ABSTRACT
Perhaps the most interesting aspect of this chapbook is that there was little evidence proving that Margaret Fernseed murdered her husband, which was the crime for which she was convicted and executed. Although Fernseed confessed to running a bawdy house, corrupting many maids and married women, being a receiver of stolen goods, and committing adultery, all of which were crimes in their own right, she was adamant right up to the brink of death that she was innocent of her husband’s murder, which was “proven” using solely circumstantial evidence. Despite this, Fernseed was convicted based on her poor reputation in the community and her flagrant abuse of the boundaries of behaviour expected of women in this society. Rather than being a good neighbour and a submissive and modest wife, Fernseed breached nearly every gender, sexual, and social boundary that was used to maintain order in early modern England. For these reasons, even if the evidence linking her to Anthony Fernseed’s death was sketchy, Margaret Fernseed had to be executed, so that balance could be restored. This tale is an excellent example of how the criminal justice system of early modern England was used to restore boundaries of behaviour in society, even it sometimes meant working within the grey area of the criminal law.
