Dear all,

It's always exciting to see the sparks of interest in learning about
women less attended to in scholarship. On this note, I'd like to mention
that Margaret Davie, along with many, many other better and less known
early modern women, will have her own entry in A Biographical
Encyclopedia of Early Modern Englishwomen, Exemplary Lives and Memorable
Acts, 1500-1650, to be published by Ashgate. The encyclopedia is being
co-edited by Carole Levin, Michele Osherow, and myself. We have many
enthusiastic contributors already, and are looking for more. If you are
interested, please email me for the list of names still available. 

Best wishes,

Anya

Dr. Anna Riehl Bertolet 
Assistant Professor of English
Co-Director, Auburn Summer in London Program
Auburn University
(334) 844-9006
http://www.auburn.edu/~avr0001/


>>> Consuelo Concepcion <[log in to unmask]> 1/13/2011 2:45 PM >>>
I looked through through the Statutes of the Realm, as murder was
consider a 
form of treason in 1542, but I had no luck in finding anything
specifically 
related to her.  It would have not been a star chamber case, since most
of those 
cases would be be to settle property disputes or other civil cases. 
Wish I 
could have been of more help.  It is a good question, so I may try and
do a 
little more digging.
Consuelo M. Concepcion
3/1
11 Hastie St
Glasgow, G3 8AE
Scotland, UK
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________________________________
From: ANNE PRESCOTT <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask] 
Sent: Wed, 12 January, 2011 17:39:00
Subject: Re: Query: Margaret Davie (ey?), d. 1542

Hi, Rob. I'd also mention, and way beyond the limits of my knowledge,
which is a 
whole lot less than Colin Burrow's, and even without giving it a 
memory-refreshing glance, Randall Martin's collection of texts on women
and 
crime in the Ashgate facsimile series. My fave moment: the illustration
of a 
half-undressed murderess burning in the flames, presumably of lust and

hatred--but the image is identical to one from I think Foxe in which we
see a 
half-undressed Protestant martyr burning in Mary Tudor's fire and
perhaps in her 
own flames of faith. Funny, in a grim way. These Ashgate books are
obscenely 
expensive, but if you need me to look anything up in my copy (as
co-editor I get 
little money but I do get free copies), just ask and I'll look for it.
In any 
case, Randall Martin is the guy to ask. Anne.


On Wed, Jan 12, 2011 at 5:29 PM, Colin Burrow
<[log in to unmask]> 
wrote:

I don’t think there is very much in print about her apart from the
reference in 
T.I.’s A World of Wonders, A Masse of Murders  (1595) sigs F1r-v. I
imagine you 
have already come across Randall Martin’s Women, Murder and Equity in
Early 
Modern England (Routledge, 2008) which mentions the case and other
examples of 
female poisoners. T.I.’s inclusion of her case along with a catalogue
of 
monstrous births, witches, and miscellaneous world events is
(taxonomically) 
interesting, and I’m sure something could be said about early modern

representations of female criminals in that connection. She tends in
later works 
just to be listed in surveys of punishments for treason and in
histories of 
poisoning. Many of the C19th and early C20th references seem to go back
to 
Wriothesley’s Chronicle (unsurprisingly, since the Camden Soc edition
dates from 
1875), which gives details of where one of her set of victims lived
(Coleman 
Street, where Justice Clement had his pad, so pretty up-market; hence I
would 
imagine the public excitement: servants who kill rich people are
clearly more 
exciting than servants who kill less rich people; why else do
newspapers today 
keep telling us about the nannies of the wealthy and their
wrongdoings?). 
Presumably T.I. worked from some source similar to Wriothesley. The
inclusion of 
crimes in chronicles is not surprising, since executions were
significant civic 
events; but this particular one seems to have stuck in the head. I’d
imagine 
that if one was clever enough to work out which court she was tried in
there 
might be some kind of early documentary record out there somewhere (and

Wriothesley gives the date of her execution as 17th March 1542, which
would 
narrow the search down) but I think I am at or beyond the limits of my
expertise 
already.
> 
>Colin Burrow,
>Senior Research Fellow,
>All Souls College,
>Oxford 
>OX1 4AL
> 
>From:Sidney-Spenser Discussion List
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On 
>Behalf Of Stillman, Robert E
>Sent: 12 January 2011 21:16
>To: [log in to unmask] 
>Subject: Query: Margaret Davie (ey?), d. 1542
> 
>Dear Sidney-Spenser Group,
> 
>This is a little off the beaten path, especially for me, but I am
hoping that 
>someone might be able to help me locate more information about a
certain 
>Margaret Davie (or Davey), who was executed as a murderer in 1542 
apparently 
>for the crime of treason, since she had poisoned her victim.  
>
> 
>Any and all leads would be much appreciated.   
> 
>Thanks, Rob Stillman