The Weaker Vessel: Women's Lot in Seventeenth-Century England

by Antonia Fraser

  2 Batchiler, Virgin’s Pattern, Epitaph.

  3 Theodore Spencer in ‘History of an Unfortunate Lady’.

  4 Batchiler, Virgin’s Pattern.

  5 Batchiler, Virgin’s Pattern.

  6 Batchiler, Virgin’s Pattern.

  7 Milton cit. Goreau, Aphra, p.76; Clarke, Lives of Eminent Persons, p.135; Chambers, Mary Ward, I, p.210.

  8 Newcastle, CCXI Letters, p.124; Evelyn, Mrs Godolphin, pp.75, 121.

  9 See Halkett and Fanshawe, pp.12–20.

  10 Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, I, Chapter 3; Chambers, Maty Ward, I, pp.203–5; Clarke, Lives of Eminent Persons, p.135.

  11 Warner, Alone of All Her Sex, pp.246–7.

  12 Stafford, Femall Glory, pp.25, 32.

  13 Stafford, Femall Glory, p.168.

  14 Laslett, World we have lost (1983), p.27, describes the gentry class and above as one twenty-fifth or at most one twentieth of the population; OED; Bridenbaugh, Vexed Englishmen, p.147.

  15 Pepys Diary, VII, p.193 and note 2; Ashley, Life in Stuart England, p.27; HMC, Salisbury MSS, 1612–88, p.394.

  16 Laslett, World we have lost (1983), p.12.

  17 Chambers, Mary Ward, II, p.33.

  18 I Corinthians, 14, VS. 35; Verney Memoirs, III, p.74.

  19 Macfarlane, Josselin, p.147; Laslett, World we have lost (1983), p.13.

  20 Laslett, World we have lost (1983), p.82, suggests a ‘mean age’ of about twenty-three and a half.

  21 Wage of £2 cited for 1685 by Goreau, Aphra, p.73; Cust Family Records, series II, p.63; Scott Thomson, Noble Household, p.301.

  22 Fell Smith, Warwick, p.348; Stuart, English Abigail, p.40.

  23 For Mary Woodforde’s Book, see Woodforde Papers, pp.3–34.

  24 Blundell, Cavalier’s Notebook, p.158; Halifax, Complete Works, p.292.

  25 Twysden Diary, pp.119, 122, 134; Scott Thomson, Noble Household, p.120.

  26 Wilson Life, p.462.

  27 Scott Thomson, Noble Household, p.309.

  28 Kirkman, Unlucky Citizen, p.127; HMC, Salisbury MSS, XXII, p.425.

  29 Kirkman, Unlucky Citizen, p.99.

  30 Thornton Autobiography, p.277; Diary of Robert Hooke 1672–1680, cit. Stone, Family, Sex and Marriage, pp.561–3.

  31 See Martindale Life, pp.6–8, 17–18.

  32 See Spufford, ‘Portraits of Society’.

  33 Hogrefe, Tudor Women, pp.89–90; Mistress Mary Firth.

  34 See CSP Domestic, 1628–9, pp.530–1.

  35 Thomas, Religion, p.137.

  36 Carte MS, Vol. LXXVIII, fo. 410, no. 175.

  37 For the career of Lady Eleanor Davies see especially Spencer, ‘Unfortunate Lady’, and ‘Dougle Fooleries’.

  38 Spencer, ‘Unfortunate Lady’, p.43.

  39 CSP Domestic, 1619–23, p.400.

  40 ‘Dougle Fooleries’, p.95.

  41 HMC, Hastings MSS, IV, p.343.

  42 Spencer, ‘Unfortunate Lady’, p.48.

  43 CSP Domestic, 1633–4, pp.266, 345; ‘Petition of Lady Eleanor (Davies)’, Thomason Tract, 669, fo. 10/2.

  44 CSP Domestic, 1633–4, p.261.

  45 Spencer, ‘Unfortunate Lady’, p.51.

  46 CSP Domestic, 1633–4, p.346.

  47 ‘Dougle Fooleries’, p.97.

  48 ‘Dougle Fooleries’, p.94.

  49 Tract no. 18, HMC, Hastings MSS, IV, p.344.

  Chapter 9: Courage above her Sex

  1 Newcastle, Worlds Olio, p.215.

  2 cit. Bankes, Dorset Heritage, p.55; Washbourn, Gloucestrensis, part I, p.lxxxvii.

  3 HMC, Bath MSS, I, p.27; still to be seen on the wall of the chancel in St Martin’s Church, Ruislip, Middlesex.

  4 Cholmley Memoirs, p.42; Cholmley’s Narrative, p.583.

  5 cit. Coate, Social Life, p.30; Cromwell Writings, II, pp.378–9.

  6 ‘Lathom Siege Journall’, p.163.

  7 ‘Dyve Letters’, p.67.

  8 See Fraser, Cromwell, p.335; ‘Dyve Letters’, p.73; Foster, ‘Digby’, p.23.

  9 Denbigh, Royalist Father, p.224.

  10 Harcourt Papers, I, p.168; see the anonymous ‘A Briefe Journall of the Siege against Lathom’, Ormerod’s Civil War Tracts in Lancashire, pp.159–86, for a first-hand account of its course.

  11 ‘Lathom Siege Journall’, p.167.

  12 ‘Lathom Siege Journall’, p.177.

  13 See Powicke, ‘Hastings Manuscripts’, pp.262–7.

  14 Lloyd, Memoires of Noble Personages, p.572; Blundell, Cavalier’s Notebook, p.151; Fox Journal, p.464.

  15 See Godwin, Civil War in Hampshire, pp.84–370.

  16 Clarendon, History of Rebellion, III, p.410.

  17 Godwin, Civil War in Hampshire, p.347; Cronwell Writings, I, p.341.

  18 Lloyd, Memoires of Noble Personages, p.586; Clarendon, History of Rebellion, II, p.536.

  19 Hutchins, Dorset, I, pp.504, 488–9.

  20 Hutchins, Dorset, I, p.495.

  21 Hutchins, Dorset, I, p.489; for a contemporary account of the siege, see Mercurius Rusticus, No. XI, cit. Hutchins, Dorset, I, pp.504–7.

  22 Hutchins, Dorset, I, p.507.

  23 Hutchins, Dorset, I, p.506.

  24 Hutchins, Dorset, I, p.508; Vicars, Burning-Bush, p.372.

  25 Hutchins, Dorset, I, p.509.

  26 cit. Bankes, Dorset Heritage, p.94.

  27 HMC, Bath MSS, I, p.4.

  28 Harley Letters, p.xiii.

  29 Harley Letters, pp.7–9, 13, 16, 20.

  30 Harley Letters, p.24.

  31 Harley Letters, pp.104, 158, 167, 178, 181.

  32 Harley Letters, p.183.

  33 Harley Letters, p.186.

  34 Harley Letters, pp.188–90.

  35 Harley Letters, p.204; HMC, Bath MSS, I, p.8.

  36 HMC, Bath MSS, pp.8–9.

  37 HMC, Bath MSS, pp.12–13.

  38 HMC, Bath MSS, pp.4, 6.

  39 HMC, Bath MSS, pp.14, 17.

  40 HMC, Bath MSS, p.17.

  41 HMC, Bath MSS, p.27.

  42 Harley Letters, pp.206–7, 209.

  43 The exact date of her death is not known; see her entry in DNB.

  44 HMC, Bath MSS, pp.29–32.

  45 Harley Letters, pp.230, xxxv.

  46 Washbourn, Gloucestrensis, Part II, p.227; Butler, Hudibras, p.148.

  47 Higgins, ‘Women in the Civil War’, p.38; Burghall, ‘Providence Improved’, p.166.

  48 Bayley, Civil War in Dorset, p.174; Strong, Joanereidos, 1645; ‘Tobie Trundle’, in Joanereidos, 1674.

  49 Bayley, Civil War in Dorset, p.127; Kaufman, Conscientious Cavalier, p.154.

  50 Kaufman, Conscientious Cavalier, p.154.

  51 Bayley, Civil War in Dorset, p.150 note I, p.172.

  52 ‘Tobie Trundle’, in Joanereidos, 1674.

  53 Bayley, Civil War in Dorset, p.191.

  54 Vicars, Gods Arke, pp.246, 259.

  Chapter 10: His Comrade

  1 Verney Memoirs, II, p.96; ‘Scourge of Civil War’, Thomason Tract, 669, fo. 10/27.

  2 Higgins, ‘Women in the Civil War’, p.29; Cromwell Writings, I, p.248.

  3 CSP Domestic, 1645–7, p.260; Gregg, Charles I, p.361; Athenae Oxonienses, I, p.xxviii.

  4 Athenae Oxonienses, I, p.xxviii; IV, pp.15–41.

  5 Gregg, Charles I, p.411.

  6 Lilly’s History, p.139.

  7 Hillier, Narrative, pp.142, 130, 140.

  8 Note by P. Bliss, Athenae Oxonienses, I, p.xxix; Gregg, Charles I, p.443.

  9 See J. Loftis, Introduction, Halkett and Fanshawe, p.xii.

  10 See Halkett and Fanshawe, pp.23–30.

  11 James II Memoirs, p.41.

  12 Verney Memoirs, I, p.293.

  13 Warwick Autobiography, p.20.

  14 See Denbigh, Royalist Father, pp.165–95.

  15 Crashaw Poems, p.236.

  16 Staffordshire and Great Rebellion, p.132.

  17 Everitt, Kent and Great Rebellion, p.26.

  18 Quaife, Wanton Wenches, pp.125, 133.

  19 cit.
Clark, Working Life, p.80.

  20 Verney Memoirs, II, p.176.

  21 Verney Memoirs, II, pp.199–200.

  22 Verney Memoirs, II, p.203.

  23 Mercurius Aulicus, 9 September 1643.

  24 cit. Godwin, Civil War in Hampshire, pp.121–2.

  25 Godwin, Civil War in Hampshire, p.122.

  26 On the exaggeration of horrors including this incident, Brig. Peter Young to the author; Luke Letter Books, p.204.

  27 Bayley, Civil War in Dorset, p.188 and note I.

  28 Young, Edgehill, p.11; Whitelocke, Memorials, I, p.188.

  29 BL Harleian MSS, 6804, fo. 75/6.

  30 Higgins, ‘Women in the Civil War’, pp.46–7; Firth, Cromwell’s Army, pp.298–9.

  31 Young, Marston Moor, p.166, and letter to the author.

  32 Lacy, Old Troop, pp.150, 141, 155.

  33 Lacy, Old Troop, p.141; ‘Gallant She-Souldier’, Roxburghe Ballads, VII, pp.728–9.

  34 Higgins, ‘Women in the Civil War’, p.42.

  35 Firth, Cromwell’s Army, pp.80, 73–4, 116–17; ‘Female Warrior’, Douce Ballads, I (79); ‘Famous Woman Drummer, Roxburghe Ballads, VII, pp.730–32.

  36 Higgins, ‘Women in the Civil War’, p.45.

  37 Higgins, ‘Women in the Civil War’, p.42; CSP Domestic, 1639, pp.146, 282.

  38 Mrs Christian Davies’ Life, pp.2, 20.

  39 HMC, Leyborne-Popham MSS, p.112 for Col. Sawrey’s letter; extensive researches in local records have unfortunately failed to produce an Anne Dymoke of the right age.

  40 Verney Memoirs, IV, p.256.

  41 Venables Narrative, p.102.

  42 Firth, Cromwell’s Army, pp.259–60.

  43 Hutchinson, Memoirs, p.99.

  44 Macdonald, Alkin, p.21; CSP Domestic, 1652–3, p.xxxi; Frank, English Newspaper, p.204.

  45 Firth, Cromwell’s Army, p.264; Clark, Working Life, p.243.

  46 Firth, Cromwell’s Army, p.265.

  47 Halkett and Fanshawe, p.75.

  48 Halkett and Fanshawe, p.82.

  Chapter 11: A Soliciting Temper

  1 Makin, Essay on Education, p.25; Newcastle, True Relation, p.20.

  2 Gardiner, Civil War, I, pp.100–101, 244.

  3 Higgins, ‘Women in the Civil War’, p.110 and note I.

  4 Gardiner, Civil War, III, p.197; Higgins, ‘Women in the Civil War’, p.15.

  5 Fraser, Cromwell, p.504.

  6 Beard, American Civilization, I, p.25; Nash, Worcestershire, I, p.492; Foster, ‘Digby’, p.4.

  7 CSP Domestic, 1640–41, pp.249–50; Clark, Working Life, pp.23–4.

  8 Gardiner, Civil War, III, pp.197–9.

  9 Knyvett Letters, p.147.

  10 See Twysden Family, pp.172–3 and Cholmley Memoirs, pp.44–8.

  11 Twysden Family, p.148.

  12 For the story of Dame Isabella Twysden, see her Diary, ed. by the Rev. F.W. Bennet, and ‘Twysden Notebooks’, BL Add MSS, 34, 163.

  13 See Twysden Diary.

  14 ‘Twysden Notebooks’, BL Add MSS, 34, 163, 1, fo. 332.

  15 ‘Twysden Notebooks’, BL Add MSS, 34, 163, 1, fo. 332.

  16 Verney Memoirs, II, p.238.

  17 Verney Memoirs, II, p.225.

  18 Verney Memoirs, II, pp.231–2, 234–5.

  19 Verney Memoirs, II, pp.239–40.

  20 Verney Memoirs, II, p.239.

  21 Verney Memoirs, II, pp.244, 253.

  22 Newcastle, True Relation, p.20.

  23 Newcastle, True Relation, p.20; Verney Memoirs, II, p.248.

  24 Verney Memoirs, II, pp.249–58.

  25 See Verney Memoirs, II, pp.255–82, 292–3, 316–17 for Mary Verney’s dealings with the Committee, visit to Claydon and return to France.

  26 Verney Memoirs, II, p.411.

  27 Verney Memoirs, II, pp.414–16.

  28 Verney Memoirs, II, pp.422–3.

  29 Verney Memoirs, III, p.30.

  Chapter 12: Sharing in the Commonwealth

  1 Higgins, ‘Women in the Civil War’, p.146.

  2 Neville, Ladies Parliament; Ladies, A Second Time, Assembled; Commonwealth of Ladies.

  3 CSP Venetian, 1645–7, p.135; Venables Narrative, p.xl.

  4 Gibb, Fairfax, p.181; Mercurius Pragmaticus, 26 December 1648.

  5 Clarendon, cit. Stone, Family, Sex and Marriage, p.340; Verney Memoirs, III, pp.318, 341.

  6 Newcastle, Worlds Olio, pp.74–5.

  7 Taylor, Sex in History, p.277; Knox, Enthusiasm, p.140.

  8 Brailsford, Quaker Women, p.246; Ross, Margaret Fell, p.108.

  9 cit. Stone, Family, Sex and Marriage, pp.627, 626.

  10 cit. Owen, ‘Lincolnshire Women’, p.34; Fraser, Cromwell, p.54; Higgins, ‘Women in the Civil War’, p.142.

  11 Kerridge, ‘Revolts in Wiltshire’, pp.68–9; Higgins, ‘Women in the Civil War’, p.144.

  12 George, ‘“Goodwife” to “Mistress”’, p.152; Womens Sharpe Revenge, pp.37–42.

  13 See Mitchell and Leys, London, pp.397–8; Herbert, History of Livery Companies, p.21.

  14 Lupton, London Characters, pp.91–4.

  15 See OED (see also Mary Ward’s use of Billingsgate, p.128 ante); Timbs, Curiosities of London, pp.54–5; Butler, Hudibras, p.44.

  16 Higgins, ‘Women in the Civil War’, pp.154–67; ‘Certaine Informations’, E. 65 (8); Gardiner, Civil War, I, p.187.

  17 Kingdomes Weekly Intelligencer, E. 65/II; Higgins, ‘Women in the Civil War’, p.168.

  18 Carlyle, Critical Essays, IV, pp.327, 333.

  19 See Hirst, Representative of the People?, pp.18–19.

  20 Chapman and Chapman, Status of Women under Law, p.23; Hirst, Representative of the People?, p.18.

  21 Coke, Institutes, Part 4, p.4.

  22 Fieldhouse, ‘Parliamentary Representation in the Borough of Richmond’, pp.207–8.

  23 Clarke Papers, I, pp.299, 302; Gregg, Free-Born John, p.215.

  24 Thomas, ‘Women and Sects’, p.56.

  25 Astell, Reflections, pp.43–5.

  26 cit. Appendix C, Berens, Digger Movement, p.252.

  27 Middlesex County Records, III, pp.xxii, 287.

  28 Gibb, Lilburne, pp.171, 174; Gregg, Free-Born John, on the other hand, makes no such suggestion: see p.215.

  29 Higgins, ‘Women in the Civil War’, pp.178–87.

  30 ‘Overton Appeal and Petition’, E. 381/10, pp. 3–4, 6–9, 174.

  31 Gregg, Free-Born John, p.398.

  32 Gregg, Free-Born John, p.90.

  33 Gregg, Free-Born John, p.103.

  34 Lilburne, Freemans Freedome Vindicated, p.6.

  35 Gibb, Lilburne, p.192.

  36 Gibb, Lilburne, p.192.

  37 Rushworth, Collections, VIII, p.1257.

  38 Mercurius Militaris, 22 April 1649.

  39 Petition of Women, 1649, E. 551(14).

  40 Gibb, Lilburne, p.174; Higgins, ‘Women in the Civil War’, p.178; To the House of Commons for Lockier, 5 May 1649, BL 669, fo. 14/27.

  41 Higgins, ‘Women in the Civil War’, pp.180–81; To the Parliament for Mr J. Lilburn, 24 June 1653, BL 669, fo. 17/24; Unto every individual Member of Parliament, 26 July 1653, BL 669, fo. 17/37; Clarendon MSS, Vol. 46, fo. 110.

  42 Clarendon MSS, Vol. 46, fo. 131.

  43 Gibb, Lilburne, pp.272–3

  44 Gregg, Free-Born John, p.314.

  45 Gregg, Free-Born John, p.321.

  46 CSP Domestic, 1655, pp.263–4; Gregg, Free-Born John, p.340.

  47 Gregg, Free-Born John, p.340.

  48 Gibb, Lilburne, p.342.

  49 Petition of Elizabeth Lilburne, CSP Domestic, 1657–8, p.148.

  50 CSP Domestic, 1658–9, pp.260–61.

  51 Pauline Gregg, Free-Born John, p.348, thinks he would not have approved.

  52 Lilburne, Jonah’s Cry, p.4.

  Chapter 13: When Women Preach

  1 Duncon, Vi-Countess Falkland, p.205; Brathwaite, English Gentlewoman, p.82.

  2 Verney Memoirs, III, p.72.

  3 Thomas, ‘Women and Se
cts’, p.47; Higgins, ‘Women in the Civil War’, p.88; Williams, ‘Women Preachers’, p.563.

  4 Higgins, ‘Women in the Civil War’, p.93; Edwards, Gangraena, cit. Higgins, ‘Women in the Civil War’, p.89.

  5 Williams, ‘Women Preachers’, p.563.

  6 Vicars, Schismatick Sifted, p.34; Edwards, Gangraena, p.84.

  7 BL Add MSS, 31, 116, fo. 254–4V (I owe this reference to Dr Maurice Ashley); cit. Williams, ‘Women Preachers’, p.564.

  8 cit. Higgins, ‘Women in the Civil War’, p.83; Thomas, ‘Women and Sects’, pp.50, 60, note 66.

  9 Warren, Old and Good Way vindicated, Preface; Warren, Spiritual Thrift, p.81.

  10 Williams, ‘Women Preachers’, p.563; Ballard, Memoirs of Several Ladies, p.281; Edwards, Gangraena, p.170.

  11 Williams, ‘Women Preachers’, p.566; Chidley, Justification, p.26.

  12 Chidley, New Yeares Gift, E. 23(13); Chidley, Good Counsell, 669, fo. 10/39.

  13 Williams, ‘Women Preachers’, pp.567–8.

  14 Edwards, Gangraena, cit. Weigall, ‘Women Militants’, p.437.

  15 ‘Puritan Congregation Minute Book’, 1654, Rawlinson MSS, D.828, fo. 30/32.

  16 Spencer, ‘Unfortunate Lady’, pp.56–8.

  17 Ballard, Memoirs of Several Ladies, p.280; Spencer, ‘Unfortunate Lady’, pp.56–9.

  18 See Powicke, ‘Hastings Manuscripts’, pp.267–74.

  19 See Carte MSS, Vol. LXXVII, fo. 201, 417.

  20 Clarendon MSS, Vol. 29, fo. 102.

  21 Thomas, Religion, p.139 and note I.

  22 See Clarke Papers, II, pp.150, 154, 163–5; Fraser, Cromwell, pp.227–8.

  23 Capp, Fifth Monarchy, p.174.

  24 See Capp, Fifth Monarchy, Appendix I, p.266 for summary of Anna Trapnel’s career.

  25 See Trapnel, Legacy for Saints, pp.1–43.

  26 I Samuel, VS. 12–18; Trapnel’s Report and Plea, Preface.

  27 Trapnel, Legacy for Saints, Preface: Trapnel, Cry of a Stone, p.42; Burrage, ‘Trapnel’s Prophecies’, p.531; ‘Anonymous Folio Volume’, Bodleian Library, S.1.42. Th; Dobell, ‘Unique Book: Trapnel’, p.221.

  28 Strange News from Whitehall, pp.4–6.

  29 Cromwelliana, p.133.

  30 Strange News from Whitehall, p.8.

  31 Capp, Fifth Monarchy, pp.262, 101; CSP Domestic, 1653–4, p.393.

  32 ‘B.T. 21.10.54’ cit. Burrage, ‘Trapnel’s Prophecies’, pp.531–2; Thurloe Papers, XXI, Rawlinson MSS, A 21, fo. 323.

  33 Osborne Letters, p.222.