Incest, consanguinity and a monstrous birth in rural England, January 1600

Abstract

This article examines a pamphlet of 1600 which describes a deformed child born to cousins-german in a Herefordshire village, and relates it to the attempt of the Baconian scientific revolution to interpret nature rationally. It discusses the description of this consanguineous union as incestuous' and explores the law of incest in this period, its basis in scripture and natural law, and the controversy surrounding its extent. It contrasts the learned debate on whether the union of cousins-german should be regarded as incestuous with the undifferentiated Puritan condemnation of incest and fornication. It contrasts the precise and ordered empirical description of the child's deformities in the pamphlet with the common fabulous accounts of monstrous births in this period, and demonstrates that it is sufficiently detailed and accurate to allow a modern medical expert to diagnose the precise condition. It argues that while this description provides the reliable empirical evidence Baconian scientists needed, it combines this with a traditional view of divine punishment for sin as the cause of deformity in the offspring of incestuous unions. It suggests that this juxtaposition of accurate observation with a traditional view of causation illustrates the gradual nature of the development of science and the new learning in early modern England.