Record

Entry Type	Person
Surname	Cellier
Forenames	Elizabeth
Also Known As	the Popish Midwife
Place	London
Epithet	Catholic midwife and pamphleteer
Dates	fl c1668-c1688
Gender Identity	Female
Biography	Elizabeth Cellier was the wife of a Frenchman, Peter Cellier, who converted to Catholicism. Through her friendship with Lady Powis, the wife of one of the "Five Catholic Lords" who were falsely accused of treason and executed during the Popish Plot, she was herself accused of involvement in the "Meal-Tub Plot" by a notorious confidence trickster, Thomas Dangerfield. By the time of her trial in 1680, Dangerfield was known to be an unreliable informer and she was acquitted, after which she published the pamphlet "Malice Defeated". Her accusations in "Malice Defeated" led her to being prosecuted again, for libel, where she was sentenced to pay a fine of £1,000 and stand in the pillory.
Authorised Form of Name	Cellier; Elizabeth (fl c1668-c1688); Catholic midwife and pamphleteer

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