Alleine, Theodosia (fl. 17th c.)

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Alleine, Theodosia (fl. 17th c.)

British writer. Born probably after 1632 in Ditcheat, Somerset, England; died before 1685; dau. of Reverend Richard Alleine; m. Joseph Alleine (dissenting cleric), 1655 (died 1668).

Set up boarding school in Taunton and was a successful teacher and businesswoman; supported herself during husband's two imprisonments; wrote a sizeable portion of the hagiography of her husband, The Life and Death of that Excellent Minister of Christ, Mr. Joseph Alleine, Late Teacher of the Church at Taunton, in Somersetshire, Assistant to Mr. Newton (1672).

See also C. Stanford, Joseph Alleine: His Companions and Times (1861).