Agnes Bowker (born c. 1541) was an English domestic servant and the alleged mother of a cat.

Life

Bowker was born in

Leicestershire Leicestershire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It is bordered by Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire to the north, Rutland to the east, Northamptonshire to the south-east, Warw ...

(probably

Market Harborough Market Harborough is a market town in the Harborough District, Harborough district of Leicestershire, England, close to the border with Northamptonshire. The population was 24,779 at the United Kingdom census, 2021, 2021 census. It is the ad ...

) to a local family in about 1541. She came to prominence when her midwife, Elizabeth Harrison, reported that she had given birth to a cat on 16 January 1569. The story caused interest as it was feared that some may see this as a portent. The idea was not dismissed even after the cat that was said to have been born was found to have food in its stomach. A pamphlet was circulated. Bowker was not married and she had tried drowning and hanging herself during her pregnancy. The rest of her life is unclear but she came from a local family and she worked in the Leicestershire area. She had visited London and seen

Elizabeth I Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was List of English monarchs, Queen of England and List of Irish monarchs, Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. She was the last and longest reigning monarch of the House of Tudo ...

in 1566. The report was made to the church authorities and

Anthony Anderson Anthony Anderson (born August 15, 1970) is an American actor, comedian, and television host. He is known for his leading roles in television shows such as Andre "Dre" Johnson on the comedy series ''Black-ish'' (2014–2022), Marlin Boulet on the ...

who worked for the Archdeacon of Leicester. He created a life-size drawing of a cat which he annotated and sent to nobleman

Henry Hastings, 3rd Earl of Huntingdon Henry Hastings, 3rd Earl of Huntingdon (c. 153514 December 1595) was an English Puritan nobleman. Educated alongside the future Edward VI, he was briefly imprisoned by Mary I, and later considered by some as a potential successor to Elizabeth I ...

.Agnes Bowker
9 December 2006, The Scotsman, Retrieved 11 May 2017 Hastings had local connections but he was also close to the Queen during the

Rising of the North The Rising of the North of 1569, also called the Revolt of the Northern Earls, Northern Rebellion or the Rebellion of the Earls, was an unsuccessful attempt by Catholicism, Catholic nobles from Northern England to depose Queen Elizabeth I of En ...

.Claire Cross, ‘Hastings, Henry, third earl of Huntingdon (1536?–1595)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 200
accessed 11 May 2017
/ref> He sent the report to Queen Elizabeth's advisor Sir William Cecil. Cecil sent it on to

Edmund Grindal Edmund Grindal ( 15196 July 1583) was Bishop of London, Archbishop of York, and Archbishop of Canterbury during the reign of Elizabeth I. Though born far from the centres of political and religious power, he had risen rapidly in the church durin ...

who was then the Bishop of London but who would in time be the

Archbishop of Canterbury The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the Primus inter pares, ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the bishop of the diocese of Canterbury. The first archbishop ...

. Grindal concluded the affair in August of that year when he ruled that it was a hoax, but he conceded that there was no evidence to prove that Bowker was not telling the truth.David Cressy, ‘Bowker, Agnes (b. 1541/2)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Oct 200
accessed 11 May 2017
/ref>

Legacy

It isn't known what happened to Agnes Bowker but the picture of the cat is now in the

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom. Based in London, it is one of the largest libraries in the world, with an estimated collection of between 170 and 200 million items from multiple countries. As a legal deposit li ...

. Bowker's alleged birth of a cat was also dismissed by the London physician William Bullein in 1573.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bowker, Agnes 1540s births 16th-century English women English domestic workers People from Market Harborough Year of death unknown