The Digital Ark: Early Modern Collections of Curiosities in England and Scotland, 1580-1700
Mary Davis (c.1596 - fl. 1676)
Mentioned as a "horned monster" in Ormerod (vol. 2, p. 311). The British Museum portrait gives her age as 74 in 1668. The engraving in Ormerod gives her age as 72 in 1668. Source of object(s)Subject of/in a work of art
Relevant locations: Birth place in Shotwick, Cheshire
Place of display (non-collection) at The Swan, Charing Cross
Residence at Saughall, Cheshire
Relationships: Mary Davis was a donor to Elias Ashmole (1617-1692)
Mary Davis was a donor to Ashmolean Museum (1683-)
Henry Davies (-1641) was a husband of Mary Davis
Mary Davis (-) was a same person as? (uncertain) Mary Davis
Linked print sources: as Subject of/in a document - A Brief Narrative of a Strange and Wonderful Old Woman That Hath a Pair of Horns Growing upon Her Head Giving a True Account How They Have Several Times after Being Shed, Grown Again : Declaring the Place of Her Birth, Her Education and Conversation with the First Occasion of Their Growth, the Time of Their Continuance and Where She Is Now to Be Seen, Viz. at the Sign of the Swan near Charing Cross.
as Subject of/in a document - Mary Davis's Horn: a vanished curiosity.
as Subject of/in a document - The History of the County Palatine and City of Chester: Compiled from Original Evidences in Public Offices, the Harleian and Cottonian Mss., Parochial Registers, Private Muniments, Unpublished Ms. Collections of Successive Cheshire Antiquaries, and a Personal Survey of Every Township in the County; Incorporated with a Republication of King’s Vale Royal, and Leycester’s Cheshire Antiquities.
as Subject of/in a document - The Natural History of Lancashire, Cheshire, and the Peak in Derbyshire with an account of the British, Phoenician, Armenian, Gr. and Rom. antiquities in those parts.
as Subject of/in a document - The Two-Headed Boy, and Other Medical Marvels .
as Subject of/in a work of art - Ducatus Leodiensis; or the topography of the town and parish of Leedes and parts adjacent ...
Linked Objects: Subject of/in a work of art - Painting of Mary Davis #1
Subject of/in a work of art - Painting of Mary Davis #2
Linked images:
References in Documents:
arrative
A strange and wonderful Old Wo
man, that hath a Great Pair
of Horns growing upon the hin
der parts of her Head;
And is at present to be seen at
Swan
in
Strand
Title of this short Relation, thou
wilt throw it down with all the care
lessness
imaginable, supposing it to be
but an idle and impertinent Fiction,
such as some Frontless persons have too fre
quently
exposed to publick View, on purpose
Multitude, who are apt to gape at Wonders,
and to think all true as the Gospel, they see in
Print.
That this may court thy more favourable
Thoughts, call to minde, that such as intend
to deceive, tell of Wonders hat are remote,
and too far distant from thee, either suddenly
to disprove, or presently to confirm thy self in
the belief of what they have told.
This gives thee an Account of what thou may
est
with little trouble, and as small expence,
behold: Take but a Walk to SwanStrand
est satisfie thy Curiosity, and be able to tell the
World whether this following Narration be truth
or invention.
There thou mayest see a Woman hath Horns
growing upon the hinder part of her Head, an
Object not onely worthy of your Sight, but Ad
miration
too! She is Seventy six Years of Age,
Bred and Born in the Parish of Chester, Te
nant
unto
Sixteen pounds per Annum; so that she is not
necessitated to this Course of Life: or to deceive
the credulous and short-sighted People, but to
manifest to the World such a Wonder in Na
may justly suppose) since the Creation.
She was
dyed Thirty five Years pass'd; And since she hath
lived a Religious Widow, all along of a spot
less and
unblameable Life and Conversation, of
singular use to her Neighbours, for she is
a pro
fessed Mid-wife; happy and successful in that
Undertaking: So that her Departure was gene
rally
lamented in the place of her Abode, in
such a measure, that several of her Neighbours
and Acquaintance brought her many Miles of
her Journey.
This strange and stupendious Effect began first
from a Soreness in that place where now the
Horns grow, which (as 'tis thought) was oc
casioned
by wearing a straight Hat. This Sore
ness
continued Twenty Years, in which time it
miserably afflicted this good Woman, and ripe
ned
gradually unto a Wenn near the bigness of
a large Hen Egg, which continued for the space
of Five Years, more sadly tormenting her than
before: After which time it was, by a strange
operation of Nature, changed into Horns, which
are in shew and substance much like a Ramms
Horns, solid and wrinckled, but sadly grieving
the Old Woman, especially upon the change of
Weather.
But more accurately to Describe its Nature
proper for a
question but it will be esteemed worthy to em
ploy
the Ingenious Vertuoso's of the Age, who
need not their Glasses to magnifie its Wonder.
The first time was but a single Horn, which
grew long, but as slender as an Oaten straw:
The second was thicker than the former: The
two first Hewson
whose Wife this Rarity was first discovered) ob
tained
of the Old Woman his Parishioner: They
kept not an equal distance of time in falling off,
some at three, some at four, and another at
four Years and a halfs Growth.
were beat off by a Fall backward;
an English Lord obtained, and (as is reported)
presented it to French King
Rarity in Nature, and received with no less Ad
miration
was Nine Inches long, and two Inches about;
it is much valued for the Novelty, a greater than
any
est
Traveller can with truth affirm to have seen.
Willoughby Aston
which dropt from this Womans Head, and re
serves
it as a Choice Rarity.
hath a pair of Hornes upon her Head of Six
Moneths Growth; And 'tis not without reason
than any of the former; for still the latter have
exceeded the former in bigness.
The Circumstance of this Relation considered
or examined, at least with the sight of her, I
hope it will not readily be believed to be an
Imposture, or Artificial Projecting; For so grosly
to impose upon
Subjects, would be an unpardonable Crime, and
would deserve mens Contempt, and not their
Company, and certainly expose the Party to the
Violence of a rude Multitude, who discovering
a Cheat, would, I believe, soon make the Old
Woman pull in her Horns.
Histor. nat. of Cheshire
of the
Toes, grew certain Horny Excrescencies, which fell
off once a Year.
He was living An. 1704
and had then both
his Hands armed with them: Those upon his Toes
he kept under by continually cutting,
that he might be able to wear
Shoes. The WroeManchester College
ged me with Horns
growing upon her
Head, An. 1680.e)e)
Dr. Hist. of
and
it, which
is engraven upon a Silver Plate fixed thereunto.
This Horn was cut (by
the Head of
Ear; before these
Witnesses
Andrew Temple, Tho, &c.
14
May1671
Fifty.
The Keeper of the Library told me it was nine Inches long.