M. (1) 19 Nov 1612 in Stanstead, England
Husband: Thomas Blower
M. (2) about July 1640 in (probably) Dorchester, Massachusetts
Husband: William Tilley
D. after 1668
During the mid-17th century, a Puritan wife and mother became the unlikely catalyst in an unusual political action — women organizing petitions without the involvement of any men. But Alice (Frost) Tilley was a well-regarded midwife who was sitting in jail, and women who knew her believed she was innocent.
Alice was baptized on December 1, 1594 in Stanstead, England, a village in Suffolk. Her parents were Edward Frost and Thomasine Belgrave, and she was one of about 8 children. Her father worked as a clothier, which was someone who had a business making cloth. On November 12, 1612, Alice married Thomas Blower in Stanstead. They settled in nearby Sudbury, where Alice gave birth to about 8 or 9 children between about 1613 and 1630. At least three of her children died as infants.
St. James Church in Stanstead, where Alice was baptized. (Source: Find-a-Grave)
Sudbury was a “hotbed of Puritan sentiment” and Alice seems to have taken up those beliefs, despite the risk of punishment involved. Citizens could be fined for not attending the Anglican church, and in January 1633, Alice was ordered by the court to pay £100 for “her notorious contempt of ecclesiastical laws & jurisdiction.” The following year in June, the fine was cancelled because she had “removed herself long since from Sudbury where the offense was given.” Alice and her family may have moved to London, where her daughter was married in January 1634. Not long after that, they left England for the colony in Massachusetts.
Alice settled in Boston, but by September 9, 1639, her husband Thomas had died. The following year, she married a wine merchant named William Tilley; it’s believed that he lived in Barnstable, but that their wedding was in Dorchester. He may have been 10 to 15 years younger than Alice. It was during the early years of her marriage to William that she was known to have been an active midwife in the Boston and Dorchester area.
In about 1649, Alice was accused of malpractice. The details of the charges against her haven’t survived, but it's known that she was found guilty and locked up in the Boston jail. The job of a midwife was challenging; a woman who took on that role could be called upon at any hour of the day or night to help deliver another woman’s baby. Often there were complications, and sometimes midwives needed to make medical decisions in order to save the mother and child. It’s hard to say if Alice did anything wrong, but what is known is that when she was put into prison, many women came to her defense.
In a society where men made all of the decisions, the women of Boston and Dorchester organized petitions asking for Alice to be released. It’s considered to be the first case in America where women acted in a collective way to do such a political thing. There were a total of six petitions, one of which had almost 300 signatures. One petition was worded to declare that Alice was “the ablest midwife we know in the land.” Another said that she was the only midwife they felt comfortable with to treat them. A petition in Boston pleaded with authorities to “hear the cries of mothers and children yet unborn.” The first action by authorities in response to the petitions was to allow Alice to leave jail only to attend childbirths and return afterwards, but eventually, she was completely freed.
A petition in support of Alice Tilley signed by the women of Boston.
It’s not known when and where Alice died. Her husband seemed to have business dealings in Maine during the early 1650s, and they may have moved there, but both were also tied to Boston in the 1660s. Alice was last known to be living in 1668. Her descendants include George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush, Jeb Bush, Henry Fonda, Peter Fonda, Jane Fonda and Bridget Fonda.
Children:
1. Hannah Blower — B. about 1613, Sudbury, England; D. May 1630, Sudbury, England
2. Alice Blower — B. 30 Jun 1615, Sudbury, England; D. 3 Nov 1690, Braintree, Massachusetts; M. Richard Brackett (1610-1690), 6 Jan 1634, London, England
3. Sarah Blower — B. about 1619, Sudbury, England; D. 1673, Kittery, Maine; M. (1) Henry Lynn (1611-~1644), 1636; (2) Hugh Gunnison (1610-1658), 15 Mar 1647, Boston, Massachusetts; (3) Francis Morgan (1610-?), 18 Jul 1665, Kittery, Maine
4. Joshua Blower — B. Dec 1621, Sudbury, England; D. Aug 1623, Sudbury, England
5. Thomas Blower — B. Feb 1624, Sudbury, England; D. Apr 1625, Sudbury, England
6. Mary Blower — B. Feb 1625, Sudbury, England; D. Feb 1639, Sudbury, England
7. John Blower — B. Mar 1627, Sudbury, England
8. Thomas Blower — B. May 1630, Sudbury, England
9. (probably) Pyam Blower — B. about 1632, Sudbury, England; D. 1 Jun 1709, Cambridge, Massachusetts; M. Elizabeth Belcher (1640-1709), 31 Mar 1668, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Sources:
Great Migration: Immigrants to New England, 1634-1635, Volume I, Robert Charles Anderson, 1999
Great Migration: Immigrants to New England, 1634-1635, Volume VII, Robert Charles Anderson, 2011
Find-A-Grave
Damnable Heresy: William Pynchon, the Indians, and the First Book Banned (and Burned) in Boston, David M. Powers, 2015
Separated by Their Sex: Women in Public and Private in the Colonial Atlantic World, Mary Beth Norton, 2011
Sudbury, Suffolk (Wikipedia article)
