Bridget Bostock

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",^{[1][lower-alpha 1]} 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, Coppenhall^[3] whose son claimed that she had cured his lameness. Nothing is known of her after 1749.^[1]

See also

• Spittle cures

References

Notes

1. Fasting spittle is the spittle produced first thing in the morning, before breakfast.^[2]

Citations

1. 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 or UK public library membership required.)
2. Roud (2006), wart cures: fasting spittle
3. 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