Anne Greene

Anne Greene (1659) was an English domestic servant who was accused of committing infanticide in 1650. She survived her attempted execution and was revived by physicians from the University of Oxford. Early life Greene was born around 1628 in Steeple Barton, Oxfordshire. In her early adulthood, she worked as a scullery maid in the house of Sir Thomas Read, a justice of the peace who lived in nearby Duns Tew. She later claimed that in 1650 when she was a 22-year-old servant, she was seduced by Sir Thomas's grandson, Geoffrey Read, who was 16 or 17 years old. Trial and punishment She became pregnant, though she later claimed that she was not aware of her pregnancy until she miscarried in the privy after seventeen weeks. She tried to conceal the remains of the fetus but was discovered and suspected of infanticide. Sir Thomas prosecuted Greene under the "Concealment of Birth of Bastards" Act 1624, under which there was a legal presumption that a woman who concealed the death of her illegitimate child had murdered it.