Member-only story
Margaret Vincent: The Pitiless Mother
In 1616, Margaret Vincent murdered two of her three children. Her story was detailed in a murder pamphlet titled A Pitiless Mother released the same year. Like many other murder pamphlets, Margaret’s reads like a tabloid story full of warnings against Catholicism.
In this story, filicide and religious fanaticism unite to create the perfect storm.
Margaret & Jarvis Vincent
Margaret and Jarvis Vincent were a married couple who made a home in Acton, about six miles outside of London. They had three children together. At the time of the “bloody accident,” Margaret was about 30 years old. She had a good reputation in her community, as did Jarvis.
Margaret had a good education and good parentage, though how the writer of the pamphlet knows this is unclear. After she married Jarvis, she was “well beloved and much esteemed” by everybody who knew the couple.
Margaret’s Concerns Turn Sour
The anonymous writer of the pamphlet reminds us that people succumb to the “Devil’s enticement” easily, leading us on a path to evil. People are easily ensnared, which is what leads this respected member of the community to her “ruin.” As the writer states, it was necessary to create a pamphlet so that “all others may shun the like occasions…
