Elizabeth Isham

Elizabeth Isham (1609–1654) was an English intellectual, herbalist, and diarist. She is best known today for her two autobiographical diaries, which are among the earliest known examples of autobiography written by an Englishwoman. Although a wealthy woman, Anne Cotterill has said that for Isham her "mind was more to her than wealth". Early life and family Elizabeth Isham, the eldest of three children, was born in 1609 at Lamport Hall in Northamptonshire, England. John Isham, her great-grandfather, was a small mercer and merchant-adventurer who later became a wealthy woolens merchant and master warden of the Company of Mercers. He purchased Lamport Hall in 1560 from Sir William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley, and it became the family estate. Elizabeth's father, Sir John Isham (1582–1651), was made the first baronet of Lamport by Charles I in 1627, when she was eighteen. Her mother was Judith Lewyn Isham (d. 1625), daughter of William Lewin, who was an educated Anglican judge of the Prerogative Court of Canterbury and a master in chancery. Elizabeth's sister (also called Judith) was born a year after Elizabeth. Her royalist brother Justinian (1610-1675), the second baronet of Lamport, left for Oxford during the English Civil War, leaving Elizabeth to care for her father and four nieces, and to manage the estate. The estate was later sequestered by Parliament. Judith, Elizabeth's mother, had a close relationship with each of her children, and played a significant role in Elizabeth's religious upbringing. At the age of eight or nine, Elizabeth learned the verses of the 'Psalm Book' by memorisation. Judith also gave both Elizabeth and Judith a prayer book to pray with two or three times a day. Elizabeth grew up to become an extremely pious young woman with a strong sense of her religious duties and calling.