157 years before the case of Mary Toft was the case of Agnes Bowker. A 27-year-old woman claimed to have given birth to a cat.
In 1568 Agnes Bowker got pregnant which was looked down upon at the time. At the time she was a 27-year-old house servant that worked in Leicestershire, England. On Jan. 17, 1569, Agnes went into labor and gave birth to the supposed cat.
A midwife Elizabeth Harrison talked of a being that would visit Agnes. It would come in the likeness of a bear, or dog, or even sometimes a man. Before Agnes gave birth she told Elizabeth of a Dutch woman she walked by in the countryside who had told her she would give birth to a mooncalf (A monstrous creature).
There were several women present at the birth, but most claimed to have seen nothing. One witness Margret Roos claimed to have been pricked by the beat while it was still in the womb. The women were sent to go get essentials for the birth and came back the monster was laying on the ground and they believed Agnes gave birth to it.
A midwife Elizabeth Harrison talked of a being that would visit Agnes. It would come in the likeness of a bear, or dog, or even sometimes a man.
Local men were suspicious of the supposed birth. The cat has dissected it and found hay and bacon inside. It was known Agnes had tried to borrow a cat and neighbors ended up disappearing. It was not something that was carried by Agnes, but a cat that was killed and skinned.
The tale was spread around and eventually Anthony Anderson, the Archdeacon's Commissary, decided to investigate it. The courts suspected that infanticide may have been committed. But it's possible it was investigated out of curiosity and may have possibly done it to stop the story from spreading any further.
It's unknown what her motives for claiming she gave birth to a cat. It's thought that maybe she wanted to be seen as a victim as her stories for how she got pregnant portrayed her. At the time it was seen as it may have been shameful for her to have become a mother before a wife.
It's unknown what her motives for claiming she gave birth to a cat. It's thought that maybe she wanted to be seen as a victim as her stories for how she got pregnant portrayed her. At the time it was seen as it may have been shameful for her to have become a mother before a wife.
Agness was also examined and told tales of her pregnancy. It's unknown whatever happen to her own baby as it was known she was in fact pregnant.
She told several stories about what had happened to it. She claimed a schoolmaster seduced her and gave her epilepsy. She said that he told her the only way to be cured is to give birth. She claimed the schoolmaster sent the demon that Elizabeth Harrison claimed she saw. So Agnes slept with it and got pregnant.
She first claims that she gave birth and the baby was being nursed at Guisborough. There was another that she gave birth before Christmas and the child was stillborn and buried in Little Bowden. She would then claim she didn't know what had happened when she gave birth other than the midwife saying it was a monster she gave birth to. It's possible she may have committed infanticide and that's why the story of her giving birth to a monster came to be.
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