Elizabeth Bury ( 2 March 1644 – 11 May 1720) was an English

diarist A diary is a writing, written or audiovisual Memorabilia, memorable record, with discrete entries arranged by Calendar date, date reporting on what has happened over the course of a day or other period. Diaries have traditionally been handwriti ...

Early life

Bury was baptised 12 March 1644 at

Clare, Suffolk Clare is a market town and civil parish on the north bank of the River River Stour, Suffolk, Stour in the West Suffolk District, West Suffolk district, in the county of Suffolk, England. Clare is in southwest Suffolk, from Bury St Edmunds and ...

, the day of her birth having probably been 2 March. Her father was Captain Adams Lawrence of

Linton, Cambridgeshire Linton is a village and civil parish in Cambridgeshire, England, on the border with Essex. The village is approximately southeast from the city and county town of Cambridge. The A1307 from Cambridge bypasses the village, while the B1052 pass ...

; her mother was Elizabeth Cutts of Clare, and besides Elizabeth there were three other children. In 1648, when Elizabeth was four years old, Captain Lawrence died, and in 1661 Mrs. Lawrence remarried, her second husband being Nathaniel Bradshaw, B.D., minister of a church in the neighbourhood. About 1664 Elizabeth described herself as "converted", and became introspective. Her studies were

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

, French, music,

heraldry Heraldry is a discipline relating to the design, display and study of armorial bearings (known as armory), as well as related disciplines, such as vexillology, together with the study of ceremony, Imperial, royal and noble ranks, rank and genealo ...

, mathematics, philosophy,

philology Philology () is the study of language in Oral tradition, oral and writing, written historical sources. It is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics with strong ties to etymology. Philology is also de ...

, anatomy, medicine, and

divinity Divinity (from Latin ) refers to the quality, presence, or nature of that which is divine—a term that, before the rise of monotheism, evoked a broad and dynamic field of sacred power. In the ancient world, divinity was not limited to a single ...

. Her stepfather, Mr. Bradshaw was one of the

ejected minister The Great Ejection followed the Act of Uniformity 1662 in England. Several thousand Puritan ministers were forced out of their positions in the Church of England following the Stuart Restoration, Restoration of Charles II of England, Charles II ...

s in 1662. The family moved to Wivelingham, Cambridgeshire. Elizabeth in 1664 began writing down her "experiences" in her ''Diary'', initially in shorthand.'

Adult life

In 1667, on 1 February, Bury married Griffith Lloyd of

Hemingford Grey Hemingford Grey is a village and civil parish in Cambridgeshire, England. Hemingford Grey lies approximately east of Huntingdon. Hemingford Grey is situated within Huntingdonshire which is a non-metropolitan district of Cambridgeshire as well ...

, Huntingdonshire, who died on 13 April 1682. In her widowhood, which lasted another fifteen years, Mrs. Lloyd passed part of her time in Norwich. She was married at Bury to

Samuel Bury Samuel Bury (1663–1730) was an English Presbyterian minister. Life The son of Edward Bury (minister), Edward Bury, he was born at Great Bolas, Shropshire, where he was baptised on 21 April 1663. He was educated at Thomas Doolittle's academy, at ...

, nonconformist minister, on 29 May 1697, having previously refused to marry three churchmen, whose initials are given, because "she could not be easy in their communion".' Mrs. Bury had a good estate, and was a generous benefactor. She kept a stock of bibles and practical books, to be distributed from time to time; she had a knowledge of

materia medica ''Materia medica'' ( lit.: 'medical material/substance') is a Latin term from the history of pharmacy for the body of collected knowledge about the therapeutic properties of any substance used for healing (i.e., medications). The term derives f ...

.ib. 424 She had a motto written up in her closet in Hebrew, "Thou, Lord, seest me."

Death

Bury became infirm after 1712, and died on 11 May 1720, aged 76. Her

funeral sermon A Christian funeral sermon is a formal religious oration or address given at a funeral ceremony, or sometimes a short time after, which may combine elements of eulogy with biographical comments and expository preaching. To qualify as a sermon, it sh ...

was preached at Bristol on 22 May 1720 by the Rev. William Tong, and was printed at Bristol the same year; a third edition was reached the next year, 1721. ''The Account of the Life and Death of Mrs. Bury'', Bristol, 1720, included the extant portions of her diary, the funeral sermon, a life by her husband, and an

elegy An elegy is a poem of serious reflection, and in English literature usually a lament for the dead. However, according to ''The Oxford Handbook of the Elegy'', "for all of its pervasiveness ... the 'elegy' remains remarkably ill defined: sometime ...

Isaac Watts Isaac Watts (17 July 1674 – 25 November 1748) was an English Congregational minister, hymn writer, theologian, and logician. He was a prolific and popular hymn writer and is credited with some 750 hymns. His works include " When I Survey th ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bury, Elizabeth 1644 births 1720 deaths 17th-century English diarists 18th-century English diarists 17th-century English women writers 18th-century English women writers People from Clare, Suffolk English women memoirists People from Linton, Cambridgeshire Writers from Suffolk