Before the
Battle of Sedgemoor on the 6 July 1685, a local clergyman foresaw a
strange birth as a warning.
Reverend
Andrew Paschall of Chedzoy, Somerset, wrote in haste on the 1st
day of June 1685 to a person in an eminent station, with indications
and fore-warnings to the King.
Hugh
Norris in his 'South Petherton in the Olden Time' tells us;
“The Rev. gentleman, with a turn of mind highly
characteristic of this period, direct his attention to those curious
and rare phenomena which were supposed to augur and foreshadow
portentous occurrences. He mat be allowed to speak for himself in
the words he addressed to a friend”:-
“Before our troubles came on we had some such signs as
used to be deemed forerunners of such things. In May, 1680, here was
that monstrous birth at Ill-Browers [Isle Brewers], a parish in
Somerset, which, at that time, was much taken notice of. Two female
children joined in their bodies from the breast downwards. They were
born May the 19th, and christened by the names of Aquilla
and Priscilla. May the 29th – I saw them well and
likely to live. About at the same time reports went of divers others
in the inferior sorts of animals, &c.”
In his
footnotes, Norris tells us;
“Although the Ile-Brewers registers of the seventeenth
century have been destroyed, yet there exists abundant evidence of
the truth of the above wonderful birth. Amongst other mention of the
circumstances, we find a curious allusion to it in Long Sutton,
where, in giving some account of Henry Walrond, of Walrond's Park (a
Justice of the Peace who was most zealous in carrying out vile
provisions of the 'Conventicle
Act, of 1664) and speaking of his fallen condition as an
instance that “to recover his sinking state, he and E____ P____”
(Sir Edward Phelips, of Montacute) “took away a twin child or
children (that grew together) from a poor woman, to make a show of
them for money ; and kept them till they died, to their great shame
and dishonour in the country, for which they were prosecute in the
Crown Office.” Vide “Persecution
Expos'd,” London, 1714, pa. 99.”
 |
Persecution Expos'd |
Sadly in
the 'The
Two-headed Boy, and Other Medical Marvels' tells us that the
twins from Isle Brewers lived for two or three years.
Find
us on Facebook.
No comments:
Post a Comment