Margaret Hoby

10 February 1571 - 06 September 1633

It is fair to say that the fame of MH 's diary rests less on its literary qualities than on its early date: no women's diary in English is known to precede it. It is a religious as well as a practical record. Though her interest in writing was not literary, MH was a skilful user of words: she wrote letters and abridgements of sermons.

BirthName: Margaret Dakins
Married: Devereux; Sidney; LadyHoby
Titled: LadyHoby
Indexed: Lady Margaret Hoby
This form of MH 's name, given on the edition of her diary by Joanna Moody , is not correct. This is the form for a courtesy title that goes with noble birth; MH 's title came from being the wife of her husband.

Milestones

Shortly before 10 February 1571

Margaret Dakins (later MH ) was born, an only child; she was christened on this day at Wintringham in Yorkshire.

“FamilySearch Internet Genealogy Service”. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Hoby, Margaret. “Introduction and Editorial Materials”. The Private Life of an Elizabethan Lady: The Diary of Lady Margaret Hoby, 1599-1605, edited by Joanna Moody, Sutton, 1998, p. xv - lvii.

9 August 1599

MH began her diary, one of the earliest known in a European vernacular language, and the first extant one by an Englishwoman. The manuscript, probably incomplete, covers six years of her life.

Hoby, Margaret. “Introduction and Editorial Materials”. The Private Life of an Elizabethan Lady: The Diary of Lady Margaret Hoby, 1599-1605, edited by Joanna Moody, Sutton, 1998, p. xv - lvii.

21 July 1605

MH wrote for the last time in her surviving diary.

Hoby, Margaret. “Introduction and Editorial Materials”. The Private Life of an Elizabethan Lady: The Diary of Lady Margaret Hoby, 1599-1605, edited by Joanna Moody, Sutton, 1998, p. xv - lvii.

liii

4 September 1633

Margaret, Lady Hoby , died at Hackness in Yorkshire at the age of sixty-two.

Hoby, Margaret. The Private Life of an Elizabethan Lady: The Diary of Lady Margaret Hoby, 1599-1605. Editor Moody, Joanna, Sutton, 1998.

222

Hoby, Margaret. “Introduction and Editorial Materials”. The Private Life of an Elizabethan Lady: The Diary of Lady Margaret Hoby, 1599-1605, edited by Joanna Moody, Sutton, 1998, p. xv - lvii.

xlii, lvii

Biography

Birth and Background

Shortly before 10 February 1571

Margaret Dakins (later MH ) was born, an only child; she was christened on this day at Wintringham in Yorkshire.

“FamilySearch Internet Genealogy Service”. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Hoby, Margaret. “Introduction and Editorial Materials”. The Private Life of an Elizabethan Lady: The Diary of Lady Margaret Hoby, 1599-1605, edited by Joanna Moody, Sutton, 1998, p. xv - lvii.