ABSTRACT
Literary memorialization becomes more than the elegiac description of the deceased; it embraces the activities of meditation and reading. The husband embraces the role of literary executor and conditions the reception of female authorship in terms of Protestant devotional practices. The post-Reformation emphasis on meditation and endorsement of devotional writing are key dimensions of the literary memorialization of these women. The two surviving manuscripts of Anne Southwell's writing strongly attest to her devotional vision of poetry. Elizabeth Egerton's husband, who ordered the copying of six manuscripts of her works following her death in 1663, commemorated her as an exemplary author of prayers, scriptural and occasional meditations. The writings of Anne Southwell, Elizabeth Egerton, and Anne Ley are preserved in manuscripts that were posthumously prepared and arranged by their husbands. Anne Southwell arrived at the Munster Plantation in Ireland with her first husband, Sir Thomas, about 1603. She remained after his death in 1626, remarrying Captain Henry Sibthorpe.
