Ann Moore: The Fasting Woman of Tutbury

Ann Moore was in her late 40s when she became famous as the ‘fasting woman’ of Tutbury. She claimed that she had not eaten any solid food for five years and had not drunk any liquid for nearly four years. She also testified that had she no desire for either food or drink. Moore’s story appeared in many newspapers around England and in books and medical journals. Her house in the village of Tutbury in Staffordshire became a site of pilgrimage, attracting immense numbers of visitors who came to see the miracle with their own eyes. Ann Moore. Photo: Wikimedia Ann Moore was born in Rosliston, Derbyshire, in 1761. Her father was a day labourer and her mother was a midwife. In 1788, when Moore was 27, she tricked a farm servant name James Moore into marrying her by falsely claiming that she was pregnant with his child. When Mr. Moore discovered the deception, he deserted her soon after the marriage. After the separation, Ann went to work as a housekeeper for a widowed farmer in Aston, near Tutbury, where she had two illegitimate children by her employer. Around 1800, Ann left Aston and made her way to Tutbury where she found employment as a cotton beater. At one point, she was so poor that she was forced to survive on the minimum amount of food necessary to support a human being. Ann Moore’s poverty gained her a local reputation. Tutbury’s residents were astonished to learn that she was surviving on so little food, and Ann herself claimed to have underwent several long stretches of fasting. According to her own accounts, Ann began suffering from stomach cramps and hysterical fits in March 1807, and she became increasingly confined to her bed. By May 1807, she became incapable of eating. It was reported that she attempted to swallow a piece of biscuit, but the effort gave her great pain and she began vomiting blood. The last food she ever took was a few blackcurrants on 17 July 1807, and in August she gradually diminished her liquids.