page_title: Anne Greene
section_title: Biography
hierarchical_section_title: Anne Greene / Biography
caption_attribution_description: Title page. Rare Books Keywords: epb; watkins, r.; Catalepsy
context_page_description: Anne Greene was an English domestic servant who was accused of committing infanticide in 1650. She is notable for surviving her attempted execution and being revived by physicians from Oxford University.
context_section_description: Greene was born around 1628 in Steeple Barton, Oxfordshire. In her early adulthood, she worked as a scullery maid in the house of Sir Thomas Read, a justice of the peace who lived in nearby Duns Tew. She later claimed that in 1650 when she was a 22-year-old servant, she was "often sollicited by faire promises and other amorous enticements" by Sir Thomas's grandson, Geoffrey Read, who was 16 or 17 years old, and that she was seduced by him.
  She became pregnant, though she later claimed that she was not aware of her pregnancy until she miscarried in the privy after seventeen weeks. She tried to conceal the remains of the fetus but was discovered and suspected of infanticide. Sir Thomas prosecuted Greene under the "Concealment of Birth of Bastards" Act of 1624, under which there was a legal presumption that a woman who concealed the death of her illegitimate child had murdered it.
  A midwife testified that the fetus was too underdeveloped to have ever been alive, and several servants who worked with Greene testified that she had "certain Issues for about a month before shee miscarried," which began "after shee had violently labour'd in skreening of malt." In spite of the testimony, Greene was found guilty of murder and was hanged at Oxford Castle on 14 December 1650. At her own request, several of her friends pulled at her swinging body and a soldier struck her four or five times with the butt of his musket to expedite her death and "dispatch her out of her paine." After half an hour, everyone believed her to be dead, so she was cut down and given to Oxford University physicians William Petty and Thomas Willis for dissection.
  They opened her coffin the following day and discovered that Greene had a faint pulse and was weakly breathing. Petty and Willis sought the help of their Oxford colleagues Ralph Bathurst and Henry Clerke. The group of physicians tried many remedies to revive Greene, including pouring hot cordial down her throat, rubbing her limbs and extremities, bloodletting, applying a poultice to her breasts and having a "heating odoriferous Clyster to be cast up in her body, to give heat and warmth to her bowels." The physicians then placed her in a warm bed with another woman, who rubbed her and kept her warm. Greene began to recover quickly, beginning to speak after twelve to fourteen hours of treatment and eating solid food after four days. Within one month she had fully recovered aside from amnesia surrounding the time of her execution.
  The authorities granted Greene a reprieve from execution while she recovered and ultimately pardoned her, believing that the hand of God had saved her, demonstrating her innocence. Furthermore, one pamphleteer notes that Sir Thomas Read died three days after Greene's execution, so there was no prosecutor to object to the pardon. However, another pamphleteer writes that her recovery "moved some of her enemies to wrath and indignation, insomuch that a great man amongst the rest, moved to have her again carried to the place of execution, to be hanged up by the neck, contrary to all Law, reason and justice; but some honest Souldiers then present seemed to be very much discontent thereat" and intervened on Greene's behalf.
  After her recovery, Greene went to stay with friends in the country, taking the coffin with her. She married, had three children and died in 1659.
caption: News from the Dead
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