The world’s first cat lady

The Battle for Grain

The earliest known grain stores date back around 10,000 years ago in the Fertile Crescent – a vast region in the Middle East that encompasses modern-day Iraq, Syria, Jordan, and Israel. However, there was a problem - as farmers began to produce surplus grain, they needed a place to store it. Now, if you’ve got a grain store, you’ll attract mice. Lots of them. And these concentrated rodent populations naturally attracted local wildcats. So, cats and humans came into uneasy proximity based on the principle of mutual benefit. The cats that were most able to tolerate people thrived in the newly established human communities, which provided a constant supply of house mice. Those who allowed themselves to be tamed, or even trained, did best of all. Though, can you ever really train a cat? I’m not so sure.

A Witch’s Familiar

In July 1566, three women, Agnes Waterhouse, Joan Waterhouse and Elizabeth Francis, were tried as witches in Chelmsford, Essex. Agnes and Joan were accused of bewitching a twelve-year-old girl using a talking dog. Elizabeth, meanwhile, was charged with bewitching another child, John Auger.

Called to take the stand, Elizabeth made an extraordinary confession. She claimed that she was taught witchcraft by her grandmother when she was just twelve, at which time she made a blood pact with the Devil. Her grandmother also gave her a white spotted cat called Satan. She kept the cat for fifteen years, during which time it spoke to her in a strange, hollow voice and carried out her wishes. She then gave the cat to Agnes. Agnes claimed that the cat killed her husband and was responsible for all the crimes she stood accused of…

As you can imagine, the judges didn’t give the story the time of day. The cat was spared judgement, but the women did not get off so lightly. As it was Elizabeth’s first offence, and no one died as a result of her witchcraft, she received a relatively light sentence: a year’s imprisonment with time in the stocks. Agnes was not so lucky. She was sentenced to death and was hanged before the month was out.

Who was the world’s first cat lady?

Until the 1800s, cats were viewed as working animals, tasked with ridding the house of rodents and providing their own food. However, we can tell that a shift in attitude occurred during this time because people began to buy food for their cats in the form of boiled horse meat. In 1851, Henry Mayhew, the well-known journalist and social reformer, reported on the growing cat meat trade. He estimated there were about 300,000 pet felines in London, served by around 1,000 meat carriers. It was a lucrative business.

Incidentally, Mayhew may have recorded the first known cat lady in history. He wrote: “There was also a mad woman in Islington, who used to have 14 lbs of meat a day… She had as many as thirty cats at times in her house. Every stray one that came she would take in and support. The stench was so great that she was obliged to be ejected.”

A Roman's Mistake

In 60 BC, in Egypt, a Roman diplomat made a terrible error.

He killed a cat.

An awful thing to do at the best of times: a catastrophe in Bubastis, a town dedicated to the cat-headed Egyptian goddess, Bastet. Cats were sacred here.

Perhaps the Roman diplomat could be forgiven for his mistake. He didn’t know it was illegal to kill a cat. Do what he did in Rome, and no one would have batted an eyelid. But try telling that to the angry mob that was chasing him. The man entered the grand house where the Roman diplomatic mission was staying. He bolted the door and prayed to Salus, the Roman goddess of security, to protect him. Outside, the mood was ugly. And when a priestess arrived from Bastet's temple in her white linen robes and ceremonial headdress, she did nothing to calm the situation. In fact, she only stoked the crowd’s anger further, calling on the faithful to exact vengeance.

When the pharaoh learned of the offence, he sent officials to reason with the mob. This alliance with Rome was important, and he couldn’t allow anything to jeopardise it. But the priestess was implacable. The Roman had committed a crime against the goddess. He must pay the price. She pointed ominously towards the house's doors. The crowd knew what they had to do. The Roman was dragged out, screaming, taken to a nearby tree, and hanged.

A lot has changed in the 10,000 years cats have lived alongside humans. Our feline friends have been with us as we've established a settled way of living. If you are a cat lover and would like to know more about cats, why not listen to the episode?