Alice Thornton Books

Alice Thornton penned a vividly detailed autobiography in her old age, picturing her life as one of almost continual suffering. Frank and graphic, her work reveals a little-known side of the 'ordinary' life of a seventeenth-century woman. She wrote of her feelings about marriage, of sickness from pregnancy and childbirth, of family illness, and of the financial difficulties she faced as a widow. Having lived in Northern England, married out of duty, borne nine children (six of whom died), and been widowed in middle age, Thornton's narrative offers a raw portrayal of everyday struggles.