'The True State of My Case: The Memoirs of Mrs Anne Bailey, 1771

Abstract

This article explores The Memoirs of Mrs Anne Bailey, a short memoir published by a lone mother in London in 1771. It addresses questions of methodology, in terms of legal history and textual analysis, to examine how Anne Bailey's Memoirs shed light on the operation of everyday justice in the mid-eighteenth century metropolis, as well as what they reveal about relationships between legal and textual subjectivities during the era. The article argues that drawing on life-writing sources enriches our understanding of the lived experience of lowlevel justice, as well as conceptions of individual personhood in the eighteenth century.