Folger Shakespeare Library
CELM

Elizabeth Richardson (Ashburnham)

1576/7–1651

Introduction

Elizabeth Richardson (née Beaumont; Ashburnham by her first marriage), Baroness of Cramond, made notable contributions to the genre of religious meditations prepared for the instruction of children. The culmination of this was A Ladies Legacie to her Daughters. In three Books, addressed to her four adult daughters and two daughters-in-law, published in 1645. Two printed exempla of this work, presented to members of her family and containing her autograph additions, have been recorded (*RiE 3, *RiE 4). There also exist two much earlier manuscript volumes of prayers and meditations by her (*RiE 2, *RiE 5) which, also prepared for immediate use by her family, represent in some measure prototypes of her Legacie. As has been noted by commentators, Richardson seems to have been a constant reviser of her texts, which were never truly complete and which she asked at least one recipient to continue correcting.

Prose

A discourse of ye teadiousnes of life and profitt of death
RiE 1

Elizabeth Richardson's précis of, and meditation on, the Countess of Pembroke's translation, in an unidentified hand, with her autograph corrections, headed A discourse of ye teadiousnes of life and profitt of death and listed in her table of contents at the end (f. 86v) as a Treatise declaring the troble of life, and profit of death. Finis. Elizabeth: Ashborn ham.

Edited from this MS, with a facsimile of f. 84r, in Margaret P. Hannay, Elizabeth Ashburnham Richardson's Meditation on the Countess of Pembroke's Discourse, EMS, 9 (2000), 114-28.

A quarto volume of Elizabeth Richardson's instructions for her children, 86 leaves (including numerous blanks), in contemporary limp vellum gilt with initials E A.

Acquired in 1969 from Hammond, bookseller.

Instructions for my children, or any other Christian

Unpublished.

*RiE 2 c.1606
Autograph

A quarto volume, entitled (f. 1v) Instructions for my children, or any other Christian, Directing to the performance of our duties, towardes God and Man drawne out of ye holy Scripture..., in two neat italic hands, predominantly Elizabeth Ashburnham's and with her copious autograph revisions throughout, inscribed by her (f. 2r) written at Ashbornham in Sussex anno. domin 1606. p. Elizabeth Ashbornham and the volume subscribed (f. 86v) Finis. Elizabeth Ashbornham, two other hands adding (f. 6r) a list of plate dated The 6th of Feby. 1699 and some even later scribbling (ff. 54r-57v passim) including a list of books.

This MS discussed, with a facsimile of f. 2r, in Victoria E. Burke, Elizabeth Ashburnham Richardson's motherlie endeauors in Manuscript, EMS, 9 (2000), 98-113. A facsimile of f. 2r in Women's Writing in Stuart England, ed. Sylvia Brown (Stroud, 1999), p. 253. Also described in the online Perdita Project.

A quarto volume of Elizabeth Richardson's instructions for her children, 86 leaves (including numerous blanks), in contemporary limp vellum gilt with initials E A.

Acquired in 1969 from Hammond, bookseller.

A Ladies Legacie to her Daughters. In three Books

First published in London, 1645. Women's Writing in Stuart England, ed. Sylvia Brown (Stroud, 1999), pp. 157-247.

*RiE 3
Autograph

Autograph revisions and additions, in an exemplum of the printed edition of 1645, including a change of title to A Mother's Legacie to Her Six Davghters and an autograph epistle presenting the work to her grandson Sir Edward Dering, complaining that it is so falsly printed and needs correcting.

c.1645

Discussed in Victoria E. Burke, Elizabeth Ashburnham Richardson's motherlie endeauors in Manuscript, EMS, 9 (2000), 98-113 (P. 109). Facsimiles of the autograph presentation epistle in Women's Voices 1540-1700, ed. Charlotte F. Otten (Miami, 1992), p. 302, and, with a transcription, in Reading Early Modern Women, ed. Helen Ostovich and Elizabeth Sauer (New York & London, 2004), pp 226-7.

Harvard, other MSS (*EC C8495 645I)
*RiE 4
Autograph

Copious autograph revisions in an exemplum of the printed edition of 1845, including a change of the title, The tytle is A Mothers Legacie To Her sixe Davghters, inscribed Written 1625, presented to her brother Sir John Beaumont.

c.1645

Discussed, with facsimiles of the first page and sigs D2v-D2r, in Victoria E. Burke, Elizabeth Ashburnham Richardson's motherlie endeauors in Manuscript, EMS, 9 (2000), 98-113 (pp. 109-10). Facsimile of the first page also in Women's Writing in Stuart England, ed. Sylvia Brown (Stroud, 1999), p. 161.

Bodleian Library, other MSS (Vet. A3. f. 132)
*RiE 5
Autograph

An octavo volume, partly autograph, partly in two other hands, with copious autograph revisions throughout, headed A Rememberance for my foure Daughters. / Elizabeth. Frances. Anne. & Katherine, with an injunction to her eldest daughter Sweet Besse, (as you loue me) keep this, though you lost ye first. Eliza: Cramond 1635, and with Besse's inscription (on the front paste-down) Eliza Cornwalleies Boocke, financial receipts added on two pages later in the 18th century, 35 leaves (including 14 blanks), in contemporary limp vellum, with remains of silk ties.

Closely related to the first book of the printed edition of 1645, which is there dated 1625 but here August 1626.

1635

Signature on a receipt by John Walsh in 1766. Possibly re-acquired by the Ashburnham family after 1853.

Extracts from this MS in Women's Writing in Stuart England, ed. Sylvia Brown (Stroud, 1999), pp. 257-8. Discussed, with facsimiles of the front pastedown and ff. 1r and 7v-8r, in Victoria E. Burke, Elizabeth Ashburnham Richardson's motherlie endeauors in Manuscript, EMS, 9 (2000), 98-113.

Contents