'My Poor Returns': Devotional Manuscripts by Seventeenth-Century Women

In their extant manuscripts, which date from 1633 through the seventeenth century, Elizabeth Hastings, Countess of Huntingdon, Anne, Lady Halkett, and Alathea Bethell use a similar strategy to present their roles as authors. Though each writer uses different generic terms to categorize her compilations of devotional material, including 'Collections' and 'Meditations', Bethell's conception of her writing as 'Poor Returns' for what is owed to God could apply to all three writers. Each in some sense figures writing, which is indebted to the women's own pious reading of key printed texts, as an essential attempt to reciprocate God's blessings.