Women's History Resource Site

King's College History Department

Book Review

Janet A. Thompson. Wives, Widows, Witches & Bitches: Women in Seventeenth-Century Devon. New York: Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., 1993.

This is the only book that Janet A. Thompson has written, although she is a contributor of articles to periodicals and anthologies, including Historical Dictionary of Stuart England 1603-1689. As its title states Wives, Widows, Witches & Bitches Women in Seventeenth-Century Devon is an account of women who lived in Western England during the Seventeenth-Century. The title reflects the categories into which women of the period were cast by patriarchal society. Thompson gives a general introduction in the first chapter of the conditions that the English women were living under, which provides the reader with some background before they proceed with the rest of the book. 

Thompson comfortably leads the reader through the various roles that the women played during this time period. This book is in chronological order and is broken down into chapters accordingly. After Thompson provides the reader with some general knowledge of the time she proceeds to break the chapters down accordingly: Female Alehouse Keepers in Seventeenth-Century Devon, Defamation Cases and Sexual Slander in Seventeenth-Century Devon, Witchcraft in Devon, and Women and Property in Seventeenth-Century Devon.

Although Thompson intended for this to be for the general audience she put a great deal of time and effort into the research. Thompson did extensive research in court records of the Diocese of Exeter and the quarter sessions of Devon, as well as books of the borough sessions for the less well-studied towns of the county, which I feel shows her thoroughness.

Thompson’s researched facts go hand-in-hand with her educated analysis to provide numerous perspectives on the varying chapters. Upon the conclusion of this book, and also during the reading of it, I came to the conclusion that Thompson’s thesis revolves around the idea of misogyny or the hatred of women. This hatred of women reached its peak during the English Civil War, which fostered changes of all kinds, including unprecedented opportunities for women.

In my own opinion, I think it is more than a coincidence that as women are coming to prominence in the area of Devon the witch-hunts begin. Society at this time showed the characteristics of a Dichotomy:  on one hand you had the men (which represented the positives), and on the other hand you had the women (which represented the negatives). I believe that the men of the Devon area feared women; who had begun to think and act outside their traditional domestic ways. Women were made to suffer social disgrace and discrimination for their gender attributes and personal idiosyncrasies. Women were alleged to be intellectually inferior, disordered, unruly, lustful, and often evil in nature. Biased men made these allegations against the women of the Devon societies. Thompson states that men made these accusations in order to keep the women under male supervision and control.

I feel that this book has many strong virtues and is a great tool for the individual that is interested in studying this area of Western England’s history. The chapters of this book flow perfectly into each other due to its well- organized composition. The book starts off with a very elaborate Table of Contents that is broken down in a simple yet informative way. I feel that this book would be a great supplement to other related texts because it allows you to look in the Table of Contents, thus enabling you to study whatever area is of interest to you. A map of the areas that are discussed is provided, and the book also has footnotes, charts, appendices explanatory notes, conclusions and statistics, which are very helpful for the intended audience. The passion that Thompson brings to this topic is evident in the way in which it is written and also the amount of time that it took her to right this. Every point that she brought up was supplemented with the opposing view-point.

A weakness that I found in this book were its intention for someone without an extensive background in the field.  I found myself on numerous occasions reaching for the dictionary. Some terms that I had to look up included misogyny (the hatred of women), and Devon (refers to Western England), which is found in the title. I would suggest a glossary for this text if there was ever another edition printed. I also would recommend it have more details. I do not mean more statistics or charts because I believe that was done perfectly, but more details such as: reaction to these accusations of witchcraft and the punishments or ways in which the accused were tested for their crimes. Thompson could have discussed how torture was implemented in the determination of a witch. I also believe that it would be beneficial ,if Thompson were to discuss how there was never any evidence of witches before or after the period of the witch-hunts. 

I believe that the witch-hunts were a direct result of a society that was not ready for change, namely women taking a more assertive role in both the political and domestic realms of the society. The view of women at this time was one of inferiority, and due to this thought process they were often the scapegoat for everything that was wrong in society. They were blamed for everything from causing the plague to the onset of bad weather. Women were the focus of discrimination, and not until the late 1600’s did it begin to fade. Women did not reach total equality then, but they no longer had to fear being persecuted and tried as a witch.

Overall, I found this book to be very well-written and also very pertinent to my study of the witch-hunts. Thompson provides the material in an interesting way; without loosing sight of her main goal, which is to give women the chance to know their own history. I believe that the strong aspects greatly out weigh the minimal negative aspects of this book. I would recommend this book to anyone that is interested in getting a better understanding of what life in seventeenth century Devon was like for women accused of witchcraft. 
  

Annotated Reviews

Platt, Wilfred. Review of Wives, Widows, Witches &Bitches: Women in Seventeenth-Century Devon, by Janet A. Thompson. Historian 58 (1996): 702.
This source brought to my attention the fact that the book is broken down in chronological order. The chronology that I am referring to is Devon prior to the witch-hunts and then the chapters follow in order of intensity as the witch-hunts are introduced. The first chapter provides the reader with the status of women during the Seventeenth Century in Devon. The next discusses female Alehouse Keepers, which was a very profitable occupation for anyone. These women were looked at as successful business- women, which lead to jealously on the part of the men. The next two chapters are where the witch-hunts intensify. The fifth chapter has a similar theme to the second because both discuss how the women of prominence where looked at negatively due to there success. They also made evident the fact that Devonians were certain to be women.

Review of Wives, Widows, Witches & Bitches: Women in Seventeenth Century Devon, by Janet A. Thompson. Contemporary Authors. 150 (1996): 435-436.
This source opened my eyes to the amount of time that she dedicated to this book. The author’s name of this review was not given but due to the fact that I found it in a scholarly work I believe that it is a sound critique. This source discussed how Thompson traveled the area of Devon for several years, living in several different counties. During her time there she researched primary sources; such as old court records and also did many interviews with the people of these areas.

Wiesner, M. E. Review of Wives, Widows, Witches & Bitches: Women in Seventeenth-Century Devon, by Janet A. Thompson. Choice, November 1994, 515-516.
This source brought to my attention the usefulness of the appendixes and 
presented ideas that were in opposition of what I believed in reference to the effectiveness of the text. There are twelve appendixes which range in information from a chronological list of witchcraft references for Devon and five other counties and it also gives the sources in which the information was taken. It also gives the number of individuals’ accused of witchcraft in each of the six counties.

URL: http://departments.kings.edu/womens_history/wrevthompson.html Written by Kristopher Atkinson, 30 October 2001 Last Revision: 12 November 2001 Copyright © MM Prof. Pavlac