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A90787
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The natural history of Oxford-shire, being an essay toward the natural history of England. / By Robert Plot ...
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Plot, Robert, 1640-1696.
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1677
(1677)
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Wing P2585; ESTC R231542
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322,508
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394
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give it a chop and destroy it when he pleases To prevent which great evil I hear the chiefest of the Parish have lately combined wherein I think they have done well enough provided always that the Rights of the Church whatever they be be fully compensated some other way 29. In the Northern part of Oxford-shire about Banbury and Bloxham it has always been the custom at set times of year for young people to meet to be hired as servants which meeting at Banbury they call the Mop at Bloxham the Statute where they all sort themselves and carry their badges according as they are qualified the Carters standing in one place with their whips and the Shepherds in another with their crooks but the maids as far as I could observe stood promiscuously which custom I had scarce I think noted but that it seems to be as old as our Saviour and to illustrate his Parable in St. Matthews Gospel a Matth. 20. v. 3. where the laborers are said to stand in the mercat to be hired 30. And now I have run my self into Divinity I cannot but note an odd custom at Stanlake where the Parson in the Procession about holy Thursday reads a Gospel at a Barrels head in the Cellar of the Chequer Inn where some say there was formerly a Hermitage others that there was anciently a Cross at which they read a Gospel in former times over which now the house and particularly the cellar being built they are forced to perform it in manner as above 31. But in matters of Religion there is nothing so worthy memory as the Christian unanimity of the Parish of Brightwell where through the exemplary Piety and prudent conduct of that worthy Gentleman the Worshipful John Stone Esq Lord of the Town and the Reverend Mr. Fiddës Rector of the place and their Predecessors and the good disposition of the people themselves all matters both of Spiritual and Temporal concern have been so effectually press'd and prudently menaged that there has not been known any such thing as an Ale-house a Sectary or Suit of Law commenced within the whole parish which is of a large extent in the memory of man which being more for ought I know than any Parish in England can say beside and so well worthy the imitation of all other places I thought fit for the eternal honor of its Inhabitants to recommend it accordingly 32. Yet but few miles off at the Town of Watlington I was told of a sort of Sectaries perhaps never heard of in the world before which if so is as strange as the thing it self for one would have thought there could have nothing been so absurd in Religion but what must have needs been embraced already These by the rest of the people are called Anointers from the ceremony they use of anointing all persons before they admit them into their Church for which they allege the fifth of St. James v. the 14 and 15. Is there any sick among you which it seems they account all people to be but themselves let him call for the Elders of the Church and let them pray over him anointing him with oyl in the name of the Lord and the prayer of faith shall save the sick and the Lord shall raise him up and if he have committed sins they shall be forgiven him which Elders amongst them are some poor Tradesmen of the Town and the oyl they use that commonly sold in the shops with which the Proselyte being smeared over and fired with zeal he presently becomes a new Light of this Church which I could not but note these people being as remarkably mad as those of Brightwell are good Though perhaps some may think one Richard Hastings then of Broughton and yet living near Banbury more religiously mad than any of those who with Origen understanding the twelfth verse of the nineteenth Chapter of St. Matthews Gospel literally hath castrated and so made himself an Eunuch for the Kingdom of Heavens sake 33. And thus much of men and women jointly together in their lives as to what concerns their deaths I must add also a Relation as strange as 't is true of the Family of one Captain Wood late of Bampton now Brise-Norton Captain in the late Wars for the King Some whereof before their deaths have had signal warning given them by a certain knocking either at the door without or on the table or shelves within the number of stroaks and distance between them and the place where for the most part respecting the circumstances of the persons to dye or their deaths themselves as will easily be collected from the following relation 34. The first knocking that was heard or at least observed was about a year after the restoration of the King in the afternoon a little before night at or upon the door it being then open as it was apprehended by Mrs. Elenor Wood mother to Captain Basil Wood who only heard it none being then by or about the house but her self at which she was very much disturbed thinking it boded some ill to her or hers and within fourteen nights after she had news of the death of her Son in law Mr. George Smith who dyed in London 35. About three years after that there were three great knocks given very audibly to all that were then in the house viz. to the aforesaid Mrs. Elenor Wood Mr. Basil Wood and his wife Mrs. Hester and some servants which knocks were so remarkable that one of the maids came from the well which was about twenty yards from the place to see what was the matter and Mrs. Elenor Wood and another maid that was within the house saw three great pans of Lard shake and totter so upon a shelf in the Milk-house that they were like to fall down Upon this violent knocking Mr. Basil Wood and his wife being then in the hall came presently into the milk-house to their mother where finding her somwhat disturbed and enquiring the reason she replyed God Almighty only knew the matter she could tell nothing but she heard the knocking which being within doors Mr. Basil Wood concluded must be for some of the Family at home that upon the door being for a friend abroad which accordingly fell out three of the family according to the number of the knocks dying within little more than half a year after viz. Mrs. Hester Wood wife to Mr. Basil Wood a child of Mr. Woods sister and Mrs. Elenor Wood his mother 36. About August 1674. Mr. Basil Wood junior son of Basil aforesaid living at Exeter in Devon-shire heard the same kind of knocking at which being disturbed he wrote word of it to his Father here at Bampton in Oxford-shire viz. That one Sunday he and his wife and her sister and his brother did distinctly hear upon a Table in their Chamber as they stood by it two several knocks struck as it were with a cudgel one of them before and the other after Morning-prayer a little
ordinary course of nature 7. The same Pliny h Nat. Hist lib. 7. cap. 14. informs us that many men indeed have begotten children at sixty or eighty years old for which he instances in Volusius Saturninus who on Dame Cornelia of the lineage of the Scipio's begat Volusius Saturninus who afterward was Consul at sixty two years old and upwards Cato Censorius says the same Pliny ancestor to Cato who slew himself at Vtica begat a son on the daughter of Salonius his Vassal after he was past 80 years of age and King Massinissa another whom he called Methymathnus when he was eighty six But as to women he is positive that they are past child-bearing at fifty and that for the most part their customary purgations stop at forty 8. But I met with an instance at Shetford near Banbury that proves him plainly mistaken where I saw and spoke with one Catharine Tayler that had a son then living and lusty in the sixtieth year of her age which was testified also to me by many there about And I have since heard of one Good wife Harvey of Smithen-green in the Parish of Leigh within three miles of Worcester that is now with child in her sixty third year which are instances wonderful rare and scarce heard of in other Countrys though we are informed indeed by Dr. Boat i Natural History of Ireland chap. 23. sect 1. that amongst the women in Ireland there are several found who do not only retain their Catamenia but even their fruitfulness above the age of fifty and some till that of sixty years whereof he tells us his brother knew some who being above threescore years old did not only conceive and bring forth children but nursed them and brought them up with their own milk which also as we are acquainted by Gul. Piso * Gul. Piso de Indiae utriusque re Nat. Med. lib. 1 cap. 1 p. 13 is very common in Brasil 9. As in the child-bearing of women and the accidents attending it I have met with also somwhat extraordinary in their growth which must be ranked among the accidents that have befallen the sex during their course of life and such is the growth of one Philippa French born at Milcomb in this County now six or seven and thirty years of age and a marryed woman having all her parts proportionable and of good symmetry yet wanting half an inch of a yard in height which is somwhat lower than Manius Maximus or M. Tullius who as Varro reports were each but two cubits high and yet they were Gentlemen and Knights of Rome but higher then Conopas the Dwarf of Julia Neece to Augustus who as Pliny k Nat. Hist lib. 7. cap. 16. tells us was but two foot high and a hand bredth but he tells us not whether Conopas were at his full growth or had good symmetry of parts like our Philippa it being common enough for persons to be very low of stature when either their Bodies are awry or some of their parts disproportionable to the rest 10. And amongst such accidents as these we may reckon a strange disease that befel Mary the daughter of John Collier of Burford who out of the corners of her eyes excluded a sort of congealed matter which after some time turned into a stony kind of substance not unlike the stones as they were described to me that somtimes come forth of the tumor called Atheroma which I therefore guess to have been only a more exalted kind of Aegilops or fistula lachrymalis and not to have been caused by fascination as Lachmund l Fred. Lachmundi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sect 3. cap. 22. thinks the stones were that came forth of the left eye of Margaret the daughter of Conrad Brandis of Banteln she being cured of the disease by that eminent Oculist Dr. Turbervil of Sarum 11. Yet a much stranger accident than that befel one Rebeckah Smith the Servant-maid of one Thomas White of Minster Lovel who being of a robust constitution though she seldom eat flesh it scarce agreeing with her and above 50 years of age after she came from the Communion on Palm-sunday April 16. Anno 1671. was taken with such a dryness in her throat that she could not swallow her spittle nor any thing else to supply the decays of nature and in this case she continued without eating or drinking to the amazement of all for about ten weeks viz. to the 29 of June being both St. Peters and Witney-fair day by which time being brought very low her master enquired and found out a person who gave him an Amulet for it was supposed she was bewitch'd against this evil after the application whereof within two or three days time though I dare not suppose there was any dependence between the medicin and disease she first drank a little water then warm broaths in small quantities at a time and nothing else till Palm-sunday again twelve months after when she began to eat bread and other food again as formerly she had done and is now about the age of sixty and still living at the same place ready to testifie the truth of the thing as well as Tho. White and his wife who were all that lived in the house with her and will confidently assert for they carefully observed that they do not believe she ever took any thing in those ten weeks time nor any thing more all the year following but what was above-mentioned wherein I think they may the rather be credited because there was never any advantage made of this wonder which argues it clear of all juggle or design 12. Concerning the death of women we have two as remarkable examples as any perhaps to be met with in History both of them being confirmations of what Pliny says of them that they much more frequently revive after they have been reputed dead than males do * Hist Nat lib. 7. cap. 52. whence doubtless also the Proverb mulieri ne credas ne mortuae quidem Of which recoveries of the female Sex rather than the male the same Pliny offers us a natural reason but I think fit to wave it especially since the reviviscence of Anne Green innocently condemned to dye and executed at Oxford for the murther of an abortive Infant is rather ascribed to the Justice of Heaven than to the strength or other conveniencies of nature for such purpose in women rather than men though it must also be allowed that God Himself makes use many times of natural means in production of the most wonderful most amazing effects The History whereof as it is taken out of a Chronicle of the late Civil Wars by James Heath Gentleman m History of the Civil Wars of England Scotland and Ireland in Anno 1650. and the continuation of the History of the World by Dionysius Petavius n Append. ad Hist D. Petavii in Anno 1650. with some few additions and alterations take as followeth 13. In the year