Folger Shakespeare Library
CELM

Elizabeth Isham

1608–1654

Introduction

Elizabeth Isham has left autobiographical works in manuscript form: namely, two Books of Remembrance (*IsE 1-2), a curiously arranged working diary of memoranda (*IsE 4), some pious devotional writing (*IsE 3), and other miscellaneous papers, including medical notes (*IsE 5-13), as well as a series of letters to members of her family in Northamptonshire (*IsE 14-21) and two petitions to Parliament and to Charles I (*IsE 22-23). No doubt some of this material will get published shortly.

For drawing my attention to these manuscripts I am indebted to Erica Longfellow.

Prose

Autobiography

An autobiography modeled on St Augustine's Confessions. Transcription of IsE 2 by Alice Eardley in the online Perdita Project (2008).

*IsE 1
Autograph
Autograph notes and drafts for her Book of Remembrance, including an account of her mother's illness, written in the blank space of a letter to her from her sister-in-law Jane Isham.
c.1638-9
*IsE 2
Autograph
Autograph MS of My Booke of Remembrance, closely written in Isham's italic hand, untitled, 38 quarto leaves, in modern cloth-backed marbled boards.
c.1638-9

Bequeathed to Elizabeth Isham's brother, Sir Justinian Isham, second Baronet (1611-65), scholar and politician, and his children. In the collection of Robert H. Taylor (1908-85), American book and manuscript collector.

Discussed in Anne Cotterill, Fit Words at the pitts brinke: The Achievement of Elizabeth Isham, HLQ, 73/2 (2010), 225-48.

Princeton (RTC01 No. 62) | Catalogue
Devotional writing

Unpublished.

*IsE 3
Autograph
Autograph devotional writing, mostly penitential in relation to the Civil Wars, much of it in shorthand, written in the spaces of a letter to her by Lady Denton, dated 30 September 1644.
1644
Diary

Transcription by Jill Millman in the online Perdita Project (2008).

*IsE 4
Autograph
Autograph diary, in Isham's minute rugged italic hand, closely written, probably over a period, in a series of 36 upright rectangular panels (numbered up to 40), in columns and in various sequences, with dates (when given) from 1636 to 1646, on all four sides of two unbound conjugate folio leaves, once folded as a letter or packet.
c.1636-46

Miscellaneous

Booklist

Unpublished.

*IsE 6
Autograph
Autograph booklist, written in the blank spaces and on the verso of a letter to her from Susanna Stuteville dated 27 May 1648.
1648
Medical notes

Unpublished.

*IsE 7
Autograph
Autograph medical notes, written in the blank space of a letter to her from Elizabeth Denton dated 10 December 164?.
1640s
*IsE 11
Autograph
Autograph medical notes, written in the blank space of a letter to her from Elizabeth Denton dated 30 July 164?.
1640s
*IsE 12
Autograph
Autograph medical notes, written in the blank space of a letter to her from Elizabeth Denton dated 9 May 164?.
1640s
*IsE 13
Autograph
Autograph medical notes, written in the blank space of a letter to her from Elizabeth Denton dated 3 December 1643.
1643

Letters

Letter(s)

Unpublished.

*IsE 14
Autograph
Autograph draft letters to her father, Sir John Isham, concerning the Civil Wars, undated.
1640s
*IsE 15
Autograph
Autograph reply, with news of the Civil Wars, written on the verso of a letter to her by her brother Justinian Isham dated 14 March 164?.
1640s
*IsE 16
Autograph
Autograph reply, with news of the Civil Wars, written on the verso of a letter to her by her brother Justinian Isham, dated 20 March 164?.
1640s
*IsE 17
Autograph
Autograph letter to her brother Sir Justinian Isham, about a land matter, dated 30 October 165?.
1650s
*IsE 18
Autograph
Autograph letter, to her brother Justinian Isham, from Stow, 23 May 1652 (or 1653).
1652-3
*IsE 19
Autograph
Autograph letter to her brother, Sir Justinian Isham, about current news, including the death of Susanna Stuteville (on 18 January 1653).
1653
*IsE 20
Autograph
Autograph draft letter to an unnamed suitor, as well as some notes in shorthand, on the verso of the address leaf of a letter to her, undated.

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