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Legend A legend is a Folklore genre, genre of folklore that consists of a narrative featuring human actions, believed or perceived, both by teller and listeners, to have taken place in human history. Narratives in this genre may demonstrate human valu ...
s featuring pig-faced women originated roughly simultaneously in
Holland Holland is a geographical regionG. Geerts & H. Heestermans, 1981, ''Groot Woordenboek der Nederlandse Taal. Deel I'', Van Dale Lexicografie, Utrecht, p 1105 and former province on the western coast of the Netherlands. From the 10th to the 16th c ...
,
England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
and
France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
in the late 1630s. The stories tell of a wealthy woman whose body is of normal human appearance, but whose face is that of a pig. In the earliest forms of the story, the woman's pig-like appearance is the result of
witchcraft Witchcraft traditionally means the use of magic or supernatural powers to harm others. A practitioner is a witch. In medieval and early modern Europe, where the term originated, accused witches were usually women who were believed to have us ...
. Following her wedding day, the pig-faced woman's new husband is granted the choice of having her appear beautiful to him but pig-like to others, or pig-like to him and beautiful to others. When her husband tells her that the choice is hers, the enchantment is broken and her pig-like appearance vanishes. These stories became particularly popular in England, and later in
Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...
. The magical elements gradually vanished from the story, and the existence of pig-faced women began to be treated as fact. The story became particularly widespread in
Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...
in the early 19th century, where it became widely believed that reclusive 18th-century philanthropist Griselda Steevens had kept herself hidden from view because she had the face of a pig. In late 1814 and early 1815, rumour swept London that a pig-faced woman was living in
Marylebone Marylebone (usually , also , ) is a district in the West End of London, in the City of Westminster. Oxford Street, Europe's busiest shopping street, forms its southern boundary. An Civil parish#Ancient parishes, ancient parish and latterly a ...
. Her existence was widely reported as fact, and numerous alleged portraits of her were published. With belief in pig-faced women commonplace, unscrupulous showmen exhibited living "pig-faced women" at fairs. These were not genuine women, but shaven bears dressed in women's clothing. Belief in pig-faced women declined, and the last significant work to treat their existence as genuine was published in 1924. Today, the legend is almost forgotten.


Standard elements

While stories of pig-faced women vary in detail, they have the same basic form. A pregnant noblewoman is approached by a beggar and her children, whom she dismisses, making some comparison of the beggar's children to pigs as she does so. The beggar curses the pregnant noblewoman, and come the birth of her child it is a girl, healthy and perfectly formed in every respect other than having the face of a pig. The child grows up healthy, but with some of the behaviours of a pig. She eats from a silver trough, and speaks only in grunts or with a grunting sound to her speech. The only child of her parents, she stands to inherit a large fortune, but her parents are concerned about what would become of her after their death. They either make arrangements to find a man willing to marry her, or to use their fortune to endow a hospital on condition that the hospital take care of her for the remainder of her life. Although originating roughly simultaneously in Holland, England, and France, it was only in England, and later in Ireland, that the legend became well known and widely believed. In 1861
Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian e ...
remarked on the longevity of the belief in pig-faced women in England, commenting that "In every age, I suppose, there has been a pig-faced lady."


Origins

While earlier stories of humans with the appearance of animals are common, prior to the 17th century there are no recorded European stories of humans with the faces of pigs. (An 1829 paper in the ''
Quarterly Journal of Science, Literature, and the Arts ''Quarterly Journal of Science'' was the title of two British scientific periodicals of the 19th century. The first was established in 1816 by William Thomas Brande, as the ''Quarterly Journal of Science, Literature and the Arts''. He edited it w ...
'' claims that the legend was circulating in Paris in 1595 but offers no detail or corroborating evidence.) The earliest versions of the story of the pig-faced woman appear to have originated roughly simultaneously in England, Holland and France, and to have become prevalent in England in late 1639. A 1904 paper in ''Volkskunde'' magazine by Dutch historian and antiquarian Gerrit Jacob Boekenoogen traces the earliest forms of the legend as appearing in 1638 or 1639. The earliest surviving version of the legend is a Dutch print about an Amsterdam woman named Jacamijntjen Jacobs. In 1621 Jacobs, while pregnant, was approached one day by a female beggar accompanied by three children, who pleaded that her children were starving. Jacobs told the beggar, "Take away your filthy pigs, I will not give you anything." The woman replied "Are these my children pigs? May God then give you such pigs as I have here!" Jacobs' daughter was born with the head and face of a pig, and at the time of publication in 1638–39 the daughter, by then in her teens, supposedly ate from a trough and spoke in a grunting voice. Bondeson (2006) speculates that the pig-faced woman myth originated as a fusion of two earlier stories. The mediaeval Dutch legend of Margaret of Henneberg tells of a wealthy noblewoman who turned away a beggar with twins, and was herself punished by giving birth to 365 children. In a similar French folk tale, the noblewoman in question described the beggar's children as "piglets", and gave birth to a litter of nine piglets. The other significant theory about the origin of the legend, proposed by Robert Chambers in 1864, is that a genuine child was born in the early 17th century with facial deformities resembling a pig's face and a speech impediment causing her to grunt. The science of
teratology Teratology is the study of abnormalities of physiological development in organisms during their life span. It is a sub-discipline in medical genetics which focuses on the classification of congenital abnormalities in dysmorphology. The related t ...
(the study of birth defects and physiological abnormalities) was then in its infancy, and the theory of
maternal impression The conception of a maternal impression rests on the belief that a powerful mental (or sometimes physical) influence working on the mother's mind may produce an impression, either general or definite, on the child she is carrying. The child might ...
(that the thoughts of a pregnant woman could influence the future appearance of her children) was widely accepted. It is possible that the birth of a genuinely deformed child led to the story of the beggar as a possible explanation for her appearance, with other elements of the story being later additions or distortions by publishers. Chambers speculates that the original child may have had a similar appearance to
Julia Pastrana Julia Pastrana (August 1834 – 25 March 1860) was a performer and singer during the 19th century who had hypertrichosis. Pastrana, an indigenous woman from Mexico, was born in 1834, somewhere in the state of Sinaloa.Lerma Garay, Antonio. Érase ...
, a woman with
hypertrichosis Hypertrichosis is an abnormal amount of hair growth over the body. The two distinct types of hypertrichosis are generalized hypertrichosis, which occurs over the entire body, and localized hypertrichosis, which is restricted to a certain area. H ...
and distorted (although not pig-like) facial features, who was widely exhibited in Europe and North America until her death in 1860, and then, embalmed, until the 1970s. However, while a 1952
stillbirth Stillbirth is typically defined as fetal death at or after 20 or 28 weeks of pregnancy, depending on the source. It results in a baby born without signs of life. A stillbirth can result in the feeling of guilt or grief in the mother. The term ...
with a face resembling a pig is documented, there has never been a reliably documented case of a human with deformities of this kind surviving outside the womb, while all versions of the pig-faced woman legend describe her as a healthy adult.


Tannakin Skinker

The first recorded reference in England to the legend of the pig-faced woman is the fable of Tannakin Skinker, a 17th-century variation on the traditional
loathly lady The loathly lady ( cy, dynes gas, Motif D732 in Stith Thompson's motif index), is a tale type commonly used in medieval literature, most famously in Geoffrey Chaucer's ''The Wife of Bath's Tale''. The motif is that of a woman who appears unattr ...
story, in particular on ''
The Wife of Bath's Tale "The Wife of Bath's Tale" ( enm, The Tale of the Wyf of Bathe) is among the best-known of Geoffrey Chaucer's ''Canterbury Tales''. It provides insight into the role of women in the Late Middle Ages and was probably of interest to Chaucer himsel ...
'' and ''
The Marriage of Sir Gawain "The Marriage of Sir Gawain" is an English Arthurian ballad, collected as Child Ballad 31. Found in the Percy Folio, it is a fragmented account of the story of Sir Gawain and the loathly lady, which has been preserved in fuller form in the medieva ...
''. The Skinker story is generally considered the basis for later English stories of pig-faced women. Between 4 and 11 December 1639, five ballads about Skinker were published in London, all of which are now lost. (A 1640 ballad, ''A Monstrous Shape: or, A Shapelesse Monster, a Description of a female creature born in Holland compleat in every part, save only a head like a swine, who hath travelled in many parts and is now to be seen in London, shees loving, courteous and effeminate and nere as yet could find a loving mate'', is preserved in
Samuel Pepys Samuel Pepys (; 23 February 1633 – 26 May 1703) was an English diarist and naval administrator. He served as administrator of the Royal Navy and Member of Parliament and is most famous for the diary he kept for a decade. Pepys had no mariti ...
's extensive collection of ballads.) The earliest surviving record of the Tannakin Skinker story is that given in ''A Certaine Relation of the Hog-faced Gentlewoman called Mistris Tannakin Skinker'', a 1640
chapbook A chapbook is a small publication of up to about 40 pages, sometimes bound with a saddle stitch. In early modern Europe a chapbook was a type of printed street literature. Produced cheaply, chapbooks were commonly small, paper-covered bookle ...
.


''A Certaine Relation of the Hog-faced Gentlewoman called Mistris Tannakin Skinker''

''A Certaine Relation'' claims that Tannakin Skinker was born to Joachim and Parnel Skinker in 1618 in "Wirkham, a neuter towne betweene the Emperour and the Hollander, scituate on the river Rhyne". Joachim Skinker is described as "a man of good revenue, but of a great estate in money and cattle." During Parnel's pregnancy, an elderly woman had begged her for money. Parnel was busy and refused to pay, and the old woman had left, "muttering to her selfe the Divells pater noster, and was heard to say 'As the Mother is Hoggish, so Swinish shall be the Child shee goeth withall. At Tannakin's birth her body and limbs were correctly proportioned, but her face had a pig's snout, "not only a stain and blemish, but a deformed uglinesse, making all the rest loathsome, contemptible and odious to all that lookt upon her in her infancie." The midwife who had delivered the baby was sworn to secrecy, and the Skinkers raised her in a private room. She ate from a silver trough, "to which she stooped and ate, just like a Swine doth in his swilling tub". Tannakin's deformity was soon discovered, and many locals came to hear her pig-like speech or to watch her feed from the trough. The old woman was located, tried and convicted for witchcraft, but even at the stake refused or was unable to reverse the enchantment. When Tannakin was between 16 and 17 years old, her father consulted Vandermast, "a famous Artist, who was both a Mathematician, and an Astrologian  ..a man who was suspected to have been well versed in blacke and hidden Arts", as to how the curse might be undone. Vandermast concluded that as long as Tannakin remained a virgin she would retain her pig's face, but were she married, and not to "a Clowne, Bore or Pesant", she might be cured. The Skinker family announced that any gentleman who "would take her to his bed after loyall Matrimony" would receive a dowry of £40,000. The dowry, a huge sum for the time, prompted a large number of would-be husbands. A Scottish captain arrived, having spent the greater part of a month's pay on a new suit, and was taken by Tannakin's figure and deportment. On lifting the veil to view her face, however, "hee would stay no other conference, but ran away without further answer, saying; they must pardon him, for hee could indure no Porke." An English sow-man (pig farmer) assured the family that his familiarity with pigs meant he would accept Tannakin's appearance, but after meeting her he left the building, saying that "so long as I have known Rumford, I never saw such a Hogsnout". Several further would-be suitors visited the Skinkers, but all were repulsed by Tannakin's face and she remained unmarried. Despairing of finding a suitable husband in Wirkham, the Skinker family moved to London, and took up residence in either
Blackfriars Blackfriars, derived from Black Friars, a common name for the Dominican Order of friars, may refer to: England * Blackfriars, Bristol, a former priory in Bristol * Blackfriars, Canterbury, a former monastery in Kent * Blackfriars, Gloucester, a f ...
or
Covent Garden Covent Garden is a district in London, on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit-and-vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist si ...
. (The anonymous author of ''A Certaine Relation'' says that the family did not wish to divulge their address, to discourage curiosity-seekers from gathering.) Many who met her were taken by her elegant dress and excellent demeanour. Eventually, the Skinkers found a man in London willing to marry Tannakin. On the day of the wedding, and despite all efforts to improve her appearance, her face was as pig-like as ever. With the wedding service concluded, the newly-wed couple retired to the bedroom. When they lay in bed together for the first time, Tannakin reached for her husband's arm, saying that she would release him from his vows provided that he would look at her in the face. He turned to look at her, and saw "a sweet young Lady of incomparable beauty and feature, the like to whom to his imagination he never had in his whole life time beheld". He reached to kiss her, but she refused, saying: Torn between the choice of a wife who would appear beautiful to him but hideous to all his friends, or hideous to him but beautiful to all his friends, he could not reach a decision but instead said to her "into you owne hands and choyse I give the full power and soveraignty to make election of which you best please." On hearing this, Tannakin turned to him and said:


Public reaction

The fable of Tannakin Skinker was popular in England, and the idea of the pig-faced woman soon entered popular culture, to the extent that by 1654, it was recorded that one of the signs at
Bartholomew Fair The Bartholomew Fair was one of London's pre-eminent summer charter fairs. A charter for the fair was granted to Rahere by Henry I to fund the Priory of St Bartholomew; and from 1133 to 1855 it took place each year on 24 August within the precin ...
was "the Signe of the Hoggs-fac'd Gentlewoman". By the 1670s, ''The Long-Nos'd Lass'' was a popular song, relating in detail how a tailor and a miller courted a woman whose "visage was perfectly just like a Sow" in the hope of securing her dowry (given as £17,000, not the £40,000 of ''A Certaine Relation''). On seeing her face each turned and fled. ''The Long-Nos'd Lass'' does not contain the magical elements of ''A Certaine Relation'', nor end in the wedding and the transformation of the pig-faced woman, the traditional ending of stories in the genre. Instead, the pig-faced woman remains unmarried, and the ballad ends:


18th century

In the 18th century, stories of pig-faced women began to be reported as fact in England. James Paris du Plessis, former servant to Samuel Pepys, told in his ''Short History of Human Prodigious & Monstrous Births'' (compiled 1731–1733) of a pig-faced woman living in
Holborn Holborn ( or ) is a district in central London, which covers the south-eastern part of the London Borough of Camden and a part ( St Andrew Holborn Below the Bars) of the Ward of Farringdon Without in the City of London. The area has its roots ...
in central London, which was widely reprinted. An 1850 article in ''
Chambers's Edinburgh Journal ''Chambers's Edinburgh Journal'' was a weekly 16-page magazine started by William Chambers in 1832. The first edition was dated 4 February 1832, and priced at one penny. Topics included history, religion, language, and science. William was soo ...
'' carried the recollections of "a venerable and clear-headed old lady of ninety", in which she recounted that her mother was well acquainted with a pig-faced woman, of Scottish birth but living in London, and would regularly visit her home in
Sloane Street Sloane Street is a major London street in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea which runs north to south, from Knightsbridge to Sloane Square, crossing Pont Street about halfway along. History Sloane Street takes its name from Sir Han ...
. In 1800, ''The Pig-faced Lady'', as "sung at Astley's Theatre, &c.", was published in London by John Pitts, and an 1815 editorial in ''
The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...
'' recounted reports of a pig-faced woman living in London as having circulated in 1764 and in the 1780s. (subscription required)


Daughter of a Jewish convert

A variant form of the legend, and the only one in which the pig-faced woman is not connected with a great fortune, told of a Christian man who converted to Judaism. In this version, the first child born to him after his conversion was a girl with the face of a pig. Some years later, the father realised that his daughter's appearance was a divine punishment, and re-converted to Christianity along with his pig-faced daughter. At the moment of the daughter's baptism, the holy water washed her pig-like features away, revealing a normal human face. The story was alleged to be represented by a sculpture in "one of the grand old cathedrals of Belgium", but no evidence for such a sculpture has been found.


Griselda Steevens

Griselda Steevens (1653 – 18 March 1746), sometimes written as "Grizel Steevens", was the twin sister of Dr Richard Steevens (1653–1710), a Dublin physician. Dr Steevens died in 1710, bequeathing an estate with an income of £606 () per year to Griselda. A clause in Dr Steevens' will stipulated that on Griselda's death, the income was to be used to provide a hospital for the poor of Dublin. Although the terms of Dr Steevens' will were that work on the hospital would not begin until after Griselda Steevens' death, she decided to begin work on the hospital in 1720. Reserving only £120 per year for her own use, she used the remaining funds to buy a plot of land near
Kilmainham Kilmainham (, meaning " St Maighneann's church") is a south inner suburb of Dublin, Ireland, south of the River Liffey and west of the city centre. It is in the city's Dublin 8 postal district. The area was once known as Kilmanum. History In th ...
and to build the new hospital, with the sole condition being that she be granted a suite of apartments in the building. As a youth Griselda had suffered a disorder of the eyes, and since then had worn a veil while in sunlight. Shy and reclusive, while conducting her charitable works in the
Dublin slum A tenement is a type of building shared by multiple dwellings, typically with flats or apartments on each floor and with shared entrance stairway access. They are common on the British Isles, particularly in Scotland. In the medieval Old Town, i ...
s she would remain in her carriage while servants gave out
alms Alms (, ) are money, food, or other material goods donated to people living in poverty. Providing alms is often considered an act of virtue or Charity (practice), charity. The act of providing alms is called almsgiving, and it is a widespread p ...
to the poor. By 1723 a sufficient portion of the new
Dr Steevens' Hospital Dr Steevens' Hospital (also called Dr Steevens's Hospital) ( ga, Ospidéal an Dr Steevens), one of Ireland's most distinguished eighteenth-century medical establishments, was located at Kilmainham in Dublin Ireland. It was founded under the terms ...
was completed to accommodate 40 patients, in addition to Griselda's apartments. The remainder of the hospital, with space for 200 patients, opened in 1733. Griselda lived in the hospital from 1723 until her death. At some point, it became a common belief in Dublin that Griselda Steevens had a pig's face. It is unclear when the rumour arose. Robert Chambers and
Irish Georgian Society The Irish Georgian Society is an architectural heritage and preservation organisation which promotes and aims to encourage an interest in the conservation of distinguished examples of architecture and the allied arts of all periods across Ire ...
founder
Desmond Guinness Desmond Walter Guinness (8 September 1931 – 20 August 2020) was an Irish author writing on Georgian art and architecture, a conservationist and the co-founder of the Irish Georgian Society. He was the second son of the author and brewer Brya ...
claim that the rumour was current in her lifetime, but Thomas Kirkpatrick, author of ''History of Dr Steevens' Hospital Dublin'', says that "There is absolutely no evidence of this story in contemporary records, nor indeed does it appear to have been connected with the good lady until the nineteenth century ... It is not quite certain when this story first gained circulation. Croker-King, who wrote a history of the hospital in 1785, makes no mention of it, nor is there any suggestion of it in the newspaper accounts of the death of Madam Steevens, or the published account of the hospital in the eighteenth century." The rumour was that Griselda Steevens' reclusiveness and always being veiled were owing to her having been born with a pig's head. Chambers (1864) speculates that her unusual name may have contributed to the legend, and notes the common belief that she was named "Grisly" on account of her appearance when born. It was claimed that while pregnant with Richard and Griselda, Steevens' mother had said "take away your litter of pigs!" to a woman beggar asking for money to feed her children, and Griselda had then been born with the head and face of a pig. Dismayed by the popular belief that she had a pig's head, Griselda took to sitting on an open balcony to allow the public to see her face. This failed to stem the spread of the rumour, and she commissioned a portrait of herself to be hung in the main hall of the hospital. The portrait failed to have the desired effect; many of the public chose instead to believe a portrait in a pub neighbouring the hospital, which showed Steevens with a pig's head; the pub also displayed a silver trough alleged to have belonged to her. She eventually withdrew from public view completely before her death on 18 March 1746. Surgeon and historian
William Wilde Sir William Robert Wills Wilde FRCSI (March 1815 – 19 April 1876) was an Irish oto-ophthalmologic surgeon and the author of significant works on medicine, archaeology and folklore, particularly concerning his native Ireland. He was the fath ...
recollected that as a medical student at Dr Steevens' Hospital in 1832 he was shown a silver trough, alleged to have belonged to Griselda Steevens, and accounts suggest that in the early 19th century a plaster cast of a human face with a pig's snout was on display at the hospital. Although the hospital authorities later forbade the display of alleged Steevens memorabilia on pain of dismissal, in the later half of the 19th century the belief that Steevens had a pig's face remained common. In the 1860s, a Dublin woman recollected that in her youth a large silver punchbowl, embossed with a family crest of a boar's head, was shown to visitors and was claimed to have been the Pig-faced Lady's trough.


The Pig-faced Lady of Manchester Square

In late 1814 and early 1815, a rumour swept London that a pig-faced woman was living in
Marylebone Marylebone (usually , also , ) is a district in the West End of London, in the City of Westminster. Oxford Street, Europe's busiest shopping street, forms its southern boundary. An Civil parish#Ancient parishes, ancient parish and latterly a ...
, an inner-city area of central London. Said to be the daughter of an unspecified noblewoman, she was supposedly young, wealthy and living in fashionable
Manchester Square Manchester Square is an 18th-century garden square in Marylebone, London. Centred north of Oxford Street it measures internally north-to-south, and across. It is a small Georgian predominantly 1770s-designed instance in central London; cons ...
. In some reports she was described as the daughter of a noblewoman from
Grosvenor Square Grosvenor Square is a large garden square in the Mayfair district of London. It is the centrepiece of the Mayfair property of the Duke of Westminster, and takes its name from the duke's surname "Grosvenor". It was developed for fashionable re ...
. It was claimed that she would occasionally venture out of the house in a carriage, hidden by a heavy veil; several letters to the London newspapers reported sightings of a snout protruding from a window, or a veiled, silhouetted pig's head in a passing carriage. In early 1815 the first of many portraits of the Pig-faced Lady of Manchester Square was published. This included a brief biography, allegedly from "a female who attended on her". It claimed that the Pig-faced Lady was Irish and aged about 20, from a wealthy family, and that "on her life and issue by marriage a very large property depends". She was alleged to eat from a silver trough, and to speak only in grunts. It claimed that her attendant, although paid an annual salary of 1,000 
guineas The guinea (; commonly abbreviated gn., or gns. in plural) was a coin, minted in United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Great Britain between 1663 and 1814, that contained approximately one-quarter of an ounce of gold. The name came from t ...
(), had been too frightened to continue working for her and had resigned, giving her story to the press. The Pig-faced Lady of Manchester Square became a leading topic of conversation in London. She soon began to be reported in newspapers as fact, and thousands of people believed in her existence. On 9 February 1815 an advertisement appeared in the ''Times'' from a self-described "young Gentlewoman", offering to be the Pig-faced Lady's companion in return for "a handsome income yearly, and a premium for residing with her 7 years". (subscription required) The advertisement was published, but a week later a prospective advertisement from a young man wishing to propose marriage to the Pig-faced Lady prompted the ''Times'' to denounce the rumour, comparing believers in the Pig-faced Lady to the followers of the (recently deceased) self-proclaimed prophet
Joanna Southcott Joanna Southcott (or Southcote; April 1750 – 26 December 1814) was a self-described religion, religious prophetess from Devon, England. A "Southcottian" movement continued in various forms after her death; its eighth prophet, Mabel Barltrop, ...
. The ''Times'' refused to print the advertisement from the Pig-faced Lady's would-be suitor, and donated his £1 fee to
The Marine Society The Marine Society is a British charity, the world's first established for seafarers. In 1756, at the beginning of the Seven Years' War against France, Austria, and Saxony (and subsequently the Mughal Empire, Spain, Russia and Sweden) Britain urg ...
. An anonymous letter-writer to the ''Times'' continued the comparison with Joanna Southcott, who had claimed that she would give birth to the
Messiah In Abrahamic religions, a messiah or messias (; , ; , ; ) is a saviour or liberator of a group of people. The concepts of ''mashiach'', messianism, and of a Messianic Age originated in Judaism, and in the Hebrew Bible, in which a ''mashiach'' ...
in October 1814, speculating that "the present miss piggy" was perhaps Southcott's child, "brought ... into the world in a state of complete puberty". The letter-writer also ridiculed the "swinish Lothario" who hoped to marry the Pig-faced Lady, suggesting that "if he means to have her, he must woo her in grunts". With the ''Times'' ridiculing belief in the Pig-faced Lady, rival newspapers set out to defend her honour and that of the man who wished to marry her. The ''
Morning Herald The ''Morning Herald'' was an early daily newspaper in the United Kingdom. The newspaper was founded in 1780 by the Reverend Sir Henry Bate Dudley, former editor of ''The Morning Post''. It was initially a liberal paper aligned with the Prince o ...
'' and ''
Morning Chronicle ''The Morning Chronicle'' was a newspaper founded in 1769 in London. It was notable for having been the first steady employer of essayist William Hazlitt as a political reporter and the first steady employer of Charles Dickens as a journalist. It ...
'' both published the advertisement from her prospective suitor. The editor of the ''Morning Chronicle'' announced that, in his opinion, the advertisement from the "desperate fortune-hunter" had not been immoral or indecent, and thus in his opinion there was no reason to decline to publish it. He went on to say that while deformities of this nature were unknown to doctors, it was certainly possible that a facially disfigured woman existed and that her deformities had been exaggerated in accounts; he also chided the ''Times'' for not returning the payment for the rejected advertisement. The ''Morning Herald'', meanwhile, speculated that the Pig-faced Lady's deformities may have been caused by her mother's "force of imagination, in consequence of a dog having suddenly leaped on her". Despite the pleas of the ''Times'' for scepticism, belief in the Pig-faced Lady of Manchester Square continued to spread in 1815. During illuminations celebrating the end of the
Napoleonic Wars The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...
a huge crowd gathered around
Piccadilly Piccadilly () is a road in the City of Westminster, London, to the south of Mayfair, between Hyde Park Corner in the west and Piccadilly Circus in the east. It is part of the A4 road that connects central London to Hammersmith, Earl's Court, ...
, bringing traffic to a standstill. Eyewitnesses recounted that in a stopped
landau Landau ( pfl, Landach), officially Landau in der Pfalz, is an autonomous (''kreisfrei'') town surrounded by the Südliche Weinstraße ("Southern Wine Route") district of southern Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is a university town (since 1990 ...
a woman with a fashionable bonnet and a pig's snout was visible. The crowd tried to stop the carriage, but the coachman drove through the crowd at high speed. It was later claimed that the coach had been seen to stop in Grosvenor Square; it was presumed that the Pig-faced Lady was the daughter of "a well-known lady of fashion" who lived there. It was also reported that William Elliot, a young
baronet A baronet ( or ; abbreviated Bart or Bt) or the female equivalent, a baronetess (, , or ; abbreviation Btss), is the holder of a baronetcy, a hereditary title awarded by the British Crown. The title of baronet is mentioned as early as the 14th ...
, called to visit a "great lady" at the house in Grosvenor Square in which the Pig-faced Lady was believed to be staying. Taken into the
drawing room A drawing room is a room in a house where visitors may be entertained, and an alternative name for a living room. The name is derived from the 16th-century terms withdrawing room and withdrawing chamber, which remained in use through the 17th cent ...
, he was confronted by a fashionably dressed woman with the face of a pig. Elliot "could not refrain from uttering a shout of horror, and rushed to the door in a manner the reverse of polite". The Pig-faced Lady rushed at Elliot as he left and bit him on the back of the neck; it was claimed that he was badly injured in the attack, requiring treatment by "Hawkins, the surgeon, in St Audley Street”. A popular print entitled ''Beware the pig-sty!'' depicted the supposed attack on Elliot. In April 1861, a man signing himself "M. A." wrote to ''
Notes and Queries ''Notes and Queries'', also styled ''Notes & Queries'', is a long-running quarterly scholarly journal that publishes short articles related to " English language and literature, lexicography, history, and scholarly antiquarianism".From the inne ...
'' magazine, asking: In a reply published on 22 June 1861, a Mr F. FitzHenry claimed to have known the Pig-faced Lady's sister, stating that "Lady C. B. lived in Chelsea: her sister, Lady H. W., was much admired as a beauty. I was at a dinner-party forty years ago with Lady H. W., when all the party were cautioned previously not to say a word about ''pigs'', out of delicacy to Lady H. W." In the same issue, a George Lloyd claimed to have seen the Pig-faced Lady in
Wakefield Wakefield is a cathedral city in West Yorkshire, England located on the River Calder. The city had a population of 99,251 in the 2011 census.https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/census/2011/ks101ew Census 2011 table KS101EW Usual resident population, ...
in around 1828–29 "but was too young to take a note further than a mental one, which has haunted me ever since".


The Pig-faced Lady of Manchester Square in art

On 21 March 1815 ''The Pig Faced Lady of Manchester Square and the Spanish Mule of Madrid'', a coloured print by
George Cruikshank George Cruikshank (27 September 1792 – 1 February 1878) was a British caricaturist and book illustrator, praised as the "modern Hogarth" during his life. His book illustrations for his friend Charles Dickens, and many other authors, reached ...
, was published. Captioned "Ah! Sure a pair was never seen so justly form'd to meet by nature!", it contrasts the Pig-faced Lady with the unpopular
Ferdinand VII of Spain , house = Bourbon-Anjou , father = Charles IV of Spain , mother = Maria Luisa of Parma , birth_date = 14 October 1784 , birth_place = El Escorial, Spain , death_date = , death_place = Madrid, Spain , burial_plac ...
. The Pig-faced Lady wears a transparent veil and plays "Air Swinish Multitude, set to music by Grunt Esq" on a piano. Her silver trough lies on a table behind her, and on her wall is a picture of "Lord Bacon", also shown with a pig's head. Her image is captioned: Facing her in another panel is Ferdinand VII, shown with a mule's head. Ferdinand sits on a wooden throne, with a
chamber pot A chamber pot is a portable toilet, meant for nocturnal use in the bedroom. It was common in many cultures before the advent of indoor plumbing and flushing toilets. Names and etymology "Chamber" is an older term for bedroom. The chamber pot ...
filled with holy water at his feet. On the wall behind him, a painting shows Ferdinand (again with a mule's head) watching a mass execution; a monk says "Here's some more patriots", and Ferdinand replies "O! That's right kill 'em kill 'em". The caption to Ferdinand's image reads: Cruikshank returned to the theme of the Pig-faced Lady with ''Suitors to the Pig-faced Lady'', published shortly after ''The Pig Faced Lady and the Spanish Mule''. This shows a number of men wooing the lady, who rejects them all in term with "If you think to ''gammon'' me, you'll find you've got the wrong ''sow'' by the ear – I'm ''meat'' for your ''masters'', so go along, I'll not be plagued by any of you". At the height of the Pig-faced Lady mania of 1814–15, it was rumoured that Sholto Henry Maclellan, 9th Lord Kirkcudbright had made enquiries about the whereabouts of the Pig-faced Lady of Manchester Square, possibly with a view to becoming one of her suitors. ''Waltzing a Courtship'', an anonymous drawing, was widely circulated in various publications. It shows an elegantly dressed Pig-faced Lady dancing with a
hunchbacked Kyphosis is an abnormally excessive convex curvature of the spine as it occurs in the thoracic and sacral regions. Abnormal inward concave ''lordotic'' curving of the cervical and lumbar regions of the spine is called lordosis. It can result fr ...
and extremely short man bearing a strong resemblance to Kirkcudbright. Another popular print, ''The Wonderful Mrs Atkinson'', was published anonymously in around 1815, based on an earlier drawing by
George Morland George Morland (26 June 176329 October 1804) was an English painter. His early work was influenced by Francis Wheatley, but after the 1790s he came into his own style. His best compositions focus on rustic scenes: farms and hunting; smugglers a ...
. (Morland had died in 1804, so his drawing cannot have been inspired by the 1814–15 reports.) Morland's original drawing stated that the Pig-faced Lady was "born in Ireland, has £20,000 fortune, and is fed out of a silver trough". The caption to the later, published print goes into more detail, claiming that:


Paris Pig-faced woman hoax

Shortly after the London pig-faced lady craze of 1814–15, a similar story began to circulate in Paris. In this version, the woman was "gifted with every accomplishment in the most degree", and was seeking a man who would love her for her talents despite her appearance. Unlike the pig-faced woman reports in London, the woman's address was given. Large crowds gathered in the street outside, and a large number of letters were delivered to the address. She was eventually revealed as a hoax. A young man, his advances rebuffed by a woman, had started the story as a means of revenge. It was reported that the stream of visitors wishing to meet the Pig-faced Lady became so annoying, the young woman in question was forced to move house.


Fair exhibits in the 19th century

In the wake of the Pig-faced Lady scare of 1814–15, exhibits on the subject of pig-faced women became popular at fairs. William Wilde records that a print of ''The Wonderful Mrs Atkinson'' was a popular exhibit at an early 19th century Irish fair, while larger fairs included exhibits of pig-faced women moulded in
papier-mâché upright=1.3, Mardi Gras papier-mâché masks, Haiti upright=1.3, Papier-mâché Catrinas, traditional figures for day of the dead celebrations in Mexico Papier-mâché (, ; , literally "chewed paper") is a composite material consisting of p ...
or wax. There is some evidence that a living pig-faced woman was exhibited at Bartholomew Fair in 1828, and possibly also in previous years. (The pig-faced woman exhibited in Wakefield in 1828–29, recalled by George Lloyd in 1861, may have been the same one shown at Bartholomew Fair in 1828.) At an 1843 fair in
Hyde Park Hyde Park may refer to: Places England * Hyde Park, London, a Royal Park in Central London * Hyde Park, Leeds, an inner-city area of north-west Leeds * Hyde Park, Sheffield, district of Sheffield * Hyde Park, in Hyde, Greater Manchester Austra ...
, "Madam Steevens, the Wonderful Pig-faced Lady" was exhibited, and would grunt to give replies to questions from the audience. The pig-faced women exhibited at fairs were not genuine. Showmen would drug a bear into a stupor by feeding it large amounts of strong beer, and then shave it. Once shaved, the drunken bear would be fitted with padded artificial breasts, and dressed in women's clothing and a wig. Shoes would be attached to the bear's hind paws, and stuffed gloves to the front paws. The bear would then be placed in a chair with a hole in the back, and securely tied to the chair. Once the bear was dressed and in the chair, the audience would be allowed into the tent. The showman would tell the audience that the Pig-faced Lady could not speak, but would answer questions put to her, with one grunt for "yes" and two for "no". The audience would ask her questions, and a member of the crew would poke the bear with a stick to make it grunt in reply. The Pig-faced Lady would then eat a meal of
gruel Gruel is a food consisting of some type of cereal—such as ground oats, wheat, rye, or rice—heated or boiled in water or milk. It is a thinner version of porridge that may be more often drunk rather than eaten. Historically, gruel has been a ...
, beer and apples, served in a silver trough. The display of "pig-faced ladies" became extremely popular, to the extent that by 1861 Charles Dickens remarked that "no fair was complete without one". Exhibitions of this type were particularly popular in Dublin; an exhibition in Plymouth in the 1880s was less successful, and a disbelieving mob pulled the wig and hat from a "Pig-faced Lady" in her tent and proceeded to attack the showmen. The fate of the bear is not recorded.


''Uncle Silas''

The legend of the pig-faced woman was revived once more in 1865, in Sheridan Le Fanu's novel ''
Uncle Silas ''Uncle Silas'', subtitled "A Tale of Bartram Haugh", is an 1864 Victorian Gothic mystery- thriller novel by the Irish writer J. Sheridan Le Fanu. Despite Le Fanu resisting its classification as such, the novel has also been hailed as a work ...
''. ''Uncle Silas'' tells the story of Maud Ruthyn, a wealthy heiress in her late teens who lives in a secluded house, whom a number of scheming men aim to marry to secure her money. The book includes a " Bretagne ballad" about the pig-faced woman, sung to Maud by her scheming governess Madame de la Rougierre as Rougierre leads her to a secret meeting with her cousin Dudley, who also has designs on her fortune. (No other record of the "Bretagne ballad" exists, and it was almost certainly written by Le Fanu himself.) While Maud is described in the book as an attractive young woman, not a deformed monster, ''Uncle Silas'' is carefully written and plotted, and it is almost certain that Le Fanu explicitly intended a comparison between Maud's situation and the legend of the wealthy woman living in isolation and desired only for her money. Le Fanu spent his entire life in Dublin and was editor and proprietor of the ''
Dublin University Magazine The ''Dublin University Magazine'' was an independent literary cultural and political magazine published in Dublin from 1833 to 1882. It started out as a magazine of political commentary but increasingly became devoted to literature. The magazine ...
'', and would certainly have been familiar with the legends of the pig-faced woman, and in particular the case of Griselda Steevens.


Decline of the legend

The 1814–15 Pig-faced Lady craze in London and the subsequent hoax in Paris were the last occasions in which the mainstream press reported the existence of pig-faced women as fact. By the 1860s the fad for exhibiting "pig-faced women" at fairs was losing popularity, although they continued to be exhibited until at least the 1880s. By the year 2000 the legend was almost forgotten. While Dr Steevens' Hospital still exists, albeit now as the head office of the
Health Service Executive The Health Service Executive (HSE) ( ga, Feidhmeannacht na Seirbhíse Sláinte) is the publicly funded healthcare system in Ireland, responsible for the provision of health and personal social services. It came into operation on 1 January 2005 ...
() rather than as a working hospital, the display of Pig-faced Lady memorabilia at the hospital had ceased by the mid-19th century. The portrait commissioned by Griselda Steevens to refute the rumours about her appearance still hangs in the hospital's main hall. The last significant work to treat the existence of pig-faced women as fact was ''Ghosts, Helpful and Harmful'' by ghost hunter and supernatural researcher
Elliott O'Donnell Elliott O'Donnell (27 February 1872 – 8 May 1965) was an English author known primarily for his books about ghosts. He claimed to have seen a ghost, described as an elemental figure covered with spots, when he was five years old. He also claime ...
, published in 1924. O'Donnell alleged that the ghost of a pig-faced lady haunted a house in
Chelsea Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to: Places Australia * Chelsea, Victoria Canada * Chelsea, Nova Scotia * Chelsea, Quebec United Kingdom * Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames ** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...
. O'Donnell claimed that the ghost was a "Vice Elemental, the most harmful of all the denizens of the Spirit World". He describes how a clergyman, "The Rev. Mr H." and his family, who resided in the house, were tempted by the ghost. The ghost, keeping her face concealed, led "The Rev. Mr H." into drunkenness, and his children into cruelty towards animals, until they themselves behaved like pigs. She then revealed her face to the shocked family, who moved out of the house immediately.


See also

*
Cultural references to pigs Pigs, widespread in societies around the world since neolithic times, have been used for many purposes in art, literature, and other expressions of human culture. In classical times, the Romans considered pork the finest of meats, enjoying sausag ...
*
Learned pig The learned pig was a pig taught to respond to commands in such a way that it appeared to be able to answer questions by picking up cards in its mouth. By choosing cards it answered arithmetical problems and spelled out words. The "learned pig" c ...
*
Varahi Varahi ( sa, वाराही, )) is also used as the name of the consort of Varaha, who is identified with Bhumi (the earth goddess). This consort is depicted in a human form., group=note is one of the Matrikas, a group of seven mother go ...
, a Hindu goddess with a woman's body and a pig's head *
Vajravārāhī In Tibetan Buddhism, Vajravārāhī ("The Diamond Sow", Dorje Pakmo) is a wrathful form of Vajrayogini associated particularly with the ''Cakrasaṃvara Tantra'', where she is paired in yab-yum with the Heruka Cakrasaṃvara. Judith Simmer-Bro ...
, a Buddhist deity who prominently displays a sow's head above her right ear * ''
Penelope Penelope ( ; Ancient Greek: Πηνελόπεια, ''Pēnelópeia'', or el, Πηνελόπη, ''Pēnelópē'') is a character in Homer's ''Odyssey.'' She was the queen of Ithaca and was the daughter of Spartan king Icarius and naiad Periboea. Pe ...
'', a 2006 film about a woman with a pig's snout * " Eye of the Beholder", a '' Twilight Zone'' episode featuring a reversal of this
trope Trope or tropes may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Trope (cinema), a cinematic convention for conveying a concept * Trope (literature), a figure of speech or common literary device * Trope (music), any of a variety of different things ...
, with a normal-faced human woman among pig-faced people * "
The Bris "The Bris" is the 69th episode of the sitcom ''Seinfeld''. It is the fifth episode of the fifth season, and first aired on October 14, 1993. The story centers on the bris for the newborn child of two of Jerry and Elaine's friends. Jerry and Ela ...
", a ''
Seinfeld ''Seinfeld'' ( ) is an American television sitcom created by Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld. It aired on NBC from July 5, 1989, to May 14, 1998, over nine seasons and List of Seinfeld episodes, 180 episodes. It stars Seinfeld as Jerry Seinfeld ( ...
'' episode that involves a pig-faced man


Notes and references


Notes


References


Bibliography

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External links

* {{featured article Dutch legendary creatures English legendary creatures Irish legendary creatures Mythological pigs