Quick Facts
Biography
Aurelia Molins or Aurelia Florio (1582 – 1641) was an English midwife. She is known for examining Lancashire witches.
Life
Her father, John Florio, had married the sister of the poet Samuel Daniel. Her father was a language tutor in the court of James I of England.Aurelia Florio is thought to have been born in about 1582. Her siblings included Joane who was born in Oxford in 1585 and Edward who was born in 1588. A third daughter, Elizabeth, was born in 1589.
She was married before 1603 to the surgeon James Molins. He was apprenticed to William Clowes, surgeon toElizabeth I, and it is thought that Clowes introduced him to Aurelia. She is known to have been active as a midwife as the first girl baptised with the name of Aurelia in the parish of St Andrew's church in Holborn. Ten more girls in the parish were also baptised with this name ending in 1639. Meanwhile, Molins was caring for her own fifteen children who were born between 1605 and 1622. She was allowed to have her own armorial bearings on 22 August 1614. Her husband was awarded his on the following day. Her bearings were "azure, a heliotrope or issuing from a stalk sprouting out two leaves vert, in chief the sun in splendour". In 1625 her father died and she was by then his only child. His will discusses his debts but also mentions a gold ring that he leaves to his daughter and another diamond ring which is in the possession of Aurelia's husband.
She comes to notice as a midwife when she signed on 2 July 1634 an examination that had been made of ten women who were alleged to be witches. The women had been brought from Lancashire to be examined in London. The examination was organised by William Harvey who was a sceptic about the idea of witches. The document was also signed by nine other midwives and five surgeons including her husband. The examiners reported on the women's bodies and found that they had found nothing to support the allegation against the ten women. A later confession revealed that the accusations had been invented by a man and his son.
Molins was living with her son when she died a rich widow in London on 12 July 1641.