Elizabeth Freke (1642–1714)

Prose

The Remembrances of Elizabeth Freke

Published as Mrs. Elizabeth Freke her Diary 1671 to 1714, ed. Mary Carbery (Cork, 1913), and as The Remembrances of Elizabeth Freke, 1671-1714, ed. Raymond A. Anselment, Camden Society 5th Ser. 18 (Cambridge, 2001). Also discussed by Anselment in ‘Elizabeth Freke's Remembrances: Reconstructing a Self’, Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature, 16/1 (Spring 1997), 57-75.

*FrE 1

Autograph volume, in Freke's italic hand, written from both ends, inscribed (p. 11) ‘Elizabeth Frek her book Given mee by my Cosen Sep: 1684’, vi + 245 folio leaves, formerly in contemporary vellum boards, now in modern quarter red morocco. Entitled (f. 46v) ‘Some Few Remembrances of my misfortuns [that] haue Attended me In my unhappy life since I were marryed: wch was November the 14: 1671’, covering events from 1671 to 1713/14, including (ff. 3v-34v, 245v-121r rev.) numerous medical and culinary prescriptions and receipts, as well as miscellaneous memoranda, rental accounts, speeches, etc., some relating to 1658. c.1684-1714.

Freke Papers Vol. I. Acquired from Edmund Kent, of East Winch Hall, Lynn, Norfolk. Donated by Mary, Lady Carbery.

Edited partly from this MS by editors. Facsimiles, with transcriptions, of pp. 120 and 121 in Reading Early Modern Women, ed. Helen Ostovich and Elizabeth Sauer (New York & London, 2004), pp. 288-91.

British Library, Add. MS 45718.

*FrE 2

Autograph volume, closely written in Freke's italic hand, comprising (ff. 3v-26r) a revised version of her ‘Remembrances’ up to 5 May 1713, together with miscellaneous memoranda, rental accounts, receipts, etc., including (ff. 43v-6r) decrees of Chancery in 1655 and (f. 46r-v) an agreement dated 2 October 1656 ‘Transcribed by mee Elizabeth Freke: 1712: out of the orginall Book of Pentney Sept 20:’, ii + 53 tall folio leaves, in modern quarter red morocco. c.1684-1713.

Freke Papers Vol. II. Donated by Mary, Lady Carbery.

Edited partly from this MS by editors.

British Library, Add. MS 45719.

Miscellaneous

Genealogy

FrE 3

A printed genealogy of the Freke family ‘for near 200 years, first begun by Ralph Freke, of Hannington...reduced to this form by William Freke, of Hinton St. Mary, in the County of Dorset, Barrister of the Middle Temple, London, July ye 14th 1707’, printed in 1825b by Sir Thomas Phillipps, Bt (1792-1872), manuscript and book collector, with MS additions principally by Mary, Lady Carbery, including a note that the pedigree was apparently ‘taken from a MS. book of Freke genealogies now in the possession of Mr. W[illiam] A[ubrey] Willes, of Astrop [d.1924], to whom it came by descent’, 12 leaves, in a tall folio guardbook in modern quarter-vellum. 1825-1900s.

Freke Papers Vol. V. Donated by Mary, Lady Carbery.

British Library, Add. MS 45721B.

Memorandum

*FrE 4

Autograph memorandum, in Elizabeth Freke's italic hand (on ff. 1r-v, 2v), endorsed ‘The Peculler of my Estate In West Bilney Church from King Edward the sixth Time his 2d Year of his Reigne 1547: May the 27: to this presentt yeare 1714: Novem: 29 took outt of the original by me, Eliz. Freke’, together with (ff. 3r-7r) three letters to her, dated 12 April 1697, 29 November 1709, and 5 June 1710, and (ff. 8r-24r) papers, notes and illustrations relating to Freke collected by Mary, Lady Carbery, c.1901-17, in a tall folio guardbook in modern quarter-vellum. 1714.

Freke Papers Vol. IV. Donated by Mary, Lady Carbery.

British Library, Add. MS 45721A.

Notebook

*FrE 5

A notebook in Elizabeth Freke's italic hand throughout, comprising two sets of geographical and historical notes, the second (ff. 201v-339v) ‘A Catalogue of the dukes, Marqueses, and Earls, that haue bin since the Conquest, and first with Arundell’, based on Ralph Brooke's Catalogue and Succession (London, 1619).

In: A quarto notebook, in a single hand, i + 349 leaves, in contemporary calf within modern quarter vellum. c.1669.

Freke Papers Vol. III. Donated by Mary, Lady Carbery.

British Library, Add. MS 45720, The MS as a whole.

Will

FrE 6

A registered copy of the last will and testament of Elizabeth Freke, proved 15 April 1714. 1714.

National Archives, Kew, PROB 11/539, f. 184v.