Isaac Stephens 
The gentlewoman’s remembrance 
Patriarchy, piety, and singlehood in early Stuart England

A microhistory of a never-married English gentlewoman named Elizabeth Isham, this book centres on an extremely rare piece of women’s writing – a recently discovered 60, 000-word spiritual autobiography held in Princeton’s manuscript collections that she penned around 1639. The autobiography is unmatched in providing an inside view of her family relations, her religious beliefs, her reading habits and, most sensationally, the reasons why she chose never to marry despite desires to the contrary held by her male kin, particularly Sir John Isham, her father. Based on the autobiography, combined with extensive research of the Isham family papers now housed at the county record office in Northampton, this book restores our historical memory of Elizabeth and her female relations, expanding our understanding and knowledge about patriarchy, piety and singlehood in early modern England.

Table of Content

Introduction: Finding and remembering Elizabeth Isham
1. ‘My Booke of Rememberance’: the spiritual autobiography of Elizabeth Isham
2. ‘As a Branch with a Roote’: The Ishams of Lamport and their world
3. ‘The Sweet Private Life’: Singlehood in the patriarch’s household
4. ‘My Owne Books’: Elizabeth Isham’s reading
5. ‘To Piety More Prone’: Elizabeth Isham’s religion
Conclusion: A memory restored
Index

About the author

Anthony Milton is Professor of Early Modern British History at the University of Sheffield