Mary Adams and the Monster of Tillingham
Ranters
The Ranters was a term used around the time
of Cromwell's Reign to describe people who refused to follow
accepted religion as they believed that God lived in them and so
they had no need to attend Church or follow accepted practices.
Control proved difficult as Ranters had no
organisation or leaders and so imprisoning individuals had little
effect.
Modern research questions how widespread
Ranters actually were and whether inflating the threat that they
actually posed provided convenient for politicians and churchmen
alike.
Ranters were subject of many lurid stories in
pamphlets most of which are believed to be fiction or place a
specific interpretation on actual facts.
In these pamphlets Ranters flout most
conventions including practicing sex outside marriage and were often
naked in public
The story of Mary Adams
One of the most famous pamphlets called The
Ranters Monster was written by a London Journalist called George
Horton in 1652.
The Ranters Monster purported to be a true
story about a girl called Mary Adams who lived in the village of
Tillingham.
Mary was a single girl who lived in
Tillingham. She lived a normal life with parents who cared for her
and all seemed well until she joined the Baptists who were just
starting to bring a new style of worship to Essex. This led to her
adopting strange practices and eventually became a ranter.
People noticed that Mary became obviously
pregnant and when challenged she said that she was the Virgin Mary
and that she had conceived the child of the Holy Ghost.
She added that Christ had not yet come forth
to the world in the flesh and that she would bring forth the saviour
of the world and that all that did not believe in him would be
damned.
Reverend Hadley who was the local minister
ordered that she be arrested and detained until after the birth of
her child and so Mary was locked up.
Delivery of the baby was problematic and the
child was born on the ninth day of her labour.
The child was stillborn but described as an
ugly misshapen monster with no hands or feet but with claws like a
toad.
So hideous was the child that it terrified
the women assisting in the birth and they buried the monster with
great haste.
Immediately after the birth Mary's body
became covered with blotches, boils and putrid scabs.
Within a few days Mary's health had
deteriorated badly and she then committed another sin by committing
suicide by stabbing herself with a borrowed knife.
The truth of the story was verified in the
pamphlet by a group of local residents.
Was it true?
Truth didn't greatly worry the pamphlet
writers of this time and the story is very similar to other stories
of the day about other women in other parts of the country.
There really was a Reverend Hadley who could
have been in Tillingham at the time although it has not proved
possible to trace the local residents who were witnesses.
The Parish Records and Tillingham started in
1652 the year that the events took place so there is no record of
her birth and neither she nor her child would not have been buried
in church land so there is no record of eithers burial.
Adams was a very common name in Eastern Essex
but there is no record of a will in the name of Mary Adams.
If there is truth in the story it may be a
very sad tale of a girl who became mentally ill and was made
pregnant.
Sadly the child died in her womb some time
before birth and deteriorated further during the 9 days of labour.
Given the strain on her body Mary's body may
well have developed sores etc.
Or
It may all have come from the fertile imagination of George Horton to bring the little village of Tillingham national fame in 1652.
