This is not the first time the nonconformist Richard Baxter has featured on our blog (see here). This copy of minister Richard Baxter’s Confession of His Faith is signed “Jane Stawell” on the title page. Baxter was a nonconformist, who was even controversial among Puritans for his eclectic ideas. His position led to his imprisonment and a testy relationship with Cromwell. Baxter was, according to N. H. Keeble, extremely popular and published “a string of bestsellers” in the seventeenth-century. The Confession of His Faith is one of many Puritan works signed by women that must have had special meaning to its readers at a time of social and political upheaval.
Source: Book offered for sale on eBay by u.n.c.c. history, 12/12/2018. Images used with permission.
Further Reading
N. H. Keeble, “Baxter, Richard (1615-1691).” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 2004. https://doi-org.access.authkb.kb.nl/10.1093/ref:odnb/1734
Early Modern Female Book Ownership 