This 1596 edition of Hugh Latimer’s sermons has four inscriptions from at least two female owners on the first front flyleaf.
The first set of inscriptions—”An Baley hir Book”; “Mary hor Book”; “mary An Baley har[?]”—may well have been made by the same individual, whose slightly clumsy script suggests a child not yet fully confident of her letters testing out variants of her name. The second owner, Elizabeth Owin, repeats a religious refrain common to many inscriptions: “god give hir grace thereen to Look and when her pasing bell doth tole the Lord in heaven reseve her soul.”
There are further expunged signatures reading “An Baley” and “Mary Baley” on the second front flyeaf, as well as a 1766 inscription from “Tho: Bayley.”
Source: Book offered for sale by Berwyn Books on 5/31/19. Images used with permission.
Early Modern Female Book Ownership 