This article builds upon the pioneering work of Carol Pal, Lynette Hunter, Ruth Connolly and Michelle DiMeo by carrying out an extensive social network analysis of the Hartlib Papers. By adapting the methodology recently developed by Ruth Ahnert and Sebastian E. Ahnert to analyse Protestant letter networks memorialised in Foxe's Acts and Monuments, this article uses digital and visual tools to assess the importance of female involvement in the Hartlib Circle. It examines how integral female members were to the information flow of this network and the degree to which their positions in the network granted them influence over other members. Through this computational approach, this article also challenges the view that at its core the Hartlib Circle was made up of a group of male friends, arguing that Dorothy Moore Dury and Katherine Jones, Viscountess Ranelagh need to be recognised as integral elements of this network's core.

Scholarship on transnational correspondence networks has until recently tended to focus on men's intellectual endeavours. While the first phase of feminist scholarship focused on recovery of women's voices, this article argues that incorporating the epistolary reception of women writers (letters written about women writers) enriches our understanding of women's experiences in these networks. It brings attention to the ways in which women were perceived by other (usually male) correspondents, and the boundaries imposed on women in order to be accepted. By focusing on the Hartlib circle, this article highlights the experiences of Dorothy Moore (c.1613-1664) and Jean Appelius (fl. 1638-1648), and showcases the way women's reputations were inseparable from financial realities.

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