The Fasting Woman of Tutbury, Ann Moore

There was an old lady all skin and bone

This old lady was very well known

She lay in bed as I’ve heard say

For many years to fast and pray

When she had lain a twelvemonth’s space

The flesh was gone from hands and face

When that another twelvemonth was gone

She was nothing at all but a skeleton. 

 

-From the autobiography of a child by Mary Howitt

p 131

In the early 1800s, crowds gathered to witness the fasting woman of Tutbury. It seemed remarkable, impossible even, that a woman could live without sustenance for years. Certainly, such a thing couldn’t be possible. Or could it?

Ann Moore, The Fasting Woman of Tutbury

The Fasting Woman of Tutbury, Ann Moore, was born October 31st, 1761, in Derbyshire. She went on to work in domestic service. She married James Moore in 1788, but the marriage was short-lived. It’s believed that they had a shotgun wedding. It’s hard to know exactly, but the marriage dissolved possibly because Moore believed the child wasn’t his. Anne went back to work and eventually became the housekeeper for a widowed farmer near Tutbury. She and the farmer had at least two children together. A boy and a girl. She may have had more.

In 1800, she was converted by a group of Calvinists and left the farm. She moved and began working as a cotton beater.

It was during this time that Ann began fasting, and people began to notice. By 1806, she said that she’d lost all desire for food. The locals and the medical community began to become curious. By March of 1807, her stomach began to give her trouble, and she became bedridden. In May of 1807, she tried to eat a biscuit but ended up vomiting. The last food she had was in June of 1807 when she ate some blackcurrants. Her diet then entirely consisted of tea without milk or sugar, and very little.

Fascinated and possibly concerned, two surgeons, Robert Taylor and John Allen, watched the woman for sixteen days to see if her fasting claims were true. Both men wrote articles in the London Medical and Physical Journal concurring that yes, in fact, Ms. Moore was truly not eating. They did not witness her taking any food or water during the entire time they were there.

Ann told people that she’d first lost her appetite because of washing the sheets of a man with severe ulcers. She couldn’t always feed herself or her children, so she asked God to remove her need of food. And he did. But she’d also claimed that she slowly lost the desire for food.

The medical opinion at the time was that her anorexia was caused by a disease of the esophagus or stomach.

One recorded commenter said, “Air appears to be the means by which life is still maintained” (An Account of the Extraordinary Abstinence of Ann Moor, of Tutbury, 25). 

Martha Taylor, the Derbyshire Damsel

Some believed that she might have been mimicking the actions of others who’d claimed long fasts, like that of Martha Taylor. Martha was a sickly child, and in her teen years, she became bedridden. Supposedly, she didn’t take nourishment for over a year. Her suffering began when she was hit in the back by a neighbor. It’s unclear why the neighbor would have hit her, but from that point on, Martha grew sicker and sicker. She bled from her mouth, she almost always had a fever, and even wept tears of blood, which author H.A. mentions in his book Mirabile Pecci. As she worsened, she had a desire to pull out her hair and would eventually be unable to speak. H.A. believed that all of this was the devil.

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Despite all the horrible suffering she appeared to be going through, the author claimed that she still looked lovely and kept a kind countenance. But because she did not look sick, people were skeptical. H.A. said that though her upper body looked normal, she’d wasted away from the ribs down. The medical community came to believe that Martha’s experience and her ability to survive without eating or consuming much could be possible because of how well she was cared for and that her body had reverted to an embryo-like state. 

Records show that Martha lived at least until the age of 18, but we don’t know what her fate was after that. But Martha’s story, her fame, spread far and wide. There were several other fasting girls, as well.

Fate of the Imposter

Ann’s physical condition was documented. She appeared extremely emaciated and perspired a lot. She also claimed not to pass urine or other matter. Visitors said that she was in good spirits and had a pious nature. Visitors sometimes left money for her, but her daughter apparently spent the money on frivolous things and took care of herself.

On March 31st, 1813, Legh Richmond, the rector of Turvey, organized a second watch of Ann with a committee of doctors and clergy. Ann wasn’t too happy about having another watch and really didn’t like the idea of being put on a weighing machine. The watch began on April 21st, but by April 30th, Ann’s health had declined so much that everyone believed she’d die, and the watch ended. There was evidence of excretion on her bedclothes, and people began to wonder if Ann was wholly honest.

On May 4th, Ann came forward with a confession—she’d been a fraud. Further investigation revealed that Ann’s daughter visited daily and somehow had smuggled food to her. It was also noted that tea, milk, and sugar were left within her reach during earlier fasts. Nonetheless, she had remarkably been living on very little sustenance for a really long time.

Some believe Ann died a few months later at the age of 53, while there’s still some question as to what happened to her. Some claim that she and her daughter fled the town and moved away.

In the end, Ann was pronounced an imposter, but her motivations seem a bit more complex. Being a woman of little means and reputation, things must have been extremely difficult for her and her children. Perhaps she did learn to starve herself out of necessity, perhaps it was for religious reasons, or maybe the compassion she felt from visitors fed her in ways food never could. Who can say…

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