For hundreds of years, British law said that a woman who was sentenced to death was not to be executed while pregnant. It naturally followed that many women in such circumstances claimed to be pregnant, whether they actually were or not. That's where the "jury of matrons" came in. These were panels of older women, sometimes including midwives, who were deemed as experts in detecting pregnancy. They were also used to determine signs of witchcraft or whether a woman had given birth. In other words, they investigated claims that wouldn't be proper for men to pursue, even if the men knew what they were doing. The jury of matrons were considered medical experts before gynecology was a thing. Of course, they had no say in the guilt or innocence of men.
These juries were used in the British colonies, like America and Australia, as well as in Britain. The practice only died out as men became qualified medical experts with modern instruments like a stethoscope. An article at Smithsonian tells us about the erstwhile juries of matrons and some notable stories from their history in the penal colony of Australia.
(Image credit: The British Museum)
