Bridget Bostock (born c. 1678, died after 1749), also known as the Cheshire Doctoress, was a faith healer who spent her entire life in Coppenhall, Staffordshire. She had been working as a healer for many years, employing "fasting spittle, a little liquor of ‘a red complexion’, touch, and prayer",1a but came to national prominence after she was featured in a local newspaper in August 1748, when she was about 70 years of age. Her fame became such that by the following month she was receiving 600–700 visitors a day seeking her assistance, and she soon decided that she would only see those she had dealt with before or who were deaf. Sir John Price, a Welsh baronet, repeatedly importuned Bostock to raise his wife from the dead, but she refused.1
Bostock was reported to be a regular churchgoer and a person of great faith by the minister of her church, William Harding of St Lawrence's Church, Coppenhall3 whose son claimed that she had cured his lameness. Nothing is known of her after 1749.1
References
References
Notes
- Fasting spittle is the spittle produced first thing in the morning, before breakfast.2
Citations
- Shaw, Jane (2004). "Bostock, Bridget (b. c.1678, d. after 1749)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/40526. Retrieved 12 December 2012. (Subscription, Wikipedia Library access or UK public library membership required.)
- Roud (2006), wart cures: fasting spittle
- Paul, David (15 August 2019). Illustrated Tales of Cheshire. Amberley Publishing Limited. ISBN 978-1-4456-7856-6.
Bibliography
- Roud, Steve (2006), The Penguin Guide to the Superstitions of Britain and Ireland, Penguin, ISBN 978-0-14-051512-1