The Intellectual Life of Elizabeth Elstob (1683–1756): Community, Patronage, and Production

Using the central case study of Anglo-Saxon scholar and schoolmistress Elizabeth Elstob (1683–1756), this article explores the factors that fostered, as well as those that inhibited, intellectual achievement in the eighteenth century. Over her lifetime, Elstob experienced a series of contrasting circumstances; at such moments of change larger forces become visible. By analysing her letter-writing alongside published works — and through comparison with other intellectuals, their networks, and their experiences of cultural production — the interplay of community, patronage, and production is illuminated