Abstract
In the previous chapter, we examined the perceived archetypal characteristics of new-born child murder in the early modern period. We also identified the circumstances that could result in the conception of illegitimate infants in the British Isles and further afield. In this chapter, we need to move past this initial context to understand the circumstances associated with pregnancy and birth of infants during this era, before hospitals became the standard provider of maternal and neonatal care from the late nineteenth century onwards.2
Going with child is as it were a rough sea, on which a big-belly’d woman and her infant floats the space of nine months: and labour, which is the only port, is so full of dangerous rocks, that very often both the one and the other, after they are arriv’d and disembark’d, have yet need of much help to defend them against divers inconveniences which usually follow the pains and travail they have undergone in it.1
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Notes
F. Mauriceau (1697, 1863 edition, 1972 reprint) Observations in Midwifery [Edited from the original manuscript by H. Blenkinsop] (Wakefield: S.R. Publishers) [Bodleian Library, RSL 15083e.30].
For further discussion see G.B. Carruthers and L.A. Carruthers (2005) (eds.) A History of Britain’s Hospitals and the Background to the Medical, Nursing and Allied Professions (Lewes: Book Guild), especially pp. 227–50.
Most works on the history of childbirth tend to concentrate on the ‘typical’ or ‘traditional’ experience of pregnancy and delivery—that of the married mother. See, for instance, A. Eccles (1982) Obstetrics and Gynaecology in Tudor and Stuart England (London and Canberra: Croom Helm)
T. Cassidy (2007) Birth: A History (London: Chatto and Windus)
M.J. O’Dowd (1994) The History of Obstetrics and Gynaecology (New York and London: Parthenon)
D. Cressy (1999) Birth, Marriage and Death: Ritual, Religion and the Life- Cycle in Tudor and Stuart England (Oxford: Oxford University Press)
and J. Gélis (1991) History of Childbirth: Fertility, Pregnancy and Birth in Early Modern Europe (Cambridge: Polity).
L. Gowing (2003) Common Bodies: Women, Touch and Power in Seventeenth- Century England (New Haven, CT and London: Yale University Press), p. 10.
For further discussion see M. Jackson (1996) ‘“Something More Than Blood”: Conflicting Accounts of Pregnancy Loss in Eighteenth- Century England’, in R. Cecil (ed.) The Anthropology of Pregnancy Loss: Comparative Studies in Miscarriage, Stillbirth and Neonatal Death (Berg: Oxford), p. 199
R. Leboutte (1991) ‘Offense against Family Order: Infanticide in Belgium from the Fifteenth through the Early Twentieth Centuries’, Journal of the History of Sexuality, 2, p. 175
and K.H. Wheeler (1997) ‘Infanticide in Nineteenth- Century Ohio’, Journal of Social History, XXXI, p. 412.
For discussion of the fact that unmarried, young domestic servants were regularly the target of this kind of accusation see L. Gowing (1997) ‘Secret Births and Infanticide in Seventeenth- Century England’, Past and Present, CLVI, p. 92.
L. Abrams (2002) ‘From Demon to Victim: The Infanticidal Mother in Shetland, 1699–1802’, in Y.G. Brown and R. Ferguson (eds.) Twisted Sisters: Women, Crime and Deviance in Scotland since 1400 (East Linton: Tuckwell), p. 192.
R. Schulte (1984) ‘Infanticide in Rural Bavaria in the Nineteenth Century’, in H. Medick and D.W. Sabean (eds.) Interest and Emotion: Essays on the Study of Family and Kinship (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), p. 97.
For further discussion see also Gowing (2003) Common Bodies, p. 118
and A. Rowlands (1997) ‘“In Great Secrecy”: The Crime of Infanticide in Rothenburg ob der Tauber, 1501–1618’, German History, 15, pp. 180 and 183.
See U. Rublack (1999) The Crimes of Women in Early Modern Germany (Oxford: Clarendon), p. 182.
For further discussion see Gowing (1997) ‘Secret Births’, p. 95
G. Morgan and P. Rushton (1998) Rogues, Thieves and the Rule of Law: The Problem of Law Enforcement in North- East England, 1718–1800 (London: UCL Press), p. 111
U. Rublack (1986) ‘Pregnancy, Childbirth and the Female Body in Early Modern Germany’, Past and Present, 150, p. 85
and K. Wrightson (1975) ‘Infanticide in Earlier Seventeenth- Century England’, Local Population Studies, XV, p. 13.
J.R. Dickinson and J.A. Sharpe (2002) ‘Infanticide in Early Modern England: The Court of Great Sessions at Chester, 1650–1800’, in M. Jackson (ed.) Infanticide: Historical Perspectives on Child Murder and Concealment 1550–2000 (Aldershot: Ashgate), p. 46.
See also P.M. Crawford (2010) Parents of Poor Children in England, 1580–1800 (Oxford: Oxford University Press), pp. 67–9.
See, for instance, A.-M. Kilday (2008) ‘“Monsters of the Vilest Kind”: Infanticidal Women and Attitudes towards their Criminality in Eighteenth- Century Scotland’, Family and Community History, 11, p. 104 and Abrams (2002) ‘From Demon to Victim’, p. 190.
See, for instance, Gowing (1997) ‘Secret Births’, p. 87
and Gowing (2003) Common Bodies, p. 45.
For further discussion see ibid. and p. 93; Abrams (2002) ‘From Demon to Victim’, p. 190
and L.A. Pollock (1997) ‘Childbearing and Female Bonding in Early Modern England’, Social History, 22, p. 300.
For further discussion see Gowing (2003) Common Bodies, p. 65.
For further discussion see Gowing (1997) ‘Secret Births’, p. 89.
M. Jackson (1996) New- Born Child Murder: Women, Illegitimacy and the Courts in Eighteenth- Century England (Manchester: Manchester University Press), p. 60.
See Gowing (2003) Common Bodies, p. 140.
See Rublack (1999) The Crimes of Women, p. 182.
For further discussion see Rowlands (1997) ‘“In Great Secrecy”’, pp. 184–5.
Leboutte (1991) ‘Offense against Family Order’, p. 177.
See, for instance, Gowing (2003) Common Bodies, pp. 45–6
P. Crawford (1981) ‘Attitudes to Menstruation in Seventeenth- Century England’, Past and Present, 91, p. 17
Abrams (2002) ‘From Demon to Victim’, pp. 186–7
Jackson (1996) New-Born Child Murder, pp. 61–2
and especially C. McClive (2002) ‘The Hidden Truths of the Belly: The Uncertainty of Pregnancy in Early Modern Europe’ Social History of Medicine, 15, pp. 209–27.
Gowing (2003) Common Bodies, pp. 112 and 141.
For further discussion of these tests see Gélis (1991) History of Childbirth, pp. 47–8
and Eccles (1982) Obstetrics and Gynaecology, p. 60.
Gélis (1991) History of Childbirth, p. 47.
See Rowlands (1997) ‘“In Great Secrecy”’, p. 181
Gowing (2003) Common Bodies, p. 144
Rublack (1999) The Crimes of Women, p. 176
and K. Ruggiero (1992) ‘Honor, Maternity and the Disciplining of Women: Infanticide in Late Nineteenth-Century Buenos Aires’, The Hispanic American Historical Review, 72, p. 358.
See, for instance, Gowing (1997) ‘Secret Births’, p. 91
Abrams (2002) ‘From Demon to Victim’, p. 186
and Ruggiero (1992) ‘Honor, Maternity and the Disciplining of Women’, p. 358.
Gélis (1991) History of Childbirth, p. 46.
See also Eccles (1982) Obstetrics and Gynaecology, p. 61.
Gowing (1997) ‘Secret Births’, p. 96
Gowing (2003) Common Bodies, p. 120
Jackson (1996) New- Born Child Murder, p. 64
Ruggiero (1992) ‘Honor, Maternity and the Disciplining of Women’, p. 358
and N. Lonza (2002) ‘“Two Souls Lost”: Infanticide in the Republic of Dubrovnik (1667–1808)’, Dubrovnik Annals, 6, p. 88.
For further discussion see M.E. Wiesner (2000) Women and Gender in Early Modern Europe [Second Edition] (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), pp. 54–6
Crawford (2010) Parents of Poor Children, p. 24
and Eccles (1982) Obstetrics and Gynaecology, pp. 49 and 51.
For further discussion see Crawford (2010) Parents of Poor Children, p. 24.
See, for instance, Rublack (1999) The Crimes of Women, pp. 164 and 178
and Wiesner (2000) Women and Gender, pp. 60–3.
For further discussion see Rublack (1999) The Crimes of Women, p. 174
Eccles (1982) Obstetrics and Gynaecology, p. 59
Abrams (2002) ‘From Demon to Victim’, p. 188
and Rowlands (1997) ‘“In Great Secrecy”’, p. 190.
For further discussion see Jackson (1996) New- Born Child Murder, pp. 62–3
Gowing (1997) ‘Secret Births’, p. 91
Ruggiero (1992) ‘Honor, Maternity and the Disciplining of Women’, p. 360
Abrams (2002) ‘From Demon to Victim’, pp. 186–7
Schulte (1984) ‘Infanticide in Rural Bavaria’, p. 459
and K. Wrightson (1982) ‘Infanticide in European History’, Criminal Justice History, III, p. 6.
See, for instance, Abrams (2002) ‘From Demon to Victim’, p. 189
and Lonza (2002) ‘“Two Souls Lost”’, p. 83.
For further discussion on the issue of the peripatetic nature of many pregnant single women see Wheeler (1997) ‘Infanticide in Nineteenth- Century Ohio’, p. 411
and M. Kamler (1988) ‘Infanticide in the Towns of the Kingdom of Poland in the Second Half of the 16th and the First Half of the 17th Century’, Acta Poloniae Historica, 58, p. 39.
For more on the determination of these women to control the outcome of their circumstances see C.B. Backhouse (1984) ‘Desperate Women and Compassionate Courts: Infanticide in Nineteenth- Century Canada’, The University of Toronto Law Journal, 34, pp. 448 and 458.
See, for instance, F. Mauriceau (1697) The Diseases of Women with Child and in Child- Bed: As Also the Best Means of Helping them in Natural and Unnatural Labours. With Fit remedies for the Several indispositions of New- born Babes. To which is Prefix’d an Anatomical treatise. [Translated by H. Chamberlen] (London: A. Bell). [Bodleian Library, Vet. A3 e.69]
H. King (2007) Midwifery, Obstetrics and the Rise of Gynaecology: The Uses of a Sixteenth- Century Compendium (Aldershot: Ashgate)
J. Donnison (1988) Midwives and Medical Men: A History of the Struggle for the Control of Childbirth (New Barnet: Historical Publications), especially pp. 20–33
P. Rhodes (1995) A Short History of Clinical Midwifery: The Development of Ideas in the Professional Management of Childbirth (Hale, Cheshire: Books for Midwives)
E. Shorter (1985) ‘The Management of Normal Deliveries and the Generation of William Hunter’
and L.J. Jordanova (1985) ‘Gender, Generation and Science: William Hunter’s Obstetrical Atlas’, both in W.F. Bynum and R. Porter (eds.) William Hunter and the Eighteenth- Century Medical World (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), pp. 372–83 and 371–412 respectively
J. Drife (2002) ‘The Start of Life: A History of Obstetrics’, Postgraduate Medical Journal, 78, p. 311
and Wiesner (2000) Women and Gender, pp. 79 and 82.
See, for instance, Gélis (1991) History of Childbirth, p. 97
and Eccles (1982) Obstetrics and Gynaecology, pp. 87–95.
See, for instance, Rublack (1986) ‘Pregnancy, Childbirth and the Female Body’, pp. 101 and 103
and Gowing (1997) ‘Secret Births’, p. 87.
Crawford (1981) ‘Attitudes to Menstruation’, p. 21.
For further discussion see A. Wilson (1985) ‘Participant or Patient? Seventeenth-Century Childbirth from the Mother’s Point of View’, in R. Porter (ed.) Patients and Practitioners: Lay Perceptions of Medicine in Pre- Industrial Society (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), p. 134
Morgan and Rushton (1998) Rogues, Thieves and the Rule of Law, p. 111
R. Porter (1995) Disease, Medicine and Society in England, 1550–1860 [Third Edition] (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), p. 26
and Abrams (2002) ‘From Demon to Victim’, p. 190.
Wilson (1985) ‘Participant or Patient?’, p. 137.
See also Pollock (1997) ‘Childbearing and Female Bonding’, p. 298
Eccles (1982) Obstetrics and Gynaecology, pp. 109–18
Wiesner (2000) Women and Gender, pp. 79–81
and A. Wilson (1995) The Making of Man- Midwifery: Childbirth in England, 1660–1770 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press), p. 22.
For further discussion of the role of midwife in the pre- modern period see Gélis (1991) History of Childbirth, pp. 103–11
Cressy (1999) Birth, Marriage and Death, especially Chapter 3
D.A. Evenden (2000) The Midwives of Seventeenth- Century London (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press)
A. Wilson (1985) ‘William Hunter and the Varieties of Man-Midwifery’, in W.F. Bynum and R. Porter (eds) William Hunter and the Eighteenth- Century Medical World (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), pp. 344–69
J. Donnison (1988) Midwives and Medical Men: A History of the Struggle for the Control of Childbirth (New Barnet: Historical Publications)
Wilson (1985) ‘Participant or Patient?’, pp. 135–41
and especially H. Marland (1993) (ed.) The Art of Midwifery: Early Modern Midwives in Europe (London: Routledge).
See Gélis (1991) History of Childbirth, p. 107.
For further discussion of this transformation see in particular A. Wilson (1995) The Making of Man- Midwifery: Childbirth in England, 1660–1770 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press).
Gowing (1997) ‘Secret Births’, p. 99.
See J.W. Leavitt (1986) Brought to Bed: Childbearing in America, 1750–1950 (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press), p. 14.
For further discussion see Eccles (1982) Obstetrics and Gynaecology, pp. 61–5
Gélis (1991) History of Childbirth, pp. 150û6
Crawford (2010) Parents of Poor Children, p. 145
and Crawford (1981) ‘Attitudes to Menstruation’, p. 22.
For further discussion see Gélis (1991) History of Childbirth, pp. 112–5
and Eccles (1982) Obstetrics and Gynaecology, pp. 101–8.
For the introduction of ‘lyingin’ facilities see M.C. Versluysen (1981) ‘Midwives, Medical Men and “Poor Women Labouring of Child”: Lying- in Hospitals in Eighteenth- Century London’, in H. Roberts (ed.) Women, Health and Reproduction (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul), pp. 18–49.
For further discussion see Wilson (1995) The Making of Man- Midwifery, p. 19
Crawford (1981) ‘Attitudes to Menstruation’, p. 22
and Rublack (1986) ‘Pregnancy, Childbirth and the Female Body’, p. 97.
My calculations based on the evidence presented in Eccles (1982) Obstetrics and Gynaecology, p. 125
and supported by Crawford (1981) ‘Attitudes to Menstruation’, p. 22.
Drife (2002) ‘The Start of Life’, p. 314.
See, for instance, K.D. Watson (2008) ‘Religion, Community and the Infanticidal Mother: Evidence from 1840s Rural Wiltshire’, Family and Community History, 11, p. 116]
Porter (1995) Disease, Medicine and Society, p. 7
Crawford (1981) ‘Attitudes to Menstruation’, p. 23
and G. Rosen (1976) ‘A Slaughter of Innocents: Aspects of Child Health in the Eighteenth- Century City’, Studies in Eighteenth Century Culture, V, pp. 296–7.
For further discussion see Ruggiero (1992) ‘Honor, Maternity and the Disciplining of Women’, p. 360.
For further discussion see Gélis (1991) History of Childbirth, pp. 150–83.
See, for instance, Eccles (1982) Obstetrics and Gynaecology, pp. 94–100.
Leavitt (1986) Brought to Bed, pp. 73–4.
T. Cassidy (2007) Birth: A History (London: Chatto and Windus), p. 11.
See Donnison (1988) Midwives and Medical Men, p. 25
and especially P. Willughby (1672, 1863 edition, 1972 reprint) Observations in Midwifery [Edited from the original Manuscript by H. Blenkinsop] (Wakefield: S.R. Publishers). [Bodleian Library, RSL 15083e.30].
See Gowing (1997) ‘Secret Births’, p. 100
and Donnison (1988) Midwives and Medical Men, pp. 14–15.
See, for instance, Gowing (199 7) ‘Secret Births’, p. 102
Wheeler (199 7) ‘Infanticide in Nineteenth- Century Ohio’, p. 412
and Kamler (1988) ‘Infanticide’, p. 41.
Jackson (1996) New- Born Child Murder, p. 65.
For further discussion see Jackson (1996) New- Born Child Murder, p. 66.
See, for instance, respectively Abrams (2002) ‘From Demon to Victim’, p. 194
Schulte (1984) ‘Infanticide in Rural Bavaria’, p. 86
Lonza (2002) ‘“Two Souls Lost”’, pp. 71–2
Ruggiero (1992) ‘Honor, Maternity and the Disciplining of Women’, p. 367
Rublack (1999) The Crimes of Women, p. 164
and N. Woodward (2007) ‘Infanticide in Wales, 1730–1830’, Welsh Historical Review, 23, p. 118.
Eccles (1982) Obstetrics and Gynaecology, p. 86.
See, for instance, Gélis (1991) History of Childbirth, p. 98
and Gowing (1997) ‘Secret Births’, p. 99.
For further discussion see Lonza (2002) ‘“Two Souls Lost”’, pp. 87–8
and Gélis (1991) History of Childbirth, pp. 160–2.
Wilson (1995) The Making of Man- Midwifery, p. 15.
For further discussion see A.R. Higginbotham (1989) ‘“Sin of the Age”: Infanticide and Illegitimacy in Victorian London’, Victorian Studies, 32, pp. 319–37
and Lonza (2002) ‘“Two Souls Lost”’, pp. 89–90.
See, for instance, Kamler (1988) ‘Infanticide’, p. 42
Wheeler (1997) ‘Infanticide in Nineteenth- Century Ohio’, p. 409
Dickinson and Sharpe (2002) ‘Infanticide’, p. 45
Backhouse (1984) ‘Desperate Women’, pp. 459–60, 467 and 469
and Rublack (1999) The Crimes of Women, pp. 170–1.
NRS, High Court of Justiciary, Books of Adjournal, JC3/39. See also Gowing (1997) ‘Secret Births’, p. 110.
See Ruggiero (1992) ‘Honor, Maternity and the Disciplining of Women’, p. 358.
For the common use of privies as a site of disposal in instances of newborn child murder in the pre- modern period see Schulte (1984) ‘Infanticide in Rural Bavaria’, p. 87
Wrightson (1982) ‘Infanticide in European History’, p. 1
Rowlands (1997) ‘“In Great Secrecy”’, p. 179
Woodward (2007) ‘Infanticide’, p. 11
and Leboutte (1991) ‘Offense against Family Order’, p. 173.
For further discussion see Gowing (1997) ‘Secret Births’, p. 107
and Abrams (2002) ‘From Demon to Victim’, p. 195.
For further discussion see Higginbotham (1989) ‘“Sin of the Age”’, p. 325
Schulte (1984) ‘Infanticide in Rural Bavaria’, p. 86
and Rowlands (1997) ‘“In Great Secrecy”’, p. 195.
For further discussion see Jackson (1996) New- Born Child Murder, p. 66.
The issue of cause of death in episodes of new- born child murder and claims of early miscarriage will be addressed more fully in Chapter 4 of this volume. For further discussion of claims of early miscarriage as a defence in the pre- modern period see S. Sommers (2002) ‘Bodies, Knowledge and Authority in Eighteenth-Century Infanticide Prosecutions’ (Unpublished Master of Arts Dissertation, University of Victoria), p. 37
and Wiesner (2000) Women and Gender, p. 78.
For further discussion see Gowing (2003) Common Bodies, p. 114
D. Rabin (2002) ‘Bodies of Evidence, States of Mind: Infanticide, Emotion and Sensibility in Eighteenth- Century England’, in M. Jackson (ed.) Infanticide: Historical Perspectives on Child Murder and Concealment, 1550–2000 (Aldershot: Ashgate), pp. 74–5
and Lonza (2002) ‘“Two Souls Lost”’, p. 81.
See Woodward (2007) ‘Infanticide’, p. 113 and the results of a British Academy funded project into infanticide in early modern Scotland.
For further discussion see Lonza (2002) ‘“Two Souls Lost”’, p. 81.
Watson (2008) ‘Religion, Community and the Infanticidal Mother’, p. 117.
For further discussion see Woodward (2007) ‘Infanticide’, p. 98
and Backhouse (1984) ‘Desperate Women’, p. 457.
Rabin (2002) ‘Bodies of Evidence’, p. 76.
For further discussion see for instance G. Hanlon (2003) ‘Infanticide by Married Couples in Early Modern Tuscany’, Quaderni Storici, XXXVIII, pp. 453–98.
For further discussion see Watson (2008) ‘Religion, Community and the Infanticidal Mother’, p. 125
and P.M. Crawford (2010) Parents of Poor Children in England, 1580–1800 (Oxford: Oxford University Press).
See, for instance, Backhouse (1984) ‘Desperate Women’, p. 457
and Woodward (2007) ‘Infanticide’, p. 113. The Scottish evidence supports this contention: in all except one of the indictments for infanticide alleged to have been carried out by married women, the accused had been supported by an accomplice.
For further discussion see Backhouse (1984) ‘Desperate Women’, p. 455.
For examples, see respectively Gowing (2003) Common Bodies, p. 156
Donnison (1988) Midwives and Medical Men, p. 14
Morgan and Rushton (1998) Rogues, Thieves and the Rule of Law, p. 113; and various cases for the Scottish Justiciary Court, such as that brought against Marion Stewart at the North Circuit Court in 1726 and the case against Katherine Dick brought before the High Court of Justiciary in Edinburgh in 1743: see NRS, Justiciary Court North Circuit Records, JC11/6 and High Court of Justiciary, Books of Adjournal, JC3/24 respectively.
For further discussion of the lack of formal accusations against accomplices in pre- modern Europe see Woodward (2007) ‘Infanticide’, pp. 100–1 and 113
Kamler (1988) ‘Infanticide’, p. 41
and Higginbotham (1989) ‘“Sin of the Age”’, p. 326. An accomplice was indicted in fewer than 4 per cent of the 480 infanticide cases brought before the Scottish Justiciary Court between 1700 and 1820.
See, for instance, Abrams (2002) ‘From Demon to Victim’, p. 180
T. Evans (2005) ‘“Blooming Virgins all Beware”: Love, Courtship and Illegitimacy in Eighteenth-Century British Popular Literature’, in A. Levene, T. Nutt and S. Williams (eds.) Illegitimacy in Britain, 1700–1920 (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan), p. 33
T. Evans (2005) ‘“Unfortunate Objects”: London’s Unmarried Mothers in the Eighteenth Century’, Gender and History, XVII, p. 137
and Morgan and Rushton (1998) Rogues, Thieves and the Rule of Law, p. 113.
See, for instance, Dickinson and Sharpe (2002) ‘Infanticide’, p. 41
and Morgan and Rushton (1998) Rogues, Thieves and the Rule of Law, p. 113.
T. Brewer (1610) The Bloudy Mother, or The Most Inhumane Murthers, Committed by Iane Hattersley vpon diuers infants, the Issue of her Owne Bodie: & The Priuate Burying of Them in an Orchard with her Arraignment and Execution (London: J. Busbie), reference number ESTC 3717.3. [Accessed from Early English Books On- Line: http://eebo.chadwyck.com/home].
For further discussion see Gowing (1997) ‘Secret Births’, pp. 87–8
Gowing (2003) Common Bodies, p. 140
Rublack (1999) The Crimes of Women, pp. 186 and 188
Dickinson and Sharpe (2002) ‘Infanticide’, p. 43
and Leboutte (1991) ‘Offense against Family Order’, p. 177.
See, for instance, Donnison (1988) Midwives and Medical Men, pp. 14–5
and Gowing (1997) ‘Secret Births’, pp. 87–8.
For further discussion see Ruggiero (1992) ‘Honor, Maternity and the Disciplining of Women’, p. 367
Gowing (2003) Common Bodies, p. 164
and Abrams (2002) ‘From Demon to Victim’, p. 193.
For further discussion see Pollock (1997) ‘Childbearing and Female Bonding’, p. 303.
For further discussion see Woodward (2007) ‘Infanticide’, pp. 111 and 115
Dickinson and Sharpe (2002) ‘Infanticide’, p. 44
and Morgan and Rushton (1998) Rogues, Thieves and the Rule of Law, p. 113.
See respectively the results of a British Academy funded project into infanticide in early modern Scotland and Woodward (2007) ‘Infanticide’, pp. 114–5.
For further discussion see Leboutte (1991) ‘Offense against Family Order’, p. 162
and Wheeler (1997) ‘Infanticide in Nineteenth- Century Ohio’, p. 408.
For further discussion see Gowing (1997) ‘Secret Births’, pp. 103–4 and 109
Woodward (2007) ‘Infanticide’, pp. 111 and 11
Crawford (2010) Parents of Poor Children, p. 74
Crawford (1981) ‘Attitudes to Menstruation’, p. 129
and Wheeler (1997) ‘Infanticide in Nineteenth- Century Ohio’, p. 408.
For further discussion see Woodward (2007) ‘Infanticide’, pp. 111 and 115
Gowing (2003) Common Bodies, pp. 182–4
and Crawford (2010) Parents of Poor Children, pp. 79–111.
For further discussion see Woodward (2007) ‘Infanticide’, pp. 111 and 115
and Gowing (2003) Common Bodies, pp. 182–4.
Ibid. For further discussion see also Crawford (2010) Parents of Poor Children, pp. 79–111.
See Wrightson (1982) ‘Infanticide in European History’, p. 10
and Higginbotham (1989) ‘“Sin of the Age”’, p. 319.
See also Rowlands (1997) ‘“In Great Secrecy”’, p. 195 for a similar argument.
S. Faber (1990) ‘Infanticide and Criminal Justice in the Netherlands, especially in Amsterdam’, in International Commission of Historical Demography (ed.) The Role of the State and Public Opinion in Sexual Attitudes and Demographic Behaviour (CIDH: Madrid), p. 260
and R.W. Malcolmson (1977) ‘Infanticide in the Eighteenth Century’, in J.S. Cockburn (ed.) Crime in England 1550–1800 (London: Methuen), p. 196.
For further discussion see Jackson (1996) New- Born Child Murder, p. 69
Schulte (1984) ‘Infanticide in Rural Bavaria’, pp. 93–4;
Dickinson and Sharpe (2002) ‘Infanticide’, p. 46;
and Lonza (2002) ‘“Two Souls Lost”’, p. 94.
For further and more detailed discussion of the involvement of the Church in Scottish infanticide investigations during the pre-modern period see Kilday (2008) ‘“Monsters of the Vilest Kind”’, pp. 100–115.
Gowing (1997) ‘Secret Births’, p. 111–my addition in parenthesis.
See, for instance, Lonza (2002) ‘“Two Souls Lost”’, p. 99
and Pollock (1997) ‘Childbearing and Female Bonding’, p. 304. The tactic of testing a suspect’s reaction by introducing the dead body of a new- born child to the proceedings was commonly adopted in Scotland during the pre- modern period and typically resulted in a full confession from the individual accused.
See Abrams (2002) ‘From Demon to Victim’, p. 193. In Scotland, sometimes ministers of a particular parish undertook these examinations themselves, which must have only added to the horrific, brutal and depersonalising nature of the investigative process for the young female suspects involved.
See Kilday (2008) ‘“Monsters of the Vilest Kind”’, p. 100–115.
See, for instance, Rowlands (1997) ‘“In Great Secrecy”’, pp. 186 and 189
and Gowing (2003) Common Bodies, p. 45.
For further discussion see Lonza (2002) ‘“Two Souls Lost”’, pp. 101–2
and Jackson (1996) New- Born Child Murder, pp. 70–7.
For further discussion see Jackson (1996) New- Born Child Murder, pp. 72–3
and Jackson (1996) ‘“Something More Than Blood”’, p. 206.
For further discussion see Lonza, p. 90; Ruggiero (1992) ‘Honor, Maternity and the Disciplining of Women’, p. 368;
and Wilson (1985) ‘Participant or Patient?’, p. 136.
Wiesner (2000) Women and Gender, p. 64.
See, for instance, Morgan and Rushton (1998) Rogues, Thieves and the Rule of Law, p. 114
and Ruggiero (1992) ‘Honor, Maternity and the Disciplining of Women’, pp. 368–9.
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Kilday, AM. (2013). Murderous Mothers and the Extended Network of Shame. In: A History of Infanticide in Britain c. 1600 to the Present. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137349125_3
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