Family: Marie McCabe (mother, dead), Aaron McCabe (father, alive), Dean McCabe (older brother, alive), Douglas McCabe (younger brother, alive), Eloise Stein (younger sister, alive) and Cillian/James Dennis (son, alive)

History: Eleanor was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland in 1978 to a Protestant family. She was the second child out of four, her older brother was seven years older than her and her younger sister was nine years younger than her so Ellie was always closest to the third son, Doug who was only four years younger than her. She was born in the middle of what has been termed ‘The Troubles’ and in the worst affected area, she grew up knowing what it meant to live in fear. She has happy memories of Belfast though, all of her family have, they remember the violence but that was not all there was to her childhood. Her family immigrated to American during the mid 80’s, her father had previously tried to move out of Ireland to England when Dean was born but the strong anti-Irish sentiment made finding work difficult. Aaron hoped that America would be more welcoming as many Irish people had immigrated there since the 1600’s. They settled in New York when Eleanor was nine. They deliberately settled in an area not known for its Irish community, most of the original Irish immigrants had been Catholic and Aaron feared similar violence to that in Belfast. Aaron and Dean quickly found work in construction and Marie worked part time in a shop. It was not ideal but it paid. Once they had settled into their new life things went as smoothly as expected.
When she hit puberty Eleanor began to become aware of certain things about people, at first she just thought it was the whole ‘sexual awakening’ her friends talked about but when she realized it was more than that she became afraid. She had, slowly, become able to instinctively know when women were menstruating or were pregnant or were still virgins. Freaked out and realizing she had no one to turn too Eleanor began to ignore her powers. It was an easy thing to do, she still noticed things about people she just didn’t think about it too much.
When she was seventeen she fell pregnant. She still believes that if she hadn’t rejected her powers she would never have got into that situation, she believed she would have known she and her partner were both fertile. She knew immedialty when her son was conceived and at that time considered an abortion, later rejecting the idea. When she had thought she would abort the baby Eleanor had explored the possibility of a herbal solution, a medical procedure was far too expensive and most of the immigrant settlements had at least one person they connected to the old ways or magic. Eleanor found a Jewish woman who sold potions and elixirs in a little shop. The woman became her mentor, she knew a lot about herbs and magic and taught it all to Eleanor after explaining that she had a gift.
On 5th July Eleanor gave birth to a son she named Cillian, he was put up for adoption and later his name changed to James. Elenaor thinks about him everyday but she knows she made the right decision; she could not give Cillian what he needed. Her family was supportive throughout her pregnancy and the adoption but her parents were incredibly disappointed in her both for getting pregnant and giving the baby away. Her Mum in particular. The relationship between Eleanor and Marie deteriorated. In the end Eleanor moved out when she was twenty one. Their relationship was never mended and Marie died three years later.
For the next five years Eleanor travelled around the world, staying at various communes or alternative communities trying to learn as much as she possible could about everything! She learned about a huge variety of things from herbalism to childrearing, she mostly just thinks she learned about life and living.
After she was done travelling Eleanor settled in Boston there she opened a little shop that dealt primarily with feminine problems and issues concerning fertility, pregnancy and child birth. She also trained part time as a mid-wife. Eleanor enjoyed her work as a mid-wife so when she was fully qualified she sold her shop and set up on online one instead. This gave her time to concentrate on being a mid-wife while still offering the services she had before. Her online shop, mothermaidencrone.com sells everything from books, breast pumps, charms and sex toys.

Strengths: She is a very earthy woman and very little shocks her. Ellie can be very protective and fierce when she feels it is necessary; she likes to believe in passivity but when it comes down to it she will resort to violence rather than letting herself be walked all over or someone she loves being hurt.
Weaknesses: She is a very caring and trusting woman and this often leads her into trouble, she just can’t stop herself interfering or being conned by people. She is very lonely, she has never had a lasting relationship and she wants to be a mother again. Her brother is one of her big weaknesses, she would do anything for him.

Home: She lives in a fairly large, four room apartment complete with a little balcony off the living room. The whole apartment is very cluttered with books, plants, random furniture and an assortment of cat toys. The whole place smells faintly of sage, lavender and fresh bread.

Other: Has two cats called Rumpole and Bailey

Played by: Jo