These cases have been selected and transcribed by Leah Astbury, author of a PhD on ‘Breeding Women and Lusty Infants in Seventeenth-Century England’ (University of Cambridge, 2016). She is revising her thesis for publication and working on a new project on marital health in early modern England.
Mrs Margery Gudging, 44 years. Tuesday 11 April 1598, 1.00 pm. Whether she shall have any children or no.
[Chart.]
She will not have any child, but about Michaelmas she will conceive again. The fault is in the man.
Edition and image for CASE3449
Susan Sanders of Hackney, 36 years. 19 October 1599, 3.15 pm. Mack Williams’s daughter by Mary Chekes.
[Left margin] Look 5 November.
[Chart.]
[Astrology.] Whether she shall have any more children. Any more husbands. & whether she shall live to enjoy him that does best deserve her.
She shall live to enjoy her beloved and it seems her husband will die in December next by drunkenness & then shall she marry him she loves if she will & have by him 2 children a boy & a maid but shall miscarry of the maid.
Edition and image for CASE6211
Mary Goddard the daughter of Andrew Clark & Joan. She dwells at Westminster in Gardeners Lane, 28 years the Thursday before Christmas next. She has been married two years. The wife of John Goddard, pinner. Question whether she shall have any children or no. & when. & what is the cause, she has none. & whether the fault be in her or her husband. Question Monday 5 November 1599, 8.15 am.
She must pay 5s. Re[ceived] 12d.
It is overmuch dryness of her matrix is the cause. She has no children for she has not her courses well & her husband is dry also. Prepare & purge twice.
Edition and image for CASE6280
Anne Tymcok, 31 years. Monday 17 December 1599, 1.20 pm. Diz [the nature of the disease]. Whether she shall ever have any child. It is of Jupiter in Leo, Moon separating from Mercury. Has her course well but watery. Her husband’s nature agrees not with her.
Edition and image for CASE6490
Anne Tymcok, 31 years. Monday 17 December 1599, 1.20 pm. Whether she shall have any children or no.
[Chart.]
It seems she shall conceive twice. But she may bring one child with much ado into the world. The other will perish & not come to life. Her husband’s nature does not agree with her. They are both dry. Let her rectify her body well. And her husband also for the greatest fault is in the man.
And it seems she shall have a child by some other man and not by her husband.
Edition and image for CASE6494
My cousin George Kimpton of Weston. Saturday 1 May 1613, 4.45 pm.
[In chart] Can beget no child.
[Astrology.] Of very cold complexion.
Edition and image for CASE41297
Joan Corden, 32 years. Thursday 24 April 1600, 10.50 am. Diz [the nature of the disease]. By the Beargarden. A chandler. And whether she shall ever have any more children.
[Chart.]
It is of Saturn in Libra, Moon separating from Sun. She is not sick nor well. Pain, stomach, head, back, belly of melancholy.
Whether she shall have any more children. Whether she shall have any more husbands & whether her friend will continue faithful unto her. William Corden of 2 years her husband. John Banister of 30 her friend. And whether she shall ever marry him.
Edition and image for CASE7257
Mrs. Mary Talbot of Saldon, 20 years last Michaelmas. Friday 30 June 1620, 4.4[5] pm.
[In chart] Late abortion.
Has had 3 false conceptions & this last on Wednesday morning with great pain & travail & many throes nothing but a bla[dder] & nothing in it. Has never but [a] few. Used much fasting & also a sparing diet. Enquires the ca[use] & what remedy.
[Left margin] Has no proportion or shape of a carrot [?]. Apt to conceive.
The matrix too cold. Full of raw & [in binding] humours that hinder [or] corrupt it.
The first had as it were a pig’s bladder blown a little water & the [in binding] like an afterbirth with some clots [?].
[Next page] Whether this defect proceeds not as well from the husband as the wife. By reason there wants only the shape. Thought good to go to the spa for them both & what I think thereof. What best for diet & hereafter what physic & for the present whether condiment, electuary or lozenges.
Edition and image for CASE51150
Selected Cases in Full 