Calendar of State Papers, Domestic Series, of the Reign of Charles I, 1628-1629

The printed calendar of the state papers. Used for Jane Hawkins of St Ives. On 28 Apr 1629 Bishop John Williams of Lincoln reported that “Jane Hawkins, of St. Ives … having fallen into a rapture or ecstacy, has uttered strange things, in verse”: “a witty, crafty baggage,” whose verses ran “three days and three nights in an auditory of very near 200 people,” while the vicar Mr. Tokey and his curate copied “some thousands” of lines “which the poor woman (she is but a pedlar) did dictate,” until he seized them (pp. 530-531). On 5 May he reported that the vicar had read in church an acknowledgment of “the woman’s imposture” and that the people “cry out against the woman” (p. 537).