Katherine Austen

Katherine Austen (née Wilson; 1629 – c. 1683) was an English diarist and poet best known for Book M,[1] her manuscript collection of meditations, journal entries, and verse.

After her father's death, her mother remarried John Highlord, an Alderman of the City of London and a Committee member of the East India Company, thereby raising the family's status.

[7] Records show that she was worried about the cost of some building she was undertaking at "The Swan" (near Covent Garden) while defending against lawsuits challenging her family's possession of an inn called the Red Lion, on Fleet Street.

She was, at least once, tempted by remarriage, but rejected the prospect, citing her regard for her late husband and her fears for the financial interests of her children.

MS 4454), a manuscript of 114 folios, written over six or seven years during her period of mourning — her "Most saddest Yeares" (60r) — which includes material on financial and legal matters, interpretations of dreams (her own and others'), historical commentary, and over thirty occasional and religious lyrics on topics such as child loss, Austen's legacy to her children, a Valentine's Day gift, her prophetic interests, and the family home, Highbury.

[5][7][10][11] Here is the full text: So fairely Mounted in a fertile Soile Affordes the dweller plesure, without Toile Th'adjacent prospects gives so sweet a sight That Nature did resolve to frame delight On this faire Hill, and with a bountious load Produce rich Burthens, makeing the aboad As full of Joy, as where fat Vallies smile And greater far, here Sickenes doth exhile 'Tis an Unhappy fate to paint that place By my Unpollishet Lines, with so bad a grace Amidst its beauty, if a streame did rise To clear my mudy braine and Misty Eyes And find a Hellicon t'enlarge my muse Then I noe better place then this wud choose In such a Laver and on this bright Hill I Wish parnassus to adorne my quill (fol.