Introduction
Lady Elizabeth Delaval (née Livingstone) has left a single, neatly written autograph compilation (*DeE 1), demonstrating, in Margaret Ezell's words, ‘the extent and sophistication of a young woman's concept of literary self-representation during the Commonwealth and Restoration’.
The only other manuscripts as yet known to have been left by her, and which throw even more light on her and her family life, are nine letters to her half-brother Charles Stuart (1639-72), third Duke of Richmond and sixth Duke of Lennox. Written by his ‘affectionate Sister’ in her rounded italic hand between 24 April 1665 and November 1671, they are now among the Richmond correspondence in the British Library (DeE 2-10).
Peter Beal