Many women owned religious tracts, such as this rather oddly-titled one by Samuel Moore, which is bound with two others also by him. The title page indicates that the book was sold by Hanna Allen at her shop The Crown, in Pope’s Head Alley, London. She was the widow of Benjamin Allen, also a bookseller and printer, who specialized in political and religious tracts, while she produced mainly religious ones. She worked alone from 1647 until 1650 when she married her husband’s former apprentice, Livewell Chapman, a union which evidently lasted only three years.
Ann Ashfold, an early owner, wrote her name several times on a front flyleaf, along with a popular verse: “Ann Ashfold har boock god give har grace their in to look and when the bel for har doth toll lord jesus christ resev har soule.” The “Ann Peters” who also appears could be her married name, as the handwriting is similar. “Mary” also added her claim.
Source: The Folger Shakespeare Library, shelf mark 143- 987q. Photographs by Georgianna Ziegler.
Early Modern Female Book Ownership 