The Digital Ark: Early Modern Collections of Curiosities in England and Scotland, 1580-1700
Margaret Gryffith (c. 1528 - fl. 1588)
An elderly Welshwoman described in the title of a 1588 pamphlet as "a Woman (Now to Be Seene in London) of the Age of Threescore Yeares, or There Abouts, in the Midst of Whose Fore-Head (by the Wonderfull Worke of God) There Groweth out a Crooked Horne, of Foure Ynches Long." She was put on display in London in 1588, and (says the pamphlet) seen by the Queen's Privy Council. MacGregor identifies her as the source of Walter Cope's horn, described in Platter as "having grown on an Englishwoman's forehead" (MacGregor, 11). She is also referenced by several playwrights of the late sixteenth-century: Thomas Nash in Have with You to Saffron Walden (somewhat vaguely), John Marston in The Malcontent (somewhat more directly), and Thomas Dekker in Olde Fortunatus (explicitly) (Bondeson, 123). The pamphlet describes her as widow of David Owyn, of the parish of Llhan Gaduain (probably Llangadfan) in Montgomeryshire. Subject of/in a documentSubject of/in a work of art
Subject of/in display
Relevant locations: Residence at Llangadfan, Montgomeryshire
Relationships: Margaret Gryffith was a source of object(s) for Walter Cope (c.1553-30 Jul 1614)
David Owyn (-) was a husband of Margaret Gryffith
Linked print sources: as Mentioned or referenced by - Mary Davis's Horn: a vanished curiosity.
as Mentions or references - A Myraculous, and Monstrous, but yet Most True, and Certayne Discourse, of a Woman (Now to Be Seene in London) of the Age of Threescore Yeares, or There Abouts, in the Midst of Whose Fore-Head (by the Wonderfull Worke of God) There Groweth out a Crooked Horne, of Foure Ynches Long..
as Mentions or references - The Two-Headed Boy, and Other Medical Marvels .
Linked Objects: Source of object(s) - Human horn
Linked images:
References in Documents: