Margery Kempe (c. 1373 – after 1438) is known for dictating The Book of Margery Kempe, a work considered by some to be the first autobiography in the English language. This book chronicles, to some extent, her extensive pilgrimages to various holy sites in Europe and Asia, as well as her mystical conversations with God. She is honoured in the Anglican Communion.
She was born Margery Brunham in King's Lynn (then Bishop's Lynn), Norfolk, Kingdom of England. Her father, John Brunham, was a merchant in Lynn, five-time mayor, and Member of Parliament. His mercantile fortunes may have been negatively affected by downturns in the economy, especially in the wool trades, of the 1390s. The first record of her Brunham family is the mention of her grandfather, Ralph de Brunham in 1320 in the Red Register of Lynn. By 1340 he had joined the Parliament of Lynn
At the age of 20, Margery Brunham married a Norwich man named John Kempe. She had 14 children with him.
Margery is a hamlet in the Reigate and Banstead district, in the English county of Surrey. It is less than 1 km from the top of the north-facing dip slope of the North Downs. The hamlet is on the northern side of the M25 motorway, close to Junction 8, the Reigate Hill interchange.
The nearest settlement is the village of Lower Kingswood. Other nearby settlements include the towns of Reigate and Redhill, the small hamlet of Mogador, and the villages of Kingswood, Tadworth and Walton-on-the-Hill. The area surrounding the hamlet is a mixture of farmland and common land; Reigate Hill to the south is National Trust land. Other common land areas close by include Banstead Heath, Walton Heath and the Buckland Hills. The North Downs Way passes immediately to the south of the hamlet (on the other side of the motorway).
Coordinates: 51°15′39″N 0°12′23″W / 51.2608°N 0.2063°W / 51.2608; -0.2063