Lavender Menace

Queer Books Archive

Elizabeth Calvert: 17th-Century Radical Bookseller

Image of Gatehouse Prison, where Calvert was imprisoned.

What can 17th-Century Radical Bookseller Elizabeth Calvert Teach Us in a Modern Age of Book Bans?

by Ali Leetham

The US Education Department decided to end its investigations into book bans in January, calling them a “hoax”. Meanwhile, non-profit PEN America recorded more than 10,000 books banned in schools—and that was just in the 2023-2024 school year. 

This significant curtailment of freedom of speech certainly feels like a big step backwards, so maybe we should look to the past for inspiration.

After the restoration of the British monarchy, the Licensing Act of 1662 made it illegal to print, sell or import any books or pamphlets that were seditious or offensive. This meant any material that contradicted the church or state. Presses needed to be licensed, and a king’s messenger could search premises for unlicensed presses and arrest offenders. The British newspaper press was practically reduced to just the London Gazette.

But the people didn’t take this harsh censorship lying down. Some still found a way to speak truth to power by printing and distributing banned texts. Elizabeth Calvert was one such radical, and this is her story.

Radical Bookseller

Elizabeth Calvert ran the Black Spread Eagle bookshop at St Paul’s Churchyard in London with her husband, Giles Calvert. The pair printed a wealth of radical and Quaker publications during the Civil War and the Interregnum. 

After the Restoration, Elizabeth continued to publish books critical of the king and the Anglican church, despite increasing pressure and censorship. In 1661, Giles was arrested for a pamphlet called Annus Mirabilis, which predicted the fall of men in power. Undeterred, Elizabeth continued printing and distributing this text while her husband was in prison.

Following Giles’ death in 1663, Elizabeth took over the bookshop and continued to publish seditious texts, despite harassment from Charles II’s censor, Roger L’Estrange. She expanded her distribution network beyond London, sending pamphlets as far as Flintshire and Carlisle. Twenty-seven texts were printed with Elizabeth Calvert’s name, but she was responsible for many more.

Repeat Offender

Elizabeth’s belief in free speech constantly got her in trouble with the law. Printing Annus Mirabilis landed Elizabeth in prison for three months in 1661. The following year, she was taken into custody when her husband was arrested again. In 1663, she spent another month in prison after L’Estrange called for stricter regulation.

Later that same year, printer John Twyn was arrested for printing a treatise that explicitly condemned Charles II for cruelty and claimed regicide is justifiable when the king oppresses the people. He alleged the Calverts commissioned him to print the treatise, and Elizabeth briefly went on the run. She was released after two months’ imprisonment in 1664. But another warrant issued for her in 1665 suggests this didn’t put her off the illegal book trade.

In 1668, Elizabeth was imprisoned twice, the second time for selling Nehustan, which called the king a tyrant. She was released after promising never to deal in banned books. But she didn’t keep her word.

Elizabeth was indicted two years later for publishing Directions to a Painter, a satirical poem that derided state policies. After absconding, she was eventually convicted but failed to pay her fine. Defiant until the end, Elizabeth Calvert attracted yet another arrest warrant in 1674, not long before she died.

Survivor of Adversity

Prison wasn’t the only obstacle Elizabeth had to overcome. She suffered a major blow when her shop burned down in the Great Fire of 1666. But this didn’t stop her—she even printed tracts about the fire. The five years after the fire were actually her most productive, despite the discovery and destruction of her secret press in Southwark.

As well as professional struggles, Elizabeth faced personal strife. Two of her four children died in childhood. When released from prison in 1663, she returned home to find her husband terminally ill. And during her 1664 imprisonment, she petitioned for release to nurse her sick son, Nathaniel. But this was denied, and by the time she got out, her third child was dead as well.

Weaker Vessel

In the 16th century, William Tyndale defined women as “the weaker vessel” in his new translation of the Bible, and this was preached all over the country. Then the Enlightenment in the 17th century brought the idea that the new world of rational logic required intellectual men and had no place for women, who were deemed to be purely emotional.

Though men in authority called women weak and incapable, they still felt the need to limit women’s power through laws. Working-class women and other marginalised groups had successfully effected change through mass demonstrations during the Civil War, but the 1661 Act Against Tumultuous Petitioning made this form of protest illegal.

Professional guilds also tried to exclude women from the world of work. Although 132 women printers operated before the Restoration, the Stationers’ Company tried to reduce the number by only granting licences to the wealthiest printing houses—which happened to be overwhelmingly male-owned.

Though clearly skilled and experienced, Elizabeth Calvert was never admitted to the Stationers’ Company. Despite this, she was the master to three male apprentices, and also trained her son, who was admitted to the guild.

Women found ways to take advantage of their weaker vessel status. As wives weren’t considered capable of making decisions for themselves, they also couldn’t be held responsible for their actions. Coverture, which legally considers women to be under their husband’s authority, may have protected Elizabeth from prosecution while her husband was alive. Indeed, after more than one arrest, she claimed to be merely an ignorant woman who didn’t know the texts she was distributing were seditious.

So the state’s attempts to disempower women may have emboldened them. While many male anti-royalist stationers ended up dead or in prison, the censors didn’t get their way. Elizabeth and other wives and widows—such as Hannah Allen, Joan Dover/Darby and Ann(a) Brewster—continued to trade in banned books.

Dissenter

Elizabeth’s personal beliefs aren’t clear. She published texts that criticised Catholicism as well as Anglicanism. Though her will requested she be buried among Baptists, her work doesn’t suggest a specific affiliation with this denomination.

During the Civil War, Elizabeth was heavily involved with Quaker publishing. But she seems to have drifted away from the group, with one Quaker later calling her “Jesebell”. The only long-term theme of her publications was nonconformism.

Whatever her faith, it seems Elizabeth believed people had the right to question what they were told and share alternative views. She defied the censor, the government and the king himself to share ideas that those in power wanted to ban.

Historical Figure or Relevant Today?

Elizabeth Calvert may just seem like a figure from the distant past. Someone who existed in a different world. However, though this year marks the 350th anniversary of her death, there are striking parallels with the world today.

We, too, live in a world ravaged by war. The UK government has passed laws that make various forms of protest illegal. Palestinian booksellers have been arrested in East Jerusalem. And American schools are banning books by the thousand. So, have things really changed that much?

Sources

Posted

in

by

Anna Broomfield

Tags: