"What he cannot express with words, he can declare by signs": Deafness, consent and speech in Restoration England

This article examines three case studies of prelingually deaf people attempting to get married in seventeenth-century England. Through the comparison of the cases of Thomas Speller, George Blount and Anne Darcy, this article challenges preconceptions regarding the status of sign “language” in early modern legal settings, arguing that signs had indeed been accepted as valid expressions of consent by papal decision, a tradition prolonged after the Act of Supremacy. It also highlights the various challenges raised by the interpretation of non-verbal signs of consent in Early Modern England, showing that by the Restoration, little doubt remained as to the validity of visual kinetic signs as proof of consent. The question of who could be relied upon to interpret those signs, however, remained a contentious issue.