Women and Crime in Sixteenth-Century Wales Elizabeth Anne Howard A dissertation submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy School of History, Archaeology and Religion Cardiff University 2020 i Summary This thesis is the first full-length study of women and crime in sixteenth-century Wales. After the Acts of Union of 1536 and 1543, Wales fell under English legal jurisdiction. As such, Wales provides a key setting through which to question how a new system of criminal law could be developed and implemented. The sixteenth- century, however, has been somewhat neglected by historians of crime, as has the location of Wales. This study addresses this gap in research by utilising the detailed depositional evidence from the Welsh Great Sessions c.1542 to 1590. Further, this thesis draws especially on evidence from Montgomeryshire and Flintshire due to the richness of the surviving source material in these counties’ gaol files, and the fact that these two counties were part of the same Great Sessions circuit. Compared to the history of Welsh crime, the study of gender and crime has been much more vibrant. This thesis builds on previous research in this field by placing women’s experience as perpetrators and victims of crime at the forefront of the investigation. Throughout, I examine the three main categories of offence that women experienced – theft, homicide, and witchcraft – and question how a woman’s gender affected her treatment before the law. Indeed, the central arguments of these chapters expose the differences between criminal accusations made against women in their original formats and how these allegations could be modified and changed throughout the legal process. While gender provides the central theme of this thesis, a secondary theory of space, place, and location has been used as framing tool through which to question how sixteenth-century Welsh people experienced and reacted to crime. This innovative approach, inspired by the work of gender historians such as Amanda Flather, has provided new insights into the contexts in which early modern crime was committed and experienced. ii Acknowledgements I wish to thank the Arts and Humanities Research Council for funding this research. This project was part of the Women Negotiating the Boundaries of Justice project and I would like to thank the team for selecting me to undertake this research and for their encouragement throughout this project. My gratitude also extends to my supervisors; Garthine Walker, Lloyd Bowen, and Jan Machielsen. I also wish to thank my examiners, Mark Williams and Amanda Flather, for their stimulating and illuminating comments on this thesis. I have spent many hours in many libraries over the course of this research, and thus I wish to thank the staff of the National Library of Wales for being so patient with me, the Arts and Social Sciences Library at Cardiff University, the team at Saint Fagan’s and the Library of the University of New England, for providing me with vital research materials. The final words of this thesis were written in the public libraries of Bideford, Barnstaple, and Ipswich, whose staff have been very kind to me. I was fortunate to have been guided by so many people throughout this thesis. I wish to thank Eryn White, Richard Suggett, Glynn Parry, Emily Cock, Lisa Tallis, Bronach Kane, David Doddington, Anna Field, and Cath Horler-Underwood for being so forthcoming with their time and their research. I also owe a debt of thanks to the Student Health and Wellbeing service at Cardiff University. I received a wealth of support from the postgraduate community at Cardiff University, especially the usual suspects in the PGR office. The members of CUSWG provided a vital network, and Will and Kate provided drinks of varying strength. Sam and Johanna have shown me more generosity than I deserve, and my work husband, Donald, made it all bearable. My final thanks are for my chosen family – Loci, Scott, and Francesca – and the poor souls who had no choice in the matter. Lastly, this thesis is dedicated to my Mum, who gives so much and asks for so little. iii Prefatory note Dates follow old style, but the year is taken to begin on 1st January. Spelling and punctuation of quotations have been modernised throughout the thesis, though I have left the spelling and punctuation of book and pamphlet titles as they stand. I have used a variety of sources when checking the spelling of place names, including Murry Chapman’s edited volumes of Great Sessions records from Montgomeryshire, Ellis Davies, Flintshire Place Names (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1959), Hywel Wyn Owen, The Place-Names of East Flintshire (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1994), and the database of Historic Welsh Place Names available at <https://historicplacenames.rcahmw.gov.uk/>. Abbreviations NLW GS National Library of Wales, Great Sessions iv Table of contents Summary ....................................................................................................................... i Acknowledgements ...................................................................................................... ii Prefatory note .............................................................................................................. iii Abbreviations .............................................................................................................. iii Table of contents ......................................................................................................... iv Table of figures ........................................................................................................... vi 1: Introduction .............................................................................................................. 1 1.1: Gender, crime, and the law ............................................................................... 7 1.2: Space, place, and location. .............................................................................. 13 1.3: Sources ............................................................................................................ 19 1.3.1: Depositions and examinations ................................................................. 22 1.3.2: Indictments............................................................................................... 26 1.3.3: Recognizances and prothonotary papers.................................................. 28 1.4: Scope of this thesis ......................................................................................... 30 2: Female thieves in Montgomeryshire...................................................................... 32 2.1: Gendered aspects of theft indictments in Montgomeryshire, c.1542-90 ........ 35 2.1.1: Indictments for theft offences .................................................................. 36 2.1.2: Dependent females? ................................................................................. 47 2.1.3: Criminal associates .................................................................................. 50 2.2: Types of goods stolen by women ................................................................... 54 2.3: The spatial setting of theft .............................................................................. 65 2.3.1: Persons and proximity ............................................................................. 72 2.4: Conclusions ..................................................................................................... 77 3: Homicide and (Lethal) Violence............................................................................ 79 3.1: Categories of homicide ................................................................................... 83 v 3.2: Homicide within the home .............................................................................. 85 3.2.1: Violence and betrayal: uxoricide ............................................................. 89 3.2.2: Petty treason: mariticide........................................................................... 96 3.3: Homicide in contested places ........................................................................ 102 3.3.1: Contested land in a Welsh context ......................................................... 104 3.3.2: Welsh Women, land offences, and lethal violence ................................ 109 3.4: Conclusion .................................................................................................... 117 4: Slander and Witchcraft......................................................................................... 119 4.1: The picture of Welsh witchcraft.................................................................... 120 4.2: The picture of Welsh slander ........................................................................ 124 4.3: A tripartite model for characterising slander ................................................ 126 4.3.1: Insults ..................................................................................................... 127 4.3.2: Threats to prove ..................................................................................... 130 4.3.3: Specific allegations ................................................................................ 131 4.4: Slander and Maleficium ................................................................................ 135 4.4.1: Gender ...................................................................................................