English Diarists: Gender, Geography and Occupation, 1500-1700

While historians have made use of early modern English diaries as a source for information on a variety of subjects there has been little corresponding research beyond a few select biographies into those people who actually wrote the diaries of this period. From the first English diaries of the fifteenth century to the end of the seventeenth a picture can be pieced together of the growing number of diarists, their status, economic backgrounds, and where they wrote these highly personal documents. In terms of gender it is clear that although female diarists were in a minority, their ability to write analytical and intimate accounts of their lives and close environment differed little from that of their male counterparts. In terms of occupation it is evident that great events and dangerous times inspired men to re-create their lives on paper. Consequently, military and naval diaries collectively make up the largest occupation for diarists. However, diarists also earned their livings from trade, the law, as astrologers, farmers and also, in one case, as a theatre-owner. Moreover, the spread of diaries across England during the period shows that this personalized form of writing was not confined to the capital or to England's universities.