Acknowledgements

I have been very lucky to be at home in the University of York’s History department since I started my undergraduate degree, and the many people who have supported and encouraged me over the years since then are innumerable. Conversations with students have often been invaluable, giving me a new perspective on my work even if they may not have realised it. I would like to thank my friends and colleagues at York who have helped this book along, or even just distracted me at opportune times, including (but not limited to) Venus Bivar, Lawrence Black, Simon Ditchfield, Natasha Glaisyer, Sarah Griffin, Sarah Hall, Eliza Hartrich, Edd Mair, Emma Marshall, Emilie Murphy, Helen Smith, Lizzy Spencer, Sophie Weeks and Sam Wetherell. Mark Jenner has been a constant source of support since my undergraduate days, and this book would in no way exist without him. He has been the best mentor I could have asked for, and I am very grateful.

This book could also not have happened without the support, financial and otherwise, of many people and institutions beyond York. I am grateful to the White Rose College of the Arts and Humanities for the PhD funding, and to the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library and the Durham Residential Research Library for fellowships that allowed me access to so many wonderful sources. Staff at all three institutions went above and beyond in helping me while I was there. I would also like to thank Alex Barber, Martine van Elk, Amanda Herbert, Kathryn James, Philip Palmer, Jason Peacey and Heather Wolfe for useful conversations and advice. Thanks are also due to staff at the Bodleian Library, the British Library, Cumbria Record Office, Cambridge University Library, Derbyshire Record Office, the Folger Shakespeare Library, the Henry E. Huntington Library, Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies, Trinity and Magdalene Colleges in Cambridge, Ushaw College, West Yorkshire Archive Service and York Minster Library.

I am grateful to Peter Lang and Huntington Library Quarterly for permission to reproduce some work. Portions of Chapter 1 were previously published in Women in Print 2: Production, Distribution and Consumption, ed. Caroline Archer-Parré, Christine Moog and John Hinks (Peter Lang, 2022; permission conveyed through Copyright Clearance Center, Inc.) and portions of Chapter 3 were previously published as ‘Women and Manuscript News Culture in Early Modern England’, Huntington Library Quarterly 86 (winter 2023; reprinted with the permission of the Henry E. Huntington Library). The New Historical Perspectives team were fantastic, including Emma Gallon, Sarah Longair and Elizabeth Hurren, and the feedback from Karin Bowie, Ian Forrest, the anonymous readers of the proposal and particularly the participants in the author workshop – Heather Shore, Marcus Nevitt and Michelle O’Callaghan – was invaluable. Any errors are my own.

I would like to thank my friends Roisin Jacklin, Fiona Milne, Harrie Neal and Tom Sissons, my parents and the rest of my family for their support. My grandfather Arthur died not long before this book was finished, and this is for him.