Whitney’s Guide to Early Modern London

 

Overview

Using the Agas Map of Early Modern London, we can traverse Whitney’s poem to see the spaces where women performed their work, and begin to understand how these women looked to create opportunities for mobility and agency within this structure that would otherwise prefer they had none. The process of building and charting these locations on the Agas Map of Early Modern London allows us to further visualize and explore the spaces where women worked and socialized to understand more about the opportunities for agency and mobility women created for themselves. In translating these spaces to a digital map, WEMMoL creates a visual representation that allows us to imagine how women inhabited these spaces, and ultimately, to see the breadth and interconnectedness of the spaces women moved throughout in Early Modern London.

Locations

Whitney imagines the streets of London — their inhabitants and trades — as if they were her own property. Below are a few locations that Whitney references directly in “Wyll & Testament” and a brief description of how she might have imagined these spaces for herself and the women of Early Modern London.

Select “Whitney’s Poem + Map” to for a full text version of “Wyll & Testament” alongside a map with these locations.

 

  • Whitney references Birchin Lane in line 121 of her poem. Whitney describes the type of work women would have been doing on Birchin Lane — stitching. Women in Early Modern London would have found opportunities for labor within the clothing manufacturing industry. In fact, some women would have left their agricultural work for the higher-wage earning positions in cloth manufacturing (Flather).

  • Whitney mentions “Cheap” in line 99 of her poem in reference to Cheapside Market. Whitney describes the desirable silks for purchase. However, due to the sumptuary laws of 1562 and 1577, Whitney would have been unable to purchase certain fine silks due to her rank and lack of property ownership. The sumptuary laws of 1562 and 1577 outlined specific dress codes based on social rank (Travitsky). Women’s inability to own property would have meant their social rank and status was designated by their husbands or fathers.

  • The “Fleetes” are mentioned in Whitney’s poem in line 139 and again in line 215. Whitney mentions the shops on Fleet Street that would have sold daggers and rapiers, perhaps offering a perspective of Whitney’s London where we begin to see the dangers that women faced navigating the London streets.

    Fleet Prison is Whitney’s next reference, where we see Whitney offering aid to the debtors locked up in London’s prisons. Like these debtors, Whitney was unable to stay in London due to her financial insolvency. For unmarried women in Early Modern London, they would have had limited opportunities to earn an income, and were often at the mercy of male family members.

  • Whitney takes us to Temple Bar in line 135 of her poem. Temple Bar would have been one of London’s entrances, and with its proximity to Fleet Street and Fleet River, women in positions of service would have been sent there to fetch water for their households.

 

Works Cited

Flather, Amanda J. “Space, Place, and Gender: The Sexual and Spatial Division of Labor in the Early Modern Household.” History and Theory, vol. 52, no. 3, Wesleyan University, Wiley, 2013, pp. 344–60, http://www.jstor.org/stable/24542990.

Jenstad, Janelle. The Agas Map. The Map of Early Modern London, Edition 6.6, edited by Janelle Jenstad, U of Victoria, 30 Jun. 2021, mapoflondon.uvic.ca/edition/6.6/map.htm.

Travitsky, Betty. “The ‘Wyll and Testament’ of Isabella Whitney.” English Literary Renaissance, vol. 10, no. 1, Wiley, 1980, pp. 76–94, http://www.jstor.org/stable/43446961.

Whitney, Isabella. “The Will and Testament of Isabella Whitney.” The Map of Early Modern London, Edition 6.6, edited by Janelle Jenstad, U of Victoria, 30 Jun. 2021, mapoflondon.uvic.ca/edition/6.6/WILL10.htm.