DERBYSHIRE MISC LLANY llB )rRlr,).\tt> s "\lt, q, lP R n cltqv, ll)uutnry s II I )lR.Lt The Local History Bulletin of the Derbyshire Archaeologica! Volume 8 Spring 1978 Part 3 DERBY SH IRE iTI SCELLANY Vol. Vlll : Port 3 Sprin s 1978 CONTENTS Page Martha Taylor - the Fasting Maid of Over Haddon 77 -87 by the late Janet Wadsworth - Derby China 88-89 by L. S. Harrison History of Higher Owlgreave 90-9t by M. A. Bellhouse Industrialists and Education in Derbyshire in the Nineteenth Century 92-94 by J. E. Heath A letter to Madam Turnor from Edmd. Evans 95-96 by Miriam Wood Elmton 97 - t02 by J. C. Sinar sPRtNc 1978 EDITOR Miss J. Sinar, Derbyshire Record Offiee, County Offices, Matlock, DE4 3AG. Edirbriol Assistonli D. V. Fowkes Treosurerl Mr. T. Larimore, 43 Reginald Road South, Chaddesden, Derby, DE2 6NG. All enquiries regarding new membership and distribution should be addressed to the Treasurer. ' SU BSCRIPTION f,1.50 annually for members of the Derbyshire Archaeological Society and f,I.75 annually for others. 165l . ?1687 THE LATE JANET WADSWORTH (Formerly of Over Hoddon ond Monchester) Three hundred years ago, Over Haddon, a 2nd February, L65L/2.8 Sh" was the daughter of village in Derbyshire, had its brief moment of William Taylor, a miner living in Over [Iaddon. e notoriety.'Between 1667 and 1669 Martha Taylor, The village consisted of some thirty houses with a young girl of I7 or IB was reported to be living a population of about 135 people. Many of the without food or drink. Visitors from all over houses were probably thatched and most were two England flocked to see her, divines, doctors, storeys high. The Hearth Tax return lor 1664 l0 antiquarians, a euiorr,s tailor-poet from Ashover, shows only four families with two or more hearths servants, gentlewomcn, and the Earl of Devonshire and twenty-two with one hearth; four older or himself, all visited her. Pamphlets were published poorer members of the community were exempt and letters written to the Royal Society, which from payment. This gives us som.e idea of the had been formed some six years earlier. comparatively narrow social limits in the village. The Civil War was over. the Commonwealth Most of the numerous wills and inventories had ended, Cromwell was dead, and seven years for Over Haddon that survive in the series of wills earlier Charles II had beea restored to the throne. for the peculiar of the Dean and Chapter of The country was settling down, but the seething Lichfield in the Lichfield Joint Record Office, religious ferment of the Commonwealth was by no belong to yeomen and husbandmen, but almost all means dead. .Three of the four pamphlets about families appear to have kept a cow on the common Martha are religious pamphlets, reflecting the and grown their own supplies of oats, peas, beans, intense interest of the day in manifestations of wheat and hay in their back crofts, or on their religious zeal and miracles, forces rrhich Ied to strips in the common fields and meadow which . the great divide between non-conformists and the still existed round the village. Mares, colts, cows, Church of England. 'As well as being a time of heifers, swine, sheep in Iarge numbers, bees and religious ferment this was also a time of intellec- oxen are all mentioned. Most houses had their supply tual activity. To quote G.N. Clark in his book on of flax, hemp and wool for spinning and the Late Stuarts: It was then that the special act- making their own clothes. Sheets, coverlets and iuity uthich ute call scientific began tq be a bolsters, together with feather or chaff mattresses lead.ing element in European thought. I were important items in every house. I ra It ie interegting to see how tho surviving' In Januery L66B/g Thomas Wheldon, huebandman, sources of Marthats story reflect her age. On one died in Over Haddon leaving every thing side we have the religious pamphlets, io" by H.A.2 to his wife. Thomas lefr no will but John Brunt and Williarn Taylor certified his last wishes and two by Thomas Robins, Ballad-naker .of and after Darby, a wellwisher the Gospel of I esus he died completed the inventory of his .to gooda, Chri,st, who had already published Tha Sinners Thia William Taylor may havo been Mantha'a father. Thomae and his warning-piecc or H eauens illessenger, lnstructing wife Marthe Wheldon hed a kitchen with atable, three chairs, a wooden eide- poor Sinners in the way of Repentance,s He ,Landiront, boerd, treen woodenware, a racks for entitled his first pamphlet on Martha Newes from fuel, brass and pewter-ware. Darby.shire or.the Wonder all Wonilers. Thqt The kitchen oDened ,of into the parlour where thore ws a feather beirwith ever yet was Printe.d, ,being o perfect and true hangings' and with sheets,blankets, bolsters and Relation of the hand,y work of Almighty God shown pillow. Upstairs was a chamber with two more upon the bod,y.of one llartka Taylor. e In beds, two cupboards, one trunk, three chests and contrast are the two letters written by the philo- .Thomas two small boxes. owned an old horse and sopher Thomas Hobbes s and Dr. Johnstono saddle, three cows, one stirk and eighty-one sheep, (probably the Yorkshire antiquarian) to the Royal together with a harrow, wheat, meal and a good Society; and a pamphlet by Reynolds 7 John supply of hay ro carry his stock through the winter. H.unbly offered to the Royall Society in 1669, which considers the case medically. Most of the The furnishings of this house are common to sources. story that follows is drawn from these most at that period. Though Martha Taylor,s father All are discussed at the end of this article. was a miner they had their own garden and, judging' by the inventory of a miner John Taylorr I z' no- Martha was baptised in Bakewell Church on 77 died in Sheldon in l639fi,0, they probably kept .sickness. By about May 1662 she was permanently their own cow and pig for butter, milk, cheese and bedfast. During the times when she was free from bacon. Fuel would have been wood gathered in the torments of hiccups, sickness and fever s[e the dale and peat cut on the moor between Over occupied herself with the re.ad,ing of holy .scri.pture t Haddon and Monyash. or .sacred books, day.and night..r Shu *.. in this invalid state for about five and a half years until The staple diet of the villagers was oatmeal, in the winter of 1667 she beeame acutely ill peas and beans in addition to dairy produce, and under.the most Exquisite Pains, Burnings, Cramps, meat when beasts were killed. Fruit, apples, figs, Vomitings, anil the most .strange Bleedings and raisins and prunes are all mentioned in connection Hiccoughs, that euer I read or heard of.r"n By with Martha and honey and sugar were available mid,-December she had revived q little, but found for sweetening. Although no references have she had an utter .loathing of, and an inabil.ity to survived the villagers must also have grown herbs, reeeiue necessary frod for the support of Life 20 and vegetables like cabbage, leeks and shallots. The uery approach.of Meat or Drinh uas.a gredt trouble to her, the uery sight or smell of either,. H.A.,. describing Marthats parents, said of though at a temoue, would beget her .sorr,ow; yea, William Taylor that he was one who is.Originally, the oery tfioughts of either would make her sick and as to his present state or degre.e, a plain before hand,. So she virtually stopped eating or Country:man, uthose employment lyes in the Lead drinking, though from time to time during the next llinesi H.e hath no more easie way to aduance a 18 months she had small morsels of food and lioelihood, then that which was of Dioine deter'. drink which are all carefully chronicled. mination, .by the sweat of his Brow: A man of no larger Politicks, then how to get an homely, In June 1669 the last eyewitness account of her was written honest rnaintenance for .him and his; h,e has so by a Dr. Johnston: " On Sr. Thomas' Day, (December 21st.) 1667, she much.of Religion in him as to keep frge fro.m Lying, Loosness, or.the Debauchery of the Age, sutallouted three small pieces of apple cooked, t and, to hove a gooil esteem for holy.things. The with.meat pie, anil from this time she tmh.no llan is of good Credit amongst the better sort gf solid food. And to the 2 nd, of the next February, she scarcely,wet her toward.s N eighbors. H.is W ife was of somthing an higher .lips 9nd next Rank then himself, both as to Birth and Education; Easter .she moistend her throat with syrup maile A person in her cotntnon carr.iage uety. caret'ul, from spring water and sugar with .a very. little rose honey, her at time . ; and cautious about her .words and, actic,ns; I am .thraat .the being s uppurated, with ulcers; and, weeks ready.to suppose, in the iudgement of charity, for .six in the upon sorne ffial of her, that she hath.a td,ste of Summer she took not a single drop of liquid, but she those good things which refer to anoth.er world,.