Men of Kent and Kentishmen/Elizabeth Barton
Elizabeth Barton,
The "Maid of Kent,"
Was born in 1509, perhaps at Aldington, where she was a domestic servant, about 1525, in the house of Thomas Cobb, steward of Archbishop Warham. Being seized with an illness, she became subject to nervous derangements, which developed a religious mania. During her hysterical convulsions she gave expression to strange cries which were taken as prophetic utterances, and she soon became popularly regarded as one inspired. This delusion was encouraged by the priests, who sought to use her as an agent for opposing the spread of Protestant doctrines. For this purpose they instructed her in the legends of the saints, and induced her to represent that she was in communication with the Virgin. A priest named Bocking became her confessor, and she was assigned a cell at St. Sepulchre at Canterbury. The story of her ultimate fate is matter of public history. (See "Froude," vols. 1 and 2.)
Being employed by the opponents of the King's divorce to denounce that project, she and her principal accomplices were put in prison, and their impostures exposed. Parliament adjudged them guilty of treason, and she was executed at Tyburn, with Bocking and four others, on 20th April, 1534.
[See "Biographia Britannica," "Collier's Church History," "Strype's Memorials" and "Life and Cranmer."]