Infanticide in Tudor and Stuart England

Josephine Billingham has a PhD in English Literature from UCL. She is an independent scholar with particular interest in liminality, infant death, literature in its historical context, and the interplay between historical and literary sources.

• Epigram, Author's notes, List of Illustrations, Chapter 1: Losses, Lacunae and Liminality Chapter 2: European and Medieval Contexts of Infanticide Chapter 3: The liminal child and mother Chapter 4: Love, Law and Liminality Chapter 5: Constructing Outsiders, Constructing Killers Chapter 6: Not the Usual Suspects: Communities and Accomplices Chapter 7: Not the Usual Suspects: Married Women Chapter 8: Not the Usual Suspects: Men Chapter 9: Interlude: Infanticide 1700-1950 Chapter 10: Epilogue: Echoes of the Past, Appendix 1: The 1624 Infanticide Act, Appendix 2: Note on Sussex Coroners' inquests, Appendix 3: Sussex Cases of Violent, Unnatural, Unexplained Infant Death 1547-1686: Complete list of cases from archival and other sources, Appendix 4: Sussex Infant Deaths Involving Water, Appendix 5: Sussex Infant Deaths Involving Throwing, Appendix 6: Sussex Infant Deaths Involving Bloodshed or Extreme Violence ,Appendix 7: Sussex Infant Deaths Showing Direct Involvement of Men, Index.

"Infanticide in Tudor and Stuart England by Josephine Billingham aims to draw together studies of infanticide in early modern England from a variety of disciplines, including literature, history, and anthropology, in order to produce a fuller and more detailed picture of a crime that has frequently been itself a victim of too-broad brushstrokes and assumptions. While attempting to cross disciplines and expand our historical understanding of this crime is not new, Billingham lays out a strong theoretical framework for interpretation. She also succeeds in creating much needed nuance to definitions of the crime, motivations, and societal reactions."- Margaret B. Lewis, University of Tennessee at Martin, Renaissance Quarterly, Volume LXXIV, No. 2