In 1652 one Mary Adams of Tillingham, Essex apparently died by her own hand. According to an eight-page pamphlet entitled The Ranters Monster printed for George Horton at London in early March that year, Adams claimed that she had been made pregnant by the Holy Ghost. She also reportedly denied the Gospels’ teachings, wickedly declaring that Christ had not yet appeared in the flesh but that she was to give birth to the true Messiah. Indeed, anyone that did not believe in this new ‘Saviour of the world’ was damned. For these supposed blasphemies Adams was apprehended and imprisoned by order of the local minister. After a protracted labour of eight days, she gave birth on the ninth day to a stillborn, ugly, misshapen monster. This loathsome creature was said to have neither hands nor feet, but claws like a toad. Adams herself became consumed by disease, rotting away; her body disfigured by blotches, boils and putrid scabs. To compound her sins she refused to repent and then committed the terrible crime of suicide by ripping open her bowels with a knife.