By Emily Fine
This 1640 edition of Dorothy Leigh’s popular book The Mothers Blessing contains the names Elizabeth Bewe and Thomas Bewe, as well as two short inscriptions by Elizabeth that identify the book as her own. The first inscription, on the verso side of the title page, reads, “Elizabeth Bewe is my name and with my pen I wrote the Same an if my pen had been better I had write every letter.” The second inscription states “Elizabeth Bewe her Booke God Give Grace therin to looke and when the bell for her doth toll Lord Jesus Christ Receve her Soule Amen” (A6r).
Source: Dorothy Leigh, The Mothers Blessing (1640). STC 15408, title page verso, A6r, M11v, and M12v. Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, DC. Photographed by Emily Fine.
Early Modern Female Book Ownership 
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