These cases have been selected and transcribed by Boyd Brogan whose Wellcome Trust Research Fellowship (2015-18) focused on chastity diseases. These cases explore chastity, childlessness and frustrated sexual desire as causes of illness.
Katherine Ignoram of Rishdon hard by Hiem Feryes, 23 years. Thursday 2 June 1614, 6.00 pm. Mater pro filia sine consensu [the mother for the daughter without consent].
[Chart.]
Married 3 years to her husband. She is willing to lie with him, but will not permit her husband to have the use of her body. Feels a yucking up of her meat & is as one tormented that she cannot [breaks off]. It will lie in her throat not able to speak her eyes closed & her mouth & yet sometimes will bounce on her bed & yet cannot speak striving, & then it will choke her & then will weep & when they go to prayer the more ease she feels. Is foolish & mopish some days & at other times she will neither. Blood letting or purging will do her good. At some times of the year, a deadness began & a while after will grow frantic. If she take a vomit it will work & she will fall down dead for 3 hours & then afterward will come to her sense. Never now desires carnal copulation.
[Treatment information.]
Under tongue also.
Edition and image for CASE23511
A French maid 18 years, servant to my lady Lee of Leighton. Friday 7 July 1619, 1.30 pm. Her father would have sent her to marry with one that she loves not & then she came over to England by stealth.
[Chart.]
[Right of chart] Had a clyster last night. [Treatment information.]
[Left of chart] Urine indiff[erent].
[Left margin below chart] A rising in her stomach up to her throat stopping her wind.
Sick since Monday a tingling in her flesh, stitches in her right side. Spit blood. Was let blood & then it went into the left side & then back again to the right side. Is benumbed & pricked all over & ill her joints & has as it were passion of the mother & as one swounding. [Between lines] Terms stopped 2 months.
Desires to eat & cannot get it down & will by fits laugh & be again extreme sick by fits.
Edition and image for CASE49141
Mary Harding of Shiddlington, 15 years. Monday 23 July 1632, 8.30 am. Married at Christmas last. Pained in her heart & stomach. Has little or no appetite to her meat. Cannot sleep. Ill 3 weeks. Stands as one in a trance.
[In chart] Convulsive fits. Mother.
In love with a young man & her friends against. Urine indifferent. 3 weeks sick. Yet married against her will. [Treatment information.] Has used all yet not the better.
[Treatment information.]
Edition and image for CASE75152
Joan Hull of Newport of 46 years. Thursday 5 October 1598, 3.50 pm. For the rising of her & griping of her heart by fits she has had it a long time: somewhat like an impostume ready to stop her wind & can hardly swallow her spittle. Arising like the mother. Taken a grief touching her first husband who sold all that she had.
[Chart.]
Her first husband & she could not agree. Used her not well & was lordly given & always sold away all & made her after she had a child to go 7 years to service again. Many hearts’ griefs.
Edition and image for CASE11734
Mrs Anne Gawdon of Horton, 34 years. Last Candlemas eve betwixt 11 & 12 or near 12 in the daytime but came in her own person Tuesday 19 February 1622, 10.45 am. Twice married but of late 3 quarters of a year.
[Chart.]
[Right] Head continually pained, neck & shoulder.
Is sorely troubled with the mother some 3 hours in extremity & comes not to her present memory & senses not in 12 hours. Within half a year February 7 on Thursday about 9 in the morning & also on the 10 of February & some grief last night. Feels also an evil heat in her stomach. A very windy stomach full of obstructions. [Right margin] A cold body especially in her fits.
A thick white settling. Has not the course of her body as she was wont to have them once in three weeks some days well coloured now twice in 3 weeks some 3 days & pale coloured.
[Left column] [Astrology.] And is sorely pained with griping under her left side under her short ribs & has the wind colic & the stone colic after it not able to make water for an hour after it.
[Right column] No appetite, costive. Much discontent by her husband when he lived by living from her but he is dead. Stomach heaves when it begins. Begins at her left side. Back much pained. Quivers & shakes & is very dry & stomach is full & foul.
No physic 14 years. Grief bred it.
Edition and image for CASE53589
Lady Elizabeth Walter, 48 years. December last the 8 being Thursday about nine at night but came to me Tuesday 23 June 1629, 3.00 pm. Cold in her stomach mouth & lips. [Right] Spleen & mother & veneficium [witchcraft].
[Chart.]
[Left of chart] A bad husband that did not regard her.
[Right of chart] Cowslip rosemary flowers mithridate oil of ambers to prevent the palsy.
A windy head & noise. A spice of the mother & spleen.
[Over page] This woman had a violent purge in winter & snowy weather which wrought 20 times in a day & night that it could hardly be stayed. & stopping the looseness with hot cloths never had them since. Which was about 2 years since. Took saffron 1d & it set her in a flower [menstruation]. Then drank a pint of barley water & that made her extreme cold in stomach & lips. Yet digests well. [Astrology.]
[Over page] The Lady Walter beyond London 40 miles came to me for my counsel. [Treatment information.]
Edition and image for CASE68820
Isabel Furber of Alesbury 23 years. Monday 30 September 1616, 2.20 pm.
A good stomach. Was let blood arm & foot. [Treatment information.]
[Left column] Isabel Furber troubled with the falling sickness often & rises up with a sore wind. Takes away her senses for an hour. A beating about her girdlestead [waist] thumping continually with an arising upward. She should have had a young man. Which broke because they could not give. Apt to cry & wail & then worst. 2 or 3 years.
[Left margin] Never fell before she took physic & then fell continually.
Edition and image for CASE43973
Will Stampford of Teddington, 31 years. Saturday 25 March 1620, 2.20 pm. A bachelor born on St Mark’s day being Friday about 11. 30 am 31 years a mark he had in his forehead. The falling sickness many kinds of it.
[In chart] Epilepsia.
[Astrology.] Mater sine consensu [mother without consent]. Ready to die in his fits. Is never [breaks off]. 3 years ill by fits taken suddenly light headed senseless sometimes 24 hours & better sometimes 2 or 3 days & nights. Mopish sometimes it will hold but one hour & well a fortnight. Voids at his mouth almost a quart of roping water like the white of an egg. It is ready to strangle him like the mother. He will rove & roam & skrike & roam with his hands as one besides himself & as if he would die for the time. Urine good. Love as is thought betwixt him & a wench.
[Top right] Will Stampford of Teddington, March 25 Saturday 2.20 pm, 1620. He looks thin, yellow. A good urine. Will eat [out] of the fit. [Left] Reddish hair.
[Treatment information.]
Grief brings him to his fit. Mopish & childish.
Edition and image for CASE50434
Case 33877
Jane Dickerson of Hartwell, 27 years. Monday 25 July 1608, 9.30pm. Her first fit.
[In chart] Took grief for one that did love her. & Married another. Falling sickness.
Burned that day, & after a great heat took cold. Head ache & tooth ache. Did take grief touching one that she loved & did mock her & now is married about a year since.
Edition and image for CASE33877
Case 33879
Jane Dickerson of Hartwell now of Sawcy Forrest, 27 years. Thursday 4 August 1608, 1.45 pm.
[In chart] Falling sickness.
On monday was sennet [seven nights] at evening late had a sore fit.
[Between lines] Face does swell.
July 25 the first fit betwixt 9 & 10 at night. Has them very well.
[Treatment information.]
Edition and image for CASE33879
Ralf Webster of Quainten 30 years a bachelor. Monday 19 March 1604, 2.48 am.
[In chart] Falling sickness.
Took a grief for one that loved him & married another. Has taken much grief as as soon as he starts he falls. If he hears any noise he starts & falls. The noise of a dog makes him to start & to fall.
Right side & head. & his eyes run with water & smart. Trembles & starts much.
2 years amiss.
Edition and image for CASE20832
Elisabeth Ratcliffe of Stonystratford. Wednesday 25 December 1611, 8.45am. Sorely troubled with the falling evil had it 3 times yesterday.
[Chart.]
Took it being in love.
Edition and image for CASE39001
Edith Elinge of Walton, 25 years. Wednesday 16 May 1599, 2.45 pm. Fears the falling sickness.
[In chart] Swoons much. Contracted. Grief taken for one she should have had & broke off & yet had him after.
A good water a few motes & hairs.
Hot as fire & as cold as water. A well coloured & faced wench & full faced & corpulent.
Edition and image for CASE12466
Mr Fettyplace, Tuesday 16 May 1620, 12.20 pm. Born Wednesday 3 October 1593, 3pm. Mr Fettyplace came to me not of his own accord but by the appointment of his lady mother a young gentleman. Loved one that his mother despised.
[In chart] Mopish by fits & furious. Could not be cured.
It is by fits in his head mopish & will not speak a word a week or better & by fits mends & will speak. Well sensed a quarter of a year. Ill 2 years by fits. [Astrology.]
Edition and image for CASE50854
Mr Fettyplace his urine brought Saturday 22 July 1620, 3.20 am.
His man sine consensu [without consent]. Urine red & aguish.
[Chart.]
Not a week since furious & struck his servant & made him black and blue & then told him that now he will fight no more & said that he will have his wench Anne & wishes that he had her. Urine red & aguish. 1. A cooling clyster.
Continued MS Ashmole 414 f. 187r.
7 August 1620. Whether good for Mr Fettyplace to marry the poor maid his mother’s maid though but poor or to continue still foolish and idle-headed for lack of one.
Purge him well with vomits or purges or clysters or all and leeches and then let him marry where his mind is set.
Edition and image for CASE51281
Case 58588
Elizabeth Lawrence of Luton Hoe 20 years. Tuesday 1 June 1624, 3.30 pm.
[In chart] Mad with love & melancholy & full of prate. Long ere she mended.
Apt to sigh.
1. was let blood arm & foot
2. had a vomit
Has had them but 4 times. The middle of her head ill & cannot sleep. Head & heart ill. Apt to talk of religion. Had the green sickness but now had them not this twelvemonth since last harvest. Always sickly. Despairs of gods mercy. [Treatment information.]
Edition and image for CASE58588
Case 58589
Elizabeth Lawrence was sent Monday 24 May 1624, 5.45 am. Tempted by Satan fell into a pond & likely to be drowned but was safely delivered very godly & religious & of a good mind and faith.
[Chart.]
Full of sad heavy melancholy thoughts. Back & head eyes run with water. Trembles and quivers.
Edition and image for CASE58589
Joyce Smyth of Stratford, 19 years. Thursday 21 August 1623, 11.00 am.
[In chart] Green sickness.
Has her terms well every three weeks. Grief taken for one that she affected. Is very weak.
[Treatment information.]
Edition and image for CASE56931
Mrs Esther Conquest, 21 years. This last 29 of May being Friday about 8 in the morning, but came to me Thursday 6 June 1622, 1pm.
[In chart] Melancholia cum delyrio. Ridet post flet idque saepius [melancholy with delirium. She laughs after she weeps, and this often].
Could not speak but now can again. Voluit maritum Salowe, quem parentes noluerunt [wanted Salowe for a husband, whom her parents did not want]. Will take no more clysters nor inward physic. But outward only. Has a ravenous stomach. A purging diet for mother & herself.
[Treatment information.]
Edition and image for CASE54392
Sir Guy Foster of Hanslop, 46 years. Friday 12 February 1608, 1.20 pm.
[In chart] Profluvium renum [running of the reins].
Was likely to have a widow. Who will not marry.
[Treatment information.]
Edition and image for CASE32771
Sir Guy Foster of Hanslop. Tuesday 2 August 1608, 4.45 pm.
[In chart] Seminis profluvium [profusion of seed]. Many times likely to spend & it never did nor had the good hap.
[Treatment information.]
Edition and image for CASE33874
Mr Thomas Newton wrote a friendly letter to me in the behalf of Mrs Elizabeth Davyes of Tingrith with her own sister, 60 years. Monday 6 March 1626, 1.40 pm.
[In chart] Mother. Epileptiae species [a kind of epilepsy].
Urine good a white thick sediment. Swooned . A quarter of a year by fits once in a month & now more often & in [one?]hour often times & then after a quarter of an hour very weak & weary.
[Left and between lines] Is very weak & takes little.
A rising in her legs & so [up?]ward until she swoon often. At the last full [moon] was so sick that they thought that she would die. If she live he would marry her.
[Treatment information.]
Edition and image for CASE61723
Elisabeth Seer of Fosket, 22 years. Friday 11 November 1608, 11.00 am.
Long sick. Head & left side & heart. Head swelled. Ready to stop her wind. [Treatment information.]
Is thought to take grief touching one that she loves. Being crossed in her match. Might have been matched once or twice & her father hinders the marriage.
[Treatment information.]
Edition and image for CASE34388
Elisabeth Seer of Fosket, 25 years. Tuesday 1 October 1611, 11.00 am.
[In chart] Green sickness. She is now upon concluding of a marriage.
[Below chart] Stopped since Whitsunday.
[Right] [Angel: Michael] It will do her good. It will be a good match
[Treatment information.] [Astrology.]
It begins at her head & goes down to her back & heart.
[Left] A heat in her left foot. Ill 3 years.
Cannot see well for pain of the head.
Edition and image for CASE38719
Elizabeth Fowkes of Holcot, 20 years. Monday 28 October 1622, 12.00 pm.
Green sickness. Is to marry shortly.
[Treatment information.]
Edition and image for CASE55181
Alice Reynolds of Liscombe, 18 years. Tuesday 9 October 1627, 9.30 am.
[In chart] Green sickness.
Faint & pale. Chest back casts this 3 weeks. Is likely to be married shortly
Urine good but pale & thin.
Edition and image for CASE64739
Joan Carter of Denton, 27 years. Monday 17th June 1611, 9.25am.
[In chart] Mother.
Her child 22 weeks old. Had a sore fit of the mother yesterday & swooned often times. Subject to melancholy. It is of Saturn in Pisces. Apt to take grief & discontentment. Subject to melancholy.
[Treatment information.]
[Angel: Asariel] It will do her good by god’s grace.
Had this disease before she was married but never since yesterday.
[Treatment information.]
Edition and image for CASE38297
Mrs Anne Stap of Emmerton, 21 years a fortnight before Easter. Wednesday 15 May 1622, 3.40pm.
[In chart] An ague.
Complains of an arising in her left side & runs up to her short ribs & full of wind. A noise in her head.
Has not had them since she was brought abed. Never had them before but a little before she conceived nor never since. Had the green sickness 12 years. Mended not until she married & was with child.
Nescit an sit gravida [does not know whether pregnant]. Ill in her stomach.
[Astrology.]
A thin urine like well water.
[Astrology.]
Edition and image for CASE54168
Elisabeth Machum of Milton. Wednesday 27 April 1603, 2.00 pm.
[In chart] Morbus comitialis. Gravidam fuit [epilepsy. Was pregnant]. Has had a child yet never the better.
[Below chart] Was never helped.
She proved with child as I think
[Right] Nescit an sit gravida [does not know whether pregnant].
Makes her nose bleed.
[Treatment information.]
Edition and image for CASE13715
Elisabeth Winkles [née Machum] of Gorefild, 20 years. Tuesday 13 December 1603, 2.00 pm.
Brought abed 5 weeks since of a boy. Yet her former fits continue. Walks up & down in her fits stretching out her hand. A little rheum runs out of her mouth. Heart pained a little before. After her fit head beats & pains her & is hot & burns about her brows.
Edition and image for CASE15962
Marge Savage of Towcester, 44 years. Saturday 23 August 1623, 2.00 pm.
[In chart] Mother.
Eyes do run with water. Urine much but good. Did complain of her head ever since Christmas & now but a day of her stomach & did swoon once today & did cast with all about eight in the morning. Has an arising up to her stomach ready to stop her wind. 6 children. No child these two years.
Has them orderly every month. Had them last week orderly.
[Treatment information.]
Edition and image for CASE56943
Joan Hanscombe of Shitlington, 34 years. Monday 24 November 1622, 1.20 pm.
[In chart] Mother fits. swooning.
Nescit an sit gravida [does not know whether pregnant]. No child these two years & a quarter. No terms these 15 weeks. Feels something to arise from the right side up to her chest & head & swoons for an hour oftentimes together.
[Astrology.]
Swooned these two months very often.
[Astrology.]
Edition and image for CASE55304
Alice Stone of Woburne, 35 years. Saturday 17 July 1624, 8.30am.
[In chart] Mother.
6 years married no child. A great swelling like a twopenny loaf in her belly.
Nescit an sit gravida [does not know whether pregnant]. Aguish water red.
[Left] Urine good. Belly very hard & cries in her room these 6 weeks. Is up once a day. Eats little.
It takes her by fits in her belly by strong tormenting pains especially 3 weeks running up into her limbs. faint & weak & can scarce [breaks off].
[Astrology.] [Treatment information.]
Edition and image for CASE58797
The Lady Crawford of Bockerings Park, 38 years. Friday 16 August 1624, 1.39 pm.
[Chart.]
[Below chart] Heat in the back.
Married 8 years no child. Whites indifferent. Mother. Subject to melancholy. Hot & dry. A bath.
[Left] 4 years since a diet drink.
[Right] Costive worse
[Astrology.] [Treatment information.]
Edition and image for CASE58888
Bridget Raynolds of Holcot, 23 years. Wednesday 25th April 1607, 9.30 am. Troubled with the mother on her left side arising up to her throat & cannot speak then [in binding] for a whole day and night nor yet cannot take her breath.
Has them but not well. [Treatment information.]
Stomach full. Always costive. [Treatment information.]
[Right column] Married 6 years but never had child. Not well long before in her stomach. & was ever healthful before Christmas last.
[Bottom right] Not heart sick nor feels any pain but in her back.
Edition and image for CASE63747
Elisabeth Hull of Newport Rob Anslowe’s daughter, 30 years. Wednesday 28 July 1619, 9.15 am.
[Chart.]
Urine very thin otherwise good. Very weak & sick in London has taken much physic & is very faint & weak. Green sickness. Married to this man better than a year no child by this man. Had 3 by the other & all died before they came to be christened.
Soles of her feet burn exceedingly.
[Treatment information.]
Edition and image for CASE49350
Mrs Hull of Newport who did dwell at London but came down to recover her health, 36 years. Saturday 18 September 1619. Had 4 children by her first husband & now married 2 years to one Mr Hull. 2 years & a half & has had no child.
[Chart.]
Had a vomit at London & since never well. Urine like well water. Troubled with sore stitches on her right side & chest as a thing arising like a live thing. Her feet did burn. Had of me an electuary which did her no good. Has a great dryness is exceedingly hot & dry in her fit & goes away with a cold sweat. Is much troubled with the mother. Had not her sickness kindly these 2 years since her husband died. Is very faint & short winded & is led betwixt 2 people supporting her.
[Treatment information.]
Edition and image for CASE49717
Mrs Hull of Newport, 37 years. Thursday 30 September 1619, 3.30 pm.
[In chart] Death of a consumption.
She died October 9 at 5pm. Aguish every day with sore sick fits. Ready to die at her heart. Casts that she takes else is not well. Her feet do swell at night. Has been sick 10 weeks. Very faint & feeble & commonly keeps her bed. Eats very little but broth & is never well until it be off from her stomach. Urine white like the green sickness with cobwebs. Has not had them a quarter of a year. Married 2 years & has had by this man no child. Has taken much physic vomit & purges & preparatives.
[Treatment information.]
Edition and image for CASE49733
Mrs Anne Bardall of Daventry born September 13 1596, 1.30pm. But sent to me Saturday 2 June 1632, 1.20 pm.
The more physic the more her pain. Extreme pain in her head. A giddiness rising out of her stomach to her head holding it for a year & a half & vomited much after her fit of dizziness. Since Easter her giddiness has left her & now has 6 or 8 passionate fits. In her head. Extremity of pain makes her mopish & senseless for a day & a half when she sweats a little after chill & cold. Apt to sleep.
[Chart.]
[Right column] Was let blood in the arm & also by leeches & since the worse. Never had child. Married 4 years & a widow 6 years then married 5 years yet no child. Has very few & seldom.
[Treatment information, including sigil of Jupiter with a silk string to wear about 11.]
Edition and image for CASE74758
Old Mr Edwards, his daughter in law. For his oldest dead son’s daughter [he means wife] at Henlowe in Bedfordshire, 34 years. Wednesday 28 March 1621, 7.45am. A widow much troubled in her hearing. [Left] A good urine but much whites.
[In chart] Hearing bad.
Unwilling to take physic. [Left column, astrology.]
Since Saturday her first fit took her with a great wind in her stomach or like the mother. A windy stomach like the mother. She swells & heaves upwards that 3 folks cannot hold her down. This fit continued 3 hours & rested. Then the same night about eleven taken again with another fit but it held her not so long. On Monday the like fit but not as vehement as the first. But yesterday being Tuesday about eleven in the forenoon as vehement a fit as 4 women could not hold her down & made her shake as a woman bewitched.
Edition and image for CASE52206
Mrs Haws of Bedford, 47 years March 27 next. Wednesday 13 February 1628, 11.00 am.
Sick a long time but worse of late. Is corpulent. Can eat little. Troubled with fits of the mother.
Grief for her husband’s death. No physic. Sleeps much after her mother fits & complains of her legs.
[Treatment information.]
Edition and image for CASE65367
Mrs Cocke of Stachdon, 40 years. Monday 16 June 1617, 2.20 pm.
Laments the death of her loving husband. An extreme headache. A bad back & much whites. Had an ague 4 & 5 fits. Has not her courses. Face full of flushing heat.
Edition and image for CASE45167
Selected Cases in Full 