Page:The works of Anne Bradstreet in prose and verse.djvu/22

 XIV INTRODUCTION.

In Isaac Johnson's will, dated March, 1629, O.S., of which Dudley is constituted one of the executors, he is described as of Clipsham in the county of Rutland ; * but it is not known how long he lived there. Dudley's first child was a son, Samuel, born in 1610.

His second child was Anne, the subject of this sketch. She was born in 1612-13, probably at Northampton.! Of her youth and of her bringing up, we know but little. We can infer, however, from what she wrote of herself, later iji life, that she was strictly and religiously trained ; while it is evident from her poems, that she had read and studied, with unusual diligence, for one of her age and sex. She gives the following account of her early religious experiences : —

" In my yovng years, about 6 or 7 as I take it, I began to make confcience of my wayes, and what I knew was linfull, as lying, dif- obedience to Parents, &c. I avoided it. If at any time I was over- taken with the like evills, it was a great Trouble. I could not be at reft 'till by prayer I had confefl it vnto God. I was alfo troubled at the negle(5l of Private Dutyes, tho : too often tardy that way. I alfo fovnd much comfort in reading the Scriptures, efpecially thofe places I thought moft concerned iny Condition, and as I grew to haue more vnderflanding, fo the more folace I took in them.

" In a long fitt of ficknes w""'' I had on my bed I often com- mvned with my heart, and made my fupplicatlon to the moft High who fett me free from that afflicSlion.

"But as I gi'ew vp to bee about 14 or 15 I fovnd my heart more carnall and iitting loofe from God, vanity and the follyes of youth take hold of me.

Peerage of England, bj Sir H. Nicolas, p. 289; Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., 4th series, Vol. viii. p. 342.


 * Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., 3d series. Vol. viii. p. 245.

t See page 391 ; " Dudley Genealogies," p. iS; " Sutton-Dudlevs," p. 97.

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