Stacey Halls
The setting for Stacey Halls’ The Familiars is 17th-century England during the Pendle Hill Witch Trials. It is told in the first-person voice of Fleetwood Shuttleworth, the wife of Richard Shuttleworth. Both Fleetwood and Richard are historical figures.
Having suffered multiple miscarriages, Fleetwood is desperate to give birth to a healthy baby. She meets Alice Grey, a young midwife, and clings to her as her only hope to survive and to give birth to a healthy baby. She places complete trust in Alice and the healing plants and herbs she provides. But this is 17th century England, a time when women healers and midwives, whose knowledge of medicinal plants and herbs were transmitted from mother to daughter for many generations, were viewed with suspicion by male authorities. These women were hunted down, persecuted, tortured, and executed in part to curry political favors with powerful male elites, in part to keep women afraid, and in part to reinforce a patriarchal power structure designed to subordinate women.
When Alice Grey is accused of witchcraft, Fleetwood spurs into action to save her midwife in a frenzy of activity as Alice’s trial looms on the horizon. Fleetwood visits Alice in prison, travels across the countryside talking to people who knew Alice, and obtaining letters that prove her innocence. When all appears lost, Richard Shuttleworth saves the day. He speaks in support of Alice during her trial and provides letters of her innocence obtained by Fleetwood.
The novels strength lies in showing the corrupt system which accused these women, put them on trial, and executed them on the flimsiest of evidence. Much of the evidence was hearsay fueled by politicians eager to make a name for themselves by persecuting helpless, impoverished women. This was not just a war against women healers who were poor and illiterate. It was a war waged against all women to intimidate them and reinforce their subordinate status.
Although the narrative had potential, it fell short. With its exclusive focus on Fleetwood, the opportunity to shed insight on the women put on trial as witches was squandered. The characters were superficial and uninteresting, frequently speaking in clichés. The events felt contrived, including the hurried ending with the last-minute rescue of Alice Grey.
Probably the most problematic issue was Fleetwood’s transformation. From a meek and mild nobleman’s wife intimidated by her own household servants, she transforms into a courageous pregnant woman who dashes about the countryside on her horse, determined to rescue her midwife. She goes to unseemly places, interacts with unseemly men and, yet, somehow, manages to emerge relatively unscathed. She defies her husband and challenges an unscrupulous former magistrate intent on his political advancement at the expense of innocent women. Although she rails against the injustices toward women, she casually accepts her husband’s betrayal as if it were an acceptable norm. Above all, she risks her life, her marriage, and her freedom to save a midwife. And she does all this at the ripe, old age of seventeen.
An entertaining novel but it stretched the limits of credibility.