Rose Thurgood  Rose Thurgood (born ) was an English religious writer, known as the author of one of the earliest English conversion narratives, "A Lecture of Repentance" (1637/8). "A Lecture of Repentance" follows Thurgood's fall from a member of the king's court, to a woman in financial destitution, through the financial tumult of her "bad husband", and the following religious awakening. Presented in an epistolary and autobiographical format, the "Lecture" exhibits how Thurgood reacted to her change in fortune within her religion: opening with a revitalisation in religious zeal, she subsequently begins to "rage & swell" at God's judgement of her, then fearing herself damned for her "debt bill" of sins. During this despair, she encounters the religious dissenters, John Bull and Richard Farnham who preach the lack of agency of man on his fate, before God's divine grace and judgement. Initially outraged at their opinions, Thurgood comes to accept them. With her financial troubles continuing, and struck with a "burning fever", Thurgood finds herself receiving a revelation from God, pronouncing her one of his chosen few. The "Lecture" then concludes, with her poverty unrelieved but content in her knowledge that, though she has little, God "hath [...] given mee Christ". The "Lecture" has been the subject of some scholarship, much from Naomi Baker. It status as a "unique opportunity to hear the voice of a seventeenth-century woman living in extreme poverty", has been examined. With this, he accompanying evidence of the lives of lower-class Puritans has been discussed: referring to the way these dissenters would have read the Bible, understood Calvinist theories of agency, and reconciled their femininity within religion. Rose Thurgood was born around 1602, as one of seven children. She later associated with the Colchester prophets Richard Farnham and John Bull, perhaps suggesting an origin in the Essex town. With no less than three elder sisters, she learned fine needlework while young and took an interest in contemporary fashion. She apparently associated with the king's court, socialising with its "Knights and Ladies, of great account". After her marriage, and the birth of at least four children (the eldest, named Mary), Thurgood's high social status decayed, as she and her family began to regress into "extreame povertie and want".