Agnes Beaumont

Prose

Divine appearances, or a very wonderful account of the dealings of God with Mrs. Agnes Beaumont

First published, as The Singular Experiences and Great Sufferings of Mrs. Agnes Beaumont, who was born at Edworth, in the County of Bedford, incorporated in Samuel James, An Abstract of the Gracious Dealings of God (1760). Edited, as The Narrative of the Persecution(s) of Agnes Beaumont, by G. B. Harrison (London, 1929), by Vera J. Camden (East Lansing, Michigan, 1992), and in John Bunyan, Grace Abounding with other Spiritual Autobiographies, ed. John Stachniewski and Anita Pacheco (Oxford, 1998), pp. 191-224.

BmA 1

A formal copy, in a neat italic hand, i + 48 duodecimo leaves, in 19th-century half-morocco marbled boards. With a title-page ‘Divine Appearances Or A very Wonderful Account of the Dealings of God with Mrs. Agnes Beamount, Who was afterwards Married to Mr. Story, a Merchant at High-Gate, Taken from a Coppy Transcribed from a MS.S. in the hands of Mrs. Kenwrick at Bavant in Hampshire’, the first page of text decorated with a pen-and-ink vignette of a landscape scene, including paragraphs at the end not in the earlier MS. Early 18th century.

Acquired in November 1871 from William Carew Hazlitt (1834-1913), bibliographer and writer.

Facsimiles of the title-page and first page of text in Camden, pp. 10-11, 34, and the concluding paragraphs edited on p. 84. Facsimile, with transcription, of the title-page also in Reading Early Modern Women, ed. Helen Ostovich and Elizabeth Sauer (New York & London, 2004), pp. 286-7.

British Library, Egerton MS 2128.

BmA 2

Copy, in a non-professional cursive hand, untitled, on 21 quarto leaves. With a later inscription (f. 1r) ‘Written by one Agnes (Beaumont) of Edworth, Beds, intimately acquainted with John Bunyan, & to whose meetings she went contrary to her father's wishes, he objecting to his daughter attending such. She mentions his name in several parts of the MS’, and also with notes on her and Bunyan at the end (f. 21v). Late 17th century.

Inscribed (f. 2r) ‘Jacob’. Purchased from J. Harvey 24 March 1877.

Edited from this MS in Harrison and in Camden. A facsimile of the first page is in Camden, p. 8

British Library, Egerton MS 2414.

Documents

Document(s)

*BmA 3

A legal document signed by Agnes Beaumont, relating to the sale of the house formerly occupied by her and her deceased second husband, Thomas Warren, August 1708. 1708.

Recorded in Patricia L. Bell, ‘Agnes Beaumont of Edworth’, Bunyan Studies: Bunyan and his Times, 10 (2001/2), 7-28 (pp. 23 and 28 n. 25).

Hertfordshire Record Office, 80040-1.

Will

*BmA 4

The last will and testament of John Beaumont, Agnes Beaumont's father, signed by her as a witness, made 15 August 1670, proved 30 May 1674. 1670.

Recorded in Patricia L. Bell, ‘Agnes Beaumont of Edworth’, Bunyan Studies: Bunyan and his Times, 10 (2001/2). 7-28 (pp. 12 and 27 n. 8).

National Archives, Kew, PROB 10/1058.