Folger Shakespeare Library
CELM

Anne, Lady Halkett

1623–1699

Introduction

Lady Anne Halkett (née Murray) is known for her autobiography and for fourteen volumes of personal diary entries and religious meditations, all of which are preserved in her autograph manuscripts. According to her early biographer S.C. in The Life of the Lady Halkett (Edinburgh, 1701) there were originally twenty-one folio and quarto manuscript volumes of meditations, composed between 1644 and the late 1690s, together with about thirty stitched Books, some in Folio, some in 4to, most of them of 10 or 12 sheets, all containing occasional Meditations. Brief descriptions of all twenty-one of the manuscript volumes are given in Ballard (1752), pp. 373-8 (for untraced volumes see *HaA 16-22). The respective surviving series of Autobiography (*HaA 1) and Meditations (*HaA 2-15) complement each other in the light they throw on a highly devout aristocratic lady who outlived all her children as well as her husband. The identity of the hand in these manuscripts can be verified from a few largely autograph letters she wrote to James Kennoway and others (HaA 23-26).

Abbreviations

  • Ballard — George Ballard, Memoirs of Several Ladies of Great Britain (Oxford, 1752).
  • Trill — Lady Anne Halkett, Selected Self-Writings, ed. Suzanne Trill (Aldershot, 2007).

Prose

Autobiography

First published, as The Autobiography of Anne Lady Halkett, ed. John Gough Nichols (completed by Samuel Rawson Gardiner), Camden Society, NS 13 (London, 1875). Published in The Memoirs of Anne, Lady Halkett and Ann, Lady Fanshawe, ed. John Loftis (Oxford, 1979), pp. 1-87, and in Trill (2007), pp. 51-143.

*HaA 1
Autograph
Autograph MS, with corrections and revisions, dealing with Lady Halkett's life up to 1656, imperfect (lacking various leaves including the first page and ending), 61 small folio leaves mounted on guards, in 19th-century binding.
c.1677-78

Donated on 15 July 1884 by William Johnston Stuart.

Edited from this MS in Nichols, in Loftis, and in Trill. Facsimiles of ff. 2r and 41r in Trill, pp. 53 and 111.

Meditations

Selections from most of the original 21 volumes published from 1701 onwards. See the discussion in Margaret J.M. Ezell, Anne Halkett's Morning Devotions: Posthumous Publication and the Culture of Writing in Late Seventeenth-Century Britain, in Print, Manuscript & Performance, ed. Arthur F. Marotti and Michael D. Bristol (Columbus, Ohio, 2000), 215-31. Substantial selections from the known extant volumes published in Trill (2007).

*HaA 2
Autograph
Autograph folio MS of religious meditations and expostulations about prayer, including her Mothers Will to her vnborne child att Pitfirane beeing writt when I was with Child of my deare Betty 1656, ii + 259 pages, in contemporary vellum wrappers within modern quarter-leather.

Inscribed on a vellum slip as belonging to the library at Pitfirrane, having been brought away by the Rev. Dunbar Halknett.

c.1650-56

Probably Ballard's fifth book.

*HaA 3
Autograph
Autograph octavo MS of Ocationall Meditations, dating from 1658/9 to 1660, ii + 380 pages, in brown calf (rebacked).
c.1659-60

Probably Ballard's sixth book. Selectively edited from this MS in Trill, pp. 1-12.

*HaA 4
Autograph
Autograph quarto MS of Ocationall Meditations, some inscribed All these were at London 1660 & 1663, v + 326 pages, in modern brown calf.
c.1660-63

Probably Ballard's seventh book. Selectively edited from this MS in Trill, pp. 15-24, with a facsimile of the first page of the MS on p. 14.

*HaA 5
Autograph
Autograph quarto MS of occasional meditations, including Select Contemplations and her Instructions to my Son & only Child Robert Halket, including a meditation on the death of her husband, 24 September 1670, begun the first Monday in Januery in the yeare 1667/8 and dating up to 1670/1, xxi + 352 pages, in later brown calf gilt.
c.1668-71

Probably Ballard's ninth book. Edited selectively from this MS in Trill, pp. 27-41, with a facsimile of p. 83 on p. 26.

*HaA 6
Autograph
Autograph large quarto MS of Occasional Meditations by The Widows Mite, begun June the 23 1673 up to at least September 1674, 338 pages, in contemporary calf (rebacked).
c.1673-74

Probably Ballard's tenth book. Selectively edited from this Ms in Trill, pp. 43-9, with a facsimile of p. 279 on p. 42.

*HaA 7
Autograph
Autograph quarto MS of meditations, Begun June 20 1676 until at least 26 November 1678, ii + 380 pages, in contemporary brown calf (rebacked).
c.1676-78

Probably Ballard's twelfth book. Recorded in Trill, p. 197.

*HaA 8
Autograph
Autograph quarto MS of meditations, including Joseph's Trialls and Triumph, Begun Monday the 10 of february 1678/9 and Ended Saturday the 5 of Nouember 1681, iii + 506 pages, in contemporary brown calf.
c.1679-81

Probably Ballard's thirteenth book. Recorded in Trill, p. 197.

*HaA 9
Autograph
Autograph quarto MS of meditations, including Meditations vpon the Booke of Ionah, dated (p. ii) 21 Jan 1683/4 and, inside the rear cover, Ended June 27 1685, ii + 378 pages, in contemporary brown calf.
c.1684-85

Probably Ballard's fifteenth book (but lacking the 136-page continuation to 1686). Recorded in Trill, p. 197.

*HaA 10
Autograph
Autograph quarto MS of meditations, dated (p. i) 24 Jan 1686/7 and, inside the rear cover, ended May 18 1688, vii + 392 pages, in contemporary brown calf.
c.1687-88

Probably Ballard's sixteenth book. Selectively edited from this MS in Trill, pp. 145-63, with a facsimile of p. 280 on p. 144.

*HaA 11
Autograph
Autograph quarto MS of meditations, including meditations on Exodus and 1 Samuel, dated (p. i) 21 May 1688 and, inside the rear cover, March 17 1689/90, v + 372 pages, in contemporary brown calf.
c.1688-90

Probably Ballard's seventeenth book. Recorded in Trill, p. 197.

*HaA 12
Autograph
Autograph quarto MS of meditations, begun June 24 1690 and ended 22th of May 1692, iv + 370 pages, in contemporary brown calf (rebacked).
c.1690-92

Probably Ballard's eighteenth book. Recorded in Trill, p. 197.

*HaA 13
Autograph
Autograph quarto MS of meditations, including Of Watchfullnesse, Begun Sunday the 28th of January 1693/4 and dating as late as Sunday 7th of Aprill 1695, iii + 375 pages, in contemporary brown calf.
c.1694-95

Probably Ballard's nineteenth book. Selectively edited from this MS in Trill, pp. 165-72, with a facsimile of p. 320 on p. 164.

*HaA 14
Autograph
Autograph quarto MS of meditations, Begun Thursday the 21 of May 1696 and dating up to 11 Feb. 1696/7, vii + 373 pages, in contemporary brown calf (rebacked).
c.1696-97

Probably Ballard's twentieth book. Selectively edited from this MS in Trill, pp. 175-85, with a facsimile of p. 267 on p. 174.

*HaA 15
Autograph
Autograph quarto MS of meditations, begun 4 Jan. 1697/8 and dating up to 1699, iii + 314 pages, in contemporary brown calf with metal clasps.
c.1698-99

Probably Ballard's twenty first book. Selectively edited from this MS in Trill, pp. 187-96, with a facsimile of p. 262 on p. 186.

*HaA 16
Autograph
Autograph folio MS of meditations, prayers, vows, etc. upon her deliverance from the danger of child-birth, June 13, 1658., 152 pages.
c.1658

Ballard's First book.

Untraced, miscellaneous ([Halkett I])
*HaA 17
Autograph
Autograph folio MS of meditations, resolutions, private prayers, The Souls Progress, etc., written 1649, 1650, 376 pages.
1649-50

Ballard's second book.

Untraced, miscellaneous ([Halkett II])
*HaA 18
Autograph
Autograph folio volume, unbound, of 59 pages, written 1651. Meditations on the 25th Psalm.
1651

Ballard's third book.

Untraced, miscellaneous ([Halkett III])
*HaA 19
Autograph
Autograph folio MS, unbound, of 73 pages, written 1652. Meditations on Death, from Hebrews ix. v. 27.
1652

Ballard's fourth book.

Untraced, miscellaneous ([Halkett IV])
*HaA 20
Autograph
Autograph quarto MS of select meditations, prayers, observations, considerations, etc. and Occasional Meditations, on publick and private occurences, 315 pages.
1663-5

Ballard's eighth book.

Untraced, miscellaneous ([Halkett VIII])
*HaA 21
Autograph
Autograph quarto MS of meditations and observations, The true Balm, etc., 371 pages.
1675-6

Ballard's eleventh book

Untraced, miscellaneous ([Halkett XI])
*HaA 22
Autograph
Autograph quarto MS of The Fruits of the Spirit...., reflections and meditations, etc., 556 pages.
1682-3

Ballard's fourteenth book.

Untraced, miscellaneous ([Halkett XIV])

Letters

Letter(s)
HaA 23
Autograph letter signed by Lady Halkett, to Laird Blaire Drummond, 30 January 1685/6, attached to a printed exemplum of Life of Lady Halkett (1778).
1686
HaA 24
A series of letters and documents, in a guardbook of miscellaneous papers, in half blue morocco.

Comprising:

(i) Eight letters by Anne, Lady Halkett, all autograph and signed but for one in the hand of an amanuensis and then signed by her, each a folio or quarto pair of conjugate leaves with an address panel and traces of black wax seals; seven of them to James Kennoway on business affairs, one unaddressed concerning the unjustly imprisoned John McCawo, 3 June 1673 to 31 October 1692.

(ii) Ten receipts for payments by Kennoway to her, and related accounts, partly in her hand, 1668-80.

(iii) A list of debts of her husband, Sir James Halkett, at his death, 1670.

1668-92

Documents

Document(s)
HaA 25
Petition to the King by Anne Halkett, for the lease of the Hampshire estate of Nicholas Love, October? 1660.
1660
National Archives, Kew (SP 29/20/89)
HaA 26
Petition to the King by Anne Halkett and Thomas Stanley for the place of Collectors and Receivers of Additional Customs, 17 June 1661.
1661
National Archives, Kew (SP 29/37/67)

Miscellaneous

Editorial papers
HaA 27 c.1870s

Papers of John Gough Nichols (1806-73), printer and antiquary, relating to his edition of the Autobiography.

In: A folio composite volume of miscellaneous papers.

Among papers chiefly of the Halkett, Wedderburn and Murray families, of Pitfirrane House, Fife.

Contents