General notes
Title devised by Folger cataloger
Years reflect both the first day of the new year reckoned as March 25 ("Lady Day" dating) and as January 1. Dated based on first poem, which appears as: "Feb. 11th, 1649" [i.e., 1650], and last poem, which appears as: "Januarie 12, 1657" [i.e., 1658]
Place of production based on Carey's itinerant living across England
Original text block (174 pages) fully ruled in red; page 49 has an extra, vertical red rule line. Pages [v-viii] are loose. Pages 138, 154-155, 160, 177-178, 193-194, 202-231, and 237 (misnumbered 235) are blank
Paginated by Lady Carey 1-160; pages 190 and 192 also appear to be Carey's hand. Some page numbers corrected in an early hand starting with the 8 inserted pages between orginal p. 130-131 so that corrected page numbers span 131-169. This same hand has continued pagination on only the rectos for 171-189. Pagination continues on verso and recto through the end of the volume (pages 190-236), with several pages near the end incorrectly numbered
Contains 102 inserted pages: 12 unnumbered pages between the first 2 (unnumbered) leaves of the red ruled text block at the beginning of the volume; 8 half-size pages between p. 48-49, the first of which is also numbered 48 with the rest unnumbered; 2 half-size pages between p. 62-63, the first of which is also numbered 62 with the second unnumbered; 2 half-size pages between p. 64-65, the first of which is also numbered 64 with the second unnumbered; 10 half-size pages between p. 70-71, the first of which is also numbered 71 with the rest unnumbered; 8 pages after p. 131 with later, corrected numbering; and 60 pages after p. 178, with continued pagination
Front pastedown includes modern penciled notes: "36-14;" "Manuscript Book of Marey Carey mainly devotional birth & death etc;" 1649-57;" "214 pp.; "The last entry is a poem of 46 verses [struckthrough] lines [inserted] 'On the sight of my abortive birth, Dec 31, 1657'." Other pencil markings appear on page 232
Monetary calculations appear in pencil on page 234 (misnumbered 233), page 235, page 236 (misnumbered 234), and 238 (misnumbered 236), the last of which also includes three abbreviated biblical citations in ink and an early hand
Carey's signature appears, in various forms, 6 times in the volume: Marey Carey (p. [xv]), Ma[ry] Carey (p. 153), M[ary] C[arey] (p. 153), Mary Carey (p. 158 and p. 159), and Maria Carey (p. 201)
All poems are listed in the Union First Line Index of English Verse
Lady Mary Carey (daughter of Sir John Jackson of Berwick) married Pelham Carey (knighted in Scotland on July 16, 1633 and died in 1642) on June 24, 1630 at Hunsdon, Hertfordshire. She then married George Payler (d. in or before 1678) on June 8, 1643 in Berwick but retained the name Lady Carey (it was customary to keep the higher title name). Together Lady Carey and Payler had seven children, five of whom died in infancy; Carey also lost at least one child to a miscarriage. During the English Civil War, Carey lived itinerantly, accompanying Payler to his various posts. (See Mendelson, S. (2004, September 23). Carey [née Jackson], Mary, Lady Carey (b. c. 1609, d. in or after 1680), author of verse and autobiographical meditations. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Ed. Accessed 18 Apr. 2019.)
Formerly owned by Everard Meynell and later by his brother Sir Francis Meredith Wilfrid Meynell and Lady Alix Hester Marie Meynell (Sir Francis' wife). Acquired from Sotheby's, sale L13404, lot 260, 2013-07-10
Also available on microfilm (Folger Film Acc. 746) and as a digital reproduction
Bound in full, 19th-century blue velvet
Contents
To my Most louing and dearly beloued Husband George Payler esq. (p. [iii-xv]) -- Feb. 11th 1649 A Dialogue betwext the Soule and the Bodie (p. 1-153) -- May 14th 1652 I haue now buried fower sonnes & a daughter... (p. 153) -- wretten by my deare Husband att the death of our 4th (att that tyme) only Child Robert Payler (p. 156-157) -- wretten by me att the same tyme; on the death of my 4th and only Child Robert Payler (p. 157-158) -- wretten by me att the death of my 4th sonne and 5th Child Perigrene Payler (p. 158-159) -- A Meditation; Or Commemoration of the loue of God [th]e father sonne & holy Ghost (p. 161-176) -- A Meditation; or Commemoration of the Loue of Christ (p. 179-186) -- A Meditation or Commemoration of the Loue of the holy Ghost (p. 187-192) -- Vpon the signt of my abortiue birth the 31 of december 1657 (p. 195-201)
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