However hard to find in the records, such women were common enough for Charles I to add a handwritten note to a draft proclamation on standards of behaviour for his army in 1645, warning: “Lett no woman presume to counterfeit her sex by wearing mans apparall under payne of the severest punishment.” Stoyle, who publishes his research in History, the Journal of the Historical Association, regards the note as fascinating. “These words suggest the king believed female cross-dressing was quite widespread in his army and show a willingness on his part to take a much firmer line on the practice … Curiously though, when the proclamation was finally published it contained no reference to cross-dressing.”

Exeter is believed to hold the ignoble record of having hanged the last women convicted of witchcraft in England. Now research by a West Country academic suggests it may also have been the first place to convict and execute such unfortunates, for crimes such as being seen with a large toad.