Project Principal Investigator Cordelia Beattie will give a talk on 'Women's Lives in Seventeenth-century England' at Lancashire's Gawthorpe Hall on 12 September 2024 at 13:00. This is to tie in with the exhibition, 'An Account of Life: Gawthorpe in the 1600s', which starts on 24 July and runs until 3 November 2024. The talk will be based on Alice Thornton's four accounts of her own life, focussing on the period 1626-69. Two of these manuscripts have recently been located by Cordelia Beattie and she will share what they reveal about women's lives during this fascinating period of history which witnessed the wars of the three kingdoms, the execution of a monarch, and outbreaks of bubonic plague.
The exhibition will be based around the 17th-century Shuttleworth account books, which give a glimpse into what the family bought, ate, where they travelled to and more. Richard Shuttleworth is mentioned in Thornton's Book 1. The exhibition will also include new information about the Lancashire witches and rarely seen objects of the period, including the Bourne Casket an embroidered workbox from the 1660s.
Booking for the talk is essential and the price includes entry to Gawthorpe Hall and the exhibition.