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<DATE>2012-08-24</DATE>
<RESPSTMT>
<NAME>Pip Willcox</NAME>
<RESP>MURP</RESP>
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<ITEM>Proofed and reviewed as part of batch Z120714.pdcc.</ITEM>
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<IDG S="marc" R="OX" ID="A81531">
<STC T="W">d1645</STC>
<STC T="T">e166_1</STC>
<BIBNO T="umi">99871783</BIBNO>
<VID>156979</VID>
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<TEXT LANG="eng">
<FRONT>
<DIV1 TYPE="title page">
<PB REF="1" MS="y">
<PB REF="1" MS="y">
<P><HI>A</HI> DISCOVERIE OF Six women preachers, in <HI>Mid|dle&s;ex, Kent, Cambridg&s;hire,</HI> and <HI>Salisbury.</HI></P>
<P>VVith a relation of their names, manners, life, and doctrine, plea&s;ant to be read, but horrid to be judged of</P>
<P>Their Names are the&s;e.</P>
<LIST>
<ITEM><HI>Anne Hemp&s;tall.</HI></ITEM>
<ITEM><HI>Mary Bilbrow.</HI></ITEM>
<ITEM><HI>Ioane Bauford.</HI></ITEM>
<ITEM><HI>Su&s;an May.</HI></ITEM>
<ITEM><HI>Elizab. Bancroft.</HI></ITEM>
<ITEM><HI>Arabella Thomas.</HI></ITEM>
</LIST>
<Q><BIBL>1 <HI>Cor.</HI> 14. 34, 35.</BIBL>
<P>Let your women keepe &s;ilence in the Churches, for it is not permitted unto them to &s;peake, but they are commanded to be under obedience, as al&s;o &s;aith the Law.</P>
<P>And if they will learne any thing, let them aske their husbands at home: for it is a &s;hame for women to &s;peake in the Church.</P></Q>
<P>Printed, 1641.</P>
</DIV1>
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<BODY>
<DIV1 TYPE="account">
<PB REF="2">
<PB N="1" REF="2">
<HEAD>The &s;ix women Preachers.</HEAD>
<P><LIST>
<ITEM><HI>Anne Hemp&s;tall,</HI></ITEM>
<ITEM><HI>Joan Bauford</HI></ITEM>
<ITEM><HI>Elizabeth Bancroft,</HI></ITEM>
</LIST> and
<LIST>
<ITEM><HI>Mary Bilbrowe,</HI></ITEM>
<ITEM><HI>Su&s;an May,</HI></ITEM>
<ITEM><HI>Arabella Thomas.</HI></ITEM>
</LIST></P>
<P>_IN ancient times have I read of Prophete&s;&s;es, but not untill of late heard of women Prea|chers, their onely rea&s;on or cau&s;e of preaching was, that there was a deficiency of good men, wherefore it was but fit, that vertuous women &s;hould &s;upply their places, they were (men they did mean) good for nothing, but to make their texts good by expounding the language of the Bea&s;t, but they them&s;elves would preach nothing, but &s;uch things as the &s;pirit &s;hould move them.</P>
<P>The fir&s;t and chief of this female and Sacerdo|ticall function, was one <HI>Anne Hemp&s;tall,</HI> living in the Pari&s;h of Saint <HI>Andrews Holborne,</HI> neere <HI>Lon|don,</HI> and in the County of <HI>Middle&s;ex,</HI> upon a cer|tain time, &s;he having a minde, &s;aid &s;hee was mo|ved to be zealou&s;ly affected, called an a&s;&s;embly
<PB N="2" REF="3">of her bibbing Go&s;&s;ips together, who&s;e thoughts were bent more upon the &s;trong water bottle, then upon the u&s;es or doctrines which their ho|ly &s;i&s;ter <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">ntended to expound unto them, but be|ing come to the hou&s;e of this <HI>Anne Hemp&s;tall,</HI> zea|lous <HI>Nan</HI> &s;pake to them after this manner.</P>
<P>Beloved &s;i&s;ters, this la&s;t night I dreamed a &s;trange Dream, moreover me thought I &s;aw a vi|&s;ion, in which <HI>Anna</HI> the Prohete&s;&s;e was pre&s;ented unto my view, the &s;plendour of who&s;e counte|nance did ca&s;t me into a trance, wherein I lay un|till the next morning, and the morning being come, I could conceive no interpretation of my Dream but this, that I &s;hould imitate godly <HI>An|na,</HI> by preaching unto you, as &s;hee prophe&s;ied to others, her &s;peech &s;trook them all into an a&s;to|ni&s;hment, at which, this prophane <HI>Anne</HI> cryed out, Now doth the holy Gho&s;t de&s;cend downe upon you, Wherefore give eare unto mee, then did &s;he begin to talke, and &s;peak unto them that which fir&s;t came into her minde, but the chiefe matter of her Text was this, That womans haire was an adorning to her, but for a man to have long haire, it was a &s;hame unto him, which the Scripture it &s;elfe cryed fie upon; long did &s;hee preach, and longer I dare avouch then &s;ome of the audience were willing, for &s;ome of them had as far home as White Chappell, wherefore her longitude might cau&s;e a brevitude of her &s;ucking the <HI>Aquavitae</HI> bottle; two houres being expired, and the bottom of the &s;tool beginning to look o|pen-mouthed with her furious &s;tamps, &s;hee gave
<PB N="3" REF="3">them as much peace as in her lay, and &s;o conclu|ded.</P>
<P><HI>Mary Bilbrowe,</HI> one of the audience, being of the Pari&s;h of Saint <HI>Giles</HI> in the Fields, de&s;ired them to be all with her the next morning, and after Sermon, they &s;hould have a good fat pig to break|fa&s;t, be&s;ides a cup of Sack or Claret to wa&s;h it down, they all agreed unto it, and making u&s;e of all the Rhetorick which they were borne unto, they gave her thanks, and &s;o for that time a Bottle of Ale or two being devoured, they departed every one to their owne hou&s;es. The next morn|ing, they met altogether at the hou&s;e of <HI>Mary Bilbrow,</HI> who&s;e husband was a good hone&s;t Brick|layer, and &s;o &s;oon as they came within the doores of her hou&s;e, &s;hee brought them all into her Par|lour as &s;hee called it, and in&s;teed of &s;tools and cu&s;hions, &s;hee had provided before hand, three bricks a piece for them to &s;it upon, her rea&s;on was this, &s;hee thought they would not fit much, becau&s;e women to good in&s;tructions love &s;tanding, her Pulpit was framed very &s;ub&s;tantial|ly of brick, &s;o high, that &s;carce any thing, but her &s;tanding up tippet could be &s;een, &s;he began there very devoutly to make an <HI>ex tempore</HI> prayer, but before &s;hee had &s;carce &s;poke twenty words, her daughter came running in very ha&s;tily, telling her a Gentleman at <HI>Bloomsbury</HI> &s;taid to &s;peake with her about urgent occa&s;ions, which hearing, &s;hee lept out of her prayer into this &s;erious meditatio~, I think it be the Gentleman I was withall at <HI>Sali&s;|bury</HI>
<PB N="4" REF="4">Court, whom I promi&s;ed this day to meet with all, whereupon &s;hee left her Pulpit, &s;pread the cloth, <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter">nd brought her Go&s;&s;ips in a pig accor|ding to her promi&s;e, who fed heartily, and &s;o de|parted, &s;o much at this time for <HI>Middle&s;ex</HI> female Teachers.</P>
<P>Now give mee leave to take water, and goe to <HI>Grave&s;end,</HI> and &s;o further into <HI>Kent,</HI> where I &s;hall tell you of one <HI>Joan Bauford</HI> in the Town of <HI>Fe|ver&s;ham,</HI> who taught in <HI>Fever&s;ham,</HI> that husbands being &s;uch as cro&s;&s;ed their wives wils might law|fully be for&s;aken.</P>
<P>Then was there one <HI>Su&s;an May</HI> of <HI>A&s;hford</HI> in the County of <HI>Kent</HI> al&s;o which preached in a Barne there, that the Devill was the father of the Pope, The Pope the father of tho&s;e which did weare Surplices, wherefore con&s;equently the Devill was the Father of all tho&s;e which did not love Puritans.</P>
<P>There was likewi&s;e one <HI>Elizabeth Bancroft</HI> in <HI>Ely</HI> in <HI>Cambridg&s;hire,</HI> where Bi&s;hop <HI>Wren</HI> fir&s;t going to place Altars there, preached behind the mini|&s;ter upon a Saturday, that it was fit upon Sunday to Sacrifice the Popes Bird upon his own Altar.</P>
<P>Then la&s;tly there was one <HI>Arabella Thomas</HI> a Welch woman, which lived in the City of <HI>Sali&s;|bury,</HI> which preached, and in her Sermon &s;aid that none but &s;uch painfull creatures as her &s;elfe &s;hould goe to Heaven, fo<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="pdcc" EXTENT="1 letter"> tho&s;e Mini&s;ters which did not preach twice upon every Sabbath day, &s;hee &s;aid that very &s;hortly the black Raven by day, and the
<PB N="5" REF="4">white Owle by night &s;hould &s;cratch out their eyes.</P>
<P>Thus have I declared &s;ome of the female Acade|myes, but where their Vniver&s;ity is I cannot tell, but I &s;uppo&s;e that Bedlam or Bridewell would be two convenient places for them, is it not &s;ufficient that they may have the Go&s;pell truly and &s;incere|ly Preached unto them, but that they mu&s;t take their Mini&s;ters office from them? if there had been &s;uch a dearth of the Go&s;pell as there was in the Reigne of Queene <HI>Mary</HI> it had beene an occa&s;ion &s;ome what urgent, But God bee pray|&s;ed it was not &s;o, but that they &s;eemed to bee ambitious, and becau&s;e they would have &s;uperio|rity, they would get upon a &s;toole, or in a tubb in|&s;teed of a pulpit. At this time I have de&s;cribed but &s;ix of them, ere long I feare I &s;hall relate more, I pray God I have no cau&s;e, and &s;o for this time I conclude.</P>
<TRAILER>FINIS.</TRAILER>
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