The recent publication of The Oxford handbook of English law and literature, 1500–1700 (2017) has put the field of early modern law and literature firmly on the map. Despite the growing attention to the importance of these intersecting fields in early modern England, however, working with legal records is still a daunting task for many literary scholars. The early modern legal system with its various, sometimes competing jurisdictions and numerous law courts presents, to many scholars, a difficulty to navigate maze. Particularly for those working on early modern women's literature, and women's studies more generally, this is unfortunate: The legal archives offer a wealth of records in manuscript form pertaining to the lives and narratives of early modern women from all ranks of society, including the poor and the illiterate. This article aims to offer a comprehensive overview of the early modern law courts and their records, outlining the way the law restrained women as well as the possibilities it offered them, alongside the ways women were able to navigate these restrictions and opportunities. In doing so, this article provides tools for scholars working with early modern legal records for the first time.

Upon becoming a widow, an early modern woman was often faced with patriarchal anxieties and stereotypes about her new status. This held particularly true for widows who embarked on legal proceedings. While rejecting certain stereotypes, other tropes could work to her advantage. This could mean that widows fashioned a different image of themselves at different times, or in different areas of their lives. The persona a widowed litigant chose to adopt was dictated by the kind of suit she brought. Other models were tied to specific circumstances. This, together with the nature of these legal records, forced widowed litigants to fashion themselves as a particular kind of widow, while life-writing demonstrates that they may have been all of the above at the same time. As such, never were they merely widows, but they were biblical widows, wives and/or femes soles.

Secular scribes played a vital role in the production of manuscripts, with early moderns making use of the services offered by professional scribes, scriveners, and secretaries. Scribes worked on a more informal level too, as family members, friends, servants, and neighbours penned texts at the request of their kith and kin. Women, too, contributed to this scribal culture, both as those requesting the use of a scribe and as those wielding the quill.The definitions of "scribe" given in contemporary scholarship often prioritize the professional, thus excluding those working in an informal capacity from the conversation altogether. Creating a more inclusive definition, one which also recognizes the authorial license concomitant to scribal work, will allow these "amateur" scribes (who we might call "scribblers," perhaps) an identity through which they can enter into the contemporary scholarly discourse surrounding the role of the scribe in early modern England. As these amateurs were sometimes female, this expanded perspective will make it possible for scholars to gain a more rounded and complete understanding of manuscript culture.

This article has been peer reviewed through the double-blind process of Open Library of Humanities, which is a journal published by the Open Library of Humanities.

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