The Case of Mistress Mary Hampson Her Story of Marital Abuse and Defiance in Seventeenth-Century England.
- Palo Alto : Stanford University Press, [(c)2014.]
- 1 online resource (177 pages)
Includes bibliographies and index.
Illustrations; Acknowledgments; Chronology; Introduction: Early Modern Marriage and the Case of Mrs. Mary Hampson; A Plain and Compendious Relation of the Case of Mrs. Mary Hampson ... (London, 1684); 1. The Hampson Marriage: Competing Stories; 2. Afterlife of a Marriage: Accusations and Recriminations; 3. The Widow Hampson and Her Daughters; Conclusions; Appendix: Letters from Mary Hampson to William Trumbull (1680-1681); Notes; Suggested Reading.
The centerpiece of The Case of Mistress Mary Hampson is the autobiographical narrative of a 17th-century woman in an abusive and violent marriage. Composed at a time when marital disharmony was in vogue with readers and publishers, it stands out from comparable works, usually single broadsheets. In her own words, Mary recounts various dramatic and stressful episodes from her decades-long marriage to Robert Hampson and her strategies for dealing with it. The harrowing tale contains scenes of physical abuse, mob violence, abandonment, flight, and destitution. It also shows moments of.