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. 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.

As a young woman, Isham had to decide whether to obey her father's wishes to marry and raise a family, or to remain single in order to devote her life to God. She determined not to marry, and her father ultimately supported her in this decision.

Personal life and death

Isham spent most of her life at her family estate of Lamport Hall in Northamptonshire, but she did on occasion visit relatives in London. Isham's choice to reject marriage resulted from both the hardships faced from her failed relationships and difficult decisions made of her devotion to God. She would have had all the benefits of marriage, of becoming a widow, and becoming a mother and heir to the estates if she had married her father's choice of suitors. However, none of that mattered to her. and her sister-in-law Jane (d. 1639) died after giving birth to her fifth child.

The second diary called The Booke of records her life story including her courtship, her inner thoughts about choosing between a married life versus singlehood, and the medical hardships faced within her family. This diary was completed when she was thirty years old. This second diary has come to public attention recently and is housed at Princeton University Library, Robert H. Taylor Collection (RTC 01 no.62).