By On 28 July 1716 the Huntingdon assizes condemned Mary Hicks for witchcraft. According to the published narrative of her case, Mary lived in Huntingdon with her husband Edward and their 9-year-old daughter Elizabeth. Elizabeth was apparently the ‘Aple of his Eye’. This picture of domestic happiness shattered when Mary became
The Derbyshire Damsel
Martha Taylor: The Derbyshire Damsel In the late 1600s, a young woman in the Derbyshire Peak District became a celebrity for a brief time. Martha Taylor, born in February 1651, was an adolescent who had a history of ill-health starting from when she was about ten years old. She became
By Flesh and Spirit
This week’s post is a quick look at the anthology Flesh and Spirit: An Anthology of Seventeenth-century Women’s Writing August saw the first anniversary of the publication of Flesh and Spirit: An Anthology of Seventeenth-century Women’s Writing (Manchester University Press, 2014) co-edited by Sara, with Rachel Adcock (Keele) and Anna Ziomek. Since we didn’t
A dose of witchcraft
Coming down with a dose of Witchcraft -– a Halloween special Witches were a real presence in early modern lives. Many elderly women healers, as well as a range of other people, risked accusations of witchcraft. Indeed new midwives, for example, had to swear an oath that they would not