Dobson argues that the anchoresses were enclosed near Limebrook in Herefordshire, and that the author was an Augustinian canon at nearby Wigmore Abbey, in Herefordshire, named Brian of Lingen.
Besides the Ancrene Wisse, other source texts are the Planctus Mariae (usually ascribed to Bernard of Clairvaux) and the Hours of the Cross from Pseudo-Bonaventura's Vita Christi.