“Our anxiety now,” Dorcas continued, “was to find someone to care for the child. He was a bonny babe, my mistress adored him and would not hear of him being taken to a Foundling Hospital. My parents were old and ailing, otherwise they would have obliged her, for they had grown to love my mistress, as did all who knew her well. It was then I thought of my sister, Martha, who had married a farmer called Jenks and lived at Cuckhurst. I made the journey to see her, she agreed to foster the child and I returned to Plymouth for my mistress. We came back to Cuckhurst where we handed the babe over to my sister and my mistress and I stayed at the inn.
“It had been our intention to rest there but a night or two and then return to Yorkshire but when it came to leaving her son, my mistress could not
