Introduction
Elizabeth Jocelin (née Brooke) is recognised for her notable contribution to the ‘mother's legacy’ genre, an unfinished work written for her first child, her daughter Theodora, whose birth cost Jocelin her life nine days later. The work was edited and steered through the press in 1624 by the Calvinist minister Dr Thomas Goad (1576-1638). It is possible that one of the two recorded surviving manuscripts of The mother's legacie (JoE 2) was prepared by Goad for that edition, although it bears no markings to indicate any actual use in the printing shop itself. What is, however, almost certainly Jocelin's autograph manuscript of the work also survives (*JoE 1). This has enabled editors to establish a reasonably authoritative text, whereby the alterations and additions made by Goad in his printed edition may be properly distinguished.
One other item recorded here (JoE 3) is a printed exemplum of her ‘legacy’ containing a reader's manuscript verse and prose, giving advice to children, etc., which may in part have been inspired by Jocelin's work.
Peter Beal