Lady Anne Halkett
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Lady Anne Halkett

Selected Self-Writings

Suzanne Linda Trill, Suzanne Linda Trill

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eBook - ePub

Lady Anne Halkett

Selected Self-Writings

Suzanne Linda Trill, Suzanne Linda Trill

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About This Book

An in-depth examination of Lady Anne Halkett's writing is long overdue. Although Lady Anne Halkett is beginning to receive much warranted critical attention, to date scholars have concentrated almost exclusively on her autobiographical 'Memoirs'. Consequently, her extensive 'Select and Occasional Meditations, ' have been neglected or marginalised. While these texts are devotional in nature, they also bear witness to Halkett's own sense of self and subjectivity. The structure of this edition provides the first opportunity for scholars to place Halkett's 'Memoirs' in its moment of production an in relation Halkett's other writings. In so doing, we gain a unique insight into a particular early modern woman's devotional practice and her developing subjectivity. Suzanne Trill's original introduction discusses how this combination of texts requires scholars to revise their representations of Halkett and her writing. Trill argues for a more detailed interrogation of Halkett's national and religious affliations; to this end, she offers an analysis of the religious conflicts between Scotland and England, 1660-1700, with particular reference to Halkett's representation of her ministers' experiences within this conflict. Halkett's intense engagement with contemporary social, political and religious changes makes her writing more than simply the record of an individual woman's life. This edition of selections of her writings offers a new angle on Halkett's life and writing that will be of interest to literary scholars, historians, linguists, and to those interested in women's studies in general.

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Publisher
Routledge
Year
2017
ISBN
9781351923651
Chapter 1
NLS. MS. 6490. ‘Ocationall Meditations, 1658/9–60’
This is the earliest surviving copy of Lady Anne Halkett’s ‘Ocationall Meditations’. The volume is still in its original covers, although the leather is discoloured by age. It has, however, been rebound at the spine. It is in generally good condition until the final thirty pages, where there is evidence of some restoration work but text on the right and left hand edges is sometimes illegible. The ink in this volume is also very much more faded than in others. However, it also contains material indications that Halkett did indeed read over all her former writings. There are a number of corrections in a darker ink (more consistent with that Halkett used in later life), which are definitely in Lady Anne Halkett’s own hand.
This volume is composed of a series of numbered Meditations (thirty-five in total) covering a wide range of topics, including childbirth and miscarriage, family accidents and illnesses, household governance, international and national politics, as well as events within her local community. The entries here are, in some ways, more focused than those in the later volumes insofar as they address one topic primarily. It is also unlike some of Halkett’s other volumes in that, although there are numerous scriptural allusions, they are rarely explicitly referenced in the margins of the text. This is the smallest of her extant manuscripts (measuring only 142 × 88 mm). Characteristically, Halkett creates boxed margins around her page, so that the writing block measures 134 × 81 mm and each page contains only 15–17 lines of writing; nevertheless, as the volume contains 380 pages, its contents run to approximately 30,000 words. Unlike other volumes, this one is unpaginated and consistently employs catch words; also unusual is that the place of writing is not explicitly stated. Since, however, Halkett did not travel to London until 1660 and makes references to visiting a coal pit that provided the Halkett family with income (21–30) and to assisting a child who lived at Gilanderstone (see below, xx-xx), it is most likely to have been written at the family seat of Pitffirren in Fife.
[65] 9. [V]pon the peace made betwixt France & Spaine[.]1
What a long Continued war hath beene betwixt those two kingdomes & now att Last they are Come both to bee Content to haue peace wch was, what bystanders thought would neuer haue beene accepted of by either till the other had tottally beene distroyed wch was nott easyly to haue beene expected beeing both so potent.
[B]utt the ouerruling power of God did nott itt seems till now putt it into there2 [66] harts to Consider of the blesings of peace wch made them so pursue the warre & till his time Come itt is nott to bee expected any meanes Can bee effectuall for any end. Whether or noe the vnion of those Princis bee to make dis-vnion here, none knows butt hee who doth determine all euents. For though I beleeue our desolate & banished King was nott the immediate Motiue of there reconcilation, yett perhaps the Sad example of his beeing deuested of all power where hee should haue [67] most, might haue wrought so vpon those two enemys as to make them willing to keepe what they had, rather then to hazard Loosing more wch might indanger all: & then from the example of our afflicted King they might learne how litle helpe is to bee had from others when they haue nothing of there owne.3
Who knowes if the Lord hath accorded these two Kings to Make them both instrumentall in beeing helpefull to restore our King as the times beeing now troublous [68] would seeme to inferred[,] butt God is nott to bee Limited who Can worke with meanes & withoutt meanes.
[I]f hee sees fitt his hand is omnopotent enought [sic] to bring him in peaceably and place him vpon the throne of his fathers in peace. [B]utt that would bee too great a blesing for vs who haue beene Continually rebellious against God and those that hee had sett ouer vs & therfore[,] as a punishment of our ingratitude[,] itt is very probable [69] hee will make euery man here the executioner of his neibour & his freind who was the occation of perswading him to bee guilty of his Sin.
[I]tt is fast with the Lord if hee should make them fall outt aboutt deuiding that power wch they haue distroyed in another and so the object of mens scorne as well as they haue beene Long of hatred.4 [B]utt what euer they doe I will giue my selfe (as Dauid said) vnto prayer[. N]ott for the distruction of my [70] enemys (& those that haue beene enemys to the peace of these kingdomes) butt for there Conversion that the Sin of Couettuousnese and rebellion & ingratitude may bee <pardoned &> destroyed and that piety and obedience may raigne in the place of itt & then itt will bee a blesed exchange both to themselues & others.
[W]ee haue a Command to haue a Simpathy with others: to reioyce with them that doe reioyce5 & vndouptedly there [71] Can nott butt bee great Ioy in many harts both in france & spaine that they haue once againe gott a breathing time & that there is a doore of hope opened vnto them for euery man to Sitt vnder his owne vine in peace & inioy ye blesings that accompany itt.6 I thinke there is none butt ought to blese God for his goodnese to them in itt and may make itt a ground of hope vnto themselues to make them expect a future deliuerance[,] though for the present wee should nott [72] haue the blesing wee desire.
[D]oth God take care of heathens & such as know him nott. [D]oth his ouer-ruling prouidence order and derect for good the euents & succeses of them that only know him by a religion of there owne inventing[,] such as these kings are[,] & will hee nott take Care of such as are more peculiarly his owne by giuing themselues vp to bee ruled according to his word;7 butt I feare this hath nott beene <done> so Sincearly [73] as itt should haue beene[. A]nd therfore wrath is Come outt <from>8 the Ld against the king & his familly & all that were faithfull to him, butt this ought <nott> to stumble any; for the Lord by his prophett said to his owne people9 you <only> haue I knowne of all the familys of the earth therfore will I punish you for all your transgression[. G]od is pleased to make this world a place of punishment to them that are his owne, most peculiarly [74] butt the wicked are reserued to the day of Iudgment. From any temperall affliction or misery there may bee a deliuerance for God Can doe itt two ways; either by taking the Crose from them or them from the Crose; butt for the wrath wch is to be heraffter itt is etternall, vnavoidable & incomprehensible.
[H]apy then are they who are chastened here that they may nott bee Cast off here affter; & I hope they that haue had the greatest share of tryalls in these late yeares will bee so refined in this [75] furnace of affliction that they will haue Iust reason to Say as Dauid did,10 itt was well for mee that I was afflicted[. F]or hee had gone astray butt now hee will keepe att least indeavour to walke in the paths of the Lords Commandements and who euer doth that, peace shall bee vpon them & vpon the Israell of God[.]
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1. NLS. MS. 6490: 90
[90] 12. [V]pon the recouery of a very extenuated11 child that was brought to mee[.]
[W]hat a checke may this giue to those that dare bee so bold as to determine vpon life & death from outtward apearances. [W]hen I first saw that child itt was a Cause of admiration to mee to thinke how the parents could haue any hopes that itt was with in the power of any ones knowledge to aply what might recouer so farre a spent child that [91] looked[,] had itt nott had motion[,] as if itt had beene dead as many months as itt was old, so leane & wrinckled & ill Coulered was itt & if I did beleeue what ordinary people much affirme of chilldrens beeing changed by fairys that had beene as euident a testimony as any that I euer Saw.12
[A]nd yett this wretched obiect the Lord tooke pitty of & derected mee to giue what by his blesing hee hath made effectuall [92] for the recouery of that poore distresed infant. I Confese I had noe hope butt what I gaue was to Sattisfy the parents importunity,13 butt in this I may see the power of the Lord who made vse of mee (as the clay & spittlle for the recovery of the blind man) euen as the the worst meanes that could haue beene made vse of, that so the greater glory might bee ascribed to him.14
[H]ow often is many [sic]15 one made vse of to doe good to anothers that are yett [93] ignorant of itt themselues[,] oh the variety of ways that God hath of manifesting himselfe.
[S]ometimes by corecting the child hee brings the Mother more to know his power yn euer all her Life formerly, so from knowledge Comes feare & many times feare workes Loue: & where true Loue is once wrought in the hart, itt so takes itt vp that there’s noe roome left for those sin & Coruptions that formerly had the cheefe roome part[.]
[94] [S]o when the Lord brings vs once to Submitt to him then hee giues vs all, & more then wee Could desire.
[N]one should sett there hart vpon any Comfort of this life for how Soone Can God blast itt, as I may truly say that child was, & yett hee hath made those dry bones Liue againe[.]16
[C]ertainly the parents of that child Can nott butt looke vpon him as raised from the dead17 & therfore extreordinary mercy derserues [95] extreordinary praise[. A]nd my part shall bee to add to that to blese my God who made mee the meanes wherby hee did Conuey strengh and life: for I dare arogate nothing to my selfe butt must ascribe all to him who is the fountaine from whence flows riuers of blesings for euermore.
Itt was one Gibs child that Liued att Gilanderston belonging (I thinke) to the Earle of Kincardine.18
Gibs child Att Gilander stone
[297] 31. [V]pon the birth of my son Robert on the first of febr 1659/60 beeing, vpon wednesday betwixt 2 & 3 affternoon & other pasages in my Childbed.
[F]rom the first minuiet that I was sencible of this childs Conception, till very neere the time o...

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