Valentine Greatrakes

Valentine Greatrakes (14 February 1628 – 28 November 1683), also known as 'Greatorex' or 'The Stroker', was an Irish faith healer who toured England in 1666, claiming to cure people by the laying on of hands.

Biography

He was born in Affane, County Waterford, Ireland. He was a farmer who served in Cromwell's army and was also registrar for transplantation. In 1662 he claimed he could cure the king's evil (scrofula) by 'stroking' or touching, but failed in a demonstration before Charles II. He resumed farming in 1668 on £1,000 a year.^[1] In 1670 Greatrakes was endorsed by Robert Boyle, President of the Royal Society of London.

One of his more notable failures to cure was Anne Finch.^[2]

A volume of correspondence between Greatrakes and Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey has been edited by Alan Marshall of Bath University.

Bibliography

• A Brief Account of Mr. Valentine Greatrakes and Divers of the Strange Cures by him lately performed. Written by himself in a letter Addressed to the Honourable Robert Boyle, Esq. 1666

In fiction

• Greatrakes was mentioned briefly in Susannah Clarke's novel Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell. (p. 211)
• A play by Jim Nolan called Blackwater Angel concerning Valentine Greatrakes played at the Finborough Theatre, London, in March 2006.
• An important character in William Carleton's The Evil Eye or, The Black Spectre.
• Greatrakes (using the alternate spelling "Greatorex") features prominently in Iain Pears's "An Instance of the Fingerpost".

External links

• A more detailed biography
• Robert Boyle: Work-diary XXVI (Accounts of cures performed by Valentine Greatrakes, 1666)
• The Evil Eye; Or, The Black Spector by William Carleton

References

1. ^ Lalor, Brian (ed) (2003). The Encyclopaedia of Ireland. Dublin, Ireland: Gill & Macmillan. p. 457. ISBN 0-7171-3000-2. 
2. ^ The gentleman's magazine, and historical chronicle. 49. E. Cave. 1779. p. 22. http://books.google.com/books?id=zXxIAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA22.