ABSTRACT
Few sources remain to tell us explicitly about women's relationships with friends, lovers, marriage partners, neighbours, and enemies. For literate women, the seventeenth century saw a rapid increase in letter and diary writing. Partly inspired by the encouragement Puritanism gave to self-reflection, the 1600s saw women beginning to write detailed spiritual and worldly diaries, commonplace books, and reflections. Some of the earliest women's writings we have are letters; by the seventeenth century many elite women were prolific correspondents, spreading news and passing messages up and down Britain, and sometimes across the world. Their letters are full of references to their roles as correspondents, complaints about the post, and messages or errands for distant acquaintances: letter writing positioned gentry women at the heart of a whole series of county and national networks.
