Daughters of Zion and Mothers in Israel: the writings of separatist and particular Baptist women, 1632-1675

During the 1630s, congregations began to separate from the established Anglican Church forming new autonomous groups. This study examines separatist and Baptist women s writings from this period, as they struggled under the persecution of the religious authorities and under the increasingly strict rules of their congregations. These women s writings could not have been imagined without the proliferation of these new congregations, but, as well as providing a platform for women to publish, these groups imposed their own rules on what women could express in public. Considering separatist and Baptist women as part of their congregations is integral to an understanding of their work, and it is on this that this study focuses. Although their writings relate and analyse their own relationship with God, this is always presented as a sign of the progress of God s people as a whole. Through an analysis organised along doctrinal and congregational lines, this study draws attention to women who have received little or no literary critical (or indeed historical) attention, by considering the genres they utilised as part of their membership. Women writers of conversion narratives, in particular, have not received as much critical attention as more remarkable women who prophesied or who were associated with male writers. The voices of little-studied women like An Collins, Sarah Davy, Deborah Huish, Sara Jones, Susanna Parr, Katherine Sutton, Jane Turner, Anne Venn, the anonymous speaker of Conversion Exemplified and the contributors to the collections of John Rogers and Henry Walker deserve to be heard alongside the reported words of Mary Allein, Anne Harriman, Dorothy Hazzard, and Elizabeth Milbourne, and better known writers such as Anna Trapnel and Agnes Beaumont. The study will also draw on works that are not currently widely available, which have therefore received very little critical attention. Often compared to Deborah, the biblical Mother in Israel (Judges 5:7), women in these gathered churches were instrumental in bringing forth joy to their metaphorical children of Israel, by prophesying ways in which enemies of their congregations would face retribution and by continually strengthening church practices in time for the second coming of Christ. This study explores the various ways in which these mid-seventeenth-century women worked to strengthen their congregations through their writings, believing that they had been divinely inspired to edify those whose practice was wanting, and vindicate rightful walking in his name. During the 1630s, congregations began to separate from the established Anglican Church forming new autonomous groups. This study examines separatist and Baptist women’s writings from this period, as they struggled under the persecution of the religious authorities and under the increasingly strict rules of their congregations. These women’s writings could not have been imagined without the proliferation of these new congregations, but, as well as providing a platform for women to publish, these groups imposed their own rules on what women could express in public. Considering separatist and Baptist women as part of their congregations is integral to an understanding of their work, and it is on this that this study focuses. Although their writings relate and analyse their own relationship with God, this is always presented as a sign of the progress of God’s people as a whole. Through an analysis organised along doctrinal and congregational lines, this study draws attention to women who have received little or no literary critical (or indeed historical) attention, by considering the genres they utilised as part of their membership. Women writers of conversion narratives, in particular, have not received as much critical attention as more ‘remarkable’ women who prophesied or who were associated with male writers. The voices of little-studied women like An Collins, Sarah Davy, Deborah Huish, Sara Jones, Susanna Parr, Katherine Sutton, Jane Turner, Anne Venn, the anonymous speaker of Conversion Exemplified and the contributors to the collections of John Rogers and Henry Walker deserve to be heard alongside the reported words of Mary Allein, Anne Harriman, Dorothy Hazzard, and Elizabeth Milbourne, and better known writers such as Anna Trapnel and Agnes Beaumont. The study will also draw on works that are not currently widely available, which have therefore received very little critical attention. Often compared to Deborah, the biblical ‘Mother in Israel’ (Judges 5:7), women in these gathered churches were instrumental in ‘bringing forth’ joy to their metaphorical children of Israel, by prophesying ways in which enemies of their congregations would face retribution and by continually strengthening church practices in time for the second coming of Christ. This study explores the various ways in which these mid-seventeenth-century women worked to strengthen their congregations through their writings, believing that they had been divinely inspired to edify those whose practice was wanting, and vindicate rightful walking in his name.