2-714-170 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

'Ann Moore, the fasting woman of Tutbury', 1822. Portrait of Ann Moore (1761-1813) of Tutbury in Staffordshire who became notorious as 'a fraudulent fasting woman'. Poverty forced her to subsist on the minimum amount of food necessary, and local astonishment at her long fasts probably encouraged her to carry out the hoax. From 1807 to 1813, she claimed to have eaten nothing at all, but her claims were shown to be false. From "Wonderful Characters: Comprising Memoirs and Anecdotes of the Most Remarkable Persons of Every Age and Nation", Vol. III, by Henry Wilson. [J. Robins and Co. Albion Press, London, 1821]