FROM
FIRSTS
DISHONOURABLE AND HONOURABLE WOMEN
Everybody's idea of 'good' and 'bad' varies but here are a few examples of women who fall into the more usually accepted meaning of the words.
WITCHES
Until the sixteenth century, witchcraft in the British Isles was not an offence that was punishable by death. For hundreds of years, witches were an accepted part of everyday life and were respected for their supposed powers of healing and foresight. They were also blamed for damaged crops, sick cattle, infertile couples, unwanted rain, anything that was generally considered to be bad luck. The first legislation against witches came at the end of the seventh century when the punishment was usually a period without food. From the end of the tenth century, witches were exiled from their homes and although some barbaric practices were used to detect if someone was a witch, this rarely meant death. The first woman known to have been accused of witchcraft is Agnes, Wife of Odo. She was freed after surviving a 'trial by ordeal' in 1209, when she was forced to hold a red-hot iron.
The first woman to be tried and to face death for being a witch was Lady Alice Kytler who lived in Ireland in the fourteenth century. She was a very wealthy woman who married four times, her first three husbands all dying from a similar mysterious illness after they had left all their money to Lady Alice. When her fourth husband, Sir John le Poer, became poorly in 1324, he began to realise that something suspicious was going on. Sir John demanded the key to his wife's room and, after a struggle, discovered several chests filled with strange instruments, lotions and potions.
He sent these to Bishop Ossory, recently returned from France where witch trials were already being held. It seems likely that the bishop saw a quick way to make money, as it was common practice for the wealth of a guilty suspect to be confiscated and donated to the Church. He ordered Lady Alice's arrest along with her son William and her maid Petronella who were supposedly also involved. Lady Alice was accused of vile things including making a potion of dead men's nails, unbaptised babies' brains, hair, poisonous herbs, worms and intestines, all boiled together in the skull of a beheaded robber.
But Lady Alice was a very influential woman and persuaded the Lord Chancellor of Ireland to overrule her arrest. She then escaped to England, taking her money with her, but Petronella the maid was not so lucky. She became the scapegoat and was flogged until she confessed, then burnt alive on 3 November 1324, the first person to be burnt as a witch in the British Isles.
In 1563, the Witchcraft Act was passed in England and Scotland introducing the death penalty for the first time. The earliest trial under this Act was at Chelmsford in 1566, where Agnes Waterhouse was found guilty, and hanged. She was accused of using her cat, called Sathan, to kill a man who had upset her, and this cat was also supposed to have destroyed local cattle, spoiled a neighbour's butter, killed another neighbour's goose and murdered Agnes' husband as well. Two other women stood trial alongside her but they were found not guilty and freed. Scotland developed a far worse reputation for hunting witches and women found guilty were always burnt alive. In England the last woman to hang was Alice Molland, in 1684. In Scotland the last woman to burn was Janet Home, in 1727.
ROBBERS
One of the earliest recorded instances of a criminal woman is Emma Brunfustian, a thief and highway robber who lived in Northamptonshire around 1200. She went every day to the markets at Daventry and Northampton and, along with a group of men, robbed merchants at Stamford fair. She was eventually caught, although her fate is not known.
The most notorious woman criminal ever was Moll Cutpurse (c.1589 - c.1662), feared more than any man of her day. Born Mary Frith, her childhood should have been a happy one with her honest parents scrimping and saving to get the best for their daughter, but it seems she rebelled against them from the start, fighting all their efforts to make her into a respectable' young woman. In despair, they sent her off to New England but Moll jumped ship and swam back to shore. Now free from her family, she gave up all pretence of being decent, took to dressing as a man and joined the underworld.
Moll initially made her name as a pickpocket and was accepted into a criminal organisation called the 'Society of Divers'. One of the reasons why she was so good at the job was her exceptionally long middle finger. She also became skilled at cutting loose gentlemen's purses, which is how she got her name. Moll was soon very rich, and dressed in more and more extravagant men's clothes. She took to walking the streets of London carrying a sword, smoking a pipe and with her faithful hound 'Wlldbrat' always at her side.
It wasn't long before Moll was bored with being a pickpocket and switched to highway robbery, where she led her own gang. She made the mistake of holding up and shooting General Fairfax on Hounslow Heath who sent troops to arrest her, and Moll found herself in Newgate Prison sentenced to death. Luckily she was able to bribe her way out. After that, she chose the quieter life of a receiver of stolen property, increasing her fortunes by then selling the goods back to their original, wealthy, owners. Moll also dabbled in blackmail, bribery and brothel-owning. In 1612 she was again arrested, not for her criminal ways but for wearing men's clothes, then a punishable offence. She turned her public penance to her own advantage by arriving drunk and organising some of her friends to pickpocket the crowd of onlookers.
Moll Cutpurse lived to be seventy-five, her last request being to be buried face down, in order to be a rebel even after death.
PIRATES
Anne Bonney (dates not known) and Mary Read (1690 - 1720) were pirates on the high seas, who finally met on the same ship. Both their stories are surrounded by myth, but it seems indisputable that they did exist.
Anne Bonney's tale is the more reliably documented. She was the daughter of a successful Irish lawyer,William Cormac, and the result of an affair with his maid. After a period of living together, the family emigrated to America, where William became a successful plantation owner and merchant. When Anne's mother died, he employed his daughter as his housekeeper and chief assistant. She was soon in disgrace when, aged seventeen, she fell in love with and married a poor sailor called James Bonney and the young couple were forced by Anne's father to leave.
With James, Anne travelled to the West Indies where her beauty was spotted by the infamous pirate chief, John 'Calico Jack' Rackham. Calico Jack soon won Anne's favour and offered to buy her from James, but James refused and Anne was publicly flogged for infidelity. Despising her husband for his cruelty,Anne ran away to sea with Calico Jack and was soon wearing the clothes and acting the part of a pirate. She gained a reputation for being hard and would kill any man who crossed her.
Mary Read's beginnings are a little less clear. It seems that she too was illegitimate, her mother trying to hide her shame by running away to France and dressing her daughter as the son who, unknown to the family had died in infancy. To earn money, Mary's mother turned to crime, using her young child to help her steal and, when only nine, Mary was sold to a French lady as a houseboy. Mary hated her new life and soon ran away to join the army, becoming emotionally attached to one of her fellow soldiers after revealing to him that she was really a woman. They were soon married but her husband was killed after only six months leaving sixteen-year-old Mary a widow.
Still wearing the men's clothes that she preferred, Mary signed up as a cabin boy on a merchant ship. Not far out of port, the ship was attacked by pirates. To stop them discovering the truth about her, and then doubtless raping and killing her, Mary opted to join the gang. She took part in the capture of several other ships but was not particularly keen on her new life so when the chance of an amnesty for pirates arose, Mary took it and went to work as a barman in the West Indies. Here she served Calico Jack, who tried to persuade the 'young man' to join his next pirate venture, but Mary declined. Then, comparing her previous life at sea with the dullness of her current job, she soon regretted her decision. At the next available opportunity she recovered her pistol and sword and signed up with a ship that would take her back to an ocean life.
The crew of this ship mutinied and when they were overtaken by Calico Jack, most went to join him. This, then, was when Mary Read met Anne Bonney. It seems that Anne took a fancy to the feminine young sailor but whether they continued to be lovers is a matter of some speculation. One fact is known. In 1720 their ship was captured by pirate hunters and Anne, Mary and Calico Jack were arrested. All were found guilty and condemned to the gallows. Calico Jack was hanged but the story goes that the two women pleaded pregnancy and were temporarily reprieved. Mary died soon afterwards inprison but Anne was rescued by her forgiving father, who took his daughter and new grandchild back to freedom.