Elizabeth Jocelin

Elizabeth Brooke Jocelin (sometimes spelled "Joceline" or "Joscelin") was an English writer believed to have lived from 1595–1622. She is best known for her renowned work, The Mother's Legacy to her Vnborn Child. The book was first published two years after Jocelin's death in childbirth.

She was the daughter of Sir Richard Brooke of Norton, Cheshire, and his wife Joan, daughter of William Chaderton, bishop of Lincoln. Her parents separated, and her mother returned home. Jocelin's grandfather, Bishop Chaderton, was mainly responsible for her upbringing. Elizabeth's childhood was therefore passed in the house of Bishop Chaderton, who educated her. She was extremely well versed in art, religion and language. According to her editor Thomas Goad, she had an exceptional memory.

In 1616 she married Tourell Jocelin of Cambridgeshire. Foreboding her death in childbirth, she wrote a letter which gently but earnestly exhorted her son or daughter to piety and good conduct; and a letter to her husband, giving him advice as to the bringing up of the child. These works are thought to have been written at Crowlands, Oakington. She bore a daughter on 12 October 1622, and died nine days afterwards. The child, named Theodora, became the wife of Samuel Fortrey.

The Jocelins appeared to lead a rather happy marriage, one that appeared to be mainly based on genuine love. In The Mother's Legacy to her Vnborn Child Jocelin writes of how excited she is to be carrying her husband's child and that they have been working together to plan the best possible life for their child

Jocelin is noted for being "one of the most notable young women of the times of James I”

The Legacie was first published in 1624 with a long Approbation by Thomas Goad giving some account of Elizabeth Jocelin's life. The second edition is dated 1624 and the third 1625. An exact reprint of the third edition, with an introduction by an anonymous Edinburgh editor, appeared in 1852. The edition printed at Oxford, 'for the satisfaction of the person of quality herein concerned,' in 1684, and reprinted at the end of C. H. Cranford's Sermons in 1840, is an altered one, the editor having made changes in religious matters. The manuscript of the Legacie is in the British Museum (Addit. MS. 27467). It is still somewhat contentious whether the manuscript is by Jocelin, and whether Goad's editorial work brought in substantive change in the content.

Jocelin wrote The Mother’s Legacy to her Vnborn Child during the Early Modern period when women were typically defined by their existence in the domestic sphere. Jocelin’s work kept in line with the expectations of women during the period because of her clear dedication to her position as a mother.

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