Among the seventeenth-century non-elite, anonymous (or almost anonymous) individuals across England organized their experiences into petition narratives presented at various local Quarter Sessions. This article explores these narrative texts as sources of autobiographical acts. It contends that petitions for redress were sites of autobiographical telling that allow investigation into how non-elite people told their life stories in early modern England. It examines how, in the context of a petition for relief, individuals engaged in strategic acts of autobiographical disclosure for redress, which also had implications for the restoration of their dignity and even their identity.
This introduction outlines the research context from which this special number arises. It opens with a discussion of the interdisciplinary conference 'Reading, Writing and Collecting: Books and Manuscripts in Wales, 1450–1850' and our rationale in our selection of papers from
that conference. There follows an exploration of relevant historiography on this topic, drawing out areas of interest but also those where further work is needed. It concludes with a summary of the articles, their foci and approaches, and demonstrates the rich variety in the special number
itself.
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