Mary Bateman

Mary Bateman (née Harker, 1768 – 20 March 1809) was an English criminal and alleged witch, known as the Yorkshire Witch, who was tried and executed for murder during the early 19th century.

Biography Most of the details of Mary Bateman's life are known from The Extraordinary Life and Character of Mary Bateman, published soon after her trial and death. She was born in Asenby in the North Riding of Yorkshire in 1768. Her father was a farmer. She learned to read and write and, from age 13, worked as a servant girl in Thirsk, North Riding of Yorkshire. According to author Summer Stevens, she also worked as an abortionist.

In 1806, Bateman joined the followers of the prophetess Joanna Southcott and attended meetings. Three of these eggs were displayed by Bateman and members of the public were charged a penny to see them. When the hen was taken away from her, it laid no more prophetic eggs. It was later found that she had written on the eggs using concentrated vinegar, and then reinserted them into the hen's oviduct.

William Knipe's 1867 account suggests Bateman had a daughter at home as well as an infant child in the prison with her. She reportedly mailed her wedding ring back to her husband to give to the daughter. Her body was dissected by William Hey, who spread the event across three days. On day one medical students paid to view the corpse, on day two “about 100 tickets were available to gentlemen [professional Leeds men] who paid five guineas”, and on day three women could buy a day ticket to attend Hey's lectures on the body. Strips of her skin were tanned into leather and sold as magic charms to ward off evil spirits. The tip of her tongue was collected by the governor of Ripon Prison. Two books from the library of Mexborough House were covered in her skin – Sir John Cheeke's Hurt of Sedition: How Grievous it is to a Common Welth (1569) and Richard Braithwaite’s Arcadian Princess (1635); the books went missing in the mid-nineteenth century. A popular account, The Extraordinary Life and Character of Mary Bateman was published, which was already in its twelfth edition two years after her execution. until 2015, when it was moved to Leeds University.

A BBC-TV programme about Bateman, featuring a modern-day descendant of hers (Tracy Whitaker), showed Bateman's skull being laser-scanned to demonstrate how her face may well have appeared. It was first shown on 12 April 2001, entitled The People Detective – 1. Witch and presented by historian and curator Daru Rooke.

Historiography As early as 1867, William Knipe suggested that she was "addicted" to crime.