Trapnel, Anna

The career of Anna Trapnel (c. 1625–after 1660) flourished against the general upheaval that extended from the English Civil Wars (1642–51), across the Commonwealth (1649–60), to the restoration of 1660. She is best known for three significant publications released in 1654: The Cry of a Stone, a series of spiritual sayings occasioned by the trial of fellow Nonconformist Vavasor Powell (1599–1658); Report and Plea, an account of a journey to Cornwall, her subsequent arrest, and a refutation of the charges against her; and A Legacy for Saints, a relation of her more remarkable spiritual experiences. Robust expressions of Particular (that is, Calvinian) Baptist piety animated by millenarian (that is, apocalyptic) expectations, her works are also noteworthy in that the majority originated as transcriptions of her “prayers and singings” taken down by a “Relator” during Trapnel’s extended periods of spiritual rapture.