" ... the surviving volumes owned by the seventeenth-century yeoman-famer William Dowsing ... reveal a scrupulously methodical reader. Dowsing evidently began a book by jotting down and completing all of the biblical citations ... As John Morrill summarizes, Dowsing 'frequently ... added to the title pages of books and sermons an index of items that were of particular interest to him; frequently he scored the margin with varying degrees of emphasis; and less usually he summarized a passage in the margin or engaged in argument with the author' ... Dowsing ... also wrote his name on his books' title pages ... along with the dates of purchase and reading ..."