Mother Leakey and the Bishop A Ghost Story

by Marshall, Peter

• ISBN13: 9780199532070
• ISBN10: 0199532079
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-03-25
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Halloween 1636: sightings of the ghost of an old woman begin to be reported in the small English coastal town of Minehead, and a royal commission is sent to investigate. December 1640: a disgraced Protestant bishop is hanged in the Irish capital, Dublin, after being convicted of an'unspeakable' crime. In this remarkable piece of historical detective work, Peter Marshall sets out to uncover the intriguing links between these two seemingly unconnected events. The result is a compelling tale of dark family secrets, of efforts to suppress them, and of the ways in which they finally come to light. Itis also the story of a shocking seventeenth-century Church scandal which cast its shadow over religion and politics in Britain and Ireland for the best part of three centuries, drawing in a host of well known and not-so-well-known characters along the way, including Jonathan Swift, Samuel TaylorColeridge, and Walter Scott. A fascinating story in its own right, Mother Leakey and the Bishop is also a sparkling demonstration of how the telling of stories is central to the way we remember the past, and can become part of the fabric of history itself.

Author Biography

Peter Marshall is Professor of History at the University of Warwick, with a particular interest in the study of religious belief and practice in sixteenth and seventeenth-century England and the cultural impact of the English Reformation. He has published widely in the field, including a survey of the period, Reformation England 1480-1642, and The Catholic Priesthood and the English Reformation, also published by Oxford University Press.

Table of Contents

Note to Readers

Abbreviations

List of Illustrations

Cast of Characters

Prologue: A Haunting in Minehead

The World of the Leakeys

The Leakeys' Other WorldInterlude: A Hanging in Dublin

The Devil Let Loose off his Chain

The Shameful End of Bishop Atherton

The Penitent Death of a Woeful SinnerInterlude: In a London Coffee House

Athenianism

The Narratives of the Reverend John Quick

Atherton and Leakey: History and Folklore

Epilogue: Mother Leakey's Parlour

Notes

Bibliography of Sources Cited

Index

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