ABSTRACT
At her death in 1620, Lady Grace Mildmay, a North amptonshire gentlewoman and daughter-in-law of Sir Walter Mildmay, left her daughter a 900-page manuscript of devotional meditations written in her own neat italic hand. Mildmay's commitment to showing that every statement is anchored in Scripture is witnessed by the care she took to refer to scriptural sources in the margins and to devise symbols to connect her text to scriptural references clearly. An examination of the meditations themselves reveals that Mildmay drew on this knowledge of Scripture in a number of ways. Mildmay's meditations also present us with a further quality that is a product of her engagement with Scripture, her prose style. Mildmay's use of language is indelibly marked by Scripture, a quality that can best be seen if we look closely at one extended section. Mildmay's claim that God sent her these thoughts may seem to be a standard authorization trope, claiming for her words divine legitimacy.
