Brilliana Lady Harley

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BLH is remembered for her letters, written to her husband and son during a period of nearly twenty years in the mid seventeenth century. She also made translations, chiefly of religious texts, and kept a commonplace-book along similar lines.
  • BirthName: Brilliana Conway
    Her given name, invented to incorporate a reference to her birthplace, remained a family name for several generations.

  • Married: Lady Harley
  • Titled: Lady Harley
  • Indexed: Lady Brilliana Harley
Colour photograph of the Brampton Bryan Gatehouse, all that remains of Brampton Bryan, the castle that Brilliana, Lady Harley, defended against attack during the English Civil War.

Milestones

Probably 1598

Brilliana Conway (later BLH ) was born at Brill in Holland, the second daughter in her family of six children who survived. (Most sources give a later date.)
Her editor, Thomas Taylor Lewis , said she was born in 1600, calculating from the fact that she was said to be not yet twenty-three at her marriage. Historian Jacqueline Eales , however, is a better source.
Lewis, Thomas Taylor, and Brilliana, Lady Harley. “Introduction”. Letters of the Lady Brilliana Harley, Camden Society, 1854, p. v - xxix.
xiii
Eales, Jacqueline. Puritans and Roundheads. Cambridge University Press, 1990.
11

25 October 1638

Brilliana, Lady Harley , wrote her first extant letter to her eldest son, Ned (later Sir Edward Harley ), who at just thirteen was a new undergraduate entered at Magdalen Hall in Oxford.
Harley, Brilliana, Lady. Letters of the Lady Brilliana Harley. Editor Lewis, Thomas Taylor, Camden Society, 1854.
7

20 June 1642

Brilliana, Lady Harley , used to her son Ned the image (current from classical times, and for generations to come) of letter-writing as conversation: how glad I am to have this paper discours with you.
Harley, Brilliana, Lady. Letters of the Lady Brilliana Harley. Editor Lewis, Thomas Taylor, Camden Society, 1854.
170

30 June 1643

With an attack on her castle now expected, Brilliana, Lady Harley , wrote to her army-officer son Edward , I am confident you will hate all plundering and unmercifullness.
Harley, Brilliana, Lady. Letters of the Lady Brilliana Harley. Editor Lewis, Thomas Taylor, Camden Society, 1854.
206

After 9 October 1643

Brilliana, Lady Harley , died of her very greate coold (which was probably pneumonia) only days after the end of the siege that made her famous.
Harley, Brilliana, Lady. Letters of the Lady Brilliana Harley. Editor Lewis, Thomas Taylor, Camden Society, 1854.
209
George, Margaret. Women in the First Capitalist Society. University of Illinois Press, 1988.
193
Eales, Jacqueline. Puritans and Roundheads. Cambridge University Press, 1990.
3

9 October 1643

Brilliana, Lady Harley , wrote her last surviving letter to her son only a few days before she died. She mentioned her bad cold, and hoped that God would restore her health, for it is an ill time to be sike in.
Harley, Brilliana, Lady. Letters of the Lady Brilliana Harley. Editor Lewis, Thomas Taylor, Camden Society, 1854.
209

Biography

Birth and Family

Probably 1598

Brilliana Conway (later BLH ) was born at Brill in Holland, the second daughter in her family of six children who survived. (Most sources give a later date.)
Her editor, Thomas Taylor Lewis , said she was born in 1600, calculating from the fact that she was said to be not yet twenty-three at her marriage. Historian Jacqueline Eales , however, is a better source.
Lewis, Thomas Taylor, and Brilliana, Lady Harley. “Introduction”. Letters of the Lady Brilliana Harley, Camden Society, 1854, p. v - xxix.
xiii
Eales, Jacqueline. Puritans and Roundheads. Cambridge University Press, 1990.
11

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