Elizabeth Cellier Elizabeth Cellier Elizabeth Cellier (commonly known as Mrs. Cellier and dubbed the "Popish Midwife"), flourished 1668–1688, London, England, was a notable Catholic midwife in seventeenth-century England. She stood trial for treason in 1679 for her alleged part in the "Meal-Tub Plot" against the future James II but was acquitted. She later became a pamphleteer and made attempts to advance the field of midwifery. Elizabeth Cellier was a noted London midwife, who came into prominence through the pretended "Meal-Tub Plot" of 1680. Nothing seems known of her life until her marriage with Peter Cellier, a Frenchman, and her conversion from Anglicanism.
A Ballad upon the Popish Plot to Elizabeth Somerset Herbert Powis (1633–1691) who, along with her husband William Herbert, first Marquess of Powis (or Powys), was one of the most influential Roman Catholics of that time. As one of the “Five Catholic Lords” falsely accused by Titus Oates of plotting in the King’s assassination, her husband was imprisoned in the Tower of London for six years. Her attempts to free him in the so-called “Meal-tub Plot” very nearly led to her own conviction for treason. This ballad is one of a group on the Popish Plot included in the Bagford Ballad collection, whose ballads depict the