Prophecy
Legend and Mythology
of the Seventh Son (or Daughter)
The orignal article posted here has been removed. If you have an accurate story to publish about seventh sons, please send it along. In the meantime, here are some interesting superstitions about the powers of the seventh child taken from A Dictionary of Superstitions, edited by Iona Opie and Moira Tatem.
1250: Wash the warts with the water from a font in which the seventh son of the same man and wife is baptized.
1579: It is manifest by experience that the seventh Male Chyld by iust order (neuer a Gyrle or Wench being borne betweene) doth heele onely with touching through a naturall gyft, the Kings Euyll.
1663: What is the Kinge better than another man? for Robin Bulman.. a seaventh sonne, can cure seaven evills, and the Kinge can cure but nine.
1691: It may seem alike strange.. in such as Seventh-sons... that cure the King's Evill, and chase away Diseases and Pains, with only stroaking of the affected Part.
1708: Q: Gentlemen, it being a General Notion in this nation, that the Seventh Son is blest with an Uncommon Vertue, in the cure of maladies, I beg you'll...
A: .. Our Opinion is, that the Seventh Son receives his healthy Attribute only from the Old Superstitious Notion of the Number 7.1730: Wizards or Conjurors.. such as.. seventh Sons.
1849: The person who generally practices this divination boasts himself to be the seventh son of a seventh son,. The twig of hazel bends in his hands to the conviction of the miners that ore is present.
1850: Jones was their name and that lived at a place called Muddfi. In them was said to have originated the tradition of the seventh son, or Septimus, being born for the healing art: as for many generations seven sons were regularly born in each family, the seventh of whom became a doctor, and wonderful in his profession.
1852: At my father's school was a Yorkshire lad.. intended for the medical profession.. he was the seventh son of a seventh son; and the seventh son of the seventh son 'maks the bigg'st o' doctors.
1866: The wise man of Stokesly.. was at once resorted to in cases of sickness, distress, or loss of property, and this not by the lower orders alone... He owed his powers to his being the seventh son of a seventh daughter.
1879: I had a family in my parish which numbered seven daughters, and people come from far and near to be touched by the youngest of them for the king's evil.
1895: It is a belief.. in the North of England.. that the seventh son.. is destined to be a skilful and eminent physician... a representation of the "seven starns" is believed to be impressed on their side or his breat... if the seventh daughter appeared in unterrupted succession, she was to be a witch.
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