The Minister's Daughter

The Minister's Daughter by Julie Hearn, tells the story of three girls living in England during the 1600's: a time when religion and superstition were both strong influences in people's daily lives. Two of the girls, Grace and Patience are daughters of the local Puritan minister. The other, Nell, is the granddaughter of the local healer and midwife, commonly called a "cunning woman". On the surface their lives appear to be at stark contrast to each other: the minister's daughters live a very strict, structured life under their father's religious authority. Nell is a "merrybegot", a child born from magic. The story begins to get complicated when Grace rebels against her father's dire warnings against "frolicking" and finds herself pregnant out of wedlock. In order to take the blame off of herself, she accuses Nell of placing a witch's spell on her. Her father, in order to protect his own reputation in the community, gets involved in the cover-up and calls in a witch finder to cleanse the town of what he considers to be the Devil's influence. His hypocrisy comes to light when we find out that he is hiding his own terrible secret. When the witch finder comes, the townspeople fall under his influence and try to kill Nell's grandmother. While her own life is at risk, Nell must face the most difficult decision of her life.

I thought the book was a good mix of history and fiction. It was well researched and well-written. The Salem Witch trials took place during that same century, so a lot of the beliefs about Satanism and witchcraft were very prevalent. The technique of alternating chapters between the third person telling of the story, and the first person account of Patience Madden gave me a better understanding of all sides of the story. At times, I found the book disturbing, but I think it gives a true picture of how "religion" can be misused and become as evil as the "evil" it claims to be opposing. The book did a good job of developing the characters as they could have been during that time period. Even so, some aspects of life in the book are the same as they are today, such as a teenager's rebellion against overly strict parents. Teens today can certainly relate to that.

I recommend this book for mature 7th graders and up. Some topics may not be suitable for very sensitive young adults under high school age. Some Christian and/or religious families may find this book offensive because it puts magic in a more positive light than Christianity.

Keywords associated with this book: witches, magic, spells, Satan, Satanism, Devil, ministers, Puritans, fairies, pixies, parent child relationships, teen-aged pregnancy, England, Salem Witch Trials.