

  8 Clark, Working Life, p.274.

  9 See G.C.R. Morris, ‘Which Molins treated Cromwell for stone?’, p.431, and letter to the author concerning girls baptized Aurelia, 1618–39, in the registers of St Andrew, Holborn.

  10 Eccles, Obstetrics In Stuart England, p.12.

  11 Rueff, Expert Midwife, Introduction.

  12 cit. Cutter and Viets, Midwifery, p.48; Sharp, Midwives Book, pp.2–3; Sharp, Compleat Midwife, Preface.

  13 Exodus, I, VS. 15–21.

  14 Sharp, Midwives Book, p.3.

  15 Walker, Holy Life, p.86; Hoby Diary, p.63.

  16 Pepys Diary, IX, p.260.

  17 Rueff, Expert Midwife, Introduction.

  18 See Willughby, Country Midwife’s Opusculum, Sloane MSS, 529.

  19 Willughby, Country Midwife’s Opusculum, Sloane MSS, 529; Thornton Autobiography, p.96; see Freke Diary, pp.24–5.

  20 Aveling, English Midwives, pp.55–6; Stenton, English Woman, p.228.

  21 Verney Memoirs, IV, p.169; Ross, Margaret Fell, p.351.


  22 Ross, Margaret Fell, p.292.

  23 Humble Remonstrance of the Batchelors, p.479; Sermon, Ladies Companion, p.5; Pepys Diary, III, p.16.

  24 i.e. Wandering Whore, No. 2, p.5; No. 5, p.13.

  25 Gouch, Myddle, p.173; Willughby, Country Midwife’s Opusculum, Sloane MSS, 529.

  26 See Cutter and Viets, Midwifery, pp.44–7 for the early history of the Chamberlen family.

  27 Cutter and Viets, Midwifery, p.50.

  28 Aveling, English Midwives, p.8.

  29 cit. Thomas, Religion, p.259.

  30 cit. Aveling, English Midwives, pp.8–9.

  31 Cutter and Viets, Midwifery, p.47.

  32 Cutter and Viets, Midwifery, p.49.

  33 See Mrs Shaw’s Innocency Restored.

  34 cit. Cutter and Viets, Midwifery, p.49.

  35 cit. Illick, Child-Rearing, pp.306, 333, 13.

  36 Sharp, Midwives Book, p.3.

  37 Clark, Working Life, p.263.

  38 Shorter, Women’s Bodies, pp.141–3, 123–38; Eccles, Obstetrics in Stuart England, pp.123–4.

  39 Donnison, Midwives and Medical Men, p.190.

  40 By J.H. Aveling (founder of The Obstetrical Journal of Great Britain and Ireland) in English Midwives, 1872, p.39.

  41 Sharp, Midwives Book, pp.6, 13, 38; Sermon, Ladies Companion, p.94.

  42 Sermon, Ladies Companion, p.94; Conway Letters, p.153.

  43 Sermon, Ladies Companion, p.94.

  44 Aveling, English Midwives, p.39; Sharp, Midwives Book, p.184; Sermon, Ladies Companion, p.5.

  45 Shorter, Women’s Bodies, pp.125–6.

  46 Aveling, English Midwives, p.112.

  47 Cellier, ‘Scheme for the Foundation of a Royal Hospital’, p.136.

  48 Kenyon, Popish Plot, pp.189–90; Cellier, Malice Defeated, Preface.

  49 But see J.H. Kenyon, Popish Plot, for the clearest summary of the various facts and suppositions.

  50 Cellier, Malice Defeated, p.10.

  51 Warner, English Persecution of Catholics, I, p.314.

  52 Caulfield, Portraits, I, pp.25–6.

  53 Dangerfield, Grand Impostor, p.4; Cellier, Malice Defeated, p.19.

  54 Cellier, Malice Defeated, p.38.

  55 cit. Aveling, English Midwives, p.64.

  56 Cellier, Malice Defeated, p.28.

  57 Cellier, Malice Defeated, p.42.

  58 Hatton Correspondence, I, p.236.

  59 Cellier, Malice Defeated, p.32,

  60 Life of Lady Russell, p.44.