s of travel and communication caused the lives of
the women of the early English manors to be secluded and, in a sense,
protected the wives and daughters of the titled nobility. The manor
house was a world to itself, a centre of law, of society, of industry,
and, ofttimes, of culture.

On account of the bad state of the roads and the lack of the modern
convenience of quick transmittal of information, the turmoils and
upheavals of the cities left the manors unaffected by more than
a ripple of their excitement. The manor had its own social and
administrative system, which provided for the performance of duties by
the various elements of the manorial establishment. In times of wide
social disorder, the manor, by reason of its isolation, was often
subject to attack; then the courage and fortitude of its female
occupants were called forth to the uttermost. Women whose names
might otherwise have passed into obscurity have been enrolled among
England's heroines by reason of just such circumstances; one such,
whose fame carries us back to the Wars of the Roses, was Lady Joan
Pelham, wife of Sir John Pelham, Constable of Pevensey Castle. While
Sir John was in Yorkshire with the Lancastrian Duke Henry, fighting
against Richard II., Pevensey Castle was fiercely attacked by
Yorkist forces. The continuance of the siege brought on a scarcity
of provisions; in this strait, Lady Joan addressed a letter to her
husband, which, besides displaying the courage of a noble English
lady, has the additional interest of being the earliest letter extant
written by an English woman of quality. It reads as follows:

"MY DERE LORDE:

"I recommande me to yowr his Lordeshippe wyth heart and body and all
my pore myght, and wyth all this I think zou, as my dere Lorde, derest
and best yloved of all earth lyche Lordes; I say for me and thanke
yhow me der Lorde, with all thys that I say before, off your
comfortable lettre, that ze send me from Pownefraite that com to me on
Mary Magdaleyn day; ffor by my trowth I was never so gladd as when I
herd by your lettre that ye was stronge ynogh wyth the grace off God
for to kepe you fro the malyce of your ennemys. And dere Lorde iff it
lyk to your hyee Lordeshippe that als ye myght, that smythe her off
your gracious spede whych God Allmyghty contynue and encresse. And my
dere Lorde, if is lyk zow for to know of my ffare, I am here by layd
in a manner off a sege, wyth the counte of Sussex, Sudray, and a green
pa