Elizabeth Cellier
English midwife
Elizabeth Cellier, commonly known as the "Popish Midwife" (died c. 1688), was a notable Catholic midwife in seventeenth-century England. She stood trial for treason in 1679 for her alleged part in the "Meal-Tub Plot" against the future King James II, but was eventually freed. Cellier was later imprisoned for allegations made in her 1680 work Malice Defeated, in which she recounted the events of the alleged conspiracy against the future King. She later became a pamphleteer and advocated for advancements in the field of midwifery. Cellier published A Scheme for the Foundation of a Royal Hospital in 1687, where she outlined plans for a hospital and a college for instructions in midwifery, as well as proposing that midwives of London should enter into a corporation and use their fees to establish parish houses where any woman could give birth. Cellier resided in London, England until her death.
Life
Elizabeth Cellier was a London midwife, who is known largely through the "Meal-Tub Plot" of 1680. There are no historical records of her prior to her marriage to Peter Cellier, a Frenchman, and her conversion to Catholicism from Anglicanism.
The Jesuit historian John Warner described Cellier as a woman of clear, sharp and lively intelligence but rather poor judgment, a conclusion he reached through her conduct during the Popish Plot.
Many Catholics were incarcerated in 1678 because of the national alarm created by the fabricated Popish Plot of Titus Oates.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Elizabeth Cellier” is english midwife. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Elizabeth, Cellier and English, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “english midwife” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 13, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5362554. VIAF identifies the subject as 18127511. The Library of Congress control number is n84141080. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1688, 1679, 1680 and 1687.
Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Elizabeth Cellier”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Elizabeth Cellier primary sources, Elizabeth Cellier archive and Elizabeth research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Elizabeth Cellier”?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Elizabeth Cellier” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.