Mary Frances Heaton

He failed to pay for the twice-weekly lessons she had given in 1834 and 1835; and she interrupted one of his sermons, calling him "a whited sepulchre, a thief, a villain, a liar and a hypocrite".

[1] During her incarceration, she was subjected to a variety of what are now considered pseudo-scientific treatments, including electric shocks to the pelvis, purgatives, and the ingestion of mercury.

After a failed escape attempt in 1843 and with her spirit broken, she became docile and, according to local historian Sarah Cobham, "took to quietly embroidering her story [in samplers] as a way of preserving her memories".

[1][2][3][4] In 2023, Heaton became the subject of a play, The Unravelling Fantasia of Miss H. by Red Gray and Sarah Nicolls, of the company Stitched-Up-Theatre.

[5] According to Lucy Brownson, the play "blends contemporary opera, physical theatre and Mary’s stitched testimonies to tell her remarkable and tragic story in her own words".