This authoritative and detailed history of the cunning or wise woman charts her progress throughout British social history from the medieval period to the end of the nineteenth century. Drawing on primary records, Kelvin Jones demonstrates how the wise woman was instrumental to the well being of agricultural societies in an age when medicine was in its infancy. He also dispels the myth that the wise woman was synonymous with the witch figure and reveals that she played an indispensable role as an "unwitcher." The work contains an exhaustive list of herbal and magical cures used by wise women and a compendium of their methods of divination. A thorough and timely contribution to English social history.