Margeret Kempe

Born in Lynn, a town in Norfolk into a family of a distinguished and wealthy merchant and public official, Margaret Brunham was brought up in prosperity. However, her family failed to provide formal education for Margaret, and she remained illiterate despite her social rank. At the age of 20, she married John Kempe, a burgess of Lynn with whom he had 14 children. After the birth of her first child, she suffered a postpartum depression and mental breakdown that lasted eight months. However, she managed to recover completely after having visions of Christ that accompanied her for the rest of life.

As she preferred luxurious dress style, she decided to establish a business to afford her nice clothes. However, her brewery business failed after four years while the mill business failed almost as soon as it was launched. Becoming increasingly preoccupied with religious feelings, she began to live a life of pilgrimage and spiritual devotion. She traveled not only throughout England, but also abroad to Norway, France, Germany, Italy, and Holy Land. Her memories and experienced she dictated and they were described in autobiographical work “The Book of Margaret Kempe”, noteworthy as the first English language autobiography.