‘Divers voyages into farre countries’: Agency in Rose Throckmorton’s Diary

Abstract

Women played a vital role within mercantile communities in sixteenth century London as social, cultural and economic agents, but there is comparatively little archival material relating to these activities in comparison to their male counterparts, and as they were seldom able to actively participate in trade, the nuances of their activity are easily overlooked. Using the 1610 diary of Rose Lok Hickman Throckmorton as a case study, this article will examine her role within her community and the ways in which she both exerted and subverted agency, interrogating the text’s preoccupations with questions of trade, faith, and gender.