The carer’s view: a new perspective on chronic illness and disability within the early modern family

Based on a close reading of Elizabeth Isham’s (b. 1609 – d. 1654) and Mary Rich’s (b. 1624 – d. 1678) writings, this thesis considers the neglected follow-up to Roy Porter’s statement: while “it takes two to make a medical encounter”, “it often takes many more because medical events have frequently been complex social rituals involving family and community as well as sufferers and physicians”. Using a case study approach, this thesis uniquely takes ‘the carer’s view’. It explores the experiences of two wealthy, early modern women who provided long-term care to a family member. It suggests that long-term caring was a deeply religious experience, which became entwined with the lives and spiritual identities of carers. Caring forced carers to grapple with difficult questions relating to love, time, and suffering. The religious significances of these concepts consequently became bound up with how carers could navigate and understand their roles. Because caring involved ‘immoderate’ quantities of love, time, and suffering, it was inherently spiritually problematic; contemporary religious discourses recommended moderation in these areas, to avoid sin. In lieu of ready-made, spiritually acceptable notions of long-term caring, carers had to personally find ways to make caring compatible with their spiritual aspirations. Resulting ideas of caring were highly particular and reliant on the carer’s personal circumstances. By examining the experiential and cultural content of early modern caring for the first time, this thesis fills a significant gap in the history of medicine and opens a rich seam for further research. It also offers a unique perspective on histories of family, love, time, lived religion, and salvation. Mary and Elizabeth show that carers experienced and negotiated with these concepts in unique ways. This work should be of interest more generally to historians of disability, sickness and health, personal identity, love, time, family, and ‘lived religion’.