It is a perhaps surprising fact that memorial plaques, tombstones and wills can add to our knowledge of attitudes towards breastfeeding in the past. To nurse one's own children - as written on this memorial - was clearly something to celebrate in the 17th century. Etched into this brass plate is a memorial to Elizabeth Brand and her husband Benjamin. She was the mother of 6 sons and 6 daughters 'all nurs[e]d with her vnborrowed milk'. The memorial can be found in St Mary's Edwardstone, which is in Suffolk. It is one of a number of brass plaques dedicated to the Brand family who resided in nearby Edwardstone Hall.
The inscription in full
Memoriae Sacrum.
To ye Precious Memory of Benjamin Brand, of Edwardstone Hal, Esq, and Elizabeth his wife:
whom, when providence, after 35 yeares conjunction, divided; Death, after 12 dayes divorcement, reunited:
who, leaveing their rare examples to 6 sonnes and 6 daughters, (all nursed with her Unborrowed Milk)
Blest with pooremens prayres: embalmed with numerous teares; Lye, here reposed.
The Brand family
It is likely that the Brand family were Puritans. Benjamin and Elizabeth Brand had a son - John - who is also commemorated in the church. Dying in 1642, John's inscription states that 'he was religiously affected, a freind and lover of pious and godly ministers'. We know that this part of Suffolk was a centre of Puritanism, a form of religion which was too extreme for the established church. Indeed some of John Brand's friends may well have been among those who left England for the 'New World' early in the 17th Century to enable them to practice their religion as they wished to.
Breastfeeding in a context of Puritanism
It does seem, from this plaque, that there was pride to be gained in nursing one's own children rather than resorting to using a wet nurse, which had commonly been the case for wealthy women for many centuries. Why this was worth noting on a plaque, and viewed within the context of Puritanism, is of interest. Breastmilk was seen as whitened blood in early modern medicine (for example in Guillimeau's work). Once born, a woman's blood was viewed as diverting to the breasts to become milk capable of nourishing a child (or indeed an adult - early modern medicine also indicates the use of breastmilk in medicine for adults).
In feeding her own child, a mother showed her selfless devotion, giving - quite literally - sustenance from her own body. Unlike menstrual blood, which was generally viewed as repellent, breastmilk (and its whiteness) was viewed positively. In giving of themselves, women who fed their own children demonstrated they were unselfish hard workers; all that was good in the eyes of God. In Puritan communities, a 'good woman' was one who was a 'good mother', whose physical and emotional work in caring for others was the very model of an ideal Godly person (Salmon, 1994).
Other evidence that breastfeeding was celebrated from churches and wills
The Brand plaque is by no means the only memorial which celebrates a woman feeding her own child in 17th century England. Lady Essex, Countess of Manchester has a memorial dated 1658, which states 'she nursed with her owne brests' (to be found in St Andrew churchyard, Kimbolton, Cambridgeshire). Her memorial goes on to state that 'her children shall rise up and call her blessed'; clearly, breastfeeding was an act of spiritual significance.
Clearly, some men were immensely proud of their wives in wanting to have reference to their acts of breastfeeding engraved on their tombstones or memorial plaques. There is also evidence of children receiving extra money in wills if they had been breastfed by their mother. John Green, for example - an Essex lawyer of mid 17th century - left £1000 for each daughter but Margaret was given £100 more 'because her mother nursed her'. It seems that he felt a closer relationship existed with this child as she had been maternally breastfed (Fildes, 1986: 100). One can only feel for those women who could not feed their own children (or were infertile) in such a context.
It is doubtful we would see such memorials or differentials made in family wills today. Many in Britain today would not associate breastfeeding with Godliness (although some people still do), and we certainly do not think of breastmilk as whitened blood or use it in medicine. But the idea that breastfeeding one's own children (and caring for one's children more generally) can be hard yet important work certainly persists.
References
Fildes, V. (1986) Breasts, Bottles and Babies: A History of Infant Feeding, (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press).
Salmon, M. (1994) 'The Cultural Significance of Breastfeeding and Infant Care in Early Modern England
and America', Journal of Social History, 28(2): 247-269.
A useful website about the church in Edwardstone is: http://www.suffolkchurches.co.uk/edwardstone.htm (accessed 10.4.23).
Image credit - with kind permission from Simon Knott (photographer)
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