Discovery of Witches
by active 1612-1618 Thomas Potts · English · Gutenberg #18253 · 533,494 chars · public domain (US)
The Project Gutenberg eBook of Discovery of Witches
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online
at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States,
you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located
before using this eBook.
Title: Discovery of Witches
Author: active 1612-1618 Thomas Potts
Editor: James Crossley
Release date: April 25, 2006 [eBook #18253]
Language: English
Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/18253
Credits: E-text prepared by Clare Boothby, Linda Cantoni, and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DISCOVERY OF WITCHES ***
E-text prepared by Clare Boothby, Linda Cantoni, and the Project Gutenberg
Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net/)
Transcriber's note:
The following symbols are used in this e-text:
^ before a letter indicates that the letter is superscripted
in the original
= before a vowel in brackets indicates that the vowel has a
macron over it in the original, indicating a final n or m
Remains Historical & Literary Connected with the Palatine Counties
of Lancaster and Chester
Published by the Chetham Society.
Vol. VI.
Printed for the Chetham Society.
M.DCCC.XLV.
[Illustration: THE CHETHAM SOCIETY]
Council.
EDWARD HOLME, ESQ., M.D., PRESIDENT.
REV. RICHARD PARKINSON, B.D., CANON OF MANCHESTER, VICE-PRESIDENT.
THE HON. & VERY REV. WILLIAM HERBERT, DEAN OF MANCHESTER.
GEORGE ORMEROD, ESQ., D.C.L., F.R.S., F.S.A., F.G.S., SEDBURY PARK.
SAMUEL HIBBERT WARE, ESQ., M.D., F.R.S.E., EDINBURGH.
REV. THOMAS CORSER, M.A.
REV. GEORGE DUGARD, M.A.
REV. C.G. HULTON, M.A.
REV. J. PICCOPE, M.A.
REV. F.R. RAINES, M.A., F.S.A., MILNROW PARSONAGE, NEAR ROCHDALE.
JAMES CROSSLEY, ESQ.
JAMES HEYWOOD, ESQ., F.R.S.
WILLIAM LANGTON, ESQ., TREASURER.
WILLIAM FLEMING, ESQ., M.D., HON. SECRETARY.
[Illustration]
POTTS'S DISCOVERY OF WITCHES
In the County of Lancaster,
Reprinted from the Original Edition of 1613.
With an Introduction and Notes, by JAMES CROSSLEY, ESQ.
Printed for the Chetham Society.
M.DCC.XLV.
Manchester:
Printed by Charles Simms and Co.
INTRODUCTION.
Were not every chapter of the history of the human mind too precious
an inheritance to be willingly relinquished,--for appalling as its
contents may be, the value of the materials it may furnish may be
inestimable,--we might otherwise be tempted to wish that the miserable
record in which the excesses occasioned by the witch mania are
narrated, could be struck out of its pages, and for ever cancelled.
Most assuredly, he, who is content to take the fine exaggeration of
the author of _Hydriotaphia_ as a serious and literal truth, and who
believes with him that "man is a glorious animal," must not go to the
chapter which contains that record for his evidences and proofs. If he
should be in search of materials for humiliation and abasement, he
will find in the history of witchcraft in this country, from the
beginning to the end of the seventeenth century, large and abundant
materials, whether it affects the species or the individual. In truth,
human nature is never seen in worse colours than in that dark and
dismal review. Childhood, without any of its engaging properties,
appears prematurely artful, wicked and cruel[1]; woman, the victim of
a wretched and debasing bigotry, has yet so little of the feminine
adjuncts, that the fountains of our sympathies are almost closed; and
man, tyrannizing over the sex he was bound to protect, in its helpless
destitution and enfeebled decline, seems lost in prejudice and
superstition and only strong in oppression. If we turn from the common
herd to the luminaries of the age, to those whose works are the
landmarks of literature and science, the reference is equally
disappointing;--
"The sun itself is dark
And silent as the moon
Hid in her vacant interlunar cave."
[Footnote 1: Take, as an instance, the children of Mr. Throgmorton, of
Warbois, for bewitching whom, Mother Samuels, her husband, and
daughter, suffered in 1593. No veteran professors "in the art of
ingeniously tormenting" could have administered the question with more
consummate skill than these little incarnate fiends, till the poor old
woman was actually induced, from their confident asseverations and
plausible counterfeiting, to believe at last that she had been a witch
all her life without knowing it. She made a confession, following the
story which they had prompted, on their assurances that it was the
only means to restore them, and then was hanged upon that confession,
to which she adhered on the scaffold. Few tracts present a more vivid
picture of manners than that in which the account of this case of
witchcraft is contained. It is perhaps the rarest of the English
tracts relating to witchcraft, and is entitled "The most strange and
admirable Discoverie of the three Witches of Warboys, arraigned,
convicted, and executed at the last Assizes at Huntingdon, for the
bewitching of the five daughters of Robert Throckmorton, Esquire, and
divers other persons with sundrie Devilish and grievous torments. And
also for the bewitching to Death of the Lady Crumwell, the like hath
not been heard of in this age. London, Printed by the Widdowe Orwin
for Thomas Man and John Winnington, and are to be sold in Paternoster
Rowe at the Signe of the Talbot." 1593, 4to. My copy was Brand's, and
formed Lot 8224 in his Sale Catalogue.]
We find the illustrious author of the Novum Organon sacrificing to
courtly suppleness his philosophic truth, and gravely prescribing the
ingredients for a witches' ointment;[2]--Raleigh, adopting miserable
fallacies at second hand, without subjecting them to the crucible of
his acute and vigorous understanding;[3]--Selden, maintaining that
crimes of the imagination may be punished with death;[4]--The detector
of Vulgar Errors, and the most humane of physicians,[5] giving the
casting weight to the vacillating bigotry of Sir Matthew
Hale;[6]--Hobbes, ever sceptical, penetrating and sagacious, yet here
paralyzed, and shrinking from the subject as if afraid to touch
it;[7]--The adventurous explorer, who sounded the depths and channels
of the "Intellectual System" along all the "wide watered" shores of
antiquity, running after witches to hear them recite the Common Prayer
and the Creed, as a rational test of guilt or innocence;[8]--The
gentle spirit of Dr. Henry More, girding on the armour of persecution,
and rousing itself from a Platonic reverie on the Divine Life, to
assume the hood and cloak of a familiar of the Inquisition;[9]--and
the patient and enquiring Boyle, putting aside for a while his
searches for the grand Magisterium, and listening, as if spell-bound,
with gratified attention to stories of witches at Oxford, and devils
at Mascon.[10] Nor is it from a retrospect of our own intellectual
progress only that we find how capricious, how intermitting, and how
little privileged to great names or high intellects, or even to those
minds which seemed to possess the very qualifications which would
operate as conductors, are those illuminating gleams of common sense
which shoot athwart the gloom, and aid a nation on its tardy progress
to wisdom, humanity, and justice. If on the Continent there were, in
the sixteenth century, two men from whom an exposure of the
absurdities of the system of witchcraft might have been naturally and
rationally expected, and who seem to stand out prominently from the
crowd as predestined to that honourable and salutary office, those two
men were John Bodin[11] and Thomas Erastus.[12] The former a
lawyer--much exercised in the affairs of men--whose learning was not
merely umbratic--whose knowledge of history was most philosophic and
exact--of piercing penetration and sagacity--tolerant--liberal
minded--disposed to take no proposition upon trust, but to canvass and
examine every thing for himself, and who had large views of human
nature and society--in fact, the Montesquieu of the seventeenth
century. The other, a physician and professor, sage, judicious,
incredulous,
"The scourge of impostors, the terror of quacks,"
who had routed irrecoverably empiricism in almost every
shape--Paracelsians--Astrologers--Alchemists--Rosicrucians--and who
weighed and scrutinized and analyzed every conclusion, from
excommunication and the power of the keys to the revolutions of comets
and their supposed effects on empires, and all with perfect
fearlessness and intuitive insight into the weak points of an
argument. Yet, alas! for human infirmity. Bodin threw all the weight
of his reasoning and learning and vivacity into the scale of the witch
supporters, and made the "hell-broth boil and bubble" anew, and
increased the witch _furor_ to downright fanaticism, by the
publication of his _Demo-manie_,[13] a work in which
"Learning, blinded first and then beguiled,
Looks dark as ignorance, as frenzy wild;"
but which it is impossible to read without being carried along by the
force of mind and power of combination which the author manifests, and
without feeling how much ingenious sophistry can perform to mitigate
and soften the most startling absurdity. His contemporary, Erastus,
after all his victories on the field of imposition, was foiled by the
subject of witchcraft at last. This was his pet delusion--almost the
only one he cared not to discard--like the dying miser's last
reserve:--
---- "My manor, sir? he cried;
Not that, I cannot part with that,--and died."
[Footnote 2: Lord Bacon thinks (see his _Sylva Sylvarum_) that
soporiferous medicines "are likeliest" for this purpose, such as
henbane, hemlock, mandrake, moonshade, tobacco, opium, saffron, poplar
leaves, &c.]
[Footnote 3: See his _History of the World_.]
[Footnote 4: See his _Table Talk_, section "_Witches_."]
[Footnote 5: Sir Thomas Browne's evidence at the trial of Amy Duny and
Rose Cullender at Bury St. Edmunds in 1664, is too well known to need
an extract from the frequently reprinted report of the case. To adopt
the words of an able writer, (_Retros. Review_, vol. v. p. 118,) "this
trial is the only place in which we ever meet with the name of Sir
Thomas Browne without pleasurable associations."]
[Footnote 6: Those who wish to have presented to them a faithful
likeness of Sir Matthew Hale must not consult Burnet or Baxter, for
that great judge, like Sir Epicure Mammon, sought "for his meet
flatterers the gravest of divines," but will not fail to find it in
the pages of Roger North, who has depicted his character with a
strength and accuracy of outline which no Vandyck or Lely of biography
ever surpassed. Would that we could exchange some of those "faultless
monsters" with which that fascinating department of literature too
much abounds, for a few more such instantly recognised specimens of
true but erring and unequal humanity, which are as rare as they are
precious. In the unabridged life of Lord Guildford by Roger North,
which, with his own most interesting and yet unpublished
autobiography, are in my possession in his autograph, are found some
additional touches which confirm the general accuracy of the portrait
he has sketched of Hale in the work which has been printed. (Vide
North's _Life of Lord Guildford_, by Roscoe, vol. i. p. 119.)]
[Footnote 7: See his _Dialogue on the Common Laws of England_.]
[Footnote 8: Dr. Cudworth was the friend whom More refers to without
naming, _Collections of Relations_, p. 336, edit. 1726, 8vo.]
[Footnote 9: There is no name in this catalogue that excites more
poignant regret than that of Dr. Henry More. So exalted was his
character, so serene and admirable his temper, so full of harmony his
whole intellectual constitution, that, irradiated at once by all the
lights of religion and philosophy, and with clearer glimpses of the
land of vision and the glories behind the veil than perhaps uninspired
mortality ever partook of before, he seems to have reached as near to
the full standard of perfection as it is possible for frail and feeble
humanity to attain. Dr. Outram said that he looked upon Dr. More as
the holiest person upon the face of the earth; and the sceptical
Hobbes, who never dealt in compliment, observed, "That if his own
philosophy were not true, he knew of none that he should sooner like
than More's of Cambridge." His biographer, Ward, concludes his life in
the following glowing terms:--"Thus lived and died the eminent Dr.
More: thus set this bright and illustrious star, vanishing by degrees
out of our sight after, to the surprise and admiration of many, (like
that which was observed in Cassiopeia's chair,) it had illuminated, as
it were, both worlds so long at once." At the lapse of many years I
have not forgotten the impassioned fondness with which the late and
most lamented Robert Southey dwelt upon the memory of the Cambridge
Plato, or the delight with which he greeted some works of his
favourite author which I was fortunate enough to point out to him,
with which he had not been previously acquainted. The sad reverse of
the picture will he seen by those who consult the folio of More's
philosophical works and Glanville's _Sadducismus Triumphatus_, the
greatest part of which is derived from More's _Collections_. His
hallucinations on the subject of witchcraft, from which none of the
English writers of the Platonic school were exempt, are the more
extraordinary, as a sister error, judicial astrology, met in More with
its most able oppugner. His tract, which has excited much less
attention than its merit deserves, (I have not been able to trace a
single quotation from it in any author during the last century,) is
entitled "Tetractys Anti-astrologica, or a Confutation of Astrology."
Lond. 1681, 4to. I may mention while on the subject of More, that the
second and most valuable part of the memoir of him by Ward, his
devoted admirer and pupil, which was never printed, is in my
possession, in manuscript.]
[Footnote 10: See Boyle's letter on the subject of the latter, in the
5th vol. of the folio edition of his works.]
[Footnote 11: I have always considered the conclusion of Bodin's book,
_De Republica_, the accumulative grandeur of which is even heightened
in Knolles's admirable English translation, as the finest peroration
to be found in any work on government. Those who are fortunate enough
to possess a copy of his interdicted _Examination of Religions_, the
title of which is, "Colloquium heptaplomeres de abditis sublimium
rerum arcanis, libris 6 digestum," which was never printed, and of
which very few MSS. copies are in existence, are well aware how little
he felt himself shackled in the spirit of examination which he carried
into the most sacred subjects by any respect for popular notions or
received systems or great authorities. My MS. copy of this
extraordinary work, which came from Heber's Collection, is contained
in two rather thick folio volumes.]
[Footnote 12: Few authors are better deserving of an extended
biography, a desideratum which, in an age characterised by its want of
literary research, is not likely to be soon supplied, than Thomas
Erastus, whose theological, philosophical, and medical celebrity
entitle him to rank with the greatest men of his century. At present
we have to collect all that is known of his life from various
scattered and contradictory sources. John Webster, in his _Displaying
of Supposed Witchcraft_, contrary to the usual candour and fairness of
his judgments, speaks slightingly of Erastus. There was, however, a
sufficient reason for this. Erastus had shown up the empiricism of
Webster's idol Paracelsus, and was in great disfavour with the writers
of the Anti-Galenic school.]
[Footnote 13: I cannot concur with Mr. Hallam in the extremely low
estimate he forms of the literary merit of Bodin's _Demomanie_, which
he does not seem to have examined with the care and impartiality which
he seldom is deficient in. Like all Bodin's works, it has a spirit
peculiarly his own, and is, in my opinion, one of the most
entertaining books to be found in the circle of Demonology.]
In his treatise _De Lamiis_, published in 1577, 8vo., he defends
nearly all the absurdities of the system with a blind zealotry which
in such a man is very remarkable. His book has accordingly taken its
place on the same shelf with Sprenger, Remigius, Delrio, and De
Lancre, and deserves insertion only in a list which has yet to be made
out, and which if accurately compiled would be a literary curiosity,
of the singularly illogical books of singularly able reasoners.
What was left unaccomplished by the centurions of literature came
ultimately from the strangest of all possible quarters; from the
study of an humble pupil of the transmuter of metals and prince
of mountebanks and quacks--the expounder of Reuchlin _de verbo
mirifico_, and lecturer in the unknown tongues--the follower of
Trismegistus--cursed with bell, book and candle, by every decorous
Church in Christendom--the redoubted Cornelius Agrippa; who, if he
left not to his pupil Wierus the secret of the philosopher's stone or
grand elixir, seems to have communicated a treasure perhaps equally
rare and not less precious, the faculty of seeing a truth which should
open the eyes of bigotry and dispel the mists of superstition, which
should stop the persecution of the helpless and stay the call for
blood. If, in working out this virgin ore from the mine, he has
produced it mixed up with the _scoria_ of his master's _Occult
Philosophy_; if he gives us catalogues of devils and spirits, with
whose acquaintance we could have dispensed; if he pleads the great
truth faintly, inconsistently, imperfectly, and is evidently unaware
of the strength of the weapons he wields; these deductions do not the
less entitle Wierus to take his place in the first rank of Humanity's
honoured professors, the true philanthropists and noble benefactors of
mankind.
In our own country, it may be curious and edifying to observe to whom
we mainly owe those enlightened views on this subject, which might
have been expected to proceed in their natural channel, but for which
we look in vain, from the "triumphant heirs of universal praise," the
recognized guides of public opinion, whose fame sheds such a lustre on
our annals,--the Bacons, the Raleighs, the Seldens, the Cudworths, and
the Boyles.
The strangely assorted and rather grotesque band to whom we are
principally indebted for a vindication of outraged common sense and
insulted humanity in this instance, and whose vigorous exposition of
the absurdities of the prevailing system, in combination with other
lights and sources of intelligence, led at last to its being
universally abandoned, consists of four individuals--on any of whom a
literary Pharisee would look down with supercilious scorn:--a country
gentleman, devoted to husbandry, and deep in platforms of hop
gardens,[14]--a baronet, whose name for upwards of a century has been
used as a synonyme for incurable political bigotry,[15]--a little,
crooked, and now forgotten man, who died, as his biographer tells us,
"distracted, occasioned by a deep conceit of his own parts, and by a
continual bibbing of strong and high tasted liquors,"[16]--and last,
but not least assuredly, of one who was by turns a fanatical preacher
and an obscure practitioner of physic, and who passed his old age at
Clitheroe in Lancashire in attempting to transmute metals and discover
the philosopher's stone.[17] So strange a band of Apostles of reason
may occasion a smile; it deserves, at all events, a little more
particular consideration before we address ourselves to the short
narration which may be deemed necessary as an introduction to the
republication which follows.
Of the first of the number, Reginald or Reynold Scot, it is to be
regretted that more particulars are not known. Nearly the whole are
contained in the following information afforded by Anthony à Wood,
_Athenæ._, vol. i. p. 297; from which it appears that he took to
"solid reading" at a crisis of life when it is generally thrown aside.
"Reynolde Scot, a younger son of Sir John Scot, of Scot's Hall, near
to Smeeth, in Kent, by his wife, daughter of Reynolde Pimp, of Pimp's
Court, Knight, was born in that county, and at about 17 years of age
was sent to Oxon, particularly as it seems to Hart Hall, where several
of his countrymen and name studied in the latter end of K. Henry
VIII. and the reign of Edward VI., &c. Afterwards he retired to his
native country, without the honour of a Degree, and settled at Smeeth,
where he found great encouragement in his studies from his kinsman,
Sir Thomas Scot. _About which time, taking to him a wife, he gave
himself up solely to solid reading_, to the perusing of obscure
authors that had, by the generality of scholars, been neglected, and
at times of leisure to husbandry and gardening. He died in September
or October in 1599, and was buried among his ancestors, in the church
at Smeeth before mentioned." Retired as his life and obscure as his
death might be, he is one whose name will be remembered as long as
vigorous sense, flowing from the "wells of English undefiled," hearty
and radiant humour, and sterling patriotism, are considered as
deserving of commemoration. His _Discoverie of Witchcraft_, first
published in 1584, is indeed a treat to him who wishes to study the
idioms, manners, opinions, and superstitions of the reign of
Elizabeth. Its entire title deserves to be given:--
"_The discouerie of witchcraft, wherein the lewde dealing of witches
and witchmongers is notablie detected, the knauerie of coniurors, the
impietie of inchantors, the follie of soothsaiers, the impudent
falshood of cousenors, the infidelitie of atheists, the pestilent
practises of Pythonists, the curiositie of figurecasters, the vanitie
of dreamers, the beggerlie art of Alcumystrie, the abhomination of
idolatrie, the horrible art of poisoning, the vertue and power of
naturall magike, and all the conueiances of Legierdemaine and iuggling
are deciphered: and many other things opened, which haue long lien
hidden, howbeit verie necessarie to be knowne. Heerevnto is added a
treatise vpon the nature and substance of spirits and diuels, &c: all
latelie written by Reginald Scot Esquire._ 1 John, 4, 1. _Beleeue not
euerie spirit but trie the spirits, whether they are of God; for many
false prophets are gone out into the world, &c._ 1584."
[Footnote 14: Reginald Scot.]
[Footnote 15: Sir R. Filmer.]
[Footnote 16: John Wagstaffe.]
[Footnote 17: John Webster.]
This title is sufficient to show that he gives no quarter to the
delusion he undertakes to expose, and though he does not deny that
there may be witches in the abstract, (to have done so would have left
him a preacher without an audience,) yet he guards so cautiously
against any practical application of that principle, and battles so
vigorously against the error which assimilated the witches of modern
times to the witches of Scripture, and, denying the validity of the
confessions of those convicted, throws such discredit and ridicule
upon the whole system, that the popular belief cannot but have
received a severe shock from the publication of his work.[18] By an
extraordinary elevation of good sense, he managed, not only to see
through the absurdities of witchcraft, but likewise of other errors
which long maintained their hold upon the learned as well as the
vulgar. Indeed, if not generally more enlightened, he was, in some
respects, more emancipated from delusion than even his great
successor, the learned and sagacious Webster, who, a century after,
clung still to alchemy which Reginald Scot had ridiculed and exposed.
Yet with all its strong points and broad humour, it is undeniable that
_The Discoverie of Witchcraft_ only scotched the snake instead of
killing it; and that its effect was any thing but final and complete.
Inveterate error is seldom prostrated by a blow from one hand, and
truth seems to be a tree which cannot be forced by planting it before
its time. There was something, too, in the book itself which militated
against its entire acceptance by the public. It is intended to form a
little Encyclopædia of the different arts of imposition practised in
Scot's time; and in order to illustrate the various tricks and modes
of cozenage, he gives us so many charms and diagrams and conjurations,
to say nothing of an inventory of seventy-nine devils and spirits, and
their several seignories and degrees, that the _Occult Philosophy_ of
Cornelius Agrippa himself looks scarcely less appalling, at first
sight, than the _Discoverie_. This gave some colour to the declamation
of the author's opponents, who held him up as Wierus had been
represented before him, as if he were as deeply dipped in diabolical
practises as any of those whom he defended. Atheist and Sadducee, if
not very wizard himself, were the terms in which his name was
generally mentioned, and as such, the royal author of the _Demonology_
anathematizes him with great unction and very edifying horror. Against
the papists, the satire of Scot had been almost as much directed as
against what he calls the "witch-mongers," so that that very powerful
party were to a man opposed to him. Vigorous, therefore, as was his
onslaught, its effect soon passed by; and when on the accession of
James, the statute which so long disgraced our penal code was enacted,
as the adulatory tribute of all parties, against which no honest voice
was raised, to the known opinions of the monarch, Scot became too
unfashionable to be seen on the tables of the great or in the
libraries of the learned. If he were noticed, it was only to be
traduced as a sciolist, (imperitus dialecticæ et aliarum bonarum
artium, says Dr. Reynolds,) and to be exposed for imagined lapses in
scholarship in an age when for a writer not to be a scholar, was like
a traveller journeying without a passport. Meric Casaubon, who
carried all the prejudices of the time of James the first into the
reign of Charles the second, but who, though overshadowed by the fame
of his father, was no unworthy scion of that incomparable stock, at
the same time that he denounces Scot as illiterate, will only
acknowledge to having met with him "at friends houses" and
"booksellers shops," as if his work were one which would bring
contamination to a scholar's library. Scot was certainly not a scholar
in the sense in which the term is applied to the Scaligers, Casaubons,
and Vossius's, though he would have been considered a prodigy of
reading in these days of superficial acquisition. But he had original
gifts far transcending scholarship. He had a manly, straightforward,
vigorous understanding, which, united with an honest integrity of
purpose, kept him right when greater men went wrong. How invaluable a
phalanx would the battalion of folios which the reign of James the
first produced now afford us, if the admirable mother-wit and
single-minded sincerity of Reginald Scot could only have vivified and
informed them.[19]
[Footnote 18: In the epistle to his kinsman Sir Thomas Scot, prefixed
to his _Discoverie_, he observes:--
"I see among other malefactors manie poore old women conuented before
you for working of miracles, other wise called witchcraft, and
therefore I thought you also a meet person to whom I might commend my
booke."--And he then proceeds, in the following spirited and gallant
strain, to run his course against the Dagon of popular superstition:--
"I therefore (at this time) doo onelie desire you to consider of my
report, concerning the euidence that is commonlie brought before you
against them. See first whether the euidence be not friuolous, &
whether the proofs brought against them be not incredible, consisting
of ghesses, presumptions, & impossibilities contrarie to reason,
scripture, and nature. See also what persons complaine vpon them,
whether they be not of the basest, the vnwisest, & most faithles kind
of people. Also may it please you to waie what accusations and crimes
they laie to their charge, namelie: She was at my house of late, she
would haue had a pot of milke, she departed in a chafe bicause she had
it not, she railed, she curssed, she mumbled and whispered, and
finallie she said she would be euen with me: and soone after my child,
my cow, my sow, or my pullet died, or was strangelie taken. Naie (if
it please your Worship) I haue further proofe: I was with a wise
woman, and she told me I had an ill neighbour, & that she would come
to my house yer it were long, and so did she; and that she had a marke
aboue hir waste, & so had she: and God forgiue me, my stomach hath
gone against hir a great while. Hir mother before hir was counted a
witch, she hath beene beaten and scratched by the face till bloud was
drawne vpon hir, bicause she hath beene suspected, & afterwards some
of those persons were said to amend. These are the certeinties that I
heare in their euidences.
"_Note also how easilie they may be brought to confesse that which
they neuer did, nor lieth in the power of man to doo_: and then see
whether I haue cause to write as I doo. Further, if you shall see that
infidelitie, poperie, and manie other manifest heresies be backed and
shouldered, and their professors animated and hartened, by yeelding to
creatures such infinit power as is wrested out of Gods hand, and
attributed to witches: finallie, if you shall perceiue that I haue
faithfullie and trulie deliuered and set downe the condition and state
of the witch, and also of the witchmonger, and haue confuted by reason
and lawe, and by the word of God it selfe, all mine aduersaries
obiections and arguments: then let me haue your countenance against
them that maliciouslie oppose themselues against me.
"_My greatest aduersaries are yoong ignorance and old custome._ For
what follie soeuer tract of time hath fostered, it is so
superstitiouslie pursued of some, as though no error could be
acquainted with custome. But if the lawe of nations would ioine with
such custome, to the maintenance of ignorance, and to the suppressing
of knowledge; the ciuilest countrie in the world would soone become
barbarous, &c. For as knowledge and time discouereth errors, so dooth
superstition and ignorance in time breed them."
The passage which I next quote, is a further specimen of the
impressive and even eloquent earnestness with which he pleads his
cause:--
"In the meane time, I would wish them to know that if neither the
estimation of Gods omnipotencie, nor the tenor of his word, nor the
doubtfulnes or rather the impossibilitie of the case, nor the small
proofes brought against them, nor the rigor executed vpon them, nor
the pitie that should be in a christian heart, nor yet their
simplicitie, impotencie, or age may suffice to suppresse the rage or
rigor wherewith they are oppressed; yet the consideration of their sex
or kind ought to mooue some mitigation of their punishment. For if
nature (as Plinie reporteth) haue taught a lion not to deale so
roughlie with a woman as with a man, bicause she is in bodie the
weaker vessell, and in hart more inclined to pitie (which Ieremie in
his lamentations seemeth to confirme) what should a man doo in this
case, for whome a woman was created as an helpe and comfort vnto him?
In so much as, euen in the lawe of nature, it is a greater offense to
slea a woman than a man: not bicause a man is not the more excellent
creature, but bicause a woman is the weaker vessell. And therefore
among all modest and honest persons it is thought a shame to offer
violence or iniurie to a woman: in which respect Virgil saith, _Nullum
memorabile nomen foeminea in poena est_.
"God that knoweth my heart is witnes, and you that read my booke shall
see, that my drift and purpose in this enterprise tendeth onelie to
these respects. First, that the glorie and power of God be not so
abridged and abased, as to be thrust into the hand or lip of a lewd
old woman: whereby the worke of the Creator should be attributed to
the power of a creature. Secondlie, that the religion of the gospell
may be seene to stand without such peeuish trumperie. Thirdlie, that
lawfull fauour and christian compassion be rather vsed towards these
poore soules, than rigor and extremitie. Bicause they, which are
commonlie accused of witchcraft, are the least sufficient of all other
persons to speake for themselues; as hauing the most base and simple
education of all others; the extremitie of their age giuing them leaue
to dote, their pouertie to beg, their wrongs to chide and threaten (as
being void of anie other waie of reuenge) their humor melancholicall
to be full of imaginations, from whence cheefelie proceedeth the
vanitie of their confessions; as that they can transforme themselues
and others into apes, owles, asses, dogs, cats, &c: that they can flie
in the aire, kill children with charmes, hinder the comming of butter,
&c.
"And for so much as the mightie helpe themselues together, and the
poore widowes crie, though it reach to heauen, is scarse heard here
vpon earth: I thought good (according to my poore abilitie) to make
intercession, that some part of common rigor, and some points of
hastie iudgement may be aduised vpon. For the world is now at that
stay (as Brentius in a most godlie sermon in these words affirmeth)
that euen as when the heathen persecuted the christians, if anie were
accused to beleeue in Christ, the common people cried _Ad leonem_: so
now, if anie woman, be she neuer so honest, be accused of witchcraft,
they crie _Ad ignem_."]
[Footnote 19: In the intervening period between the publication of
Soot's work and the advertisement of Filmer, several books came out on
the subject of witchcraft. Amongst them it is right to notice "A
Dialogue concerning Witches and Witchcraft, by George Giffard,
Minister of God's Word in Maldon," 1593, 4to. This tract, which has
been reprinted by the Percy Society, is not free from the leading
fallacies which infected the reasonings of almost all the writers on
witchcraft. It is, nevertheless, exceedingly entertaining, and well
deserves a perusal, if only as transmitting to us, in their full
freshness, the racy colloquialisms of the age of Elizabeth. It is to
be hoped that the other works of Giffard, all of which are deserving
of attention, independently of their theological interest, as
specimens of pure and sterling English, may appear in a collected
form. The next tract requiring notice is "The Trial of Witchcraft, by
John Cotta," 1616, 4to, of which a second and enlarged edition was
published in 1624. Cotta, who was a physician of great eminence and
experience, residing at Northampton, has supplied in this very able,
learned, and vigorous treatise, a groundwork which, if pursued to its
just results, for he writes very cautiously and guardedly, and rather
hints at his conclusions than follows them out, would have sufficed to
have overthrown many of the positions of the supporters of the system
of witchcraft. His work has a strong scholastic tinge, and is not
without occasional obscurity; and on these accounts probably produced
no very extensive impression at the time. He wrote two other
tracts--1. "Discovery of the Dangers of ignorant practisers of Physick
in England," 1612, 4to; 2. "Cotta contra Antonium, or An Ant-Anthony,"
Oxford, 1623, 4to; the latter of which, a keen satire against the
chymists' aurum potabile, is exceedingly rare. Both are intrinsically
valuable and interesting, and written with great vigour of style, and
are full of curious illustrations derived from his extensive medical
practice. I cannot conclude this note without adverting to Gaule's
amusing little work, ("Select Cases of Conscience touching Witches and
Witchcraft, by John Gaule, Preacher of the Word at Great Haughton, in
the county of Huntingdon," 1646, 24mo.) which gives us all the
casuistry applicable to witchcraft. We can almost forgive Gaule's
fundamental errors on the general question, for the courage and spirit
with which he battled with the villainous witchfinder, Hopkins, who
wanted sorely to make an example of him, to the terror of all
gainsayers of the sovereign power of this examiner-general of witches.
Gaule proved himself to be an overmatch for the itinerating
inquisitor, and so effectually attacked, battled with, and exposed
him, as to render him quite harmless in future. The minister of Great
Haughton was made of different metal to the "old reading parson
Lewis," or Lowes, to whose fate Baxter refers with such nonchalance.
As the only clergyman of the Church of England, that I am aware of,
who was executed for witchcraft, Lewis's case is sufficiently
interesting to merit some notice. Stearne's (vide his _Confirmation of
Witchcraft_, p. 23,) account of it, which I have not seen quoted
before, is as follows:--
"Thus was Parson Lowis taken, who had been a Minister, (as I have
heard) in one Parish above forty yeares, in Suffolke, before he was
condemned, but had been indited for a common imbarriter, and for
Witchcraft, above thirty yeares before, and the grand Jury (as I have
heard) found the bill for a common imbarriter, who now, after he was
found with the markes, in his confession, he confessed, that in pride
of heart, to be equall, or rather above God, the Devill tooke
advantage of him, and hee covenanted with the Devill, and sealed it
with his bloud, and had three Familiars or spirits, which sucked on
the markes found upon his body, and did much harme, both by Sea and
Land, especially by Sea, for he confessed, that he being at Lungarfort
in Suffolke, where he preached, as he walked upon the wall, or workes
there, he saw a great saile of Ships passe by, and that as they were
sailing by, one of his three Impes, namely his yellow one, forthwith
appeared to him, and asked him what hee should doe, and he bade it goe
and sinke such a Ship, and shewed his Impe a new Ship, amongst the
middle of the rest (as I remember) one that belonged to Ipswich, so he
confessed the Impe went forthwith away, and he stood still, and viewed
the Ships on the Sea as they were a sayling, and perceived that Ship
immediately, to be in more trouble and danger then the rest; for he
said, the water was more boystrous neere that then the rest, tumbling
up and down with waves, as if water had been boyled in a pot, and
soone after (he said) in a short time it sanke directly downe into the
Sea, as he stood and viewed it, when all the rest sayled away in
safety, there he confessed, he made fourteen widdowes in one quarter
of an houre. Then Mr. Hopkin, as he told me (for he tooke his
Confession) asked him, if it did not grieve him to see so many men
cast away, in a short time, and that he should be the cause of so many
poore widdowes on a suddaine, but he swore by his maker, no, he was
joyfull to see what power his Impes had, and so likewise confessed
many other mischiefes, and had a charme to keep him out of Goale, and
hanging, as he paraphrased it himselfe, but therein the Devill
deceived him; for he was hanged, that Michaelmas time 1645. at Burie
Saint Edmunds, but he made a very farre larger confession, which I
have heard hath been printed: but if it were so, it was neither of Mr.
Hopkins doing nor mine owne; for we never printed anything untill
now."
Hutchinson gives the explanation of this confession. What can be more
atrocious than the whole story, which is yet but the common story of
witch confessions?
"_Adv._ Then did not he confess this before the Commissioners, at the
Time of his Tryal?
"_Clerg._ No, but maintained his Innocence stoutly, and challenged
them to make Proof of such Things as they laid to his Charge. I had
this from a Person of Credit, who was then in Court, and heard his
Tryal. I may add, that tho' his Case is remembered better than others
that suffered, yet I never heard any one speak of him, but with great
Compassion, because of his Age and Character, and their Belief of his
Innocence: And when he came to his Execution, because he would have
Christian Burial, he read the Office himself, and that way committed
his own Body to the Ground, in sure and certain Hope of the
Resurrection to eternal Life.
"In the Notes upon those Verses that I quoted out of Hudibras, it is
said, that he had been a painful Preacher for many Years, I may add
for Fifty, for so long he had been Vicar of Brandeston in the County
of Suffolk, as appears by the Time of his Institution. That I might
know the present Sense of the Chief Inhabitants of that Place, I wrote
to Mr. Wilson, the Incumbent of that Town, and by his Means received
the following Letter from Mr. Rivett, a worthy Gentleman who lived
lately in the same Place, and whose Father lived there before him.
"'SIR,
"'In Answer to your Request concerning Mr. Lowes, my Father was always
of the opinion, that Mr. Lowes suffered wrongfully, and hath often
said, that he did believe, he was no more a Wizzard than he was. I
have heard it from them that watched with him, that _they kept him
awake several Nights together, and run him backwards and forwards
about the Room, until he was out of Breath: Then they rested him a
little, and then ran him again: And thus they did for several Days and
Nights together, till he was weary of his Life, and was scarce
sensible of what he said or did_. They swam him at Framlingham, but
that was no true Rule to try him by; for they put in honest People at
the same Time, and they swam as well as he."]
After the lapse of another half century, and at the very period when
the persecution against witches waxed hotter, and the public
prejudice had become only more inveterate, from the ingredient of
fanaticism having been largely thrown in as a stimulant, another ally
to the cause of compassion and common sense started up, in the person
of one whose name has rounded many a period and given point to many
an invective. To find the proscribed author of the _Patriarcha_
purging with "euphrasy and rue" the eyes of the dispensers of justice,
and shouldering the crowd to obtain for reason a fair and impartial
hearing, is indeed like meeting with Saul among the prophets. If there
be one name which has been doomed to run the gauntlet, and against
which every pert and insolent political declaimer has had his fling,
it is that of this unfortunate writer; yet in his short but masterly
and unanswerable "Advertisement to the Jurymen of England, touching
Witches, together with a difference between an English and Hebrew
Witch," first published in 1653, 4to., he has addressed himself so
cogently and decisively to the main fallacy of the arguments in favour
of witchcraft which rested their force on Scripture misunderstood, and
has so pertinently and popularly urged the points to be considered,
that his tract must have had the greatest weight on the class to whom
his reasoning was principally addressed, and on whose fiat the fates
of his unhappy clients may be said to have hung. For this good
service, reason and common sense owe Sir Robert Filmer a debt which
does not yet appear to have been paid. The verdict of proscription
against him was pronounced by the most incompetent and superficial æra
of our literature, and no friendly appellant has yet moved the court
of posterity for its reversal. Yet without entering upon the theory of
the patriarchal scheme, which after all, perhaps, was not so
irrational as may be supposed, or discussing on an occasion like the
present the conflicting theories of government, it may be allowable to
express a doubt whether even the famous author of the "Essay on the
Human Understanding," to whose culminating star the decadence of the
rival intelligence is attributable, can be shewn to have been as much
in advance of his generation in the time of king William, as from the
tract on witchcraft, and another written on a different subject, but
with equally enlightened views,[20] Sir Robert Filmer manifestly
appears to have outrun his at the period of the usurpation.[21]
[Footnote 20: I allude to his little tract on Usury.]
[Footnote 21: Between the period of the publication of Filmer's
Advertisement and the appearance of Wagstaffe's work, a tract was
published too important in this controversy to be passed over without
notice. It is entitled _A Candle in the Dark, or a Treatise concerning
the Nature of Witches and Witchcraft; being Advice to Judges,
Sheriffs, Justices of the Peace, and Grand Jurymen, what to do before
they passe sentence on such as are arraigned for their lives as
Witches. By Thomas Ady, M.A. London, printed for R.J., to be sold by
Thomas Newberry, at the Three Lions in Cornhill, by the Exchange,
1656_, 4to. Ady, of whom, unfortunately, nothing is known, presses the
arguments against the witchmongers and witchfinders with unanswerable
force. In fact, this tract comprises the quintessence of all that had
been urged against the popular system, and his "Candle" was truly a
burning and a shining light. His Dedication is too curious to be
omitted:--
"To the Prince of the Kings of the Earth. It is the manner of men, O
heavenly King, to dedicate their books to some great men, thereby to
have their works protected and countenanced among them; but thou only
art able, by thy holy Spirit of Truth, to defend thy Truth, and to
make it take impression in the heart and understanding of men. Unto
thee alone do I dedicate this work, entreating thy Most High Majesty
to grant, that whoever shall open this book, thy holy Spirit may so
possess their understanding, as that the Spirit of errour may depart
from them, and that they may read and try thy Truth by the touchstone
of thy Truth, the holy Scriptures; and finding that Truth, may embrace
it and forsake their darksome inventions of Antichrist, that have
deluded and defiled the nations now and in former ages. Enlighten the
world, thou that art the Light of the World, and let darkness be no
more in the world, now or in any future age; but make all people to
walk as children of the Light for ever; and destroy Antichrist, that
hath deceived the nations, and save us the residue by thyself alone;
and let not Satan any more delude us, for the Truth is thine for
ever." He then puts his "Dilemma that cannot be answered by
Witchmongers." It is too long to quote, but it is a dilemma that would
pose the stoutest Coryphæus of the party to whom he addressed
himself.]
The next champion in this unpopular cause, John Wagstaffe, who
published "The Question of Witchcraft Debated," 1669, 12mo,[22] was,
as A. à Wood informs us, "the son of John Wagstaffe, citizen of
London, descended from those of his name of Hasland Hall, in
Derbyshire, was born in Cheapside, within the city of London, became a
commoner of Oriel College in the latter end of 1649, took the degrees
in Arts, and applied himself to the study of politics and other
learning. At length, being raised from an academical life to the
inheritance of Hasland, by the death of an uncle, who died without
male issue, he spent his life afterwards in single estate." His death
took place in 1677. The Oxford historian, who had little reverence for
new lights, and never loses an opportunity of girding at those whose
weights and measures were not according to the current and only
authentic standard, has left no very flattering account of his person.
"He was a little crooked man, and of a despicable presence. He was
laughed at by the boys of this University, because, as they said, he
himself looked like a little wizard." Small as might be his stature,
and questionable the shape in which he appeared, he might still have
taken up the boast of the author of the _Religio Medici_: "Men that
look upon my outside do err in my altitude, for I am above Atlas's
shoulders." None but a large-souled and kindly-affectioned man, whose
intellect was as comprehensive as his feelings were benevolent, could
have produced the excellent little treatise which claims him as its
author. The following is the lofty and memorable peroration in which
he sums up the strength of his cause:--
"I cannot think without trembling and horror on the vast numbers of
people that in several ages and several countries have been sacrificed
unto this idol, Opinion. Thousands, ten thousands, are upon record to
have been slain, and many of them not with simple deaths, but horrid,
exquisite tortures. And yet, how many are there more who have
undergone the same fate, of whom we have no memorial extant. Since,
therefore, the opinion of witchcraft is a mere stranger unto
Scripture, and wholly alien from true religion; since it is ridiculous
by asserting fables and impossibilities; since it appears, when duly
considered, to be all bloody and full of dangerous consequence unto
the lives and safety of men; I hope that with this my Discourse,
opposing an absurd and pernicious error, I can not at all disoblige
any sober, unbiassed person; especially if he be of such ingenuity as
to have freed himself from a slavish subjection unto those prejudicial
opinions which custom and education do with too much tyranny
impose.--If the doctrine of witchcraft should be carried up to a
height, and the inquisition after it should be intrusted in the hands
of ambitious, covetous and malicious men, it would prove of far more
fatal consequence unto the lives and safety of mankind, than that
ancient, heathenish custom of sacrificing men unto idol gods; insomuch
that we stand in need of another Hercules Liberator, who, as the
former freed the world from human sacrifice, should, in like manner,
travel from country to country, and by his all-commanding authority,
free it from _this euil and base custom of torturing people to confess
themselves witches, and burning them after extorted confessions_.
Surely the blood of men ought not to be so cheap, nor so easily to be
shed by those who, under the name of God, do gratifie exorbitant
passions and selfish ends; for without question, under this side
heaven, there is nothing so sacred as the life of man; for the
preservation whereof all policies and forms of government, all laws
and magistrates are most especially ordained. Wherefore I presume that
this Discourse of mine, attempting to prove the vanity and
impossibility of witchcraft, is so far from any deserved censure and
blame, that it rather deserves commendation and praise, if I can in
the least measure contribute to the saving of the lives of men."
[Footnote 22: I have not seen his earlier work, "Historical
Reflections on the Bishop of Rome, &c." Oxford, 1660, 4to. If it be
written with any portion of the power evinced in his "Question of
Witchcraft Debated," the ridicule with which Wood says it was received
by the wits of the university, and the oblivion into which it
subsequently fell, were both equally undeserved.]
Wagstaffe was answered by Meric Casaubon in his treatise "Of Credulity
and Incredulity in Things Divine and Spiritual," 1670, 12mo; and if
his reply be altogether inconclusive, it cannot be denied to be, as
indeed every thing of Meric Casaubon's writing was, learned,
discursive and entertaining. He observes of Wagstaffe:--
"He doth make some show of a scholar and a man of some learning, but
whether he doth acquit himself as a gentleman (which I hear he is) in
it, I shall leave to others to judge." This is surely the first time
that a belief in witchcraft was ever made a test of gentlemanly
propriety.
Two years before the trial, which is the subject of the following
republication, took place, the hamlet of Thornton, in the parish of
Coxwold, in the adjoining county of York, gave birth to one who was
destined so utterly to demolish the unstable and already shaken and
tottering structure which Bodin, Delrio, and their followers had set
up, as not to leave one stone of that unhallowed edifice remaining
upon another. Of the various course of life of John Webster, the
author of "The Displaying of supposed Witchcraft," his travels,
troubles, and persecutions; of the experience he had had in restless
youth and in unsettled manhood of religion under various forms,
amongst religionists of almost every denomination; and of those
profound and wide-ranging researches in every art and science in which
his vigorous intellect delighted, and by which it was in declining age
enlightened, sobered and composed; it is much to be regretted that we
have not his own narrative, written in the calm evening of his days,
when he walked the slopes of Pendle, from where,
"Through shadow dimly seen
Rose Clid'row's castle grey;"[23]
when, to use his own expressions, he lived a "solitary and sedentary
life, _mihi et musis_, having more converse with the dead than the
living, that is, more with books than with men." The facts for his
biography are scanty and meagre, and are rather collected by inference
from his works, than from any other source. He was born at Thornton on
the 3rd of February, 1610. From a passing notice of A. à Wood, and an
incidental allusion in his own works, he may be presumed to have
passed some time at Cambridge, though with what views, or at what
period of his life, is uncertain. He was ordained Presbyter by Dr.
Morton, when Bishop of Durham, who was, it will be recollected, the
sagacious prelate by whom the frauds of the boy of Bilson were
detected. In the year 1634, Webster was curate of Kildwick in Craven,
and while in that cure the scene occurred which he has so vividly
sketched in the passage after quoted, and which supplied the hint, and
laid the foundation, for the work which has perpetuated his fame. How
long he continued in this cure we know not: but, if one authority may
be relied on, he was Master of the Free Grammar School at Clitheroe in
1643. To this foundation he may be considered as a great benefactor,
for, from information supplied from a manuscript source, I find that
he recovered for its use, with considerable trouble and no small
personal charge, an income of about £60. per annum, which had been
given to the school, but was illegally diverted and withheld. From
this period there is a blank in his biography for about ten years.
Most probably his life was rambling and desultory. He speaks of
himself as having been about that time a chaplain in the army. His
first two works, published in 1653 and 1654, "The Saints' Guide," and
"The Judgment Set and the Books Opened,"[24] show that in the
interval he had deserted the Established Church, and, probably, after
some of those restless fluctuations of belief to which men of his
ardent temperament are subject, settled at last in a wilder sort of
Independency, which he eulogizes as "unmanacling the simple and pure
light of the Gospel from the chains and fetters of cold and dead
formality, and of restrictive and compulsory power." His language in
these two works is more assimilated to that of the Seekers or Quakers,
which it resembles in the cloudy mysteriousness of its phraseology,
than that of the more rational and sober writers of the Independent
school. Amongst the dregs of fanaticism of which they consist, the
reader will look in vain for any germ or promise of future excellence
or distinction as an author. It would seem that he preached the
sermons contained in "The Judgment Set and Books Opened" at the church
of All-Hallows, Lombard-street, at which he must have been for some
time the officiating minister, and where the amusing incident, in
which Webster was concerned, narrated by Wood, which had many a
parallel in those times, no doubt occurred. "On the 12th of Oct.,
1653," says the author of the _Athenæ._,[25] "he (_i.e._ William
Erbury) with John Webster, sometimes a Cambridge scholar, endeavoured
to knock down learning and the ministry both together, in a
disputation that they then had against two ministers in a church in
Lombard-street, in London. Erbury then declared that the wisest
ministers and purest churches were at that time befool'd, confounded,
and defil'd, by reason of learning. Another while he said, that the
ministry were monsters, beasts, asses, greedy dogs, false prophets;
and that they are the Beast with seven heads and ten horns. The same
person also spoke out and said that Babylon is the Church in her
ministers, and that the Great Whore is the Church in her worship, &c.;
so that with him there was an end of ministers and churches and
ordinations altogether. While these things were babbled to and fro,
the multitude being of various opinions, began to mutter, and many to
cry out, and immediately it came to a meeting or tumult, (call it
which you please,) _wherein the women bore away the Bell, but lost
some of them their kerchiefs_: and the dispute being hot, there was
more danger of pulling down the church than the ministry."[26]
[Footnote 23: "Poems, by the Rev. R. Parkinson, Canon of Manchester,"
1845, 12mo. (Hunter's Song.) A most pleasing volume of a very
accomplished author. Long may he survive to add honours to the ancient
stock of which he has given so interesting an account, by well-earned
trophies gathered from the fair fields of literature and theology, and
by a most exemplary discharge of the appropriate duties of his own
sacred profession.]
[Footnote 24: "_The Saints' Guide, or Christ the Rule and Ruler of
Saints. Manifested by way of Positions, Consectaries, and Queries.
Wherein is contained the Efficacy of Acquired Knowledge; the Rule of
Christians; the Mission and Maintenance of Ministers; and the Power of
Magistrates in Spiritual Things. By John Webster, late Chaplain in the
Army._" London, 1653, 4to.
"_The Judgement Set, and the Bookes Opened. Religion Tried whether it
be of God or of men. The Lord cometh to visit his own, For the time is
come that Judgement must begin at the House of God._
{ _The Sheep from the Goats_,
_To separate_ { _and_
{ _The Precious from the Vile._
_And to discover the Blasphemy of those that say_,
{ _Apostles_, } { _Found Lyars_,
{ _Teachers_, } { _Deceivers_,
_They are_ { _Alive_, } _but are_ { _Dead_,
{ _Rich_, } { _Poore, blind, naked_,
{ _Jewes_, } { _The Synagogue of Satan._
_In severall Sermons at Alhallows Lumbard-street, By John Webster, A
servant of Christ and his Church. Micah 3. 5. &c. Thus saith the Lord,
concerning the Prophets that make my people erre, that bite with their
teeth, and cry peace: and he that putteth not into their mouths, they
prepare war against him: Therefore night shall be upon them, that they
shall not have a vision, &c. The Sun shall goe down over the prophets,
and the Day shall be dark. Their seers shall be ashamed, and the
Deviners confounded: yea, they shall All cover their lips, for there
is no answer of God._" London, 1654. 4to.]
[Footnote 25: _Athen. Oxon._, Vol. ii., p. 175. Edit. 1721.]
[Footnote 26: Old Anthony chronicles this battle of the kerchiefs with
a sly humour very different from his usual solemn matter-of-fact
style.]
Of Erbury who, being originally in holy orders and a beneficed
clergyman, deserted the Established Church and ran into all the
excesses of Antinomianism, Webster was a great admirer, and has in a
preface, hitherto unnoticed, prefixed to a scarce tract of Erbury's,
entitled "The great Earthquake, or Fall of all the Churches,"
published in 1654, 4to, left a sketch of his opinions and character,
in which his defence is undertaken with great zeal and no small
ingenuity. One of his apologist's conclusions most of Erbury's readers
will find no difficulty in assenting to, "the world is not ripe for
such discoveries as our author held forth." The verses which are
appended to this sketch, characterizing Erbury--
"As him
Who did the saintship sever
From the opinion; this fails, that shall never,
Chymist of Truth and Gospel;"--
are, also, evidently Webster's, and their quality is not such as to
make us unreasonably impatient for any further manifestations of his
poetical skill. In the year 1654 he published another tract of
singular interest and curiosity, in which he attacks the Universities
and the received system of education there, always with vigour and
various learning, and frequently with success. It is entitled
"Academiarum Examen, or the Examination of Academies; wherein is
discussed and examined the matter, method, and customes of academick
and scholastic learning, and the insufficiency thereof discovered and
laid open; as also some expedients proposed for the reforming of
schools, and the perfecting and promoting of all kind of science;
offered to the judgment of all those that love the proficiencie of
arts and sciences and the advancement of learning. By Jo. Webster. In
moribus et institutis academiarum, collegiorum et similium conventium
quo ad doctorum hominum sedes et operas mutuas destinata sunt, omnia
progressui scientiarum in ulterius adversa inveniri. Franc. Bacon de
Verulamio lib. de cogitat. et vis. pag. mihi. 14. London: Printed for
Giles Calvert, and are to be sold at the sign of the Black
Spread-Eagle, at the west end of Paul's. 1654." 4to. In this tract,
which, like some other attacks upon the seats of learning, displays
more power in objection than in substitution, in pulling down than in
building up again, he shews the same fondness for the philosophers of
the Hermetic school, for Paracelsus, Dee, Fludd and Van Helmont, and
the same adhesion to planetary sigils, astrology, and the doctrine of
sympathies and primæval signatures, which is perceptible in the
deliberate performance of his old age. Of himself he observes: "I owe
little to the advantages of those things called the goods of fortune,
but most (next under the goodness of God) to industry: however, I am a
free born Englishman, a citizen of the world and a seeker of
knowledge, and am willing to teach what I know, and learn what I know
not." No one can read the _Academiarum Examen_ without feeling that it
is the production of a vigorous and powerful mind, which had "tasted,"
and that not scantily, of the "sweet fruit of far fetched and dear
bought science." Yet it still remains a literary problem rather
difficult of solution, how a performance so clear, well digested, and
rational, could proceed, and that contemporaneously, from the same
author as the cloudy and fanatical "Judgment Set and Books Opened." On
behalf of the Universities, answerers started up in the persons of
Ward and Wilkins, both afterwards bishops, and the part taken by the
first of them in the controversy was considered of sufficient
importance to form matter of commemoration in his monumental
inscription. Two opponents so famous, might almost seem to threaten
extinction to one, of whom it could only be said, that he had been an
obscure country schoolmaster, and whose acquirements, whatever they
were, were mainly the result of his own unassisted study. In the joint
answer, the title of which is "Vindiciæ Academiarum, containing some
briefe animadversions upon Mr. Webster's book entitled the
'Examination of Academies,' together with an appendix concerning what
Mr. Hobbes and Mr. Dell have published in this argument, Oxford,
1654," 4to., there is no want of bitterness nor of controversial
skill, but though, particularly in the limited arena of the prescribed
course of academical study, the knowledge displayed in it is more
exact, there is neither visible in it the same power of mind, nor the
same breadth of views, nor even the same variety of learning, as is
conspicuous in the original tract. This, with the two fanatical pieces
which Webster published contemporaneously with it, were entirely
unknown to his biographer, Dr. Whitaker, who has ceded him a place
amongst the distinguished natives and residents of the parish of
Whalley, in the full confidence "that there is no puritanical taint in
his writings, and that his taste had evidently been formed upon better
models.[27]" Had these early theological and literary delinquencies
of the physician of Clitheroe been communicated to his historian, it
may be questioned whether the portals of his provincial temple of fame
would have opened to receive so heinous a transgressor. But Dr.
Whitaker's deduction would have been perhaps perfectly warrantable,
had Webster left no remains but his _History of Metals_, and
_Displaying of Witchcraft_--so little do an author's latest works
afford a clue to the character of his earliest. From 1654 to 1671,
when he published his _History of Metals_, little is known of
Webster's course of life. He appears to have retired into the country
and devoted himself to medical practice and study, and to have taken
up his residence in or near Clitheroe. He complains, that in the year
1658 all his books and papers were taken from him, an abstraction
which, so far as his manuscripts are concerned, posterity is not
called upon to lament, if they all resembled his _Judgment Set and
Books Opened_. But his capacious and acute understanding was gradually
unfolding new resources, supplying the defects, and overcoming the
disadvantages of his imperfect education and desultory and irregular
studies, while his matured and enlightened judgment had abandoned and
discarded the fanatical pravities and erroneous tenets, which his
ardent enthusiasm had too hastily imbibed. When he again became a
candidate for the honours of authorship, it was evident that he knew
well how to apply those quarries of learning into which, during his
long recess, he had been digging so indefatigably, to furnish
materials for solid and durable structures, rising in honourable and
gratifying contrast to the fabrics which had preceded them. In 1671
came forth his "Metallographia, or History of Metals,"[28] in which
all that recondite learning and extensive observation could bring
together, on a subject which experiment had scarcely yet placed upon a
rational basis, is collected. He styles himself on the Title page,
"Practitioner in Physic and Chirurgery." In 1677, he published his
great work. Its Title is "The Displaying of supposed Witchcraft.
Wherein is affirmed that there are many sorts of Deceivers and
Impostors. And Divers persons under a passive Delusion of Melancholy
and Fancy. But that there is a Corporeal League made betwixt the Devil
and the Witch, Or that he sucks on the Witches Body, has Carnal
Copulation, or that Witches are turned into Cats, Dogs, raise
Tempests, or the like, is utterly denied and disproved. Wherein also
is handled, the Existence of Angels and Spirits, the truth of
Apparitions, the Nature of Astral and Sydereal Spirits, the force of
Charms and Philters; with other abstruse matters. By John Webster,
Practitioner in Physic. Falsæ etenim opiniones Hominum præoccupantes,
non solum surdos, sed et cæcos faciunt, ita ut videre nequeant, quæ
aliis perspicua apparent. Galen, lib. 8. de Comp. Med. London, Printed
by J.M. and are to be sold by the Booksellers in London. 1677," (fol.)
In this memorable book he exhausts the subject, as far as it is
possible to do so, by powerful ridicule, cogent arguments, and the
most various and well applied learning, leaving to Hutchinson, and
others who have since followed in his track, little further necessary
than to reproduce his facts and reasonings in a more popular, it can
scarcely be said, in a more effective, form.[29] Those who love
literary parallels may compare Webster, as he appears in this his
last and most characteristic performance, with two famous medical
contemporaries, Sir Thomas Browne, and Thomas Bartholinus the Dane,
whom he strongly resembled in the character of his mind, in the
complexion and variety of his studies, in grave simplicity, in
exactness of observation, in general philosophical incredulity with
some startling reserves, in elaborate and massive ratiocination, and
in the enthusiasm, subdued but not extinguished, which gives zest to
his speculations and poignancy and colouring to his style. He who
seeks to measure great men in their strength and in their weakness,
and what operation of literary analysis is more instructive or
delightful, will find ample employment for collation and comparison
in this extraordinary book, in which, keen as is the penetration
displayed on almost every subject of imposition and delusion, he
appears still to cling, with the obstinacy of a veteran, to some of
the darling Dalilahs of his youth, "to the admirable and
soul-ravishing knowledge of the three great Hypostatical principles of
nature, salt, sulphur, and mercury," and, _proh pudor!_ to alchemy and
astrology--and those seraphic doctors and professors, Crollius,
Libavius, and Van Helmont. He closed his literary performances with
this noble fabric of logic and learning, not the less striking, and
scarcely less useful, because it is chequered by some of the mosaic
work of human imperfection,--a performance which may be said to have
grown up under the umbrage of Pendle, and which he might have
bequeathed to its future Demdikes and Chattox's as an amulet of
irresistible power.[30]
[Footnote 27: What would Dr. Whitaker have thought of the following
explosion, in which Webster sounds the tocsin with a vehemence and
vigour which no Macbriar or Kettledrumle of the period could have
surpassed. The extract is from his _Judgment Set and Books Opened_:--
"All those that claim an Ordination by Man, or from Man, that speak
from the Spirit of the World, from Wit, Learning and Humane Reason,
who Preach for Hire, and make Merchandize of the Souls of Men; I
witness they are all Baal's Priests and Idol-Shepherds, who destroy
the Sheep, and are Theives and Robbers, who came not in by the Door of
the Sheep-fold, but climbed up another way, and _are the Magicians,
Sorcerers, Inchanters, Soothsayers, Necromancers, and Consulters with
Familiar Spirits, which the Lord will cut off out of the Land_, so
that his People shall have no more Soothsayers; and as Jannes and
Jambres resisted Moses, so do these resist the Truth; Men of corrupt
Minds, reprobate concerning the Faith; but they shall proceed no
farther, for their Folly shall be manifest to all Men, as theirs also
was. Woe unto them, for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran
greedily after the Errors of Balaam, for Reward, and Perished in the
Gainsaying of Core. These are Spots in your Feasts of Charity, when
they Feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: Clouds they are
without Water, carried of Winds; Trees, whose Fruit withered, without
Fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the Roots: Raging Waves of the Sea,
foaming out their own Shame, wandring Stars, to whom is reserved the
blackness of Darkness for ever."]
[Footnote 28: "_Metallographia: or, An History of Metals. Wherein is
declared the signs of Ores and Minerals both before and after digging,
the causes and manner of their generations, their kinds, sorts and
differences; with the description of sundry new Metals or Semi-Metals,
and many other things pertaining to Mineral knowledge. As also, the
handling and shewing of their Vegetability, and the discussion of the
most difficult Questions belonging to Mystical Chymistry, as of the
Philosophers Gold, their Mercury, the Liquor Alkahest, Aurum potabile,
and such like. Gathered forth of the most approved Authors that have
written in Greek, Latine, or High Dutch; With some Observations and
Discoveries of the Author himself. By John Webster, Practitioner in
Physick and Chirurgery. Qui principia naturalia in seipso ignoraverit,
hic jam multum remotus est ab arte nostra, quoniam non habet radicem
veram supra quam intentionem suam fundet. Geber. Sum. perfect. l. c.
i. p. 21._
_Sed non ante datur telluris operta subire,
Auricomos quam quis discerpserit arbore foetus._
_Virg._ Æneid. l. 6.
_London, Printed by A.C. for Walter Kettilby at the Bishops-Head in
Duck-lane, 1671, 4to._"]
[Footnote 29: Dr. Whitaker's assertion, that Webster was "neglected
alike by the wise and unwise," seems to be a mere _gratis dictum_. The
age of folios was rapidly passing away; but few folios of the period
appear to have been more generally read, if we are to judge at least
from its being frequently mentioned and quoted, than Webster's
_Displaying of Supposed Witchcraft_. The same able writer's "Doubt
whether Sir Matthew Hale ever read Webster's _Discovery of Supposed
Witchcraft_," might easily have been satisfied by a reference to any
common life of that great judge, which would have shown the historian
of Whalley that Hale died before the book was published. Nor is Dr.
Whitaker correct in stating that all tradition of Webster is now lost
in the neighbourhood where he resided. The following anecdote, which
would have delighted him, I had from an old inhabitant of Burnley, to
whom it had been handed down by his grandfather:--In the days of
Webster's fanaticism, during the usurpation, he is stated, in the
zealous crusade then so common against superstitious relics, to have
headed a party by whom the three venerable crosses, now set up in the
churchyard of Whalley, commonly called the Crosses of Paulinus, and
supposed to be coeval with the first preaching of Christianity in the
North of England, were removed and taken away from their site and
appropriated as a boundary fence for some adjoining fields. After the
Restoration, and when his religious views had become sobered and
settled, he is said, in an eager desire to atone for the desecration
of which he had been guilty, to have purchased the crosses from the
person who was then in possession of them, and to have been at the
cost of re-erecting them on their present site, from which no
sacrilegious hand will, I trust, ever again remove them. It is further
said, that Webster's favourite and regular walk, in the latter part of
his life, till his infirmities rendered him unable to take exercise of
any kind, was to the remains of Whalley Abbey; and that a path along
the banks of the stream which glides by those most picturesque and
pleasing ruins, was long called "Webster's Walk." If this tradition be
founded in fact, and I give it as I received it, John Webster, of
Clitheroe, if not identical, as Mr. Collier has contended, with the
dramatic poet of that name, must have felt something assimilated in
spirit to the fine inspiration of those noble lines of the latter:--
"I do love these ancient ruins.
We never tread upon them but we set
Our foot upon some reverend history;
And, questionless, here in this open court,
Which now lies naked to the injuries
Of stormy weather, some men lie interred that
Lov'd the Church so well and gave so largely to't,
They thought it should have canopied their bones
Till doomsday: but all things have their end.
Churches and cities, which have diseases like to men,
Must have like death that we have."]
[Footnote 30: Webster's death took place on the 18th June, 1682. He
left an extensive library, composed principally of chemical,
hermetical, and philosophical works, of which the MSS. catalogue is
now in the possession of my friend, the Rev. T. Corser. I have two
books which appear to have at one time formed part of his collection,
from having his favourite signature, Johannes Hyphantes, in his
autograph, on the title pages. Before I conclude with Webster, I ought
perhaps to observe, that in the valuable edition of the works of
Webster, the dramatic poet, published by the Rev. A. Dyce, that most
accurate and judicious editor has proved indisputably, by an elaborate
argument, that the John Webster, the writer of the _Examen
Academiarum_, and John Webster, the author of the _Displaying of
Supposed Witchcraft_, were one and the same person, who was not
identical with the dramatic writer of the same name. Mr. Dyce does
not, however, appear to have been aware, that the identity of the
author of the _Examen Academiarum_ and the writer on witchcraft is
distinctly stated by Dr. Henry More, in his _Præfatio Generalissima_,
to the Latin edition of his works, whose testimony being that of a
contemporary, who was, like Webster, "a Cambridge scholar," may
perhaps be considered sufficient, without resorting to internal and
circumstantial evidence. The inscription on Webster's monument in the
chapel of St. Mary Magdalen, at Clitheroe, is too characteristic and
curious to be omitted. I give it entire:--
"_Qui hanc figuram intelligunt
Me etiam intellexisse, intelligent._
[Illustration]
_Hic jacet ignotus mundo, mersusque tumultu
Invidiæ, semper mens tamen æqua fuit,
Multa tulit veterum ut sciret secreta sophorum
Ac tandem vires noverit ignis aquæ._
* * * * *
_Johannes Hyphantes sive Webster,
In villa Spinosa supermontana, in
Parochia silvæ cuculatæ, in agro
Eboracensi, natus 1610 Feb. 3,
Ergastulum animæ deposuit 1682, Junii 18,
Annoq. ætatis suæ 72 currente._
_Sicq. peroravit moriens mundo huic valedicens,
Aurea pax vivis, requies æterna sepultis._"]
But it is necessary to proceed from the authors on witchcraft to that
extraordinary case which forms the subject of the present
republication, and which first gave to Pendle its title to be
considered as the Hartz Forest of England.
The Forest of Pendle is a portion of the greater one of
Blackburnshire, and is so called from the celebrated mountain of that
name, over the declivity of which it extends and stretches in a long
but interrupted descent of five miles, to the water of Pendle, a
barren and dreary tract. Dr. Whitaker observes of this and the
neighbouring forests, and the remark even yet holds good, "that they
still bear the marks of original barrenness, and recent cultivation;
that they are still distinguished from the ancient freehold tracts
around them, by want of old houses, old woods, high fences; (for these
were forbidden by the forest laws;) by peculiarities of dialect and
manners in their inhabitants; and lastly, by a general air of poverty
which all the opulence of manufactures cannot remove." He considers
that "at an uncertain period during the occupancy of the Lacies, the
first principle of population" (in these forests) commenced; it was
found that these wilds, bleak and barren as they were, might be
occupied to some advantage in breeding young and depasturing lean
"cattle, which were afterwards fattened in the lower domains.
_Vaccaries_, or great upland pastures, were laid out for this purpose;
_booths_ or mansions erected upon them for the residence of herdsmen;
and at the same time that herds of deer were permitted to range at
large as heretofore, _lawnds_, by which are meant parks within a
forest, were inclosed, in order to chase them with greater facility,
or, by confinement, to produce fatter venison. Of these lawnds Pendle
had new and old lawnd, with the contiguous park of Ightenhill."
In the early part of the seventeenth century, the inhabitants of this
district must have been, with few exceptions, a wretchedly poor and
uncultivated race, having little communication with the occupants of
the more fertile regions around them, and in whose minds superstition,
even yet unextinguished, must have had absolute and uncontrollable
domination. Under the disenchanting influence of steam, manufactures,
and projected rail-roads, still much of the old character of its
population remains. _Hodie manent vestigia ruris._ The "parting
genius" of superstition still clings to the hoary hill tops and rugged
slopes and mossy water sides, along which the old forest stretched its
length, and the voices of ancestral tradition are still heard to speak
from the depth of its quiet hollows, and along the course of its
gurgling streams. He who visits Pendle[31] will yet find that charms
are generally resorted to amongst the lower classes; that there are
hares which, in their persuasion, never can be caught, and which
survive only to baffle and confound the huntsman; that each small
hamlet has its peculiar and gifted personage, whom it is dangerous to
offend; that the wise man and wise woman (the white witches of our
ancestors) still continue their investigations of truth, undisturbed
by the rural police or the progress of the schoolmaster; that each
locality has its haunted house; that apparitions still walk their
ghostly rounds--and little would his reputation for piety avail that
clergyman in the eyes of his parishioners who should refuse to lay
those "extravagant and erring spirits," when requested, by those due
liturgic ceremonies which the orthodoxy of tradition requires.
[Footnote 31: It was my good fortune to visit this wizard-haunted spot
within the last few weeks, in company with the able and zealous
Archdeacon[A] within whose ecclesiastical cure it is comprized, and to
whose singularly accurate knowledge of this district, and courteous
communication of much valuable information regarding it, I hold myself
greatly indebted. Following, with unequal steps, such a guide,
accompanied, likewise, by an excellent Canon of the Church[B] with all
the "armamentaria coeli" at command against the powers of darkness,
and a lay auxiliary[C], whose friendly converse would make the
roughest journey appear smooth, I need scarcely say, I passed through
"The forest wyde,
Whose hideous horror and sad trembling sownd
Full griesly seem'd,"
unscathed by the old lords of the soil, and needed not Mengus's Fuga,
Fustis et Flagellum Dæmonum, as a triple coat of mail.]
[Footnote A: The Venerable the Archdeacon of Manchester, the Rev. John
Rushton, who is also the Incumbent of New Church, in Pendle.]
[Footnote B: The Rev. Canon Parkinson.]
[Footnote C: J.B. Wanklyn, Esq.]
In the early part of the reign of James the first, and at the period
when his execrable statute against witchcraft might have been
sharpening its appetite by a temporary fast for the full meal of blood
by which it was eventually glutted,--for as yet it could count no
recorded victims,--two wretched old women with their families resided
in the Forest of Pendle. Their names were Elizabeth Southernes and Ann
Whittle, better known, perhaps, in the chronicles of witchcraft, by
the appellations of Old Demdike and Old Chattox.[32] Both had
attained, or had reached the verge of the advanced age of eighty, were
evidently in a state of extreme poverty, subsisting with their
families by occasional employment, by mendicancy, but principally,
perhaps, by the assumption of that unlawful power, which commerce with
spirits of evil was supposed to procure, and of which their sex, life,
appearance, and peculiarities, might seem to the prejudiced
neighbourhood in the Forest to render them not unsuitable
depositaries. In both, perhaps, some vindictive wish, which appeared
to have been gratified nearly as soon as uttered, or some one of those
curious coincidences which no individual's life is without, led to an
impression which time, habit, and general recognition would gradually
deepen into full conviction, that each really possessed the powers
which witchcraft was believed to confer. Whether it be with witches as
it is said to be with a much maligned branch of a certain profession,
that it needs two of its members in a district to make its exercise
profitable, it is not for me to say; but it is seldom found that
competition is accompanied by any very amicable feeling in the
competitors, or by a disposition to underrate the value of the
merchandize which each has to offer for sale. Accordingly, great was
the rivalry, constant the feuds, and unintermitting the respective
criminations of the Erictho and Canidia of Pendle,[33] who had opened
shops for the vending of similar contraband commodities, and were
called upon to decry each other's stock, as well as to magnify their
own. Each "gave her little senate laws," and had her own party (or
tail, according to modern phraseology) in the Forest. Some looked up
to and patronized one, and some the other. If old Demdike could boast
that she had Tibb as a familiar, old Chattox was not without her
Fancy. If the former had skill in waxen images, the latter could dig
up the scalps of the dead, and make their teeth serviceable to her
unhallowed purposes. In the anxiety which each felt to outvie the
other, and to secure the greater share of the general custom of a not
very extended or very lucrative market, each would wish to be
represented as more death-dealing, destructive, and powerful than her
neighbour; and she who could number up the most goodly assortment of
damage done to man and beast, whether real or not was quite
immaterial, as long as the draught was spiced and flavoured to suit
the general taste, stood the best chance of obtaining a monopoly. It
is a curious fact, that the son-in-law of one of these two
individuals, and whose wife was herself executed as a witch, paid to
the other a yearly rent,[34] on an express covenant that she should
exempt him from her charms and witchcrafts. Where the possession of a
commission from the powers of darkness was thus eagerly and
ostentatiously paraded, every death, the cause of which was not
perfectly obvious, whether it ended in a sudden termination or a slow
and gradual decline, would be placed to the general account of one of
the two (to use Master Potts's description,) "agents for the devil in
those parts," as the party responsible for these unclaimed dividends
of mortality. Did a cow go mad, or was a horse unaccountably afflicted
with the staggers, the same solution was always at hand to clear
negligence and save the trouble of inquiry; and so far from modestly
disclaiming these atrocities, the only struggle on the parts of
Mothers Demdike and Chattox would be which should first appropriate
them. And in all this it must not be forgotten that their own
credulity was at least as great as the credulity of their neighbours,
and that each had the power in question was so much an admitted point,
that she had long ceased, in all probability, to entertain any doubts
on the subject. With this general conviction on one hand, and a
sincere persuasion on the other, it would be surprising if, in the
course of a few years, the scandalous chronicle of Pendle had not
accumulated a _corpus delicti_ against them, which only required that
"_one of his Majesties Justices in these parts, a very religious
honest gentleman, painful in the service of his country_," should work
the materials into shape, and make "the gruel thick and slab."
[Footnote 32: The Archdeacon of Manchester suggests that this is
merely a corruption of Chadwick or Chadwicks, and not, as explained in
the Note, p. 19, from her chattering as she went along.]
[Footnote 33: These bickerings were no doubt exasperated by the
robbery committed upon old Demdike and Alizon Device, which is
detailed in the examinations, some of the _opima spolia_ abstracted on
which occasion she detected on the person of old Chattox's daughter.]
[Footnote 34: Of an aghendole of meal. Since writing the Note, p. 23,
I am indebted to Miss Clegg, of Hallfoot, near Clitheroe, for
information as to the exact quantity contained in an aghendole, which
is eight pounds. This measure, she informs me, is still in use in
Little Harwood, in the district of Pendle. The Archdeacon of
Manchester considers that an aghendole, or more properly, as generally
pronounced, a nackendole, is a kneading-dole, the quantity of meal,
&c. usually taken for kneading at one time. There can be no doubt that
this is the correct derivation.]
Such a man was soon found in the representative of the old family of
the Nowels of Read, who, desirous of signalizing himself as an active
and stirring justice, took up the case of these self-accusing
culprits, for both made confessions when examined before him, with a
vigour worthy of a better cause. On the 2nd April, 1612, he committed
old Demdike, old Chattox, Alizon Device, and Anne Redfern to
Lancaster, to take their trial at the next assizes for various murders
and witchcrafts. "Here," says the faithful chronicler, Master Potts,
"they had not stayed a weeke, when their children and friendes being
abroad at libertie, laboured a speciall meeting at Malking Tower[35]
in the Forrest of Pendle, vpon Good-fryday, within a weeke after they
were committed, of all the most dangerous, wicked, and damnable
witches in the county farre and neere. Vpon Good-fryday they met,
according to solemne appoyntment, solemnized this great festiuall day
according to their former order, with great cheare, merry company, and
much conference. In the end, in this great assemblie it was decreed
that M. Covell, [he was the gaoler of Lancaster Castle,] by reason of
his Office, shall be slaine before the next Assises, the Castle at
Lancaster to be blown up," &c., &c. This witches' convention, so
historically famous, we unquestionably owe to the "painful justice"
whose scent after witches and plots entitled him to a promotion which
he did not obtain. An overt act so alarming and so indisputable, at
once threw the country, far and near, into the greatest
ferment--_furiis surrexit Etruria justis_--while it supplied an
admirable _locus in quo_ for tracing those whose retiring habits had
prevented their propensities to witchcraft from being generally known
to their intimate friends and connexions. The witness by whose
evidence this legend was principally supported, was Jennet Device, a
child about nine years old, and grand-daughter of old Demdike. A more
dangerous tool in the hands of an unscrupulous evidence-compeller,
being at once intelligent, cunning and pliant, than the child proved
herself, it would not have been easy to have discovered. A foundation
being now laid capable of embracing any body of confederates, the
indefatigable justice proceeded in his inquiries, and in the end,
Elizabeth Device the daughter of old Demdike, James Device her son,
Alice Nutter, Katherine Hewitt, John Bulcock, Jane Bulcock, with some
others, were committed for trial at Lancaster. The very curious report
of that trial is contained in the work now republished, which was
compiled under the superintendence of the judges who presided, by
Master Thomas Potts, clerk in court, and present at the trial. His
report, notwithstanding its prolixity and its many repetitions, it has
been thought advisable to publish entire, and the reprint which
follows is as near a fac-simile as possible of the original tract.
[Footnote 35: Baines confounds Malking-Tower with Hoar-stones, a place
rendered famous by the second case of pretended witchcraft in 1633,
but at some distance from the first-named spot, the residence of
Mother Demdike, which lies in the township of Barrowford. The witch's
mansion--
"Where that same wicked wight
Her dwelling had--
Dark, doleful, dreary, like a greedy grave
That still for carrion carcases doth crave,
On top whereof ay dwelt the ghastly owle,
Shrieking his baleful note, which ever drave
Far from that haunt all other cheerful fowl,
And all about it wandering ghosts did wail and howle"--
is now, alas! no more. It stood in a field a little elevated, on a
brow above the building at present called Malking-Tower. The site of
the house or cottage is still distinctly traceable, and fragments of
the plaster are yet to be found imbedded in the boundary wall of the
field. The old road to Gisburne ran almost close to it. It commanded a
most extensive prospect in front, in the direction of Alkincoates,
Colne, and the Yorkshire moors; while in another direction the vast
range of Pendle, nearly intercepted, gloomed in sullen majesty. At the
period when Mother Demdike was in being, Malking-Tower would be at
some distance from any other habitation; its occupier, as the vulgar
would opine--
"So choosing solitarie to abide
Far from all neighbours, that her devilish deedes
And hellish arts from people she might hide,
And hurt far off unknown whomever she envide."]
It is rather strange that Dr. Whitaker, to whom local superstitions
were always matters of the strongest interest, and welcome as manna to
the sojourners in the wilderness,[36] should have been ignorant, not
merely of Master Potts's discovery, but even of the fact of this trial
of the witches in 1612. It is equally singular that Sir Walter Scott
should have forgotten, when writing his letters on Demonology and
Witchcraft, that he had republished this tract, somewhat inaccurately,
but with rather a long introduction and notes, in the third volume of
his edition of the Somers Tracts, which appeared in 1810. He mentions
Potts's _Discoverie_, in the amusing but very inaccurate and imperfect
historical sketch referred to,[37] as a curious and rare book, which
he had then for the first time obtained a sight of. What could have
been his meaning in referring his readers, for an account of Mother
Demdike and a description of Malking Tower, to "Mr. Roby's Antiquities
of Lancaster," that apocryphal historian having given no such account
or description, and having published no such work, it is rather
difficult to conjecture.
[Footnote 36: In a scarce little book, "The Triumph of Sovereign
Grace, or a Brand plucked out of the Fire, by David Crosly, Minister,
Manchester," 1743, 12mo., which I owe to the kindness of the very able
historian of Cheshire, George Ormerod, Esq., Dr. Whitaker, to whom the
volume formerly belonged, has been at the pains of chronicling the
superstitions connected with a family, ranking amongst the more
opulent yeomen of Cliviger, of the name of Briercliffe, on the
execution of one of whom for murder the tract was published. The
Briercliffe's, from the curious anecdotes which the Doctor gives with
great unction, appear to have been one of those gloomy and fated
races, dogged by some unassuageable Nemesis, in which crime and horror
are transmitted from generation to generation with as much certainty
as the family features and name.]
[Footnote 37: We yet want a full, elaborate, and satisfactory history
of witchcraft. Hutchinson's is the only account we have which enters
at all at length into the detail of the various cases; but his
materials were generally collected from common sources, and he
confines himself principally to English cases. The European history of
witchcraft embraces so wide a field, and requires for its just
completion a research so various, that there is little probability, I
fear, of this _desideratum_ being speedily supplied.]
With all his habitual tautology and grave absurdity, Master Potts is,
nevertheless, a faithful and accurate chronicler, and we owe his
memory somewhat for furnishing us with so elaborate a report of what
took place on this trial, and giving us, "in their own country terms,"
the examinations of the witnesses, which contain much which throws
light on the manners and language of the times, and nearly all that is
necessary to enable us to form a judgment on the proceedings. It will
be observed that he follows with great exactness the course pursued in
court, in opening the case and recapitulating the evidence separately
against each prisoner, so as most graphically to place before us the
whole scene as it occurred. The part in which he is felt to be most
deficient, is in the want of some further account of the prisoners
convicted, from the trial up to the time of their execution. To Master
Potts, a man of legal forms and ceremonies, the entire interest in the
case seems to have come in and gone out with the judge's trumpets.
As most of the points in the trial which appeared to require
observation, have been adverted to in the notes which follow the
reprint, it is not considered necessary to enter into any analysis or
review of the evidence adduced at the trial, which presents such a
miserable mockery of justice. Mother Demdike, it will be seen, died in
prison before the trial came on. Of the Pendle witches four, namely
Old Chattox, Elizabeth Device, James Device, and Alizon Device, had
all made confessions, and had little chance, therefore, of escaping
condemnation. They were all found guilty; and with them were
convicted, Anne Redfern, Alice Nutter, Katherine Hewitt, John
Bulcock, and Jane Bulcock, who were all of Pendle or its
neighbourhood, and who maintained their innocence and refused to make
any confession. They were executed, along with the first-mentioned
four and Isabel Robey, who was of Windle, in the parish of Prescot,
and had been found guilty of similar practises, the day after the
trial, viz. on the 18th of August, 1612, "at the common place of
execution near to Lancaster."
The main interest in reviewing this miserable band of victims will be
felt to centre in Alice Nutter.[38] Wealthy, well conducted, well
connected, and placed probably on an equality with most of the
neighbouring families and the magistrate before whom she was brought,
and by whom she was committed, she deserves to be distinguished from
the companions with whom she suffered, and to attract an attention
which has never yet been directed towards her.[39] That Jennet Device,
on whose evidence she was convicted, was instructed to accuse her by
her own nearest relatives, to whom "superfluous lagged the veteran on
the stage," and that the magistrate, Roger Nowell, entered actively as
a confederate into the conspiracy from a grudge entertained against
her on account of a long disputed boundary, are allegations which
tradition has preserved, but the truth or falsehood of which, at this
distance of time, it is scarcely possible satisfactorily to examine.
With such a witness, however, as Jennet Device, and such an admirable
engine as the meeting at Malking-Tower, the guests at which she could
multiply _ad libitum_, doling out the _plaat_, as Titus Oates would
call it, by such instalments, and in such fragmentary portions, as
would conduce to an easy digestion of the whole, the wonder seems not
to be, that one unfortunate victim of a higher class should have
perished in the meshes of artful and complicated villainy, but that
its ramifications were not more extensive, and still more fatal and
destructive. From one so capable of taking a hint as the little
precocious prodigy of wickedness, in whose examination, Potts tells
us, "_Mr. Nowell took such great paines_," a very summary deliverance
might be expected from troublesome neighbours, or still more
troublesome relatives; and if, by a leading question, she could only
be induced to marshal them in their allotted places at the witches'
imaginary banquet, there was little doubt of their taking their
station at a place of meeting where the sad realities of life were
only to be encountered, "the common place of execution near to
Lancaster."
[Footnote 38: The explorer of Pendle will find the mansion of Alice
Nutter, Rough Lee, still standing. It is impossible to look at it,
recollecting the circumstances of her case, without being strongly
interested. It is a very substantial, and rather a fine specimen of
the houses of the inferior gentry in the time of James the first, and
is now divided into cottages. On one of the side walls is an
inscription, almost entirely obliterated, which contained the date of
the building and the initials of the name of its first owner. At a
little distance from Rough Lee, pursuing the course of the stream, he
will find the foundations of an ancient mill, and the millstones still
unremoved, though the building itself has been pulled down long ago.
This was, doubtless, the mill of Richard Baldwin, the miller, who, as
stated in Old Demdike's confession, ejected her and Alizon Device her
daughter, from his land so contumeliously; immediately after which her
"Spirit or divell called Tibb appeared, and sayd Revenge thee of him."
Greenhead, the residence of Robert Nutter, one of the reputed victims
of the prisoners tried on this occasion, is at some distance from
Rough Lee, and is yet in good preservation, and occupied as a
farmhouse.]
[Footnote 39: The instances are very few in England in which the
statute of James the first was brought to bear against any but the
lowest classes of the people. Indeed, there are not many attempts
reported to attack the rich and powerful with weapons derived from its
provisions. One of such attempts, which did not, like that against
Alice Nutter, prove successful, is narrated in a curious and scarce
pamphlet, which I have now before me, with this title--"Wonderful News
from the North, or a true Relation of the sad and grievous Torments
inflicted upon the Bodies of three children of Mr. George Muschamp,
late of the County of Northumberland, by Witchcraft, and how
miraculously it pleased God to strengthen them and to deliver them; as
also the prosecution of the say'd Witches, as by Oaths and their own
Confessions will appear, and by the Indictment found by the Jury
against one of them at the Sessions of the Peace held at Alnwick, the
24th day of April, 1650. London, printed by T.H., and are to be sold
by Richard Harper at his Shop in Smithfield. 1650," 4to. This was
evidently a diabolical plot, in which these children were made the
puppets, and which was got up to accomplish the destruction of a
person of condition, Mrs. Dorothy Swinnow, the wife of Colonel
Swinnow, of Chatton, in Northumberland, and from which she had great
difficulty in escaping.]
The trial of the Samlesbury witches, Jennet Bierley, Ellen Bierley,
and Jane Southworth, forms a curious episode in Potts's _Discoverie_.
A Priest or Jesuit, of the name of Thomson, _alias_ Southworth, had
tutored the principal evidence, Grace Sowerbuts, a girl of the age of
fourteen, but who had not the same instinctive genius for perjury as
Jennet Device, to accuse the three persons above mentioned of having
bewitched her; "so that," as the indictment runs, "by means thereof
her body wasted and consumed." "The chief object," says Sir Walter
Scott, "in this imposture, was doubtless the advantage and promotion
of the Catholic cause, as the patient would have been in due time
exorcised and the fiend dispossessed, by the same priest who had
taught her to counterfeit the fits. Revenge against the women, who had
become proselytes to the Church of England, was probably an additional
motive." But the imposture broke down, from the inability of the
principal witness to support the scheme of deception. Unsuccessful,
however, as it proved, the time was well chosen, the groundwork
excellently laid, the evidence industriously got up, and it must ever
deserve a prominent place in the history--a history, how delightful
when it shall be written in the spirit of philosophy and with due
application of research--of human fraud and imposture.
We can only speculate, of course, on such an occasion, but perhaps no
trial is recorded as having taken place, with the results of which
every body, the parties convicted only excepted, was, in all
probability, better pleased or satisfied, than at this witch trial at
Lancaster in 1612. The mob would be delighted with a pageant, always
acceptable, in the execution of ten witches; and still more, that one
of them was of a rank superior to their own;--the judge had no doubt,
in his opinion, avoided each horn of the dilemma--the abomination
mentioned in Scripture--punishing the innocent or letting the guilty
go free--by tracking guilt with well breathed sagacity, and
unravelling imposture with unerring skill;--a Jesuit had been
unkennelled, a spectacle as gratifying to a serious Protestant in
those days, as running down a fox to a thorough sportsman;--a plot had
been discovered which might have made Lancaster Castle "to topple on
its warders" and "slope its head to its foundations," and Master
Cowell, who had held so many inquests, to vanish without leaving
anything in his own person whereon an inquest could be holden;--a
pestilent nest of incorrigible witches had been dug out and rooted up,
and Pendle Hill placed under sanatory regulations;--and last, and not
least, as affording matter of pride and exultation to every loyal
subject, a commentary had at last been collected for two texts, which
had long called for some such support without finding it, King James's
_Demonology_, and his statute against witchcraft. When the
_Discoverie_ of Master Potts, with its rich treasury of illustrative
evidence, came to hand, would not the monarch be the happiest man in
his dominions!
Twenty years after the publication of the tract now reprinted, Pendle
Forest again became the scene of pretended witchcrafts; and from
various circumstances, the trial which took place then (in 1633) has
acquired even greater notoriety than the one which preceded it, though
no Master Potts could be found to transmit a report of the proceedings
in the second case, a deficiency which is greatly to be lamented. The
particulars are substantially comprised in the following examination,
which is given from the copy in Whitaker's _Whalley_, p. 213, which,
on comparison, is unquestionably more accurate than the other two
versions, in Webster, p. 347, and Baines's _Lancashire_, vol. i. p.
604:[40]--
[Footnote 40: The copy in Baines is from the Harl. MSS., cod. 6854,
fo. 26 _b_, and though inserted in his history as more correct than
that in Whitaker's Whalley, is so disfigured by errors, particularly
in the names of persons and places, as to be utterly unintelligible.
From what source Whitaker derived his transcript does not appear; for
the confession of Margaret Johnson he cites Dodsworth MSS. in Bodleian
Lib., vol. 61, p. 47.]
"THE EXAMINATION OF EDMUND ROBINSON,
"Son of _Edm. Robinson_, of _Pendle_ forest, mason,[41] taken at
_Padiham_ before _Richard Shuttleworth_[42] and _John Starkie_,[43]
Esqs. two of his majesty's justices of the peace, within the county of
_Lancaster_, 10th of February, A.D. 1633.
[Footnote 41: "The informer was one Edmund Robinson (yet living at the
writing hereof, and commonly known by the name of Ned of Roughs) whose
Father was by trade a Waller, and but a poor Man, and they finding
that they were believed and had incouragement by the adjoyning
Magistrates, and the persons being committed to prison or bound over
to the next Assizes, the boy, his Father and some others besides did
make a practice to go from Church to Church that the Boy might reveal
and discover Witches, pretending that there was a great number at the
pretended meeting whose faces he could know, and by that means they
got a good living, that in a short space the Father bought a Cow or
two, when he had none before. And it came to pass that this said Boy
was brought into the Church of Kildwick a large parish Church, where I
(being then Curate there) was preaching in the afternoon, and was set
upon a stall (he being but about ten or eleven years old) to look
about him, which moved some little disturbance in the Congregation for
a while. And after prayers I inquiring what the matter was, the people
told me that it was the Boy that discovered Witches, upon which I went
to the house where he was to stay all night, where I found him, and
two very unlikely persons that did conduct him, and manage the
business; I desired to have some discourse with the Boy in private,
but that they utterly refused; then in the presence of a great many
people, I took the Boy near me, and said: Good Boy tell me truly, and
in earnest, did thou see and hear such strange things of the meeting
of Witches, as is reported by many that thou dost relate, or did not
some person teach thee to say such things of thy self? But the two men
not giving the Boy leave to answer, did pluck him from me, and said he
had been examined by two able Justices of the Peace, and they did
never ask him such a question, to whom I replied, the persons accused
had therefore the more wrong."--Webster's _Displaying of Witchcraft_,
p. 276.]
[Footnote 42: This was Richard Shuttleworth of Gawthorp, Esq., who
married the daughter and heiress of R. Fleetwood, Esq., of Barton, and
died June 1669, aged 82.]
[Footnote 43: John Starkie, Esq., of the family of Starkie of
Huntroyd, the same probably who was sheriff of Lancashire 9 Charles I,
and one of the seven demoniacs at Cleworth in the year 1595, on whose
evidence Hartley was hanged for witchcraft. Having commenced so early,
he must by this time have qualified himself, if he only improved the
advantages of his Cleworth education, to take the chair and proceed as
professor, in all matters appertaining to witchcraft.]
"Who informeth upon oath, (beeinge examined concerninge the greate
meetings of the witches) and saith, that upon All-saints day last
past, hee, this informer, beeinge with one _Henry Parker_, a neare
doore neighbor to him in _Wheatley-lane_,[44] desyred the said
_Parker_ to give him leave to get some bulloes,[45] which hee did. In
which tyme of gettinge bulloes, hee sawe two greyhounds, viz. a blacke
and a browne one, came runninge over the next field towards him, he
verily thinkinge the one of them to bee Mr. _Nutters_,[46] and the
other to bee Mr. _Robinsons_,[47] the said Mr. _Nutter_ and Mr.
_Robinson_ havinge then such like. And the said greyhounds came to him
and fawned on him, they havinge about theire necks either of them a
coller, and to either of which collers was tyed a stringe, which
collers as this informer affirmeth did shine like gould, and hee
thinkinge that some either of Mr. _Nutter's_ or Mr. _Robinson's_
family should have followed them: but seeinge noe body to followe
them, he tooke the said greyhounds thinkinge to hunt with them, and
presently a hare did rise very neare before him, at the sight whereof
he cryed, loo, loo, but the dogges would not run. Whereupon beeinge
very angry, he tooke them, and with the strings that were at theire
collers tyed either of them to a little bush on the next hedge, and
with a rod that hee had in his hand, hee bett them. And in stede of
the blacke greyhound, one _Dickonson_ wife stoode up (a neighb^r.)
whom this informer knoweth, and in steade of the browne greyhound a
little boy whom this informer knoweth not. At which sight this
informer beeinge affraid indevoured to run away: but beeinge stayed by
the woman, viz. by _Dickonson's_ wife, shee put her hand into her
pocket, and pulled out a peace of silver much like to a faire
shillinge, and offered to give him to hould his tongue, and not to
tell, whiche hee refused, sayinge, nay thou art a witch; Whereupon
shee put her hand into her pocket againe, and pulled out a stringe
like unto a bridle[48] that gingled, which shee put upon the litle
boyes heade that stood up in the browne greyhounds steade; whereupon
the said boy stood up a white horse. Then immediately the said
_Dickonson_ wife tooke this informer before her upon the said horse,
and carried him to a new house called _Hoarestones_,[49] beinge about
a quarter of a mile off, whither, when they were comme, there were
divers persons about the doore, and hee sawe divers others cominge
rideinge upon horses of severall colours towards the said house, which
tyed theire horses to a hedge neare to the sed house; and which
persons went into the sed house, to the number of threescore or
thereabouts, as this informer thinketh, where they had a fyer and
meate roastinge, and some other meate stirringe in the house, whereof
a yonge woman whom hee this informer knoweth not, gave him flesh and
breade upon a trencher, and drinke in a glasse, which, after the first
taste, hee refused, and would have noe more, and said it was nought.
And presently after, seeinge diverse of the company goinge to a barn
neare adioyneinge,[50] hee followed after, and there he sawe sixe of
them kneelinge, and pullinge at sixe severall roapes which were
fastened or tyed to ye toppe of the house; at or with which pullinge
came then in this informers sight flesh smoakeinge, butter in lumps,
and milke as it were syleinge[51] from the said roapes, all which fell
into basons whiche were placed under the saide roapes. And after that
these sixe had done, there came other sixe which did likewise, and
duringe all the tyme of theire so pullinge, they made such foule faces
that feared[52] this informer, soe as hee was glad to steale out and
run home, whom, when they wanted, some of theire company came runninge
after him neare to a place in a high way, called Boggard-hole,[53]
where this informer met two horsemen, at the sight whereof the sed
persons left followinge him, and the foremost of which persons yt
followed him, hee knoweth to bee one _Loynd_ wife, which said wife,
together with one _Dickonson_ wife, and one _Jenet Davies_[54] he hath
seene at severall tymes in a croft or close adioninge to his fathers
house, whiche put him in a greate feare. And further, this informer
saith, upon Thursday after New Yeares day last past, he sawe the sed
_Loynd_ wife sittinge upon a crosse peece of wood, beeinge within the
chimney of his father's dwellinge house, and hee callinge to her,
said, come downe thou _Loynd_ wife, and immediately the sed _Loynd_
wife went up out of his sight. And further, this informer saith, yt
after hee was comme from ye company aforesed to his father's house,
beeinge towards eveninge, his father bad him goe fetch home two kyne
to seale,[55] and in the way, in a field called the Ollers, hee
chanced to hap upon a boy, who began to quarrell with him, and they
fought soe together till this informer had his eares made very bloody
by fightinge, and lookinge downe, hee sawe the boy had a cloven foote,
at which sight hee was affraid, and ran away from him to seeke the
kyne. And in the way hee sawe a light like a lanthorne, towards which
he made hast, supposinge it to bee carried by some of Mr. _Robinson's_
people: But when hee came to the place, hee onley found a woman
standinge on a bridge, whom, when hee sawe her, he knewe to bee
_Loynd_ wife, and knowinge her, he turned backe againe, and immediatly
hee met with ye aforesed boy, from whom he offered to run, which boy
gave him a blow on the back which caus'd him to cry. And hee farther
saith, yt when hee was in the barne, he sawe three women take three
pictures from off the beame, in the which pictures many thornes, or
such like things sticked, and yt _Loynd_ wife tooke one of the said
pictures downe, but thother two women yt tooke thother two pictures
downe hee knoweth not.[56] And beeinge further asked, what persons
were at ye meeteinge aforesed, hee nominated these persons hereafter
mentioned, viz. _Dickonson_ wife, _Henry Priestley_ wife and her sone,
_Alice Hargreaves_ widdowe, _Jennet Davies_, _Wm. Davies_, uxor.
_Hen. Jacks_ and her sone _John_, _James Hargreaves_ of _Marsden_,
_Miles_ wife of _Dicks_, _James_ wife, _Saunders_ sicut credit,
_Lawrence_ wife of _Saunders_, _Loynd_ wife, _Buys_ wife of
_Barrowford_, one _Holgate_ and his wife sicut credit, _Little Robin_
wife of _Leonard's_, of the _West Cloase_.[57]
[Footnote 44: Wheatley-lane is still a place of note in Pendle.]
[Footnote 45: Wild plums.]
[Footnote 46: It would seem as if a case of witchcraft in Pendle,
without a Nutter in some way connected with it, could not occur.]
[Footnote 47: What Mr. Robinson is intended does not appear. It was a
common name in Pendle. It is, however, a curious fact, that a family
of this name, _with the alias of Swyer_, (see Potts, confession of
Elizabeth Device,) is even now, or very recently was, to be met with
in Pendle, of whom the John Robinson, _alias_ Swyer, one of the
supposed victims of Witchcraft, was probably an ancestor. There are
few instances of an _alias_ being similarly transmitted in families
for upwards of two centuries.]
[Footnote 48: Mother Dickenson, as Sir Walter Scott remarks, brings to
mind the magician Queen in the Arabian Tales.]
[Footnote 49: This house is still standing, and though it has
undergone some modernizations, has every appearance of having been
built about this period.]
[Footnote 50: The old barn, so famous as the scene of these exploits,
is no longer extant. A more modern and very substantial one has now
been erected on its site.]
[Footnote 51: Syleing, from the verb sile or syle, to strain, to pass
through a strainer. See Jamieson, under "sile."]
[Footnote 52: Frightened.]
[Footnote 53: Boggard Hole lies in a hollow, near to Hoarstones, and
is still known by that name.]
[Footnote 54: "It is the sport to see the engineer hoist with his own
petar." Her old occupation as witness having got into other hands,
Janet or Jennet Davies, or Device, for the person spoken of appears to
be the same with the grand-daughter of Old Demdike, on whose evidence
three members of her family were executed, has now to take her place
amongst the witnessed against.]
[Footnote 55: Seale, from sele, _s._ a yoke for binding cattle in the
stall. Sal (A.S.) denotes "a collar or bond." Somner. Sile (Isl.)
seems to bear the very same sense with our sele, being exp. a ligament
of leather by which cattle and other things are bound. Vide Jamieson,
under "sele."]
[Footnote 56: Heywood and Broome, in their play, "The late Lancashire
Witches," 1634, 4to, follow the terms of this deposition very closely.
It is very probable that they had seen and conversed with the boy, to
whom, when taken up to London, there was a great resort of company.
The Lancashire dialect, as given in this play, and by no means
unfaithfully, was perhaps derived from conversations with some of the
actors in this drama of real life, a drama quite as extraordinary as
any that Heywood's imagination ever bodied forth from the world of
fiction.
"_Enter Boy with a switch._
_Boy._ Now I have gathered Bullies, and fild my bellie pretty well,
i'le goe see some sport. There are gentlemen coursing in the medow
hard by; and 'tis a game that I love better than going to Schoole ten
to one.
_Enter an invisible spirit. J. Adson[D] with a brace of greyhounds._
What have we here a brace of Greyhounds broke loose from their
masters: it must needs be so, for they have both their Collers and
slippes about their neckes. Now I looke better upon them, me thinks I
should know them, and so I do: these are Mr. Robinsons dogges, that
dwels some two miles off, i'le take them up, and lead them home to
their master; it may be something in my way, for he is as liberall a
gentleman, as any is in our countrie, Come Hector, come. Now if I c'ud
but start a Hare by the way, kill her, and carry her home to my
supper, I should thinke I had made a better afternoones worke of it
than gathering of bullies. Come poore curres along with me.
_Exit._"
* * * * *
"_Enter Boy with the Greyhounds._
A Hare, a Hare, halloe, halloe, the Divell take these curres, will
they not stir, halloe, halloe, there, there, there, what are they
growne so lither and so lazie? Are Mr. Robinsons dogges turn'd tykes
with a wanion? the Hare is yet in sight, halloe, halloe, mary hang you
for a couple of mungrils (if you were worth hanging,) and have you
serv'd me thus? nay then ile serve you with the like sauce, you shall
to the next bush, there will I tie you, and use you like a couple of
curs as you are, and though not lash you, yet lash you whilest my
switch will hold, nay since you have left your speed, ile see if I can
put spirit into you, and put you in remembrance what halloe, halloe
meanes.
_As he beats them, there appeared before him Gooddy_ Dickison, _and
the Boy upon the dogs, going in._
Now blesse me heaven, one of the Greyhounds turn'd into a woman, the
other into a boy! The lad I never saw before, but her I know well; it
is my gammer _Dickison_.
_G. Dick._ Sirah, you have serv'd me well to swindge me thus. You yong
rogue, you have vs'd me like a dog.
_Boy._ When you had put your self into a dogs skin, I pray how c'ud I
help it; but gammer are not you a Witch? if you bee, I beg upon my
knees you will not hurt me.
_Dickis._ Stand up my boie, for thou shalt have no harme,
Be silent, speake of nothing thou hast seene.
And here's a shilling for thee.
_Boy._ Ile have none of your money, gammer, because you are a Witch;
and now she is out of her foure leg'd shape, ile see if with my two
legs I can out-run her.
_Dickis._ Nay sirra, though you be yong, and I old, you are not so
nimble, nor I so lame, but I can overtake you.
_Boy._ But Gammer what do you meane to do with me
Now you have me?
_Dickis._ To hugge thee, stroke thee, and embrace thee thus,
And teach thee twentie thousand prety things,
So thou tell no tales; and boy this night
Thou must along with me to a brave feast.
_Boy._ Not I gammer indeed la, I dare not stay out late,
My father is a fell man, and if I bee out long, will both
chide and beat me.
_Dickis._ Not sirra, then perforce thou shalt along,
This bridle helps me still at need,
And shall provide us of a steed.
Now sirra, take your shape and be
Prepar'd to hurrie him and me.
_Exit._
Now looke and tell mee wher's the lad become.
_Boy._ The boy is vanisht, and I can see nothing in his stead
But a white horse readie sadled and bridled.
_Dickis._ And thats the horse we must bestride,
On which both thou and I must ride,
Thou boy before and I behinde,
The earth we tread not, but the winde,
For we must progresse through the aire,
And I will bring thee to such fare
As thou ne're saw'st, up and away,
For now no longer we can stay.
_She catches him up, and turning round._
_Boy._ Help, help.
_Exit._"
* * * * *
"_Rob._ What place is this? it looks like an old barne: ile peep in at
some cranny or other, and try if I can see what they are doing. Such a
bevy of beldames did I never behold; and cramming like so many
Cormorants: Marry choke you with a mischiefe.
_Gooddy Dickison._ Whoope, whurre, heres a sturre,
Never a cat, never a curre,
But that we must have this demurre.
_Mal._ A second course.
_Mrs. Gen._ Pull, and pull hard
For all that hath lately him prepar'd
For the great wedding feast.
_Mall._ As chiefe
Of Doughtyes Surloine of rost Beefe.
_All._ Ha, ha, ha.
_Meg._ 'Tis come, 'tis come.
_Mawd._ Where hath it all this while beene?
_Meg._ Some
Delay hath kept it, now 'tis here,
For bottles next of wine and beere,
The Merchants cellers they shall pay for't.
_Mrs. Gener._ Well,
What sod or rost meat more, pray tell.
_Good. Dick._ Pul for the Poultry, Foule, and Fish,
For emptie shall not be a dish.
_Robin._ A pox take them, must only they feed upon hot meat, and I
upon nothing but cold sallads.
_Mrs. Gener._ This meat is tedious, now some Farie,
Fetch what belongs unto the Dairie,
_Mal._ Thats Butter, Milk, Whey, Curds and Cheese,
Wee nothing by the bargaine leese.
_All._ Ha, ha, ha.
_Goody Dickison._ Boy, theres meat for you.
_Boy._ Thanke you.
_Gooddy Dickis._ And drinke too.
_Meg._ What Beast was by thee hither rid?
_Mawd._ A Badger nab.
_Meg._ And I bestrid
A Porcupine that never prickt.
_Mal._ The dull sides of a Beare I kickt.
I know how you rid, Lady Nan.
_Mrs. Gen._ Ha, ha, ha, upon the knave my man.
_Rob._ A murrein take you, I am sure my hoofes payd for't.
_Boy._ Meat lie there, for thou hast no taste, and drinke there, for
thou hast no relish, for in neither of them is there either salt or
savour.
_All._ Pull for the posset, pull.
_Robin._ The brides posset on my life, nay if they come to their
spoone meat once, I hope theil breake up their feast presently.
_Mrs. Gen._ So those that are our waiters nere,
Take hence this Wedding cheere.
We will be lively all,
And make this barn our hall.
_Gooddy Dick._ You our Familiers, come.
In speech let all be dumbe,
And to close up our Feast,
To welcome every gest
A merry round let's daunce.
_Meg._ Some Musicke then ith aire
Whilest thus by paire and paire,
We nimbly foot it; strike.
_Musick._
_Mal._ We are obeyd.
_Sprite._ And we hels ministers shall lend our aid.
_Dance and Song together. In the time of which the Boy speakes._
_Boy._ Now whilest they are in their jollitie, and do not mind me, ile
steale away, and shift for my selfe, though I lose my life for't.
_Exit._"
* * * * *
"_Dought._ He came to thee like a Boy thou sayest, about thine own
bignesse?
_Boy._ Yes Sir, and he asked me where I dwelt, and what my name was.
_Dough._ Ah Rogue!
_Boy._ But it was in a quarrelsome way; Whereupon I was as stout, and
ask'd him who made him an examiner?
_Dough._ Ah good Boy.
_Mil._ In that he was my Sonne.
_Boy._ He told me he would know or beat it out of me,
And I told him he should not, and bid him doe his worst;
And to't we went.
_Dough._ In that he was my sonne againe, ha boy; I see him at it now.
_Boy._ We fought a quarter of an houre, till his sharpe nailes made my
eares bleed.
_Dough._ O the grand Divell pare 'em.
_Boy._ I wondred to finde him so strong in my hands, seeming but of
mine owne age and bignesse, till I looking downe, perceived he had
clubb'd cloven feet like Oxe feet; but his face was as young as mine.
_Dought._ A pox, but by his feet, he may be the Club-footed
Horse-coursers father, for all his young lookes.
_Boy._ But I was afraid of his feet, and ran from him towards a light
that I saw, and when I came to it, it was one of the Witches in white
upon a Bridge, that scar'd me backe againe, and then met me the Boy
againe, and he strucke me and layd mee for dead.
_Mil._ Till I wondring at his stay, went out and found him in the
Trance; since which time, he has beene haunted and frighted with
Goblins, 40 times; and never durst tell any thing (as I sayd) because
the Hags had so threatned him till in his sicknes he revealed it to
his mother.
_Dough._ And she told no body but folkes on't. Well Gossip Gretty, as
thou art a Miller, and a close thiefe, now let us keepe it as close as
we may till we take 'hem, and see them handsomly hanged o'the way: Ha
my little Cuffe-divell, thou art a made man. Come, away with me.
_Exeunt._"
Heywood and Broome's _Late Lancashire Witches_, Acts 2 and 3.]
[Footnote D: _Sic in orig._]
[Footnote 57: These names are thus given in Baines's Transcript:--
"Dickensons
Henrie Priestleyes wife and his ladd
Alice Hargrave, widdowe
Jane Davies (als. Jennet Device)
William Davies
The wife of Henrie Offep and her sonnes
John and Myles
The wife of Duckers
James Hargrave of Maresden
Loyards wife
James wife
Sanders wife, And as hee beleeveth
Lawnes wife
Sander Pynes wife of Baraford
One Foolegate and his wife
And Leonards of the West Close."
And thus in Webster:--
"Dickensons Wife, Henry Priestleys Wife, and his Lad, Alice Hargreene
Widow, Jane Davies, William Davies, and the Wife of Henry Fackes, and
her Sons John and Miles, the Wife of ---- Denneries, James Hargreene
of Marsdead, Loynd's Wife, one James his Wife, Saunders his Wife, and
Saunders himself _sicut credit_, one Laurence his Wife, one Saunder
Pyn's Wife of Barraford, one Holgate and his Wife of Leonards of the
West close."]
"_Edmund Robinson_ of _Pendle_, father of ye sd _Edmunde Robinson_,
the aforesaid informer, upon oath saith, that upon _All Saints' Day_,
he sent his sone, the aforesed informer, to fetch home two kyne to
seale, and saith yt hee thought his sone stayed longer than he should
have done, went to seeke him, and in seekinge him, heard him cry very
pittifully, and found him soe afraid and distracted, yt hee neither
knew his father, nor did know where he was, and so continued very
neare a quarter of an hower before he came to himselfe,[58] and he
tould this informer, his father, all the particular passages yt are
before declared in the said _Edmund Robinson_, his sone's
information."
[Footnote 58: The learned "practitioner in physick," Mr. William
Drage, in his "Treatise of Diseases from Witchcraft," published Lond.
1668, 4to. p. 22, recommends "birch" in such cases, "as a specifical
medicine, antipathetical to demons." One can only lament that this
valuable remedy was not vigorously applied in the present instance, as
well as in most others in which these juvenile sufferers appear. I
doubt whether, in the whole Materia Medica, a more powerful
_Lamia-fuge_ could have been discovered, or one which would have been
more universally successful, if applied perseveringly, whenever the
suspicious symptoms recurred. The following is, however, Drage's great
panacea in these cases, a mode of treatment which must have been
vastly popular, judging from its extensive adoption in all parts of
the country: "_Punish the witch, threaten to hang her if she helps not
the sick, scratch her and fetch blood. When she is cast into prison
the sick are some time delivered, some time he or she (they are most
females, most old women, and most poor,) must transfer the disease to
other persons, sometimes to a dog, or horse, or cow, &c. Threaten her
and beat her to remove it._"--Drage, p. 23.]
The name of Margaret Johnson does not appear in Edmund Robinson's
examination. Whether accused or not, the opportunity was too alluring
to be lost by a personage full of matter, being like old Mause
Headrigg, "as a bottle that lacketh vent," and too desirous of
notoriety, to let slip such an occasion. She made, on the 2nd of March
following, before the same justices who had taken Robinson's
examination, the following confession, which must have been considered
a most instructive one by those who were in search of some short _vade
mecum_ of the statistics of witchcraft in Pendle:--
"THE CONFESSION OF MARGARET JOHNSON.
"That betwixt seaven and eight yeares since, shee beeinge in her owne
house in _Marsden_, in a greate passion of anger and discontent, and
withall pressed with some want, there appeared unto her a spirit or
devill in ye proportion or similitude of a man, apparrelled in a suite
of blacke, tyed about with silk points, who offered yt if shee would
give him her soule hee would supply all her wants, and bringe to her
whatsoever shee did neede. And at her appointment would in revenge
either kill or hurt whom or what shee desyred, weare it man or beast.
And saith, yt after a solicitation or two shee contracted and
covenanted with ye said devill for her soule. And yt ye said devill or
spirit badde her call him by the name of _Mamilian_. And when shee
would have him to doe any thinge for her, call in _Mamilian_, and hee
would bee ready to doe her will. And saith, yt in all her talke or
conference shee calleth her said devill, _Mamil_ my God. Shee further
saith, yt ye said _Mamilian_, her devill, (by her consent) did abuse
and defile her body by comittinge wicked uncleannesse together. And
saith, yt shee was not at the greate meetings at _Hoarestones_, at the
forest of _Pendle_, upon All-Saints Day, where ----. But saith yt shee
was at a second meetinge ye Sunday next after All-Saints Day, at the
place aforesaid; where there was at yt tyme between 30 and 40 witches,
who did all ride to the said meetinge, and the end of theire said
meeting was to consult for the killinge and hurtinge of men and
beasts. And yt besides theire particular familiars or spirits, there
was one greate or grand devill or spirit more eminent than the rest.
And if any desyre to have a greate and more wonderfull devill, whereby
they may have more power to hurt, they may have one such. And sayth,
yt such witches as have sharp bones given them by the devill to pricke
them, have no pappes or dugges whereon theire devill may sucke, but
theire devill receiveth bloud from the place, pricked with the bone.
And they are more grand witches than any yt have marks. Shee allsoe
saith, yt if a witch have but one marke, shee hath but one spirit, if
two then two spirits, if three yet but two spirits. And saith, yt
theire spirits usually have knowledge of theire bodies. And being
desyred to name such as shee knewe to be witches, shee named, &c.[59]
And if they would torment a man, they bid theire spirit goe and tormt.
him in any particular place. And yt Good-Friday is one constant day
for a yearely generall meetinge of witches. And yt on Good-Friday
last, they had a meetinge neare _Pendle_ water syde. Shee alsoe saith,
that men witches usually have women spirits, and women witches men
spirits. And theire devill or spirit gives them notice of theire
meetinge, and tells them the place where it must bee. And saith, if
they desyre to be in any place upon a sodaine, theire devill or spirit
will upon a rodde, dogge, or any thinge els, presently convey them
thither: yea, into any roome of a man's house. But shee saith it is
not the substance of theire bodies, but theire spirit assumeth such
form and shape as goe into such roomes. Shee alsoe saith, yt ye devill
(after he begins to sucke) will make a pappe or dugge in a short tyme,
and the matter which hee sucks is blood. And saith yt theire devills
can cause foule weather and storms, and soe did at theire meetings.
Shee alsoe saith yt when her devill did come to sucke her pappe, hee
usually came to her in ye liknes of a cat, sometymes of one colour and
sometymes of an other. And yt since this trouble befell her, her
spirit hath left her, and shee never sawe him since."
[Footnote 59: The omission here is thus supplied in Baines's
Transcript; but the actual names are scarcely to be recognised, from
the clerical errors of the copy:--
"One Pickerne and his wife both of Wyndwall,
Rawson of Clore and his wife
Duffice wife of Clore by the water side
Cartmell the wife of Clore
And Jane of the hedgend in Maresden."]
On the evidence contained in these examinations several persons were
committed for trial at Lancaster, and seventeen, on being tried at the
ensuing assizes, were found guilty by the jury. The judge before whom
the trial took place was, however, more sagacious and enlightened than
his predecessors, Bromley and Altham. He respited the execution of the
prisoners; and on the case being reported to the king in council, the
Bishop of Chester, Dr. Bridgman, was required to investigate the
circumstances. The inquiry was instituted at Chester, and four of the
convicted witches, namely, Margaret Johnson, Frances Dickonson, Mary
Spencer, and the wife of one of the Hargreaves's, were sent to London,
and examined, first by the king's physicians and surgeons, and
afterwards by Charles the first in person.
"A stranger scene" to quote Dr. Whitaker's concluding paragraph "can
scarcely be conceived; and it is not easy to imagine whether the
untaught manners, rude dialect, and uncouth appearance of these poor
foresters, would more astonish the king; or his dignity of person and
manners, together with the splendid scene with which they were
surrounded, would overwhelm them. The end, however, of the business
was, that strong presumptions appeared of the boy having been suborned
to accuse them falsely, and they were accordingly dismissed. The boy
afterwards confessed that he was suborned."[60]
[Footnote 60: Webster gives the sequel of this curious case of
imposture:--"Four of them, to wit Margaret Johnson, Francis Dicconson,
Mary Spenser, and Hargraves Wife, were sent for up to London, and were
viewed and examined by his Majesties Physicians and Chirurgeons, and
after by his Majesty and the Council, and no cause of guilt appearing
but great presumptions of the boys being suborned to accuse them
falsely. Therefore it was resolved to separate the boy from his
Father, they having both followed the women up to London, they were
both taken and put into several prisons asunder. Whereupon shortly
after the Boy confessed that he was taught and suborned to devise, and
feign those things against them, and had persevered in that wickedness
by the counsel of his Father, and some others, whom envy, revenge and
hope of gain had prompted on to that devillish design and villany; and
he also confessed, that upon that day when he said that they met at
the aforesaid house or barn, he was that very day a mile off, getting
Plums in his Neighbours Orchard. And that this is a most certain
truth, there are many persons yet living, of sufficient reputation and
integrity, that can avouch and testifie the same; and besides, what I
write is the most of it true, upon my own knowledge, and the whole I
have had from his own mouth."--_Displaying of Witchcraft_, p. 277.]
In Dr. Whitaker's astonishment that Margaret Johnson should make the
confession she appears to have done, in a clear case of imposture, few
of his readers will be disposed to participate, who are at all
conversant with the trials of reputed witches in this country.
Confessions were so common on those occasions, that there is, I
believe, not a single instance of any great number of persons being
convicted of witchcraft at one time, some of whom did not make a
confession of guilt. Nor is there anything extraordinary in that
circumstance, when it is remembered that many of them sincerely
believed in the existence of the powers attributed to them; and
others, aged and of weak understanding, were, in a measure, coerced by
the strong persuasion of their guilt, which all around them
manifested, into an acquiescence in the truth of the accusation. In
many cases the confessions were made in the hope, and no doubt with
the promise, seldom performed, that a respite from punishment would be
eventually granted. In other instances, there is as little doubt, that
they were the final results of irritation, agony, and despair.[61] The
confessions are generally composed of "such stuff as dreams are made
of," and what they report to have occurred, might either proceed, when
there was no intention to fabricate, from intertwining the fantastic
threads which sometimes stream upon the waking senses from the land of
shadows, or be caused by those ocular hallucinations of which medical
science has supplied full and satisfactory solution. There is no
argument which so long maintained its ground in support of witchcraft
as that which was founded on the confessions referred to. It was the
last plank clung to by many a witch-believing lawyer and divine. And
yet there is none which will less bear critical scrutiny and
examination, or the fallacy of which can more easily be shown, if any
particular reported confession is taken as a test and subjected to a
searching analysis and inquiry.
[Footnote 61: The confession in the "Amber Witch" is a true picture,
drawn from the life. What is there, indeed, unlike truth in that
wonderful fiction?]
It is said that we owe to the grave and saturnine Monarch, who
extended his pardon to the seventeen convicted in 1633, that happy
generalisation of the term, which appropriates honourably to the sex
in Lancashire the designation denoting the fancied crime of a few
miserable victims of superstition. That gentle sex will never
repudiate a title bestowed by one, little given to the playful sports
of fancy, whose sorrows and unhappy fate have never wanted their
commiseration, and who distinguished himself on this memorable
occasion, at a period when
"'twas the time's plague
That madmen led the blind,"
--in days when philosophy stumbled and murder arrayed itself in the
robes of justice--by an enlightened exercise of the kingly prerogative
of mercy. Proceeding from such a fountain of honour, and purified by
such an appropriation, the title of witch has long lost its original
opprobrium in the County Palatine, and survives only to call forth the
gayest and most delightful associations. In process of time even the
term _witchfinder_ may lose the stains which have adhered to it from
the atrocities of Hopkins, and may be adopted by general usage, as a
sort of companion phrase, to signify the fortunate individual, who, by
an union with a Lancashire witch, has just asserted his indefeasible
title to be considered as the happiest of men.
J.C.
THE
WONDERFVLL
DISCOVERIE OF
WITCHES, &c.
THE
WONDERFVLL
DISCOVERIE OF
WITCHES IN THE COVNTIE
OF LANCASTER.
With the Arraignement and Triall of
Nineteene notorious WITCHES, at the Assizes and
generall Gaole deliuerie, holden at the Castle of
LANCASTER, _vpon Munday, the seuenteenth_
_of August last_,
1612.
Before Sir IAMES ALTHAM, and
Sir EDWARD BROMLEY, Knights; BARONS of his
Maiesties Court of EXCHEQVER: And Iustices
_of Assize_, Oyer _and_ Terminor, _and generall_
Gaole deliuerie in the circuit of the
_North Parts._
Together with the Arraignement and Triall of IENNET
PRESTON, _at the Assizes holden at the Castle of Yorke_,
_the seuen and twentieth day of Iulie last past_,
with her Execution for the murther
of Master LISTER
_by Witchcraft._
Published and set forth by commandement of his Maiesties
Iustices of Assize in the North Parts.
_By_ THOMAS POTTS _Esquier._
* * * * *
LONDON,
Printed by _W. Stansby_ for _John Barnes_, dwelling neare
Holborne Conduit. 1613.
[Illustration: decoration]
TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE,
_THOMAS_, LORD
KNYVET, BARON OF ESCRICK[A1]
in the Countie of Yorke, my very honorable
_good Lord and Master._
AND
TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE
_AND VERTVOVS LADIE, THE_
_Ladie_ ELIZABETH KNYVET _his Wife, my_
honorable good Ladie and
MISTRIS.
* * * * *
RIGHT HONORABLE,
_Let it stand (I beseech you) with your fauours whom profession of
the same true Religion towards God, and so great loue hath vnited
together in one, Jointly to accept the Protection and Patronage of
these my labours, which not their owne worth hath encouraged, but your
Worthinesse hath enforced me to consecrate vnto your Honours._
_To you (Right Honourable my very good Lord) of Right doe they belong:
for to whom shall I rather present their first fruits of my learning
then to your Lordship: who nourished then both mee and them, when
there was scarce any being to mee or them? And whose iust and vpright
carriage of causes, whose zeale to Justice and Honourable curtesie to
all men, have purchased you a Reuerend and worthie Respect of all men
in all partes of this Kingdome, where you are knowne. And to your good
Ladiship they doe of great right belong likewise; Whose Religion,
Iustice, and Honourable admittance of my Vnworthie Seruice to your
Ladiship do challenge at my handes the vttermost of what euer I may
bee able to performe._
_Here is nothing of my own act worthie to bee commended to your
Honours, it is the worke, of those Reuerend Magistrates, His Maiesties
Iustices of Assizes in the North partes, and no more then a Particular
Declaration of the proceedings of Iustice in those partes. Here shall
you behold the Iustice of this Land, truely administred_, PROEMIUM &
POENAM, _Mercie and Iudgement, freely and indifferently bestowed and
inflicted; And aboue all thinges to bee remembred, the excellent care
of these Iudges in the Triall of offendors._
_It hath pleased them out of their respect to mee to impose this worke
vpon mee, and according to my vnderstanding, I haue taken paines to
finish, and now confirmed by their Iudgement to publish the same, for
the benefit of my Countrie. That the example of these conuicted vpon
their owne Examinations, Confessions, and Euidence at the Barre, may
worke good in others, Rather by with-holding them from, then
imboldening them to, the Atchieuing such desperate actes as these or
the like._
_These are some part of the fruits of my time spent in the Seruice of
my Countrie, Since by your Graue and Reuerend Counsell (my Good Lord)
I reduced my wauering and wandring thoughts to a more quiet harbour of
repose._
_If it please your Honours to giue them your Honourable respect, the
world may iudge them the more worthie of acceptance, to whose various
censures they are now exposed._
_God of Heauen whose eies are on them that feare him, to bee their
Protector and guide, behold your Honours with the eye of fauor, be
euermore your strong hold, and your great reward, and blesse you with
blessings in this life, Externall and Internall, Temporall and
Spirituall, and with Eternall happines in the World to come: to which
I commend your Honours; And rest both now and euer, From my Lodging
in Chancerie Lane, the sixteenth of Nouember 1612._
Your Honours
humbly deuoted
Seruant,
_Thomas Potts._
* * * * *
Vpon the Arraignement and triall of these Witches at the last
Assizes and Generall Gaole-deliuerie, holden at Lancaster, wee found
such apparent matters against them, that we thought it necessarie to
publish them to the World, and thereupon imposed the labour of this
Worke vpon this Gentleman, by reason of his place, being a Clerke at
that time in Court, imploied in the Arraignement and triall of them.
_Ja. Altham._
_Edw. Bromley._[A2]
* * * * *
_After he had taken great paines to finish it, I tooke vpon mee to
reuise and correct it, that nothing might passe but matter of Fact,
apparant against them by record. It is very little he hath inserted,
and that necessarie, to shew what their offences were, what people,
and of what condition they were: The whole proceedings and Euidence
against them, I finde vpon examination carefully set forth, and truely
reported, and iudge the worke fit and worthie to be published._
Edward Bromley.[A3]
* * * * *
Gentle Reader, although the care of this Gentleman the
Author, was great to examine and publish this his worke
perfect according to the Honorable testimonie of the Iudges,
yet some faults are committed by me in the Printing, and yet
not many, being a worke done in such great haste, at the end
of a Tearme, which I pray you, with your fauour to excuse.
* * * * *
[Illustration]
[Illustration: decoration]
A particular Declaration of
the most barberous and damnable Practises, Murthers,
wicked and diuelish Conspiracies, practized
_and executed by the most dangerous and malitious_
Witch _Elizabeth Sowthernes_ alias _Demdike_,
of the Forrest of _Pendle_ in the Countie of
_Lancaster_ Widdow, who died in the
Castle at _Lancaster_ before she
came to receiue her tryall.
Though publique iustice hath passed at these Assises vpon the
Capitall offendours, and after the Arraignement & tryall of them,
Iudgement being giuen, due and timely Execution succeeded; which doth
import and giue the greatest satisfaction that can be, to all men; yet
because vpon the caryage, and euent of this businesse, the Eyes of all
the partes of _Lancashire_, and other Counties in the North partes
thereunto adioyning were bent: And so infinite a multitude came to the
Arraignement & tryall of these Witches at _Lancaster_, the number of
them being knowen to exceed all others at any time heretofore, at one
time to be indicted, arraigned, and receiue their tryall,[B_a_]
especially for so many Murders, Conspiracies, Charmes, Meetinges,
hellish and damnable practises, so apparant vpon their owne
examinations & confessions. These my honourable & worthy Lords, the
Iudges of Assise, vpon great consideration, thought it necessarie &
profitable, to publish to the whole world, their most barbarous and
damnable practises, with the direct proceedinges of the Court against
them, aswell for that there doe passe diuers vncertaine reportes and
relations of such Euidences, as was publiquely giuen against them at
their Arraignement. As for that diuers came to prosecute against many
of them that were not found guiltie, and so rest very discontented,
and not satisfied. As also for that it is necessary for men to know
and vnderstande the meanes whereby they worke their mischiefe, the
hidden misteries of their diuelish and wicked Inchauntmentes, Charmes,
and Sorceries, the better to preuent and auoyde the danger that may
ensue. And lastly, who were the principall authors and actors in this
late woefull and lamentable _Tragedie_, wherein so much Blood was
spilt.
Therefore I pray you giue me leaue, (with your patience and fauour,)
before I proceed to the Indictment, Arraignement, and Tryall of such
as were prisoners in the Castle, to lay open the life and death of
this damnable and malicious Witch, of so long continuance (old
_Demdike_) of whom our whole businesse hath such dependence, that
without the particular Declaration and Record of her Euidence, with
the circumstaunces, wee shall neuer bring any thing to good
perfection: for from this Sincke of villanie and mischiefe, haue all
the rest proceeded; as you shall haue them in order.
She was a very old woman, about the age of Fourescore[B_b_] yeares,
and had been a Witch for fiftie yeares. Shee dwelt in the Forrest of
_Pendle_, a vaste place, fitte for her profession: What shee committed
in her time, no man knowes.
Thus liued shee securely for many yeares, brought vp her owne
Children, instructed her Graund-children, and tooke great care and
paines to bring them to be Witches. Shee was a generall agent for the
Deuill in all these partes: no man escaped her, or her Furies, that
euer gaue them any occasion of offence, or denyed them any thing they
stood need of: And certaine it is, no man neere them, was secure or
free from danger.
But God, who had in his diuine prouidence prouided to cut them off,
and roote them out of the Commonwealth, so disposed aboue, that the
Iustices of those partes, vnderstanding by a generall charme and
muttering, the great and vniuersall resort to _Maulking Tower_, the
common opinion, with the report of these suspected people, the
complaint of the Kinges subiectes for the losse of their Children,
Friendes, Goodes, and Cattle, (as there could not be so great Fire
without some Smoake,) sent for some of the Countrey, and tooke great
paynes to enquire after their proceedinges, and courses of life.
In the end, _Roger Nowell_ Esquire,[B2_a_] one of his Maiesties
Iustices in these partes, a very religious honest Gentleman, painefull
in the seruice of his Countrey: whose fame for this great seruice to
his Countrey, shall liue after him, tooke vpon him to enter into the
particular examination of these suspected persons: And to the honour
of God, and the great comfort of all his Countrey, made such a
discouery of them in order, as the like hath not been heard of: which
for your better satisfaction, I haue heere placed in order against
her, as they are vpon Record, amongst the Recordes of the _Crowne_ at
_Lancaster_, certified by M. _Nowell_, and others.
[Illustration: decoration]
The voluntarie Confession
and Examination of _Elizabeth Sowtherns_ alias
_Demdike_, taken at the Fence in the Forrest
of _Pendle_ in the Countie
of _Lancaster._
The second day of Aprill, _Annoq; Regni Regis Iacobi Anggliæ,
&c. Decimo, et Scotiæ, Quadragesimo quinto;_
Before _Roger Nowell_ of _Reade_ Esquire, one of his
Maiesties Iustices of the peace within
the sayd Countie, _Viz._
The said _Elizabeth Sowtherns_ confesseth, and sayth; That about
twentie yeares past, as she was comming homeward from begging, there
met her this Examinate neere vnto a Stonepit in _Gouldshey_,[B2_b_1]
in the sayd Forrest of _Pendle_, a Spirit or Deuill in the shape of a
Boy, the one halfe of his Coate blacke, and the other browne, who bade
this Examinate stay, saying to her, that if she would giue him her
Soule, she should haue any thing that she would request. Wherevpon
this Examinat demaunded his name? and the Spirit answered, his name
was _Tibb_:[B2_b_2] and so this Examinate in hope of such gaine as was
promised by the sayd Deuill or _Tibb_, was contented to giue her Soule
to the said Spirit: And for the space of fiue or sixe yeares next
after, the sayd Spirit or Deuill appeared at sundry times vnto her
this Examinate about _Day-light_ Gate,[B2_b_3] alwayes bidding her
stay, and asking her this Examinate what she would haue or doe? To
whom this Examinate replyed, Nay nothing: for she this Examinate said,
she wanted nothing yet. And so about the end of the said sixe yeares,
vpon a Sabboth day in the morning, this Examinate hauing a litle Child
vpon her knee, and she being in a slumber, the sayd Spirit appeared
vnto her in the likenes of a browne Dogg, forcing himselfe to her
knee, to get blood vnder her left Arme: and she being without any
apparrell sauing her Smocke, the said Deuill did get blood vnder her
left arme.[B3_a_1] And this Examinate awaking, sayd, _Iesus saue my
Child_; but had no power, nor could not say, _Iesus saue her selfe_:
wherevpon the Browne Dogge vanished out of this Examinats sight: after
which, this Examinate was almost starke madd for the space of eight
weekes.
And vpon her examination, she further confesseth, and saith. That a
little before Christmas last, this Examinates Daughter hauing been to
helpe _Richard Baldwyns_ Folkes at the Mill: This Examinates Daughter
did bid her this Examinate goe to the sayd _Baldwyns_ house, and aske
him some thing for her helping of his Folkes at the Mill, (as
aforesaid:) and in this Examinates going to the said _Baldwyns_ house,
and neere to the sayd house, she mette with the said _Richard
Baldwyn_; Which _Baldwyn_ sayd to this Examinate, and the said _Alizon
Deuice_[B3_a_3] (who at that time ledde this Examinate, being blinde)
get out of my ground Whores and Witches, I will burne the one of you,
and hang the other.[B3_a_2] To whom this Examinate answered: I care
not for thee, hang thy selfe: Presently wherevpon, at this Examinates
going ouer the next hedge, the said Spirit or Diuell called _Tibb_,
appeared vnto this Examinat, and sayd, _Reuenge thee of him_. To whom,
this Examinate sayd againe to the said Spirit. _Revenge thee eyther of
him, or his._ And so the said Spirit vanished out of her sight, and
she neuer saw him since.
And further this Examinate confesseth, and sayth, that the speediest
way to take a mans life away by Witchcraft, is to make a Picture of
Clay,[B3_b_] like vnto the shape of the person whom they meane to
kill, & dry it thorowly: and when they would haue them to be ill in
any one place more then an other; then take a Thorne or Pinne, and
pricke it in that part of the Picture you would so haue to be ill: and
when you would haue any part of the Body to consume away, then take
that part of the Picture, and burne it. And when they would haue the
whole body to consume away, then take the remnant of the sayd Picture,
and burne it: and so therevpon by that meanes, the body shall die.
* * * * *
The Confession and Examination
of Anne Whittle _alias_ Chattox, being
Prisoner at _Lancaster_; taken the 19 day of May,
_Annoq; Regni Regis Iacobi Angliæ, Decimo:
ac Scotie Quadragesimo quinto_; Before
_William Sandes_ Maior of the Borrough
towne of _Lancaster._
_Iames Anderton_ of _Clayton_, one of his Maiesties Iustices
of Peace within the same County, and _Thomas
Cowell_ one of his Maiesties Coroners in
the sayd Countie of Lancaster,
_Viz._
First, the sayd _Anne Whittle_, alias _Chattox_, sayth, that about
foureteene yeares past she entered, through the wicked perswasions and
counsell of _Elizabeth Southerns_, alias _Demdike_, and was seduced to
condescend & agree to become subiect vnto that diuelish abhominable
profession of Witchcraft: Soone after which, the Deuill appeared vnto
her in the liknes of a Man, about midnight, at the house of the sayd
_Demdike_: and therevpon the sayd _Demdike_ and shee, went foorth of
the said house vnto him; wherevpon the said wicked Spirit mooued this
Examinate, that she would become his Subiect, and giue her Soule vnto
him: the which at first, she refused to assent vnto; but after, by the
great perswasions made by the sayd _Demdike_, shee yeelded to be at
his commaundement and appoyntment: wherevpon the sayd wicked Spirit
then sayd vnto her, that hee must haue one part of her body for him to
sucke vpon; the which shee denyed then to graunt vnto him; and withall
asked him, what part of her body hee would haue for that vse; who
said, hee would haue a place of her right side neere to her ribbes,
for him to sucke vpon: whereunto shee assented.
And she further sayth, that at the same time, there was a thing in the
likenes of a spotted Bitch, that came with the sayd Spirit vnto the
sayd _Demdike_, which then did speake vnto her in this Examinates
hearing, and sayd, that she should haue Gould, Siluer, and worldly
Wealth, at her will.[B4_b_1] And at the same time she saith, there was
victuals, _viz._ Flesh, Butter, Cheese, Bread, and Drinke, and bidde
them eate enough. And after their eating, the Deuill called _Fancie_,
and the other Spirit calling himselfe _Tibbe_, carried the remnant
away: And she sayeth, that although they did eate, they were neuer the
fuller, nor better for the same; and that at their said Banquet, the
said Spirits gaue them light to see what they did, although they
neyther had fire nor Candle light; and that they were both shee
Spirites, and Diuels.
And being further examined how many sundry Person haue been bewitched
to death, and by whom they were so bewitched: She sayth, that one
_Robert Nuter_, late of the _Greene-head_ in _Pendle_, was bewitched
by this Examinate, the said _Demdike_, and Widdow _Lomshawe_, (late of
_Burneley_) now deceased.
And she further sayth, that the said _Demdike_ shewed her, that she
had bewitched to death, _Richard Ashton_, Sonne of _Richard Ashton_ of
_Downeham_ Esquire.[B4_b_2]
* * * * *
The Examination of Alizon
Deuice, of the Forrest of Pendle, in the County
of _Lancaster_ Spinster, taken at _Reade_ in the said
Countie of _Lancaster_, the xiij. day of
March, _Anno Regni Jacobi Angliæ, &c._
_Nono: et Scotiæ xlv._
Before _Roger Nowell_ of _Reade_ aforesayd Esquire, one of
his Maiesties Iustices of the Peace within the sayd
Countie, against _Elizabeth Sowtherns_, alias
_Demdike_ her Graund-mother.
_Viz._
The sayd _Alizon Deuice_ sayth, that about two yeares agon, her
Graund-mother (called _Elizabeth Sowtherns_, alias old _Demdike_) did
sundry times in going or walking togeather as they went begging,
perswade and aduise this Examinate to let a Deuill or Familiar appeare
vnto her; and that shee this Examinate, would let him sucke at some
part of her, and shee might haue, and doe what shee would.
And she further sayth, that one _Iohn Nutter_ of the _Bulhole_ in
_Pendle_ aforesaid, had a Cow which was sicke, & requested this
examinats Grand-mother to amend the said Cow; and her said
Graund-mother said she would, and so her said Graund-mother about ten
of the clocke in the night, desired this examinate to lead her foorth;
which this Examinate did, being then blind: and her Graund-mother did
remaine about halfe an houre foorth: and this Examinates sister did
fetch her in againe; but what she did when she was so foorth, this
Examinate cannot tell. But the next morning this Examinate heard that
the sayd Cow was dead. And this Examinate verily thinketh, that her
sayd Graund-mother did bewitch the sayd Cow to death.
And further, this Examinate sayth, that about two yeares agon, this
Examinate hauing gotten a Piggin full[C_b_] of blew Milke by begging,
brought it into the house of her Graund-mother, where (this Examinate
going foorth presently, and staying about halfe an houre) there was
Butter to the quantity of a quarterne of a pound in the said milke,
and the quantitie of the said milke still remayning; and her
Graund-mother had no Butter in the house when this Examinate went
foorth: duering which time, this Examinates Graund-mother still lay in
her bed.
And further this Examinate sayth, that _Richard Baldwin_ of _Weethead_
within the Forrest of _Pendle_, about 2. yeeres agoe, fell out with
this Examinates Graund-mother, & so would not let her come vpon his
Land: and about foure or fiue dayes then next after, her said
Graund-mother did request this Examinate to lead her foorth about ten
of the clocke in the night: which this Examinate accordingly did, and
she stayed foorth then about an houre, and this Examinates sister
fetched her in againe. And this Examinate heard the next morning, that
a woman Child of the sayd _Richard Baldwins_ was fallen sicke; and as
this Examinate did then heare, the sayd Child did languish afterwards
by the space of a yeare, or thereaboutes, and dyed: And this Examinate
verily thinketh, that her said Graund-mother did bewitch the sayd
Child to death.
And further, this Examinate sayth, that she heard her sayd
Graund-mother say presently after her falling out with the sayd
_Baldwin_, shee would pray for the sayd _Baldwin_ both still and
loude: and this Examinate heard her cursse the sayd _Baldwin_ sundry
times.
* * * * *
The Examination of _Iames Deuice_ of the Forrest of
_Pendle_, in the Countie of _Lancaster_ Labourer, taken the
27. day of April, _Annoq; Regni Regis Iacobi, Angliæ, &c._
_Decimo: ac Scotie Quadragesimo quinto_: Before
_Roger Nowell and Nicholas Banister, Esq._[C2_a_]
two of his Maiesties Iustices of Peace within
the sayd Countie.
The sayd Examinate _Iames Deuice_ sayth, that about a month agoe,
as this Examinate was comming towards his Mothers house, and at
day-gate of the same night, [Sidenote: _Euening_] this Examinate mette
a browne Dogge comming from his Graund-mothers house, about tenne
Roodes distant from the same house: and about two or three nights
after, that this Examinate heard a voyce of a great number of Children
screiking and crying pittifully, about day-light gate; and likewise,
about ten Roodes distant of this Examinates sayd Graund-mothers house.
And about fiue nights then next following, presently after daylight,
within 20. Roodes of the sayd _Elizabeth Sowtherns_ house, he heard a
foule yelling like vnto a great number of Cattes: but what they were,
this Examinate cannot tell. And he further sayth, that about three
nights after that, about midnight of the same, there came a thing, and
lay vpon him very heauily about an houre, and went then from him out
of his Chamber window, coloured blacke, and about the bignesse of a
Hare or Catte. And he further sayth, that about _S. Peter's_ day last,
one _Henry Bullocke_ came to the sayd _Elizabeth Sowtherns_ house, and
sayd, that her Graund-child _Alizon Deuice_, had bewitched a Child of
his, and desired her that she would goe with him to his house; which
accordingly she did: And therevpon she the said _Alizon_ fell downe on
her knees, & asked the said _Bullocke_ forgiuenes, and confessed to
him, that she had bewitched the said child, as this Examinate heard
his said sister confesse vnto him this Examinate.
[Illustration: decoration]
The Examination of Elizabeth
Deuice, Daughter of old Demdike, taken
at _Read_ before _Roger Nowell_ Esquire, one of
his Maiesties Iustices of Peace within the
Countie of _Lancaster_ the xxx. day
of March, _Annoq; Regni Jacobi_
_Decimo, ac Scotie xlv._
The sayd _Elizabeth Deuice_ the Examinate, sayth, that the sayd
_Elizabeth Sowtherns_, alias _Demdike_, hath had a place on her left
side by the space of fourty yeares, in such sort, as was to be seene
at this Examinates Examination taking, at this present time.
Heere this worthy Iustice M. _Nowell_, out of these particular
Examinations, or rather Accusations, finding matter to proceed; and
hauing now before him old _Demdike_, old _Chattox_, _Alizon Deuice_,
and _Redferne_ both old and young, _Reos confitentes, et Accusantes
Inuicem_. About the second of Aprill last past, committed and sent
them away to the Castle at _Lancaster_, there to remaine vntill the
comming of the Kinges Maiesties Iustices of Assise, then to receiue
their tryall.
But heere they had not stayed a weeke, when their Children and
Friendes being abroad at libertie, laboured a speciall meeting at
_Malking Tower_ in the Forrest of _Pendle_,[C3_a_] vpon Good-fryday,
within a weeke after they were committed, of all the most dangerous,
wicked, and damnable Witches in the County farre and neere. Vpon
Good-fryday they met, according to solemne appoyntment, solemnized
this great Feastiuall day according to their former order, with great
cheare, merry company, and much conference.
In the end, in this great Assemblie, it was decreed M. _Couell_ by
reason of his Office, shall be slaine before the next Assises: The
Castle of _Lancaster_ to be blowen vp, and ayde and assistance to be
sent to kill M. _Lister_, with his old Enemie and wicked Neighbour
_Iennet Preston_; with some other such like practices: as vpon their
Arraignement and Tryall, are particularly set foorth, and giuen in
euidence against them.
This was not so secret, but some notice of it came to M. _Nowell_, and
by his great paines taken in the Examination of _Iennet Deuice_, al
their practises are now made knowen. Their purpose to kill M.
_Couell_, and blow vp the Castle, is preuented. All their Murders,
Witchcraftes, Inchauntments, Charmes, & Sorceries, are discouered; and
euen in the middest of their consultations, they are all confounded,
and arrested by Gods Iustice: brought before M. _Nowell_, and M.
_Bannester_, vpon their voluntary confessions, Examinations, and other
Euidence accused, and so by them committed to the Castle: So as now
both old and young, haue taken vp their lodgings with M. _Couell_,
vntill the next Assises, expecting their Tryall and deliuerance,
according to the Lawes prouided for such like.
In the meane time, M. _Nowell_ hauing knowledge by this discouery of
their meeting at _Malkeing Tower_, and their resolution to execute
mischiefe, takes great paines to apprehend such as were at libertie,
and prepared Euidence against all such as were in question for
Witches.
Afterwardes sendes some of these Examinations, to the Assises at
Yorke, to be giuen in Evidence against _Iennet Preston_, who for the
murder of M. _Lister_, is condemned and executed.
The Circuite of the North partes being now almost ended.
The 16. of August.
Vpon Sunday in the after noone, my honorable Lords the Iudges of
Assise, came from _Kendall_ to _Lancaster_.
Wherevpon M. _Couell_, presented vnto their Lordships a Calender,
conteyning the Names of the Prisoners committed to his charge, which
were to receiue their Tryall at the Assises: Out of which, we are
onely to deale with the proceedings against Witches, which were as
followeth.
_Viz._
The Names of the
Witches committed to the
Castle of _Lancaster_.
_Elizabeth Sowtherns._ } Who dyed before
alias } shee
_Old Demdike._ } came to her tryall.
_Anne Whittle_, alias _Chattox._
_Elizabeth Deuice_, Daughter of old _Demdike._
_Iames Deuice_, Sonne of _Elizabeth Deuice._
_Anne Readfearne_, Daughter of _Anne Chattox._
_Alice Nutter._
_Katherine Hewytte._
_Iohn Bulcocke._
_Iane Bulcocke._
_Alizon Deuice_, Daughter of _Elizabeth Deuice._
_Isabell Robey._
_Magaret Pearson._
The Witches of Salmesbury.
_Iennet Bierley._ } { _Elizabeth Astley._
_Elen Bierley._ } { _Alice Gray._
_Iane Southworth._ } { _Isabell Sidegraues._
_Iohn Ramesden._ } { _Lawrence Haye._
The next day, being Monday, the 17. of August, were the Assises holden
in the Castle of _Lancaster_, as followeth.
* * * * *
Placita Coronæ.
[Sidenote: _Lanc. fss._]
_Deliberatio Gaolæ Domini Regis Castri fui Lancasstr. ac
Prisonarior[=u] in eadem existent. Tenta apud Lancastr. in com.
Lancastr. Die Lunæ, Decimo septimo die Augusti, Anno Regni Domini
nostri Iacobi dei gratia Anglicæ, Franciæ, et Hiberniæ, Regis fidei
defensoris; Decimo: et Scotiæ Quadragesimo sexto; Coram Iacobo Altham
Milit. vno Baronum Scaccarij Domini Regis, et Edwardo Bromley Milit.
altero Baronum eiusdem Scaccarij Domini Regis: ac Iustic. dicti Domini
Regis apud Lancastr._
Vpon the Tewesday in the after noone, the Iudges according to the
course and order, deuided them selues, where vpon my Lord _Bromley_,
one of his Maiesties Iudges of Assise comming into the Hall to
proceede with the Pleaes of the Crowne, & the Arraignement and Tryall
of Prisoners, commaunded a generall Proclamation, that all Iustices of
Peace that had taken any Recognisaunces, or Examinations of Prisoners,
should make Returne of them: And all such as were bound to prosecute
Indictmentes, and giue Euidence against Witches, should proceede, and
giue attendance: For hee now intended to proceede to the Arraignement
and Tryall of Witches.
After which, the Court being set, M. Sherieffe was commaunded to
present his Prisoners before his Lordship, and prepare a sufficient
Iurie of Gentlemen for life and death. But heere we want old
_Demdike_, who dyed in the Castle before she came to her
tryall.[C4_b_]
Heere you may not expect the exact order of the Assises, with the
Proclamations, and other solemnities belonging to so great a Court of
Iustice; but the proceedinges against the Witches, who are now vpon
their deliuerance here in order as they came to the Barre, with the
particular poyntes of Euidence against them: which is the labour and
worke we now intend (by Gods grace) to performe as we may, to your
generall contentment.
Wherevpon, the first of all these, _Anne Whittle_, alias
_Chattox_,[D_b_] was brought to the Barre: against whom wee are now
ready to proceed.
[Illustration: decoration]
The Arraignement and
Tryall of Anne Whittle, _alias_ Chattox,
of the Forrest of _Pendle_, in the Countie
of _Lancaster_, Widdow;
about the age of Fourescore
yeares, or thereaboutes.
_Anne Whittle_, alias _Chattox._
If in this damnable course of life, and offences, more horrible and
odious, then any man is able to expresse: any man lyuing could lament
the estate of any such like vpon earth: The example of this poore
creature, would haue moued pittie, in respect of her great contrition
and repentance, after she was committed to the Castle at _Lancaster_,
vntill the comming of his Maiesties Iudges of Assise. But such was the
nature of her offences, & the multitude of her crying sinnes, as it
tooke away all sense of humanity. And the repetition of her hellish
practises, and Reuenge; being the chiefest thinges wherein she alwayes
tooke great delight, togeather with a particular declaration of the
Murders shee had committed, layde open to the world, and giuen in
Euidence against her at the time of her Arraignement and Tryall; as
certainely it did beget contempt in the Audience, and such as she
neuer offended.
This _Anne Whittle_, alias _Chattox_, was a very old withered spent
and decreped creature, her sight almost gone: A dangerous Witch, of
very long continuance; alwayes opposite to old _Demdike_: For whom the
one fauoured, the other hated deadly: [Sidenote: _Her owne
examination_] and how they enuie and accuse one an other, in their
Examinations, may appeare.
In her Witchcraft, alwayes more ready to doe mischiefe to mens goods,
then themselues. Her lippes euer chattering and walking:[D2_a_1] but
no man knew what. She liued in the Forrest of _Pendle_, amongst this
wicked company of dangerous Witches. Yet in her Examination and
Confession, she dealt alwayes very plainely and truely: for vpon a
speciall occasion being oftentimes examined in open Court, shee was
neuer found to vary, but alwayes to agree in one, and the selfe same
thing.
I place her in order, next to that wicked fire-brand of mischiefe, old
_Demdike_, because from these two, sprung all the rest in
order:[D2_a_2] and were the Children and Friendes, of these two
notorious Witches.
Many thinges in the discouery of them, shall be very worthy your
obseruation. As the times and occasions to execute their mischiefe.
And this in generall: the Spirit could neuer hurt, till they gaue
consent.
And, but that it is my charge, to set foorth a particular Declaration
of the Euidence against them, vpon their Arraignement and Tryall; with
their Diuelish practises, consultations, meetings, and murders
committed by them, in such sort, as they were giuen in Euidence
against them; for the which, I shall haue matter vpon Record. I could
make a large Comentarie of them: But it is my humble duety, to obserue
the Charge and Commaundement of these my Honorable good Lordes the
Iudges of Assise, and not to exceed the limits of my Commission.
Wherefore I shall now bring this auncient Witch, to the due course of
her Tryall, in order. _viz._
Indictment.
This _Anne Whittle_, alias _Chattox_, of the Forrest of _Pendle_ in
the Countie of _Lancaster_ Widdow, being Indicted, for that shee
feloniously had practised, vsed, and exercised diuers wicked and
diuelish Artes called Witchcraftes, Inchauntmentes, Charmes, and
Sorceries, in and vpon one _Robert Nutter_ of _Greenehead_, in the
Forrest of _Pendle_, in the Countie of _Lanc_: and by force of the
same Witchcraft, feloniously the sayd _Robert Nutter_ had killed,
_Contra Pacem, &c._ Being at the Barre, was arraigned.
To this Indictment, vpon her Arraignement, shee pleaded, Not guiltie:
and for the tryall of her life, put her selfe vpon God and her
Country.
Wherevpon my Lord _Bromley_ commaunded M. Sheriffe of the County of
_Lancaster_ in open Court, to returne a Iurie of worthy sufficient
Gentlemen of vnderstanding, to passe betweene our soueraigne Lord the
Kinges Maiestie, and her, and others the Prisoners, vpon their liues
and deathes; as hereafter follow in order: who were afterwardes
sworne, according to the forme and order of the Court, the Prisoners
being admitted to their lawfull challenges.
Which being done, and the Prisoner at the Barre readie to receiue her
Tryall: M. _Nowell_, being the best instructed of any man, of all the
particular poyntes of Euidence against her, and her fellowes, hauing
taken great paynes in the proceedinges against her and her fellowes;
Humbly prayed, her owne voluntary Confession and Examination taken
before him, when she was apprehended and committed to the Castle of
_Lancaster_ for Witchcraft; might openly be published against her:
which hereafter followeth. _Viz._
* * * * *
The voluntary Confession and Examination of
_Anne Whittle_, alias _Chattox_, taken at the _Fence_ in the
Forrest of _Pendle_, in the Countie of _Lancaster_;
Before _Roger Nowell Esq_, one of the
Kinges Maiesties Iustices of Peace
in the Countie of Lancaster.
Viz.
The sayd _Anne Whittle_, alias _Chattox_, vpon her Examination,
voluntarily confesseth, and sayth, That about foureteene or fifteene
yeares agoe, a thing like a Christian man for foure yeares togeather,
did sundry times come to this Examinate, and requested this Examinate
to giue him her Soule: And in the end, this Examinate was contented to
giue him her sayd Soule, shee being then in her owne house, in the
Forrest of _Pendle_; wherevpon the Deuill then in the shape of a Man,
sayd to this Examinate: Thou shalt want nothing; and be reuenged of
whom thou list. And the Deuill then further commaunded this
Examinate, to call him by the name of _Fancie_;[D3_a_] and when she
wanted any thing, or would be reuenged of any, call on _Fancie_, and
he would be ready. And the sayd Spirit or Deuill, did appeare vnto her
not long after, in mans likenesse, and would haue had this Examinate
to haue consented, that he might hurt the wife of _Richard Baldwin_ of
_Pendle_;[D3_b_1] But this Examinate would not then consent vnto him:
For which cause, the sayd Deuill would then haue bitten her by the
arme; and so vanished away, for that time.
And this Examinate further sayth, that _Robert Nutter_[D3_b_2] did
desire her Daughter one _Redfearns_ wife, to haue his pleasure of her,
being then in _Redfearns_ house: but the sayd _Redfearns_ wife denyed
the sayd _Robert_; wherevpon the sayd _Robert_ seeming to be greatly
displeased therewith, in a great anger tooke his Horse, and went away,
saying in a great rage, that if euer the Ground came to him, shee
should neuer dwell vpon his Land. Wherevpon this Examinate called
_Fancie_ to her; who came to her in the likenesse of a Man in a
parcell of Ground called, _The Laund_; asking this Examinate, what
shee would haue him to doe? And this Examinate bade him goe reuenge
her of the sayd _Robert Nutter_. After which time, the sayd _Robert
Nutter_ liued about a quarter of a yeare, and then dyed.
And this Examinate further sayth, that _Elizabeth Nutter_, wife to old
_Robert Nutter_, did request this Examinate, and _Loomeshaws_ wife of
_Burley_, and one _Iane Boothman_, of the same, who are now both dead,
(which time of request, was before that _Robert Nutter_ desired the
company of _Redfearns_ wife) to get young _Robert Nutter_ his death,
if they could; all being togeather then at that time, to that end,
that if _Robert_ were dead, then the Women their Coosens might haue
the Land: By whose perswasion, they all consented vnto it. After which
time, this Examinates Sonne in law _Thomas Redfearne_, did perswade
this Examinate, not to kill or hurt the sayd _Robert Nutter_; for
which perswasion, the sayd _Loomeshaws_ Wife, had like to haue killed
the sayd _Redfearne_, but that one M. _Baldwyn_ (the late
Schoole-maister at _Coulne_) did by his learning, stay the sayd
_Loomeshaws_ wife, and therefore had a Capon from _Redfearne_.[D4_a_]
And this Examinate further sayth, that she thinketh the sayd
_Loomeshaws_ wife, and _Iane Boothman_, did what they could to kill
the sayd _Robert Nutter_, as well as this Examinate did.
* * * * *
_The Examination of_ ELIZABETH
SOTHERNES, alias OLD DEMBDIKE: _taken at
the Fence in the Forrest of Pendle in the Countie of Lancaster,
the day and yeare aforesaid._
Before,
ROGER NOWEL _Esquire, one of the Kings Maiesties
Iustices of Peace in the said Countie, against_ ANNE
WHITTLE, alias CHATTOX.
The said _Elizabeth Southernes_ saith vpon her Examination, that
about halfe a yeare before _Robert Nutter_ died, as this Examinate
thinketh, this Examinate went to the house of _Thomas Redfearne_,
which was about Mid-sommer, as this Examinate remembreth it. And there
within three yards of the East end of the said house, shee saw the
said _Anne Whittle_, alias _Chattox_, and _Anne Redferne_ wife of the
said _Thomas Redferne_, and Daughter of the said _Anne Whittle_, alias
_Chattox_: the one on the one side of the Ditch, and the other on the
other: and two Pictures of Clay or Marle lying by them: and the third
Picture the said _Anne Whittle_, alias _Chattox_, was making: and the
said _Anne Redferne_ her said Daughter, wrought her Clay or Marle to
make the third picture withall. And this Examinate passing by them,
the said Spirit, called _Tibb_, in the shape of a black Cat, appeared
vnto her this Examinate, and said, turne back againe, and doe as they
doe: To whom this Examinate said, what are they doing? whereunto the
said Spirit said; they are making three Pictures: whereupon she asked
whose pictures they were? whereunto the said Spirit said; they are
the pictures of _Christopher Nutter_, _Robert Nutter_, and _Marie_,
wife of the said _Robert Nutter_: But this Examinate denying to goe
back to helpe them to make the Pictures aforesaid; the said Spirit
seeming to be angrie, therefore shoue or pushed this Examinate into
the ditch, and so shed the Milke which this Examinate had in a Can or
Kit: and so thereupon the Spirit at that time vanished out of this
Examinates sight: But presently after that, the said Spirit appeared
to this Examinate againe in the shape of a Hare, and so went with her
about a quarter of a mile, but said nothing to this Examinate, nor
shee to it.
* * * * *
_The Examination and euidence of_ IAMES
ROBINSON,[E_b_1] _taken the day and yeare aforesaid._
Before
ROGER NOWEL _Esquire aforesaid, against_ ANNE
WHITTLE, alias CHATTOX, _Prisoner at the Barre
as followeth._ viz.
The said Examinate saith, that about sixe yeares agoe, _Anne
Whittle_, alias _Chattox_, was hired by this Examinates wife to card
wooll;[E_b_2] and so vpon a Friday and Saturday, shee came and carded
wooll with this Examinates wife, and so the Munday then next after
shee came likewise to card: and this Examinates wife hauing newly
tunned drinke into Stands, which stood by the said _Anne Whittle_,
alias _Chattox_: and the said _Ann Whittle_ taking a Dish or Cup, and
drawing drinke seuerall times: and so neuer after that time, for some
eight or nine weekes, they could haue any drinke, but spoiled, and as
this Examinate thinketh was by the meanes of the said _Chattox_. And
further he saith, that the said _Anne Whittle_, alias _Chattox_, and
_Anne Redferne_ her said Daughter, are commonly reputed and reported
to bee Witches. And hee also saith, that about some eighteene yeares
agoe, he dwelled with one _Robert Nutter_ the elder, of Pendle
aforesaid. And that yong _Robert Nutter_, who dwelled with his
Grand-father, in the Sommer time, he fell sicke, and in his said
sicknesse hee did seuerall times complaine, that hee had harme by
them: and this Examinate asking him what hee meant by that word
_Them_, He said, that he verily thought that the said _Anne Whittle_,
alias _Chattox_, and the said _Redfernes_ wife, had bewitched him: and
the said _Robert Nutter_ shortly after, being to goe with his then
Master, called Sir _Richard Shattleworth_,[E2_a_] into Wales, this
Examinate heard him say before his then going, vnto the said _Thomas
Redferne_, that if euer he came againe he would get his Father to put
the said _Redferne_ out of his house, or he himselfe would pull it
downe; to whom the said _Redferne_ replyed, saying; when you come back
againe you will be in a better minde: but he neuer came back againe,
but died before Candlemas in Cheshire, as he was comming homeward.
Since the voluntarie confession and examination of a Witch, doth
exceede all other euidence, I spare to trouble you with a multitude of
Examinations, or Depositions of any other witnesses, by reason this
bloudie fact, for the Murder of _Robert Nutter_, vpon so small an
occasion, as to threaten to take away his owne land from such as were
not worthie to inhabite or dwell vpon it, is now made by that which
you haue alreadie heard, so apparant, as no indifferent man will
question it, or rest vnsatisfied: I shall now proceede to set forth
vnto you the rest of her actions, remaining vpon Record. And how
dangerous it was for any man to liue neere these people, to giue them
any occasion of offence, I leaue it to your good consideration.
* * * * *
_The Examination and voluntarie Confession
of_ ANNE WHITTLE, alias CHATTOX, _taken
at the Fence in the Forrest of Pendle, in the Countie
of Lancaster, the second day of Aprill_, Anno Regni
Regis IACOBI ANGLIÆ, Franciæ, & Hiberniæ, decimo
& Scotiæ xlv.
Before
ROGER NOWEL, _Esquire, one of his Maiesties
Iustices of Peace within the Countie of Lancaster._
She the said Examinate saith, That shee was sent for by the wife of
_Iohn Moore_, to helpe drinke that was forspoken or bewitched: at
which time shee vsed this Prayer for the amending of it, _viz._
_A Charme._[E2_b_]
_Three Biters hast thou bitten,
The Hart, ill Eye, ill Tonge:
Three bitter shall be thy Boote,
Father, Sonne, and Holy Ghost
a Gods name,
Fiue Pater-nosters, fiue Auies,
and a Creede,
In worship of fiue wounds
of our Lord._
After which time that this Examinate had vsed these prayers, and
amended her drinke, the said _Moores_ wife did chide this Examinate,
and was grieued at her.
And thereupon this Examinate called for her Deuill _Fancie_, and bad
him goe bite a browne Cow of the said _Moores_ by the head, and make
the Cow goe madde: and the Deuill then, in the likenesse of a browne
Dogge, went to the said Cow, and bit her: which Cow went madde
accordingly, and died within six weekes next after, or thereabouts.
Also this Examinate saith, That she perceiuing _Anthonie Nutter_ of
Pendle to fauour _Elizabeth Sothernes_, alias _Dembdike_,[E3_a_1] she,
this Examinate, called _Fancie_ to her, (who appeared like a man) and
bad him goe kill a Cow of the said _Anthonies_; which the said Deuill
did, and that Cow died also.
And further this Examinate saith, That the Deuill, or _Fancie_, hath
taken most of her sight away from her. And further this Examinate
saith, That in Summer last, saue one, the said Deuill, or _Fancie_,
came vpon this Examinate in the night time: and at diuerse and sundry
times in the likenesse of a Beare, gaping as though he would haue
wearied this Examinate.[E3_a_2] And the last time of all shee, this
Examinate, saw him, was vpon Thursday last yeare but one, next before
Midsummer day, in the euening, like a Beare, and this Examinate would
not then speake vnto him, for the which the said Deuill pulled this
Examinate downe.
* * * * *
_The Examination of_ IAMES DEVICE,[E3_b_]
_sonne of_ ELIZABETH DEVICE, _taken the seuen and
twentieth day of Aprill_, Annoq; Reg. Regis IACOBI
Angliæ, &c. Decimo ac Scotiæ xlv.
Before
ROGER NOWEL and NICHOLAS BANISTER,
_Esquires, two of his Maiesties Iustices of the Peace within
the said Countie._ viz.
And further saith, That twelue yeares agoe, the said _Anne Chattox_
at a Buriall at the new Church in Pendle, did take three scalpes of
people, which had been buried, and then cast out of a graue, as she
the said _Chattox_ told this Examinate; and tooke eight teeth out of
the said Scalpes, whereof she kept foure to her selfe, and gaue other
foure to the said _Demdike_, this Examinates Grand-mother: which foure
teeth now shewed to this Examinate, are the foure teeth that the said
_Chattox_ gaue to his said Grand-mother, as aforesaid; which said
teeth haue euer since beene kept, vntill now found by the said _Henry
Hargreiues_ & this Examinate, at the West-end of this Examinates
Grand-mothers house, and there buried in the earth, and a Picture of
Clay there likewise found by them, about halfe a yard ouer in the
earth, where the said teeth lay, which said picture so found was
almost withered away, and was the Picture of _Anne_, _Anthony Nutters_
daughter; as this Examinates Grand-mother told him.
* * * * *
_The Examination of_ ALLIZON DEVICE
_daughter of_ ELIZABETH DEVICE: _Taken at
Reade, in the Countie of Lancaster, the thirtieth day of
March_, Annoq; Reg. Regis IACOBI nunc Angliæ,
&c. Decimo, & Scotiæ Quadragesimo quinto.
Before
ROGER NOWEL _of Reade aforesaid, Esquire, one
of his Maiesties Iustices of the Peace, within the said
Countie._
This Examinate saith, that about eleuen yeares agoe, this Examinate
and her mother had their firehouse broken,[E4_a_] and all, or the most
part of their linnen clothes, & halfe a peck of cut oat-meale, and a
quantitie of meale gone, all which was worth twentie shillings, or
aboue: and vpon a Sunday then next after, this Examinate did take a
band and a coife, parcell of the goods aforesaid, vpon the daughter of
_Anne Whittle, alias Chattox_, and claimed them to be parcell of the
goods stolne, as aforesaid.
And this Examinate further saith, That her father, called _Iohn
Deuice_, being afraid, that the said _Anne Chattox_ should doe him or
his goods any hurt by Witchcraft; did couenant with the said _Anne_,
that if she would hurt neither of them, she should yearely haue one
Aghen-dole of meale;[E4_b_1] which meale was yearely paid, vntill the
yeare which her father died in, which was about eleuen yeares since:
Her father vpon his then-death-bed, taking it that the said _Anne
Whittle_, alias _Chattox_, did bewitch him to death, because the said
meale was not paid the last yeare.
And she also saith, That about two yeares agone, this Examinate being
in the house of _Anthony Nutter_ of Pendle aforesaid, and being then
in company with _Anne Nutter_, daughter of the said _Anthony_: the
said _Anne Whittle_, alias _Chattox_, came into the said _Anthony
Nutters_ house, and seeing this Examinate, and the said _Anne Nutter_
laughing, and saying, that they laughed at her the said _Chattox_:
well said then (sayes _Anne Chattox_) I will be meet with the one of
you. And vpon the next day after, she the said _Anne Nutter_ fell
sicke, and within three weekes after died. And further, this Examinate
saith, That about two yeares agoe, she, this Examinate, hath heard,
That the said _Anne Whittle_, alias _Chattox_, was suspected for
bewitching the drinke of _Iohn Moore_ of Higham Gentleman:[E4_b_2] and
not long after, shee this Examinate heard the said _Chattox_ say, that
she would meet with the said _Iohn Moore_, or his.[E4_b_3] Whereupon a
child of the said _Iohn Moores_, called _Iohn_, fell sick, and
languished about halfe a yeare, and then died: during which
languishing, this Examinate saw the said _Chattox_ sitting in her owne
garden, and a picture of Clay like vnto a child in her Apron; which
this Examinate espying, the said _Anne Chattox_ would haue hidde with
her Apron: and this Examinate declaring the same to her mother, her
mother thought it was the picture of the said _Iohn Moores_ childe.
And she this Examinate further saith, That about sixe or seuen yeares
agoe, the said _Chattox_ did fall out with one _Hugh Moore_ of Pendle,
as aforesaid, about certaine cattell of the said _Moores_, which the
said _Moore_ did charge the said _Chattox_ to haue bewitched: for
which the said _Chattox_ did curse and worry the said _Moore_, and
said she would be Reuenged of the said _Moore_: whereupon the said
_Moore_ presently fell sicke, and languished about halfe a yeare, and
then died. Which _Moore_ vpon his death-bed said, that the said
_Chattox_ had bewitched him to death. And she further saith, That
about sixe yeares agoe, a daughter of the said _Anne Chattox_, called
_Elizabeth_, hauing been at the house of _Iohn Nutter_ of the
Bull-hole, to begge or get a dish full of milke, which she had, and
brought to her mother, who was about a fields breadth of the said
_Nutters_ house, which her said mother _Anne Chattox_ tooke and put
into a Kan, and did charne[F_a_1] the same with two stickes acrosse in
the same field: whereupon the said _Iohn Nutters_ sonne came vnto her,
the said _Chattox_, and misliking her doings, put the said Kan and
milke ouer with his foot; and the morning next after, a Cow of the
said _Iohn Nutters_ fell sicke, and so languished three or foure
dayes, and then died.
In the end being openly charged with all this in open Court; with
weeping teares she humbly acknowledged them to be true,[F_a_2] and
cried out vnto God for Mercy and forgiuenesse of her sinnes, and
humbly prayed my Lord to be mercifull vnto _Anne Redfearne_ her
daughter, of whose life and condition you shall heare more vpon her
Arraignement and Triall: whereupon shee being taken away, _Elizabeth
Deuice_ comes now to receiue her Triall being the next in order, of
whom you shall heare at large.
[Illustration: decoration]
THE ARRAIGNMENT
_and Triall of_ ELIZABETH DEVICE
(_Daughter of_ ELIZABETH SOTHERNES,
alias OLD DEMBDIKE) _late wife of_ IO. DEVICE,
_of the Forrest of Pendle, in the Countie of Lancaster, widow,
for Witchcraft; Vpon Tuesday the eighteenth of August,
at the Assises and generall Gaole-Deliuerie holden at
Lancaster_
Before
_Sir_ EDWARD BROMLEY _Knight, one of his Maiesties
Iustices of Assise at Lancaster._
_Elizabeth Deuice._
O Barbarous and inhumane Monster, beyond example; so farre from
sensible vnderstanding of thy owne miserie, as to bring thy owne
naturall children into mischiefe and bondage; and thy selfe to be a
witnesse vpon the Gallowes, to see thy owne children, by thy deuillish
instructions hatcht vp in Villanie and Witchcraft, to suffer with
thee, euen in the beginning of their time, a shamefull and vntimely
Death. Too much (so it be true) cannot be said or written of her. Such
was her life and condition: that euen at the Barre, when shee came to
receiue her Triall (where the least sparke of Grace or modestie would
haue procured fauour, or moued pitie) she was not able to containe her
selfe within the limits of any order or gouernment: but exclaiming, in
very outragious manner crying out against her owne children, and such
as came to prosecute Indictments & Euidence for the Kings Maiestie
against her, for the death of their Children, Friends, and Kinsfolkes,
whome cruelly and bloudily, by her Enchauntments, Charmes, and
Sorceries she had murthered and cut off; sparing no man with fearefull
execrable curses and banning:[F2_b_] Such in generall was the common
opinion of the Countrey where she dwelt, in the Forrest of Pendle (a
place fit for people of such condition) that no man neere her, neither
his wife, children, goods, or cattell should be secure or free from
danger.
This _Elizabeth Deuice_ was the daughter of _Elizabeth Sothernes_, old
_Dembdike_, a malicious, wicked, and dangerous Witch for fiftie
yeares, as appeareth by Record: and how much longer, the Deuill and
shee knew best with whome shee made her couenant.
It is very certaine, that amongst all these Witches there was not a
more dangerous and deuillish Witch to execute mischiefe, hauing old
_Dembdike_, her mother, to assist her; _Iames Deuice_ and _Alizon
Deuice_, her owne naturall children, all prouided with Spirits, vpon
any occasion of offence readie to assist her.
Vpon her Examination, although Master _Nowel_ was very circumspect,
and exceeding carefull in dealing with her, yet she would confesse
nothing, vntill it pleased God to raise vp a yong maid, _Iennet
Deuice_, her owne daughter, about the age of nine yeares (a witnesse
vnexpected) to discouer all their Practises, Meetings, Consultations,
Murthers, Charmes, and Villanies: such, and in such sort, as I may
iustly say of them, as a reuerend and learned Iudge of this Kingdome
speaketh of the greatest Treason that euer was in this Kingdome, _Quis
hæc posteris sic narrare poterit, vt facta non ficta esse videantur?_
That when these things shall be related to Posteritie, they will be
reputed matters fained, not done.
And then knowing, that both _Iennet Deuice_, her daughter, _Iames
Deuice_, her sonne, and _Alizon Deuice_, with others, had accused her
and layed open all things, in their Examinations taken before Master
_Nowel_, and although she were their owne naturall mother, yet they
did not spare to accuse her of euery particular fact, which in her
time she had committed, to their knowledge; she made a very liberall
and voluntarie Confession, as hereafter shall be giuen in euidence
against her, vpon her Arraignment and Triall.
This _Elizabeth Deuice_ being at libertie, after Old _Dembdike_ her
mother, _Alizon Deuice_, her daughter, and old _Chattocks_ were
committed to the Castle of Lancaster for Witchcraft; laboured not a
little to procure a solemne meeting at Malkyn-Tower of the Graund
Witches of the Counties of Lancaster and Yorke, being yet vnsuspected
and vntaken, to consult of some speedie course for the deliuerance of
their friends, the Witches at Lancaster, and for the putting in
execution of some other deuillish practises of Murther and Mischiefe:
as vpon the Arraignement and Triall of _Iames Deuice_, her sonne,
shall hereafter in euery particular point appeare at large against
her.
The first Indictment.
This _Elizabeth Deuice_, late the wife of _Iohn Deuice_, of the
Forrest of Pendle in the Countie of Lancaster Widdow, being indicted,
for that shee felloniously had practized, vsed, and exercised diuers
wicked and deuillish Arts, called _Witch-crafts_, _Inchantments_,
_Charmes_, and _Sorceries_, in, and vpon one _Iohn Robinson_, alias
_Swyer_: and by force of the same felloniously, the said _Iohn
Robinson_, alias _Swyer_, had killed. _Contra pacem, &c._ being at the
Barre was arraigned.
2. Indictment.
The said _Elizabeth Deuice_ was the second time indicted in the same
manner and forme, for the death of _Iames Robinson_, by Witch-craft.
_Contra pacem, &c._
3. Indictment.
The said _Elizabeth Deuice_, was the third time with others, _viz._
_Alice Nutter_, and _Elizabeth Sothernes_, alias _Old-Dembdike_, her
Grand-mother, Indicted in the same manner and forme, for the death of
_Henrie Mytton_. _Contra pacem, &c._
To these three seuerall Indictments vpon her Arraignement, shee
pleaded not guiltie; and for the tryall of her life, put her selfe
vpon God and her Countrie.
So as now the Gentlemen of the Iurie of life and death, stand charged
to finde, whether shee bee guiltie of them, or any of them.
Whereupon there was openly read, and giuen in euidence against her,
for the Kings Majestie, her owne voluntarie Confession and
Examination, when shee was apprehended, taken, and committed to the
Castle of Lancaster by M. _Nowel_, and M. _Bannester_, two of his
Maiesties Iustices of Peace in the same Countie. _viz._
* * * * *
_The Examination and voluntarie Confession
of_ ELIZABETH DEVICE, _taken at the house of_
IAMES WILSEY _of the Forrest of Pendle, in the Countie
of Lancaster, the seuen and twentieth day of Aprill:
Anno Reg._ IACOBI, _Angl. &c. decimo, & Scotiæ_ xlv.
Before
ROGER NOWEL, _and_ NICHOLAS BANNESTER,
_Esquires; two of his Maiesties Iustices of the Peace
within the same Countie._ viz.
The said _Elizabeth Deuice_, Mother of the said
_Iames_, being examined, confesseth and saith.
That at the third time her Spirit,[F4_a_] the Spirit _Ball_,
appeared to her in the shape of a browne Dogge, at, or in her Mothers
house in Pendle Forrest aforesaid: about foure yeares agoe the said
Spirit bidde this Examinate make a picture of Clay after the said
_Iohn Robinson_, alias _Swyer_, which this Examinate did make
accordingly at the West end of her said Mothers house, and dryed the
same picture with the fire and crumbled all the same picture away
within a weeke or thereabouts, and about a weeke after the Picture
was crumbled or mulled away; the said _Robinson_ dyed.
The reason wherefore shee this Examinate did so bewitch the said
_Robinson_ to death, was: for that the said _Robinson_ had chidden and
becalled this Examinate, for hauing a Bastard-child with one _Seller_.
And this Examinate further saith and confesseth, that shee did bewitch
the said _Iames Robinson_ to death, as in the said _Iennet Deuice_ her
examination is confessed.
And further shee saith, and confesseth, that shee with the wife of
_Richard Nutter_, and this Examinates said Mother, ioyned altogether,
and did bewitch the said _Henrie Mytton_ to death.
* * * * *
_The Examination and Euidence of_ IENNET
DEVICE, _Daughter of the said_ ELIZABETH
DEVICE, _late Wife of_ IOHN DEVICE, _of the
Forrest of Pendle, in the Countie of Lancaster._
Against
ELIZABETH DEVICE _her Mother, Prisoner at the
Barre vpon her Arraignement and Triall._ viz.
The said _Iennet Deuice_, being a yong Maide, about the age of nine
yeares,[F4_b_] and commanded to stand vp to giue euidence against her
Mother, Prisoner at the Barre: Her Mother, according to her accustomed
manner, outragiously cursing, cryed out against the child in such
fearefull manner, as all the Court did not a little wonder at her, and
so amazed the child, as with weeping teares shee cryed out vnto my
Lord the Iudge, and told him, shee was not able to speake in the
presence of her Mother.
This odious Witch was branded with a preposterous marke in Nature,
euen from her birth, which was her left eye, standing lower then the
other; the one looking downe, the other looking vp, so strangely
deformed, as the best that were present in that Honorable assembly,
and great Audience, did affirme, they had not often seene the like.
No intreatie, promise of fauour, or other respect, could put her to
silence, thinking by this her outragious cursing and threatning of the
child, to inforce her to denie that which she had formerly confessed
against her Mother, before M. _Nowel_: Forswearing and denying her
owne voluntarie confession, which you haue heard, giuen in euidence
against her at large, and so for want of further euidence to escape
that, which the Iustice of the Law had prouided as a condigne
punishment for the innocent bloud shee had spilt, and her wicked and
deuillish course of life.
In the end, when no meanes would serue, his Lordship commanded the
Prisoner to be taken away, and the M
Showing first 200,000 characters. Full text: gutenberg.org/ebooks/18253