Elinor James

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EJ was a publisher and political writer in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, as well as a tireless admonisher of monarchs and fervent supporter of the Church of England . Her tone has the stridency of the totally convinced. She wrote and printed over ninety identified political pamphlets and broadsides (more than six times as many as were known only a few years before the end of the twentieth century). It is highly likely that yet more will eventually be unearthed.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
James, Elinor. “Introductory Note”. Elinor James, edited by Paula McDowell, Ashgate, 2005, p. v - xxviii.
xxvi
The volume selected and introduced by Paula McDowell for the Early Modern Englishwoman series includes ninety facsimiles of pamphlets by EJ , then one manuscript and two printed transcriptions of pamphlets whose originals are apparently lost, plus the text of an incorrect ascription.
James, Elinor. Elinor James. Editor McDowell, Paula, Ashgate, 2005.
James, Elinor. “Introductory Note”. Elinor James, edited by Paula McDowell, Ashgate, 2005, p. v - xxviii.
x
  • BirthName: Elinor
    She sometimes spells this name Elianor.
    Banks
    Her birthname is sometimes spelled Banckes.

  • Nickname: The City-Godmother
    Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.

  • Married: James
    She published as Mrs James.

Milestones

About 1645

Elinor Banks or Banckes (later EJ ) was born, probably in London.
McDowell, Paula. The Women of Grub Street: Press, Politics, and Gender in the London Literary Marketplace, 1678-1730. Clarendon, 1998.
33-4

6 January 1681

The earliest known work by EJ appeared: a broadside entitled A New Answer To A Speech said to be lately made by a Noble Peer of this Realm. The tract which drew her ire was by a Whig.
James, Elinor. Elinor James. Editor McDowell, Paula, Ashgate, 2005.
1

Spring 1687

EJ responded to published comment on James II 's Declaration of Indulgence with Mrs. James's Vindication of the Church of England.
The English Short Title Catalogue records two versions of this, only one of them recording the price of twopence.
Solo: Search Oxford University Libraries Online. 18 July 2011, http://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/search.do?vid=OXVU1&fromLogin=true&reset_config=true.

Shortly before 13 July 1719

EJ died after about nine years of widowhood; she did not make a will, having already given away her moveable property.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
qtd. in
James, Elinor. “Introductory Note”. Elinor James, edited by Paula McDowell, Ashgate, 2005, p. v - xxviii.
xx

Biography

About 1645

Elinor Banks or Banckes (later EJ ) was born, probably in London.
McDowell, Paula. The Women of Grub Street: Press, Politics, and Gender in the London Literary Marketplace, 1678-1730. Clarendon, 1998.
33-4
EJ was a lifelong Londoner, a High Tory, and an Anglican . As a printer for fifty years, she had some standing in the urban middle class.