July 29, 2025 • 16 mins
In this episode, we look all the way back to seventeenth century Scotland, to Jenny Geddes and her revolutionary acts. It's the story of the butterfly effect, the impact one voice can have on a nation, and empires' intent on controlling us.
• Follow Diversion Audio on Instagram
• Explore more: diversionaudio.com
This series is hosted by Mary Kay McBrayer. Check out more of her work at www.marykaymcbrayer.com.
This episode was written by Mary Kay McBrayer
Developed by Scott Waxman, Emma DeMuth, and Jacob Bronstein
Associate Producer is Leo Culp
Produced by Antonio Enriquez
Theme Music by Tyler Cash
Executive Produced by Scott Waxman and Emma DeMuth
Special thanks to:
Carter, Stephen L.. Invisible. Henry Holt and Co.. Kindle Edition.
Order Mary Kay's true crime book 'Madame Queen: The The Life and Crimes of Harlem’s Underground Racketeer, Stephanie St. Clair' here
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Diversion Audio. The time is Sunday, twenty third of July
sixteen thirty seven. The place is the incredible Gothic Cathedral
(00:28):
of Saint Giles on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh, Scotland.
The person is a fruit and vegetable trader, and the
route she caused during church service arguably set in motion
a series of wars that would change British history forever.
But before I tell you about Jenny Getty's, let me
(00:50):
set the scene, because what she did is so much
more badass with appropriate context. Welcome to the greatest true
(01:20):
crime stories ever told. I'm Mary Kay mcbraer, author of
the true crime book Madam Queen, the Life and Crimes
of Harlem's underground racketeer Stephanie Sinclair. Today's episode we're calling
Jenny Getty's and her Revolutionary Stool. It's the story of
a seventeenth century Scottish fruit and veg merchant who triggered
(01:44):
a revolution. I'll tell you all about it after this
quick break. Saint Giles's Cathedral today is on the Royal Mile.
(02:09):
I would argue it's one of the most memorable edifices
on a whole street of memorable architecture. Today, the inside
is a local artisan market, but in sixteen thirty seven,
when our story takes place, it was a church proper. Specifically,
it was the Church of Scotland. Outside, in the front
(02:32):
courtyard was where the market happened every Sunday. Jenny Getty's
our main character, was one such trader. If you're thinking, wait,
what a woman entrepreneur in the seventeenth century, it gets
a lot more empowering than that. Here's a little context.
(02:55):
Up until sixteen twenty five, just twelve years earlier, both
Scotland and England had been ruled by one monarch. That's
King James the First of England aka King James the
sixth of Scotland. If you heard our last bonus episode
about the real Witches of Macbeth, then you already know
(03:15):
a little bit about King James. For a quick recap,
He's the one who oversaw the English translation still known
and often used by Protestants today as the King James Bible.
He also set the stage for the worst witch hunts
in history, which was platformed by his pamphlet on Demonology.
(03:36):
It might interest you to know that although King James
the First slash sixth married Anne of Denmark and had
five children with her. It's an open secret that he
was also romantic with men. King James moved from Scotland
to England the moment he came to power there. That
was sixteen oh three, when Queen Elizabeth died. He only
returned to Scotland once, in sixteen seventeen. When King James
(04:01):
died in sixteen twenty five, Charles the First came to
the English throne, but he didn't get around to being
crowned in Scotland until sixteen thirty three, eight years later.
It's almost like the British kings didn't care that much
about their Scottish subjects. Charles the First's coronation happened in
(04:30):
Saint Giles Cathedral. That's the setting of our drama too.
It was a church where post Reformation Puritan Protestant Scots worshiped.
By the way, I always thought of the Scottish Revolution,
as you know, a revolution in which religion became more tolerant.
I was exactly wrong. The fifteen sixty Reformations thesis regarding
(04:54):
religion was essentially these Catholics and Anglicans are soft, time
to crack down, and by that I mean that the
Presbyterians of the time thought that Catholic rituals were blasphemous.
So in sixteen thirty three, when King Charles the First
was crowned in Saint Giles, a Church of Scotland with
(05:15):
full Anglican rites, it was not well received. This is
relevant to our story because that was a huge clash
of ideology the cause. One sect was Anglican that's Church
of England, and one was Calvinist that's Church of Scotland.
In very general terms, the Anglican Church was a liberal
(05:39):
reaction to predestination. The man who performed the Scottish coronation
was Charles's new Archbishop of Canterbury, William Laude. History knows
Laud as one of the quote corrupt bishops who quote
(06:03):
misinformed the King of the liturgy and ecclesiology of the
Scottish kirk. King Charles the First, by the way, thought
that he might try to liberalize his new kingdom. His
plan did not go well. I'll tell you all about
it right after this quick break. When we left off,
(06:35):
King Charles the First had just been crowned and he
had decided, along with his Anglican clergy, to catch Scotland
up to England's more liberal practices. He did so by
printing the quote Book of Common Prayer in Edinburgh, and
then he or someone in his entourage more likely bribed
the Dean of Saint Giles Cathedral. What he wanted was
(06:59):
for Dean John Hanny to sneak in this new book
in place of the Church of Scotland prayer Book before
service on Sunday the twenty third of July sixteen thirty seven,
and Dean Hanny did it. I think Charles's belief that
(07:26):
no one would notice this significant change in liturgy illustrates
how little he knew his Scottish subjects. Maybe he thought
that the congregants would let it slide because they were
in church and people tend to be on their best
behavior in church. But when Dean Hanny started reading from
the new prayer book and it detailed quote the government
(07:49):
of the New Church and how the king ruled by
divine right, and how ministers, kirk, sessions and presbyteries would
all be renamed, the congregation immediately realized what was happening.
(08:19):
The altar was at the front, of course, and then
the pews were seated according to class. Some of the
wealthier people, though, paid so called waiting women to arrive
early and save them seats. When their patrons arrived, the
waiting women moved to the back where the street sellers sat.
The merchants sat behind the pews on portable three legged
(08:41):
stools that they brought to the church themselves. Jenny Getty's
was among these stool sitters, but she didn't stay seated
for long. In fact, no one did. There might have
been a m of disbelief or confusion through the church first,
(09:03):
but as soon as Jenny Getty's realized what was happening,
she stood up, grabbed her stool, and she hurled it
at Dean Hanny's head at the front of the church.
She yelled in Scot's English, loosely translated devil, cause you coolic,
false thief? Do you say Mass in my ear? Whether
(09:23):
the churchgoers thought the prayer book was heretical or they
were just angry at being tricked, everyone followed suit. I
don't know about y'all, but I've definitely wanted to cause
a riot in church before. I've never been brave enough
to do it in small group, sure, but not in
the church in front of God and everybody, all of
this congregation was brave enough to do it. And it
(09:44):
wasn't just fear of being rude that might have stopped them.
The King ordered those prayer books in church, and by
writing against the prayer books, they were essentially committing treason.
(10:08):
They still threw everything they could get their hands on.
They literally threw the book at the podium, bibles, stools,
everything got hurled at Dean Hanny. Even after the rioters
were expelled from Saint Giles Cathedral, they kept pounding on
the door. I don't know who expelled them from the church,
but if I had to guess, royal guards anticipating and uprising,
(10:31):
but I couldn't find out for sure. What I did
learn was that the riot spread through Edinburgh and then
through Scotland, and it didn't let up more after the break.
(11:01):
Before the break, Charles the First had bribed Dean John
Hanny to switch out all the prayer books in Saint
Giles Cathedral with new books detailing Anglican rites. The Protestant
congregation had realized it right away, and Jenny Getty's stood
up and hurled her stool at the dean while cursing
him in church. From there the riot happened and the
(11:24):
congregation was expelled, But the riot didn't stop just because
they were out of the church. Instead, it snowballed, building
steam all through the streets of Edinburgh, and the sentiments
spilled over into the rest of Scotland, especially when the
Scottish Protestants realized that King Charles the First had not
consulted the Scottish General Assembly. So Presbyterians expanded their fifteen
(11:49):
eighty one Covenant into the National Covenant in sixteen thirty eight.
It had around three hundred thousand signatures around the country,
though it was first signed in Greyfriars Churchyard. Rather than
listen to his subjects, Charles the First tried to force
his new doctrine through Britain through the Bishop's War see.
(12:12):
The widely held belief of Scottish Protestants was that they
could talk directly to God. They didn't need a king
or any papal hierarchy to intercede on their behalf, which
sounds like they didn't believe in Charles the First divine Right,
which sounds like heresy. The first two battles of the
(12:38):
Bishop's War ended in a truce in June of sixteen
thirty nine, but just two months earlier, Scottish Parliament passed
acts that undermined the crown, so Charles mobilized. But this
time the Scots won. They seized Northumberland and Durham. I'm
generalizing this next part a lot for the sake of
(13:01):
clarity and time. The Bishop's War is considered the first
conflict in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. Those wars
covered a lot of ground figuratively and literally, and spanned
fourteen years. To name drop a few wars that those
in compass, let me say, the First and Second English
Civil Wars, the Irish Confederate Wars, Cromwell's conquest of England,
(13:25):
and the Anglo Scottish War of sixteen fifty to fifty two.
That period ended with the beheading of Charles the First
and then came all over Cromwell. Although Cromwell's years were
pretty much bad by any standard, the Scottish Church or
Kirk remained free until King Charles the Second came to power,
(13:46):
which is when the persecution of the Covenanters continued through
three rebellions over the course of twenty seven years. Some
argue that this whole revolution was set in motion first
by Jenny Gettys. I would argue that King Charles the
(14:10):
first started it, and Jenny Gettys was the first one
to sound the alarm that rallied so many voices behind hers.
Not everyone is convinced that Jenny Getty's actually existed, but
any true crime listener knows that poor records can just
as much mean an omission of fact as an absence
of it. At the very least, Jenny Gettys is a
(14:31):
folk hero. In the nineteen nineties, Saint Giles Cathedral installed
a statue commemorating Jenny Gettys, and the statue is of
a stool. But her story was so ubiquitous until recently
that even the Scottish poet Robert Burns honored her by
(14:51):
naming his horse Jenny. If a poet naming his pet
after someone is not a ringing endorsement, I've never heard
one in my life. I referenced so many sources in
(15:20):
the researching of this mini episode, and all of them
are listed in our show's notes. The Greatest True Crime
Stories Ever Told is a production of Diversion Audio. I'm
Mary Kay mcbraer, and I hosted this episode. I also
wrote this episode. Our show is produced by Leo Culp,
Theme music by Tyler Cash, Executive producer Scott Waxman. One
(15:41):
more thing before I go. If you haven't already, I'll
love you forever. If you pre order my forthcoming true
crime book, Madam Queen, the Life and crimes of Harlem's
underground racketeer Stephanie Sinclair, there's a link to do it
at your favorite retailer in our show's Notes
Diversion Audio. The time is Sunday, twenty third of July
sixteen thirty seven. The place is the incredible Gothic Cathedral
(00:28):
of Saint Giles on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh, Scotland.
The person is a fruit and vegetable trader, and the
route she caused during church service arguably set in motion
a series of wars that would change British history forever.
But before I tell you about Jenny Getty's, let me
(00:50):
set the scene, because what she did is so much
more badass with appropriate context. Welcome to the greatest true
(01:20):
crime stories ever told. I'm Mary Kay mcbraer, author of
the true crime book Madam Queen, the Life and Crimes
of Harlem's underground racketeer Stephanie Sinclair. Today's episode we're calling
Jenny Getty's and her Revolutionary Stool. It's the story of
a seventeenth century Scottish fruit and veg merchant who triggered
(01:44):
a revolution. I'll tell you all about it after this
quick break. Saint Giles's Cathedral today is on the Royal Mile.
(02:09):
I would argue it's one of the most memorable edifices
on a whole street of memorable architecture. Today, the inside
is a local artisan market, but in sixteen thirty seven,
when our story takes place, it was a church proper. Specifically,
it was the Church of Scotland. Outside, in the front
(02:32):
courtyard was where the market happened every Sunday. Jenny Getty's
our main character, was one such trader. If you're thinking, wait,
what a woman entrepreneur in the seventeenth century, it gets
a lot more empowering than that. Here's a little context.
(02:55):
Up until sixteen twenty five, just twelve years earlier, both
Scotland and England had been ruled by one monarch. That's
King James the First of England aka King James the
sixth of Scotland. If you heard our last bonus episode
about the real Witches of Macbeth, then you already know
(03:15):
a little bit about King James. For a quick recap,
He's the one who oversaw the English translation still known
and often used by Protestants today as the King James Bible.
He also set the stage for the worst witch hunts
in history, which was platformed by his pamphlet on Demonology.
(03:36):
It might interest you to know that although King James
the First slash sixth married Anne of Denmark and had
five children with her. It's an open secret that he
was also romantic with men. King James moved from Scotland
to England the moment he came to power there. That
was sixteen oh three, when Queen Elizabeth died. He only
returned to Scotland once, in sixteen seventeen. When King James
(04:01):
died in sixteen twenty five, Charles the First came to
the English throne, but he didn't get around to being
crowned in Scotland until sixteen thirty three, eight years later.
It's almost like the British kings didn't care that much
about their Scottish subjects. Charles the First's coronation happened in
(04:30):
Saint Giles Cathedral. That's the setting of our drama too.
It was a church where post Reformation Puritan Protestant Scots worshiped.
By the way, I always thought of the Scottish Revolution,
as you know, a revolution in which religion became more tolerant.
I was exactly wrong. The fifteen sixty Reformations thesis regarding
(04:54):
religion was essentially these Catholics and Anglicans are soft, time
to crack down, and by that I mean that the
Presbyterians of the time thought that Catholic rituals were blasphemous.
So in sixteen thirty three, when King Charles the First
was crowned in Saint Giles, a Church of Scotland with
(05:15):
full Anglican rites, it was not well received. This is
relevant to our story because that was a huge clash
of ideology the cause. One sect was Anglican that's Church
of England, and one was Calvinist that's Church of Scotland.
In very general terms, the Anglican Church was a liberal
(05:39):
reaction to predestination. The man who performed the Scottish coronation
was Charles's new Archbishop of Canterbury, William Laude. History knows
Laud as one of the quote corrupt bishops who quote
(06:03):
misinformed the King of the liturgy and ecclesiology of the
Scottish kirk. King Charles the First, by the way, thought
that he might try to liberalize his new kingdom. His
plan did not go well. I'll tell you all about
it right after this quick break. When we left off,
(06:35):
King Charles the First had just been crowned and he
had decided, along with his Anglican clergy, to catch Scotland
up to England's more liberal practices. He did so by
printing the quote Book of Common Prayer in Edinburgh, and
then he or someone in his entourage more likely bribed
the Dean of Saint Giles Cathedral. What he wanted was
(06:59):
for Dean John Hanny to sneak in this new book
in place of the Church of Scotland prayer Book before
service on Sunday the twenty third of July sixteen thirty seven,
and Dean Hanny did it. I think Charles's belief that
(07:26):
no one would notice this significant change in liturgy illustrates
how little he knew his Scottish subjects. Maybe he thought
that the congregants would let it slide because they were
in church and people tend to be on their best
behavior in church. But when Dean Hanny started reading from
the new prayer book and it detailed quote the government
(07:49):
of the New Church and how the king ruled by
divine right, and how ministers, kirk, sessions and presbyteries would
all be renamed, the congregation immediately realized what was happening.
(08:19):
The altar was at the front, of course, and then
the pews were seated according to class. Some of the
wealthier people, though, paid so called waiting women to arrive
early and save them seats. When their patrons arrived, the
waiting women moved to the back where the street sellers sat.
The merchants sat behind the pews on portable three legged
(08:41):
stools that they brought to the church themselves. Jenny Getty's
was among these stool sitters, but she didn't stay seated
for long. In fact, no one did. There might have
been a m of disbelief or confusion through the church first,
(09:03):
but as soon as Jenny Getty's realized what was happening,
she stood up, grabbed her stool, and she hurled it
at Dean Hanny's head at the front of the church.
She yelled in Scot's English, loosely translated devil, cause you coolic,
false thief? Do you say Mass in my ear? Whether
(09:23):
the churchgoers thought the prayer book was heretical or they
were just angry at being tricked, everyone followed suit. I
don't know about y'all, but I've definitely wanted to cause
a riot in church before. I've never been brave enough
to do it in small group, sure, but not in
the church in front of God and everybody, all of
this congregation was brave enough to do it. And it
(09:44):
wasn't just fear of being rude that might have stopped them.
The King ordered those prayer books in church, and by
writing against the prayer books, they were essentially committing treason.
(10:08):
They still threw everything they could get their hands on.
They literally threw the book at the podium, bibles, stools,
everything got hurled at Dean Hanny. Even after the rioters
were expelled from Saint Giles Cathedral, they kept pounding on
the door. I don't know who expelled them from the church,
but if I had to guess, royal guards anticipating and uprising,
(10:31):
but I couldn't find out for sure. What I did
learn was that the riot spread through Edinburgh and then
through Scotland, and it didn't let up more after the break.
(11:01):
Before the break, Charles the First had bribed Dean John
Hanny to switch out all the prayer books in Saint
Giles Cathedral with new books detailing Anglican rites. The Protestant
congregation had realized it right away, and Jenny Getty's stood
up and hurled her stool at the dean while cursing
him in church. From there the riot happened and the
(11:24):
congregation was expelled, But the riot didn't stop just because
they were out of the church. Instead, it snowballed, building
steam all through the streets of Edinburgh, and the sentiments
spilled over into the rest of Scotland, especially when the
Scottish Protestants realized that King Charles the First had not
consulted the Scottish General Assembly. So Presbyterians expanded their fifteen
(11:49):
eighty one Covenant into the National Covenant in sixteen thirty eight.
It had around three hundred thousand signatures around the country,
though it was first signed in Greyfriars Churchyard. Rather than
listen to his subjects, Charles the First tried to force
his new doctrine through Britain through the Bishop's War see.
(12:12):
The widely held belief of Scottish Protestants was that they
could talk directly to God. They didn't need a king
or any papal hierarchy to intercede on their behalf, which
sounds like they didn't believe in Charles the First divine Right,
which sounds like heresy. The first two battles of the
(12:38):
Bishop's War ended in a truce in June of sixteen
thirty nine, but just two months earlier, Scottish Parliament passed
acts that undermined the crown, so Charles mobilized. But this
time the Scots won. They seized Northumberland and Durham. I'm
generalizing this next part a lot for the sake of
(13:01):
clarity and time. The Bishop's War is considered the first
conflict in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. Those wars
covered a lot of ground figuratively and literally, and spanned
fourteen years. To name drop a few wars that those
in compass, let me say, the First and Second English
Civil Wars, the Irish Confederate Wars, Cromwell's conquest of England,
(13:25):
and the Anglo Scottish War of sixteen fifty to fifty two.
That period ended with the beheading of Charles the First
and then came all over Cromwell. Although Cromwell's years were
pretty much bad by any standard, the Scottish Church or
Kirk remained free until King Charles the Second came to power,
(13:46):
which is when the persecution of the Covenanters continued through
three rebellions over the course of twenty seven years. Some
argue that this whole revolution was set in motion first
by Jenny Gettys. I would argue that King Charles the
(14:10):
first started it, and Jenny Gettys was the first one
to sound the alarm that rallied so many voices behind hers.
Not everyone is convinced that Jenny Getty's actually existed, but
any true crime listener knows that poor records can just
as much mean an omission of fact as an absence
of it. At the very least, Jenny Gettys is a
(14:31):
folk hero. In the nineteen nineties, Saint Giles Cathedral installed
a statue commemorating Jenny Gettys, and the statue is of
a stool. But her story was so ubiquitous until recently
that even the Scottish poet Robert Burns honored her by
(14:51):
naming his horse Jenny. If a poet naming his pet
after someone is not a ringing endorsement, I've never heard
one in my life. I referenced so many sources in
(15:20):
the researching of this mini episode, and all of them
are listed in our show's notes. The Greatest True Crime
Stories Ever Told is a production of Diversion Audio. I'm
Mary Kay mcbraer, and I hosted this episode. I also
wrote this episode. Our show is produced by Leo Culp,
Theme music by Tyler Cash, Executive producer Scott Waxman. One
(15:41):
more thing before I go. If you haven't already, I'll
love you forever. If you pre order my forthcoming true
crime book, Madam Queen, the Life and crimes of Harlem's
underground racketeer Stephanie Sinclair, there's a link to do it
at your favorite retailer in our show's Notes
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Special Summer Offer: Exclusively on Apple Podcasts, try our Dateline Premium subscription completely free for one month! With Dateline Premium, you get every episode ad-free plus exclusive bonus content.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!