J ohnson, C icely and T hurgood, R ose

Abstract

Cicely Johnson ( fl . 1617/18–1636/37) and Rose Thurgood (b. c.1602) are the authors of two of the earliest known English conversion narratives. Thurgood's ‘A lecture of repentance’ (1636/37) and Johnson's untitled account (c. 1636/37) (listed by a later hand in the manuscript table of contents as ‘Fanatical reveries’) are bound together in the same manuscript volume in the John Rylands University Library of Manchester (English Manuscript 875). The narratives offer a fascinating insight into the lives of Puritan women in the early decades of the seventeenth century. Thurgood's account in particular provides a rare opportunity to witness the mental, emotional, and spiritual struggles of an impoverished seventeenth‐century woman.