Freke, Elizabeth ___ 1641-1714 ___ British ___ n/a

BIOGRAPHICAL SUMMARY
Elizabeth was born in Wiltshire, the eldest daughter of Raufe Freke and a cousin of the famous Nicolas Culpeper, he who wrote the 'London Dispensatory'. When 30, she eloped with her second cousin Percy to London. She had a child and then went to Ireland, where Percy's father lived, leaving the child with her father. In subsequent years she travelled back and forth, apparently quarrelling with her husband, who was always trying to get at her money. Her devoted father, nevertheless, continued to help her out financially. Ultimately, he bought her an estate in Norfolk where she eventually retired after leaving Ireland for the last time. Freke's diary is a quite extraordinary catalogue of moans and gripes, against her husband and son and many others besides. It also contains some interesting herbal remedies.
A biography link
No Wikipedia bio
The Diary Review - Elizabeth’s Freke misfortunes

DIARY DATES, CONTENT DESCRIPTORS
1671-1714 ___ domestic religious social family health

WEB TEXT LINKS
googlebooks
about
several pages of extracts

ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT LINKS
British Library, Manuscript Collections

SOME PUBLISHED TITLES
Mrs. Freke, Her Diary
The Remembrances of Elizabeth Freke, 1671-1714
 

May 2005, June 2008, April 2013
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IMPORTANT NOTES AND CAUTIONS: 1) The first line of basic information may be incomplete in several ways: some historical figures have different names (titles, pen-names); their birth and death dates may be unknown or uncertain (g - guess, c - circa); similarly, their occupations may be unknown, or they may have had other jobs; and, for early diarists, I've used 'British' a bit too freely. 2) The biographical summary may not be accurate. It was compiled quickly from various sources, mostly on the internet, and the facts were not checked anywhere near as rigorously as they would have been if they'd been intended for publication in a printed form. 3) The journal dates and descriptors (which are in no particular order) must be treated with caution: since I have not examined the diaries myself, the descriptors are only guesses based on bibliographies, anthologies and internet biographies. 4) For the biography and etext links, I have ignored any sites with charges, and I have avoided, wherever possible, those with pop-ups or too much advertising. I have limited myself to providing three etext links where there is some variety between them. 5) For the original manuscript links, I have limited myself to providing a maximum of two (although, for a few diarists, their original diaries are held in more than two places). 6) I have provided the titles - chosen randomly - for up to three printed editions of the diaries.