#SilentWitnesses

[ianmccloud]

White Roses – Silent Witnesses before the Women's Monastery

[justashippershipping]

#silent witness #Cara Connelly #Velvy Schur #Yes I DO ship them, thank you for asking

[olicity-love-always]

Season 28 Silent Witness

I have many questions about the move of production of silent witness from London to Birmingham in 2024. Firstly this must be for season 28, not 27 as the BBC keeps stating, as 27!is already underway with filming in London. Secondly I struggle to understand how they work the move into the storyline. Jack has only just bought a new house so if he was to move that would be the 3rd house in almost as many years!! Also would the move of location mean a move in the story setting, or would it just be pretending it’s London, like when they film shows in LA but pretend it’s New York. If they were to set it it Birmingham then what would the reason for the new jobs be. My fear is that if Jack died, Nikki would feel the need to move out of the Lyell Centre and out of London to get away from all the memories. It is possible they could move together but it seems a strange option. The alternative is that the couple just have their life and it’s a new Silent Witness without the 2 main stars and new characters instead. I feel this would be a HUGE mistake and would be unsuccessful. I’m hoping that nothing much changes but it’s a big change in my view. You would have though that the BBC would have run the idea past Emilia and David. If they don’t agree to be in the show it might as well end with season 27. At least it would in my eyes. Rant over!!!!!

[marcalam]

Happy Birthday Jemma Redgrave

#Jemma Redgrave #silentwitness #DrWho #Berena

love the raised eyebrows in last one!

[mistypeonyy]

"Professional" 😏

[justashippershipping]

[weemsbotts]

When the Men of Dumfries Tried to Drown Women...Twice

By: Lisa Timmerman, Executive Director

In the 1750s-1760s, Prince William County Court ordered “…some person to erect a ducking stool on Quantico Creek of the Town of Dumfries” twice, specifying Henry Lee, Bertrand Ewell, Allan Macrae, Foushee Tebbs & George Brent in 1757, and Allan Macrae, William Carr and James Douglas sometime between 1761-1763. While we do not have the original two court orders in our records to check the transcriptions, the two separate orders are intriguing. In 1759, Prince William County moved the courthouse from Occoquan to Dumfries where it remained until its departure for Brentsville in 1822. The timing of the ducking stool construction fits with the theme of centralizing Dumfries as the court town, but did anybody ever build it? And use it?

(Illustration from: Weems, Mason Locke. God’s Revenge Against Murder or The Drown’d Wife. Philadelphia, Printed for the Author, 1823. Book in HDVI’s object collection)

In early Virginia, white male officials attempt to control white women extended beyond their actions to their tongues. In the 1660s, the General Assembly enacted various laws aimed at women “causing scandalous suites,” “…oftentimes many brabling women often slander and scandalize their neighbours for which their poore husbands are often brought into chargeable and vexatious suites, and cast in greate damages . . . after judgment passed for the damages the women shalbe punished by ducking…” the amount of times determined by the equivalent damages in tobacco. This Act tried to prevent women from speaking in political affairs and also provided a way for men to punish women without losing their beloved tobacco. The General Assembly also ordered every county to outfit a pillory, a pair of stocks, a whipping post, and a ducking stool near the courthouse. It should be recognized that these statutes also further identified and restricted black persons, specifically targeting servants and the enslaved with corporeal punishments eventually leading to the “An Act Concerning Servants and Slaves” aka Virginia Slave Codes of 1705. While white men strove to contain everyone not white, male, or wealthy, white officials also ensured that even unborn children would become enslaved.

Locally, two court cases against women are interesting to examine. Meet Margarett Sewill. The court brought charges against her on 09/23/1760 on suspicion of felony for “stealing about four yards of linen from Robert Foster” with Justices Henry Lee, John Baylis, Foushee Tebbs, Allan Macrae, Lewis Reno, and Lynaugh Helm sitting in judgment of her. The court sentenced “with consent of Margarett” to thirty-nine “well laid” lashes across her bare back at the public whipping post, determining that the case was not serious/severe enough to send to further prosecution in Williamsburg. Almost a year, 09/02/1761, Justices Allan Macrae, William Tebbs, John Hooe, Lewis Reno and William Carr presided over Margaret Darnell as the court charged her “…for feloniously stealing sundry goods of the value of 20 shillings current money” including a “handkerchief and a ribbon the property of Jane Caudell.” Instead of confinement, Ms. Darnell consented to fifteen lashes on her bare back at the whipping post.

(Illustration from: Ashton, John. Chap-Books of the Eighteenth Century, London: William Clowes & Sons, 1882 via Project Gutenberg)

Charged with felony, the Courts did not consider the ducking stool (if it was an option) favoring the public whipping post. Is this because there were no stools or “brabling” women in Prince William County? While we cannot answer this without thoroughly searching all court records for data, we do know accounts of ducking took place in nearby Fredericksburg and Winchester. Former HDVI Historian Lee Lansing speculated the Dumfries stool placement close to the purported stocks near the intersection of Duke Street and King’s Highway (Route 1). Whether whipped or forcibly submerged in water, men willingly corporally punished women in attempts to control their actions and voices. Of course these efforts did not stop women and after the unrest of Bacon’s Rebellion (another blog topic!), the 1677 “Act of Releife” again attempted to control married women’s tongue by punishing them for speaking out against the white patriarchy with lashings on their backs and even possible prosecution as a “…rebell and traytor…”

Although we currently do not have the names of women ducked, or the names of the men that defied, forgot, or constructed the stool, torture was a real concern for the women in Virginia. As is the case with so many people, we must continue to search and provide a voice for those women silenced by abuse.

Note: Wanting to enjoy your history by reading primary sources with me? Our monthly “Weems-Botts Bibliophiles” program provides you with the material and a cup of tea before a Zoom discussion/meeting! Participants do not have chat but should come prepared to learn a lot of neat well-researched facts! To enjoy ground-breaking heroes & comic books, join us on Saturday, 05/22, by purchasing a ticket and helping support our local efforts here!

(Sources: HDVI Archival Files: PWC Court & Jail Records; Henings Statue’s at Large;  Egloff, Nancy. Punished by Ducking. Jamestown Settlement & American Revolution Museum at Yorktown Blog, part of Jamestown’s Tenacity: Women in Jamestown and Early Virginia” exhibit, https://www.historyisfun.org/blog/punished-by-ducking/; Richter, Julie. Women in Colonial Virginia. (2020, December 14). In Encyclopedia Virginia, https://encyclopediavirginia.org/entries/women-in-colonial-virginia; Spencer, Michael. Ducking Stools in Fredericksburg. Historic Fredericksburg Foundation, Inc., 10/23/2018, https://hffi.org/ducking-stools-in-fredericksburg/)

[legendarydreamer4ever]

“Jack speaks very highly of you Dr. Alexander” - Mr. Hodgson