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Witchcraft & Wicca History

Witch stories

Witchcraft

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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 Shares 1 topic 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 Shares 1 topic The Tipperary (or Clonmel) witch case : [transcripts of newspaper reports &c. concerning Bridget Cleary, burned as a witch, and the trial of her husband and neighbours for murder, in 1895] Shares 1 topic Witch stories Shares 1 topic
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About Google Book Search Google's mission is to organize the world's information and to make it universally accessible and useful. Google Book Search helps readers discover the world's books while helping authors and publishers reach new audiences. You can search through the full text of this book on the web at |http : //books . google . com/ :?4:?44. aoA Harvard College Library SQIBQI FROM THE ESTATE OF ARTEMAS WARD OF NEW YORK DECEMBER 11, 1931 WITCH STOKIES COLLECTED BY E. LYNN LINTON, AUTHOR OP " AZETH THE BOYCTL^N," " AMYMONE," ETC. " Thoa Shalt not suffer a witch to liTe."— Exodus xxii. 18. LONDON: CHAPMAN AND HALL, 193 PICCADILLY. 1861. [ The right of Trantlntifm reserved.'] ^c t 1 *■ " ~* \ \ ex M./gL>'-^-\^v^>'"v.>C:L . ♦ rmt^UM «^ ^> U**^M *«W •t»««» mMfOM) iTMBt. ')> ^' PEETACE. In offering the following collection of witch stories to the public, I do not profess to have exhausted the sub- ject, or to have made so complete a summary ss I might have done, had I been admitted into certain private libraries, which contain, I beUeve, many concealed riches. But I had no means of introduction to them, and was obliged to be content with such authorities as I found in the British Museum, and the other public libraries to which I had access. I do not think that I have left much untold ; but there must be, scattered about England, old MSS. and unique copies of records concerning which I can find only meagre allusions, or the mere names of the victims, without a distinctive fact to mark their special history. Should this book come to a second edition, any help from the possessors of these hitherto unpublished documents would be a gain to the public, and a privilege which I trust may be afforded me. Neither have I attempted to enter into the phi- losophy of the subject It is far too wide and deep to be discussed in a few hasty words; and to sift such evidence as is left us — to determine what was fraud, what self-deception, what actual disease, and what the exaggeration of the narrator — ^would have swelled my hr PREFACE. book into a br more important and bnlkj wovk than I intended or wished. As a general role, I think we may apply all the four conditions to eyery case reported; in what proportion, each reader mnst judge for himselL ThoHe who believe in direct and personal intercourse be- tween the spirit-world and man, will probably accept every account with the unquestioning belief of the six- teenth and seventeenth centuries ; those who have &ith in the calm and uniform operations of nature, will hold chiefly to the doctrine of fraud ; those who have seen much of disease and that strange condition called '^ mes- meriHra," or ** sensitiveness," will allow the presence of absolute nervous derangement, mixed up with a vast amount of conscious deception, which the insane cre- dulity and marvellous ignorance of the time rendered easy to practise ; and those who have been accustomed to sift evidence and examine witnesses, will be utterly diswitisfic^ with the loose statements and wild distortion of every instance on record. R LYNN LINTON. lAnytmf 1861. f i ^t ®i%s 0f Srrrtlanir, Scotland was always foremost in superstition. Her wild hills and lonely fells seemed the fit haunting- places for all mysterious powers ; and long after spirits had fled, and ghosts had been laid in the level plains of the South, they were to be foimd lingering about the glens and glades of Scotland. Very little of graceful fancy lighted up the gloom of those popular super- stitions. Even Elfame, or Faerie, was a place of dread and anguish, where the devil ruled heavy-handed and Hell claimed its yearly tithe, rather than the home of fun and beauty and petulant gaiety as with other nations : and the beautiful White Ladies, like the German EUe- women, had more of bale than bliss as their portion to scatter among the sons of men. Spirits like the goblin Gilpin flomer, fuU of malice and unholy cunning, — like grewsome brownies, at times unutterably terrific, at times grotesque and rude, but then more satyr-like than elfish, — ^like May Moulachs, lean and hairy-armed, watching over the fortunes of a family, but prophetic only of woe, not of weal, — like the cruel Kelpie, hiding behind the river sedges to rush out on unwary passers-by, and strangle them beneath the waters, — ^like the unsained laidly Elf, who came tempting Christian^ * 77CZ IfTZCSn OF ^CCTT-rtTD^ Yufsf^AU^p^ tA iUaah and rriL^ — w^^nt tiie pf^puLir &x9h f4 tlt^. H<^Xtmh jiprnt-iiorid ; xad hk Bcne of tibeni So w^ tiiA ^h^ \f/f^ tw gf^t^eDemy but only £erceiiefli MUt fmrh^.^ ^txfitij to man and refceGiGa to God. Bat Md/i^^ i9irj/J darfc^at and muAieat of all wa^ tike belief in wif/'ii/Taftt^ irh»^;fa mfet^uA Hfj^netj far eeatarvts like a ^^^ pMiuff Hfffm^ to the Terr h^ot of bnmanitT, and whi/'Jf i^fiM fifmhtfre mf^re bitter and destructiTe than Uffumff ihn ((fffHj ehildren a! oar Nortbem sister. HtrMif^c. that tiM? land of the Lord ahooU hare been the fatimriiAi camping-groand of Satan, that the hill of y/um nhfftM hare had itn rooto in the depths of Tophet ! Th43 firtvmhM of the faith were as gloomy as Ihe immmn. The power of the eril eye; the &culty of mii'4m(l niffhtt which always saw the hearse plnmes, and novor the l/ridal roses ; the supremacy of the devil in this (i (id-go venied world of ours, and the actual and prm'iical covenant into which men and women daily nnf/<irn(l wiih him ; the unlimited influence of the curse, atnl tlio Hiti and mischief to be wrought by charm and Hpnll ; tho power of canting sickness on whomsoever one would, Htut Uio oa«o with which a blight could be sent nti lh« foni, and a murrain to the beasts, by those who had not whorowitlial to stay their hunger for a day, {\\VH{> worn tho chief sigiiH of that fatal power with which Hatau nudowod Iuh choson ones — ^those silly, luck- Im* i*httpnu»ii wht) bartoitnl away their immortal souls for no tnt'MM of pott<ago ovon^ and no earthly good to breath Of lHHly« but only that Uioy might harm their neighbours and ii^vongt* Uiomsolvt>« on those who crossed them. H\>n\t^t in\o«, intUnHl^ thoy had no need to chaffer with the di^vil l\vr suoU fecultios; as iu the matter of the evil THE WITCHES OF SCOTLAND* 8 eye ; for Kirk, of Aberfoyle, tells us that " some are ot so venomous a Constitution, by being radiated in Envy and Malice, that they pierce and kill (like a Cockatrice) whatever Creature they first set their Eyes on in the Morning : so was it with Walter Grahame, some Time living in the Parock wherein now I am, who killed his own Cow after commending its Fatness, and shot a Hair with his Eyes, haviag praised its Swiftness (such was the Infection of ane Evill Eye) ; albeit this was unusual, yet he saw no Object but what was obvious to other Men as well as to himselfe." And a certain woman looking over the door of a byre or cowhouse, where a neighbour sat milking, shot the calf dead and dried up and sick- ened the cow, "by the venomous glance of her evil! eye,** But perhaps she had got that venom by covenant with the devil ; for this was one of the prescriptive pos- sessions of a witch, and ever the first dole from the Satanic treasury. When Janet Irving was brought to trial (1616) for imholy dealings with the foul fiend, it was proved— for was it not sworn to? and that was quite sufficient legal proof in all witchcraft cases — that he had told her " yf schoe bure ill-will to onie bodie, to look on them with opin eyis, and pray evill for thame in his name, and schoe sould get hir hartis desyre;'* and in almost every witch trial in Scotland the " evil eye " formed parttof the counts of indictment against the accuseds The curse was as efficacious. Did a foul- mouthed old dame give a neighbour a handful of words more forcible than courteous, and did terror, or revenge, induce, or simulate, a nervous seizure in consequence, the old dame was at once carried off to the lock-up, and but few chances of escape lay between her and the stake beyond. To be skilful in healing, too, was just as dangerous as to be powerful in sickening ; and to the A^xs «-^;^ «. >».*-' t-^ Uf^' "Lj-WSc^' i" "Lis- 1»'T -X \4*0*if .» 4#./C •'i.u^i ♦ ^►^.'^/lit 'LiTfUjiir. • c "aifr a Hit 7*^*^* ^/ ;;..i,.>x; 1-;-^ 4»''i i'lii^ti iii*«t 1.1 t4g IfliC roit*- :»:iiJ*I i44y; ^,9^ff k^^, fK^ /•vJ ^vvp'y.^*?^; i*rT T^sy ^ |7^>. ^i^/i>, //^ l^//.#>; (//^ vj/^^y^i^rj^; tyffit hL^tmcdre to us, ^ t^ft^iKhnhj/ ih*i wljihifiit 44 ^ajjerstitioiiy mud the ^hfiUff^M f/t t:f*:fjf Uhfftm^ firiiUt when brought into f:ohiwt (^t*4 /vJhi$M/M wiiU ii, Wlmi other gifts and ^fftwt:fi$ ht4ith^/t4 Ui iUh wiU;lM^ will be best gathered iutUk \U^i ikUnum \\mu^mi\ytti^\ fur varied as they are, iiihhi )H ii> »iMMif/^« ihniul o{ liktmatm rtuming through iUiilii M i i»|H:r.)Hlly JM iUimi n llkmutim in all of a time iir i|)»lil<:lf M'M u\\^Mi Ihi iupti('i(i<i in a matter which loiliiiiHMii mi liiilMh In iMiii'M liiiitMtloii, Mi!h||)UmI (ilnyuil m uuouviuUu part in the great THE WITCHBB OP SCX)TLAND. 15 witcb panic tbat swept Uke an epidemic over Europe during the sixteenth and seventoenth centnries. It suited with the stem, uncompromising, Puritan temper, to tear this accursed thing from the heart of the nation, and offer it^ bleeding and palpitating, as a sacrifice to the Lord ; and accordingly we find the witch trials of Scotland condncted with 'more severity than elsewhere, and with a more gloomy and savage fanaticism of £Etith. Those who dared question the truth of even the most unreliable witnesses and the most monstrous state* ments were accused of atheism and infidelity — ^they were Sadducees and sinners — men given over to corrup- tion and uncleanness, with whom no righteous servant could bold any terms. And then the ministers mingled themselves in the fray ; and the Kirk like the Church, the presbyter like the priest, proved to be on the side of intolerance and superstition, where, unfortunately, priests of all creeds have ever been. And when James VI. came with his narrow brain and selfish heart, to formularize the witch-lie into a distinct canon of arbitrary faith, and give it increased political signi- ficance and social power, the reign of humanity and common sense was at an end, and the autocracy of cruelty and superstition b^an. It is a dreary page in human history ; but so long as a spark of superstition lingers in the world it will have its special and direct uses. The first time we hear of Scottish witches was when St Patrick offended them and the devil alike by his uncompromising rigour against them : so they tore off a piece of a rock as he was crossing the sea and hurled it after him ; which rock became the fortress of Dimi- barton in the days which knew not St. Patrick. Then there was the story of King Duff (968), wEo pined 6 THE WITCHES OF SCOTLAND. away in mortal sickness, by reason of {he waxen image which had been made to destroy him ; but by the for- tunate discovery of a young maiden who could not bear torture silently, he was enabled to find the witches — whom he burnt at Forres in Murray, the mother of the poor maiden who could not bear torture among them : enabled, too, to save himself by breaking the wasting waxen image roasting at the *' soft " fire, when almost at its last turn. Then we come to Thomas of Ercildoune, whom the Queen of Faerie loved and kept ; and then to Sir Michael Scot of Balweary, that famous wizard, second to none in power ; while a little further removed from those legendary times we see the dark figure of William Lord Soulis, who was boiled to death at Nine Stane Brig, in fitting punishment for his crimes. And then in 1479 twelve mean women and several wizards were burnt at Edinburgh for roasting the king in wax, and so endangering the life of the sovereign Kege in a manner which no human aid could remedy ; and the Earl of Mar was at their head, and very properly burnt too. And in 1480 Incubi and Succubi held the land between them, and even the young lady of Mar gave herself up to the embraces of an Incubus — a hideous monster, utterly loathsome and deadly to be- hold ; and if the young ladies of the nobility could do such things, what might not be expected from the com- monalty? But now we come out into the light of vmtten history, and the first corpse lying on the threshold is that of the beautiful Lady Glammis (1537), THE S|ORY OF LADY GLAMMIS.* One of the eytiest, as she was one of the noblest, victims of ti^ delusion, politics and jealonsy had as much to dojwith her death as had superstition. Be- cause she ifdts ** one of the Douglases," and not because she was><fi^yicted as a sorceress, did William Lyon find her measj a victim to his hate. For it was he — the neai», relative of her first husband, "Cleanse the Causey "John Lyon, Lord Glammis, — who ruined her, and broQght her young days to so shameful an end. And had he not cause ? Did she not reject him when left a widow, young and beautiful as but 'few were to be found in all the Scottish land? and, rejecting him, did she not favour Archibald Campbell of Kessneath in- stead, and make over to him the lands and the beauties he had coveted, ibr himself, even during the life of that puling relative of his, "Cleanse the Causey"? Matter enougjh for revenge in this, thought William Lyon : and the revenge he took came easy to his hand, and in fullest xteasure. For Lady Glanmiis, daughter of Georgfe, Master of Angus, and grand-daughter of that brave ojd savage, Archibald BeU-the-Cat, was in no great favour with a court which had disgraced her grandfather, and banished her brother ; and conse- quently she found no protection there from the man who was seeking her ruin. Perhaps, too, she had mixed herself up with the court feuds and parties then so common, and thus had given some positive cause of offence to a government which must crush if it would not be crushed, and extirpate if it would not be de^ stroyed. Be that as it may, William Lyon soon gathered material for an accusation, and Lady Glammis '* Fitcaim'8 • Soottiah Criminal Trials.* 8 THE WITCHEa OP SCOTLAND. found that if she would not have his love he would have her life. She was accused on various counts ; for having procured the death of her first husband by " intoxication," or unholy drugging, for a design to poison the Mag, and for witchcraft generally, as a matter of daily life and open notoriety ; and for these crimes she was burnt, notwithstanding her beauty and wealth and innocence and high-hearted bravery, not^ withstanding h^ popularity — ^for she was beloved by all who knew her — and the honour of her stainless name. And once more, as so often, hatred conquered love, and the innocent died that the guilty might be at rest. I must omit any lengthened notice of the trial of Janet Bowman in 1572, as also of that of a notable witch Nicneven, which name, " generally given to the Queen of the Fairies, was probably bestowed upon her on account of her crimes, and who, when * her collore craig with stringis whairon wes mony knottis' was taken from her, gave way to despair, exclaiming, ' Now I have no hoip of myself,' saying, too, that * she cared not whether she went to heaven or to hell.'" The Becord has preserved nothing beyond the mere fact of the first, while the foregoing extract is all that I can find of the second; so that I am obliged to pass on to the pitiful tale of — BESSIE DUNLOP AND THOM BEID.* Poor douce honest Bessie Dunlop, spouse to Andro Jak in Lyne, deposed, after torture, on the 8th day of November, 1576, that one day, as she was going quietly enough between her own house and Moi^castle yard, **makeand hevye sair dule with hirself,'' weeping * PltQiuin'8 * Scottiah Orimiiial Trials.' BESSIE DUNLOP AND THOM BEID. 9 bitterly for her cow that was dead, and her husband and child who were lying ^'sick in the land-iU," she herself still weak after gissane, or child-birth, she met "ane honest, wele, elderlie man, gray bairdit, and had ane gray coitt with Lnmbart slevis of the auld fassonn ; ane pair of gray brekis and qnhyte sehankis gartanit abone the kne ; ane blak bonet on his heid, cloise behind and plane befoir, with silkin laissis drawin throw the lippis thairof ; and ane qnhyte wand in his hand.' This was Thorn Beid, who had been killed at the battle of Knkye (1547), but was now a dweller in Elfame, or Fairy Land. Thom stopped her, saying, " Gude day, Bessie." " God speid yow, gude man," says she. ** Sancta Marie," says he, " Bessie, quhy makis thow sa grit dule and sair greting for ony wardUe thing?" Bessie told him her troubles, poor woman, and the little old gray-bearded man consoled her by assuring her that though her cow and her child should die, yet her husband would recover; and Bessie, after being <' sumthing fleit " at seeing him pass through a hole in the dyke too narrow for any honest mortal to pass through, yet returned home, comforted to think that the gude man would mend. After this, she and Thom foregathered several times. At the third interview he wanted her to deny her baptism, but honest Bessie said that she would rather be " revin at horis taillis " (riven at horses' tails) ; and on the fourth he came to her own house, and took her dean away from the presence of her husband and three tailors — they seeing nothing — ^to where an assemblage of eight women and four men were waiting for her. " The men wer cled in gentilmennes dething, and the wemens had all plaidis round about them, and wer verrie semelie lyke to se." They were the " gude wychtis that wynnit (dwelt) in the court of \\ '.U > %.i^ Oi.. .ii,. iuu '.V rivoiv ,£;*»«neil in jlD limrs. Bat ' s.^>c^v » * ixo. l:*'X>r v-^RMi^t BssHie h^ a lopJ heart if ^.1. .% >,.»> »^**a. .iud pr»?&cp?d ber kTssliuMl mni chil- ■ K ..I Nv.wx vui^i'v Hith ht?c &r reAisiiig, mud told her "it Av .».vi >»v' ^o»>*^ t'oj: her.* i.'iuv\ iw liio v(Utvtt Qf the furies; a stout, ooniety ......I. . \;:uo !^ Uvr« ;i^ sbie «as '^ lying in gissane,* and w V, oi .4 aiiuk. ^iiluch Bessie gaye her. Sitting iv V wl, >lic >tad xhtiJi the child would die, bat that ,v\^..vi uould rtxvver; for Andio Jak seems to \^ a buC ioi ailing bodr, often like to find oat v v%. H\ xit rioii tor himself, and Bessie was never svv\ .UVU& him. Then Thorn besm to teach V 4 V v»; hcidiug. He gaye her roots to make \ . X u.vl ' vw Jer* fiwr kow or yow (cow or sheep), .« v l>airue that was tane away with ane . vwud ov e]fgri[^t:'' and she cored many 'i .w old lua&'s &iry teaching. She healed \ ,u. .vv.io's vlaughter> married to the young Laird sv\ '\\ ;i^uig her a drink brewed under Thorn's . ..4 .u N» \iioug ul<> boiled with cloves, ginger, . 'u^ ;v ;uv» iuid wMtt> sugar, which warmed the . \u.\ • lull -iud about hir hart, that causit hirto . .J \ .;v ua .^>\av/* i>rxas we would say, to swoon. v .. V vl Jv^lui JiUlt>> Uidrn, and Wilson's of the Ki ;usiiuuui'5i *iiter*8 cow; but old Lady xs ^ V^; v\*vx Ivvoud them both. It had been ,1 K. lius tuul u\>w Thorn said it would never \s . V •' u\o iu<uvh <4 the bane was consumit^ V \uv\ U^ mil * \^tht> HMonrow was consumed, and s . \ uaiulvsi), ^ wi» hopeless, and it would BESSIB DUNLOP AND THOM REID. 11 be worse for her if she asked for fairy help again. Bessie got fame too as a " monthly " of Lyne. A green silk lace, received from Thom's own hand, tacked to their "wylie coitts" and knit about their left arms, helped much in the delivery of women. She lost the lace, insinuating that Thom took it away again, but kept her fatal character for more medical skill than belonged to an ordinary canny old wife. In the re- covery of stolen goods, too, she was effective, and what she could not find she could at least indicate. Thus, she told the seekers that Hugh Scott's cloak could not be returned, because it had been made into a kirtle, and that James Baird and Henry Jameson would not recover their plough irons, because James Douglas, the sheriff's officer, had accepted a bribe of three pounds not to find them. Lady Blair having " dang and wrackit " her servants on account of certain linen which had been stolen from her, learnt from Bessie, prompted by Thom, that, the thief was no other than Margaret Symple, her own friend and relation, and that she had dang and wrackit innocent persons to no avail. Bessie never allowed that Thom's intercourse with her was other than honest and well conducted. Once only he took hold of her apron to drag her away to Elfame with him ; but this was more in the way of persuasion than love making, and she indignantly denied the home questions put to her by the judges with but scant delicacy or feeling for an honest woman's shame. In- terrogated, she said that she often saw Thom going about like other men. He would be in the streets of Edinburgh, on market days and other, handling goods like any living body, but she never spoke to him unless he spoke first to her : he had forbidden her to do so. The last time she met him before her arrest he told her 12 THE WITCHES OF SCOTLAND. of the eyil that was to come, but buoyed her up >vitli false hopes, assuring her that she would be well treated, and eventually deared. Poor Bessie DunlopI After being cruelly tortured, her not very strong brain was utterly disorganized, and she confessed whatever they chose to tax her with, rambling through her wild dreamy narrative with strange facility of imagination, and with more coherence and likelihood, than are to be found in those who came after her. Adjudged as " confessit and fylit," she was " convict and brynt " on the Castle HiQ of Edinburgh — a mournful commentary on her elfin friend's brave words and promises. ALISON PEARSON AND THE FAIRY FOLK.* On the 28th of May, 1588, Alesoun Peirsoun, in Byrehill, was haled before a just judge and sapient jury on the charge of witchcraft, ajid seven years' consorting with the fairy folk. This Alesoun Peirsoun, or, as we should now write it, Alison Pearson, had a certaiu cousin, one WiUiam Simpson, a clever doctor, who had been educated in Egypt ; taken there by a man of Egypt, " ane gyant," who, it is to be supposed, taught him many of the secrets of nature then hidden from the vulgar world. During his absence, his father, who was smith to king's majesty, died for opening of " ane preist-bmk and Inking vpoune it :" which showed the tendency of the family. When Mr. William came back he found Alison afflicted with many diseases, powerless in hand and foot, and otherwise evilly holden ; and he cured her, being a skilftd man and a kindly, and ever after obtained unlimited influence ♦ Pitcaim. ALISON PEARSON AND THE FAIRY FOLK. 13 over the brain and imagination of his crazed cousin.. He abused this influence by taking her with him to feiry land, and introducing her to the " gude wychtis," whose company he had affected for many years. In especial was she much linked with the Queen of Elfame, who might have helped her, had she been so minded. One day being sick in Grange Muir, she lay down there alone, when a man in green suddenly appeared to her and said that if she would be faithful he would do her good. She cried for help, and then charged him in God's name, and by the law he lived on, that if he came in God's name and for the welfare of her soul, he would teU her. He passed away on this, and soon after a lusty man, and many other men and women came to her, and she passed away with them further than she could tell ; but not before she had " sanit," or blessed herself and prayed. And then she saw piping, and merriness, and good cheer, and puncheons of wine with " tassis," or cups to them. But the fairy folk were not kind to Alison. They tormented her sorely, and treated her with great harshness, knocking her about and beating her so that they took all the " poustie," or power out of her side with one of their heavy " straiks/' and left her covered with bruises, blue and evil-favoured. She was never free from her questionable associates, who used to come upon her at all times and initiate her into their secrets, whether she liked it or no. They showed her how they gathered their herbs before sunrise, and she would watch them with their pans and fires making the " saws " or salves that could kill or cure all who used them, according to the witches' will ; and they used to come and sit by her, and once took all the " poustie " from her for twenty weeks. Mr. William was then with them. He was a 14 THE WITCHES OP SCOTLAND, young mon^ not six years older than herself, and she would " feir " (be afraid) when she saw him. What with fairy teaching, and Mr, William's clinical lectures, half-crazed Alison soon got a reputation for healing powers ; so great, indeed, that the Bishop of St. Andrews, a wretched hypochondriac, with as many diseases as would fill half the wards of an hospital, applied to her for some of her charms and remedies, which she had sense enough to make palateable, and such as should suit episcopal tastes : namely, spiced claret (a quart to be drunk at two draughts), and boiled capon as the internal remedies, with some fairy salve for outward application. 1% scarcely needed a long apprenticeship in witchcraft to prescribe claret and capon for a luxu- rious prelate who had brought himself into a state of chronic dyspepsia by laziness and high living; yet the jury thought the recipe of such profound wisdom that Alison got badly off on its account. Mr. William was very careful of Alison. He used to go before the fairy folk when they set out on the whirl- uvdnds to plague her — '^ for they are ever in the blowing sea-wmd," said Allie — and tell her of their coming; and he was very urgent that she should not go away with them altogether, since a tithe of them was yearly taken down to hell, and converts had always first chance. But many people known to her on earth were at Elfame. She said that she recognized Mr. Secretary Lethington, and the old Knight of Buccleugh, as of the party; which was equivalent to putting them out of heaven, and was a grievous libel, as the times went Neither Mr. William's care nor fairy "power could save poor Alison. After being " wirreit (strangled) at ane staik," she was " conuicta et combusta," never more to be troubled by epilepsy or the feverish dreams of madness. 15 THE CBIMES OF LADY FOWLIS.* Nobler names come next npon the records. Ka- therine Roiss, Lady Fowlis, and her stepson, Hector Monro, were tried on the 22nd of June, 1590, for " witchcraft, incantation, sorcery, and poisoning." Two people were in the lady's way : Margery Campbell the young lady of Balnagown, wife to George Roiss or Eoss of Balnagown, Lady Katherine's brother; and Robert Munro her stepson, the present baron of Fowlis, and brother to the Hector Munro above mentioned. If these two persons were dead, then George Ross could marry the young Lady Fowlis, to the pecuniary ad- vantage of himself and the family. Hector's quarrel was on his own account, and was with George Munro of Obisdale, Lady Katherine's eldest son* The charges against the Lady Katherine were, the unlawful making of two pictures or images of clay, representing the young lady of Balnagown and Robert Munro, which pictures two notorious witches. Christian Ross and Marioune M*Alester, alias Loskie Loncart, set up in a chamber and shot at with elf arrows — ancient spear or arrow-heads, found in Scotland and Ireland, and of great account in all matters of witchcraft. But the images of clay were not broken by the arrow-heads, for all that they shot eight times at them, and twelve times on a subsequent trial, and thus the spell was destroyed for the moment; but Loskie Loncart had orders to make more, which she did with a will. After this the lady and her two confederates brewed a stoup or pailful of poison in the bam at Drumnyne, which was to be sent to Robert Munro. The pail leaked and ♦ Pitcaim. ''' ^r:z inTCHir- of bootlaxd. ^••" jx/;^^j rarj wt, ex/^ept a Terr amaH quantity which ku ijfifvrtuimt^ j4i^e UhjD^g to the lady tagtei |iN'i **Ittv #'/>iitjVwal]ie tbaireftir porsonit ^th the h^i^mrr h'^mi, auother « pig- or ji of poison was Yf^'\miA\ i\m time of double strength— the brewer f InTi'of f hut old wiiiier, I^^Hkie Loncart, who had a hand ill i^Si^vyi i^vil pie made. Tliig waa sent to the youn^ laird l»y tlio hanrbi of Udy Katherine's foster-mother- but Hhn brokn the "pig" by the way, and, like the |Mi^^M, fiiHting thn oontonts, paid the penalty of her JMirloHily with hnr life. The poison was of such a viiMili»uf imhiro that nor cow nor sheep would touch the gruHH wlu^nnm it ft>ll; and stxm the herbage withered avsH) in ftMuftd lUfMUtmal of that deed of guilt. She >MiH \\\\\\\^ HU»vosHt\d in hor attompts on the young Lady llOi\}^j^^\MU Uor '^dittay*' M« forth that the poor ^\\\ X^AxW'^ of hor si>tor-iu-lAwV infernal potions, con- tv;sottsl AU iuourablc di:iJiNa,^\ tht^ j^ain and anguish she >\\iV.M\sJ WNoltiuji^ oxon the vn»vh who administered \\^^ )VN;v,Nv l\:^^^r;a^^ Nixe^.v ^^o *so;:nnerit (revolted) V \ \\ s»ie >;u A\\ T\st n!io $;*i»i it vss the sairest and > » VI . .' v' N.v'' t t^'4 OsT j^V ?;5i^," Bnt she did not x' A \ >^ ,\ H ^^ \V ^\*:v s:'^.>:'C ^" ^ '^. Ani conquered ,A\^ , •^ '\v s\; ^\^*^v'^ ^\c\v.v>.nI i^en the fit-ndish ^} V ^ ' vv- .< :'^ 'i- \. '^ ::< sS:^ ^' r.'i da by all V >^ »'VA- X v^ ^v V*' -' ^* w : > *-'^.i 'if God in V. N,-. ,v ^> o \ ' ^* ^ . * r *.*^ !^rm,.»tion aiid J V ^ , v\ •>.- v^N^ N^:"^ X-:.rcdamited, \ i.c Tanons ivvx. s ^ *• N ^ -^ *'^ *.:»*•-- JiiM n-'Tiinocs V \ V X ^ >. V >. » ' > ^-v >v-- . ^."■•: L was a ''X s'^ered in s. tou far THE CRIMES OF LADY FOWLlS. 17 clay images, and elf arrows wherewith to shoot at them, and her wickedness at last grew too patent for even her exalted rank to overshadow. She was arrested and arraigned, but the private prosecutor was Hector Munro, who was soon to change his place of advocate for that of " pannel ;" and the jury was composed of the Fowlis dependents. So she was acquitted ; though many of her creatures had previously been couvicted and burnt on the same charges as those now made against her; notably Gristiane Roiss, who, confessing to the clay image and the elf arrows, was quietly burnt for the same. Hector Munro's trial was of a somewhat diflferent character. His stepmother does not seem to have had much confidence in mere sorcery : she put her faith in facts rather than in incantations, and preferred drugs to charins : but Hector was more superstitious and more cowardly too. In 1588, he had communed with three notorious witches for the recovery of his elder brother, Robert ; and the witches had "pollit the hair of Robert Munro, and plet the naillis of his fingeris and taes f but Robert had died in spite of these charms, and now Hector was the chief man of his family. Parings of nails, clippings of hair, water wherein enchanted stones had been laid, black Pater-Nosters, banned plaids and cloths, were all of as much potency in his mind as the " ratoun poysoun " so dear to the lady ; and the method of his intended murder rested on such means as these. They made a goodly pair between them, and embodied a fair proportion of the intelligence and morality of the time. After a small piece of preliminary sorcery, un* dertaken with his foster-mother, Cristiane NeiU Dayzell, and Mariaoune Mlngareach, ^^ one of the most notorious and rank witches of the country," it was pronounced that Hector, who was sick, would not recover, unless C TIB '•TTl^HES of SCOTLAND. >in»L iLtiiX •:( his blood should suffer for him. I uua ^* >* none other than George Munro, Ljftiy Kitherine's eldest son, whose life ttt'-is. V jT'-'ra loat Hector's might be redeemed. »^«*'-^v at ?u 3l:&>S die ; not by poison but by sorcery ; »i^>-. ::, ti>t >«t o u> be taiken was to secure his presence »ii *. vn c< >Ai!i5»i^» ** Sewin poistes" or messengers a.. a\» iiraLbl irapsitiently send to him ; and when he >*att i*: ite^^ H^fv^or amid never a word to him, after his >ur*"' -* ^^ ct< r rsow that you have come," in answer to tus i5w>^'^x>j«erV UTfesi^peoting " How's a' wi' ye ?" but ^s^ ^ c A f ^V* iKXxr with his left hand in George's right, ^^'c-v ';^ :I\i^ £Ts;t spell in silence, according to the it^vo cnsSi .>f his fv^er-mother and the witch. That *t ;^-i\ *3i ^,>ar after midnight, the two women went to a ^ r^vw x^ 5Tv>ttnd lying between two manors," and ^K^w «^j»ik^ a c?;ifcT>^ of Hector's length, near to the sea- iiv^ A V«^ iii^rhts afta- this — and it was January, x\> -Sx.vcor. mTJCwd in Uankets, was carried out of "^x^s ^^ici Kvv ar>.l Ukl in this grave; he, his foster- MivWc, airvi >l'l:,piur«ioh all silent as death, until v>»5s. .%.^^ $^3k^\l hav\^ gv^en speech with their master, :; >v iv \xV Viii^'^ ;J^xk >ifxH^ then laid over the laird, and %W%0'A V^l^iti^saw^eh s^jit down by him, while Cristiane XVx-tt^C*. %t;>, a vvHiiwr K>y in her hand, ran the breadth V* toiN'^ r^'^ \V turtv^m'!?^ iwining back to the grave, to %$JL >V %t^^ "^ %K> w^fcgi her choice." M*Ingareach, ^<v«fc^Nv\i vsf vNHtt^ by the devil, answered that " Mr. IvA^^ %?^ Vnht cis^v tv> live and his brother George %tk ^ ii€ lAtt.^ lliis kVf^'iiKmy was repeated thrice, ^iii tbl^ ^^ «U ivi^&irtK^ silently to the house, Mr. ||lM%i« ^sme^mJi m W Hanix'ts as before. The strangest "^ 4tt ^m Ai«i Mr Hector was not killed by the BESSIE ROY. 19 Hector Munro was now convinced that everjrthing possible had been done, and that his half-brother must perforce be his sacrifice. In his gratitude he made M'Ingareach keeper of his sheep, and so uplifted her that the common people durst not oppose her for their lives. It was the public talk that he favoured her " gif she had been his own wife ;" and once he kept her out of the way " at his own charges," when she was cited to appear before the court to answer to the crime of witchcraft. But in spite of the tremendous evidence against him, Hector got clear off, as his stepmother had done before him, and we hear no more of the Fowlis foUies and the Fowlis crimes. Nothing bu,t their rank and the fear of the low people saved them. Slighter crimes than theirs, and on more slender evidence, had been sufficient cause for condemnation ere now ; and Lady Katherine's poisonings, and Hector Munro's incanta- tions, would have met with the fate the one at least deserved, save for the power and aid of clanship. BESSIE BOY. The month after this trial, Bessie Eoy, nurreych (nurse) to the Leslies of Balquhain, was " dilatit " for sorcery generally, and specially for being " a common awa- taker of women's milk." She took away poor Bessie Steel's, when she came to ask alms, and only restored it again when she was afraid of getting into trouble for the fault She was also accused of having, " by the space of tual yeiris syne or thairby," past to the field with other women to pluck Unt, but instead of follow- ing her lawful occupation, she had made " ane compas (circle) in the eird, and ane hoiU in the middis thairof ;" 20 THE WITCHES OP SCOTLAND. out of which hole came, first, a great worm which crept over the boundary, then a little worm, which crept over it also, and last of all another great worm, " quhill could nocht pas owre the compas, nor cum out of the hoill, but fell doune and deit." Which enchantment or sorcery- being interpreted meant, by the first worm, William King, who should live ; by the second small worm, the unborn babe, of which no one yet knew the coming life ; and by the third large worm the gude wyffe her- self, who should die as soon as she was delivered. Not- withstanding the gravity and circumstantiality of these charges, Bessie Boy marvellously escaped the allotted doom, and was pronounced innocent. *' Quhairvpoune the said Bessie askit act and instrument" Two women tried the day before, Jonet Grant and Jonet Clark, were less fortunate. Charged with laming men and women by their devilish arts — whereof was no attempt at proof — they were convicted and burnt ; as also was Meg Dow, in April of the same year, for the *' crewell murdreissing of twa young infant bairns," by magic. And now we come to a very singular group of trials, opened out by that clumsy, superstitious pedant, whose name stands accursed for vice and cruel cowardice and il\o utmost selfishness of fear — James VI. of Scotland. If at^ything wore wanting to complete one's abhorrence of (\n*B patron and Ealeigh's murderer — one's con- ti^iYipt of tiie upholder of the divine right of kings in httt own fiiolf-adoration as Gkni's vicegerent upon earth — it \vt>uUl be his part in the witch delusion of the six- hH^ntli century. Whatever of blood-stained folly be- ltM\gtHl mHHnftlly to the Scottish trials of this time — wiul hojtnlrior— owed its original impulse to him ; and r^viivy gro*M\ of the tortured wretches driven to their (vviH\\\ doumi and every tear of the survivors left THE DEVIL'S SECRETARY* 21 blighted and desolate to drag out their weary days in mingled grief and terror, lie on his memory with shame and condemnation ineffaceable for all time. THE DEVIL'S SECRETARY.* On the 26th of December, 1590, John Fiajx/ aliae Coningham (spelt Johanne Feane, alias Cwninghame), master of the school at Saltpans, Lothian, and con* temptuously recorded as ** Secretar and Eegister to the Devil," was arraigned for witchcraft and high treason. There were twenty counts against him, the least of which would have been enough to have lighted up a witch-fire on that fatal Castle Hill, for the bravest and best in the land. First, he was accused of entering into a covenant with Satan, who appeared to him in white, as he lay in bed, musing and thinking ('^ mwsand and pansand," says the dittay in its quaint language) how he should be revenged on Thomas Trumbill, for not having whitewashed his room, according to agree-* ment. Alter promising his Satanic majesty allegiance and homage, he received his mark, which later was found under his tongue, with two pins therein thrust up to their heads. Again, he was found guilty — " fylit'^ is the old legal term— of " feigning himself to be sick in the said Thomas Trumbill's chamber, where he was stricken in great ecstacies and trances, lying by the space of two or three hours dead, his spirit taken, and suffered himself to be carried and transported to many mountains, as he thought through all the world, accord- ing to his depositions." Note, that these depositions were made in the midst of fearful torture, and recanted ♦ Pitcaini. 22 THE WITCHES OF S(X)TLAKD. the instant after. Also, he was found gnilly of suffer- ing himself to be carried to North Berwick church, where, together with many others, he did homage to Satan, as he stood in the pnlpit, making doubtfol speeches, saying, ** Many come to the &ir, and all buy not wares ;" and desired him ^ not to fear, though he was grim, for he had many servants who should never want, or ail nothing, so long as their hair was on, and should never let one tear fiJl from their eyes so long as they served him ;" and he gave them lessons, and said, *' Spare not to do evil, and to eat and drink and be blitiie, taking rest and ease, for he should raise them up at the latter day gloriously." But the pith of the indictment was that he, Fian, and sundry others to be spoken of hereafter, entered into a league with Satan to wreck the king on his way to Denmark, whither, in a fit of clumsy gallantry, he had set out to visit his future queen. While he was sailing to Denmark, Fian and a whole crew of witches and wizards met Satan at sea, and the master, giving an enchanted cat into Bobert Grierson's hand, bade him ^ cast the same into the sea, hola," which was accordingly done ; and a pretty cap- ful of wind the consequence. Then, when the king was returning from Denmark, the devil promised to raise a mist which should wreck him on English ground. To perform which feat he took something like a foot* ball — ^it seemed to Dr. Fian like a wisp — and cast it into the sea, whereupon arose the great mist which nearly drove the cumbrous old pedant on to English ground, where our strong-fisted queen would have made him pay for his footing in a manner not quite congenial to his tastes. But, being a Man of God, none of these eharms and devilries prevailed against him. A farther count was, that once again he consorted with Satan and . THE DEVIL'S SECRETARY. 23 bis crew, still in North Berwick church, where they paced round the church wider shins (wider scheins'?), that is, contrary to the way of the sun. Fian blew into the lock — ^a favourite trick of his — ^to open the door, and blew in the lights which burned blue, and were like big black candles held in an old man's hand round about the pulpit. Here Satan as a ^' mekill blak man, with ane blak baird stikand out lyke ane gettis (goat's) baird; and ane hie ribbit neise, falland doun scharp lyke the beik of ane halk ; with ane lang rumpill (tail) ; cled in ane blak tatie goune, and ane ewill favoiit scull bonnett on his heid ; haifand ane blak buik in his hand," preached to them, commanding them to be good servants to him, and he would be a good master to them, and never let them want. But he made them all very angry by calling Eobert Grierson by his Christian name. He ought to have been called " Eo' the Comptroller, or Bob the Eower." This slip of the master's displeased them sorely, and they ran " hirdie girdie " in great ex- citement, for it was against all etiquette to be named by their earthly names ; indeed, they always received new names when the devil gave them their infernal christening, and they made themselves over to him and denied their holy baptism. It was at this meeting that John Fian was specially accused of rifling the graves of the dead, and dismembering their bodies for charms. And many other things did this Secretar and Begister to the deviL Once, at the house of David Beaton's mother, he breathed into the hand of a woman sitting by the fire, and opened a lock at the other end of the kitchen. Once he raised up four candles on his horse's two ears, and a fifth on the staff which a man riding with him carried in his hand. These magic candles gave as much light as the sun at noonday, and the man 24 THE WITCHES OF SCOTLAND. was 80 terrified that he fell dead on his own threshold. He sent an evil spirit, who tormented a man for twenty weeks ; and he was seen to chase a cat, and in the chase to be carried so high over a hedge that he could not touch her head. The dittay says he flew through ike air — a not infrequent mode of progression with such people. When asked why he hunted the cat, he said that Satan had need of her, and that he wanted all the cats he could lay hands on, to cast into the sea, and cause storms and shipwrecks. He was further accused of endeavouring to bewitch a young maiden by his devilish cantrips and horrid chtuons ; but, by a wile of the girl's mother, up to men's arts, he practised on a heifer's hairs instead of the girl's, and the result was that a luckless young cow went lowing after him every- where — even into his school-room — rubbing herself against him, and exhibiting all the languish and desire of a love-sick young lady, A curious old plate repre-. sents John Fian and the heifer in grotesque attitudes ; the heifer with large, drooping, amorous eyes, intensely ridiculous — the schoolmaster with his magic wand drawing circles in the sand. These, with divers smaller charges, such as casting horoscopes, and wearing mode« wart's (mole's) feet upon him, amounting in all to twenty counts, formed the sum of the indictment against him. He was put to the torture. First, his head wa^ ** thrawed with a rope " for about an hour, but still he would not confess; then they tried fair words and coaxed him, but with no better success ; and then they put him to the ^' most severe and cruell pains in the worlde," namely, the boots, till his legs were com- pletely crushed, and the blood and marrow spouted out. After the third stroke he became speechless ; and they, supposing it to be the devil's mark which kept him THE DEVIL'S SECRETARY. 26 silenty searched for that mark, that by its discovery the spell might be broken. So they found it, as stated before, under his tongue, with two charmed pins stuck up to their heads therein. When they were drawn out— that is, after some forther torture — he confessed anything which it pleased his tormentors to demand of him, saying how, just now, the devil had been to him all in black, but with a white wand in his hand ; and how, on his, Fian's, renouncing him, he had brake his wand, and disappeared. The next day he recanted this confession. He was then somewhat restored to himself, and had mastered the weakness of his agony. Whereupon it was assumed that the devil had visited him through the night, and had marked him afresh. They searched him — ^pulling off every nail with a turkas, or smith's pincers, and then thrusting in needles up to their heads ; but finding nothing more satanic than blood and nerves, they put him to worse tortures, as a revenge. He made no other relapse, but remained constant now to the end ; bearing his grievous pains with patience and fortitude, and dying as a brave man always knows how to die, whatever the occasion. Finding that nothing more could be made of him, they mercifully came to an end. He was strangled and burnt ^^in the Castle Hill of Edinbrough, on a Saterdde, in the ende of Januarie last past 1591 ;" ending a may be loose and not over-heroic life in a manner worthy of the most glorious martyr of history. John Fian, schoolmaster of Saltpans, with no great idea to support him, and no admiring fiiends to cheer him on, bore himself as nobly as any hero of them all^ and vindicated the honour of manhood and natural strength in a way that exalts our common human nature into something godlike and divine« 26 THE WITCHES OP SCOTLANt). THE GRACE WIFE OF KEITH AND HER CUMMERS.* Fion was the first yictim in the grand battue offered now to the royal witchfinder; others were to follow, the manner of whose discovery was singular enough. Deputy Bailie David Seaton of Tranent, had a half- Crazed servant-girl, one Geillis Duncan, whose conduct in suddenly taking " in hand to helpe all such as were troubled or grieved with anie kinde of sicknes or in- firmitie," excited the righteous suspicions of her master. To make sure he tortured her, without trial, judge, or jury ; first, by the " pillie-winks " or thumbscrews, and then by " thrawing," — ^wrenching, or binding her head with a rope — an intensely agonizing process, and one that generally comes in as part of the service of justice done to witch and wizard. Not confessing, even under these persuasions, she was "searched," and the mark was found on her throat : whereupon she at once con- fessed ; accusing, among others, the defunct John Fian, or Cuningham, Agnes Sampson at Haddington, "the eldest witch of them all," Agnes Tompson of Edinburgh, and Euphemia Macalzean, daughter of Lord Cliftonhall, one of the senators of the College of Justice. Agnes Sampson's trial came first. She was a grave, matron- like, well-educated woman, " of a rank and comprehen- sion above the vulgar, grave and settled in her answers, which were to some purpose," and altogether a woman of mark and character. She was commonly called the " grace wyff" or " wise wyff " of Keith ; and, doubtless, her superior reputation brought on her the fateful notice of the half-crazed girl ; also it procured her the doubtful honour of being carried to Holyrood, there to be examined by the king himself. At first she quietly * Pitcairn. THE GRACE WIPE OP KEITH» 27 and firmly denied all that she was charged with, but after having been fastened, to the witches' bridle,* kept without sleep, her head shaved and thrawn with a rope, searched, and pricked, she, too, confessed whatever blasphemous nonsense her accusers chose to charge her with, to the wondrous edification of her kingly inqui- sitor. She said that she and two hundred other witches went to sea on AU-Halloween, in riddles or sieves, making merry and drinking by the way: that they landed at North Berwick church, where, taking hands, they danced around, saying — *' Gommer goe ye before I commer goe ye ! Gif ye will not goe before, commer let me I" Here they met the devil, like a mickle black man, aa John Fian had scdd, and he marked her on the right knee ; and this was the time when he made them all so angry by calling Bobert Grierson by his right name, instead of Bob the Bower, or Bo' the Comptroller. "When they rifled the graves, as Fian had said, she got two joints, a winding-sheet, and an enchanted ring for love-charms. She also said that Geillis Duncan, the informer, went before them, playing on the Jew's harp, and the dance she played was Gyllatripes ; which so de- lighted gracious Majesty, greedy of infernal news, that he sent on the instant to Geillis, to play the same tune before him ; which she did *^ to his great pleasure and amazement." Furthermore, Agnes Sampson confessed * An iron instmment ao constructed, that by means of a hoop which passed oyer the head, a piece of iron having four prongs or points, was ibroibly thrust into the mouth, two of these being directed to the tongue and palate, the others pointing outwards to each cheek. This infernal machine was secured by a padlock. At the back of the collar was fixed a ring, by which to attach to a staple in the wall of her ceU. -^Piteaim*8 • Scottish Crimindl TrtaU, * » THE WITCHES OF 8C0TLAin>. Urntf on asknig Satan wh j he hated 'King James, and m> greailj wished to destroy^ Um, the fool fiend an* awered: ^Because he is the greatest enemj I haye;" adding, that he was ^nn homme de Dieo," and that Satan had no power against him. A prettjr piece of flattery, hat ayailing the poor wise wife nothing as time went on« Her indictment was Yerj heayy ; fifty-three counts in all; for the most part idating to the cniingof disease hy charm and incantation, and to foreknowledge of sickness or death. Thns, she took on herself the sickness of Robert Eerse in Dalk^h, then cast it back, by mistake, on Alexander Douglas, intending it for a cat or a dog : and she pat a powder containing dead men's bones under the pillow of Euphemia MacalzeaD, when in the pains of childbirih, and so got her safely through. As she went on, and grew more thoroughly weeJcened in mind and body, she owned to still more monstrous things. Item, to having a familiar, in shape of a dog by name Elva, whom she called to her by ^^Bolkl master 1" and conjured away "by the law he lived on.** This dog or devil once came so near to her that she was *'fleyt,'' but she charged him by the law he lived on to come no nearer to her, but to answer her honestly — " Should old Lady Edmistoune live ?" " Her days were gane," said Elva; "and where were the daughters?" " They said they would be there," said Agnes. He answered, one of them should be in peril, and that he should have one of them. "It sould nocht be sa," cried the wise wife ; so he growled and went back into the well. Another time she brought him forth out of the well to show to Lady Edmistoune's daughters, and he frightened them half to death, and would have de- voured one of them had not Agnes and the rest gotten a grip of her and drawn her back. She sent a letter to THE GKACE WIFE OF KEITH. 29 jfarian Leuchope, to raise a wind that should prevent the queen from coming ; and she caused a ship, < The Grace of God/ to perish — ^the devil going before, while she and the rest sailed over in a flat boat, entered un- seen, ate of the best, and swamped the vessel afterwards. For helping her in this nefarious deed, she gave twenty shillings to Grey Meill, " ane auld, sely, pure plowman," who usually kept the door at the witches' conventions, and who had attended her in this shipwreck adventure. Then, she was one of the foremost and most active in the celebrated storm-raising for the destruction, or at least the damage of the king on his return from Den- miirk; giving some curious particulars in addition to what we have already had in Eian's indictment ; as, that she and her sister witches baptized the cat by which they raised the storm, by putting it, with various cere- monies, thrice through the chimney crook. " Fyrst twa of thame held ane fingar, in the ane syd of the chimnay cruik, and ane vther held ane vther fingar in the vther 8yd, the twa nebbis of the fingaris meting togidder; than they patt the catt thryis throw the linkis of the cruik, and passit it thryis vnder the chimnay ;" after- wards they knit four dead men's joints to the four feet of the cat, and cast it into the sea, ready now to work any amount of mischief that Satan might command. Then she made a '' picture," or clay image, of Mr. John Mos- crop, fether-in-law to Euphemia Macalzean, to destroy him, at the said Euphemia's desire. She was also at all the famous North Berwick meetings, where Dr. Fian was secretary, registrar, and lock-opener; where they were baptized of the fiend, and received formally into his congregation ; where he preached to them as a great black man; and where they rifled graves and meted oat the dead among them. She also confessed to taking BO THE WITCHES OF SOOTLAXD. a black toad, and hanging liiin np by liis heels, collect^ ing aU his Tenom in an ojster sheU for three days, and she told the king that it was then she wanted his fouled linen, when she would have enchanted him to death— ^ but she neyer got it She had two Pater Nosters, the white and the black. The white ran thus : — " White Pater Noster. God was my Foster, He fostered me. Under the Book of Palm Tree. Saint Michael was my Dame, He was bom at Bethlehem, He was made of flesh and blood, Grod send me my right food : My right food and dyne two That I may to yon Idrk go^ To read upon yon sweet book. Which the mighty God of Heayen shoop. Open, open, Heaven's yaits. Stick, stick, Hell's yaits. All Saints be the better. That hear the white prayer Pater Noster." There was no harm in this doggerel, nor yet much good ; little of blessing, if less of banning ; nor was the Black more definite. It was shorter, which ought to have ranked as a merit : — Black Pater Noster. " Four newks in this hoose, for holy angels, A post in the midst, that 's Christ Jesus, Lucas, Marcus, Matthew, Joannes, God be into this house and all that belongs us." To <^ sain " or charm her bed she used to say, — ** Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John The bed be blest that I ly on." And when the butter was slow in coming, it was enough if she chanted slowly — THE GRACE WIFE OP KEITH. 31 " Gome, butter, come I Gome, butter, come I Peter stands at the gate. Waiting for a buttered cake. Gome, butter, come," said with faith and unction, she was sure to have at once a lucky chum-fiill. These queer bits of half-papistical, half-nonsensical doggerel were considered tremendous sins in those days, and the use of them was quite sufficient to bring any one to the scaffold ; as their application would, for a certainty, destroy health, and gear, and life, if it were, so willed. And for all these crimes — storm-raising, cat- baptizing, and the rest — Agnes Sampson, the grave, matronlike, well-educated grace wife of Keith, was bound to a stake, strangled, and burnt on the Castle Hill, with no one to seek to save her, and no one to bid her weary soul God-speed ! Barbara Napier, wife to a burgess of Edinburgh, and sister-in-law to the Laird of Carschoggill, was then seized — accused of consorting with Agnes Simpson, and consulting with Eichard GTrahame, a notorious necromancer, to whom she gave " 3 ells of bombezie for his paynes,*' all that she might gain the love and gifts of Dame Jeane Lyon, Lady Angus ; also of having pro- cured the witch's help to keep the said Dame Jeane *'fra wometing quhen she was in bredin of bame.'* She was accused of other and more malicious things ; but acquitted of these : indeed the " assisa " which tried her was contumacious and humane, and pronounced no doom ; whereon King James wrote a letter demanding that she be strangled, then burnt at the stake, and all her goods escheated to himself. But Barbara pleaded that she was with child ; so her execution was delayed until Bhe was delivered^ when ^^ nobody insisting in the 32 THE WITGHSS OF SOOTLAKD. persute of her, she was set at libertia'' The con- tmnadoiis majority was tried for ^ wilful error on assize —acquitting a witch,*' but got off with more lack than usual* Eophemia Macalzean^f or as we should say, Maclean, was even higher game. She was the daughter of Lord Cliftonhall, and wife of Patrick Moscrop, a man of wealth and standing ; a firm, passionate, heroic woman, whom no tortures could weaken into confession, no threats terrify into submission. She fought her way, inch by inch, but she was ** convict" at last, and con- demned to be burnt alive : the severest sentence ever pronounced against a witch. In general they were "wirreit" or strangled before being burnt There is good reason to believe that her witchcraft was made merely the pretence, while h^r political predilections, her friendship for the Earl of Bothwell, and her Catho- lic religion, were the real grounds of the king's enmity to her, and the causes of the severity with which she was treated. Her indictment contains the ordinary list of witch-crimes, diversified with the additional charge of bewitching a certain young Joseph Douglas, whose love she craved and found impossible to obtain, or rather, to retain. She was accused of giving him, for unlawful purposes, "ane craig cheinzie (neck chain), twa belt cheinzies, ane ring, ane emiraut," and other jewels ; trying also to prevent his marriage with Marie Sandilands, and making Agnes Simpson get back the jewels, when her spells had failed. The young wife whom Douglas married, and the two children she bore him, also came in for part of her alleged maleficent * Fountainhall says that she was convict and burnt ; but is this not a miatake ? Pitoaira gives the actual trial, and King James's angry letter against the contumacious assisa, f Pitoaim. THE GSACE WlFt: OF Jiill'IH, i;.^ ghe ''did the fattmee to death,'* «id liae ndfie with deadly dckness. She wns aliio [ of fMring her own childbirth pains, onco on 4 dig. flnd mfse on taie ** nsntcHme cat ;" whereupon the poiv h»ate xm fistiactedly out of the houdo, ais well i^ey mis^ sad were nev^er seen again. She manapiod tin mBTveOoiE peoe of aleight-of-haiid by fretting a kirea fltxme fitan Agnes Sampaon, and rolling ^en» cbaotBd mdidis*'— earth fiom dead men's gravea^tn her hsE. Aw^hfir time fihe got her husband's alitrt^ ad caned it l» be *" woamj^" (folded up) and put under her heiktier, uhereby she sooght to thiow her lafaonr poK -ofom Inm, hot without effect ; as is not to faewonUBd at. Hie bewitched John M'Gillie*s wife by sndin^ her the Tiaon <^ a naked man, with only a niite Abbl afcmt him; and Jonett Aitchei»)u waw bin waiii lie deevvs of his shirt ** vpoune lepjrin, and tsAt abnu ins kead." She was also accused of «*«- deBsnBvtDpfBQnherhudMmd; and it was maiuA^t lim, iher wmon wns not happy— he being for tlie uumi jaii auwr bam hone, and she perhaps thinking of ilM €Aa^muami pKauaed her, AichibaU Kuthveu ; wluf b ponB. tnobeD and set aside, had made such a •*lttiid<*r aid aesndal of her maniage with Patrick Mowrop, Antt it WK proved— or what went for proof iw tJio*^ dro-4hBt Agnes SampBon, the wise wife, had wtwlw a dsr nnage of John Moacrop, the father-iii-law, who dioaki lfaeieup(m haye pined away and dic^d, atu'oixiin^ to the law of these enchantment^ but, failiii^j: in tiii« ohedience, lired instead, to the grief and coufusion of hiB daagirter-in-law. All these crimes, aud others lik^ unto them, were quite sufficient legal causes of deatli ; «nd James tanld gratify his Biq>erstitioiM &»» '^ polibcal ammaDtjr at the aame timew ^ iiil*> Eupheiai* 34 THE WITCHES OF SCOTLAND. Maclean — the fine, brave, handsome Euphemia — ^writhed in agony at the stake to which she was bound when burned alive in the flames: "brunt in assis quick to the deid," says the Record — the severest sentence ever passed on a witch. This murder was done on the 25th July, 1591. " The last of Februarie, 1592, Eichard Grahame wes brant at y* Cross of Edinburghe for vitchcrafte and sorcery," says succinctly Robert Birrel, " burges of Edin- burghe," in his "Diarey containing divers Passages of Staite and uthers memorable Accidents, from y* 1532 zeir of our Redemption, till y* beginning of the zeir 1605." " And in 1593, Katherine Muirhead was brunt for vitchcrafte, quha confest sundrie poynts yro£" Richard Graham was the " Rychie Graham, ane necro- mancer," consulted by Barbara Napier ; the same who gave the Earl of Bothwell some drug to make the king's majesty **lyke weill of him," if he could but touch king's majesty on the face therewith; it was he also who raised the devil for Sir Lewis Ballantyne, in his own yard in the Canongate, whereby Sir Lewis was so terrified that he took sickness and died. Even in the presence of the king himself, Rychie boasted that ^' he had a familiar spirit which showed him many things;" but which somehow forgot to show him the stake and the rope and the faggot, which yet were the bold necromancer's end, little as the poor cozening wretch merited such an awful doonu THE TWO ALISONS. June, 1596, had nearly seen a nobler victim than those usually accorded. John Stuart, Master of Orkney, and brother of th« Earl, " was dilatit of consulting with THE TWO ALISONS. 35 mnquhile Margaret Balfour, ane wich, for the destrue- tionne of Patrik Erll of Orkney, be poysoning.'* In the dittay she is called " Alysoun Balfour, ane knawin notorious wicL'* Alisoun, after being kept forty-eight hours in the " caschiclawis "* — ^her husband, an old man of eighty-one, her son, and her young daughter, all being in ward beside her, and tortured — was induced to confess. She could not see the old man with the Lang Irons of fifty stone weight laid upon him ; her son in the boots, with fifty-seven, strokes ; and her little daughter, aged seven, with the thumbscrews upon her tender hands, and not seek to gain their remission by any confession that could be made. But when the torture was removed from them and her, she recanted in one of the most moving and pathetic speeches on record — availing her little then, poor soul ! for she was burnt on the Castle Hill, December 16th, 1594, and her con- fession treasured up to be used as future evidence against John Stuart. Thomas Palpla, a servant, was also implicated ; but as he had been kept eleven days and nights in the caschiclaws (or caspie-claws) ; twice in the day for fourteen hours " callit in the buitis f stripped naked and scourged with "ropes in sic soirt that they left nather fiesch nor hyde vpoun him ;" and, as he recanted so soon as the torture was removed, his confession went for but little. So John, Master of Orkney, was let off, when perhaps he had been the only guilty one of the three. In Octoberf- of the same year (1596), Alesoun Jollie, ♦ Dr. Jamieson conjectures the word to signify " warm hose." After encircling tbe leg with an iron framework, it was put into a moveable furnace or chauffer, and during the progress of heating the iron, the intended questions weie successiyely put. — Note in Pitcaim*8 * Scottish Criminal TriaU,* t Pitcaim's • Scottish Criminal Trials.* 86 THE WITCHES OF SCOTLAND. spoils to Bobert Bae, in Fala» was ^ dilatit of airt and 'pdiit " in the death of Isobell Hepburn, of Fala : and the next month, November, Christian Stewart^ in Nok* waiter, was strangled and bnmt for the slaughter of mnquhile Patrick Ruthven, by taking ane black doat from Isobell Stewart, wherewith to work her fatal charm. It does not appear that she did anything more heinous than borrow a black cloth from Isobell, which might or might not hare been left in Buthven's house ; but sus- picion was as good as evidence in those days, and black clouts were dangerous things to deal with when women had the reputation of witches. So poor Christian Stewart was strangled and bmut, and her soul released from its troubles by a rougher road, and a shorter, than what Nature would have taken if left to herself. " Strange that while all these dismal affairs were going on at Edinburgh, Shakspeare was beginning to write his plays, and Bacon to prepare his essays. Bamus had by this time shaken the Aristotelian philosophy, and Luther had broken the papal tyranny."* Truly humanity walks by slow marches, and by painM stum- bling through thorny places ! THE TROUBLES OP ABERDEEN.f Aberdeen was not behind her elder sister. One man and twenty-three women were burned in one year alone for the crime of witchcraft and magic ; and the Becords of the Dean of Guild faithfully detail the expenses which the town was put to in the process. * Chambers' ' Domestic Annals of Scotland.' t 'Antiquarian Researches ot Aberdeen, by GaWn Turriff; Spalding Club Miscellany. Chambers' ' Domestic Annals,' to the end of the Aberdeen trials. THE TBOUBLES OP ABERDEEN. 37 On the 23rd of Febraary, 1597, Thomas Leyis cost them two pounds thirteen shillings and fourpence, for " peattis, tar barrelis, fir, and eoallis, to burn the said Thomas, and to Jon Justice for his fie in executing him;" but Jonet Wischart (his mother), and Isobel Cocker, cost eleven pounds ten shillings for their joint cremation ; with ten shillings added to the account for "training of Monteithe (another witch of the same gang) through the streits of the town in ane cart, quha hangit herself in prison, and eirding (burying) her." The dittay against these several persons set forth various crimes. Janet Wischart, who was an old woman notorious for her evil eye, was convicted, amongst other things, of having "in the moneth of Aprile or thairby, in anno nyntie ane yeiris, being the first moneth in the raith (the first quarter) at the greiking" (breaking) of the day, cast her cantrips in Alexander Thomson's way, so that one half of the day his body was " rossin *' (bmmed or roasted) as if in an oven, with an extreme burning drought, and the other half melting away with a cold sweat. Upon Andrew Webster — ^who had put a linen towel round her throat, half choking her, and to whom she said angrily, "Quhat wirreys thow me ? thow salt lie : I sail give breid to my bairnis this towmound, and thou sail nocht byd ane moneth with thin, to gif tham breid" — she had laid such sore cantrips, that he died as she predicted : which was a cruel and foul murder in the eyes of the law, forbye the sin of witchcraft. But she had other victims as well. James Low, a stabler, refused to lend her his kiln and bam, so he took a " dwining " illness in conse- quence, " melting away like ane burning candle till he died" His wife and only son died too, and his "haill geir, surmounting three thousand pounds, are alto- '. .T:^i5S C-r SCOTULXD. X.. .^*L iiar."* Beside this eTidence there >w -^^ u« ;iv;iili=^ ; for he had often said . -^ . vm. ^dhC s >e had lent Jonet what she .^«» ^. %v .L>i 3fe^T«r hare suffered loss. She rcu^ :; iovn a doaen fowls off a roost, V . . .i^d 1^ rained a woman and her v.s. .^ :ih:'ai take nine grains or ears of * .(. 1 :\*v»aa tree, and put them in the ^ . . '.at K)ui$e — &r all tjie mischance that V >wka^ Uio to thi^ unholy charm ; and once x^ . V .V I uoie \%iud in a dead calm, by putting ». vvku at two doors, whereby she was « . ...V \v N^)Lue wheat for herself, when all the v,.v ^jiuaia^ idle for want of wind; and V. .V >>is. 550 that they gave poison instead of \. u» s*^ tiuit they became furious under the .^ .'ui Iioi-t^If ; and she sent cats to sit on V 'u;.i^is;y and give them evil dreams and ..vk :uichermore, she was said to have ^..uvv;i in the Links, and to have di&- , ..ud body hanging there, for charms; ^ ^ .us. iigo she was proved to have been .v\d oi com before sunrising, peeling ,^ iuiv it would be "ane dear year," . t vidocb^hin^ and it was only when it V u .0^ W west) that it would be a .V .*^» luoud tor the poor ; and once her . , V aud hor> and another hag, sitting v\ lie K>iXi) ^uvmnted on the shoulders V . f^ .aiumd fi>r her health and well- .^ ac tovvJU erf Aberdeen the half of V V im^8^ tor the most effectual man- M M.'utv^i^\\ which was, that she THE TROUBLES OF ABERDEEN. 39 Her son Thomas Leyis was hot so fortunate as her husband and daughters : ^' qwik gangand devills " were these ; for they escaped the flames this time, and were banished instead. But Thomas was less lucky. He was dilatit of being a Common witch and sorcerer, and the partner of all his mother's evil deeds. One of his worst crimes was having danced round the market-cross of Aberdeen, he and a number of witches and sorcerers — the devil leading ; " in the quhilk dans, thow, Thomas, was foremost, and led the ring, and dang the said Katherine Mitchell (another of the accused) because scho spilUt your dans, and ran nocht so fast about as the rest" Thomas had a lover too, faithless Elspet Eeid, and she, turning against him, as has been the manner of lovers through all time, gave tremendous evidence in his disfavour. She said that he had once offered to take her to Murrayland, and there marry her ; a man at the foot of a certain mountain being sure to rise at his bidding, and supply them with all they wanted; and when he was confined in the church-house, she came and whispered to him through the window, and the man in charge of Thomas swore that she said she had been meeting with the devil according to his orders, and that when she sained herself he had " vaniest away with ane rwmleng (rumbling)." In the morning, too, before the old mother's conviction, *' ane ewill spreit in lyiknes of ane pyit (magpie)," went and struck the youngest sister in her face, and would have picked out her eyes, but that the neighbours to the fore dang the foul thief out of the room ; and again, on the day after conviction, and before execution, the devil came again as ane kae (crow), and would have destroyed the youngest sister entirely had he not been prevented: which two visitations were somehow hinged on to 4D . THE WITCHES OF SCOTLAKD. Thomas, and included in the list of crimes for which he was adjudged worthy of death. Helen Eraser, of the same " coven," was a most dan- gerous witch. She had the power to make men transfer their affections, no matter how good and wholesome the wife deserted : — and she never spared her power. By her charms she caused Andrew Tullideff to leave off loving his lawAil wife and take to Margaret Neilson instead : BO that " he could never be reconceillit with his wife, or remove his affection frae the said harlot ;" and she made Kobert Merchant fall away from the duty owing to his wife, Christian White, and transfer himself and his love to a certain widow, Isobel Bruce, for whom he once went to sow com, and fell so madly in love that he could never quit the house or the widow's side again ; '* whilk thing the country supposed to be brought about by the un- lawful travelling of the said Helen ; " and was further testified hy Bxibert himielf,'* says Chambers significantly. Helen Fraser was therefore burnt; and it is to be hoped that the men returned to their lawful mates. Isobel Cockie, who was burnt in company with Thomas Lee's mother, old Jonet, meddled chiefly with cows and butter. She could forespeak them so that they should give poison instead of milk, and the cream she bad once overlooked was never fit for the ^ yiming." Her land- lord once offended her by mending the roof of her house while she was from home, and Isobel, who did not choose that her things should be pulled about in her absence, and perhaps some of her cantrips disco- vered, " glowrit up at him, and said, * I sail gar thee forthink it that thow hast tirrit my hows, I being frae hame.' " Whereupon Alexander Anderson went home sick and speechless, and gat no relief until Isobel gave him " droggis," when his speech and health returned THE TROUBLES OF ABERDEEN. 41 as of old. Isobel had been the dancer immediately after Thomas Lees at the Fish Cross, ** and because the dewillplayit not so melodiously and well as thow cravit, thow took his instrument out of his mouth, then tuik him on the chafts (chops) therewith, and play it thyself theiron to the haiU company." What further evidence could possibly be required to prore that Isobel CJockie was a witch, and one that " might not be suffered to live " ? Other trials did Aberdeen entertain that year on this fiame wise and Christian count. There was that of Andrew Man, a poor old fellow specially patronized by the Queen of Fairy who sixty years ago had come to his mother^s house, where she was delivered of a bairn just like an ordinary woman, and no devil or Queen of Elfin at all. Andrew was then but a boy, but he remem- bered it all well, and how he carried water for her, and was promised by her that he should know all things, and should be able to cm^ all sorts of sickness except the "stand deid ;" and that he should be "wellentertainit," but should seek his meat ere he died, as Thomas Bhymer had done in years long past. Twenty-eight years after this the queen came again, and caused one of his cattle to die on a hillock called the Elf-hillock, but promised to do him good afterwards ; and it was then that their guilty albeit poetic and loving intercourse began. Andrew was told in his dittay that he could cure " the falling sickness, the bairn-bed, and all other sorts of sickness that ever fell to man or beast, except the standrdeid, by baptizing them, reabling them in the auld corunschbald,'*' and striking of the gudis on the face, with ane foot in thy hand, and by saying their words, * Gif thou wilt live, live; and gif thow wilt die, die,' with sundry other orisonsy sic as Sanct John and the three silly brethren, "* Apparenlly untranslateable. 43 THE WITCHES OF SCOTLAND. whilk thow canst say when thow please, and by giving of black wool and salt as a remeid for all diseases, and for causing a man prosper, so that his blude should never be drawn." Once, Andrew Man, by putting a patient nine times through a hasp of unwatered yam, and a cat as many times backwards through the same hasp, ciu'ed the patient by killing the cat. This was logical, and quite easy to be understood. Andrew's devil whom he affirmed to be an. angel, and whose name was Christsonday, was raised by saying Bene* dicite, and laid again by putting a dog under his arm, then casting it into the devil's mouth with the awful word " Maikpeblis 1" " The Queen of Elphen has a grip of all the craft," says the dittay, " but Christsonday is the gudeman, and has all power under Grod; and thow kens sundry deid men in their company, and the king that died at Flodden, and Thomas Bhymer is there." And as the queen had been seen in Andrew's company in a rather beautiful and poetic manner, the whole affair was settled, and no man's mind was left in doubt of the old creature's guilt. For, Andrew was told, " Upon Eood-day in harvest, in this present year, whilk fell on a Wednesday, thow saw Christsonday come out of the snaw in the likeness of a staig (yoxmg male horse), and the Queen of Elphen was there, and others with her, riding upon white hackneys." " The elves have shapes and claithes like men, and will have fair covered tables, and they are but shadows, but are starker (stronger) nor men, and they have playing and dancing when they please ; the queen is very pleasant, and will be auld and young when she pleases; she makes any king whom she pleases. « • The elves will make thee appear to be in a fair chalmer, and yet thow wilt find thyself in a moss on the moor. They THE TROUBLES OF ABERDEEN. 43 •will appear to have candles, and licht, and swords, wMlk will be nothing else but dead grass and straes." So Andrew's doom was sealed, for all that he denied his guilt, and he was eonyicted and burnt like the rest. Marjory Mutch came to her end because, having a deadly hatred against William Smith, she bewitched his oxen, as they were ploughing, so that they all ran ** wood '* or mad that instant, broke the plough, and two of them plunged up over the hills to Deer, and two ran up Ithan side, and could never be taken or apprehended again. She was notorious for bewitching cattle; and that she was a witch, and good for nothing but burning, a gentleman proved to the satisfaction of all present, for he found a soft spot on her which he pricked without causing any pain ; a test that ought to have been eminently satisfactory and conclusive — but was not ; for she was " clenged" — cleansed, or acquitted. Ellen Gray, convicted of many of the ordinary crimes of witchcraft, did away with all chance of mercy for herseK when, on being taken, she looked over her shoulder, saying, " Is there no mon following me ? " and Agnes Webster was a witch because in a great snow she took fire out of a " cauld frosty dyke," and carried the same to her house. They were both burnt, as they merited. Jonet Leisk cast sickness and disease on all she knew, and made whole flocks run ** wode " and furious ; geese too ; but she was " clenged," or cleared; so was Gilbert Fidlar; but Isobell Eichie, Margaret Og, Helen Bogie, and others, were burnt, for the satisfaction of offended justice. Margaret Clark, too, came to no good end, because being sent for by the wife of Nicol Boss, when in child- bed, she gave her ease by casting her pains upon Andrew Harper, who fell into such a fury and madness during 44 THE WITCHES OF 800TLAHD. her time of trayail, that he could not be holden, and only recovered when the gentlewoman was delivered. And what did Violet Leys do, but bewitch William Fin lay's ship so that she never made one good voyage again, all because her husband had been discharged therefrom, and Violet the witch was most mightily angered? And Isobell Straquhan, too, had she not powers banned even in the blessing ? She went one day to " Elspet Murray in Woodheid, she being a widow, and asked of her if she had a penny to lend her, and the said Elspet gave her the penny; and the said Isobell took the penny and bowit (bent) it, and took a clout and a piece of red wax, and sewed the clout with a thread, the wax and the penny being within the clout, and gave it to the said Elspet Murray, commanding her to use the said clout to hang about her craig (neck), and when she saw the man she loved best, take the clout, with the penny and wax, and stroke her &ce with it, and she so doing, would attain into the marriage of that man whom she loved." She also made Walter lionaldson leave off beating his wife, by sewing certain pieces of paper thick with threads of divers colours, and putting them in the barn among the com, since which time Walter left off dinging his poor spouse, and was " subdued entirely to her love.'* So Isobell Straquhan made one of the tale erf twenty-two unfortunate wretches who were executed in Aberdeen that year, for the various crimes of witchcraft and sorcery. No evidence was too meagre for the witch-hunters ; no accusation too absurd; no subterfuge or enormity sufficiently transparent to show the truth behind. When Margaret Aiken, " the great witch of Balwery,"* went ♦ Patrick Anderson's MS. history of Scotland, quoted by Bobert Chambers, in his^* Domostio Annals of Scotland.' TPE TROUBLES OF ABERDEEN. 45 abont the country dilating honest women for witches, " by the mark between their eyes," it was evident to all but the heated and credulous, such as John Gowper, the minister of Glasgow, and others, that she used this as a mere means to save time, she herself having been tortured into confession, and now seeing no way of safety but by complicity and witch-finding. She told of one convention held on a hill in Atholl, where there were twenty-three hundred witches, and the devil among them. " She said she knew them all well enough, and what mark the devil had given severally to every one of them. There was many of them tried by swimming in the water, by binding of their two thumbs and their great toes together, for being thus casten in the water, they floated ay aboon." It was not only the malevolent witch that suffered in this wild raid made against reason and humanity. The doom dealt out to the witch who slew was equally allotted to the witch who saved. Yet the witchologists made a difference between the two. " Of witches there be two sorts," says Thomas Pick- ering, in his * Discovrse of the damned Art of Witchcraft,' printed 1610, " the bad witch and the good witch; for so they are commonly called. The bad witch is he or she that hath consulted in league with the Deuill ; to vse his helpe for the doing of hurte onely, so as to strike and annoy the bodies of men, women, children, and cattell, with diseases and with death itselfe ; so likewise to raise tempests by sea and by land, &c. This is com- monly called the binding witch. ^^ The good witch is he or she that by consent in a league with the Deuill doth vse his helpe for the doing of good onely. This cannot hurt, torment, curse, or kill, but onely heale and cure the hurt inflicted vpone men 46 THB WITCHES OP SCOTLAND. or cattell by badde witches. For as they can doe no good but onely hurt ; so this can doe no hurt but good onely. And this is that order which the Deuill bath set in his kingdome, appointing to severall persons their severall offices and charges. And the Good Witch is commonly called the Vnbinding Witch." But the good witch, as Pickering calls her, was no better off than the bad. Indeed she was held in even greater dread, for the black witch hurt only the body and estate, while the white witch hurt the soul when she healed the body ; the healed part never being able to say " God healed me." Wherefore it was serered from the salvation of the rest, and the wholeness of the redemption destroyed. In consequence of this belief we find as severe punishments accorded to the blessing as to the banning witches ; and no movement of grati- tude was dreamt of towards those who had healed the most oppressive diseases, or shown the most humane feeling and kindness, if there was a suspicion that the power had been got uncannily, or that the drugs had more virtue than common. WHITE WITCHES.* Thus on November the 12th, 1597, Janet Stewart in the Canongate, Christian Levingstone in Leith, Bessie Aiken, also of Leith, and Christian Sadler of Blackhouse, were brought to trial for no worse crimes than healing and helping sundry of their neighbours. Christian Leving- stone was ^ fylit and convict " fw abusing (deceiving) Thomas Gothray, who went to her complaining that his gear went from him, and that he was bewitched ; which ♦ I^itcaim. WHITE WITCHES. 47 she said was true ; promising to help him, and " let him see where the witchcraft was laid." So she took him down his own stair, and dug a hole with her knife, and took out a little bag of black plaid, wherein were some grains of wheat, worsted threads of many colours, some hair, and nails of men's fingers, aCBrming that he was bewitched by these means, and bidding his wife catch them in her apron. If this bag had not been found, said Christian, he would have been wrackit both in mind and body ; which was a clear case of ** abusing," if you will. This " scho deponit in presens of my Lord Justice vpoun the tent day of Julij last past to be of veritie." She also said that her daughter had been taken away by fairy folk, and that she had learnt all her wise-wife knowledge from her, and as a proof of this knowledge, she prophesied that Gothray's wife, then " being with barne," should bear a man child ; which proved to be true, to the sad strengthening of the accusations against her. Another time she and Chris- tian Sadler were prayed by Eobert Bailie, mason in Haddington, to go and cure his wife. Christian Sadler recommended her to take three pints of sweet wort, and boil it with a quantity of fresh butter ; which she did, and drank it too, but with no good effects of heal- ing, as we may suppose. Again, shortly before her accusation, she was sent for by Christian Sadler, on some other devil's deed ; and together they made An- drew Pennycuik a cake baked with the blood of a red cock; but he could not eat it. Then they took his shirt and dipped it in the well at the back of his house, and brought it to him and put it on him, dripping as it was, " quhairthrow he maist haif sownit amang their hands," giving him to understand that now he would be mended, " albeit that it was onlie plane abusione, as 48 THE WITCHES OF SCOTLAND. the event declarit" Not finding the cake of red cock's blood or the dripping shirt of great efficacy, Andrew went then to Janet Stewart, craving his health at her hands " for God's sake ;" but we are not told the result. Janet Stewart was fylit for going to Bessie Inglis in the Kowgate, Bessie being deidlie sick; when Janet took off her '* mutche and sark " (cap and shift), washed them in south-running water, and put them en her again at midnight, wet as they were, saying three times, " In the name of the Father, the Son, and th^ Holy Ghost." She also " fyrit," or put a hot iron into water, and burnt straw at the four comers of the bed, as Michael Clarke, smith, had learnt her; and she healed women of the mysterious child-bed disorder called wedonymph, by taking a garland of woodbine and putting them through it, afterwards cutting it into nine pieces, which she threw into the fire. This charm she said she had learnt from Mr. John Damiet, an Italian, and a notorious enchanter. And she cured sundry persons of the falling-evil by hanging a stone about their necks for five nights, which stone she said she got from Lady Crawford. V Christian Sadler was " fylit and convict " for taking in hand to heal the young Laird of Bargany, with a salve made of quicksilver, which she rubbed into the patient^ alleging that she learnt it of her father ; but she did the same by " unlessum " (unwholesome) means, said the dittay, she having no such knowledge as would enable her to cure leprosy, which the most expert men in medicine are not able to do. Eobert Hunter, too, since deceased, having a flaw in his face, she under- took to cure with a mixture of quicksilver in a drink. She said the flaw was leprosy, but it was nothing of the WHITE WITCHES. 49 kind ; and " God knows how the drink was composed,** but the gentleman died twelve hours after, " as was notourlie confessit of hirself, and can nocht be denyit, quhairby scho was giltie of his death be hir craft ; ministering to him ynlessum things, quhau-of he deit suddenlie." So the four women were conricted and condemned, sentenced to be strangled at a stake, then burnt, and all their goods forfeit to the crown. Only Bessie Aiken got off by reason of her pregnancy ; and after having suffered " lang puneischment be famine and imprisonment,"' was finally banished the kingdom for life. In July, 1602, James Keid suffered for the same kind of offences — ^taking three pennies and a piece of " creisch " (grease) from the bag of his master the devill, whom he met on Bynnie-crags, and learning from him the art of healing by means of silk laces, south-running waters, charms, incantations, and other " unlessum " means. He cured Sarah Borthwick by his sorcery and devilry, bringing her south-running water from the ** Schriff-breyis-well," and casting a certain quantity of salt and wheat about her bed : and he consulted with certain for the destruction of David Libbertoune, baxter and burges of Edinburgh, his spouse, their com, and goods, by taking a piece of raw flesh, and making nine nicks in it, then putting part under the miU door and part under the stable door ; while, to ruin the land, he enchanted stones and cast them on the fields. He cured John Crystie of a swelling, by putting three silk laces round his leg for ten weeks ; and his deeds be- coming notorious and his character lost, he was ad- judged worthy of death, and judicially murdered ac- cordingly. Who was safe, if a half-fed scrofulous woman had E 60 THE WITCHES OP SCOTLAND. fancies and the megrims? The first person on whom her wild imagination chose to cast the grim shadow of witchcraft was surely doomed, however slight the evi- dence, or whatever the manifest quality of the disease. There was poor Patrick Lowrie, fylit July 23, 1605 — what had he done ? Why, he and Jonet Hunter, " ane notorious wich," bewitched Bessie Saweris' (Sawyer's) her com, and took all her fisnowne (fushion, foison, pith, strength, flavour) from her ; and then he fell foul of certain "ky," so that they gave no milk; and he had cured the horse of Margaret GuflFok, the witch of Bamewell, twenty years ago ; and struck Janet Lowrie blind; and, as a climax, uncannily helped Elizabeth Crawford's bairn in Glasgow, which had been strangely sick for the last eight or nine years. And the way in which he helped her was thus. He took a cloth off the said bairn's face, " saining " it, and crossing the face with his hand ; he kept the cloth for eight days, then came back and covered her face again with it ; where- upon the child slept without moving for two days, and at the end of that time Patrick Lowrie wakened her, and her eye, which " had been tynt throw disease, was re^ stored to her, and in five days she was cured and mended." He was also fylit of having met the devil on the com- mon waste at Sandhills, in Kyle, when a number of men and women were there ; and for having enter- tained him under the form of a woman, one Helen M*Brune (this was a succubus) ; also of having received from him a hair belt, at one end of which was the similitude of " four fingeris and ane thumbe, nocht far different from the clawis of the devill ;" which belt Jonet Hunter had, and it was burnt at her trial ; alsa of having dug up dead bodies, to dismember them for his deadly charms ; and also for being ^^ ane cowmone THE MISDEEDS OF ISOBEL GRIEltSON. 51 .tod notorious sorcerer, warlok, and abuser of the peopill, be all vnlawftdl charms and devillische incan- tationeSy vset be him this xxiiij yeir begane." To which terrific array was added the testimony of Mr. David Mill, who said how, in his own place, he was " brutit and commonlie called Pait ye Witch, and that he gat his father's malison," and had been spoken of as sure to make an ill end. So he did, poor fellow ; for the Lord Advocate threatened to prosecute the assize if they acquitted him, which insured his effectnal condemna- tion, and Pate the Witch was burnt with his fellows. THE MISDEEDS OP ISOBEL GRIERSON.* Two years afterwards, on March the 10th, 1607, Isobel Grierson, " spous to John Bull," came into court with anything but clean hands. She was accused of having visited Adam Clarke and his wife — ^they lying decently in bed, their servant being in the other bed beside them — not as an honest woman, but in the form of a cat, being accompanied by other cats which made a great and fearful noise. Whereat Adam Clarke, his wife, and servant were so aflfrighted they were almost mad. At the same time arrived the devU in the shape of a black man, and came to the servant girl then stand- ing on the floor, and drew her up and down the house in a fearful manner, first taking the curtche (cap) off her head and casting it into the fire, whereby the poor woman had a sickness which lasted six weeks. Isobel killed William Burnet by casting a cutting of plaid in at his door, after which the devil, for the space of half ^ Pitoaim and Chambers. 62 THE WITCHES OF SCOTLAND. a jeax, perpetually appeared to him as a naked cbSld, holding an enchanted picture in his hand^ and standing before the fire ; but sometimes he appeared as Isobel herself, who, when William Burnet called to her by name, would vanish away. So she haunted and harried him till he pined away and died. She bewitched Mr. Brown, of Prestonpans, by throwing an enchanted "tailzie" (cut or piece) of beef at his door, sending the devil to distress him for half a year, appearing to him herself in the form of an infant bairn, and so hardly treating him, that Brown died as Burnet had done. Then she bewitched Kobert Peddan, who got no good from any remedy, and knew not what ailed him, until he suddenly remembered that he and Isobel had had a quarrel about nine shillings which he owed her and would not pay ; so he went to her and paid her, asking humbly for his health again ; which came. Eobert Peddan deposed, too, that, being once at his house, she wanted her cat, whereupon she opened his windoW; put out her hand, and drew the cat in : at which time was working a brewing of good sound ale, which aU turned to " gutter dirt." Another time she or her spirit went at night to his house and drew Margaret Donaldson, his wife, out of her bed, and flung her vio- lently against the floor ; whereat the wife was very ill and sore troubled, and cried out on her. Isobel, hear- ing of this, went to the neighbours, and said they were to bring her and Margaret together again ; which they did ; and Margaret had her health for nine or ten days. But Meg, not leaving off calling out against her, Isobel went to her, " and spak to hir mony devillisch and horribill words," saying, " The faggot of hell lycht on the, and heU's cauldron may thow seith in I " So Meg was sick again after this ; and as a poor beggarwoman BAETEBS PATERSON'S CHARM. 53 ooming to the door to ask meat told her she was be- witched, for that she had the right stamp of it, the case grew serious, and Margaret cried out more loudly than before. Then Isobel went again to her house with a creil on her back, and said passionately, " Away, theiflf ! I sail haif thy hairt for bruitting of me sae falslie ;" which so lightened Meg that she took to her bed, and Ifiobel was arrested, tried, convicted, and burnt. BARTIE PATERSON'S CHARM.* That same year James Brown was ill. Bartie Paterson went to him, and gave him drinks and salves made of green herbs, and bade him " sitt doun on his kneis thre seuerall nychtis, and everie nycht, thryse nyne tymes, ask his helth at all living wichtis, aboue and vnder the earth in the name of Jesus." He gave Alexander Clarke a drink of Dow-Loch water — ^poor Alexander Clarke was fond of consulting witches — causing him each time he lifted the mug to say, " I lift this watter in the name of the Father, Sone, and Holy Ghaist, to do guid for their helth for quhom it is liftit.*' And he was able to cast a spell over cattle by saying — •* I charme th^ for arrow-achot. For dor-^chot, for wondo-schot, For ey-schot, for tung-schot. For leyer-echot, for lung-echot, For hertHSchot, all the maifit, In the name of the Father, the Sone, and Haly Ghaist. To wend out of fleisch and bane. Into stek and stane. In the name of the Father, the Sone, and Haly Ghaist. Amen.** So the law put a stop to his incantations, and he was * Fitcairn* 64 THE WITCHES OF SCOTLAND. strangled and bnmt» and all his goods escheit to the crown. But the crown did not get a very fiill haul, for poor Bartie was scarce removed from beggary. BEIGIS TOD AND HEB COMPEEBS.* In 1608, on May the 27th, Beigis Tod in Lang Nydrie came to her £Ette. She had long been a fre- quenter of Sabbaths, and once was reproved by the devil for being late, when she answered respectfully, " Sir, I could wyn na soner!" Immediately thereafter she passed to her own house, took a cat, and put it nine times tltrough the chimney work, and then sped to Seaton Thome " be north the yet," where the devil called Cristiane Tod, her younger sister, and brought her out. But Cristiane took a great fright and said, " Lord, what wilt thou do with me ?" to whom he an- swered, " Tak na feir, for ye sail gang to your sister Beigis, to ye rest of hir cumpanie quha are stayand vpoun your cuming at the Thome." Cristiane Tod, John GraymeiU, Ersche (Irish), Marion, and Margaret Dwn, who were of that company that night, had aU been burnt, so now Beigis had her turn. She fell out with Alexander Fairlie, and made his son vanish away by continual sweating and burning at his heart, during which time Beigis appeared to him nightly in her own person, but during the day in the similitude of a dog, and put him almost out of his wits. Alexander went to her to be reconciled, and asked her to take the sickness off his son, which at first she refused, but afterwards consenting, she went and healed the youth, a short time before she was arrested — ^to be burnt Two years after * Fitcaim. BEIGIS TOD AND HEB COMPEEEB. 55 this Grissel Gairdner was burnt for casting sickness upon people; and in 1613 Bobert Erskine and his three sisters were executed — ^he was beheaded — ^for poison- ing and treasonable murder against his two nephews. But before this^ in 1608, the Earl of Mar brought word to the Privy Council that some women taken at Broughton or Breichin, accused of witchcraft, and being put to " ane assize and convict albeit they persevered constant in their deniall to the end, yet they wes bumet quick after sic ane crewell manor that sum of thame deit in dispair, renunceand and blasphemand, and vtheris, half brunt, brak out of the fyre and wes cassin quieh into it againe, quhill they war brunt to the deid." Even this horrible scene does not seem to have had. any effect in humanizing men's hearts, or opening their eyes to the infamy into which their superstition dragged. them ; for stiU the witch trials went on, and the young and the old, and the beautiful and the unlovely, and the loved and the loveless, were equally victims, cast without pity or remorse to their frightful doom. Sixteen hundred and sixteen was a fruitful year for the witch-finders. There was Jonka Dyneis of Shetland,* who, offended with one Olave, fell out in most vile cursings and blasphemous exclamations, saying that within a few days his bones should be " raiking '^ about the banks : and as she predicted so did it turn out — Olave perishing by her sorceiy and enchantments.. And not content with this, she cursed the other son of the poor widowed mother, and in fourteen days he also died, to Jonka's own undoing when the Shetlanders would bear her iniquities no longer. And there was Katherine Jonesdochter, also of Shetland, who cruelly transferred her husband's natural infirmities to a * DalyeU'B ' Darker Superstitions of Scotland.* V? THE VlTCiUS •>F SCOTLAND. ■♦tmnepr: an*! Elj»n#»th R«Hx»ii )t Orkney; who pidled rh#* .»**rS 'a4l#»<i 3M^{»*t'owr Tniilfoii ':) betwixt Ii^r Imger r*n#l *hiiT>iK savins: •* In Xomine Patna. FtTH, et Sp^i- tfi« '^an^^ti," rhn* tTirin^ men's «iiateBip»B in a de^Iidi im4 'mw^iol**<v>me numner: and Aipies deottie^ who rH^MflAff to -tT>»nk won! to 'Jrin^ Tnan Jjetbre paasn^ '* the h^vr^fiU of iiir jronnd. .mmI their ^ot «iowiu piaitQig ha jVit j^twixt th*> mf»Tf*hi5c" that a i^eituii womam might h«r*» i« oroo^i r'hiWbirth : who waa aiao coBTicted ^ rf w^«hincr ^h^ innPT nnke of h«- plaid and aprone,'' Ibr iVOTYi^ W/'Icpd unfi sin i:9ter pnrpoae : £br what aane Seottidi wom^n wonW \vw»h her clothes nuue than wa» ab8i>- I life] y ne^pj»9?ny? and who onuiii cmBe a» well a» cmey and trnn^ifer <)r well !t8 give the ^^'Imftwa ^le coidd h^ftl : and ifarahle Tj^viper who threw a **wall pief* fit » man who i^rpoke ill of her, and made his &ce bleed, ?(^ th«t hfi w*^nt mail, and could only be recovered by h^r l»yln<;f her handA on himy whereby he received his 0>iD^^ and his health again : and Ajies TuUock, who w^nt fA th4 giiid wyfe ol LangskailL and by toucfaiD^ h^r ^ffvf^ her baek her hesdth : and WiHiam. Gnde, who Hfid pr^wf^r 6ver all inanimate things, and by his toneh <v>i>]d gjvf^ them back the virtue they had lost These af^ ^irAy a few, yenrj few, of the cases to be found in the fmrifAi^ jndic^iarT; records of the year 1616 — a year no ffr/f4^ fhitn others and no bett^, where all were bad affd hUffftUdeaned alike* tff tfflH (nm of the mddert stixies of all was to be fM/l in fh^ tear<9 of a few sorrowfid relatives^ and in the f^tnHnivni tit ih(fm fanatics who rejoiced when the m'vmM^(\ thing pltK^ked oat from them was of more H^HHWy mvmr and of a fairer form than usual, and ihitn nvm ft inf)oter sacrifice for the Lord Of sJl the hmtttetiihng histories to be found in the records of THE HTIFUL FATE OP MAEGARET BARCLAY. 67 witchcraft^ the history of Margaret Barclay and her ^^ accomplices " is saddest, most sorrowful, most heart- rending. THE PITIFUL FATE OF MARGARET BARCLAY.* Margaret was a young, beautiful, high-spirited woman, wife of Archibald Dein, burgess of Irvine, and not on the best of terms with John Dein, her husband's brother. Indeed, she had had him and his wife before the Eirk session for slander, and things had not gone quite smoothly with them ever since. When, therefore, * the ship. The Grace of God, in which John Dein was sailing, sank in sight of land, drowning him and all his men, the old quarrel was remembered, and Margaret, together withlsobel Insh and John Stewart, a wandering ^^ spaeman," was accused of having sunk the vessel by charms and enchantments. Margaret disdainfully denied the charge &om beginning to end : Isobel said she had never seen the spaeman in her life before ; but Stewart ^^ clearly and pounktallie confessit " all the charges brought against him, and also said that the women had applied to him to be taught his magic arts, and that once he had found them both modelling ships and figures in clay for the destruction of the men and vessel aforesaid And as it was proved that Stewart had spoken of the wreck before he could have known it by ordinary means, suspicion of sorcery fell upon him, and he was taken : and made his confession. He said that he had visited Margaret to help her to her wiU, when a black dog, breathing Sxe &om his nostrils, had formed part of the conclave ; and Isobel's own child, a * Soott's * Pemonology and Witohduft' 68 THE WITCHES OF SCOTLAND. little girl of eight, added to this, a black man as welL Isobel, after denying all and sundry of the charges brought against her, under torture admitted their truth* In the night time she found means to escape from her prison, bruised and maimed with the torture as she was; but in scrambling over the roof she fell to the ground, and was so much injured that she died five days afterwards. Margaret was then tortured : the spaeman had strangled himself, which was the best thing he could do, only it was a pity he did not do it before ; and poor Margaret was the last of the trio. The torture they used, said the Lords Commissioners, was " safe and gentle." They put her bare legs into a pair of stocks, and laid on them iron bars, augmenting their weight one by one, till Margaret, imable to bear the pain, cried out to be released, promising to confess the truth as they wished to have it But when released she only denied the charges with fresh passion; so they had recourse to the iron bars again. After a time, pain and weakness overcame her again, and she shrieked aloud, " Tak off! tak off! and befoir God I will show ye the whole form!" She then confessed — ^whatever they chose to ask her; but unfortunately, in her ravings, included one Isobel Crawford, who when ar- rested — as she was on the instant — attempted no de- fence, but, paralyzed and stupefied, admitted every- thing with which she was charged. Margaret's trial proceeded : sullen and despairing, she assented to the most monstrous counts : she knew there was no hope, and she seemed to take a bitter pride in suffering her tormentors to befool themselves to the utmost In the midst of her anguish her husband, Alexander Dein, entered the court, accompanied by a lawyer. And then her despair passed, and she thought she saw a glimmer THE PITIFUL PATE OP MARGABET BARCLAY. 59 of life and salvation. She asked to be defended. ** All that I have confessed," she said, " was in an agony of torture; and before God all that I have spoken is fisdse and untrua But," she added pathetically, turning to her husband, " ye have been owre lang in coming 1" Her defence did her no good ; she was condemned, and at the stake entreated that no harm might befall Isobel Crawford, who was utterly and entirely innocent. To whom did she make this prayer? to hearts turned wild and wolfish by superstition; to hearts made fiendish by fear ; to men with nothing of humanity save its form — with nothing of religion save its terrors. She might as well have prayed to the fierce winds blowing round the court-house, or the rough waves lashing the barren shore! She was taken to the stake, there strangled and burnt : bearing herself bravely to the last. Poor, brave, beautiful, young Margaret ! we, at this long lapse of time, cannot even read of her fate without tears ; it needed all the savageness of superstition to harden the hearts of the living against the actual presence of her beauty, her courage, and her despair ! : Isobel Crawford was now tried ; " after the assistant minister, Mr. David Dickson, had made earnest prayer to God for opening her obdurate and closed heart, she was subjected to the torture of the iron bars laid upon her bare shins, her feet being in the stocks, as in the case of Margaret Beurclay." She endured this torture ** admirably," without any kind of din or exclamation, suffering above thirty stone of iron to be laid on her legs, never shrinking thereat in any sort, but remain- ing steady and constant. But when they shifted the iron bars, and removed them to another part of her legs, her constancy gave way, as Margaret's had done, and she too broke out into horrible. cries of "Tak off! tak 60 THE WITCHES OP SCOTLAND. off !'* She then confessed — anything — everything — and was sentenced : bnt on the way to her execution she denied all that she had admitted, interrapted the minister in his prayer, and refused to pardon the execu^ tioner, according to form. Her brain had given way, and they fastened to ther stake a bewildered, raving maniac. God rest their weary souls ! MARGARET WALLACE AND HER DEAR BURD.* Margaret Wallace (1622), spous to John Dynning, merchant and citizen of Glasgow, hated Cuthbert Greg. She had sent Gristiane Grahame to him, wanting his dog ; but he would not give it, saying, " I rather ye and my hussie (cummer, gossip) baith was brunt or ye get my dog." Margaret, coming to the knowledge of this speech, went to him angrily, and said, **Pfals land- loupper loun that thow art, sayis thow that Gristiane Grahame and I sail be brunt for witches? I vow to God I sail doe ye ane evill tume." So she did, by means of a cake of bread, casting on him the most strange, unnatural, and unknown disease, such as none could mend or understand. Suspecting that he was bewitched, his friends got her to come and undo the mischief she had done : so she went into the house, took him by the "schaikill bane" (shoulder-blade) with one hand, and laid the other on his breast, but spoke no word, only moved her lips; then passed from him on the instant The next day she went again to his house, and took him up out of bed, leading him to the kitchen and three or four times across the floor, though he had been bedridden for fifteen ♦ Pitcaim. MARGARET WALLACE AND HER DEAR BURD. 61 days, unable to put his foot to the grotuid. And if all that was not done by devilish art and craft, how was it done ? asked the judges and the jury. Another time she went to the house of one Alexander Yallange, where she was taken with a sudden ^'brasch " of sickness, and was so hardly holden that they thought she would have " ryred " herself to fits. She cried out piteously for her ''dear burd," and the bystanders thought she meant her husband : but it turned out to be the witch Cri&- tiane Grahame that she wanted — ^whom they inmie- diately sent for. Cristiane came at once, and took Margaret tenderly in her arms, saying '' no one should hurt her dear burd, no one ;*' then carried her down stairs into the kitchen, and so home to her own housa The little daughter of the house ran after them; on the threshold^ she was seized with a sudden pain, and falling down cried and screamed most sorely. Her mother went to lift her up crossly, but she called out, "Mother, mother, ding me nocht, for there is ane preyne (pin) raschet throw my ftite." She "grat" all the nighty and was very ill ; her parents watching by her through the long hours: but when Margaret wanted the mother to let her be cured by Cristiane's aid, she said sternly, no, *' scho wad commit her bairne to God, and nocht mell with the deviU or ony of his instru- mentis." However, Margaret Wallace healed the little one imbidden ; by leaping over some bits of green cloth scattered in the midst of the floor, and then taking her out of bed and laying her in Cristiane Grahame's lap — ^which double sorcery cured her instantly. Cristiane Grahame had been burnt for a witch some time before this trial ; and now Margaret Wallace, in this year of our Lord 1622, was doomed to the same fate : bound to a stake, strangled, burnt, her ashes cast to the wind. 62 I'HB WITCHES OF SCOTLAIO). and all her worldly gear forfeit to king's majesty, be* cause she was a tender-hearted, loving woman, with a strong will and large mesmeric power, and did her best for the sick folk about her. THOM EEID AGAIN.* Isobell Haldane confessed before the Session of Perth, May 15, 1623, that she had cured Andro Dun- can's bairn by washing it and its sark in water brought from the Turret Port, then casting the water into a bum; but in the going "scho skaillit (spilt) swm quhilk scho rewis ane eviU rew, becaus that if onye had gone ower it they had gottyn the ill." She confessed, too, that about ten years since, she, lying in her bed, was taken forth, whether by God or the devil she knows not, and carried to a hill : the lull-side opened, and she went in and stayed there from Thursday to Sunday at eleven o'clock, when an old man with a gray beard brought her forth. The old man with the gray beard, who seems to have been poor Bessie Dunlop's old ac- quaintance, told her many things after this visit. He told her that John Roch, who came to the wright's shop for a cradle, need not be so hasty, for his wife would not be lighter for five weeks, and then the bairn should never lie in the cradle, but would die when baptized : as it proved, and as John Roch deposed on her trial. Also, he told her that Margaret Buchanan, then in good health, should prepare herself for death before Fastings Even, which was a few days hence ; and Margaret died as she predicted. And Patrick Euthven deposed, that he, being sick — bewitched by one Margaret Homscleugh — '^ Fitcaim and ChamberQ. BESSIE SMTTH, 63 Isobell came to see him, and stretched herself upon him, her head to his head, her hands on his, and so forth, mumbling some words, he knew not what. And Stephen Kay deposed that three years since he had detected Isobell in a theft, whereon she clapped him on the back, and said, " Go thy way ; thow sail nocht win thyself ane bannok of breid for yeir and ane day ;" and 80 it proved. He pined away, heavily diseased, and did not do a stroke of work for just three hundred and sixty-six days, of the full four-and-twenty hours' count. But Isobell said that her sole words were, " He that delyueret me frome the ffairy fifolk sail tak amends on the:" and that she had never meaned to harm him, nor even to answer him ungently. But she confessed to various charms ; such as a cake made of small hands- fill of meal, gotten from nine several women who had been married, virgins — through a hole in which sick children were to be passed, to their decided cure ; and she confessed to getting water, silently going, and silently returning, from the well of Kuthven, in which to bathe John Gow's child ; and to having made a drink of focksterrie* leaves for Dan Morris's child, who " wes ane scharge" (changeling or fairy child), which fock- sterrie drink she made it swallow ; when it died soon after. So IsobeU Haldane shook hands with life, and went back to Thom Keid and the fairy folk on the hill, helped thither by the hangman. BESSIE SMITH. In the July of this same year Bessie Smith of Les- mahago also confessed to sundry unlawful doings. * Star-grass, queries Pitcaim ; but is it not rather fox-tree — fox- glove? 64 THE WITCHES OF SCOTLAND. When people who ware ill of the heart fevers went to her for advice, instead of employing honest drags such as every Christian understood and nauseated, she bade them kneel and ask their health ^^for God's sake, for Sanot Spirit, for Sanct Aikit, for the nine maidens that died in the boor-tree in the Ladywell Bank. This charm to be bnik and beil to me, God grant that sae be." This charm, with the "way burn " leaf to be eaten for nine moniings, was sufficient to prove Bessie Smith of Lesmahago a necromancer; and the presbjrtery of Lanark did quite righteously, according to its lights, when they made her come before them and confess her crimes, humbly. Fortunately, they did not bum her. THOMAS GRIEVE'S ENCHANTMENTS (1623>* Thomas Grieve was a notorious enchanter, according to the Session, which prided itself on being "ripely advised." He put a woman's sickness on a cow, which ran mad, and died in consequence ; and he cured Wil- liam Kirk's baira by stroking its hair back from its face and wrapping it in an enchanted cloth, whereby it slept, and woke healed. He cured cattle of "the heastie," or any other bovine disease untranslateable, by sprinkling the byre with enchanted water ; and he cured sick people by putting them through a hank of yam, which then he cut up and threw into the fire, where it bumed blue. He healed one woman by "fyring " — putting a hot iron, which was supposed to bum the obsessing witch — ^into some magic water brought from Holywell, Hill-side, and making her drink it ; and he cured another woman by burning a poor hen alive, first ♦ Chambers, Dalyell, Pitcaim. KATHEBIKE GJLAST ASD HE2 FIOTP. G making her carry it, wben Inlf icaeled, nsder her arm; and he took in hand to heal Elipedi. ssier of John Thomson, of Corachie — paasiDg ^rith h^r two bro^hei? in the night season from Conehie Um^ris Bmler, enjoin- ing them not to speak a word all the war, ax^ vhalerer they heard or saw, not to be anjw^ **eSaTed," saying '^it micht be that thai would heir grit ramUing and ae yncouth feirfbH i^aritioDes, btzt nothing sold annoy thame." Arriyed at the fovd at the ea^t of Bixley he washed her sark ; and dnrii^ the time <}f this wa&hing there was a great noise made by fowls in the hilL beasts that arose and flattered in the water — "hti^tes that airaisandflichtered''inthewata-; and when he put her sark upon her again, Ykpeih m€nded and was healed^ And of another patient he propounded thiswise opinicHa, come to by the ezaminaticHi of his saik: '^ Allaee, the withcraft a^mintit for ane Tther hes liditit Tpoone him," bat it had not yet reached his heart. And farther than all this;, which was bad enough, he made signs and crosses, and mattered anoooth wcvds; and beliered in himself and the devil: so he was strangled and bamt, and an end ccnne to of him: for whidi the neighboars an were.^ad, eren those he had benefited, and the ministers were qaite satisfied that they had given ^ry to (jod in the holiest manner open to them. KATHERINE GRANT AND HEB STOUP • Kadnmne Grant, in the XoTember of the year 1623, sdilatit for that she had gone to Henry Janies' house, with ** a ^Ump in hir hand, with the boddome foremost^ and sat down ryght foment the said Henrie, and gantit * Ildjdl, qiioting flie jndiciaij roooidfi of Oikaey. F 66 THE WITCHES OF SCOTLAND. thryce on him : and going forth he foUowit hir ; and beiyan the brigstane, scho lukit over her shoulder, and turned up the quhyt of her eye, quhair by her divihie, their fell ane great weght upoun him that he was forcit to set his bak to the wall, and when he came in, he thoucht the hous ran about with him, and their- efter lay seik ane lang tyme." Katherine Grant was not likely to overcome the impression of such testimony as this : that she should have gone to any man's house and yawned thrice, and added to this devilry the fur- ther crime of looking over her shoulder, was quite enough evidence of guilt for any sane man or woman in Orkney. Can we wonder, then, that she was not suf- fered to vex the sunlight longer by carrying pails bottom upwards, or yawning thrice in the faces of decent folk, and that she was taken forth to be strangled, burnt, and her ashes cast to the four winds of the merciful heaven ? THE MISDEEDS OF MARION RICHART.* "Mareoune'* Eichart, alias Langland, dwelt on one of the wild Orkney islands, not far from where mad Elspeth Sandisome kept the whole country in fear lest she should do something terrible to herself or to others. Marion was invited to go the house, and try her skill at curing her, for she was known to be an awful witch, and able to do whatever she had a mind in the way of healing or killing. So she went, and set her- self to her charm. She took some "remedie water" — which she made into " remedy water," by carrying it in a round bowl to the byre where she cast into it some- * Hibbert, quoting the Orkney Records. LADY LEE'S PENNY. ' 67 tiling like " great salt," taken from her purse, spitting thrice into the bowl, and blowing in her breath — and with this magic " remedie watter forspeking," she bade Elspeth's woman-servant wash her feet and hands, and she would be as well as ever she had been before. This was bad enough ; but worse than this, she came to Stronsey on a day, asking alms of "Andro Coupar, skipper of ane bark," to whom said Andrew rudely^ "Away witch, carling ; devils ane farthing ye will fall I" whereupon went Marion away "verie offendit; and incontinentlie he going to sea, the bark being vnder saill, he ran wode, and wald half luppen ourboord ; and his sone seing him gat him in his armes, and held him ; quhairvpon the sicknes immediatelie left him, and his sone ran made ; and Thomas Paiterson, seeing him tak his madnes, and the father to turn weill, ane dog being in the bark, took the dog and bladdit him vpon the twa schoulderis, and thaireftir flang the said dogg in the Bea, quhairby those in the bark were saiffed." So Marion Bichart, alias Langland, learnt the hangman's way to the grave in the year of grace 1629 ; and her corpse was burned, when the hangman's rope had done its work. LADY LEE'S PENNY AND THE WITCHES OF 1629.* . Isobel Young, spous to George Smith, was burnt, in 1629, for curing cattle, as well as for the other crimes belonging to a witch. She had sought to borrow Lady Lee's Penny — a precious stone or amulet, like to a piece of amber, set in a silver penny, which one pf the old Lee family had gotten from a Saracen in the * PItcaim. Sharpe's Litroduction to Law's ' Memorials.' 68 THE WITCHES OP SCOTLAND. Crusades — and which Lee Penny was to help her in her incantations, for curing "the bestiall of the routting evill/' whatever that might have been. But Lady Lee let her have only a flagon of water in which the amulet had been steeped, which did quite as well, and helped to set the stake as quickly as anything else would have done. Various other mischancy things did Isobel Young. She stopped a certain mill, and made it incapable of grind- ing for eleven days : she forespoke a certain boat, and though all the rest returned to Dunbar full and richly laden, this came back empty, whereby the owner was mined: she bewitched nailk that it would give no cream, and chums, so that no butter would come : she twice crossed the mill water on a wild and stormy night, when the milne horses could not ride it out, and where there was no bridge of stone or wood ; but Isobel the witch crossed and recrossed those raging waters under the stormy sky, and came out at the end as dry as if from a kiln. And was not this as unholy as taking off her " curch " at William Meslet's barn-door, and run- ning " thrice about the bam widdershins," whereby the cattle were caused to fall dead in " great suddainty ?" Then, as further iniquity, she had dealings with Chris- tian Grinton, another witch, who one night came out of a hole in the roof in the likeness of a cat ; and she cast a sickness from off her husband, and laid it on his brother's son, who, knowing full well that he was bewitched, came to the house, and there saw the " firlott" — a certain measure of wheat — mnning about, and the stuff poppling on the floor, which was the manner of the charm. Drawing his sword, this hus- band's brother's son ran on the pannel (the accused) to kill her, but was witch-disabled, and only struck the lintel of the door instead ; so he went home and died. LADY LEE'S PENNT. 69 and Isobel Young was the cause of his death by the cantrip wrought in the locomotiYe firlott and the poppling grain. Forbye all this, she was seen riding on " ane mare " — ^at least her apparition was seen so riding — and by her sorcery and devilish handling the mare was made to cast its foal, and since died. So Isobel Young was of no more value to the world or its in- heritors, and died by the cord and the faggot, decently, as a convicted witch should. And Margaret Maxwell and her daughter Jane were haled before the Lords of Secret Council for having procured the death of Edward Thomson, Jane's husband, " by the devilish and detes- table practice of witchcraft ;" and Janet Boyd was tried for "the foul and detestable crime" of receiving the devil's mark, besides being otherwise dishonestly inti- mate with him; but this was in 1628, and we are now in 1629 : and then the Lords of the Privy Council pub- lished a thundering edict, forbidding all persons to have recourse to holy words, or to make pilgrimages to chapels, and requiring of its Commissioners to make diligent search in all parts for persons guilty of this superstitious practice, and to have up and put in ward all such as were known to be specially devoted thereto. The meaning of the decree was to plague the Catholics, and Hibbert quotes part of this " Commission against Jesuits, Priests, or Communicants and Papists, going in pilgrimage." But whatever the political significance of the edict, the social efifect was to make the search after the White Witches, or Black, hotter and more bitter than ever. Tto THE WITCHES OF SCOTLAND. ELSPETH CURSETTER AND HER FRIENDS.* Elspeth Cursetter was tried, May 29 (still in 1629), for all sorts of bad actions. She bade one of her yictims " get the bones of ane tequhyt (linnet), and carry thame in your claithes " ; and she gave herself out as knowing evil, and able to do it too, when and to whomsoever she would ; and she sat down before ^the house of a man who refiised her admittance — for she was an ill-famed old witch, and every one dreaded her — ^saying, " HI might they all thrive, and ill may they speed," whereby in fourteen days' time the man's horse fell just where she had sat, and was killed most lament- ably. But she cured a neighbour's cow by drawing a C(^ of water out of the bum that ran before Wil- liam Anderson s door, coming back and taking three straws — one for William Anderson's wife, and one for William Coitts' wife, and one for William Bichen's wife — which she threw into the pail with the water, then put the same on the cow's back ; by which charm the three straws danced in the water, and the water bubbled as if it had been boiling. Then Elspeth took a little quantity of this chaimed water, and thrust her arm up to the elbow into the cow's throat, and on the instant the cow rose up as well as she had ever been ; but WiUiam Anderson's ox, which was on the hill, dropped down dead. Likewise she worked \mholy cantrips for a sick friend with a paddock (toad), in the mouth of a pail of water, which toad was too large to get down the mouth, and when it was cast forth another man sick- ened and died immediately : and she spake dangerous words to a child, saying, " Wally fall that quhyt head of ♦ DalyeU. ELSPETH CUBSETTER AND HER FRIENDS. tl thine, but the pox will tak the away frae thy mother." As it proved, for the little white head was laid low a short time after, when the small-pox raged through the land. "Thow can tell eneugh yf thow lyke," said the mother to her afterwards, "that could tell that my baime wold die so long befoir the tyme.'' **I can tell eneugh if I durst," replied Elspeth, over proud for her safety. But in spite of all this testimony, Elspeth got off with " arbitrary punishment," which did not include burning or strangling, so was luckier than her neigh- bours. Luckier than poor Jonet Eendall was, who, on the 11th of November (1629), was proved a witch by the bleeding of the corpse of the poor wretch whom she had "enchanted" to his death. For "as soon as she came in the corpse having lain a good space, and not having bled any, immediately bled much blood, as a sure token that she was the author of his death." And had she not said, too, when a certain man refused her a Christmas lodging, " that it wald be weill if the gude man of that hous sould make ane other yule banket " (Christmas banquet) ; by which curse had he not died in fifteen days after? Wherefore was she a proved murderess as well as witch, and received the doom appointed to both alike. Alexander Drummond was a warlock who cured all kinds of horrid diseases, the very names of which are enough to make one ill; and he had a familiar, which had attended him for " neir this fifty yeiris :" so he was convicted and burnt. Then came Jonet Forsyth, great in her art. She could cast sickness on any one at sea, and cure him again by a salt-water bath ; she could transfer any disease fix)m man to beast, so that when the beast died and was opened, nothing could be found where its heart^should have been but "a blob of water j" she knew how to 72 . T5E WITCHES OP SCOTLAND. charm and sain all kinds of cattle by taking three drops of a beastie's blood on All HaUow E'en, and sprinkling the same in the fire within the innermost chamber ; she went at seed time and bewitched a stack of barley belonging to Michael Beid, so that for many years he conld never make it into wholesome malt; and this she did for the gain of Bobert Beid, changing the " profit '* of the grain backwards and forwards be- tween the two, according as they challenged or dis- pleased her. All this did Jonet Forsyth of Birsay, to the terror of her neighbours and the ultimate ruin of herself, both in soul and body. Then came Catherine Oswald,* spouse to Bobert Aitcheson, in Niddrie, who was brought to trial for being " habite and repute " a witch — defamed by Elizabeth Toppock herself a witch and, as is so often the case, a dear friend of Katie's. Eli- zal^th need not have been so eager to get rid of her dear friend and gossip, for she was burnt afterwards for the same crimes as those for which poor Catherine suffered the halter and the stake. It seems that Katie was bad for her enemies. She was offended at Adam Fairbaim and his wife, so she made their *' twa kye run mad and ranunish to died," and also made a gentleman's bairn that they had a-fostering run wood (mad) and die. And she fired William Heriofs kUn, full of grain ; and burnt all his goodsx before his eyes; and made his wife, in a '^frantick humour," drown herself; and she cursed John Clark's ground, so that for four years after "by hir sorceries, naether kaill, lint, hempe, nor any other graiae " would grow thereon, though doubly " laboured and sowen." She bewitched Thomas Scott by telling him that he looked as well as when Bessie Dobie was living, whereby he inmiediately fell so deadly sick that * Laiw*B ' Memorials,* (Shaipe's Introduction,) and DaljeU. SANDIE AND THE DEVIL. 73 he could not proceed further, but was carried on a horse to Newbiggin, where he lay until the morrow, when " a wife " came in and told him he was forespoken. And other things as mischieyous — ^and as true— did Catherine Oswald, as the Eecord testifies. She was well defended, and might have got off, but that a witness deposed to haying seen Mr. John Aird the minister, and a most zealous witch-finder, prick ber in the shoulder witb a prin, and that no blood followed thereafter, nor did she shrink as with pain or feeling. And as there was no gainsaying the eyidence of the witch-mark, Satan and Mr. John Aird claimed their own. Was Catherine's brand like a " blew spot, or a little tate, or reid spots, like flea-biting?" or with ''the flesh sunk in and hallow?" according to the description of such places, published by Mr. John Bell, minister of the gospel in Gladsmuir. We are seldom told of what precise cha- racter the marks were, only that they were found, prioked, and tested/ and the witch hung or burnt on their testimony. SANDIE AND THE DEVIL.* Soon after Catherine Oswald's execution, one of her Grew or coyin, who had been with her on the great storm in ^'the borrowing days (in anno 1625), on the Biae of the Saltpans," a noted warlock, by name Alex- ander Hunter, or Hamilton, aliai Hatteraick, which last name he had gotten from the deyil, was brought to execution on the Castle Hill. It was in 1629 that he was taken. It was proyed that on Kingston hills he had met with the deyil as a black man, or, as Sin- ^ Ohambers, Sinolalr, DalyeU. 74 THE WITCHES OF SCOTLAND. clair says, as a mediciner; and often afterwards he would meet him riding on a black horse, or he woidd appear as a corbie, cat, or dog. When Alexander wanted him he would beat the ground with a fir stick lustily, crying, "Eise up, foul thief!" for the master got but hard names at times from his servants. This fir stick, and four shillings sterling, the devil gave to him when the compact was first made between them ;: and he confessed, moreover, that when raised in this manner he could only be got rid of by sacrificing to him a cat or dog, or such like, " quick." Also he set on fire Provost Cockbum's mill of com, by taking three stalks from his stacks, and burning them on Garleton Hills ; and he owned to a deadly hatred against Lady Ormiston, because she once refused him " ane almous," and called him "ane custroune carle." So, to punish her, he and some witches raised the devil in Salton Wood, where he appeared like a man in gray clothes, and gave him the bottom of a blue clew, telling him to lay it at the lady's door : " which he and the women having done, *the lady and her daughter were soon thereafter bereft of their naturall lyfe.' " But Sinclair's account is the, most graphic. I will give it in his own words : — " Anent Hattaraick, an old Warlock. " This man's name was Sandie Hunter, who called himself Sandie Hamilton, and it seems so called Hattaraik by the devil, and so by others as a Nickname. He was first a Neatherd in East Lothian, to a gentle- man there. He wms much given to charming and cureing of men and Beasts, by words and spels. His charms sometimes succeeded and sometimes not. On a day, herding his kine upon a Hill side in the summer time, the Devil c^me to him in form of a Mediciner, and SANDIE AND THE DEVIL. 7S said, * Sandie, you have too long followed my trade, and never acknowledged me for your master. You must now take on with me, and I will make you more perfect in your calling. Whereupon the man gave up himself to the devil, and received his Mark with this new name. After this he grew very famous throw the countrey for his charming and cureing of diseases in men and beasts, and turned a vagrant fellow like a Jockie, gaining Meat, Flesh, and Money by his Charms,^ such was the ignorance of many at that time. , ** Whatever House he came to, none durst refuse Hat- taraik an alms, rather for his ill than his good. One day he came to the yait of Samuelstown, when some Friends after dinner were going to Horse. A young Gen- tleman, Brother to the Lady, seeing him, switcht him about the ears, saying, * You Warlok Cairle, what have you to do here? whereupon the Fellow goes away grumbling, and was overheard to say, * You shall dear buy this, ere it be long.' This was Damnum Minatum. The young Gentleman conveyed his Friends a far way off, and came home that way again, where he slept. After supper, taking his horse and crossing Tine-water to go home, he rides throw a shadowy piece of a Haugh, commonly called the Allers, and the evening being somewhat dark he met with some Persons there that begat a dreadful consternation in him, which for the most part he would never reveal. This was malum secutum. When he came home, the Servants observed terror and fear in his countenance. The next day he became distracted, and was bound for several days. His sister, the Lady Samuelstoun, hearing of it, was heard to say, * Surely that knave Hattaraik is the cause of his Trouble. CaU for him in all haste.' When he liad come to her, * Sandie,' says she, * what is this 76 THE WITCHES OF SCOTLAND. you have done to my brother William?' * I told him/ sayB he, * I should make him repent his striking of me at the Yait lately/ She gave ^e Bogue fiur words, and promising him his Pock Ml of Meal with Beef and Cheese, persuaded the Fellow to cure him again. He undertook the business ; ^ but I must first,' says he, ^ haye one of his Sarks,' which was soon gotten. What pranks he plaid with it cannot be known. But within a short while the gentleman recoyered his health. When Hatteraik came to receive his wadges, he told the Lady, * Your Brother WiUiam shal quickly goe off the Countrey but shall never return.' She, knowing the Fellow's prophecies to hold true, caused her Brother to make a Disposition to her of all his patrimony, to the defrauding of his younger brother George. After that this Warlock had abused the Countrey for a long time, he was at last apprehended at Dunbar, and brought into Edinburgh, and burnt upon the Castle Hill." But not imtil he had delated several others of hitherto good repute, so that for the next few months the witch- finder's hands were fulL THE MTOWIFE'S DOUBLE SIN. Notably was arrested about this time, Alie Nisbet, midwife ; and three others. Alie was accused of witch- craft ; and of a softer, but as heinous a crime as witch- craft. This she confessed to ; but the breaking of the seventh commandment in Christian Scotland, in the year 1632, was a &r more dangerous thing than we can imagine possible in our laser day ; and Alie was on the horns of a dilemma, either of which could land her in ruin, death, and perdition. She was accused, among KATHERINE GRIEVE AND JOHN SINCLAIR. 77 other things, of haying taken her labour pains from off a certain woman, using " charmes and horrible words, amongs which thir ware some, tJie bones to the fire and the sctttt to the devill ;" but this AUe denied, strenuously, though she admitted that she might have bathed the woman's legs in warm water, which she had bewitched for good, by putting her fingers into it and running thrice roimd the bed, widershins ; but the spoken cheurm as given she would have none of. The labour pains, however, left the woman, and were foully and unnatu- rally cast upon another who had no concern therewith, 80 that she died in four-and-twenty hours from that time, and Alie was the murderess by aU the laws of sorcery. She was accused, also, of having poured some enchanted water on a threshold over which a servant girl, against whom she had a spite, must pass, and the servant girl died therefrom. Alie was wirriet and burnt and troubled the world no more. KATHERINE GRIEVE AND JOHN SINCLAIR * Eatherine Grieve, too (1683), was brought to judg- ment and sentenced to be ^' taken to the mercat crose and brunt in the cheick, in example of others," with the ftiture prospect, that if she haunted suspected places, or used charms '^ scho sould be brunt in asches to the dead without dome or law, and that willinglie, of hir owne consent." For Katherine's curses had wronged both man and beast, which evil thing she had brought to pass by the power of the devil her master. However, she was forced to undo her evil, and by laying on of hands cure the sore she had made : so she got off with * BalyeU^B ' Darker SnperstitioiuL' 78 THE WITCHES OP SCOTLAND. this smaller pimishment of branding, and a rebuke* And there was John Sinclair tried that same year; a cruel villain to others, if loving to his own. For under silence and cloud of night he took his dis* tempered sister, sitting backward on the horse, and carried her from where she lay to the Kirk of Hoy, Then a voice came to him, saying " Seven is too many, but four might do ;" and in the morning a boat with five men in it struck on the rocks, and four perished, but one was saved; by which fiendish and unholy sacrifice John Sinclair's sister was cured. He was proved to be their murderer, for when the dead men were found, and he was " forcit to lay his handis vpoun thame, they guishit out with bluid and watter at the mouth and noise." John Sinclair's thread of life needed no more waxing to make it run smoothly and easily. The hangman knew where the knot lay ; and cut it to the perfect satisfaction of all the country. BESSIE BATHGATE'S NIPS.* A year after this Bessie Bathgate, spouse to Alex- ander Bae, fell into trouble and the hands of the police. George Sprot, wobster, had some cloth of Bessie's, which he kept too long for her thinking. She went and took it violently away, and nipped his child in the thigh till it skirled, " and of which nip it never con- valesced, but dwamed thereof and died by hir sorcerie." Also, said Sprot's wife, giving her child an egg that came out of Bessie's house there struck out a lump as big as a goose egg upon the child, which continued on her till her death, which was occasioned by nothing * Pitcaim. Law's • Memorials.* Chambers. BESSIE BATHGATE'S NIPS. 79 else than this " enchanted egg." Furthermore she threatened Sprot that " he should never get his Sunday's meat to the fore by his work ;" and he forth- with fell into extreme poverty, by which her words came true. To WiUiam Donaldson she said — he out- running her as she chased him to beat him for calling her a witch — " Weill, sir, the devill be in your feit," and he fell lame and impotent straightways, and so continued ever siQce. Other things of the same kind did she, bewitching Margaret Home's cow that it died, ** and that night it died there was women seen dancing on the rigging of the byre ;" also she was seen by " two young men at 12 howers at even (when all persons are in their beds) standing barelegged and in hir sark valicot, at the back of hir yard, conferring with the devill, who was in gray cloaths;" which, with other ofiFences of the same nature, were, we should have thought, heavy enough to have lost a world. But Elizabeth Bathgate, spouse to Alexander Eae, was acquitted ; though how the verdict came about no one can possibly understand. It was not that any fit of mercy or humanity had come ovter the people. More than twenty poor wretches suffered about this time. Sir George Home of Man- derston, being one of the chief of the prosecutors : for , Sir George and his wife did not live very lovingly together, and she was given to witches and warlocks — or they said she was — ^to see if she could not get rid of him by enchantments and sorceries : so Sir George had a pleasant mixture of spite and self-defence in his onslaught, and the whole country-side was in a stir. About this time too, John Balfour, of Corhouse, took on himself the oflSce of witch-finder and pricker by thrust- ing *' preens" into the marks; but he was not accepted 80 THE WnCHES OF SOOTLAKB. quite blindl j, and measures were taken for examining his pretensions to this special branch of knowledga In general tiie pricker was the master of the situation, and brought all the rest to his feet BESSIE SKEBKTER.* All the honest men of the isle knew Bessie Ske- bister. She was the shrewdest witch in the whole country, and it was a usual thing with them when they thought their boats in danger to send to her to know the truth ; and, ^' Giff Bessie say it is weill, it is weill*' was a common proverb in the Orkney Islands. She did other things besides foreknowing the &il of storms, for she took James Sandieson when in a strange dis- temper and tormented him greatly. '^ In his sleip, and oftymes waking," says the dittay, " he was tormented with yow, Bessie, and vther two with yow, quhom he knew not, cairying him to the sea, and to the fyre, to Norroway, Yetland, and to the south — ^that ye had ridden aJl this wayes, with ane brydle in his mouth." Moreover, Bessie was a " dreamer of dreams," as well as a rider of sick men's souls ; so she was strangled and burnt. THE TRIAL OF SPIRITS.f The trial of Katherine Craigie (1640), had a certain dash of poetry and romance in it, not often found in these woeful stories. Friend Bobbie — ^now friend, now foe — ^lay a-dying, and Katherine must needs go see him • DalyelL f Ohambere. THE TRIAL OF SPIRITS. 81 with the rest. The wild waves were beating round that ragged Orkney Isle, when Katherine went over the heather to Bobbie's house. " What now, Bobbie ! ye are going to die I'* she said. . " I grant that I prayed iU for yow, and now I see that prayer hath taken effect. Jonet," quoth she, turning to the wife, " if I durst trust in yow, I sould knaw quhat lyeth on your guidman and holdis him downe. I sould tell whether it wa£i ane hill spirit, ane kirk spirit, or ane water spirit that so troubles him." Jonet was too anxious not to promise secrecy or help, or anything else that Katherine wished ; so the next morning, before daylight, Katherine brought three stones to Bobbie's house, and put them into the fire, where they remained until after sunset. While the night was passing, they were taken from the fire, and put under the threshold of the door, then, in the early morning, thrown, one after the other, into a pail of water, where Jonet heard one of them "chirle and chirme." Upon which Katherine said that it was d kirk spirit t^iat troubled the guidman Bobbie, and he must be washed with the water in which the stones had "chirled and chirmed." This ceremony was repeated thrice, and at the third time Katherine herself washed Bobbie, on whom this unusual cleansing had most powerful and beneficial effects. When one thinks of the normal state of filth in which these honest people lived, it is not surprising if any form of ablution proved of a most supernatural benefit. But Katherine Craigie got into the trouble from which there was no escape ; and Mend Bobbie went back to his dirt, persuaded of the Satanic agency of a bath. Quite as full of poetic feeling was James Knarstoun's manner of charming with stones, when he took one stone for the ebb, another for the hill, and the third for G 82 THE WrrCHES OF SCOTLAKD. the kirkyard, ligtening carefully as to what stone should make the ** bullering " noise that would betray the tormenting spirit, and enable the magician to send him home again : a process through which Eatherine Carey went (1617) when she found that her patient was troubled willi the spirit of the sea, which would not let him bide in peace and quiet. Such touches as these redeem the subject from the sad monotony of sorrow and death which else pervades it from end to end, €tnd lift it from the domain of the devil into the brighter and lovelier world of the Spirits of Nature. SIXTEEN HUNDRED AND FORTY-THREE. In 1643 there was a fierce onslaught against the poor persecuted servants of the devil. Thirty women suffered at once in Fife alone ; and the more zealous of the ministers hounded on the people to terrible cruel- ties. There was one John Brugh,* "a notorious war^ lock in the parachin of Fossoquhy, by the space of 36 yearis," who was wirreit at a stake and burnt; and Janet Barker and Margaret Lauder, "indwellers and servands in Edinburgh," who came to confession boldly, and showed that they had read the story of Europa to some purpose, though to a great deal of confusion. They accused Janet Cranstoun of seducing them, by promising them that if they gave themselves over to her and the devil, they should be " as trimlie clad as the best servands in Edinburgh." Coupled with the fact that they had witch-marks, their confession was accepted as undeniable, and their fate inevitably sealed. * Chambers. SIXTEEN HUNDRED AND FORTT-THREE. 83 And there was Marion Gmnlaquoy^* in Birsay, who bewitched Dayid Cumlaquoy's com seed^ and made it run ont too soon. She had been verj anxious to know when David would sow, and when she was told, she went and stood '^ just to his face " all the time he was casting, and that year his seed failed him, so that he could only sow a third of his land ; though he had as much grain as heretofore, and it had never run out too soon all the years he had farmed that land. And she went to Bobert Garstairs' house by sunrise one day, bringing milk to his good mother, though not used to show such attention ; and as she left she turned her- self three several times " withershins " about the fire, and that year Eobert Garstairs* "bear (barley) was blew and rottin,'' and his oats gave no proper meal, but made all who ate thereof heart-sick, albeit both bear and oats were good and fresh when he put them in the yard. And if all this was not proof against Marion Cumlaquoy, what would the Orkney courts hold as proof? As the past, so the present ; and Marion Gum- laquoy must learn in prison and at the stake the evils that honest folk found in her power of " enchanting " com and crops. There were many others in this same year, to catalogue whom would become at least weari- some and monotonous : they must be passed by unmen- tioned, and left to the silence and oblivion which is the privilege of the unfortunate dead. But among the victims was one Agnes Finnie,t a bitter-tongued, evil-tempered old hag, who had a curse and a threat for every one who offended her; who killed young Fairlie with a tendble disorder, because he called her " Winnie Annie ;" and laid so fiightfctl * DalyeU. t Ohamben and Law ; Shaipe's Introducticm. 84 THE WITCHES OF 800TLAKD. a disease on Beatrix Nisbet, for some other trifling offence, that she lost the use of her tongae; who made a '^ grit jist " (great joist) fall down on the leg of Euphame Kincaid's daughter, because Euphame called her a witch on being called by her a drunkard ; and appeared to John Cockbum in the night — the doors and windows being fast closed — ^terrifying him by her hideous old apparition in his sleep, because he had dis- agreed with her daughter ; and who did all other wicked and uncanny things, like a raving, unprincipled, old hag as she was. She even forespoke Alexander Johnstone's bairne, so that it was eleren years old before it could walk, and all because she was not made godmother, or ''had not gotten its name;" and she made Margaret Williamson sick and blind, by saying most outrageously, "The devill blaw the blindel" And she was a bad mother and evil exemplar to her daughter, bringing her up to be as vile as herself, at least in the way of quarrelling and fighting with her neighbours, and then backing her with an unfair amount of her own super- natural powers. Thus, one day, Margaret Eobinson, the daughter in question, was using high words with Mawse Gourlay, spouse of Andrew Wilson, and Mawse, in a rage, called her " ane witche's get," which was about the worst thing that could be said in those days between a couple of scolds. " Gif I be ane witche's get," cried Margaret, in extremest fiiry, " the devill ryve the sauU out of ye befoir I come again 1" After which cruel and devilish imprecation, helped on by Winnie Annie's horrible art used at Margaret's instigation, Andrew Wilson became ''frenatik" and stark mad: his eyes starting out of his head in the most terrible and fright- ful manner as he went about, ever pronouncing these words as his ordinary and continual speech — ^the per- SIXTEEN HUNDBBD AND FOKTY-THREB. 86 petual raving of his madness — " The devill ryve the saull out o' mel" For all which crimes — though she was ably defended — ^though, when her house wds searched, "there was neither picture, toad, nor any such thing found therein, which ever any witch in llie world was used to practize," — yet the evidence was held to be too strong, and Winnie Annie Finnic was ordained to be " brunt to the deid," and her ashes cast out to the winds of heaven. Janet Brown* was another of those who got into hot quarters. She confessed that she had charmed James Hutton and Janet Scott with these words : — " Our Lord forth did raide, His foal's foot slade ; Our Lord down lighted. His foal's foot righted ; Saying flesh to flesh, blood to blood, and stane to stane, In our Lord his name.*' She said this was a charm that had been learnt her by a nameless man from Strathmiglo; but Margaret risher,f in Weardie, spoke it somewhat differently. She had for her spell : — *' Our Lord to hunting red. His sool-soot sled, Down he lighted. His sool-soot righted ; Blod to blod, Shinew to shinew. To the other sent in God's name, In the name of the Father, Sone, and Holy Ghost." Either version was equally efficacious as a cure to the sick and a curse to the whole ; and equally det^dly as a crime in those who used it. And there was Margaret * Hibbert's * Description of the Shetland Islands.' t Dalyell. Evidently the same thing with a different reading : — red, xode ; tooUtooU stirrup ; sled, slipped ; Ainew, sinew. 86 THE WITCHES OP SCOTLAND. Toting, " ane honest young woman of good reputation, without any scandal or blot," who lay miserably in prison for ten weeks, without trial or release ; but she got off at last on her husband's becoming her surety. And Jonet Thomeson, who bewitched Andrew Burwick's com, so that when carried to the mill it leapt up into his wife's face like mites, and as it were "nipped " her face until it swelled ; and when it was made into " meat," neither he nor his wife could abide the smell of it ; and when they did manage to eat it, it tasted like pins (" went owre lyke prinsis"), and could not be quenched for thirst : and the dogs would not eat of it, and the neigh- bours would not buy it ; so poor Andrew Burwick's gear was destroyed, and his means most sorely diminished. For all which deadly sorcery and malice Jonet Thome- son, alias Greibok, was made to smart severely. Marion Peebles* came to an untimely end, not un- reasonably, according to the witch-haters. She was " a wicked, deyihsh, fearful, and abominable curser," and the world could not be too soon rid of her ; for had she not changed herself into the likeness of an unchristian beast, a mere shapeless monster, a huge and ugly " pellack-quhaill " (porpoise), and in this form wrecked the boat of Edward Halcro, to whom she and her husband had " ane deadlie and yeneficial malice ?" Halcro and four other men were in the boat, and public suspicion pointed at once to Marion, and affirmed this wreck to be caused by her wicked deed. So when two of the dead bodies were brought to land, she and her husband had to undergo the bahr-recht — the ordeal by touch o^ the dead — ^to prove themselves innocent or guilty. When they came where they lay the "said umquhile Edward bled at the coUar-bane or craig-bane ;" * Hibbert, &o. SINCLAIR'S STORIES. 87 the other in the hand and fingers, ^^ gashing out bluid thairat, to the great admiration of the beholders, and judgment of the Ahnytie." Many and heavy were Marion's misdeeds* She cursed Janet Eobioson, and " accordingly showers of pains and fits fell upon the victim." She looked upon a cow, and it ** crappit to- gidder till no lyfe was leukit for her." She took away the profit of Edward Halcro's brewing, and destroyed the milk of Andrew Erasmussons kye for thirteen days. Indeed, her character was so well known that when Swene, her husband, was working in a peat moss where a sickly fellow was one of the gang, his fellows would ask him seriously " if he could not make his wife go to her pobe (foster-father) the devil, and bid him loose a knot, so that the man might get back his health?" Once she cast a sickness on a woman, then took it &om her and flung it on a calf^ which went mad and died; and she crippled a man, theu cured him under com- pulsion, by putting her fingers first to his leg and then to the ground, which she did twice, muttering to hei> self; but the report of this getting about, she was angry and banned the man once more, yet once more was forced to cure him ; — ^this time by means of a bannock prepared with her own hands, whereby she cast his malady on a cow. Poor cowey died of her strange sickness, and poor Marion died of a worse disease — the rope and the faggot : and then the neighbourhood slept in peace. SINCLAIR'S STORIES/ On a certain day in a certain month, A.D. 1644, a woman went to the house of another woman in Borrow- * Sinclair's * Invisible -World Biscoyered/ 88 THE WITCHES OF SCOTLAND. stonness. She went early^ and instantly fell to mauling and pnlling her, crying, " Thou traitonr thief, thou thought to destroy my son this morning, but it was not in thy power !" And then she pulled her mutch from off her head, and mauled and maltreated her anew. Now the meaning of the row was, t!:at this woman had a son out at sea, whom she, so cruelly assaulted, had sought to destroy by means of a sudden storm raised by magic means this very day. The storm was actually raised, and many of the crew suffered ; but the son of the woman at Borrowfftonness was washed overboard by one wave, and washed on board again by another wave, which so filled all the mariners with amaze that they came ashore. The dispute between the two women becoming noised abroad, and the thing being as the one had said, it was found that they were both in equal fault — ^that the one had done, and the other known, too much ; wherefore they were burnt as witches, and the world had the satisfaction of hearing them confess before they died. Another woman, *^ about thirty and two, or three and thirty years of age, a most beautiful and comely person as was in the country about," wife to one Goodaile, a cooper, in Carrin, was fyled for a witch and put in prison. She was the devil's favourite and dear delight ; and at their meetings she was the person whom ^' he did most court and embrace, calling her constantly my dear mistress, setting her always at his right hand, to the great discontent of his old haggs, whom, as they now conceived, he slighted;*' but her time came at last, Bjid the law caught hold of her in place of the devil, and gave her a yet more stringent embrace. James Fleming, a sea-captain, and a man of great personal courage and physical strength, was set to watch her^ SINCLAIR'S STORIES. 89 for ike magistrates feared lest the devil should at- tempt her rescue, since he loved her so well ; and to him she said, that if she got no deliverance bygone o'clock in the morning, she would lay her breast open to him and confess freely. James Fleming, a little alarmed at this, and not liking to encounter the devil single-handed, took down fourteen of his ship's company with him, " not forgetting the reading of Scripture and earnest prayer to God." Sure enough the foul fiend came : for on a sudden at midnight a tremendous hur- ricane arose, which unroofed the house where they all were, and threatened to bring the whole place about their ears, and a voice was heard calling to her by a strange name to come away : ^ at which time she made three several loups upward, increasing gradually till her feet were as high as his breast" But though James Fleming^s hair was standing widershins on his head, and though his heart failed him for dread and fear, and he "beteached" himself to God "with great amazement," yet his musdes continued as serviceable as ever, and at last got the .better even of the Prince of Darkness. He held this beautiful and comely person in his powerful arms, and kept her there, through all her struggles to get free; and at last succeeded in throwing her down upon the ground, where for some time she grovelled and foamed like one in the falling sickness, and then sank into a deep sleep. When she awaked she complained bitterly of the devil, saying how that he had promised to release her and carry her over to Ireland, touching at Paisley by the way, where she had a sister living ; but now she saw through all his treachery and perfidiousness, and understood how she had been made his dupe. She was burnt in all peni- tence and good conduct, as was also another woman 90 THE WITCHES OF SCOTLAND. about the same time, who, patting np her arm to swear that she was not a witch, had it suddenly withered and stiffened so that she could not bring it hajck again ; nor was she able to do so, until a minister who was there, had intreated God in her behalf; for the mioister^ were always men of mighty power on such occasions, and either made or marred at their pleasure. If they chose to accept a case as possession, they prayed and exorcised; but if it seemed good to them to call it witchcraft, then the poor wretch's life was doomed, and no man might hope to save. It was very seldom they cared so much for humanity as to choose the more merciful of the two absurdities. Sometimes, though, the devil was as good as his word, and made at least an attempt, if a clumsy one, to release his servants : as when he took Helen Eliot from the steeple of Culross where she was confined, and carried her in his arms through the air. He might have landed her in safety somewhere — ^who knows? — had she not cried out, "0 God ! whither are you taking me ?" At which words he let her fall ^^ at the distance from the steeple of about the breadth of the street of Edinburgh, whereby she broke her legs and otherwise seriously injured herself." Many thousand people flocked to see the dimple which her heels had made, and over which no grass would grow again. So at last they built a stone dyke round it, and kept the impression safe. In 1649 Lady Pittathrow was delated of witchcraft. She was put in prison waiting for her trial ; but one morning she was found dead, having strangled herself, or been strangled by the devil — ^the world might deter- mine which according to its pleasure. Shortly after, Bessie Grahame was apprehended for a few drunken words said against John Bankings wife, who had since SINjDLAIR'S STORIES. 91 died. During a confinement of thirteen weeks she was visited by the minister, who found her obdurate in con- fession, and was much inclined to find her innocent of crime. But Alexander Bogue, a pricker, came to examine her, and discovered the mark, into which he thrust a pin, which neither pained nor drew blood. Still she was held to be innocent, until one day Mr. James Fergusson, the minister, heard her talking to the devil as soon as she was alone. He knew it was the devil, for his voice was hollow and ghoustie, and the servant, Alexander Sympson, was like to have fallen back for fear. Still Bessie would never confess any- thing beyond general unworthiness and the usual tale of vague misdeeds, owning, indeed, to a special horror of him, the minister, and how she was not *^ let to love him," as indeed was no special miracle ; and' then she fell to railing at him bitterly, which was less a miracle than all else* So she was burnt, dying obdurate and unconfessed ; and thus another murder reeked up to heaven, crying aloud for vengeance, because John Bankin's Mrife died suddenly, and an intemperate old woman swore in her cups and had a habit of speaking to herself. Agnes Gourlay was accused of charming milk. She told Anna Simpson to throw a small quantity of the milk into the ** grupe " or sewer of the byre, saying, ** God betak us to ! May be they are undlfer the earth that have as much need of it as they that are above the earth ! " After which bread and salt were to be put into the cows' ears, and milk would come. Agnes got off by penance and confession : which was more than Janet Gouts did, or Archibald Watt, alias " Sole the Paitlet;" though eleven other poor creatures delated escaped their doom, partly because the burgh of 92 THE WITCHES OP SCXXTLAND. Lanark disliked having so many mouths to feed in prison pending their trial. At Lauder, in 1649, Hob Grieve was accused of witchcraft Twenty years agone his wife, who had been burnt for a witch, told Hob that he might get rich if he would follow her counsel and go along with her. So he went with her to a haugh on Gallow-water, to meet, as she said, a gentleman there ; but he saw only a large mastiff dog, ^' which amazed him." At last came the devil as a black man, telling him that if he would take suit and service with him he should be made ricL He was to be officer at the meetings, and hold the door at the sabbaths. Hob consented, and for eighteen years held that office ; but it does not seem that the foul fiend kept his part of the condition, for Hob had enough to do to find salt for his porridge. He was always poor, and remained poor to the end, with ^ all the kicks and none of the hal^ence ; and for his eighteen years of servitude got only suspicion and ill- will, without fat or fry to comfort Mm. When taken, he " delated " many, who, for the most part, confessed. After he had filled the prison, so that it could hold no more, he accused another still, a woman of Lauder. The magistrate kept the secret, wishing to wait until some of the accused were " emptied out," having nowhere to put her ; but the devil, always at mischief, went to her in the nighlf time, and told her what Hob Grieve had said. Next day she arose and came to the prison, railing at Hob, calling him warlock and slave to the devil, and what not She was told to go home, but she sat down on the Tolbooth stairs, and said she would never stir until she and that slave of Satan had been confronted. The bailie himself came to her, and told her to go home ; but that was too mild a proceed- SINCLAIK'S STOBIES. 93 ing. " No," she cried, " I must be set face to face with that rascal who has delated me, an honest woman, for a witch." She was set face to face with him, and she feU down on her bare knees, and cursed him. Says she, " Thou common thief, how dare thou for thy soul say that ever before this time thou saw me or I saw thee, or ever was in thy company, either alone or with others?" Hob listened to her railings patiently, tiU commanded by the bailie to speak, when says he, " How came she then to know that I had called her a witch ? Surely none but the devil, thy old master and mine, has told thee so much." " The devil and thou perish together, for he is not my master though he be thine. I defy the devil and all his works ! " said the woman. Then Hob reminded her of the many times and places where they had met while in the same service ; whereat she cried, " Now I perceive that the devil is a lyar and a murderer from the beginning, for this night he came to me, and told me to come and abuse thee ; and never come away till I was confronted with thee, and he assured me that thou would deny all and say, thou false tongue, thou lyest !" She then confessed aU with which she was charged, and was executed. • Hob was a very penitent sinner : being now a mere lunatic, he was easy to manage, and exceeding confidential in his confessions. He said that once in Musselburgh water the devil had tried to drown him when he had a heavy creil on his back ; and even since he had been in prison he had come to cast him into the fire. But though there was a very crowd " fylit " by this poor maniac, he was innocent of the death of a certain woman who was hanged a short time after. The magistrates, glutted to satiety with victims, wanted to save her ; but she would accept no chance offered to 94 THE WITCHES OF SCOTLAND. her. She had been fyled as a witch, she said, and as a witch she would die. And had not the devil once, when she was a young lassie, kissed her, and given her a new name ? Beason enough why she should die, if even nothing worse lay behind. At last the day of her execution came, and she was taken out to be burnt with the rest. On her way to the scaffold she made this lamentable speech : — " Now all you that see me this day, know that I am now to die a witch by my own confession; and I free all men, especially the ministers and magistrates, of the guilt of my blood. I take it wholly on myselfl My blood be upon my own head; and as I must make answer to the God of heaven presently, I declare I am as free of witchcraft as any child ; but being delated by a malicious woman, and put in prison under the name of a witch, disowned by my husband and friends, and seeing no ground of hope of my coming out of prison or ever coming in credit again, through a temptation of the devil, I made up that confession on purpose to destroy my own life, being weary of it, and choosing rather to die than to live." How many poor wretches had been like this unhappy creature — disowned by husband and friends, seeing no ground of hope of ever coming in credit again, and therefore in despair choosing rather to die than to live ! In this special case even the magistrates, usually so passionately determined that all the accused should be found guilty and suffer death, even they seem to have sought her release, and to have refused the evidence of her confession as long as they could ; but the times were not suflSciently enlightened for them to refuse it altogether; and so she gained the fiery goal whither her anguish and despair impelled her. 95 MANIE HALIBURTON.* In 1649, John Kinnaird, the witch-finder, made de- position that he had " pricked " Patrik Watson, of West Fenton, and Manie Haliburton, his spouse, and that he had found the devil's mark on Patrik's back a little under the point of his left shoulder, and o& Manie's neck a little above her left shoulder ; of which marks they were not sensible (had no feeling in them), neither came there any blood when pricked. So Manie, seeing that the scent was hot and the game up, made confession, and saved further trouble. She said that eighteen years ago, the devil had come to her in like- ness of a man, calling himself a physician, saying that he had good salves, and specially oylispek (oil of spike or spikenard), wherewith he would cure her daughter, then sick. So she bought some of his salves, and gave him two English shillings for her bargain, forbye bread and milk and a pint of ale. In eight days' time he came again, and stayed all night ; and the next morn, ing, Patrik being " forth " and Manie yet in bed, she became more intimately acquainted with the devil than an honest woman should. We do not read that Manie was tortured, and, considering that it was not an un- usual thing to keep suspected witches twenty-eight days and nights on bread and water, they being stripped stark naked, with only a haircloth over them, and laid on a cold stone, or to put them into hair-shirts steeped in vinegar, so that the skin might be pulled from off them, we feel that poor Manie got off pretty well with only cremation as the result of her mad con* fessions. * Pitcaini. 96 THE WITCHES OP SCOTLAND. But one of the most extraordinary things of all was that wonderful bit of bnaTory and credulity called THE DEVIL OF GLENLUCE,* when Master Tom Campbell set the whole country in a flame, and brought no end of notice and sympathy upon his house and family. In 1654 one Gilbert Campbell was a weaver in Glenluce, a small village not {ai from Newton Stewart. Tom, his eldest son, and the most important personage in the drama, was a student at Glasgow College ; and there was a certain old blaspheming beggar, called Andrew Agnew — afterwards hanged at Dumfries for his atheism, having said, in the hearing of credible witnesses, that " there was no God but salt, meal, and water" — ^who every now and then came to Glenluce to ask alms. One day old Andrew visited the Campbells as usual, but got nothing ; at which he cursed and swore roundly, and forthwith sent a devil to haunt the house, for it was soon after this refusal that the stirs began, and the connection was too apparent to be denied. For what could they be but the malice of the devil sent by old Andrew in revenge ? Young Tom Campbell was the worst beset of all, the demon perpetually whistling and rioting about him, and playing him all sorts of diabolical and malevolent tricks. Once, too, Jennet, the young daughter, going to the well, heard a whistling behind her like that produced by "the small slender glass whistles of children," and a voice like the damsel's, saying, ^^ I'll cast thee, Jennet^ into the well ! Til cast thee. Jennet, into the well ! " About the middle of * Sinclair. THE DEVIL OF GLENLUCE. 97 November, when the days were dark and the nights long, things got very bad. The foul fiend threw stones in at the doors and windows, and down the chimney head ; cut the warp and threads of Campbell's loom ; slit the family coats and bonnets and hose and shoon into ribbons ; pulled off the bed-clothes from the sleep- ing children, and left them cold and naked, besides ad- ministering sounding slaps on those parts of their little round rosy persons usually held sacred to the sacrifices of the rod ; opened chests and tnmks, and strewed the contents over the floor ; knocked everything about, and ill-treated bairn and brother ; and, in fact, persecuted the whole family in the most merciless manner. The weaver sent his children away, thinking their lives but barely safe, and in their absevice there were no assaults whatever — b. thing to be specially noted. But on the minister's representing to him that he had done a grievous sin in thus withdrawing them from God's punishments, they were brought back again in con- trition. Only Tom was left behind, and nothing en- sued until Tom appeared ; but unlucky Tom brought back the devil with him, and then there was no more peace to be had. On the Sunday following Master Tom's return, the house was set on fire — the devil's doing: but the neighbours put the flames out again before much damage had ensued. Monday was spent in prayer; but on Tuesday the place was again set on fire, to be again saved by the neighbours' help. The weaver, in much trouble, went to the minister, and besought him to take .back that unlucky Tom, whom the devil so cruelly followed and molested ; which request he, after a time, " condescended to," though assuring the weaver that he would find himself deceived if he thought that 93 THE WITCHES OP SCOTLAND. the devil would quit with the boy. And so it proved ; for Tom, having now indoctrinated some of his juniors with the same amount of mechanics and legerdemain as he himself possessed, managed that they should be still sore troubled — the demon cutting their clothes, throwing peats down the chimney, pulling off turf and " feal " from the roof and walls, stealing their coats, pricking their poor bodies with pius, and raising such a clamour that there was no peace or rest to be had. The case was becoming serious. Glenluce objected to be made the head-quarters of the devil; and the ministers convened a solemn meeting for fast and humi- liation ; the upshot of which was that weaver Campbell was led to take back his unlucky Tom, with the devil or without him. For this was the point at issue in the beginning ; the motive of which is not hard to be dis- covered. Whereupon Tom returned ; but as he crossed the threshold he heard a voice " forbidding him to enter that house, or any other place where his father s calling was exercised." Was Tom, the Glasgow stu- dent, afraid of being made a weaver, consent or none demanded ? In spite of the warning voice he valiantly entered, and his persecutions began at onca Of course they did. They were tremendous, unheard of, bar- barous; in jGsict, so bad that he was forced to return once more for a time to the minister's house ; but his imitator or disciple left behind carried on business in his absence. On Monday, the 12th day of February, the demon began to speak to the family, who, nothing afraid, answered quite cheerily : so they and the devil had long confidential chats together, to the great im- provement of mind and morals. The ministers, hearing of this, convened again, and met at weaver Campbeirs, THE DEVIL OF QLENLUCE. 99 to see what they could do. As soon as they entered, Satan began : ^ Quum literatum is good Latin/' quoth he. These were the first words of the Latin rudiments, as taught in the grammar-school. Tom's classical know- ledge was coming into play. After a while he cried out, " A dog ! a dog ! " The minister, thinking he was alluded to, answered, " He thought it no evil to be reviled of him ;" to which Satan replied civiUy, " It was not you, sir, I spoke to : I meant the dog there ;" for there was a dog standing behiud )>acks. They then went to prayer, during which time Tom— or the devil — ^remained reverently silent; his education being not yet carried out to the point of scoffing. Immediately after prayer was ended, a counterfeit voice cried out, " Would you know the witches of Glenluce ? I wiU tell of them," naming four or five persons of indifferent repute, but one of whom was dead. The weaver told the devil this, thinking tx) have caught him tripping ; but the foul fiend answered promptly, " It is true she is dead long ago, but her spirit is living with us in the world." The minister replied, saying,- " Though it was not con- venient to speak to such an excommunicated and inter- communed person, * the Lord rebuke thee, Satan, and put thee to silence. We are not to receive information from thee, whatsoever fame any person goes under. Thou art seeking but to seduce this family, for Satan's kingdom is not divided against itself.'" After which little sparring there was prayer again ; so Tom did not take much by this move. All the wliile the young Glasgow student was very hardly holden, so that there was more prayer on his special behalf. The devil then said, on their rising, '^ Give me a spade and a shovel, and depart from the 100 THE WITCHES OF SCOTLAND. house for seven days, and I will make a grave and lie down in it, and shall trouble you no more.*' The good man Campbell answered, " Not so much as a straw shall be given thee, through God's assistance, even though that would do it. God shall remove thee in due time." Satan cried out, impudently, "I shall not remove for you. I have my commission from Christ to tarry and vex this family." Says the minister, coming to the weaver's assistance, "A permission thou hast, indeed ; but God will stop it in due time." Says the demon, respectfully, "I have, sir, a commission which perhaps will last longer than yours.'* And the minister died in the December of that year, says Sin- clair. Furthermore, the demon said he had given Tom his commission to keep. Interrogated, that young gentleman replied in an off-hand way, that "he had had something put into his pocket, but it did not tarry." They then began to search about for the foul fiend, and one gentleman said, " We think this voice speaks out of the children." The foul fiend, very angry at this — or Master Tom frightened — cries out, " You lie ! God shall judge you for your lying ; and I and my father will come and fetch you to hell with warlock thieves." So the devil discharged (forbade) the gentleman to speak anything, saying, "Let him that hath a commission speak (meaning the minister), for he is the servant of God." The minister then had a little religious contro- versy with the devil, who answered at last, simply, " I knew not these scriptures till my father taught me them." Nothing of all this disturbing the easy faith of the audience, they, through the minister, whom alone he would obey, conjured him to tell them who he was ; whereupon he said that he was an evil spirit come from the bottomless pit of hell, to vex this house, and that THE DEVIL OP GLENLUCE 101 Satan was his father. And then there appeared a naked hand, and an arm from the elbow downward, beating on the floor till the house did shake again, and a loud and fearftd crying, " Come up, father ! come up, father ! I will send my father among ye ! See 1 there he is behind your backs 1" Says the minister, " I saw, indeed, a hand and an arm, when the stroke was given and heard." Says the devil, " Saw ye that ? It was not my hand, it was my father's; my hand is more black in the loof." '* Oh !" said Gilbert Campbell, in an ecstacy, " that I might see thee as well as I hear thee !" " Would ye see me ?" says the foul thief. " Put out the candle, and I shall come but* the house among you like fire-balls ; I shall let ye see me indeed." Alexander Bailie of Dunraget said to the minister, "Let us go ben,t and see if there is any hand to be seen." But the demon exclaimed, " No ! let him (the minister) come ben alone : he is a good honest man : his single word may be believed." He then abused Mr. Eobert Hay, a very honest gentleman, very ill with his tongue, calling him witch and warlock: and a little while after, cried out, "A witch! a witch! there's a witch sitting upon the ruist! take her away." He meant that there was a hen sitting on one of the rafters. They then went to prayer again, and, when ended, the devil cried out, "If the good man's son's prayers at the College of Glasgow did not prevail with Grod, my father and I had wrought a mischief here ere now." Ah, Master Tom,' did you then know so much of prayer and the inclining of the counsels of God ? Alexander Bailie said, " Well, I see you acknowledge * To the outer room. f To the inner room. 100 a.nD. hoiis<' [\ down ii' ' Tlic '.- a strau ■ even tl" in (liH* ' not r<'" Chri.st t conn* II"' hast, ii"' the <1.". whirl 1 »■ minis!' chiir. I his ('("' gentlcn-/ had stti: They i one !:<'■■ the el Master jiul-v conic ; the .1. ^ anytli- speak God/' vers\ ^ knt'\\ them/' the ;. he ^^ wild the ! .^ i.iui, tuid therefore . . ^e f vent to him.** .^ .la evident Fpite -.\ 70a speak of • r :he gentleman .1 with l»oad Kps) ; ...iier^s which shall L .Vexander Bailie : PC iDg round his ' itf o^ol thief had _. '* Tom was to be .ui-4er, and Hu^ a . ^ .'ummg to Jennet, ^ -Jeanet Campbell, . ciiybelt?" ^a thou do with my US.CU my loose bones ..(iuic ** busking her > Alls)* m young girls aiug out her hams," ;uietly, "No, ifGk)d ..-. i* work again. The .V. vHvnd^ was breaking . ..'any ^ould have a Mn?i;selWyllie! give .iive arotten nothing <ii, i$» as they speak ..aicvtvr said to them . . .leui^ to the devil !" .vu. It' $he had given .^^ ^^Jo^** says she; THE DEVIL OF OLENLUCE. 103 **but when I was eating my due piece this morning, something came and clicked it out of my hands." The evening had now come, and the company prC" pared to depart ; the minister, and the minister's wife, Alexander Bailie of Dunraget, with his broad-lipped hat, and the rest But the devil cried out in a kind of agony — ** Let not the minister go ! I shall bum the house if he goes." Weaver Campbell, desperately frightened, besought the minister to stay ; and he, not wiUing to see them come to mischief, at last consented. As he turned back into the house, the devil gave a great gaff of laughing, saying, " Now, sir ! you have done my bidding !" which was unhandsome of Tom — ^very. " Not thine, but in obedience to God, have I returned to bear this man company whom thou dost afflict," says the minister, nowise discomposed, and not disdaining to argue matters clearly with the devil. Then the minister " discharged " aU from speaking to the demon, saying, " that when it spoke to them they must only kneel and pray to God." This did not suit the demon at all. He roared mightily, and cried, " What ! will ye not speak to me ? I shall strike the bairns, and do all manner of mischief I" No answer was returned ; and again the children were slapped and beaten on their rosy parts — ^where children are accus- tomed to be whipped. After a while this ended too, and then the fiend called out to the good-wife, " Grissel, put out the candle !" " Shall I do it ?" says she to the minister's wife. "No," says that discreet person, " for then you shall obey the devil." Upon which the devil shouted, with a louder voice, " Put out the candle 1" No one obeyed, and the candle .I'.'HES OF SCOTLAND. 1*^. • Pat out the candle, I say 1" cries . . :. .tn l^iore, Grissel, not caring to .jM^\ [ J.I i: out "And now/' says he, . ..A ^o more this night." For by this ,. «.eic L-AJ 3Iaster Tom was sleepy, and Vv *• -' I.X»-'t ..^>te» and gentlemen met for , •« Liru it is to be presumed that yu±^ :'jr everything was quiet ; but -^£ui again, and Tom and the rest ^>ert Campbell made an appeal . -^ewviers* a committee of whom ap- . . I * -i humiliation in February, 1656, . ::ie weaver's house from this afflic- ^^-^v.e whereof from April to August, '..icciiy quiet, and the family lived ... l>ut after tb*s the mischief broke .. LVnhaps Tom had come home from ■ wiior had renewed his talk of settling. N ,.vvn tmde: whatever the cause, the .., lie devil had come back to Glenluce. .;ood-wife was standing by the fire, .^e lur the children, the demon came at-c-plate,*' on which was the oat- .w.ui, aud spilt all the meal. ** Let ...vue i^ain/* says Grissel WyUie, souo riving back to her. " It is , :ic luoal too she miglit have got V v.;v.u he is intreated," says Sin- . . \k\e been rather beyond even ^civlvmain. Things after this vii ^<^i» daily thrashed with V uc lu th^^ family underwent ^ . ^u.ul» ^ -a climax, on the . THE DEVIL OP GLENLUCE. 105 eighteenth of September, the demon said he would bum the house down, and did, in fact, set it on fire.. But it was put out again, before much damage was done. After a time — probably by Tom*s going away, or becoming afraid of being found out — the devil was quieted and laid for ever ; and Master Tom employed his intellect and energies in other ways than terrifying his father's family to death, and making stirs which went by the name of demoniac. This account is taken almost verbatim from an article of mine in "All the Year Bound;" and if a larger space has been given to this than to many other stories, it is because there was more colouring, and more dis- tinctness in the drawing, than in anything else that I have read. Though scarcely belonging to a book on witches, there is yet a hook and eye, if a very slender one, in the fact that the old beggar, Andrew Agnew, was hanged ; and we may be sure that it was not only his atheism, but also his naughty tricks with Satan, and his connection with the devil of Glenluce, that helped to fit the hangman's rope round his neck. There are many other stories of haunted houses, notably, Mr. Monpesson's at Tedworth caused by the Demon Drummer, and the Woodstock Devil who harried the Parliamentary Commissioners to within an inch of their lives, and others to the full as interesting ; but there is no hook and eye with them — nothing by which they can be hung on to the sad string of witches, or witchcraft murders. Baxter has two or three such stories; and the curious in such matters will find a large amount of interesting matter in the various works referred to at the foot of the pages ; matter which could not be in- troduced here, because of its not belonging strictly to 106 THE WITCHES OP SCOTLAND. the subject in hand. I do not think that any candid or unprejudiced person will fail in seeing the dark shadow of fraud and deceit flung over every such account remaining. The importance of which, to me, is the evident and distinct likeness between these stories and the marvels going on now in modem society. JONET WATSON AND THE DEVIL IN GREEN. Steadily went on these appalling judicial crimes. In February, 1658, two women and a man were in the Tolbooth at Edinburgh, imprisoned on the charge of witchcraft. One of the women died in prison, the other, Jonet Anderson,* confessed that before her mairiage, which had been only three months ago, she had given herself up body and soul to the devil, and that when she was married she had seen him standing by the pulpit. She was kept only so long as was necessary to prove her not pregnant, and then was executed, fully repentant. In August four women, " ane of them a maiden," were burnt on the Castle Hill in ghastly company ; and soon after five more from Dunbar ; and then again nine from Tranent, all confessing. These seemed to have stayed the appetite of the magistrates for a time, as we come across no more until 1661, when a painful collec- tion of lies, slanders, and confessions again harrow up every feeling, and outrage every reasoning faculty, Jonet Watson was one of the first to make her con- She said that in April last, bypast or thereby, : «t the burial of Lady Dalhousie, a rix dollar ' ZEwea to Jean Bughane, to be divided among a cer- of poor folk, whereof she was one. But * Chambera. JONET WATSON ANP THE DEVIL IN GREEN. 107 Jean ran away with the money, so poor Jonet got none of it : whereat being very grieved and angry, when she came to her own house she wished to be revenged on Jean, and at the wish aj^eared the devil in the likeness of a pretty boy in green clothes, and asked: "what ailed her, and what revenge would she have?" He then gave her his mark and left her under the form of a black dog, and for three days after she had a gnat constantly with her, and one morning when she was changing her linen it sat down upon her shoulder, where she had one of her marks. Also about the time of last Baal-fyre night (the beginning of May) she was at a meeting in Newton- dein, where was the devil dressed in green clothes, with a black hat on his head. And here she denied Christ, and took upon herself to be his servant, he laying his hand on her head, and receiv- ing from her " all that was under his hand," when he gave her the name of " weill-dancing Jonet," and she and a few more danced like Tam o' Shanter's hags, and probably tired the devil out. Beatrice Leslie * was a witch too, and Agnes, wife of William Young, gave her some wholesome advice and Kbnest reproof on the matter, whereby Beatrice was offended, and gave her a terrible look ; and that very night William Young awakened out of his sleep all in terror and dismay, crying out that Beatrice, with a number of cats, was devouring him. Beatrice had a cat which two coal-heaving damsels killed by letting some coals fall on it, afterwards adding to their offence by throwing away her coal-basket. So Beatrice cursed them, and told them "they should see an ill sight before eight days were past :" as it fell out, for accord- ing to her threatening they were both killed in the * Ghambeis, I >f TEL Ai -4S> :y ^-;'i ^ AX ^_ ^liurrin. ZAi.mA ai: ihh^ -iiK- ^iek ixn: 4Zii miven she was :r.iuni ^i i^fi^ laii "^.anai lie •?i?cj«s. *ii* one bled at zhtt 3«:ise uii ihtf^ iidit^ *£ nhn- efcr. tL^s proTing her XTLiZ o^yjUii >ib* c^i-esiLlirT *x irciiLL Also die helped JtJi*Xiiaiiiar WZjjjii"* wi^* ci ^tSLLii-Cie*!. l^ cantiipB and miif.xV :iirri:zti!;« : ieiirkhi^ a hare' knife b^tvixt the bed ami eh^ stEft-^, •^rinkLbg^ aah abxzt the bed, and 8a3niig9 ^ L«>ri^ Lrt nerer aoe worse wiztit wak^i thee, nor hes Liifi tiie«=- drjwne," with other Tillanies^ imwh<Ae80fme to hfjot^ folk ; so Beatrice Leslie saw the son for the last time between the cord and the flamesL THE LANTHORNE AXD THE BAHR-RECHT.* Chri^ian Wilson, aliag the Lanthome, whidi name fthe had gotten from the deyil at the time of her bap- tism, was too fomons in her generation. She lived near her brother Alexander, and there was notorious ill blood between them, perhaps becanse of her notorions evil proceedings. One evening Alexander was fomid dead in his own house, naked, with his &ce torn and cut, but without a spot of blood an3rwhere. Yet a '^greate lumpe of fleisch" had been cut out of his cheek more cleanly than any ordinary razor could have cut either flesh or cheese. Christian bore herself strangely. She expressed no sorrow, perhaps because she felt none, and absolutely refused to see or touch the corpse according to the fashion of the honest and the orthodox of the time. This refusal did her much harm in men's minds, for was it not very evident that she was afraid of the biei>law, or bahr-recht, which, in 1661, when all this took place, was such a useful agent of the • Pitcaim and Sinclair. THE LANTHORNE AND THE BAHll-RECHT. 109 police, and helped so poweifully to the discovery of murder ? The bailies and ministers heard the rumours a£fecting her, and commanded her to be brought into the house to touch the corpse, as the rest had done. " She came trembling all the way to the house, but she refused to come nigh the corpse, or to touch it, saying that *she never touched a dead corpse in her life.'" The neighbours did not allow of her plea, and dragged her to the murdered man, that she might touch it softly. She went forward to do so. " But before shoe did it, the Sone being shyning in at the howse, shoe exprest herselfe thus, humbly desyring that, * as the Lord made the Sone to shine and give light into that howse, that also he would give light to discovering of that murder !* And with these words shoe tuitching the wound of the dead man verie softlie, it being whyte and cleane, with- out any spot of blood or the lyke, yet immediately, while her fingers was upon it, the blood rushed owt of it, to the greate admiratioune of all the behoulders, who tooke it for discoverie of the murder according to her own prayers." Another chaise, no less grave than that of murder, was, that William Bichardson, having felled one of her hens with a stone, she frowned on him threat- eningly, and said he should never throw another stone. And he never did ; for immediately he, fell into ane '^ franicie " and madness, took to his bed, and died in a few days, all the time of his sickness crying out against Cristiane Wilson, who, he said, was tormenting him in the likeness of a grey cat. After his death his nephew teased the witch by calling her "The Lanthorne," which every one knew to be her devil-name ; but Oris- tiane threatened him, and said that "if he did not hold his peace she would make him die by the same death as his uncie," which was proof sufficient of the truth of the no THE WITCHES OF SC0TLA2!ID. grey cat and her guilty sorcery. This was the same Cristiane Wilson who, when she was being carried oflf to Nidrie, there to be confronted with another witch, was suddenly lifted off the pillion by a ftirious blast of wind, which she got the devil to raise in the hope of her rescue. But though she was blown into the stream, she swam lightly as a witch should and as only a witch could, and her jailers fished her out again, to secure her better for the future. As the sky was cloudless when the blast arose, and as no storm followed after, there was no possibility of doubting the Satanic origin of that mighty puff of wind. Besides, did not Jennot Cock, another confessing witch, say to John Stevin, when he told her that Cristiane was to be carried to Nidrie to- morrow, " Will not yow think it a sport, if the deivill raise a whirrell of wind, and tak her away irom among yow by the gette (way) to-morrow?" This and that together made the thing certain ; and the fall of the poor wretcdi was included in the dittay as one of the counts against her, proving her witchcraft. Witch-finding now increased rapidly in Scotland. No fewer than fourteen special commissions were issued for the sole purpose of trying witches for the sederunt of November the 7th, 1661 ; and on the 23rd of January, 1662, fourteeA more were made out. It was the popu- lar amusement of the day, and no one or two men then living could have turned the tide in favour of these poor persecuted creatures. Even Sir George Mackenzie, that " noble wit of Scotland," failed to make any rea- sonable impression on the besotted public, though his pleadings and writings got him into immense disfavour with the religious part of the community, and caused him to be ranked as an atheist and Sadducee, and classed with the Filates and Judases of history. Though THE PAPISTS AND CALVIN'ISTS. Ill it had been the Bull of Pope Innocent "VllL in 1484, which had first stirred up the zeal of the godly against witchcraft, and written that terrible text, " Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live," in still more terrible charac- ters of blood and suffering, yet Calvinistic Scotland soon outstripped even the superstitious Papacy in her frantic piety, and poured out a sea of innocent blood which will stain her pages with an ineffaceable stain, for ever and for ever. Yet she was nearly a hundred years behind Home in her zeal, for it was not till June, 1563, that she made the subject matter for legislation at all, and then the Estates* enacted "that * nae person take upon hand to use any manner of witchcrafts, sorcery, or necromancy, nor give them- selves furth to have ony sic craft or knowledge thereof therethrough abusing the people;' also, that *nae person seek ony help, response, or consultation, at ony sic users or abusers of witchcrafts . . . under pain of death.' This is the statute under which all the subse- quent witch, trials took place." But bad as it was under the Presbyterians and the Elders, it is true that under the Eestoration the witch persecutions in Scot- land were even more excessive than during the reign of the Covenanters, and that the return of Charles IT. brought satis&ction and pleasure to the younger women only of his dominions, but nothing save. torture to the old, the poor, and the despised. Eay says that about a hundred and twenty witches suffered in the year 1661 , the year after the Eestoration had brought joy and gladness to all loyal hearts ; so that it mattered little whether Puritan or Cavalier, Presbyterian or Episcopalian, had the upper hand. Superstition was the greatest lord of * Ghflmbera* ' Domefltie AonalB.* X12 THE WITCHES OF SCOTLAND. all, and a slavish adherence to a few words fettei-ed men down hopelessly to ignorance and wickedness. At this time (1661) John Kincaid and John Dick were the most notorious prickers ; and they let no one escape whom they had the chance of hurting. One John Hay, an old man of sixty, and of untarnished reputation, fell into Dick's hands, accused of sorcery by " a distracted woman," whose words were not worth the wind that wafted them. But Dick shaved him, and pricked him, and tortured him in all allowable ways, then sent him off to Edinburgh, two hundred miles away, to be locked up in the Tolbooth, pending further proceedings. The case against him was too slight for even those times to entertain, and he was liberated on his own petition, and a few testimonials: but John Dick was not reproved, nor was his zeal thought extreme or passionate. MISCELLANEOUS. Margaret Bryson* quarrelled with her husband about the selling of a cow ; she went to the house- door, "and there did imprecate that God or the devil might take her from her husband ;" which naturally ended in the devil's appearing and forcing her into the covenant with him that had its final expression at the stake. Margaret Hutchison was a witch, too. She laid on Henry Balfour the pains of a child-bed woman, and caused such a universal swelling of his body that he died thereof ; and she threatened John Boost for caUing her a witch, and threw a piece of raw flesh against his ♦ Law — Sharp's Introdnctioii. MISCELLANEOUS. ili house^ which the very dogs and cats would not eat ; and she sent a plague of cats to John Bell's house, and tormented him and his wife by appearing at their hearth-side at night, combing her hair: so Margaret Hutchison was no better than she should be, and the world was well rid of her. Isabel Eamsey for her part was convicted of .teking sixpence from the devil, and entering into a long chat with him upon sundry local matters ; and, indeed, she herself confessed that he gave her a dollar, which turned into a sklaitt stane : for nothing that the devil did for these witches ever turned to good, so that one is more surprised at their stupidity than offended by their guilt Jennet Cock* had an iU name, past all forbearance or overlooking. She was never easy unless she was after some evil, and the world must positively be quit of her. She bewitched William Scott's bonny bay horse, worth pounds and pounds of money, and made him mad ; and she told a brute who beat her that he should live to be hanged, which not very unlikely pre- diction was fulfilled ; and she kept company with the devil on terms that no honest woman should endure ; and she and Jean Dickson, another witch, cured a neighbour's cHild by cutting off a dog's head, with which they played some devilish cantrip that healed the bairn ; and she it was who made that speech con- cerning Christiane Wilson and the gaff of wind ; so Jennet Cock was adjudged dangerous to be at large, and was put into prison, there to await her trial. And she was tried, but, strange to say, acquitted of the charges brought against her; she was not let loose though, but kept still in durance till a fresh case could ♦ DalyeU. I 114 THE WITCHES OP SOOTLAIfD. be completed against her. Jennet Cock was rather notorious for her eyil eye and power of overlooking, and in her dittay is thus charged : — " There being an outcast betwixt yow and Jeane Forrest^ because schoe had called yow a witch, yow came to the said Jeane, her landlord's house, where she was with some nygh- boures, desyreing to make aggriement betwixt yow. Ye malitiouslie and bitterlie gimeing and gnashing your teeth, and beating your hands upon your knies, said, ' them that called me a witch I them that called me a witch !' And at that tyme, the said Jeane Forrest, her chylde being in good health, on the mome the chylde, by your sorceries and witchcraft dyed ; and the mother, at the chylde's departour, called out with a loud voyce upone her nighbours, saying, ' Alace ! that ever I had adoe with that witch Janet Cock, for shoe has been at my bed syd all this night standing, and I could not get red of her : and behold the fruit of it — my chylde is dead !* " This deposition was made Sep- tember 10, 1661, and surely Jennet Cock never escaped the consequences of such a cantrip as this I Marion Grinlaw* and Jean Howison, " the survivors of ten women and a man who had been imprisoned at Musselburgh," petitioned the Council for their release. "Some of the rest died of cold and hunger. They themselves had lain in durance fort;/ weeks, and were now in a state of extreme misery, although nothing could be brought against them, Margaret Carvie and Barbara Horniman, of Falkland, had in like manner been imprisoned at the instance of the magistrates and parish minister, had lain six weeks in jail, subjected to a great deal of torture by one who takes upon him the trial of witches by pricking; and so great was their * Chambeis. 0L0WT8 AND THE SERPENT. 115 sufferings that life was become a burden to them, not* withstanding that they declared their innocence, and nothing to the contrary had been shown. The Council ordered all these women to be liberated :" which was a marvellous outstep of humanity, and one for which its previous acts could hardly have prepared' us. The next year it seems to have had a small side-blow of rationality. It had become sensible of the vile in- humanity of John Kincaid, and threw the wretch into prison, then issued a proclamation repudiating the seizure of suspected persons, which had been made illegally, unauthorizedly, and out of only envy and covetousness. Nevertheless, it took care to issue twelve fresh commissions for trying witches, imme- diately after; being chiefly anxious to keep all the business in its own hands, and shut the door against any outside free lances. John Kincaid lay for nine weeks in jail, then was liberated only on condition that he would prick no more without warrant. He sent up a whining petition, setting forth that he was an old man, and if confined longer might be brought to mortal sickness ; so to avert this terrible catastrophe, the old sinner had his liberty given to him again : he ought to have had instead the doom of the murderer for blood-money ! CLOWTS AND THE SERPENT.* In the parish of Innerkip, on March 4, 1662, Marie Lament, a "young Woman of the adge of Eighteen Yeares," offered herself for voluntary confession. She said that five years ago Eattrein Scot taught her to take kyes' milk. She told her to go out in misty ♦ Law's * MemorialB ' — Sharp's Introdnctory Notice. 116 THE WITCHES OP SCOTLAND, mornings with a hair rope (harrie tedder), which she was to draw over the mouth of a mug, saying, " In God's name, God send us milk, God sent it, and mickle of it." By which means she and Kattrein got much of their neighbours' milk which they made into butter and cheese. Also she said, that two years and a half since, the devil came to them at Kattrein Scot's house, where many of them were present, and gave them all wine to drink and wheat bread to eat, and they danced and were very merry, the devil shaking hands with them, and she delivering herself over to him in bap- tism. And at her baptism she was given the name of "Qowts," and bid to call the devil "Serpent" Further, "Shee confessed that at that sam tym the devil nipit her upon the right syd, qlk was very painful for a tym, but yairefter he strailsit it with his hand, and healed it ; this she confesses to be his mark." At a certain meeting which she spoke of, when she and the rest went . to raise storms to hinder the Killing fishery, the devil came to them in the likeness of a brown dog, but she and Kattrein were as cats, and in this form they ran into Allan Orr's house and took a bite of a herring lying in a barrel. They then put it back again, and Allan Orr's wife, afterwards finishing the herring, took heavy disease, and died. The reason of this malicious act was, that Allan Orr had put Margaret Holm (one of the cats) out of her house, and this was the manner in vi'hich she chose to be revenged — " threitening in wrath, that he and his wife sould not be long together." Many other things did she confess : one of which was how the devil once " convoyed her home in the dawing ; and when shee was com near the house wherein she was a servant, her master saw a waflf of him as he went away from her." Another time she and some other witches THE WITCHES OF AULDEARNE. IH met at the back gate of Ardgowand, where his Cloutie- fihip appeared in the likeness of a black man with cloven feet^ directing them to take white sand and cast it about the gates of Ardgowand, and about the minister's house; and while they were about the business he turned them into the likeness of cats, by shaking his hands above them. And at another time they went to cast the longston into the sea, to cause storms and ship- wrecks, and the devil kissed them as they went away, apparently better pleased than ordinarily with his Clowts and Kats. All these things did poor Marie Lament, aged eighteen, confess to the minister and Laird of Innerkip ; and they, not knowing the virtue of purgatives and port wine, nor understanding the value of rest and silence, took the poor young soul at her word, and found her guilty of all the crimes and follies with which a diseased body, and a mind overset and charged, had prompted her to accuse herself. And now we come to THE WITCHES OF AULDEARNE :* and Isobell Gowdie's marvellous confessions: stiU in A.D. 1662. Isobell was neither pricked nor tortured be- fore she entered on her siagular history of circumstantial lies. She was probably a mere lunatic, whose ravings ran in the popular groove, and who was not so much deceiving, as self-deceived by insanity. The assize which tried her was composed of highly respectable people, and she seems to have been only encouraged to rave, not forced to lie. She began by stating that one day, fifteen years ago, as she was going between '^ the ♦ Pitcaim. 118 THE WrrCHEB OF SCOTLAND/ towns ^ or {krmsteads of Dromdewin and the Heads, she met the devil, who spoke to her and inyited her to meet him that night at the parish church of Anldeame. She promised that she would, and accordingly she went, and he baptized her by the name of '* Janet," and accepted her service. Margaret Brodie held her while she denied her Christian baptism ; and then the devil marked her on the shoulder, sucking out the blood which he '^ spouted" into his hand, then sprinkled it on her head, saying, " I baptize thee, Janet, in my own name !" But first he had put one hand on the crown of her head, and the other on the soles of her feet, while she made over to him all that lay betwixt, giving her- seli' body and soul into his keeping. He was ia the Beader's desk while all this took place, appearing as a ^^ mickle, black, hairy man '^ reading out of a black book; so IsobeU was henceforth Janet in the witch world, and was one of the most devoted of her covin ; for they were divided into covins or bands, she said, and placed under the leadership of proper officers. John Young was the officer of her covin, and the num- ber composing it was thirteen. She and others of her band took Breadley's com from off his land. They took an unchristened child which they had raised out of its grave, parings of their nails, ears of all sorts of grain, and cole-wort leaves, all chopped very fine .and small, and mixed up well together; and this charm they buried on his land, whereby they got all the strength of his com and goods to themselves, and parted them among the covin. Another time they yoked a plough of paddocks (toads). The devil held it, and John Young drove it : it was drawn by toads in- stead of oxen, the traces were of quicken^ (dog-grass), the coulter was a riglen's horn (ram's horn), so was the THE WITCHES OP AULDEARNE. IIH flock ; and they went two several times about the field, all the covin following and praying to the devil to give them the fruit of that land, and that only thistles and briars might grow on it for the master's use. So Breadley had trouble enough to work his land, and when it was worked he got no good out of it, but only weeds and thorns, while the covin made their bread of his labour. When asked how she and her sister witches managed to leave their husbands o' nights, she said that, when it was their Sabbath nights, they used to put besoms or three-legged stools in bed beside their husbands; so that if these deluded men should wake before their return, they might believe they had their wives safe as tisual. The besoms and three-legged stools took the right form of the women, and prevented a too early discovery. To go to these Sabbaths they put a straw between their feet, crying " Horse and Hattock in the Devil's name !" and then they would fly away, just as straws in the wind. Any kind of straw would do, and they who saw them floating about in the whirlwind, and did not sanctify themselves, could be shot dead at the witches' pleasure, and their bodies remained with them as horses, and small as straws. These night meetings always ended with a supper; the Maiden of the Covin being placed next to the devil, as he was partial to young, plump, blooming witches, and did not care much for the " rigwoodie hags," save to beat and belabour them. And after they had gotten their meat they would say as a grace — '* We eat this meat in the deyil's name, With sorrow and sich (sighs) and mickle shame ; We shaU destroy both house and hald ; Both sheep and nolt intil the fauld, Little good shall come to the fore, Of aU the rest of the litfle store." 120 THE WITCHES OF SCOTLAND. And when sapper was done, each witch would look steadily upon their "grisly" president and say, bowing low, " We thank thee, our Lord, for this !" But it was not much to thank him for in general ; for the old adage seems to have been pretty nearly kept to, and the cooks, at least, not to speak of the meat, to be of the very lowest description. The poor witches never got more from the devil than what they might have had at home ; which was one more added to the many proofs that the mind cannot travel beyond its own sphere of knowledge, and that even hallucinations are bounded by experience, and clairvoyance by the past actual vision. Then Isobell went to the Downie Hills, to see the gude wichtis who had wrought Bessie Dunlop and Alesoun Peirsoun such sad mishap. The hill side opened and she went in. Here she got meat more than she could eat, which was a rare thing for her to do in those days, and seemed to her one of the most noticeable things of the visit. The Queen of Faerie was bravely clothed in white linen, and white and brown clothes, but she was nothing like the glorious creature who bewitched Thomas of Ercildoun with her winsom looks and golden hair ; and the king was a braw man, well favoured and broad faced ; just an ordinary man and woman of the better classes, buxom, brave, and comely, as Isobell Gowdie and her like would natu- rally take to be the ultimate perfection of humanity. But it was not all sunshine and delight even in the hill of Faerie, for there were " elf bullis roi¥ting and skoylling " up and down, which frightened poor Isobell, as well as her auditory : for here she was interrupted and bidden on another track. She then went on to say that when they took away any cow's milk they TBE WITCHES OP AULDEARira!. 12t did 80 by twining and platting a rope the wrong way and in the devil's name, drawing the tether in between the cow's hinder feet, and out between her fore feet. The only way to get back the milk was to cut the rope. When they took away the strength of any one's ale in favour of themselves or others, they used to take a little quantity out of each barrel, in the devil's name (they never forgot this formula), and then put it into the ale they wished to strengthen ; and no one had power to keep their ale from them, save those who had well sanctified the brewing. Also she and others made a clay picture of a little child, which was to represent all the male children of the Laird of Parkis. John Taylor brought home the clay in his " plaid newk" (comer), his wife brake it very small like meal, and sifted it, and poured water in among it in the devil's name, and worked it about like rye porridge (" vrought it werie sore, lyk rye-bowt") and made it into a picture of the Laird of Parkis'-- son. " It haid all the pairtis and merkis of a child, such as heid, eyes, nose, handis, foot, mowth, and little lippes. It wanted no mark of a child ; and the handis of it folded down by its sydes." This precious image, which was like a lump of dough or a skinned sucking pig, was put to the fire till it shrivelled and became red as a coal ; they put it to the fire every other day, and by the wicked power enclosed in this charm all the male children of the Laird of Parkis would suffer, unless it were broken up. She and the rest went in and out their neighbours' houses, sometimes as jackdaws, sometimes as hares, cats, &c., and ate and drank of the best ; and they took away the. virtue of all things left ^' unsained ;" and each had their own powers. " Bot," said Isobell, sorrowfully, " now I haw no pow^ at alL" In another confession she told 122 THE WITCHES OF SCOTLAND. all about her Covin. There were thirteen in each, and every person had a nickname, and a spirit to wait on her. She could not remember the names of all, but she gave what she could. Swein clothed in grass green waited on Margaret Wilson, called Pickle-nearest-the- wind: Eorie in yellow waited on Bessie Wilson, or Throw-the-com-yard : the Bearing Lion in seagreen waited on Isobell Nichol, or Bessie Eule : Mak Hector, a young-like devil, clothed in grass green, was appro- priated by Jean Martin, daughter to Margaret Wilson (Pickle-nearest-the-wind), the Maiden of the Covin and called Over-the-Dyke-with-it ; this name given to her because the devil always takes the maiden in his hand next him, and when he would leap they both cry out, ^ Over the dyke with it !" Eobert the Eule in sad dun, a commander of the spirits, waited on Margaret Brodie, Thief-of-hell-wait-upon-herself : he waited also on Bessie Wilson, otherwise Throw-the-com-yard: Isobell's own spirit was the Bed Biever, and he was ever clothed in black : the eighth spirit was Bobert the Jakes, aged, and clothed in dun, " ane glaiked gowked spirit," and he waited on Bessie Hay, otherwise Able-and-Stout : the ninth was Laing, serving Elspet Nishie, re-named Bessie Bauld ; the tenth was Thomas, a faerie : — but there IsobelFs questioners stopped her, afraid to hear aught of the " guide wychtis," who might be then among them, injuring those who offended them to death. So no more information was given of the spirits of the Covin. She then told them that to raise a wind they took a rag of cloth which they wetted, then knocked on a stone with ^ beetle (a flat piece of wood) saying thrice — '* I knok this ragg wpon this stane, To raise the wind in the DiveUe's name ; It sail not lye, vntU I please againe I" THE WITCHES OF AULDEARNE. 124 When the wind was to be laid, they dried the rag, and said thrice — " We lay the wind in the diyellis name. It Ball not rise quhill we lyk to raise it again t*' And if the wind would not cease the instant after they said this, they called to their spirit : " Thieffe ! thieflfe ! conjure the wind and caws it to lye I" As for elf-arrow heads, the devil shapes them with his own hand, and then delivers them to elf boys who sharpen and trim them with a thing like a packing-needle: and when Isobell was in elf-land she saw the boys sharpening and trimming them. Those who trimmed them, she said, are little ones, hollow and hump-backed, and speak gruffly like. When the devil gave the arrows to the witches he used to say — '* Shoot these in my name, And they saU not goe heaU hame." And when the witches shoot them, which they do by " spanging " them from their thumb nails, they say — " I shoot yon man in the deyillis name, He sail nott win heaU hame ! And this salbe alswa trw, Thair saU not be an bitt of him on liew/'* Isobell had great talent for rhymes. She told the court how, when the witches wanted to transform them- selves into the shape of hare or cat, they said thrice over — always thrice — "I saU goe intill ane haire. With sorrow, and sych, and mickle caixe ; And I saU goe in the divellis name. Ay whill I com hom againe." Once Isobell said this rhyme, when Patrik Papley's ♦ On life : alire. 124 THE WITCHES OP SCOTLAND. servants were going to labour. They had their dogs with them, and the dogs hunted her — she in the form of a hare. Very hard pressed, and weary, she had just time to run to her own house, get behind the chest, and repeat — *' Hair, hair, God send th^ caire, I am in a hairis likeness now, Bat I sail be a woman ewin now ; Hair, hair, Qod send th^ caire 1" Else the dogs would have worried her, and posterity have lost her confessions. Many other doggrels did Isobell teach her judges ; but they were all of the same character as those already given: scanty rhymes in the devil's name, when they were not actual para- phrases of the mass book. Some were for healing and some for striking ; some in the name of God and all the saints, others in the devil's name, boldly and nakedly used ; but both equally damnable in the eyes of the judges, and equally worthy of death. The elf- arrows spoken of before were of great use. The devil gave them to his covin and they shot men and women dead, right and left. Sometimes they missed, as* when Isobell shot at the Laird of Park as he was crossing the bum, and missed, for which Bessie Hay gave her a great cuflf : also Margaret Brodie, when she shot at Mr. Harie Forbes, the minister at Auldeame, he being by the standing stanes ; whereupon she asked if she should shoot again, but the devil answered, " Not ! for we wold nocht get his lyf at that tym." Finding the elf-arrows useless against Mr. Harie Forbes, they tried charms and incantations once when he was sick. They made a bag, into which they put the flesh, entrails, and gall of a toad, a hare's liver, barley grains, nail pairings, and bits THE WITCHES OF AULDEAENE. 125 of rag," steeping all in water, while Satan stood over them, saying — and they repeating after him — *' He is lying in his bed, and he is seik and sair. Let him lye in till that bedd monthes two and dayes thiie mair 1 He sail lye in till his bed, he salbe seik and sair, He sail lye in till his bedd, monthes two and dayes thrie mair !" When they said these words they were all on their knees with their hair about their shoulders and eyes, holding up their hands to the devil, beseeching him to destroy Mr. Harry ; and then it was decided to go into his chamber and swing the bag over him. Bessie Hay — Able-and-Stout — ^undertook this office, and she went to his room, being intimate with him, the bag in her hands and her mind set on siaying him by its means; but there were some worthy persons with him at the time, 80 Bessie did no harm, only swung a few drops on him which did not kill him. They had a hard taskmaster in the devil — ^Black Johnnie, as they used to call hiTY> among themselves. But he used to overhear them, and would suddenly appear in the midst of them, saying, " I ken weill anewgh what ye wer saying of me/' and then would beat and buflfet them sore. He was always beating them, specially if they were absent from any of the meetings, or if they forgot anything he had told them to do. Alexander Elder was being con- tinually thrashed. He was very soft and could never defend himself in the least, but would cry and scream when the devil scourged him. The women had more pluck. Margaret Wilson — Pickle-nearest-the-wind — would defend herself finely, throwing up her hands to keep the strokes from her ; and Bessie Wilson — Throw- the-com-yard — ** would speak crusty with her tongue and would be belling against him soundly." He used to beat them all up and down with scourges and sharp 12e THE WITCHES OF SCOTLAND. cordfiy they like naked ' ghosts' csrying, "Pityl pity I mercy 1 mercy, our Lord I" But he would have neither pity nor mercy, but would grin at them like a dog, and as if he would swaUow them' up. He would give them most beautiful money, at least to look at ; but in four- and-twenty hours it would be all gone, or changed to mere dirt and rubbish. The devil wore sometimes boots and sometimes shoes, but ever his feet were cloven, and ever his colour black. This, with some small variations, was the sum of what Isobell Gowdie confessed in her four depositions taken between the 13th of April and 27th of May in the year of grace 1662. Janet Braidhead, spous to John Taylor, followed next Her first confession, made on the 14th of April, set forth how that she had known nothing of witch- craft until her husband and his mother, Elspeth Nishie, had taught her ; her first lesson from them being the making of some " drugs " which were to charm away the fruit and com, and kill the cattle, of one John Hay in the Mure. After that, she was taken to the kirk at Auldeame, where her husband presented her for the devil's baptism and marking, which were done in the usual manner. She also gave evidence of the clay picture which was to destroy all the male children of the Laird of Park ; and she gave a long list of the frequenters of the Sabbaths, including some of the most respectable inhabitants of the place ; and in many other things she confia*med Isobell Gowdie's depositions, specially in all regarding the devil and the unequivocal nature of their connection with him, which was put into plain and unmistakable language enough. We are not told the ultimate fate of Isobell Gowdie and Janet Braidhead, but they had confessed enough THE SECRET SINS OF MAJOR WEIR. 127 to bum half Scotland, and it is not likely that they escaped the doom assigned to their order. THE SECRET SINS OF MAJOR WEIR.* On the 4th of April, 1670, one Major Thomas Weir, an old man of seventy, expiated his crimes on the GaUowlie of Edinburgh. A bad man, surely ; a cant- ing, loose-lived hypocrite, who made his puritanism the cloak for his secret crimes, serving sin with his body in daily and most detestable service, while his lips spoke only of zeal to God and the soul's devoutest exercise. Still, it was a terrible fate for nothing more heinous than an unclean life ; a purification by fire in truth, but not for the sanctification of souls. Perhaps he would have got ofi" altogether, had he not been charged with witchcraft. Incest and the foulest vices were bad enough, but witchcraft was worse. Yet no intelligible charge of sorcery was brought against this man save the fact that he got the love of all manner of women, poor and old though he was ; and the testimony of a frightened woman who gave a rambling account of shapes, and lights, and women, all gathered down in Stinking-close, near to where the major lived; aU of which were, of course, phantoms, spectres, or devils, conjured up by his magical and devilish ar^s. This, and the frantic saying of his poor old sister, when she heard of his death, that if they had burnt his staff they had destroyed his power, formed about the sum of the witchcraft evidence against him. He was ar- rested on his own confession. Unable to bear the weight of his secret vices, he gave himself up to the * Chamben. Sinclair. Yarioiu tracts. 128 THE WITCHES OP SCOTLAND. authorities, who at first were disposed to think him mad, but who afterwards, reporting him sane and col- lected enough, set him on his triaL After he had once spoken he would say no more, would make no defence and no further confession : he would not pray, he would not appeal to God. Like a beast he had lived, like a beast he would die, and " since he was going to the devil," he said, " he did not wish to anger him." He would have no paltering with an outraged God by the way ; so the fire and the faggot came as the culmina- tion of a life which in its mildest phase was infamous, but which belonged to no lawful tribunal of man to punish. If he died sullenly and in mute and dumb despair, his sister's anguish found wild and desperate expression. She told her judges all about her horrible life with him, and how he had been long given up to sorcery and magic, as well as to things not now to be mentioned ; and how his power lay in that staflf of his which had been burnt along with him. That thomwood staff, with its crooked head and carved figures like satyrs running through, seems to have heavily burdened the poor creature's mind, for she told her judges that when she wished to plague her brother she would hide it, and give it back to him only when he threatened to reveal her nameless infamy if she did not restore it. On the morning of her execution she said that she would expiate the most shameful life that had ever been lived by dying the most shameful death ; but no one knew exactly what she meant. When she came to the place of execution — she was mercifully hung — she began to talk wildly of the Broken Covenant, and exhort the people back to their old faith, and then she attempted to throw off all her clothes that she might THE SECRET SINS OF MAJOR WEIR. 129 die ** naked and ashamed." This was the lowest depth of degradation of which her crazed old brain could conceive, and was what she meant in the morning when alluding to the manner of her death. The executioner had to struggle mightily with her before he was able to oyermaster her, she smiting him on the cheek the while ; but at last he flung her " open-faced" on the ground, and Hirew some linen cloths over her ; but " her hands not being tyed when she was throwen over, she laboured to recover hirselfe, and put in her head betwixt two of thcf steps of the leather, and keiped that powster for a tyme, till she was put from itt." It is curious to mark the little bit of sanity in all this mournful lunacy, when the familiar things of life were spoken of. She had always been a great spinner, and the fame now went abroad that the devil had helped her in this. Asked if it was not so, she at the first denied disdain- fully ; use only and industry, she said, had made her 80 deft at her work, and the devil had done nothing for her ; but afterwards she maundered off into some non- sense about her yam, and how her distaff was often found full when she had left it empty ; and how. the weaver could never weave the thread spun from this yam, which, of course, was " devil's dust " of the true kind. She was mad enough, the wretched being, and could not fail to trip if stones were laid in her path. But her first instincts respecting her every-day occu- pation were right, and are singularly illustrative of some of the phenomena of madness, and of how inti- mately with one's life is interwoven common sense, even in the fibres of a diseased brain. She said further that she was persuaded " her mother was a witch, for the secretest thing that either I myself or any of the family could do, when once a mark appeared upon her K 130 THE WITCHES OF SCOTLAND. brow, she could tell it them, though done at a great distance! Being demanded* what sort of a mark it was, she answered, ^ I have some such like mark myself when I please, on my forehead.' Whereupon she of- fered to uncover her head for visible satisfaction ; the minister refusing to behold it, and forbidding any dis*- covery, was earnestly requested by some spectators to allow the freedom: he yielded. She put back her head-dress, and, seeming to frown, there was an exact horse-shoe, shaped for nails, in her wrinkles — ^terrible enough, I assure you, to the stoutest beholder." Her further confessions were curious, involving, as they did, a visit from a taU woman who had one child at her back and one or two at her feet; and who came to her, wanting her to speak to the Queen of Fairy, and to strike and do battle with the said queen on her behalf. The next day came " ane little woman," with a piece of a tree, or the root of some herb, and she told her that so long as she kept the same she should do well, and should attain all she might desire. So she spun at her yam, and found more yam on the " pirn " than she thought to find ; which frightened her. This took place when she *' keeped a school at Dalkeith, and teached childering." She also rambled on about a fiery chariot in which she and her brother had paid visits, and of his my stenuus visitors and his thomwood staff; and when notliiiig more was to be got out of her she was hung, and the world was all the cleaner for the loss of so mwAi foDy and wickedness from out the general 131 THE DUMB GIKL OF POLLOK.* On the 14th of October, Sir George Maxwell, of Pollok, and his household were much agitated and disturbed. He had been taken suddenly and danger- ously ill, with pains which read like the pains of pleurisy; and though he got partially well, had still some awkward symptoms remaining. A young deaf and dumb girl, of unknown origin, signified that ^^ there is a woman whose son has broke his fruit yeard that did prick him in the side." This was found to mean that Jennet Mathie, relict of John Stewart, under-miller in Schaw Mill, had formed a wax picture with pins in its side, which "Dumby" said was to be found in her house in a hole behind the fire, and which she further offered to bring to them at Pollok, provided certain two of the men servants might accompany her to protect her. The young daughters of Sir George did not believe the story, but the two servants, Laurence Pollok and Andrew Mar- tine, professed themselves converts, and insisted on seeing the thing to an end. So they went to Jennet's house, and into the kitchen, all standing on the floor near the fire ; " when little Dumby comes quickly by, slips her hand into a hole behind the fire, and puts into Andrew Martine's hand, beneath his cloak, a wax picture with two pins in it," that in the right side very long, and that in the left shorter : which corresponded with the severity of the laird's pains. The picture was brought to Sir George ; so was Jennet Mathie, who was appre- hended on the spot and whom Sir George then sent to prison. When questioned, she denied all knowledge of the picture or the pins, and said it was the work of * Ohamben. Dickie. Tracts. 132 THE WITCHES OP SCOTLAND. the dumb girl ; but on its being shown that her sou Hugh had once robbed Sir George's orchard — ^which was what Dumby meant by " broke his fruit yeard " — and that Sir George, when told that he was no longer in PoUokland, but had gone to Damlie, had said, " I hope my fingers may be long enough to reach him in Dam- lie" — these circumstances were held quite suflScient evidence that the Stewart family would do the laird all the mischief they could. The prosecution wanted no stronger proof, and the affair went on. Jennet was obstinate, and would confess nothing; upon which they searched her and found the devil's mark. After this, Sir George got better for a short space, but soon the pains returned, and then the dumb girl said that John Stewart, Jennet's eldest son, had made another clay image, four days since, and that it was now in his house beneath the bolster among the bed straw. So she and the servants went there again, and sure enough they found it ; but as it was only lately made, it was soft and broke in their hands. John said simply he did not know who had put it there ; but he and his young sister Annabel were apprehended: and the next day Annabel confessed. She said, that on the 4th of January last past, while the day picture was being formed, a black gentleman had come into her mother's house, accompanied by Bessie Weir, Marjorie Craig, Margaret Jackson, and her own brother John. When confronted with John she wavered, but John was no nearer release for that. He was searched, and many marks were found on him ; and when found the spell of silence was broken, and he confessed his paction with the devil as openly as his sister, giving up as their accomplices the same women as those she had named. Of these, Margaret Jackson, aged fourscore or so, was the THE DUMB GIKL OF POLLOK. 133 only one to confess ; but as she had many witdi marks she could not hope for mercy, so might as well make a dean breast of it at once. On the 17th of January a portion of clay was found under Jennet Mathie's bolster, in her prison at Paisley. This time it was a woman's portrait, for Sir George had recovered by now, and the witches were against the whole family equally. On the 27ih Annabel made a fuller deposition. She said that last harvest the devil, as a black man, had come to her mother's house, and required her, the deponent, to give herself to him ; promising that she should want for nothing good if she did. She, being enticed by her mother and Bessie Weir, did as was desired — ^putting one hand on the crown of her head, and another on the soles of her feet, and giving over to liim all that lay between ; whereupon her mother promised her a new coat, and the devil made her oflScer at their several meetings. He gave her, too, such a nip on the arm that she was sore for half an hour after, and gave her a new name — Annippy, or an Ape according to Law. Her mother's devil-name was Lands-lady; Bessie Weir was called Sopha ; Marjorie Craig was Bigeru ; Margaret Jackson Locas ; John Stewart, Jonas ; and they were all present at the making of the clay image which was to doom Sir George to death. They made it of clay, then bound it on a spit and turned it before the fire, " Sopha " crying "Sir George Maxwell! Sir George Maxwell!" which was repeated by them alL Another time, she said, there was a meeting, when the devil was dressed in " black cloathes and a blew band, and white hand cuffs, with hoggers on his feet, and that his feet were cloven." The black man stuck the pins into the picture, and his name was EjoaU, or J. JewelL For the devil delighted in giving himself various names, as when he caused hinir 184 THE WITCHES OF SCOTLAND. self to be called Peter Drysdale, by Catherine Sancb and Laurie Moir, and Peter Saleway by others. John now followed suit. He confessed to his own baptism ; to the hoggers on the black man's legs, who had no shoes, and spoke in a voice hollow and ghonsty ; to the making the clay image ; and to his new name of Jonaa On the 15th of Febrnary, 1677, John Stewart, Annabel Stewart, and Margaret Jackson all adhered to these depositions, but Jennet and Bessie and Margerie denied them. Jennet's feet were fixed in stocks, so that flhe might not do yiolence to her own life : and one day her gaoler declared that he had found her bolster, which the night before was laid at least six yards from the stocks, now placed beneath her; the stocks being so heayy that two of the strongest men in the country could hardly have carried them six yards. He asked her " how she had win to the bolster," and she answered that she had crept along the floor of the room, dragging the stocks with her. Before the court she said that she had got one foot out of the hole, and had drawn the stocks with her, '^ a thing altogether impossible." Then John and Annabel exhorted their mother to confess, re* minding her of all the meetings which she had had with the devil in her own house, and that " a summer's day would not be sufficient to relate what passages had been between the devil and her." But Jennet Mathie was a stem, brave, high-hearted Scotch woman, and would not seal her sorrow with a he. " Nothing could prevail with her obdured and hardened heart," so she and all, save young Annabel, were burnt ; and when she was bound to the stake, the spectators saw after a while a black, pitchy ball foam out of her mouth, which, after the fire was kindled, grew to the size of a walnut, and flew out into sparks like squibs. This was the devil leaving l^er. THE DUMB GIBL OF POLLOK 136 As for Bessie Weir, or Sopfaa, the devil left her wben she was exeented, in the form of a raven ; for so he owned and dishonoured his chosen ones. ^* The diunbe girl. Jennet Douglas, now speaks well, and knows Latine, which she never learned, and dis* covers things past I" says Sinclair. But she still fol- lowed her old trade. She had mesmeric visions, and was evidently a "sensitive ;" and some of the people be^ lieved in her, as inspired and divine, and some came, perhaps mockingly, to test her. But they generally got the worst ofiP, and were glad to leave her alone again. One woman came and asked her '^ ' how she came to the knowledge of so many things,' but the young wench shifted her, by asking the woman's name. She told her name. Sap the other, * Are there any other in Glasgow of that name ?* * No I' sayes the woman. * Then,' said the girle, * you are a witch !' Says the other, * Then are you a devil V The girl answers * The devil doth not reveal witches ; but I know you to be one, and I know your practices too.* On which the poor woman ran away in great confusion ;" as, indeed, she might — such an accu- sation as this being quite sufficient to sign her death- warrant. To another woman who came to see and question her, she said the same thing ; taking her arm, and showing the landlord a secret mark which she told him the woman had got from the deviL ** The poor woman much ashamed ran home, and a little while after she came out and told her neighbours that what Jennet Douglas had said of her was true, and earnestly en- treated that they might show so much to the magis- trates, that she might be apprehended, otherwise the devil says she will make me kill myself." The neigh- bours were wise enough to think her mad, as she was> and took her home ; but the next day she was found 136 THE WITCHES OF SCOTLAND. drowned in the Clyde ; fear and despair had killed h^ before the stake-wood had had time to root and ripen. The dumb girl herself was afterwards carried before the great council at Edinburgh, imprisoned, scourged through the town, and then banished to '^ some forraigne Plantation/' whence she reappears no more to vex her generation. God forgive her! She has passed long years ago to her account, and may her guilty soul be saved, and all its burning blood-stains cleansed and assoilzedl LIZZIE MUDIE AND HER VICTIMS.* The year after Sir George Maxwell's affair there was another case at Haddington which gave full employment to the authorities. Margaret Kirkwood, a woman of some means, hanged herseK one Sunday morning during church time. Her servant, Lizzie Mudie, who was at kirk like a good Christian, suddenly called out, to the great disturbance of the congregation. She began re- peating all the numbers — one, two, three, fom*, &c. — till she came to fifty-nine ; then she stopped and cried, " The turn is done !" When it was afterwards found that Mar- garet Kirkwood had hung herself just about that moment^ and that her age was fifty-nine, Lizzie Mudie was taken up and searched. She was found a witch by her marks, and soon after confessed, delating five women and one man as her accomplices. But the five women and the one man were obstinate, and would not say that they were guilty, though they were pricked and searched and marks found on them. Lord Fountainhall was present at the searching of the man, and he gives an * Law's ' Memorials.* BEAVE OLD KATHEBINE LIDDELL. 137 aoconnt of it: ^'I did see the man's body searched and pricked in two sundry places^ one at the ribs and the other at his shoulder. He seemed to find no pain, but no blood followed. The marks were blewish, very small, and had no protuberancy above the skin. The pricker said there were three sorts of witphes' marks : the horn mark, it was very hard ; the breiflf mark, it was very little ; and the feeling mark, in which they had sense and pain." " I remained very dissatisfied with this way of trial,** says my Lord farther on, " as most fallacious ; and the fellow could give me no account of the prin- ciples of his art, but seemed to be a drunken, foolish rogue." One of Lizzie Mudie's five victims was an old woman of eighty, named Marion Phinn, who had always borne a good character, " never being stained with the least ignominy, £Btr less with the abominable crime of witchcraft." But though she petitioned the council to free her on her own caution, she was kept hand-fast and foot-bound in gaol, being far too dangerous in the help- lessness and feebleness of her eighty years to be let out with the chance of bewitching mankind to deatk This she could do, and work all other miracles; but she could not help herself to sunlight and Uberty. BRAVE OLD KATHERINE LIDDELL.* Li 1678 two old women of Prestonpans were burnt They made a voluntary confession, and accused a few more of their craft These in their turn accusing others, in a very short time seventeen unhappy creatures were collected together, all charged with the sin of witchcraft, interoommuning with the devil, voluntary transformation * Ohamben. 138 . THE WITCHES OP 800TLANP« into ratenSy cats, crows, &c., with all the oth^ stock pieces of the hallucination. The judges seemed inclined to faTOur them, and Sir John Clerk of Pennycuik, when desired to sit on the commission appointed to try the seven given up by the parish of Loanhead, declined, *' alleging drily that ^e did not feel himself warlock (that is, conjuror) enough to be judge upon such an in- . quisition." These poor creatures had deep sleeps, during which no pinching would awake them ; but though the judges saw them when in these sleeps, and heard their confessions as to where they had been and what they had been doing during the time, they were regarded as diabolical trances, and dealt with accordingly. Nine of the East Lothian women were burnt, and the *' seven of Loanhead were reserved for future jwocedure " Among the accused was one Katherine Liddell, a Btrong-minded» stout-hearted, old widow, who feared no man, spoke her mind freely, and had a . body with nerves like cart ropes and muscles of iron. The bailie of Preston* pans, John Butherford, had caused her to be seized in the late panic, and, though there was nothing against her, he had her pricked in various parts of her body " to the great effusion of her blood, and whereby her skin is raised and her body highly swelled, and she is in danger of life." A drummer, two salt-makers, and others, assisted him in this torture ; for John Kincaid had found zealous followers: and any man with a peculiar tem- perament, and a heart hardened by superstition against suffering, might take on himself the office of pricker to his own soul's satisfaction, and the torture and murder of his fellow-creatures. Katherine Liddell, besides being actively tortured, was kept without sleep for six days and nights, but the stout old woman would confess nothing. On the contrary, she presented a petition to the BRAVE OLD KATHERINE LIDDELL. 189 Council* charging John Butherford and the rest with ^'defamationy false imprisonment, and open and manifest oppression/' and demanded vengeance and restitution in loud and yigox;ous terms. The Council, imaccustomed to this sort of thing, and used only to victims as tame as they were considered powerful, soon released her, drop* ping her like hot iron, and condemnmg Butherford and his associates as too hasty and ill-advised : then, some- what further redeemed themselves by an imusual act of justice and common sense, in sentencing David Cowan, "pricker" — ^the one who had been the most active of her tormentors — ^to be confined during pleasure in the Tolbooth. Katherine Liddell did not do much good to her afflicted sisterhood, though she hd-d helped herself: for that same year, in August,* "the devil had a great meeting of witches in Loudian, where, among others, was a warlock who formerly had been admitted to the ministrie in the Presbyterian tymes, and when the bishops came in conformed with them." This warlock minister was Mr. Gideon Penman, minister of Crighton, and a man of notoriously loose life ; but whether he carried his defiance of good so far as to dance with the hags at the Sabbath, and " beat up those that were slow," and preach damnable doctrines and blasphemous travesties of the Christian faith in the devil's services, or whether he was only an immoral man — ^better out of the ministry than in it — remains for each reader's private judgment to determine. Ten of the accused stoutly ajfiSrmed that Mr. Gideon Penman was their devil's parson ; but §« he as stoutly denied it, he was liberated on his own security, while nine out of the ten were condemned to be strangled and burnt, which was * Law's 'Hemoriald.* 140 THE WITCHES OP SCOTLAND. done accordingly. They gave some curious details, as, that, when they renounced their baptism and gave them- selves over to Satan by laying one hand on their head and the other on their feet he kissed them, and that he was cold to the touch, and his breath like a damp air ; that he scourged them oft, and was a most '^ wicked and barbarous master ;" and that when he administered the sacrament to them the bread was like wafers, and the drink like blood or black moss-water : that he trans- formed them to the likeness of bees, and crows, and ravens, when they flew about from place to place as he ordered. THE DEVIL IN HIS CUPS.* On December 19, 1679, the parish of Borrowstonness was again in an uproar concerning the evil doings of witches and wizards, the chief of whom was Annaple Thomson, once a widow, but now a wife. She was charged with having one day met the devil on her way between Linlithgow and Borrowstonness, when he "in the lyknes of ane black man told yow that yow wis ane poore puddled bodie, and had ane evill lyiff, and diflSi* ciiltie to win throw the warld ; and promised that iff ye wald followe him, and go alongst with him, yow should never want, but have ane better lyiff; and abowt fyve wekes therafter, the Devill appeired to yow, when yow wis goeing to the coal-hiU, about sevin o'clock in the morning. Having renewed bis former tentatiowne yow did condescend thereto, and declared yowrselff con- tent to follow him, and becwm his servant ;" — which was bad of Annaple Thomson, and sure to bring her to ineffectual grief. Then some others, men and women * Scots* Magaadae. THE DEVIL IN HIS CUPS. 141 both, were farther informed of their misdeeds. They were told that "ye, and each person of yow, wis at several mettings with the Devill in the linkes of Bor- rowstownes, and in the howse of yow, Bessie Vickar, and ye did eatt and drinke with the Devill, and with on another, and with witches in hir howss in the nycht tyme ; and the Devill and the said WiUiam Craw browght the ale which ye drank, extending to about sevin gallons, from the howss of Elisabeth Hamilton." So did the rest. Margaret Pringle, whose right wrist the devil had grievously pained, "but having it twitched of new againe, it immediatelie becam haill ;" Margaret Hamilton, with whom the devil had at sundry times " drank several choppens of ale with yow," when they met at the town-well at Borrowstonness and talked together like two old gossips ; also, another Margaret Hamilton, relict of James Pullwart, with whom the devil conversed in the likeness of a black man, but afterwards removed from her as a dog — they all com- mitted abominable sins with the devil, and entertained him familiarly like any other cummer. And were they not all at the meeting with the "Devill and other witches at the croce of Murestaine," above Kinneil, npon "the threttin of October last, where yow all danced, and the Devill acted the pyiper, and where yow endevored to have destroyed Andrew Mitchell, sone to John Mitchell, elder in Dean of Kinneil?" The case was considered clear enough for all rational men in Borrowstonness; so Annabel Thomson, Mar- garet Pringle, the two Margaret Hamiltons, William Craw, and Bessie Vickar, were " found gmltie be ane assyse of the abominable cryme of Witchcraft," and were ordered to be taken to the west end of Borrow- stonness, " the ordinar place of execution," betwixt two 142 THE WITCHES OP SCOTLAND. and four in the afternoon, and ** there be wnried at a steack till thej be dead, and thereafter to haTe tiieur bodies bomt to ashes." THE GHOST OP THE BLACK-BROWED MAID.* If bodies were safe after death, characters were not. Isabel Heriot was maid of all work to the minister at Preston. '' She was of a low Stature, small and slender of Body, of a Black Complexion. Her Head stood some- what awry upon her Neck. She was of a droU and jeering Humour, and would have spoken to Persons of Honour with great Confidence." After some short time of service, her master the minister began to dislike her, because she was not eager in her religious duties ; so he discharged her : and in 1680 she died — ^and " about the time of her death her face became extreamly black.*' Two or three nights after her burial, one Isabel Murray saw her, in her white grave-clothes, walk from the chapel to the minister s louping-on stone (horse-block). Here she halted, leaning her elbow on the stone, then went in at the back gate, and so towards the stable. A few nights after this stones were flung at the minister's house, over the roof, and in at the doors and windows; but they fell softly for the most part, and did no especial damage. Yet one night, just as the minister was coming ia at the hall door, a great stone was flung after him, which hit the door very smartly and marked it Isabel Murray was also hit with stones, and the serving^man who looked to the horses was gripped at the h^el by something which made him cry out lustily. So it went on. Stones and clods^ and lighted • Sinelair's * I&yiaible Woiid.* THE GHOST OF THE BLACK-^BKOWBD MAID. 143 eoalsy and even an old horse-comb long since lost^ were perpetually flying about, and only by severe prayer was the minister able to lay the devil who molested them. Soon Isabel Murray reappeared with a £resh set of circumstances concerning the ghost of her namesake Isabel Heriot, the maid of all work. She said that as she was coming &om church between sermons, to visit her house and kailyard for fear some vagrant cows might have got over the dyke — ^which were very likely of the true Madarty type— on going down her own yard, which was next to the minister's, she saw again the apparition of Isabel Heriot, as she was when laid in her coffin. " Never was an egg liker to another than this Apparition was like to her, as to her Face, her Stature, her Motion, her Tongue, and Behaviour; her face was black Uke the mouten soot, the very colour which her face had when she died." The ghost was walking under the fruit-trees, and over the beds where the seeds had been sown, bending her body downwards, as if she had been seekiag somewhat off the ground, and saying, '^ A stane ! a stane !" Her lap was fuU of stones ; as some people supposed the stones she cast in the night-time ; and these stones she threw down, as if to harbour them, at a bush-root in the garden. Isobel Murray, nothing daunted, goes up to her. •* Wow r* says she, " what's thou doing here, Isabel Heriot? I charge thee by the law thou lives on to tell me." Says the ghost, " I am come again because I wronged my master when I was his servant. For it was I that stealed his Shekel (this was a Jewish shekel of gold which, with some other things, had been stolen from him several years before), which I hid under the Hearthstone in the Kitching, and then when I flited tookit into the Cannongate, and did offer to sell it to a 144 THE WrrOHES OF SCOTLAND. French Woman who lodged where I served, who askt where I got it. I told her I found it between Leith and Edinburgh." Then she went on to make further confession. Having fyled herself for a thief she went on to show how she had been also a witcL "One night," says the ghost, " I was riding home late from the Town, and near the Head of Fanside Brae, the Horse stumbled^ and I said, The Devil raise thee ; whereupon the Foul Thief appeared presently to me, and threatened me, if I would not grant to destroy my Master the Minister, he would throw me into a deep hole (which I suppose is yet remaining) ; or if I could not get power over my master, I should strive to destroy the Shoolmaster." " It was very remarkable," says George Sinclair, as a kind of commentary, " that one of the minister's servant- women had given to the schoolmaster's servant-voman some Linnings ta make clean, among which there was a Cross cloth of strong Linning, which could never be found, though diligent search was made for it, till one morning the Master awakening found it bound round about his Night Cap, which bred admiration both to ! himself and his Wife. No more skaith was the Devil or the Witches able to do him. What way this was done, or for what end it cannot be well known : but it | is somewhat probable that they designed to strangle j and destroy him in the night time, which is their usual time in working and doing of mischief. This happened about the time (I suppose) that the Devil had charged Isabel Heriot to destroy this honest man. Yet witjhin two days a young child of his, of a year old, fell sick, \ which was quickly pulled away by death, none knowing the cause or nature of the disease." Isabel Murray went on to say, that farthermore the THE SUCCUBUS. 145 ghost confessed to her, that she, Isabel fleriot, when in life, had met the devil a second tiine at Elflston Mill, near to Ormiston : and she told what foulness the devil did to her. Also, one night as she was coming home from Haddington Market with some horse-com, she met the devil at Knock-hills, and he bade her destroy Thomas Anderson, who was riding with her. When she refused he threw all the horse-com off the horse. " This Thomas Anderson was a Christian man," and when Murray told her tale " well remembered that Isabel had got up the next morning timeously," and brought home her oats which had lain in the road all the night. She said too that she had cheated her master whenever she went to the market to buy oats, charging him more than they cost — not an unusual practice with servants at market anywhere; and she told Isabel Murray that the stone cast at her was not for herself but for her goodman, who had once flung her, the ghost, into the jawhole, and abused her. At this point Murray said she began to be frightened, and ran home in all haste. So Isabel Heriot's character was settled for ever, and her neigh- bours only thought the judgment came too late. THE SUCCUBUS.* William Barton, a loose-lived man of notoriously strong passions, was apprehended for witchcraft His confession included tixe not very frequent Scottish element of a Succubus — a demon under the form of a beautiful woman who beguiled him, and to whom he made himself over for love and gold. She bap- tized him under the name of John Baptist, gave him her mark, and fifteen pounds Scots in good gold as ♦ Sinclaur. ¥ T53: WrrCHES W SCOTLAND. ELiie^ : flfei thffli dier pizted. ' When he had r ^r jzr A irn^ '«:i7 aie called him back and gave -L^n 4 :2:i.rs *».• ?^iiii n, the Ferry, desiring him to i.*~- -r :rrc*r:i -^ Jisti' ^a5» and mibroken. At this ^ -LI n _^ •ii-r-'-iLa riie poor wretch was weary, i-^- -55^*v rtin- -- ^ X iLeep : which, for a wonderful -iT- r • 1 jiziaiLj-. :nir .^irss granted. Suddenly ho v.1^ ..^-». *: .1 i L-uL iWLrii. The mapstrates asked • it^^.*-t — unf ni^ sfcji ihiit dnring his sleep the .:-.- ::iu. '*:rtf v um. ^arr ihT^gry at his confession, and : — ^ ..a .f»i*- uL witfni he awoke, "for he should - .> V ^TTunu ' ^fiHT lii? he became " obdured," «* •% ^. ; :vwr -*intj>aB Ktviiing again; the devil -r.>si:;^.::i^ i:a aui lu TiiaL iiftiocid take his life. And t- : ». t i iit^ I'ui. iiuL liXiMi zhe stake was set up and ^r !** u.^t -^miui. Hf nuy i^^woed, "he cared not * -^ .^w "i\ * siiu. iif.. *i i^ial not die this day." • « -^* w L :<: I iM :b2Ui w^s to kill him? Upon ^ > .- .v.. •tLT-UfcC ,twn*» ii(x> the prison, but fell ><L .t: .r *^ ^ tfr •^•?*^ iitf thre^ifljd. Hastily the .^^•-^->v,^ .X* ^1 4 :t?^irm>£ :o ^e executioner's wife if >^t M.U..L •.•j^.it^LAL i*rr lasMDuTs oflBces, and strangle on **».r ia*4. ^:s.L>« >-acr? lew^sboint; which she ^*»-<»*. V ^v. '-c aJ. itetf sOi* W5B in great pain and ^--^ ^ •.»». ' c ^^^ i5*i2vis^ iaa erring, "Dool for this .^^t ^ *t. KtJ^c JU£>i: lufrew^ Martin r When the %»^^ V -v >:«ML>v liort^ 4 nmnnoL w;fe$ to pot him to death, V •: . V > "Mfi^^ ,^' ^tyta^. ^r^ ^^* ^® devil ft»^^ o^v*i*-w : ju i»i '^le^ 111? nan ever trust his 1 vu^«*< "^'^ ^^^0^ :iii|rraiNiiai with him. On her >v'»i^ >;sx Av%;iA^*i Jidb^ $i»r Imi BteTer known her hus- j ^,(^^ %: s % %«*»>vviv W goL his that he had never >i*s^%a Kc V > 4 %t^^ te inaently the mask fell THE ISLAND WITCHES. 147 off, and she confessed. She said that malice against one of her neighbours had driven her to give herself over to the devil, that he had baptized her by the name* of Margaratus, and taken her to be very near to him ; a great deal too near for even a virtuous woman's thoughts. When asked if she had found pleasure in his society, she answered, " Never much." But one night, going to a witches' dance upon Pentland Hills, he went before them all in the likeness of a rough tanny dog, playing on a pair of pipes. The spring he played, said she, was "The silly bit chicken, gar cast it a pickle, and it will grow mickle;" and coming down the hill they had the best sport of all : the devil carried the candle and his tail went, " ey wig wag, wig wag !'* Siaigaratus was burnt with her husband. THE ISLAND WITCHES. The Orkney and Shetland islanders were rich in witchcraft superstitions. They had all the Norwegian beliefs in fullest, ripest quality, and held to every- thing that had been handed down to them firom Harald Harfagre and his followers. Kelpies and trows, and brownies and trolls, which somehow or other went out with taxation and agriculture, peopled every stream and every meadow, and witches were as many as there were men who loved nature, or women who had a faculty for healing and the instinct of making petg. Somewhere about the middle of the seventeenth century a woman was adjudged a witch because she was seen going from Hilswick to Brecon with a couple of familiars in the form of black crows or corbies, which hopped on each side of her, all the way. Which 148 THE WITCHES OF SdOTLAKD. thing, not being in the honest nature of these fowls to do, she was strangled and burnt. But most frequently *the imp took the form of a cat or dog ; sometimes of a respectable human being; as was the case about seventy years ago, when it was notorious that the devil, as a good braw countryman, helped a warlock's wife to ^elve while her husband was engaged at the Haaf. According to the same authority too,* not longer ago than this time, when the devil dug like any navvy, a woman of the parish of Dunrossness was known to have a deadly enmity against a boat's crew that had set off firom the Haaf. The day was cloudless, but the woman was a witch, and storms were as easy for her to raise as to blow a kiss from the hand. She took a wooden basin, called a etxp, and set it afloat in a tub of water ; then, as if to disarm suspicion, went about her house- hold work, chanting softly to herself an old Norse ditty. After she had sung a verse or two she sent her little child to look at' the tub, and see whether the cap was whummilled (turned upside down) or no. The child said the water was stirring but the bowl was afloat. The woman went on singing a little louder ; and pre- sently sent the child again to see how matters stood. This time the child said there was a strange swell in the water, but the cap still floated. The woman then sang more loud and fierce; and again she sent. The child came back saying the waters were strangely troubled, and the cap was whummilled. Then she cried out, " The turn is done!" and left off singing. On the same day came word that a fishing yawl had been lost in the Roust, and all on board drowned. The same story is told of some women in the island of Fetlar, who, when a boat's crew had perished in tlie * Hibbert*s ' Shetland Islands.* THE ISLAIJD WITCHES. 149 Bay of Funzie, were found sitting round a well, mutter* ing mysterious words over a wooden bowl supematurally agitated. The whole thing, as Hibbert says, forcibly reminds one of the old Korse superstition of the Quern Song. It was no unusual thing for men and women of otherwise peaceable and cleanly life to tamper with the elements in those dim and distant days. Even seventy years ago a man named John Sutherland of Papa Stour was in the habit of getting a fair wind for weather-bound vessels: and the KnoU of Kibister, in the island of Bressay, now called Luggie's Knowe,* testifies by its name to the skill and sorf owful fate of a well-known wizard of the seventeenth century. There on that steep hill used Luggie to live, and in the stormiest weather managed somehow always to have his bit of fresh fish : angling with the most perfect success, even when the boats could not come into the bay. When out at sea Luggie had nothing to do but cast out his lines to have as plentiful a dinner as he could desire. " He would out of Neptune's lowest kitchen, bring cle- verly up fish weU-boiled and roasted;" but strange and mischancy as the art was, his companions got accustomed to it, " and would by a natural courage make a merry meal thereof, not doubting who was cook.*' But Luggie's cleverness proved fatal to him. Men were not even adept fishers in those days without danger, and jealousy and fear helped to swell the reputation of his natural skill into supernatural power : so he was tried for a sorcerer, and burnt at a stake at Scalloway. We need hardly wonder at the fate of poor Luggie, considering the times. If it were possible to hang two women on the 26th of January, 1681 — * Hibbezi and Ipinclair. 150 THE WITCHES OF SCOTLAND. actually to hang them in the sight of Grod and this loying pitiM human world, ^' for calling kings and bishops perjured bloody men,"* we need not wonder to what lengths superstition in any of its other forms was carried. We have made a stride since then, with seven- leagued boots winged at the heels. A family of bright young sonsf lived on one of the Shetland islands. A certain Norwegian lady had reason to think herself slighted by one of them, and she swore she would have her revenge. The sons were about to cross a voe or ferry ; but one was to take his shelty, while the rest were to go by the boat. Mysteriously the shelty was found to have been loosed from its tether, and was gone ; so all the heirs male of the race were under the necessity of going by the boat across the voe. It was the close of day— a mild windless evening : not a ripple was on the water, not a cloud in the sky ; and no one on either bank heard a cry or saw the waters stir. But the youths never returned home. When they were searched for the next day they could nowhere be found : only the boat drifting to the shore, unharmed and unsteered. When the deed was done the shelty was brought back to its tether as mysteriously as it had been taken away. Trials and executions still went on; some at Dumfries, and some at Coldingham X where Margaret Polwart was publicly rebuked for using charms' and incantations to recover her sick cluld whom " that thief Christian Happer had wronged." But as a neighbour told her very wisely, " They that chant cannot charm, or they that lay on cannot take off the disease, or they that do wrong to any one, cannot recover them," so what was the good of all her notorious cantrips with * Fcnintainhall. f Hibbert X Chambers, THE RENFREWSHIRE WITCHES. 151 Jean Haxt and Alison Nisbet— -the last of such evil fame that she had lately been scratched for a witch — that is, had blood drawn above her breath ? Margaret Polwart might be thankfiil that she got off with only a rebuke for using charms in place of drugs, and consort- ing with witches to undo witches' work. In 1696, Janet Widdrow and Isobel Cochrane were brought to trial, but not burnt for the present ; but two poor creatures, M'Eorie and M*Quicken, did not escape: nor some others, of no special dramatic interest. And now we come to that marvellous piece of disease and imposture combined, the notorious case of " Bar- garran's Daughter." THE RENFREWSHIRE WITCHES.* Christian Shaw, Bargarran's daughter, was a little girl of about eleven years of age, ** of a lively character and well inclined." On the 17th of August, 1696, she saw the woman servant, Katherine Campbell, steal a drink of milk from the can, whereupon she threatened to tell her mother ; but Campbell, " being a young woman of a proud and revengeful temper, and much addicted to cursing and swearing upon any light occa- sion," turned against her vehemently, wishing " that the Devil might harle her soul through hell," and cursing her with violent imprecations. Five days after tliis, Agnes Naismith, an old woman of bad fame, came into the courtyard, and asked Christian how old she was, and how she did, inquiring also after the health of other membejrs of the family. Christian gave her a pert answer, and there the matter ended ; but the next * Wat8on*8 Tract, printed 1698. Ohambers, Dickie, and Yarioiui other sources. 152 THE WITCHES OF SCXXTLAND. night the young girl was taken with fits, and the first act of the long and mournful tragedy began. In her tits she cried oat agaiost Eatherine Campbell and Agnes Naismith, saying they were cutting her side and otherwise tormenting her ; then she struggled as with an unseen enemy, and her body was, now bowed stiff and rigid, resting in. an arch on her head and her heels alone, and now shaken with such a strange motion of rising and &Uing, as it had been a pair of bellows ; her tongue was drawn into her throat, and even the great Dr. Brisbane of Glasgow himself was puzzled by what name to call her passion, for she began to vomit strange things, which she said the witches, her tormentors, forced upon her — such as crooked pins, small fowl bones, sticks of candle fir, filthy hay, gravel stones, lumps of candle- grease, and egg-shells. And still she cried out against Katherine Campbell and Agnes Naismith; holding long conversations with the former, whom she affirmed to be sitting close by when she was perhaps many miles away, and arguing with her out of the Bible : exhorting h&r to repent of her sins with more miction than lexical clearness of reasoning. Agnes Naismith she took somewhat into favour again ; for the poor old woman, having been brought by the parents into the chamber where she lay, and having prayed for her a little simple prayer Very heartily, the afflicted damsel condescended to exempt her fix)m further persecution for the moment, saying that she was now her defender and did protect her from the fury of the rest For the crafty child had seen too well how her first venture had sped not to venture on a broader cast One^day being in hex fits she made a grip with her hands as if to catch something, then exclaimed that J. P. was then tormenting her, and that she had got a grip of his jerkin which was, THE KENPREWSHIEB WITCHES. 153 ^'duddie" (tattered) at the elbows; and immediately her mother and aunt heard the tearing of cloth, and the girl showed them in her hands two pieces of red cloth newly torn, where nev^ a bit of red cloth had been before. Then she went off into a swoon or "swerf," and lay as if dead a considerable time. These fits continued with more or less severity far into the winter of the next year, and with ever new victims ciaiqaed by her as her tormentors. Now it was Eliza* both Anderson ; now James and Thomas Lindsay — ^the latter a young lad of eleven, *< the gley 'd or squint* eyed elf," as she called him ; now " the scabbed-faced lass/' who came to the door to ask alms ; and now the weary old Highland body, begging for a night's lodging ; then Alexander Anderson, father of Elizabeth; and Jean Fulton, the grandmother ; and then Margaret Lang — ^Pincht Margaret as she was called — " a Name given her by the Devil, from a Pincht Cross cloath, ordinarily worn on her Brow ;" and her daughter, Martha Semple, Of the twenty-one people accused by this wicked girl, Margaret Lang and her daughter were the most re* markable — ^the one for her courage, her fine character and powerful mind, the other for her youth, her beauty, and child-like innocence of nature. When she heard that she was accused, Margaret — who had been advised to get out of the way for a time, but who had answered disdainiully, '' Let them quake that dread and fear that need, but I will not gang "-r-went up straight to Bar- garran house, and passing into the chamber where Christian lay, put her arms round her and spoke to her. soothingly, saying, '^ The Lord bless thee and ding the devil frae thee !" She then asked her pointedly if she had ever seen her among her tormentors ? — ^to which the girl said. '^No, but she had seen her daughter Martha." 134 THE WITCHES OF SCOTLAND. ^Vlterwiirds she letracted this admission and said that Margaret had really afflicted her, but that she was under a spell \¥hen a^ked and conld not confess. Martha could not take things so gently. " She was as well-Favoured and Gentill a Lass as you'l look on, and about 17 or 18 years of Age,** says an old authority in an anonymous letter written to a couple of initials. Poor Martha ! her youth and beauty and passionate distress moved even the bigoted wretches who condemned her; but their compassion led to nothing pitiful or merciful, and the poor» bright, beautiful girl passed into the awful doom of the rest Then the authorities ^' questioned " the witches; they were pricked, according to custom and the national law ; and *^ There was not any of them, save Margaret Fulton, but marks were found on them, which were altogether insensible. That a Needle of 3 Inches length was frequently put in without their knowledge, nor would any Blood come from these places." Elizabeth Anderson, a girl of seventeen, a beggar, James Lindsay, of fourteen, and gley'd Thomas, his brother, not yet twelve — who for a halfpenny would turn himself widershins and stop a plough at a word — » were found willing and able to confess. Elizabeth Anderson was especially determined that things should not be lost for the want of finding. She said that about twenty days ago her father had told her to go with him to Bargarran's yard, somewhere alx)ut noon, where they met a black man with a bonnet ou his head, and a band round his neck, whom her father and Agnes Naismith, then present, told her was the devil : that certain people, named, were also in their company ; that their discourse was all of Christian Shaw, then lying sick, " whose Life they all promised to take away by the stopping of her Breath ;" that they THE RENFREWSHIRE WITCHES. 165 all danced in the yard ; that her father " Discharged her to tell anything she saw, or she would be Tom in Pieces: and that she was more Aflfraied of the forsaid persons than she was of the Devil." This con- fession was made on the 5th of February, 1697. A few days later her imagination was more Kvely. About seven years ago, she said, as she was playing round the door of her grandmother, Jean Fulton's, house, she saw " ane black grim man " go into the house to her grandmother, where he abode for a while talking. Jean bade her take the gentleman by the hand, and he would give her *^ ane Bony Black, new Coat ; which accordingly she did." But his hand was cold and she was afeard : and then he vanished away. The same thing happened once again, when the black gentleman and her grand- mother fell Srtalking together by " rounding in other's ears," but the girl understood not what they said. This time she would not touch his hand for all his promises of bran new clothes ; so " the gentleman went away in a flight," and she saw him no more for long after. The next time was when her father " desired her to go with him through the Country and seek their Meat ; to which she replyed she need not seek her Meat, seeing she might have Work :" but her father prevailed, and took her to a moor where above twenty people were assembled; whose names she gives in a formidable muster. Now the devil tempted her anew with meat and clothes, but she would not consent; so he and her father stepped aside and conferred together. Their meeting this day was for the destruction of a certain minister's child, which they were to effect by means of a wax picture and pins. Another time it was for the destruction of another minister s child by the same means, and she heard Margaret Eodger say, " Stay a little, till I stop ane .:lHB» OF SCOTLAND. .-k . . .t :" wbjch accordingly she did. .vr i«**.>k her on his back over the .. «. .a a I: li^zut, saying Mount and Fly. .. Li. a ortfw when they drowned Brig- .. :^ ..^ K^iit* and when they strangled a .v^ . ^iter whieh they all danced with . . . .ac«L Coat» ane Blew Bonnet, ane • .V , .uvt^ the pipes for them, and gave ^v .1 an unchristened bairn's liver to • >^v>aid never confess if apprehended. .i.^kaxjox^ toc^fonl to be repeated. ;^« lebruary 18th, James Lindsay, the >Kj . ruiixersy confessed. Jean Fulton was > i- iiAK cind he said that one day, when .. -ae took his little round hat and plack M'ljuv; loath to part with the same, he ran ...^ .or them: which she revising, he called XV ilea, and ran away. Whereupon she liiL Eight days after this, as he waa u^ii the country near Inchannan where iiL I her again ; and this time she had with ack grim man with black deaths, ane . i»Iew Band," who offered bis hand, which ...il which he found* cold as it gript him . ./ liiiemau asked if he would serve him ack coat and a black hat, and several . . >:uck he replied ♦^ Yes, FU doV He . me meetings, and saw all the people uugs^ that Elizabeth had spoken of; t^ Montgomerie's bairn with a sea V. >V*iOck at night, while the servant ^ >) the cradle. Young Thomas the VH» 'uufeasiiig to just the same things, V ivic *' uttcrissened bairn," which all THE BENFBEWSHIRE WITCHES. 157 eat save Elizabeth and their two selveB : a slip-by that accounted for their confessioDS^ And now justice had a good handful to begin with, so the work of accu- sation went briskly forward. Bargarran's daughter still continued bringing Out crooked pins and stones and all sorts of unmentionable filth from her mouth, and still went on quarrelling with the devij whom she called an old sow, and holding conversations with the apparitions of her tormentors, still mixed up fraud with epilepsy, and lies and craft and wicked guile with hysteria, till the witch-fires were fairly lighted, and seven of the poor wretches " done to death." Among whom brave Margaret and her beautiful child held the most prominent place. Never for a moment did Mar- garet Lang lose her courage or self-possession. Seeing a farmer whom she knew, among the crowd assembled round the gallows, she called out to him bitterly, " that he would now thrive like a green bay-tree, for there would be no innocent blood shed that day ;" but what she meant for irony the people took for confession. When she was burned, the answer of a spectator to one who asked if the execution was over, showed what feeling they had about her : " There's ane o' the witches in hell, an' the rest 'ill shune follow ! " said he contentedly. Another man, whose stick was taken to push back the legs of the poor wretches as they were thrust out of the flames, when it was returned to him,, flung it into the flames, saying, V I'U tak nae stick hame wi' me to my hous that has touched a witch." When all was over and the sacrifice was complete, Bargarran's daughter declared herself satisfied and cured ; no more " bumbees " came to pinch her — no more charms of balls of hair or waxen eggs were laid beneath her bed — ^no more apparitioxis thronged to vex .£ VITCHES OF SCOTLAND. . . I*;, s^e nts or toasmgSy foamings or strange ^^ -^ - : ' Id : the deTil left off tempting her • ....^^ .1 a tine gentleman for a husland ; the . > • . .irvr allured her by phantom aprons filled . i.;.v ai diiuonds ; the Lord '^helped the poor daft ., »> ?lrs. 31. had prayed, though she was scarce »' .' i't'iiig, and the world was oppressed with > :io uiore. But the blood of the murdered .« V _.L .i\ ivd on the ground, and cried aloud to v». a '»r \euii:eanee against the murderers. The i.-v . i uirgarrau's daughter has been always accepted N .e <i :ue uiobt puzzling on record; but when may :» . luvalviud Ih? puzzled if they have but sufficient cre- . ;..iN . S^ibtract from this account the possible and to . 1 1 Uiiu- liie (H)tssible frauds and the certain lies — ...V. wiuit is lelt? A diseased girl, hysterical and epi- .*^.cio« tuU ut hallucinations and pretended fancies, with i .iitaiu quickness of hand which the tremendous .illibility of her auditory rendered yet more facile — ...^. iu^>uIous^ mendacious; the only thing surprising I lu' whole matter was that there was not one man N.,..u'ioia ovkUuoss of judgment, or quickness of per- V ^ , V u 'o SCO through the imposture and set his grip I t V u t [h^s^hL Dickie and Mitchell, who a few > N 'viv V >t>iit\l the house where all this took place, •w ' t xiic v»r hole in the wooden partition between . *\v vv ui :iud the room next it; a slit, evidently \ ^ . i^^^ \>» i^^ ^^^ * natural defect in the wood, ■ . . uwl uiut when the bed was made up (the bed .\ .\;. \ w; <.>ak yet stands or stood there) it could V .\ a l>\ any one in the room. This little . . . lo ^pcuk volumes, and to help materially .sMusiuug the questions of fraud and con- iw icius^te sequel is the only consoling fei^ MISCELLANEOUS, 159 ture in the case. From being the most notorious impostor and the most cruel, false, and deadly per- secutor of her time, Bargarran's daughter, as Mrs. Miller, became one of the best and most famous spin- ners of fine and delicate thread. She caused certain machinery to be brought from Holland, and wrought at her spinning wheel with all the intelligence and zeal that, earlier, had been so miserably employed to the ruin and destruction of her fellow-creatures. It is to be hoped that the coolness and reflection of maturity gave her grace to repent of the sins of her girlhood, and that after-penitence wiped out the terrible stains of youthful lying and murder. MISCELLANEOUS. That same year also Sir John Maxwell, of PoUok, and some other gentlemen, were commissioned to try two poor women, Mary Millar and Elspeth M*Ewen, and if guilty adjudge them to death ; which they were found to be, and adjudged accordingly; and a few months after, Margaret Laird — still in Renfrewshire — was reputed to have been " under ane extraordinary and most lamentable trouble, falling into strange and horrible fits, judged by all who have seen her to be preternatural, arising from the devil and his instru- ments." The suspected witches who were accused of troubling her, were seized and put upon their trial. So was Mary Morrison, spouse of Francis Duncan ; but her husband petitioned so earnestly for her release for sake of her " numerous poor family " starving in neglect at home, and there being no kind of proof agaix^ her, she was at length released and set at IflO THE WITCHES OF SCOTLAND. liberty. ** The Loid-Adyocate soon after reported to the Privy Cooncil a letter he had received from the Sheriff of Benfrewshire, stating that ^ the persons im- prisoned in that connty as witches are in a starving condition, and that those who informed against them are passing from them» and the sheriff says he vfill send them in prisoners to Edinbm^h Tolbooth, unless they be qniekly tried' His lordship was recommended to ask the sheriff to sopport the prisoners till November next, when they would probably be tried, and the charges would be disbursed by the treasury. A distinct allowance of a groat a day was ordered on the 12th of January, 1699> for each of the Renfrewshire witches."* In July of the same year, Eo8s-«hire contributed a famous quota. Twelve luckless creatures were reported at once as being guilty of the " diabolical crimes and charms of witohcrait,** and by the 2nd of January, 1700, two of them had confessed, and were sentenced to such arbitrary pxmishment as the committee might think proper, '* This is the first appearance of an inclination in tiie central authorities to take mild views of witch- crafty*' says Chambers ; but we have not seen the last of capital pimishments, for on the 20th oi November, 1702, Margaret Myles was hanged at Edinburgh. That she was a witch was proved not only by her own con- fession, but by her inability to say the Lord's Prayer, even when the minister, Mr. George Andrews, tried to teaoh her. When he desired her to pray " her heart was so obdured that she answered she could not ; for, as she confessed, she was in covenant with the devil, who had made her renounce her baptism." He then wished her to say the Lord's Prayer after him, and she began, but she would say nothing but ^^ Our Father <> ChambeiB. THE STIEK'S FOOT. 161 which wart in heaven," and could not by any means be got to say the right word. He then reproached her> saying, '* How could she bid him pray for her, since she could not pray for herself?" and, singing two verses of the 51st Psahn, he made her show a little penitence. Then he essayed her again, trying to make her repeat after him, " I renounce the devil," but she would only say, " I unce the devil;" "for by no means would she say distinctly that she renounced the devil, and a&ered unto her baptism, but that she unced the devil, and hered unto her baptism. The only sign of repentance she gave was after the nt^pkin had covered her face, for then she said, ^ Lord, take me out of the devil's hands, and put me in GodV " The next year, " The Eigwoodie Witch," lean Marion Lillie of Spott, was had before the Kirk Session to account for her dealings in the village. She was a passionate-tongued old dame, who had handled roughly one of her neighbours while in the condition that looked forward to Mrs. Gamp and the caudle-cup ; 80 roughly, indeed, that Mrs. Gamp and the caudle-cup were forestalled, and the poor woman was brought to an unpleasant pass ; so the Kigwoodie witch got some- thing not so pleasant as a month's nursing, and was put out of the way of handling pregnant women roughly for the future. THE STIRK'S FOOT.* Jean Neilson lived in Torrybum, a village in the west of Fife, and she and Lillias Adie, a woman of more than equivocal reputation, were not on the best o£ * Chambers. 162 THE WITCHES OF SCOTLAND, terms. Jean Neilson was but a poor sickly body, full of fancies and uncatalogned aibnents ; and because she had no scientific name to give them, she gave Lillias the credit of having created them by her magic. She swore that she was bewitched, and that old Lillias was the bewitcher. Upon which the ministers and elders of the kirk in Torrybum met in solemn conclave on the 29th of July, and called Lillias before them to give an account of her bad practices. Lillias had no mind that they should lose their trouble. She confessed herself a witch without fiirther ado ; said how that she had met the devil by the side of a " stock " in the harvest field, where she had renounced her baptism and accepted him on the instant as her lord and lover ; how he had embraced her, when she found his skin cold, and saw his feet cloven like a '^ stirk's." Since then she had joined in dances with him and others whom she named ; for LiUias, like all the rest, seemed to think there was safety in a multitude, and delated several of the parish, to bear her company in her uncom- fortable position; and she told how, at the back of Patrick Sands' house in Vellyfield, they were lighted by a mysterious light, just sufficient to let them see each olher s faces, and to show the devil with a cap covering his ears and neck. The minister and elders had now rich game in view, and they held meeting after meeting to examine those whom Lillias accused, and feed their ears with all the wild and monstrous tales they chose to pour into them. But what became of them eventually no one now knows : only of a surety Lillias Adie was burned " within the sea mark," and Jean Neil- son might now bear her imcatalogued ailments in peace. The minister of Torryburn at that time was one AUen Logan — ^the Reverend Allen Logan — ^notorious for his THE HORRIBLE MURDER OF JANET CORNFOOT. 16a skill in detecting witches, and his zeal in hunting them down. When administering the oomtnunion he would flash his eye through the congregation and say harshly, as by knowledge, " You witch-wife, get up from the table of the Lord," casting a ball for the conscience- stricken to kick at ; when, ten to one, some poor old trembling wretch would totter up, and so go mumbling through the doors, " thus exposing herself to the hazard of a regular accusation afterwards." He was always "dinging" i^ainst withcraft; and one day a woman called Helen Kay took up her stool and went out of the church. She said she thought he was " daft " " to be always dinging against witches thae' gait ;" but the elders thought diflferently, and Helen Kay was con- Ticted of profanity, and ordained to sit before the con- gregation and be openly rebuked. THE HORRIBLE MURDER OF JANET CORNFOOT.* While Lillias Adie was being burned in the west of Fife, Beatrix Laing, at Httenweem in the east, was put to sore trouble. Patrick Morton, a youth of sixteen ** free from any known vice," sent up a petition to the Privy Council (June 13, 1704), stating, fiiat being em- ployed by his father to make some nails for a ship lying oS Pittenweem, Beatrix Laing, spouse to William Brown, tailor, and late treasurer of the burgh, came and demanded some nails. He " modestly " refused her, saying that he was engaged in another job, and could not therefore work for her ; whereupon she went away, ** threatening to be revenged, which did somewhat frighten him, because he knew she was under a bad * Chambers ; Sinclair ; and an anonymous tract. 164 THE WITCHES OF SCOTLAND. fame and reputed for a witch." The next day, on passing Beatrix's door, " he observed a timber vessel with some water and fire coal in it at the door, which made him apprehend that it was a charm laid for him, and the effect of her threatening ; and inmiediately he was seized with such a weakness in his limbs that he could hardly stand or walk." For many weeks this strange kind of lingering disease and discomfort went on, he " still growing worse, having no appetite, and his body strangely emaciated," all because of Beatrix having " slockened " fire coals in a vessel as a malevo- lent charm for him ; till about May the disease ripened,, and the symptoms of hysteria and epilepsy presented themselves. He swelled prodigiously; his breathing was like the blowing of a pair of bellows ; his body was rigid and inflexible; his tongue was drawn into his mouth ; and he cried out vehemently against Beatrix Laing and others — ^for these accusations never came alone ; professing to know his tormentors by their touch if brought to him, although his eyes were blinded, and the bystanders held their peace. In short, he played the same antics here in the east as Bargarran's daugh- ter had played in the west. Beatrix and the rest were flung into prison, and every effort was made to induce them to confess. Beatrix was pricked, and kept with- out sleep for five days and nights ; but she held out manfully. She would not consent to accept the modest youth's interpretation of his illness, and denied strongly all hand in it, and all trafficking with witch charms or unholy arts. At last she was conquered. Sleepless- ness and torture did their appointed work, and she made a rambling statement of baptismal renunciation, and the like, delating Janet Comfort and others, which confession she recanted as soon as she had got a little THE HORRDBLE MURDER OF JANET CORNFOOT. 165 strength; and specially that part where she had spoken of her fine packs of wool which she had sold so well at the market, coming home afterwards on a big black horse, which she gave into her husband's hands. Her husband, she had said, was embarrasised with this big black horse, and asked what he should do with it? to which she had answered, ^' Cast his bridle on his neck and you wiU be quit of him." So the horse flew off overhead with a great noise, and Beatrix Laing's startled husband for the first time understood its real character. In revenge at her obduracy the ma^trates " put her in the stocks, and then carried her to the Thieves' JEole, and from that transported her to a dark dungeon, where she was allowed no manner of light, or human ^converse ; and in this condition she lay for five months." All this while the magistrates of the burgh were pressing on the Privy Council the absolute need of trying her ; but the Earl of Balcarres and Lord Anstru* ther, two members of the council connected with the district, interposed their influence, and got the poor creature set at liberty ; — " brought her off as a dreamer," says the anonymous pamphlet angrily. But she was forced to turn her face from Pittenweem, and " wandered about in strange places, in the extremity of hunger and cold, though she had a competency at home, but dared not come near her own house," for fear of the fury and rage of the people: dying at last " undesired " in her bed at St. Andrews. Beatrix was wandering about in strange places, safe if sorrowful, but Alexander Macgregor clinched her muttered charge against Janet Comfoot by accusing her of perpetually haunting him — she and two other witches, and his Cloutieship along wilh them. They 166 THE WITCHES OP SCOTLAND. tonnented him chiefly in the night time, while he was sleeping in his bed. Janet, nnder torture con- fessed ; but retracted immediately after, saying that the minister himseK had beaten her with his staff to make her speak out : and there being considerable doubt of her gmlt in the minds of the gentry of the district, even of the chastising minister himself, she was allowed to escape, by connivance. But another minister of the neighbourhood, with more zeal than humanity and more grace than knowledge, stopped her in her flight, and sent her back to Pittenweem. There the mob got hold of her. They had been fearfuUy excited by Beatrix Laing's acquittal and Janet's escape, and they were not disposed to let this unexpected glut to their vengeance go. They seized poor Janet Comfoot, tied her up hard in a rope, beat her unmercifully, then dragged her by the heels through the streets and along the shore. " The appearance of a bailie for a brief space dispersed the crowd, but only to show how easily the authorities might have protected their victim if they had chosen.** Resuming their horrible work, the rabble tied Janet to a rope stretching between a vessel in the harbour and the shore, swinging her to and fro, and amusing them- selves by pelting her with stones. Tiring at length of this sport, they let her down with a sharp fall upon the hmch, beat her again unmercifully, and finally covering her with a door, pressed her to death (Jan. 30, 1705). Janet's daughter was in the town, and knew what ,.,-r4 taking place down by that blood-stained shore, but mIm^ dared not interfere ; and during all the time this |*(it*?ou« murder was going on — lasting for nearly three UmU'H — neither magistrate nor minister came forward fa I protect or interpose. Are verily and in truth " the lHiWiiv» that be ordained of Grod," or has not the devil \ THE SPELL OF THE SLAP. 167 sometinies somellimg to do with tke laying on of hands? — ^so much of the devil, at least, as is represented by ignorance, inhumanity, superstition, and cowardice, always conspicuous qualities of the more zealous of every denomination. About this time,* Thomas Brown, another of the ac- cused, died of " hunger arid hardship " in prison ; and at the close of the year, two Inverness men, George and Lachlan Eattray, were executed, being found " guilty of the horrid crimes of mischievous charms, by witchcraft and maleflce, sorcery or necromancy." And many witches were also burnt on the top of Spott Loan. THE SPELL OF THE SLAP.f In 1708, William Stensgar, of Southside, in Orkney, had rheumatism. He sent to an old beggar-woman, called Catherine Taylor — a cripple herself, but none the less qualified to heal others by her magic arts. She came to him about an hour before sunrise and took the case in hand, bidding him follow her till they came to a certain kind of gate or stile, called a slap or grind ; William's wife accompanying them with a stoup of water. At this slap Catherine touched his knee, saying, " As I was going by the way I met the Lord Jesus Christ in the likeness of another man ; he asked me what tidings I had to tell ? I said I had no tidings to tell, but I am full of pain, and can neither gang nor stand. Thou shalt go to the holy kirk, and thou shalt gang round about, and then sit down upon thy knees, and say thy prayers to the Lord, and then thou shalt be as heal as the hour when Christ was bom." After * Chambers. f Hibbert 168 THE WITCHES OP SCOTLAND. this precious chaiin^ which the old cripple said had been taught her when a child, she repeated the 23rd Psalm ; and then the evil spirit which had caused the rheumatism was assumed to be '' tolled out ^ into the stoup of water ; at all events William Stensgar would have no more of it. Then the water was emptied out over the slap or gate so that the next person passing by the stile might get it instead of William. One man who had watched this devilry from the beginning, evaded the foul fiend by pushing his way through the hedge higher up ; but another unfortunate wretch, not so lucky or not so early a riser, coming blundering over the stile as usual, got laid hold of by the fiend which William Stensgar had shaken off, and was holden by it hardly. THE PLAGUE OF CATS.* Tear by year witches became scarcer, none of any special note presenting themselves till we come to the case of Margaret Nin-Gilbert, of Caithness, which hap- pened in the year 1718; the same year as that in which the minister of Eedcastle lost his life by witch- craft, and Mr. M'Gill's house at Kinross (he was minister there) was so egregiously troubled by a spirit which nipped the sheets and stuck pins into eggs and meat, and dipt away the laps of a gentlewoman's hood and a servant maid's gown tail, and flung stones down the chimney, which "wambled a space" on the floor, and then took a flight out of the window, and threw the minister's bible into the fire, and spoilt the baking, and played all sorts of mad pranks to disquiet the family and defy God. If such things as these could be done * Law's ! Memorials ;' and Chamben. , THE PLAGUE OF CATa 169 in the light of the snn, why, should not Margaret Nin- Gilbert have Bupematural power ? Nin-Gilbert had a friend, one Margaret Olson, a woman of it is said wicked behaviour, whom Mr. Frazer put out of her house, taking as his tenant instead one William Montgomerie. Upon this Margaret Olson went to her friend Nin-Gil- bert, the notorious witch, and besought her to harm Mr. Frazer ; but Mr. Frazer being a gentleman of rank and fortune was defended from the witches, and Nin- Gilbert- confessed she had no power or inclination to hurt him. However, one night as he was crossing a bridge, they attempted him, but succeeded not; and he, on being questioned, said he perfectly remembered '* his horse making a great adoe at that place, but that by the Lord's goodness he escaped." Also he had a great sickness at the time these women were taken, but he had common sense enough to refuse to ascribe it to them. Finding that they could not prevail against Mr. Frazer, they turned their attention to Mont- gomerie, " mason^ in Bumside of Scrabster," who was also under the ban for having accepted the tenancy of which Margaret Olson had been dispossessed. Suddenly his house became so infested with cats that it was no longer safe for his family to remain there. He himself was away, but his wife sent to him five times, threatening that if he did not return home to protect them, she would flit to Thurso; and his servant left them suddenly, and in mid term, because five of these cats came one night to the fireside where she was alone, and began speaking among them- selves with human and intelligible voices. So William Montgomerie, mason at Scrabster, returned home to do battle with the enemy. The cats, came in their old way and in their old numbers ; and William prepared his 170 THE WITCHES OP SCOTLAND. best. On Friday night, the 28th of November, one of the cats got into a chest with a hole in it, and when she put her head out of the hole, WilKam made a lunge at her with his sword, which *' cutt hir," but for aU that he could not hold her. He then opened the chest, and his servant, William Geddes, stuck his dirk into her hind quarters and pinned her to the chest. After which, Montgomerie beat her with his sword and casi her out for dead ; but the next morning she was gone J so there was no doubt as to her true character. Four or five nights after this, his servant, being in bed, " cryed out that Some of these catts had come in on him." Montgomerie ran to his aid, wrapt his plaid about the cat and thrust his dirk through her body, then smashed her head with the back of an axe, and cast her out like the first. The next morning she too was gone, and there was proof positive for another case. So as none of these cats belonged to the neighbourhood, and there were eight of them assembled together in one night, " this looking like witchcraft, it being threatened that none should thrive in my said house," William Montgomerie made petition to the Sherrif-Deput of Caithness, to visit "some person of bad fame," who was reported to have fallen sick immediately on this encounter, and search out if she had any wounds on her body or not. "This representation seeming all the time to be very incredulous and fabulous, the sheriff had no manner of regard yrto." But when, on the 12th of February, Margaret Nin-Gilbert was seen by one of her neighbours " to drop at her own door one of her leggs from the midle, and she, being under bad fame for witchcraft, the legg, black and putrified, was brought before the Sheriff-depute " (not the sheriff himself, the Earl of Caithness, who might have had a little more \ THE PLAGUE OF CATS. 171 common sense) — ^then tbe said Sheriff-depute ordered Nin-Gilbert to be seized and examined. Margaret made short work of it. Being interrogated the 8th of February, 1719, she confessed that she was under compact with the deyil, whom she had met in the likeness of a black man as she was trayelling some long time byegone in ane eyening ; confessed also that he sometimes appeared to her as a great black horse, and other times as if riding on a black horse, and some- times as a black cloud, and sometimes as a black hen. C!onfessed also that she was at WiUiam Montgomerie's house that eyening, when he attacked her as a cat, and that he broke her leg with the dirk or axe, which since had fallen off from the rest of her body : also, that Margaret Olson was there with her, who, being stronger than she did cast her on the dirk when her leg was broken. She then delated four other women, one of whom, Helen Andrew, had been so crushed and maimed by Montgomerie, ''that she dyed that same night of her wounds or few days yrafter:" and another, M'Huistan, ''cast herself a few days afterwards &om the rocks of Borrowstoun into the sea, since which time she was never seen ; while a third, Jannet Pyper, she identified as having a red petticoat on her. Asked how they managed not to be discovered said, the devil raised a fog or mist to conceal them." When her con- fession was ended, her accomplices were apprehended ; but she herself died in prison in a fortnight's time. Mar- garet Olson was then examined. She was " tryed in the shoulders " (for witches' marks), " where tiiere were several small spots, some read, some blewish ; after a needle was driven in with great force almost to the eye she felt it not. Mr. Innes, Mr. Oswald, minister, and several honest women, and Bailzie Forbes, were wit- l72 THE WITCHES OP SOOTLAM). nesses to this. And further, that while the needle was in her shoulder, as aforesaid, she said, ^ Am not I ana honest woman now T " So this instance of human wicked- ness and folly ended by the usual method of the cord and the stake. THE YOUNG HONOURABLE'S DECEITS. January, 1720, saw distress and confusion at Calder in Mid Lothian. Lord Torphichen's third son, the Ho- nourable Patrick Sandilands, was bewitched, and the whole country was in excitement. If the devil could touch a Lord's son, who was safe? There was no doubt of the fact, let who would deny it. Lord Tor- phichen's son though he was, the Honourable Patrick Sandilands was worse holden than the meanest hind on the estate. He was buffeted about the room; flung down in trances, from which no horsewhippings — and it is to be hoped he had plenty of them, and well laid on — could revive him ; he pronounced prophecies ; was lifted up in the air ; taken off long journeys between the space of two flashes of light ; had the gift of clair- voyance ; and put out all the candles by his very pre- sence — his powers depending, as such powers generally do, on darkness and confusion for their perfect develop- ment. Lord Torphichen soon left off the use of the horse- whip, and he and all the family came to the conclusion that the Honourable Patrick was bewitched. So they got hold of the witch, a brutish, ignorant, half-witted woman living in the village of Calder, and put her in prison, waiting her confession. As for that, it was not diflBcult to get at. Yes, she was a witch ; had been a witch for many years ; had once given the devil her own dead child to make a roast of; had made an image of THE LAST OF THE WITCHES; 173: the young laird ; and had three associates, two women and a man. Mad William Mitchell, the Tinklarian Doctor,* as he was called, went on foot in ill weather without food from the West Bow to Lord Torphichen's honse at CtJder, to see what he could do towards discover-r ing the devil in the witches. This was on the 14th of January — ^ihe day of the solemn fast, which was all the help that the awakening reason of the times would allow the Honourable Patrick Sandilands. True, the witch and her confederates were in prison, but there was no gaUows planted, and no fire set : only the ministers, and elders, and saints, and people, conyened in solemn and sacred prayer, to beseech God to drive out the devil from a lying, mischievous, hysterical lad. But crazy William Mitchell took very little by this move. Lord Torphichen not favouring his pretensions to special and private illumination. The sermon was preached in the Calder Kirk by the Eev. Mr. John Wilkie, minister of TJphall, the sorcerers being present, and was found so powerful that the devil was fairly exorcised, and the boy soon after wholly recovered. In time he went to sea, rose to the command of an East Indiaman, but perished in a storm, leaving a meritorious name singu- larly stained with boyish sins. " It brings us strangely . near to this wild-looking affair," says Chambers, " that the present Lord Torphichen (1860) is only nephew to the witch-boy of Calder." THE LAST OF THE WITCHES. And now we draw near to the close of this fatal super- stition. In 1726, Woodrow notes "some pretty odd * A ciBZjT old lUmmn&tus, who had a ** caU/* and wrote the Tinkler's Testament. 174 THE WITCHES OF SCOTLAND. accomits of witches," had from a couple of Eossnahire men, but fails to give us very accurate details, save only that one of them at her death ^^ confessed that they had, by sorcery, taken away the sight of one of the eyes of an Episcopal minister, who lost the sight of his eye upon a sudden, and could give no reason for it." And early in the year of 1727* the last witch-fire was kindled with which the air of bonnie Scotland was polluted. Two poor Highland women, a mother and daughter, were brought before Captain David Eoss of Littledean, deputy-sheriff of Sutherland, charged with witchcraft and consorting with the deviL The mother was accused of having used her daughter as her ''horse and hattock," causing her to be shod by the devil, so that she was ever after lame in both hands and feet ; and the fact being satisfactorily proved, and Captain David Eoss being well assured of tiie same, the poor old woman was put into a tar-barrel and burned at Dornoch in the bright month of June. " And it is said that after being brought out to execution, the weather proving very severe, she sat composedly warming herself by the fire prepared to consume her, while the other instruments of death were getting ready." The daughter escaped: afterwards she married and had a son who was as lame as herself; and lame in the same manner too ; though it does not seem that he was ever shod by the devil and witch- ridden. "And this son," says Sir Walter Scott, in 1830, "was living so lately as to receive the charity uf the present Marchioness of Stafford, Countess of Sutherland in her own right" This, then, is the last execution for witchcraft in Scotland ; and in June, 1736, the Acts Anentis Witch- craft were formally repealed. Henceforth, to the dread * Scott Dickie. Chambers, &c. THE LAST OF THE WITCHES. 175 of the timid, and the anger of the pious, the English Parliament distinctly opposed the express letter of the Law of God, " Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live ;" and declared the text upon which so much critical absurdity had been talked, and in support of which so much innocent blood had been shed, vain, superstitious, impossible, and contrary to that human reason which is the highest law of God hitherto revealed unto men. But if Parliament could stay executions it could not remove beliefs, nor give rationality in place of folly. Not more than sixty years ago an old woman named Elizabeth M*Whirter* was *' scratched" by one Eagles- ham, in the parish of Golmonel, Ayrshire, because his son had fallen sick, and the neighbours said he was bewitched. Poor old Bessie M*Whirter was forced over the hills to the young man's house, a distance of three miles, and there made to kneel by his bedside and repeat the Lord's Prayer. When she had finished, the youth's father took a rusty nail and scratched the poor old creature's brow in the form of a cross ; scratched it so effectually that it was many weeks in healing, and the scar remained to the last day of her hfe. If Elizar beth M'Whirter had lived a generation earlier, she might have run a race with death and a tar barrel, and been defeated at the end, like the poor old wretch at Dornoch. But stni the old faith lingers in those beautiful vales, and hides in the fastnesses of the mountain glens ; still brownies haunt the ruined places, and witches send forth blight and bale at their will ; still the elfin people ride on the whirlwind and dance in the moonlight ; and the hill and the flood and the brae and the streamlet have their attendant spirits vehich vie with the church- * Dickie's * Philosophy of Magio/ I7B THE WITCHES OF SCOTLAmr. yard ghost in impotent malevolence to men. And the gift of second sight, though dying oat because of these d^enerate times of utilitarianism and power-loom weaving, is yet to be found where the old blood runs thickest, and the old ideas are least disturbed ; and still the whole nation clings with spasmodic force to its gloomy creed of the Predestined and the Electa and holds by the early faith from whose narrow bounds others have emerged into a brighter and a wider path. No more witch*fires are now lighted on the Castle Hill; no more grave and reverend divines give themselves up, like Mr. John Aird, to discovering the devil's mark stamped visibly on human flesh ; yet the heart of the people has not abandoned its ancient Grod, and though the altars may be dressed with Ihe flowers of another season, and tiie name upon the plinth be carved in other characters, yet is the indwelling idol the same. The God which Cajvinistic Scotland yet warships is the same God as that to which the witches and wizards of old were sacrificed ; he is the God of Superstition, the Gk)d of Condemnation, in whose temple Nature has no place, and Humanity no rights. 177 ^t Wi%s 0f (gnglanJr. "Every old woman witb a wrinkled face, a furr'd brow, a hairy lip, a gobber tooth, a squint eye, a squeaking voice, or a scolding tongue, having a ragged coate on her back, a skull-cap on her head, a spindle in her hand, and a Dog or Cat by her side, is hot only suspected but pronounced for a witch," says John Gaule ;* while Eeginald Scott puts forth as his experi- ence : — " One sort of such as are said to be witches, are women which be commonly old, lame, blear-eyed, pale, fowle, and full of wrinckles ; poor, suUen, super- stitious, and Papists ; or such as know no religion ; in whose drousie minds the devill hath gotten a fine seat; so as, what mischief, mischance, calamity or slaughter is brought to passe, they are easily per- swaded the same is done by themselves ; imprinting in their minds an earnest and constant imagination thereof. They are leane and deformed, showing melancholy in their &ces, to the horror of all that see them. They are doting, scolds, mad, devilish ; and not much differ- ing &om them that are thought to be possessed with spirits, so firm and steadfast in their opinions, as whoso- ever shall only have respect to the constancy of their words uttered, would easily believe they were true ^ * Select Cafies of Conscience.' f ' I^iBCoyerie of Witchcraft.' N 178 THE WITCHB8 OP ENGLAND. indeed." Dr. Harsnet, in his " Declaration of Popish Impostures," gives the subject a masterly touch of common sense and satire : — ^' These things," saith he, '' are raked together out of old doating Heathen His- triographers, Wizzardizing Augurs, Lnposturizing Soothsayers, Dreaming Poets, Chimerical Conceiters, and Coiners of Fables, &c. Out of these is shap'd the true Idea of a Witchy an old weather-beaten Crone, having her Chin and Knees meeting for Age, walking hke a Bow leaning on a Staff, HoUow-Ey'd, Untooth'd, Furrow'd on her Face, having her Lips trembling with the Palsy, going mumbling in the Streets : One that hath forgotten her Pater Noster, and yet hath a shrewd Tongue to call a Drab a Drab. If ^e hath leam'd of an old Wife in a Chimney End Pax, Max, Fax, for a Spell ; or can say Sir John Grantham's Curse for the Miller's Eels, All ye that have stolen the Miller's JBels, laudato Dominum de Coelis: And all they that have consented thereto, Benedicamus Domino: Why then beware, look about you, my Neighbours. If any of you have a Sheep sick of the Giddies, or a Stag of the Mumps, or a Horse of the Staggers, or a Knavish Boy of the School, or an idle Girl of the Wheel, or a young Drab of the SuUens, and hath not Fat enough for her Porrage, or Butter enough for her Bread, and she hath a little Help of the Epilepsy or Cramp, to teach her to roll her Eyes, wry her Mouth, gnash her Teeth, startle with her Body, hold her Arms and Hands stiff, &c. And then with an old Mother Nobs hath by Chance call'd her Idle young Housewife, or bid the Devil scratch her ; then no doubt but Mother Nobs is the Witch, and the young Girl is Owl-blasted, &c." Then he goes on to say, with more force and right judgment than one could have expected from one of bis genera- THE WITCHES OF ENGLAND. 179 tion : — " They that have their BraiBs baited, and their Fancies distempered with the Imaginations, and Appre- hensions of Witches, Conjurers, and Fairies, and all that Lymphatical Chimeera, I find to be marshall'd in one of these five Banks: Children, Fools, Women, Cowards, sick or black melancholick discompos'd Wits." These then are the sentiments of three somewhat wise and sane men, who lived in a time of universal madness, and gave their minds to the task of stemming the raging torrent For the whole world was overrun with witches. From every town came crowds of these lost and damned souls; from every hovel peered out the cursing witch, or cried aloud for help the stricken victims. These poor and old and wretched beings, upon whose heads lighted the wrath of a world, and against whom every idle lad had a curse and a stone to fling at his will, were held capable of all but omnipo- tence. They could destroy the babe in the womb and make the "mother of many children childless among women ;" they could kill with a look and disable with a curse; bring storms or sunshine as they listed; by their " witch-ropes," artfully woven, draw to themselves all the profit of their neighbours' bams and breweries ; yet ever remained poor and miserable, glad to beg a mouthful of meat, or a can of sour milk from the hands of those whom they could ruin by half a dozen mut- tered words ; they could take on themselves what shapes they would, and transport themselves whither they would : no bolt or bar kept them out, no distance by land or sea was too great for them to accomplish ; a straw — a broomstick — ^the serviceable imp ever at hand — ^was enough for them ; and with a pot of magic oint- ment, and a charm of spoken gibberish, they might visit the king on his throne, or the lady in her bower, 180 THE WITCHES OP ENGLAND. to do what ill was in their hearts against them, or to gather to themselves what gain and store they would. Yet with all this power the superstitious world of the time saw nothing doubtful or illogical in the fact of their exceeding poverty, and never stayed to think that if they could transport themselves through the air to any distance they chose, they would be but slippery holding in prison, and not very likely to remain there for the pleasure of being tortured and burnt at the end. But neither reason nor logic had anything to do with the matter. The whole thing rested on fear, and that practical atheism of fear, which denies the power of God and the wholesome beauty of Nature, to exalt in their stead the supremacy of the Devil. This belief in the Devil's material presence and power over men was the dark chain that bound them all. Even the boldest opponent of the Witchcraft Delusion dared not fling it off ; not the bravest man or freest thinker could shake his mind clear of this terrible trammel, this bugbear, this mere phantasm of human fear and ignorance, this ghastly lie and morbid delusion, or abandon the slavish worship of Satan for the glad freedom of God and Nature. It was much when such men as Scot>* and Giffardjt and Gaule of Staughton,J Sir Eobert Filmer,§ Ady,|| Wagstaffe,^ Webster,** Hutchinson,tt and half a dozen more shining lights could bring them- ♦ • Discoverie of Witchcraft,' 1584. t * Dialogue concerning Witches/ 1603. X * Select Cases of Conscience touching Witches and Witchcraft/ 1646. § ' Advertisement to the Jurymen of England,' 1653. II • A Candle in the Dark/ 1656. IT * Question of Witchcraft debated,* 1669. '* Wagstaffe was a little crooked man, of a despicable presence. He was laughed at by tiiie boys of Oxford because they said he himself looked like a wizard." •♦ 'Displaying of Witchcraft,' 1677. tt ' Historical Essay concerning Witchcraft,' 1720. THE WITCHES OF ENGLAND. 181 selves to deny the supernatural power of a few half- crazed old beggar-women, and plead for humanity and mercy towards them, instead of cruelty and condemnar tion; but not one dare take the wider step beyond, and deny the existence of that phantom fiend, belief in whom wrought all this misery and despair. Even the very best of the time gave in to this delusion, and dis- cussed gravely the properties and proportions of what we know now were mere lies. **We find the illustrious author of the * Novum Organum' sacrificing to courtly suppleness his philo- sophic truth, and gravely prescribing the ingredients for a witch's ointment ; — Selden maintaining that crimes of the imagination may be punished with death ; — ^The detector of Vulgar Errors, and the most humane of physicians giving the casting vote to the vacillating bigotry of Sir Matthew Hale ; — Hobbes, ever sceptical, penetrating, and sagacious, yet here paralyzed and shrinking from the subject, as if afraid to touch it ; — The adventurous explorer, who sounded the depths and channels of the * Intellectual System' along aU the * wide- watered' shores of antiquity, running after witches to hear them recite the Common Prayer and the Greed, as a rational test of guUt or innocence ; — The gentle spirit of Dr. Henry More, girding on the armour of per- secution, and rousing itself &om a Platonic reverie on the Divine Life to assume the hood and cloak of a familiar of the Inquisition ; — and the patient and in- quiring 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."* In the Church and amongst the * Introduction to Potts^s * Difloovery of Witches,* edited by James Oroflsley, Esq. Ohetham Society. 1815. 182 THE WITCHES OT BNaLAND. more notoriously ** religions " men of the time it was: worsa In Archbishop Cranmer's * Articles of Yiata^ tion' (1549) is this clause: — ''You shall enquire whether you know of any that use Charms, Sorcery, Enchantments, Soothsaying, or any like Craft invented by the Deyil;" and Bishop Jewel, preaching before Queen Elizabeth (1558), informed her how that ** witches and sorcerers within these last few years are mar- vellously increased in your Grace's realm. Tour Grace's subjects pine away even unto their death, their colour feuleth, their flesh rotteth, their speech is benumbed, their senses are bereft ; I pray Grod they never practise ftirther than upon the subject . . . These eyes have seen most evident and manifest marks of their wickednesa" At the next Parliament the new Bill, against the detestable sin of witchcraft was passed, and Strype says, partly on account of the Lord Bishop's earnest objurgation. Dalton's* * Country Justice ' (1655 ) shows to what a pass, a century later, witchcraft bad. come in credulous England. Truly Scot was right * Conjuration or invocation of any evil spirit waa felony without benefit of clergy ; so also to consult, covenant with, entertain, feed, or reward any evil spiril^ or to take up any dead body for charms or tpells ; to use or practise witchcrafts, enchantment, charm, or sorcery, so that any one was lamed, killed, or pined, was felony without benefit of clergy, to be followed up by burning. Then * The Country Justice ' goes on to give the legal signs of a witch, and those on which a magis- trate might safely act, as legal " discoveries." 8he was to be found and proved by insensible marks ; by teats ; by imps in various shapes, such as toads, mice, flies, spiders, cats, dogs, &c. ; by pictures of ?rax or clay ; by tlie accusations of the afflicted ; by her apparition seen by the afflicted as coming to torment them ; by her own sudden or fre- quent inquiries at the house of the sick ; by common report ; by the aoousations of the dying ; and the bleeding of the corpse at her touch ; by the testimony of children ; by the afflicted vomiting pins, needles, itraw, &c. ; in short, by all the foolery, gravely formularized, to be ft)und in the lies and deceptions hereafter related. THE WITCH OF BBBKELEY. 18« when he said that his greatest adyersaries were '^ yottng ignomnce and old customs." Theyhaye always been the greatest adyersaries of all truth* Of late^ thank Grod^ the march of humanity has been steadily, if slowly^ towards the daylight ; but at present you and I, my reader, haye to do with the most debashig superstition that eyer afflicted history, in the matter of those poor wretched seryants of ^e deyil — ^those witches and wizards, who somehow managed to lose on all sides — ^to suffer in time and be ruined for eternity, and to get oi^y ill'wiU and ill-usage from man and fiend alike. THE WITCH OF BEBKBLEY. One of our earliest English witches^ so early indeed that she becomes mythical and misty and out of all possible proportion, was the celebrated Witch of Berkeley,* who got the reward of her sins in the middle of the ninth century, leaying b^iind her a tremendous lesson, by which, howeyer, after generations did not much profit. The witch had been rich and the witch had been gay, but the moment of reckoning had to come in the morning ; the feast had been noble and well enjoyed, but the terrible account had to be paid when all was oyer; and the poor witch found her ruddy-cheeked apple, now that the rind was off and eaten, filled with nothing but dust and ashes — ^which she must digest as best she may. As the moment of her death approached, she called for the monks and the nuns of the neighbouring monasteries, and sent for her * ThomM Wright's *Kftnaiive of Sorcery ftad Magic' Soutbey's BftUad. 184 THE WITCHES OF ENGLAND. children to hear her coiifession ; and then she told them of the compact she had made, and how the Devil was to come for her body as well as her soul. " But," said she, ^^sew me in the hide of a i|tag, then place me in a stone coffin, and fasten in the covering lead and - iron. Upon this place another stone, and chain the whole down with heavy chains of iron. Let fifty psalms be sung each night, and fifty masses be said by day, to break the power of the demons. K you can thus keep my body for three nights safe, on the fourth day you may bury it — ^the Devil will have sought and not found" The monks and the nuns did as they were desired ; and, on the first night, though the demons kept up a loud howling and wailing outside the church, the priests conquered, and the old witch slept undisturbed. On the second night the demons were more fierce and clamorous, and the monks and the nuns told their beads faster and faster ; but the fiends were getting more powerful as time went on, and at last broke open the gates of the monastery, in spite of prayer and bolt and bar ; and two chains of the co£^ burst asunder, but the middle one held firm. On the third night the fiends raged sore and wild « The monastery was shaken to its foundations, and the monks and the nuns almost forgot their paters and their aves in the uproar that drowned their voices and quailed their hearts; but they still went on, until, with an awful crash, and a yell from all the smaller demons about, a Devil, larger and more terrible than any that had come yet^ stalked into the church and up to the foot of the altar, where the old woman and her coffin lay. Here he stopped, and bade the witch rise and follow him. Kteously she answered that she could not — she was kept down by the chain in the middle : but the EAELT HISTORIC TRIALS. 186 Devil soon settled that difficulty ; for he put his foot to the coffin, and broke the iron chain like a bit of burnt thread. Then off flew the covering of lead and iron, and there lay the witch, pale and horrible to see. Slowly she uprose, blue, dead, stark, as she was ; and then the Devil took her by the hand, and led her to the door where stood a gigantic black horse, whose back was all studded with iron spikes, and whose nostrils, breathing fire, told of his infernal manger below. The Devil vaulted into the saddle, flung the witch on before him, and off and away they rode — the yells of the clamouring demons, and the shrieks of the tortured soul, sounding for hours, far and wide, in the ears of the monks and the nuns. So here too, in this legend, as in all the rest, the Devil is greater than Grod, and prayer and penitence inefficacious to redeem iniquity. EARLY mSTORIC TRIALS. Coming out from these purely legendary times, we find ourselves on the more solid ground of an actual legal record — the *Abbreviatio Placitorum;'* which informs us that in the tenth year of King John's reign, "Agnes, the wife of Odo the merchant, accused Gideon of sorcery (de sorceria), and she was acquitted by the judgment of the (hot) iron." This is the earliest historic trial to be found in any legal document in Eng- land. Nothing more appears until 1324, when two Co- ventry men,t specially appointed out of twenty-seven im- plicated, undertook the slaying of the King, Edward 11., * ThomaB Wright's ' Narxative of Sorceiy and Ifagio,* and * Trial of Dame AUce Kyteler.' t Idem. 186 THE WrrCHBS OP ENGLAND. the two Dispeiwets hk favourites, the Prior of Co- Yentry, his caterer and his steward, because they had opjM'essed the town^ and dealt unrighteously with its inhabitants. These two men went to a famous necro^ mancer then living in Coventry, called Master John of Nottingham, whom, with his servant Bobert Marshall of Leicester, they engaged to perform the work required. Bat Bobert Marshall proved faithless, and betrayed his master to the authorities ; telling them how they had received a sum of money for the work in hand, with which sum of money they had bought seven pounds of wax and two yards of canvas, to make seven images--^ six for the six already enumerated, the seventh for one Bichard de Lowe, who had done no one any barm, but on whom they wished to try the effect of the spell, as a modem anatomist would try his experiments on cats, or dogs, or labbits. He told them how he and Master John of Nottingham had been to a ruined house under Shorteley Park, about half a league from Coventry, where they remained at work from the Monday after the Feast of Saint Nicholas to the Saturday after the Feast of Ascension, making these images of wax and canvas by which they were to bewitch their noble enemies to deatL And first, to try the potency of the charm, Master John took a long leaden pin, and stmck it two inches deep into the forehead of the image repre- senting Bichard de Lowe, upon which Bichard was found writhing and in great pain, screaming " harrow!" and having no knowledge of any man; and so he languished for some days. Then Master John drew out the leaden pin from the brow, and struck it into the heart of the image, when immediately Bichard de Lowe died, as any number of witnesses could testify. The necromancer and his man, and the twenty-seven BABLY HISTORIC TRIALS. 187 Corentrj men implicated in this bit of sorcery, vrete Ided at common law, and acquitted f<»* want of eyidence. That same year, too, occurred one of the most pic- turesque trials for witchcraft known : the trial of Dame Alice Ky teler, which Mr. Wright, with so much industry and learning, has exhumed irom the dusty old records where it was buried, and set out into the light of present knowledge and apprehension. But Dame Alice was an Irishwoman, and so does not xightly come into a book on English witches ; else it would be a pleasant, if sad, labour to tell how she was arrested on the charge of holding nightly conferences with her spirit or familiar, Artisson, who was sometimes a cat, and sometimes a black sha^y dog, and sometimes a black man with two tall black companions, each carrying an iron rod in his hand — ^to which fiendish Proteus she had sacrificed, in the highway, nine red cocks, and nine peacocks' eyes ; and also for having, between complines and tvrilight, raked all the filth of Kilkenny streets to the doors of her son-in-law William Outlawe, murmuring to herseK — " To the house of Wiliiam, my aonne. Hie aU the -wealth of Eilkeimie towne." Of how, too, she blasphemously travestied the holy saciament, having a wafer with the Devil's name stamped on it instead of Christ's ; and how she had a pipe of ointment wherewith she greased a staff '* upon which she ambolled and gallopped thorough thicke and thin, when and what manner she listed." But it does not belong to my present subject : nor to tell how one of her accomplices, poor weak Petronilla de Meath, was burnt at Kilkenny, not having strength or courage to resist the monstrous confession forced upon her; but how the other, Basil, escaped, according to the natural 188 THE WITCHES OF ENGLAND. law by which the strongest always come off the best. Perhaps the fact that Dame Alice took refuge in England may give her a slight claim to a place in these pages ; but the question is doubtful, so we must let her go— as also her son-in-law, William Outlawe, whose strict imprisonment of nine weeks led to no bad result, and, let us hope, cooled his blood, which was a trifle too near to boiling point Then we stumble over the threshold of the chamber where Friars Bacon and Bungay are sleeping, while stupid Miles is watching the Brazen Head whose brief solemn words were spoken in vain ; going forward just a few paces until we come to the death-beds of Bungay and Vandermast, and Friar Bacon's clever cheating of the Devil at last But we are still on the outskirts of legendary land, and must go on to the middle of the fourteenth century before we get a firm hold. About this time the subject of witchcraft occupied much of the attention and thought of the Church, but the priests had not yet quite closed their fingers round it ; for in 1371 a man was arrested for sorcery, and " brought before the justices of the King's Bench, by whom he was acquitted for want of evidence, which shows that it was still looked upon merely as an offence against common law." * It was only/when it became the superstition which some men are pleased to call " reli- gion" that it got stained with its deepest dyes. Early in 1406 Henry IV. gave instructions to the Bishop of Norwich to search for the sorcerers, witches, and necro- mancers reported to be rather rife in that respectable diocese, and if he could not convert them from the evil of their ways, he was to bring them to speedy punish- * * Introduction to the Narrative of the Proceedings against Dame Alice Kyteler.* By Thomas Wright. 1843. EARLY HISTORIC TRIALS. 189 ment; and in 1432 the Privy Council ordered to be seized and examined a Franciscan friar of Worcester, by name Thomas Northfield ; another friar, John Ash- well ; John Virley " a clerk ;" and Margery Jourde- maine — ^the same Margery generally called the Witch of Eye, who, nine years later, was burnt at Smithfield for her complicity in the treasonable practices of Dame Eleanor of Gloucester. In 1441 Dame Eleanor herself was arrested, and " put in holt, for she was suspecte of treason ;" and with her the Witch of Eye, who was burnt ; and Roger, a clerk " longing to her," who was placed on a high scaffold against St. Paul's Cross on the Sunday, and there " arraied like as he should never thrive in his gamementys;" while heaped up round about were all his instruments taken with him, to be showed among the people, and create a proper fear and horror in their mind. The end of poor Roger the derk was, that he was dragged from the Tower to Tyburn, there hanged, beheaded, and quartered; his head set on London Bridge, and his four quarters sent — one to Hereford, and one to Oxenford, another to York, and the fourth to Cambrigge. As for Dame Eleanor, that proud, dark, unscrupulous heroine of romance, every one knows the story of her disgrace and shame ; how she came from London to Westminster, and walked through the streets of the city barefooted and bareheaded, carrying the waxen taper of two pounds' weight, and doing penance before all the crowd of citizens assembled to see her " on her foot and hoodies ;" and how she offered up her taper on the high altar of " Poules ;" and when all was done, was sent to Chester prison, " there to byde while she lyveth." After her, in 1478, comes " the high and noble prin- cesse Jaquet," Duchess of Sedford, charged with having, 190 THE WrrCHBS OP ENGLAND. by the aid of " an image of lede, made lyke a man of anns, conteyning the length of a mannes fynger, and broken in ihe myddes, and made fast- with a wyre,"* turned the lore of King Edward lY. from one Dame Elianor Butteler daughter of the old Earl of ShrewB- bnry, to whom he was affianced, unto her own child, Elizabeth Grey, sometime wife to Sir John Grey, knight ; and in 1483 poor Jane Shore was bound to do penance, walking bareheaded and barefooted, clad only in her kirtle, carrying a wax taper, and acknowledging her sins, because Bichard of Glpucester had a withered arm, and wanted to put a few enemies out of the way of that arm and its desires. He employed the same accusation against many of those enemies, but so pa- tently for political motives and without even the sem- blance of reason, that these attainders can scarcely be set down in any manner to the charge of witchcraft. Then in 1484 came the bull of Innocent Vlll., which gave authority to the inquisitors to " convict, imprison, and punish " the unfortunate servants of the Devil, who thus found themselves a mark for every one's shaft. In Henry the Eighth's time treasure-seeking was the most fashionable phase of necromancy. There was Neville of Wolsey's household, who consulted Wood — gentleman, magician, and treasure-seeker extraordinary — ^but only for a charm or magic ring which should bring him into favour with his prince, saying that his master the Cardinal had such an one, and he would fain parti- cipate ; and he did at last get Wood to make him one that would bring him the love of women. Wood could find treasures wherever hidden, and was sure of the philosopher's stone ; nay, he would " chebard " (jeopard) his life but that he could make gold as he listed, and offered to remain in prison till he had accomplidied it, BABLY HISTORIC TRIALS. 191 *^ twelve months on silyer and twelve and a half on gold." In this same reign, too, was arrested William Stapleton for sorcery. William* was a monk of St. Benet in the Holm, Norfolk, and William loved not his monkish life; so he got ont, seeking money to bny his dispensation. And not having the money at hand himself, nor knowing how to get it, he took to treasure-seeking as the easiest manner open to him of making a fortune. But his conjurations and his magic staff only led him to some Boman remains, and nothing more ; so he borrowed of a friend instead, then settled in Norfolk, and turned to treasure-seeking again, uselessly ; got into intrigues that did him no good ; and had three spirits, Andrea Malchus, Inchubus, and Oberion — the last a dumb devil who would not speak, being in the service of my Lord Cardinal In 1521 the Duke of Buckingham died on the scaf- fold, led into some imprudent actions by the predictions of his £Guniliar magician, one friar Hopkins ; and Hop- kins, to make amends, died broken-hearted shortly after. And there was the Maid of Kent (1534), Elizar both Barton, who had trances and gave revelations, and was on intimate terms with Mary Magdalen and the Virgin, and who was probably a ^^ sensitive " made use of by the Catholics to try and frighten the King from his marriage with the " gospel eyes ;" but poor Eliza- beth Barton came to a sad pass with her revelations and trances ; and Mary Magdalen, who had given her a letter written in heaven and all of gold, torgot to forewarn or shield her from her cruel and shameful enJ at Tyburn that cloudy fitful day of April, with the gallows standing out against the flecked sky, and the poor raving nun, half-enthusiast half-impostor, praying * Wright* s • Kariatire of Soiceiy and Magifi.' 1851. 192 THE WITCHES OP ENGLAOT). bareheaded at its foot — she and her accomplicies waiting for the moment to die. In 1541 we find a nobler name on the scaflfold — Lord Hnngerford — *^ beheaded for proenring certain persons to conspire that they might know how long Henry VIIL would live ;" and that same year an Act was passed against feilse prophecies, and another against conjurations, witchcraft, and sorcery, making it felony without benefit of clergy. But six years later Ed- ward YI. abrogated that statute ; not for any tender- ness to witches, but because with it was bound up a pro* hibition against pulling down crosses. In 1549 Ket's rebellion was troublesome ; its vigour due partly to the old prophecy repeated through the plains of Norfolk — *' Hob, Die, and Hie, with Olubs and clouted Shoon, ShaU fiU np Daffin-dale with slaughtered Bodies soon.*' And then we come to nothing more until 1559, when Elizabeth " renewed the same article of inquiry for sorcerers," but punishing the first conviction only with the pillory. The following year eight men were taken up for conjurations and sorcery, and tried at West- minster, where they had to purge themselves by con- fession, penitence, and a repudiating oath. In 1562 the Earl and Countess of Lennox, Anthony Pool, Anthony Fortescue, and some others, were condemned for treason and meddling with sorcerers ; though, indeed, Elizabeth herself was not free from either the superstition or its practice; for did she not pa- tronize Dr. Dee and his " skryer " John Kelly, with his ranting about Madimi in her gown of " changeable sey," and all the other spirits who came in and out. of the " show-stone," and talked just the same kind of rubbish as spirits talk now in modem circles? But the poor " figure-flinger, with his iia pictures," was a EABLT HISTORIC TRIALS. 193 sorcerffl- not to be protected, bo got tried and con- demned — ^poor figure-flinger I In 1562, the year of Lady Lennox's business, a new Act against witchcraft was passed; and in 1589 one Mrs. Deir practised conjuration against the Queen, for which she was tried, but acquitted for want of evidence ; but the Queen had excessive anguish in her teeth that year, by night and by day. When Ferdinand Earl of Derby died, about this time, of perpetual and unceasing sickness, a waxen image was found in his chamber staffed witii hair the exact colour of his ; which suffi- ciently accounted for his illness and the mysterious man- ner of his death, though a Sadducee and sceptic migl^t have whispered of poison, or a physician have spoken of cholera; from which disease indeed, by the minute symptoms so carefully detailed, the poor earl's death seems to have been — if not from poison, which might have produced the same effects. Still, the accusation of sorcery was so convenient — such a cloak for viler sins ! The latter half of Elizabeth's reign was disgraced by many witch persecutions, for the subject was beginning to attract painful notice now ; and, though it was not till James I. had set the smouldering fragments aU a-blaze that the worst of the evils were done, still enough was doing now for the philosopher to deplore and the humanitarian to lament. In 1575 many were hanged at Barking ; in 1579 three were executed at Chelms- ford, four at Abingdon, and two at Cambridge. In 1582 thirteen at St. Osith's, the evidence against one being that she had been heard to talk to something when alone in her house ; while of the other, a woman swore that she looked through her window one day, when she was out, and there *^ espied a spirite to looke out of a potcharde from under a clothe, the nose thereof o IM THE WrrLUBI OF TSGLASD, bein<r Ivovne Eke imlo a tesn^tT In 1585 one was lttnj?^i at Tjfiani and one at Stamnne; 1589 saw tkr^^ ;sesit mto eteraitr at CheLaufcvd; in 1593 we kaTe tae wit«?ihe9 of WarfaoB ; and two years later I L':V ) ihi^e at Btfniet and Bram£>rd ; in 1597 several at LNrrbr and Sca)£3ni ; ao that bj degrees the thing came ti> be a nocorioas matter of soda! life ; and the poijT az}d the aged and the disliked bred in fear and penL dail T iDcreftsnz- At thk time, too, possessions were manj and :7hcii«ts walked abroad without let or hiodrance. Siehard Lee saw one at Canterbury (157o ), and Master Gaym*iffe and odiers saw another at Eye two years after. ** Bat,"' says B^inald Scot, ^ certainely some one knare in a white sheet hath cogened and abased many tbo^^ands that way, spe- cially when Robin Gocdrellow kept such a coile in the Country. For yon shall understand that these bugs qiecially are spied and feared erf* sicke folke, children, women, and coward^ which, through weaknesse of minde and body, are shaken with Tain dreames and continnaU lear. The Scythians, being a stout and a warlike nation, as dirers writers report, neyer see any Taine sights, or qpirits. It is a common saying, a JLion feareth no bug& But in our childhood our mothers' maids haTe so terrified us with an ugly devil haying homes cm his head, fire in hn mouth, and a taile at his back, eyes like a bason, fanges like a dog, clawes like a beare, a skinne like a liiger, and a voice roring like a Lion, whereby we start and are afraid when we hear one cry Bough; they have so firaied us with bull- beggars, spirits, urchens, elves, hags, fairies, satyrs, pans, fauns, sylens (syrens ?), kit with the cansticke, tritons, centaures, dwarfes, giants, imps, calcats, con- jurors, nymphes, changelings, incubus, Bobin Good- THE AFFLICTIONS OF ALEXANDER NYNDGE. 195 fellow, the spoorn, the mare, the man in the oke, the hell-waine, the firedrake, the puckle, Tom thombe, hob-gobbin, Tom tumbler, boneles, and such other bugs, that we are afraid of our own shadowes ; inso- much as some never fear the devil, but in a dark night ; and then a polled sheep is a perillous beast, and many times is taken for our father's soul, specially in a churchyard, where a right hardy man heretofore scant durst ^asse by night, but his haire would stand upright. For right grave writers report, that spirits most often and specially take the shape of women, appearing to monks, &c., and of beasts, dogs, swine, horses, goats, cats, haires, of fowles, as crowes, night owles and shreek owles ; but they delight most in the likenesse of snakes and dragons.'^ All of which " wretched and cowardly infidelity" was rampant in England when good Queen Bess ruled the land — ^rampant doubly, so that there was no holding in of this furious madness after James L had got his foot in the stirrup, and was riding a race neck and neck with the DeviL But I must turn back a few years, and tell of THE AFFLICTIONS OF ALEXANDER NYNDGE, a precious babe of grace snatched from destruction. They are to be found in 'A Booke declaring the fear- full vexation of one Alexander Nyndge, Beynge moste Horriblye tormented wyth an euyll spirit, ike xx. daie of Januarie. In the yere of our Lorde 1573, at Lyer- ingswell in Suffolke ;' and this book sets forth the details of the various fits which Alexander Nyndge in- dulged in, for the purpose, as it seems, of enabling his brother Edward to prove his power of exorcism. His 196 THE WITCHES OF ENQLAKD. fini fit b^;aiL one eTening at ser^ii — ^his father, mother, faiotheray and the residue of the household being present ; Ui dieft and body Bwelled, his eyes stared wildly as if starting from their sockets, his back bent inward : the lioiisehold was disturbed and sore affiighted, but brother Edward had courage enough to say that it was an eyil spirit, and undertook to exorcise it So he charged the foul fiend to come out of him, and the countenance of his brother became more sad and fearful than it was before. Edward was not dismayed but returned to the conflict full of confidence, not giving in eyen when Alexander and the deyil had a wrestle together; or rather when tiie devil within him seemed as if he would hare torn him to pieces, so great was his rage and malice. After some time of tins kind of work, Edward got the devil to confess to one or two little matters. In the first place his name was Aubon, and he came last irom Ireland ; he had come for Alexander's soul, which his brother was not disposed to give up ; and by a strange slip of the tongue he called Christ hia Re- deemer : but Edward rebuked him, as became a learned M. A., reminding him that He was Alexander's Bedeemer in truth, but not his, the foul fiend'& Even this palpable blunder did not enlighten the Nyndge house- hold as to whose was really the ^hoUow ghostly" voice proceeding out of Alexander's diest At last, wheu Edward had tired him veiy much, and powerfully shaken him, he said, gruffly, ''Bawe wawe, bawe wawe r and Alexander was transfoimed, ''much like a piotore in a play,** while a tmiUe itMnng voice sounded ** Heltsownd.*' Thai tiiey cpatied the windows to allow the foul spirit to escape; and im two minutes Alexander k^nped up joyfully, erring, ** He is gone ! he is gone I" AfWr this be had a second, and thai a third, attack ; ADE DAVIE'S MOURNINa 197 but his brother, praying in his right ear, comforted him and finally cured him, for he was never after tormented. Luckily he had not fixed upc»i any unhappy old woman as the cause of bis disorder, so it passed for a case of simple "possession," which prayer and supplication had OYercome. ADE DAVIE'S MOURNING.* Ade Dayie, wife .of Simon Davie husbandman, had a wiser man for her husband, simple and unlearned as he was, than had many a wretched creature for her judge. Ade suddenly became sad and pensive as she never had been in times past Her husband did his best to cheer her, but Ade still continued sorrowful; when, at last her burden grew heavier than she could bear, falling down at Simon's feet she besought him to forgive her, for that she had grievously offended both God and him. " Her poor husband being abadied at this her behaviour, comforted her as he could ; asking her the cause of her trouble and greefe ; who told him that she had, con- trary to God's law, and to the offence of all good Chris- taans, to the injury of him, and specially to the losse of her own soul, bargained and given her soul to the devill, to be delivered unto him within short space. Where- xmto her husband answered, saying, ' Wife, be of good cheer, this thy bargain is vdd and of none effect ; for thou hast sold that which is none of thine to sell : sith it belongeth to Christ, who hath bought it, and dearly paid for it, even with his blood, which he shed upon the crosse ; so as the devil hath no interest in thee.' After this, with like submission, teares, and penitence, she * Beginald Scot li» THE WITCHES OF ENGLAND. sttkl onto him, 'Oh, husband, I have yet committed .uiotaer hxdt, and done you more injmy ; for I have civwitcaed yoa and four children.' ' Be content/ quoth he, * by tiie grace of God, Jesus Christ can unwitch us ; for none evill can happen to them that fear Grod.' " Thii» fresh and pure idyl comes to us with a sweet and wholesome sarour, in the midst of the foul quagmires of superstition where it stands ; and that poor husbandman's . simple &ith in God's goodness and his wife's virtue is more touching than many a grand heroic deed which has the suffirages of all history to 0oat it through the Ute of the world. Simon Davie was an unlettered man, but he was strong-hearted and believing, and, thinking that earnest prayer might comfort his wife, when the time approached for the Devil to come and close his bargain^ knelt down by her and prayed, she joining with him fervently. Then they heard a low rumbling uuise below which made the windows shake, and which wnviuced the poor wife that it was the Devil trying to take possession of her soul, but barred out from the chaml>er by the fervent prayers aforesaid. In the luoruiog it was foimd that the noise came from a dog Vihioh had devoured a sheep that was newly flayed and huug (gainst the waU ; and in due time, Ade Davie rt>tK>Yo^'ii^* her reason — ^for she was crazed, and took vv^ay Are to be the fire lighted to bum her for witch- vu aft —came to the knowledge that she had never sold h<4' Mv^ul to the Devil at all, and had never bewitched t^vubauil or children, but had always been a faithful witV HuU foxxd mother->^fi9icted with a light brain and u^4\vuii Uui^iuation. 199 THE POSSESSION OP MILDRED NORRINGTON.* Mildred, the " base daughter " of Alice Norrington, being seventeen years of age, was likewise possessed of the Devil, in much the same way as Alexander Nyndge had been. She lived as servant with William Spooner of WestweU, in the county of Kent, and her case attracted great attention. All the divines of the neighbourhood assembled at Spooner's house on the 13th of October, 1574, to endeavour to cast out the Devil by such means of prayer and exorcism as they had at their command. Powerfully did they pray; mightily roared the Devil ; *' And tho' we did com- mand him many times, in the Name of God, and of his Son Jesus Christ, and in his mighty Power to- speak, yet he would not, until he had gone through all his .Delays, as roaring, crying, striving, and gnashing of t^eth, and otherwise, with mowing and other terrible Countenances, and was so strong in the Maid that four men could scarce hold her down." This continued for about two hours, and then he spoke out, but very strangely, crying, "He comes, he comes," and "He goes, he goes." When charged to tell the exorcists who had sent him, he said, " I lay in her way like a Log, and I made her run like Fire ; but I could not hurt her." "And why so?" said we. "Because God kept her," said, he. When asked when he came to her, he said, "At night, in her bed.'' And when charged to tell them his name, he said, " The Devil, the Devil." But being still more powerfully exhorted, he roared and cried as before, and spake terrible words : " I will kill her; I will kill her ; I will tear her in pieces ; I will Reginald Scot. Dr. Hutchinson. 20) THX WTT'IBES OF E5*iI-L5D» kill T^n aZ r Afkcd •^r-'- axid iwnJDzcd ao tbfll ks CGiiji m^ «9ea(«. ibt w9a 5:<r>%d to c«»fe» tlMil his name wiM Su<&3^ aci! Lirtl*^ I^tlL juui Partner, and ftmt oil Alit.i* kMi «i*ct iiak— Cful Albce ir WeatweQ Scre^rC wizh wii:ia he kid Hri^d xbeat tweatjjeam dost TO ia tw» b:<iI.?sL * WLere ise tLey?* and we. **Iii the back mi-^ oflk^r b:«s«e." aad ke.' ^Invkat place ?* ttKl we. '^ Uiider tkfr w^fcH.* »sl ke. Tke cdier wm si £i»i:iiin2toQ, in the gf t .^^ 1. Tkea we adkcd kim wlial old Alice bad girea Li=L He sod, **Her will, ker wiH" «'Wkat dxl die l^ tkw do?* add we. "JJU ker nBaid,** ke said, hecase ;^e did aot knre ker. He then said tkai ke kad baea to tke rieange loft in tke iikenf^m of two birds acd tkat oLd Alice kad sent kim and kis fierrant fanotkcr deriT* to kill tkose wkom ffke lored not ** How manj kast tiboii killed Ibr ker ?*" nid we. ''Tkree," add he. -'Wko are tkej?" add we. *^A man and kis ckild,* said he. *Wkat were tkeir names ?^ said we. ^Tke ddhTs name was Edward,'' nid ke. ''What more tkan Edward r* add we. ''Edward Ager," add ke. "Tlliat more?'' add we. '^Bickard Ager," ssidke. "Wkere dwelt tke man and the ckfldT said we. "At Dig, at 1%" said ke. Tkis Rickard Ager was a gentleman of forty pounds' land by the year; a very kcmest man, but woold often say he was bewitched, and languished long ere ke died. The Devil — or Mildred for him — said that ke kad also kiUed Wotton's wife, and that he nsed to fetch old Alice meat and drink and com, and that he had been at many houses (named) doing her wicked wiDL Then ke* was adjured so that he could not resist^ when he cried out that he would go, he would go, and so he departed. Then said the maid, '' He is gone. Lord have mercy on me 1 for he would have killed me I" So those minis- MISCELLAOTIOUS. 201 ters and neighbours present all kneeled doM'n and tiianked God for Mildred's deliverance ; and she kept her countenance, and did not betray herself. But a short time after, the '^ bruit of her divinity and miracu- lous trances" spreading far and wide, Mr. Thomas Wotton, '^ a man of great Worship and Wisdom, and for deciding and ordering of Matters, of rare and singu- lar Dexterity," got to the true understanding of the case, when ''the Fraud was found, and the cozenage confessed, and she received condign Punishment" After her trial, and when she knew the worst, she ''showed her Feats, Slusions, and Trances, with the Besidue of all her miraculous Works in the Presence of divers Gentlemen of great Worship and Credit at Soston-Malherb, in the House of the said Mr. Wotton." "Now compare this wench with the witch of Endor, and you shall see that both the cozenages may be done by one art," says Beginald Scot MISCELLANEOUS. It was in this same year that Agnes Brigs and Bachel Pindar had to do penance at St Paul's Cross, in London,* having been convicted of cheat and imposture in pretending to vomit pins and straws and old "clouts," and other such impossibilities; and for counterfeiting possession by the Devil, which the philosophers of the time thought was no subject to trifle with, or affect in any manner whatsoever. And then, a few years later, a young Dutchman living at Maidstone was dispos- sessed ^ ten devils, and the mayor of the town got to subscribe his name to the account, which turned out ♦ Stow. 202 THE WITCHES OP ENGLAND. afterwards to be nothing but fraud and lies. In 1579* four witches were hung up together, the chief accusation against one of them, Mother Still, being, " that she did kill one Saddocke with a touch on the shoulder, for not keeping promise with her for an old cloak, to make her a safeguard ; and that she was hanged for her labour :'' and another, EUein Smith, was executed at Maldon,t on the testimony of her little son of eight, who accused her of having three spirits — Great Dick in a wicker bottle. Little Dick in a leathern bottle, and Willet kept in a woolpack. Upon which the house was commanded to be searched, and '^ the bottles and packe were found, but the spirites were banished awaie." At the Bochester assizes, held 1591, Margaret Simons,! the wife of John Simons, of Brenchley in Kent, was arraigned for witchcraft, on the charge of bewitch- ing the son of John Ferrall the vicar. An ill-con-^ ditioned young cub was he, and prentice to Bobert Scotchford, clothier ; and the father himself seems to have been little better than his son — making a bad pair between them for the teacher and " pattern child " of Brenchley. There had long been ill blood between Mr. John Ferrall, vicar, and Margaret Simons ; and one day it came somewhat to a head ; for, when the boy was passing Margaret's house on his way home, her little dog jumped out at him and barked. ''Which * Scot, quoting a little pamphlet, without a title, which I cannot find. t From an extremely rare black-letter book, entitled ' A Detection of damnable driftes, practized by three Witches arraigned at Chelma- forde, in Essex, at the laste Assizes there holden, whiche were executed in ApriU 1579. Set forthe to discouer the Ambnshementes of Satfaan, whereby he would surprise us lulled in securitie, and hardened with contempte of Qod*s vengeance threatened for our offences. Imprinted at London, for Edward White, at the little North-dore of Paules.* tSoot MISCELLANEOUS, 203 tiling the boy taking in evil part," says Reginald Scot, in his quaint, blunt, incisive way, " drew his knife, and pursued him therewith even to her door; whom she rebuked with some such words as the boy disclaimed, and yet neverthelesse would not be perswaded to depart in a long time." The consequence of the fray was, that the boy in five or six days' time fell dangerously ilL Then tie vicar, " who thought himself so privileged as he little mistrusted that God would visit his children with sicknesse," declared that his son was bewitched by Margaret Simons, who also had done the like evil to himself; for whenever he wished to read the service with special emphasis and care his voice always failed him, so that his congregation could scarce hear him at alL Margaret made answer that his voice was always hoarse and low, and particularly when he strained him- self to speak loudest then it ever failed him: but there was no witchcraft in the case, for all that Mr. Ferrall had procured the health of his son at the hands of another witch, who had taken off the charm and effected a perfect cure. Margaret had a very narrow escape for her life. The whole of the jury, save one man, were against her, but she had in her favour the fact that the vicar was very unpopular, and, justly or unjustly, lay under some odious charges; so, what with the sane juryman's exertions in her favour, and Mr. Ferrall's small hold on the interest and affec- tions of his parishioners, she was brought in Not Guilty, and the hangman's cord fell slack from his greedy grasp. It must have been somewhere about this time that the execution mentioned by Dr. More in his * Antidote to Atheism' took place, when a mother and daughter were hanged at Cambridge for witchcraft and service to 20i THE WITCHES OF ENGLAND. the DeTiL When the mother was called on to renounce and forsake her old master, she refused to do so, saying that he had been fiuthM to her for fourscore years, and she would not be faithless now to him. And in that o1> stinacy she died^ with a courage and constancy worthy a better cause. The daughter was of a contrary mind. She avowed her misdeeds, and asked for pardon and grace, was penitent, and faithful, and earnest in prayer. All of which the Deyil took, as may be imagined, very heinously ; and showed his displeasure by sending, in the midst of a dead calm, so sudden and violent a blast (^ wind, that the mother's body was driven sharply against the ladder, and was like to have overtiu^ed it, while the gallows shook with such force that the men standing round were fain to hold the posts, for fear of all being flung to the ground. It was somewhat before this, that at Town Mailing, in Kent, one of Queen Mary's Justices, ^' on the complaint of many wise men, and a few foolish boyes, laid an archer by the heels because he shot so near the white at buts. For he was informed and per- swaded that the poor man played with a fly, otherwise called a devill or familiar. And because he was certified that the archer aforesaid shot better than the common shooting, which he before had heard of or seen, he con- ceived it could not be in Gkni's name, but by inchant- ment, whereby the archer (as he supposed, by abusing the Queen's liege people) gained some one day two or three shillings, to the detriment of the commonwealth, and to his owne inriching. And therefore the archer was severely punished, to the great encouragement of archers, and to the wise example of justice, but specially to the overthrow of witchcraft" Which quaint little anecdote of Scot's is worth a whole handful of jewels more richly set. THE WITCHES OF 8. OSEES. 206 We are coming now to one of the most ciirious of the older trials, that of — THE WITCHES OF S. OSEES, held before Brian Darcey. It is contained in a rare . and beautiful little black-letter book,* and is spoken of by Scot in his * Discovery' without much sparing of ridicule. It opens thus : " If there hath bin at any time (Bight Honorable) any meanes used to appease the wrath of God^ to obtaine his blessings to terrifie secreete offenders by open transgressors punishmente» to with- draw honest natures from the corruption of euill com- pany, to diminish the great multitude of wicked people, to increase the small number of rirtuous per- sons, and to reforme all the detestable abuses which the peruerse witte and will of man doth dayly devise, this doubtlesse is no lesse necessarye than the best, that Sorcerers, Wizzardes, or rather Dizzardes, Witches, Wise women (for so they will be named), are rygorously pimished. Rygorously? sayd I; why it is too milde and gentle a tearme for such a mercilesse generation: I should rather have sayd most cruelly ezecueted ; for that no punishment can be thought vpon, be it in neuer so high a degree of torment, which may be deemed suffi- cient for such a deuilishe and damnable practise." * * A trae and iust Becorde of the Information, Examination, and Gonfeaadon of aU the Witches, taken at B. Osees in the conntie of Enex ; whereof some were executed, and other some entreated accord- ing to the determination of lawe. Wherein aU men may see what a pestilent people Witches are, and how ynworthy to lyve in a Christian Commonwealth. Written orderly, as the cases were tryed by euidence by W. W. Imprinted in London at the three Cranes, in the Tinetree, by Thomas Dawson. 1582.' 206 THE WrrCHBS OP ENGLAND. These were the sentiments of W. W., as propounded to his patron ''the right honourable and his singalar good lorde, the Lord Darcey," to whom he inscribes his little book. For Brian Darcy, evidently a relation, had lately put in practice the views and opinions of a worthy citizen and zealous Christian touching witches, at the great holocaust oflTered up at " S. Osees " (St Osyth), in the 23rd year of Queen Elizabeth's reign (1582) : and witch hatred therefore ran in the blood. The first complainant in this process was Grace Thur- lowe, wife of John Thurlowe, who came to make her moan about the evil practices of her neighbour, Ursley Kempe, alias Grey. About twelve months since, said Grace, her son Davy was strangely taken and greatly tormented. Ursley came, like the rest of the neighbours, to see him ; but, unlike the rest, she thrice took the child by the hand, saying each time, " A good childe, howe are thou loden :" going out of the house and returning between each phrase, which was evidently a charm, and no holy way of pitying a sick child. After this she said to Grace, " I warrant thee, I, thy childe shall doe well enough ;" and sure it was so, for that night the child slept well, and after another such cantrip visit from Ursula, mended entirely. This was not much to complain to the magis- trates about, but Grace had another and more grievous count. After this evident cure of her son she was delivered of a woman child, and, ungratefully enough, asked not Ursley to be her nurse ; whereat sprang up a quarrel, and the child in consequence fell out of the cradle and brake its neck ; not because it was clumsily laid, or carelessly rocked, but because Ursley was a witch and had a grievance against Grace. And to this mischance, when she heard of it, all that the old dame said, was, '' It maketh no matter ; for she might have THE WITCHES OP S. OSEES/ 207 saffered me to have the keeping and nnrsing of it." Then a trouble and a ''fratch" ensued, and Ursley threatened Grace with lameness, whereat Grace an* swered, " Take heed, Ursley, thou hast a naughtie name ;" but in spite of her warning the old witch did her work, so that Grace was taken with such lameness that she had to go upon her hands and knees. And thus it continued; whenever she began to amend her child fell ill, and when her child was weU she was cast down lame and helpless. Then Annis Letherdall had her word. Annis and Ursley had a little matter of commerce between them, but Annis failed the suspected woman, " knowing her to be a naughtie beast." So Ursley in revenge bewitched Annis's child, and that so severely that Mother Eat- ch'ffe, a skilful woman, doubted if she could do it any good; yet for aU that she ministered unto it kindly. And, as a proof that it was Ursley, and only Ursley, who had so harmed the babe, and that its sad state came in no wise from bad food, bad nursing, and filthy habits, the little creature of only one year old, when it was carried past her house, cried " wo, wo," and pointed with its finger windowwards. What evidence could be stronger ? So then, to clinch the matter and strike fairly home, the magistrate examined Thomas Rabbet, Ursley's '* base son," a child of barely eight years of age, and got his version of the mother's life. The little fellow's tes- timony went chiefly on the imps at home. His mother had four, he said — TyflBn, like a white lamb ; Titty, a little grey cat ; Pygine, a black toad ; and Jacke, a black cat ; and she fed them, at times with wholesome milk and bread, and at times they sucked blood from her body. He further said that his mother had bewitched Johnson and his wife to death, and that she had given 208 THE WITCHBS OF ENGLAND. her imps to Godmother Newman, who put them into an earthen pot which she hid imder her apron, and so carried them away. One Lanrenoe then said that she had bewitched his wife, so that when ^^ she lay a drawing home, and continued so a day and a night, all the partes of her body were colde like a dead creatures, and yet at her mouth did appeare her breath to goe and come." Thus she lingered, said her husband, until Ursley came in unbidden, turned down the bed-clothes, and took her by the arm, when immediately she gasped and died. Ursley at first would confess nothing beyond haying had, ten or eleven years ago, a lameness in her bones, for the cure of which she went to Cook's wife of Wesley, who told her that she was bewitched, and taught her a charm by which she might unwitch herself and cure her bones; which charm quite answered its purpose, and had never failed her with her neighbours ; all else she denied. But upon Brian Darcy * " promising to the saide Ursley that if she would deale plainely and confesse the truth that she should have fauour, so by giving her faire speeche she confessed as followeth." ^^ Bursting out with weeping " and falling on her knees, she said, yes, she had the four imps her son had told of, and that two of them, Titty and Jack, were " hees," whose oflSce was to punish and kill unto death ; and two, Tiffin and Piggin, were '^ shees," who punished with lameness and bodily harm only, and destroyed goods and cattie. And she confessed that she had killed all the folk charged against her; her brother-in-law's wife, and Grace Thurlowe's cradled child, making it to fall out of its cradle and break its neck solely by her enchant- ments ; and that she had bewitched that littie babe of * This was his manner of dealing with fhe accused, and its falsehood, iniquity, and injustice need no comment. /THE WITCHES OF S. OSEES. ;209 Adiub Letheirdall's, and Laurence's wife, and, in fact, that she had done all the mischief with which she was charged. Then, not liking to be alone, she said that Mother Bennet had two imps; the one a black dog, called Suckin, the other red like a lion, Lyerd: and that Hunt's wife had a spirit too, for one evening she peeped in at her window when she was from home, and saw it look out firom a potcharde &om under a bundle of cloth, and that it had a brown nose like a ferret. And she told other lies of her neighbours, saying that her spirit Tiffin informed her of all these things; and Brian Darcy sat there, gloating over these maniacal tevelations. But in spite of his soffc words and fair promises, Ursley Kempe was condemned, and executed when her turn came. Joan Pechey, widow, was then brought forward ; and Ales Hunt, herself an accused witch, deposed against her that she was angry because, at a distribution of bread made by the said Brian Darcy, she had gotten a loaf which was too hard baked for her; whereat in a pet she said it might have been given to some one younger, and not to her, with no teeth to eat through the crust. And then Ales watched her home, and saw her go in alone to her own house where no human soul was; but there she heard her say, as to some one, " Yea, are you so sawsie ; are yee so bolde ; you were not best to bee so bolde with mee : For if you will not bee ruled, you shall have Symonds sawse ; yea, saide the saide Joan, I perceive if I doe give you an inch you will take an elL" All of which talk Ales Hunt found was to no Christian creature, but to her foul and wieked imps. The which testimony her sister, Margerie Sammon, con- firmed, saying that old Joan was as clever as their own mother (a noted witch, one Mother Barnes), or any one '210 THE WITCHES OP ENGLANf). else in S. Osees skilled in sorcery and magic. Another examinate then came forward with a story of a be- witched cow unbewitched by a fire lighted around it : which, however, does not apparently touch any of the accused. And then the accuser, Ales Hunt, was made to take the place of the accused, and listen to the catalogue of her own sins. The chief witness against her was her little daughter-in-law (step-child ?) Febey, of the age of eight or thereabouts, who deposed to her having two little things like horses, the one white the other black, which she kept by her bedside in a little low earthem pot with wool, colour white and black, and which she fed with milk out of a black " trening" disk When the Commissioners went to search the place they found indeed the board which Phoebe said was Used to cover them, and she pointed out the trening dish whence they were fed ; but the little things like horses were gone; when Phoebe said they had been sent to Hayward of Frowicke. After a time Alice Hunt was brought to confess not only to two, but four, imps ; two like colts, black and white, called Jack and Bobbin ; and two like toads, Tom and Robbyn. Mother Barnes, her mother, gave them to her, she said, when she died; and she gave her sister, Margerie Sammon, two also. When Margerie was confronted with Alice and heard what she had deposed, she got very angry and denied the whole tale, saying : " I defie thee, though thou art my sister," saying that she had never any imps given to her on her mother's death-bed, or at any other time. But Alice took her aside and iwhispered something in her ear ; after which Margerie, " with great submission " and many tears, confessed that she had in truth these two imps, given to her by her mother as her sister had said, and that / THE WITCHES OF S. OSEES*. 211 she had carried them away that same eyening in a wicker basket filled with black and white wool Her mother had said that if she did not like to keep them old Joan Pechey would be glad of them ; but she did not part with them just then ; and that she was to feed ihem on bread and milk, otherwise they would suck her blood. Their names were Tom and Bobbin, and last evening she took them away — ^being perhaps afraid to keep them longer, now that the scent was warm — and went into Bead's ground, where she bade them " go." Immediately they skipped out of the wicker basket toward a barred gate going into Howe Lane, to Mother Peachey's house, whereat she, Margerie, said, " All evill goe with you, and the Lorde in heaven blesse mee from yee." All of which Mother Peachy, who seems to have been an upright, high-spirited old dame, stoutly denied. She was threescore year and upwards, she said, and had lived forty years in S. Osees in honour and good repute. She knew Mother Barnes, yet knew her for no witch, nor overheard her to be so accompted, or to have skill in any witchery ; nor was she at her death-bed ; nor knew she of her imps. For her own part she denied that she had any " puppettes, spyrites, or maumettes ;" or hfwi had any spirits conveyed to her by Margery Sammon, or since Mother Barnes's death. She denied all that Ales Hunt had said, as, " Yea, art thou so bolde," &c., she denied that she had had any hand in Johnson's death, as she had been accused of, but when he died said only he was a very honest 4nan : she al^ denied some very shocking passages with her son, which ' he, however, had been brought to confess ; and when questioned more closely concerning her imps, said that she had only a kitten and a dog at home. When 212 THE WITCHES OP ENGLAND. asked of what colour were they? she answered tartly^ " Te may goe and see.*' Ales Newman was also condemned and executed; being obstinate to the last; denyingthe four countswith which she was charged, yiz. her imps, the slaughter of her own husband, of John Johnson, and of his wifa But William Hoke deposed that on his death-bed her hus- band had been perpetually crying out against her, saying, " Dost thou not see — dost thou not see ?" mean- ing the imp with which she tormented him, and which he strove vainly to beat away. Seeing her obstinacy, Brian Darcy told her that he would sever her and her spirits asunder; to which she answered quickly, " Nay," sayth shoe, " that shal ye not, for I will carry them with mee." Then seeing that they took note of her words, she added, '^ if I have any." The admission was enough, and she was hanged. Elizabeth Bennet denied that she had had any hand in the bewitching to death Johnson or his wife, saying that the aforesaid Ales had done it all. But William Bonner had his stone ready for her on the other side, accusing her of bewitching his wife, for " shee, being sickely and sore troubled, the said Elizabeth vsed speeches unto her, saying, a goode woman howe art thou loden, and then clasped her in her armes and kissed her. TMierevpon presently after her vpper Lippe swelled and was very bigge, and her eyes much simked into her head, and shee hath lain sithence in a very strange case." Yet these two women were familiar friends, and " did accompanie much together ;" which shows that friendship was as dangerous as enmity in those mad times when the swelling of a lip, or the familiarity of a house pet, could bring the best of a dis- trict to the gallows. And then Ursley Kemp's testimony THE WITCHES OF S. OSBBS. 213 "was remembered against Elizabeth, and the mysteries of Snckin and liard sought to be fathomed. Elizabeth at the Srst was obdurate and would confess to nothing beyond that she had certainly a pot, but no wool therein, and no imps to lay on it ; but at last she too was per« soaded by Brian Darcy's fine false words ; so falling on her knees, ^* distilling tears," she made her public moan. William Byet and she dwelt as neighbours together, she said, living as neighbours should, well and easily ; but latterly they had fallen out, because William called her " old Trot" and " old witch," and "did ban and curse her and her cattle." So she replied with calling him " knave," saying, " Wind it vp Byet, for it will light vpon yourself." And Byet's beast died forthwith. Then Byet's wife beat her swine with great " gybels," and made them sick; and once she ran a pitchfork through the side of one so that it was dead, and when the butcher who bought it came to dress and cut it up, it proved '^ a messel," so she had no money for it, for the butcher would not keep it and she was forced to take it back again. So far was only the ordinary quar- relling of ill-tempered country folk, and nothing vfery damaging to confess to; but now Brian Darcy's fair words drew from her all about her imp Suckin, a he and like a black dog, and Lierd, a she and like a hare or a lion, and red. Suckin hctd first come to her a long time ago, as she was returning home from the miU; he held her by the coats, she being amazed, but vanished when she prayed. Again, when nigh hand at home, he tu^ed at her coats as before, yet vanished when she prayed. The next day he came with Lierd, and asked ^ why she was so snappish yesterday ?" and thus they were for ever troubling and visiting her, till at last she yielded to their solicitations^ and set them to . 214 THE WITCHES OF ENGLAOT); the work she was accused o£ This was the second instance in which Brian Darcy found that old Ursley and her imp Tiffin had spoken the truth. Ales Manfielde bewitched John Sayer's cart, keeping it standing stock stall for above an hour, because she was offended that he would not let his thatcher cover in an oven for her ; and she lamed all Joan Chester's cattle, because Joan refused her some curds. So Ales Manfielde was condemned and executed ; but not before she made her confession. She said that Margctret GreueU (Greville), twelve years since, gave her four imps — Robin, Jack, William, and Puppet or Mamet : they were like black cats, two shes and two hes, and were put into a box with some wool, and placed on a shelf by her bed. But Margaret denied it all, even when Ales was confronted with her ; denied too that queer tale of how she had bewitched John Carter's two brewings, so that half a seame had to go to the swill tub, all because he would not give her Godesgood. The brewing was only unbewitched -when John's son, a tall lusty man of thirty-six, managed to stick his arrow in the brewing-vat. He had shot twice before, but missed, though he was a good shot and stood close to the vat — which was evident sorcery, somehow. Margaret denied also that she had bewitched Nicholas Strickland's wife so that she could make no butter, because Nicholas, who was a butcher, refused her a neck of mutton. But in spite of all her denials, she, the hale woman of fifty- four, was condemned to remain in prison, heaven knows for how long ; escaprog the gallows by a greater miracle than any recorded of herself. Elizabeth Ewstace, a year younger than Margaret Greville, was told that she had bewitched Eobert Sanneuer, drawing his mouth aU awry so that it could .THE WITCHES OF S. OSEES. 215: be got into its place again only with a sharp blow ; and that she had killed his brother Crosse, three years ago, and bewitched his wife when with child and quite lusty and weU, so that she had a most strange sickness, and the child died soon after its birth ; that she made his cows give blood instead of milk; and caused his hogs ^' to skip and leap about the yarde in a straunge sorte," because of the small bickerings to which S. Osees seemed specially subject. And she hurt all Felice Okey's geese, and in particular her favourite goose, because she, Felice, had turned hers out of her yard ; all of which Elizabeth Eustace denied to the face of Alice Mansfield and her other accusers. And as, on being searched, she was found to have no " bigges" or witch marks, she was mercifully kept in prison — for the time» And Annis Glascocke, wife of John the sawyer, got into the trouble that had its end only in the hang- man's cord, because Mychel the shoemaker charged hep with being a " naughtie woman," and because Ursley Kemp, informed by TifiSn, accused her of sundry things about as true as all the rest of the story. Being found weU supplied with witch marks, her denial was not allowed to go for much; whereupon she abused Ursley, and said she had bewitched her and made her like to herself, she, Annis Glascocke, aU the time igno- rant and innocent of her devilish arts. Then came the sad story of Henry CeUes (Selles) and his wife Cysley. They were said to have killed Eichard Ross's horses, because Richard had refused Cicely a bushel of malt which she had come for, bringing a poke to put it in. And to make the accusation stronger, little Henry their son, only nine years old, aflSrmed that at Candlemas last past about midnight there came to his brother John a spirit, which took him by the left 216 THE WITCHES OP ENGLAND. leg and also by the little toe, and which was like his little sister, only that it was black At which his brother cried out, " * Father, fether, come helpe me ; there is a black thing that hath me by the legge as big as my sister ;' whereat his father saide to his mother, * Why thou ^ cannot you keepe your imps from my children?' Whereat she presently called it away from her sonne, saying, * Come away, come away.' At which speeche it did depart." He ftuliher said tiiat his mother fed her imps daily with milk out of a black dish; that their names were Hercules, Sotheons, or Jacke which was black and a he, and Mercuric, white and a she ; that their eyes were Kke goose eyes ; and that they lay on some wool under a stack of broom at the old crab-tree root And also that his mother had sent Hercules to Eoss for revenge ; at which his father, when he heard of it, said, ", She was a trim fooL" As she very likely was; but for other things than sending imps to her neighbours. John, a little fellow of six and three-quarters, confirmed his brother's depo- sition, adding to it that " the imps had eyes as big as himself," and that his mother fed them with thin milk out of a spoon. He gave the names of other people whom his mother had bewitched, and he showed his scarred leg, and the nail of the little toe still imper- fect. And Joan Smith deposed that one day, as she was making ready to go to church, holding her babe in her arms, her mother, one Eedworth's wife, and Cicely were all at her door, ready to draw the latch as she came out, ** whereat the grandmother to the childe tooke it by the hand, and shoke it, saying, * A mother pugs, art thou coming to church?' and Eedworth's wife, looking on, it, said, * Here is a iolie and likely childe — God blesse it.' After which speeches, Selles his THE WITCHES QF S. OSEES. 217 wife saide, ^shee hath neuer the more chfldren for that, but a little babe to play withall for a time.' And she saith within a short time after her said childe sick- ened and died. ' But,' she saith " — ^her womanly heart carrying it over her superstition — " * that her con- science will riot serve her to charge the said Cysley or her husband to be the causers of any suche matter, but prayeth God to forgive if they haue dealt in any such sorte.' " Then Thomas Death accused Cicely SeUes and one Barker's wife of bewitching George Battell's wife and his own daughter Mary, who. got such good of the witches by a wise man's ministering that she saw her tormentor standing in bodily shape before her; and Ales Baxter was pricked to the heart by a white imp like a cat which then vanished into the bushes close by, and so badly holden that she could neither go nor stand nor speak, and did not know her own master when he came by, but was forced to be taken home in a chair by two men. All of which Henry Belles and his wife CScely denied ; specially the story of the imp and the children, who, if there were imps at all in the matter, were the only imps afloat But denial did them no good, for Cicely had witch marks, 80 was condemned, and the two little lying varlets made themselves orphans and homeless. A very crowd of witnesses came to testify against Annis Herd. Of some she had bewitched the cream, of others the milk ; of some the cows or pigs or wives ; but all this was mere floating accusation until the Commissioners gof, hold of her little " base " daughter of seven, who gave them plenty of information. Asked if her mother had imps, she said ** Tes ;" in one box she had six ^* auices," or blackbirds, and in another box six like cows as big as rats, with short horns, lying in 218 THE WITCHES OP ENGLAND: the boxes on white or black wool. And she said that her mother gave her one of the cow imps, a black and white one, called Crowe ; and to her little brother one, red and white, called Donne; and that she fed the avices or bltwkbirds with wheat and barley and oats and bread and cheese ; giving to the cows wheat straw, bean straw, oat straw, or hay, with water or beer to drink. When her brother sees these blackbird imps come a "tuitting and tetling" about him, added the b'ttle base daughter, he takes and puts them in the boxes. Some of them sucked on her mother's hands, and some on her brother's legs, and when they showed her the marks she pointed them out one by one, saying, " Here sucked aves and here blackbird." She was sharp enough though to shield herself, young as she was ; for when asked why one of her hands had the same kind of mark, she said it was burnt. Anis Herd was kept in prison, but not hanged just then, for she could not, luckily for her, be got to confess to anything very damaging. She said that she was certainly angry with the churl Cartwright for taking away a bough which she had laid over a flow in the highway, but she had not bewitched him or his ; and that she had, truly, kept Lane's wife's dish fourteen days or more, as Lane's wife had said, and that Lane's wife had sent for the twopence which she, Anis, owed her, and that she had grumbled with her — also with this neighbour and that neighbour, according to the habits of S. Osees — ^but that she had bewitched none of them. And she denied the avices and the blackbirds and aU %nd sundry of the stories of Crow or Dun; which, indeed, with some others spoken of by the children, seem to have been, if eodsting at all, toys or treasures kept hoarded from them, to which they added these magical and absurd THE WITCHES OF S. OSEES. 219' conditions as their imaginationa taught them or their examiners prompted. Joan Bobinson, another S. Osees witch, was to blame for various acts of sorcery and witchcraft — hurting one woman's brood goose, and another's litter of pigs, drowning cows, laming ambling mares, and the rest of the witch's playful practices ; all of which she, too, denied strenuously, but nevertheless formed one of the thirteen victims whom the offended justice of the times found necessary to condemn and execute. So this sad trial came to an end, and Brian Darcy covered his name with infamy so long as W. W. has a black letter copy extant. The following singular table is drawn up at the end of the book : — *' The names of xni Witches and those that have been bewitched by them. "The Names of those persons that have beene bewitched and thereof hane dyed, and by whome, and of them that haue receyved bodyly hanne, &c. As appeareth vpon simdrye Enformations, Examinations, and Confessions taken by the worshipfull Bryan Darcey, Esqnixe ; and by him certified at large vnto the Queene's Maiestie's Justices of Assise of the Gountie of Essex, the zxix of Marche, 1582. S. Osythes. The Witches. | v._:i._h_^ (Kempes wife, 1. Ursley Kempe, ^^/^^^ ThoHowes Childe alias Gray .J (and Strettons wife. and Uj-sje^ I bewitched (Letherdalles childe, KemDe | to death (and Strettons wife. Confessed by Ursley and Elizabeth, iThe said Ales] and Ursley > Kempe . J bewitched > Elizabeth Bennet , Elizabeth Bennet . {Strattons Childe, 'k whereof tHey Grace Thorlowe, f did languish. I William Byet, and Joan his wife, and iii of his beasts. The wife of William Willes, and William Wittingalle. ) (William Bonners Wife, John bewitched < Butler, Fortunes Childe j I whereof they did languish. 290 THE WITCHES OF EKGIAKR / bewitcbol (-^ wml im Wife, tkeatteO./ UtOe Cfap- too. Thprpe. Om&medhf] fid<L Thorpe. 4.AkBHiiiit J 5. Crilej Ceiks | CjilcjCeOs. Cjriej Celles) and I 6. Aks Manfielde) 7. Aks Manfielde) and Margaretl Greudl . .) Al» Manfielde and Margaret GreneU . bevitc&ed | Rebecca Dnnaai a^ vi beviiiled tp death Tbcms Dealhs ChOde. bewitched < Deith, rRoMB Marde, llaiy \ wiiereof tber £d hngniiJi bewitdicd Bkhard Bones hoise and and caosnl their lanpes to bunie a with 8. Elizabetfa £w8taoe • Elizabeth Ewstaoe • •I Little Okfey. 9. Annya Herd ./ Annjs Herd •< Walton. 10. Joan Robmflon| ^^^ land cJeneil hosfaand to Mar- bewitched the widdow Choaoii, and her husband, r beasts and one ballw^e, and seuerall brewinges o£ beere, and batdies of bread. bewitched /Robert Stannerettes ChiUe» to death (and Thomas Ctogm. bewitched Robert Stannenet, Til raildi beasts, w^ gane blood in steede of milke, and seoerall of his Swine dyed. L -M. 1. J (Ricbard Harrisons wife, and ^d Ih I ^*^** ^^ ^^ ^'"^"^ ^^- ^ ( siiige, as it ia sapposed. bewitched Cattwright two beasta, made, sheepe, and iambes xx ; West swine, and pigs ; Dibome, a brewing of beere, and seuerall other losses of miUce and creame. bewitched beasts, horses, swine, and pigs, of seuerall men. ''The Bayd Ursley Kemp had foure spyrites, viz., their names Tettey a bee like a gray Cat, Jaok a hee like a black Gat, Pygin a she like a black Toad, and Tyffyn a she like a white Lambe. The bees were to plague to death, and the shees to punish with bodily harme, and to destroy cattell. " Tyffyn, Ursley's white Spirit, did tell her alwayes (when she asked) what the other witches had done : and by her the most part were appelled, which spirit tolled her alwayee true. As is well approved by the other Witches confession. . THE WITCHES OF S. OSEES. '221 " The sayd Ales Kewman luid the sayd Ursley Kempa spirits to Tse at her pleasure. Elizabeth Bennet had two spirits, viz., their names Sackyn, a hee like a blacke Dog : and Lyard, red lyke a Lyon or Hare. "Ales Hunt had two spirits lyke Colts, the one blacke, the other white. " 11. Kargeiy Sanunon had two spirits lyke Toads, their Karnes Tom and Bobyn. "Cysley Cellos had two spirits bysenerall names, viz., Sotheons, Hercules, Jack, or Mercury. " Ales Manfield and Margaret Greuell had in common by agreement, iiii Spirits, yiz., their names Bobin, Jack, Will, Puppet, alias Mamet, whereof two were hees, and two were shees, lyke vnto black Cats. "Elizabeth Ewstace had iii Impes or Spirits of colour white, grey, and black. ** Annis Herd had yi Impes or Spirites, like auises and black byrdes, and vi other like Eine, of the bygnes of Rats, with short homes ; the Auises shoe fed with wheat, barley, otes, and bread, the Eine with straw and hay. Annys Glas- cocke. 12. Joan Pechey. 13. Joaa Robinson. These hare not confessed any thing tooching the hauing of spirits. Anm. Gls^ll^^tchedE^^^^^^^^ cocke . J to death j William Pages ChiideT Thus did W. W. and Bryan Darcey finish their respective works, in which, perhaps, this formal tabular statement, this pretence at scientific arrangement and accuracy, is the strangest and most revolting element.* * The names of the imps which haunted yarious persons was curious. A Ihitch boy had Pretty Betty, Guckow, Longtail ; and Bernard gives us his list : — ** Mephistophiles, Lucifer, Little Lord, Fimodes, David, Jude, Little Bobin, Smack, Litefoote, Nonesuch, Lunch, Makeshift, Swash, Pluck, Blue, Catch, White, Collins, Hardname, Tibb, Hi£^ Ball, Puss, Butterkin, Dickie, Prettie, Grissel, and Jacke;" together with "Pippin, Philpot, Modu, Soforce, Hilco, Smolkin, Hillio, Hia- clito,Lu8tie, Huffe, Cap,Killico, Hob, Fratello, Fliberdigibbet, Hober- didance, Tocobatto, and Lustie JoUie Jenkin." We have seen some of these already, and those who read £uther will find a few more^ and some quite as quaint and odd not set down in this list. 222 THE WITCHES OP ENGLAND. Another rare and curious* black-letter pamphlet gives a marvellous account of a woman's possession, as it happened in Somersetshire ; which perchance we of the hght-minded tod sceptical nineteenth century- might interpret differently to what the believing six- teenth held likely. THE WOMAN AND THE BEAR. One Stephen Cooper, of Ditchet, a yeoman of honest reputation, good wealth, and well beloved by his neigh- bours, being sick and weak, sent his wife Margaret to a farm of his at Rockington, Gloucestershire, where she remained a few days — ^not finding all to her liking, she said. When she returned she found her husband some- what better, but she herself was strange and wild, using much idle talk to him concerning an old groat which her little son had found and which she wanted to see, and raving about the farni in Gloucestershire, as if she had been bewitched, and knew not what she said. Then she began to change in very face, and to look on her husband with " a sad and staring counte- nance ;" and, one night, things came to a climax, for she got very wild and bad, and shook so frightfully that they could scarce keep her down in the bed ; and then she began talking of a headless bear, which, she said, she had been into the town to beat away during the * • A true and most dreadfull discourse of a Woman possessed with the DeuiU ; who, in the likenesse of a headlesse Beare, fetched her oute of her Bedde, in the presence of seven persons, most stranngely rouUed her thorow three Ghamhers, and downe a high paire of stairres on the fewer and twentie of May last, 1584. At Ditchet, in Somerset- shire. A matter as miraculous as ever was seen in our time. Imprinted at London for Thomas Nelson.' THE WOMAN AND THE BEAR. 223 time of her fit, and which had followed her from Eock- ington: as the sequel proved was true. Her friends and husband exhorted her to prayer and patience, but she still continued marvellously holden, the Devil get- ting quite the better of her until Sunday night, when she seemed to come to her worst. Suddenly the candle, which they had not been noticing, went out, and she set up a lamentable cry ; they lighted another, but it burnt so dim it was almost useless, and the friends and neighbours themselves began to be disquieted. Wildly and hurriedly cried Margaret, " Look ! do you not see the Devil ? " herself all terrified and disturbed. They bade her be still and pray. Then said Margaret, ** Well, if you see nothing now, you shall see something by and bye ;" and " forthwith they heard a noise in the streete, as it had been the coming of two or three carts, and presently they in the chamber cried out, * Lord helpe us, what manner of thing is this that commeth here !' " For up to the bedside where the woman lay with heaving breasts and dilated eyes, came a thing like a bear, only that it had no head and no tail ; a thing " half a yard in height and half a yard in length " (no bigger, Margaret ? not so big as a well- trussed man on all-fours?) which, when her husband saw, he took a joyn'd stool, and " stroke " at it, and the blow sounded as though it had fallen on a feather bed. But the creature took no notice of the man : it wanted only Margaret. Slowly it paddled round the bed, then smote her thrice on the feet, took her out of bed, and roUed her to and fro in the chamber, round about the floor and under the bed ; the husband and friends, sore amazed and affrighted, only calling on God to assist them, not daring to lift a hand for themselves or her. And all the while the candle grew dimmer and t524 THE WITCHES OF ENGLAlffD: dimmer, so that they could scarce see each other : which, was what Margaret and the headless bear, no doubt, desired. Then the creature took her in its arms, thrust her head between her legs so that he made her into a round ball, and '^ so roulled her in a rounde compasse like an Hoope through three other Chambers, downe an highe paire of staires, in the Hall, where he kept her for the space of a quarter of an hour." The people above durst not come down, but remained above, weeping pitifully and praying with loud and fervent prayer. And there was such a terrible stench in the hall, and such fiery flames darting hither and thither, that they were fain to stop their noses with clothes and napkins, expecting every moment to find that heU was opening beneath their feet^ and that they would be no longer able to keep out of harm's way and the DevH's. Then Margaret cried out, " He is gone. Now he is gone ! " and her husband joyfully bade her come up to him again; which she did, but so quickly that they greatly marvelled at it, and thought to be sure the Devil had helped her. Yet she proved to be none the worse for the encounter : which was singular, as times went. They then put her in bed, and four of them kept down the clothes, praying fervently. Suddenly the woman was got out of bed : she did not move herself by nerves, muscles, or wHl, of course ; but she was carried out by a supernatural power, and taken to the window at the head of the bed. But whether the devil or she opened the window, the pamphlet does not determine. Then her legs were thrust out of the window, and the people heard a thing knock at her feet as if it had been upon a tub ; and they saw a great fire, and they smelt a grievous smell ; and then, by the help of their prayei-s, they pulled Margaret into THE WOMAN AND THE BEAR. 225 the room again, and set her upon her feet. After a few moments she cried out, " Lord, methinks I see a Uttle childe ! " But they paid no heed to her. Twice or thrice she said this, and ever more earnestly ; and at last they all looked out at the window, for they thought to be sure she must have some meaning for her raving. And " loe, they espied a thing like unto a little child, with a bright shining countenaunce casting a greate light in the chamber." And then the candle, which had hitherto burnt blue and dim, gave out its natural light so that they could all see each other. Whereupon they fell to joyful prayer, and gave thanks to God for the deliverance. And Margaret Cooper was laid iu her bed again, cabn, smiling, and collected, never more to be troubled by a Headless Bear which rolled her about like a ball, or by a bright shining child looking out from the chinks of a rud^ magic lantern. As for the bear, I confess I think he was nearer akin to man than devil ; that he was known about Eockington in Gloucestershire; and that Mar- garet Cooper understood the conduct of the plot from first to last. But then this is the sceptical nineteenth century, wherein the wiles of human cunning are more believed in than the power of the devil, or the miracles of supematuralism. Yet this was a case which, in spite of all its fraud and folly so patently displayed, was cited as one of the most notorious and striking instances of the power of Satan over the bodies as well as the souls of those who gave themselves up to the things of the world. THE WITCHES OF ENGLAND. THE WITCHES OF WARBOIS.- In 1589, Robert Throckmorton, Esquire, lived at War- bois, in Huntingdonshire. He had five daughters, the eldest of whom, Miss Joan, was fifteen, while the rest came down in steps, two years or so between each, in the ordinary manner. On the tenth of November, Mistress Jane, being then near ten years of age, was suddenly seized with a kind of fit. She " screeked ** loud and often, lay as if in a trance for half an hour or more, shook one leg or one arm and no other, " as if the Palsie had been in it," made her body so stiff and rigid that no man could bend her, and went through the usual forms of a young girl's hysteria. A neigh- bour, one Alice Samuel, who lived next door to the Throckmortons, went in to see the afflicted child ; for all the neighbours were flocking in to see her as a kind of curiosity ; and, stepping up into the chimney-side, sat hard down by her, she being held in another woman's arms by the fire. Suddenly the^ child cried out, " Did you ever see one more like a Witch than she is ?" pointing to Mother Samuel ; " take off her black-thrumb'd cap, for I cannot abide to look at her." Notlung was thought of her words at the time, the mother merely chiding her for her hghtness of speech ; but " the old woman hearing her, sat still, without say- ing a word, yet* looked very dismally, as those that saw her remembered very well" And as well she might, poor old soul; for she must have known that Mrs. * * A compleat History of Magick, Sorcery, and Witchoraft' By Bichard Boulton. 1715. THE WITCHES OF WARBOIS, 227 Jane's light speech would in all probability be heavy enough to bring her down to the grave. Doctoring did the child no good. Dr. Barrow of Cambridge, the most noted man of the district, gave the distemper no satisfactory name, and his remedies were powerless to remove it; Mr. Butler, another skilful man, was equally at fault ; and when, about a month aft'Cr Mrs. Jane had been attacked, two other daughters were driven to the like extremity, and " cry'd out upon Mother Samuel, * Take her away, look where she standeth there before us in a black thrumb'd Cap (which she commonly wore, though not then) ; it's she that hath bewitched us, and she will kill us if you don't take her away,'" the parents were moved to believe the whole thing supernatural, and that Mother Samuel had indeed bewitched them as they said. About a month after the affliction of these two, a younger child, not quite nine years old, was taken like the rest ; and soon after Mrs. Joan, of fifteen, went the same way — only more severely handled than them all. Mrs. Joan had a specialty in her fits. She was not only hysterical like her sisters, but she had a Spirit, and this Spirit sounded in her ears information of tilings to come : as, that the servants as well as the five children should be bewitched — which they were, but did not become so notorious as the little impostors of better blood ; all recovering so soon as they left the house for other situations, and nothing more being heard of them. Things went on then in this manner, the children being perpetually tormented with fits, and for ever crjdng out against old dame Samuel, when, in February of the next year (1590), it was resolved to bring her to the house that the children might " scratch " her, and so reKeve themselves somewhat. Whereupon 228 THE WITCHES OP ENGLAND. she, her young daughter Agnes, and one Cicely Burder — both of whom were accused of the same malpractices as herself — were haled to Mr. Throckmorton's, there to undergo their preliminary ordeal. Every care was taken to prevent the mother from holding any com- munication with her daughter Agnes ; but at the entry she managed to lean over and whisper to her. Mr. Pickering, the children's imcle, who had undertaken to conduct this Scratching, was ready to swear that she said, "I charge thee do not confess anything;" but Mother Samuel swore, in her turn, that she had only charged her to hasten home to get her father his dinner ; for that same father was a terrible old Turk, and not likely to wait patiently for his dinner or aught else. When the women went into the house the children were standing by the fire, perfectly well ; but the instant they saw Mother Samuel, they fell down in their fits, leaping and springing about like fishes newly taken out of the water, drawing their heads and heels backwards, and throwing out their arms with great groans that were terrible and troublesome to those that beheld them. They screamed and struggled to get at the old woman, scratching at the bed-clothes, or the maids' aprons, or anything they could touch, crying out, " O ! that I had her ! ! that I had her !" And when Mr. Pickering forced Mother Samuel's hand within theirs, they scratched at it with so much vehemence that one of them splintered her nails "with her eager desire of revenge ;" doing the same by Cicely Burder, who thus, we are not told how or why, found herself in a danger- ous and equivocal position, but seems to have got well out of it in time. Or perhaps she died between whiles, happily for herself. THE WITCHES OF WARBOIS. 229 For the next few months it was Mrs. Elizabeth Throckmorton who kept up the balL Mr. Pickering took her away with him to his own house^ where she fooled them all to the top of their bent, crying out to Mother Samuel to take away her mouse, for she would have none of it, and exclaiming in piteous tones that Mother Samuel was trying to force a cat, or a &og, or sometimes a toad, into her mouth ; hopping about on one leg, pretending to be utterly incapable of putting the other to the ground ; sometimes going for two steps at a time, when '' she would halt and give a beck with her head as low as her knees ;" asking if no one heard the spirit within her lapping the milk she had just taken ; playing at cards with her eyes shut, or seem- ingly so ; and falling into drowsy fits which took her even in the midst of meals, or any while else specially untimely. Her bewitchment took a certain contro- versial turn too, and witnessed for the Pope and the Devil ; for " on the Eleventh, one asked her if she loved the Word of God; whereupon she was much troubled and tormented. When they asked, Love you Witchcraft ? she was content. Love you the Bible ? it shaked her. Love you Papistry ? the Devil within her was quiet. Love you Prayer? it raged. Love you the Mass ? it was still. Love you the Gospel ? it heaved up her Belly ; so that every good thing it disliked ; but whatever concerned Popish Idolatry it was pleased with." Mr. Pickering kept this sectarian young lady from March to September, and then it pleased Mistress Elizabeth to require change of air and scene, and she demanded to be taken back to her father's house at Warbois. There she played off her tricks with new vigour, when Lady Cromwell, wife of Sir Henry Crom- weU, Ent, hearing of these heavy afflictions came to :he witches of England. - •- -^ jiitfii and c^omfort the purenta The children ^>«> ^^'iiC off into their customary state; it waa «r ^tiue to disappoint my Lady; "and were so • . .^*. I'^rmented that it moved the good Lady's u-. ^ ua l^ty, so that she conld not forbear TeaiB, u;s^u «jid Mother Samnel to be sent for, who ^v i iruy to come, becanse her Hnsband was •a.;. :.► >ir Henry CromwelL" As soon as she came V ui<.lrea were so much worse that the Lady, ...>».u*i l>eyond herself, and exceedingly angry .««. L<»caer Suuael would not confess to her crim^ V .«ku .M»id oi her a^ die was struggling to get free of • u .Uiiid2> aud slip out of the room, pulled off her V I V licr, aud out off a lock of her hair, which she gave i>auiy to 3Irs* Throckmorton together with the old b.uos luiiriace; bidding her bum them. The old M i aitiii turning against the Lady, said, half sorrowfully, • Mauam, why do you use me thus? I never did you i\ harm as yet :** words to be remembered and . 1 V uMU't d up against her, when the hour came. That N< i\ tii^tit Lady Cromwell had bad dreams concerning Mpuur iSamuel and her cat, which she said came to -un.» ul the flesh from her-^— and awakened, crying ..^-lulv aud much distressed. From that time she ... iia^ imd continued very hardly holden till her \^»,, uiv, which was one year and a quarter after V N ..Ml to Warbois* So Mother Samuel's wordii . V Kui to have been witch's threats, and the . V uuuy was convinced that Lady Cromwell .rvv o\ her magic arts, and bewitched. As she . v« t auy, with nervous fear and superstition and V \i vt'tu:, in the winter of 1591, Mr. Henry ^^. L vouug student at Cambridge, tried to make. THE WITCHES OP WARBOIS. 231 Dame Samuel coiifeas, but she would not suffer him or his companions to speak, and when they desired her to speak sofUier, answered : '^ She was bom in a Mill, begot in a Kiln^ and must have her Will, and could speak no softlier." Then Mr. Henry began to question her on her faith, but got only tart answers ; so, losing patience, he said that if she did not repent and confess to haying worked that wickedness on the children, he hoped one day to see her bum at the stake, and that he would bring wood and faggots and the children should blow the coals. To which old Dame Samuel replied that she ^* would rather see him doused over head in^ the pond ;" and so went away home, to be beaten for gossiping and staying late, by that terrible old Turk of heuL And now the children would be well only when the dame was with them ; so the parents sought to engage her to lire with them, but the old Turk would not give his consent^ and beat her severely with a cudgel on the slightest pretext. The whole thing angered him, and his dame could not do right let her do what she would* However, he was prevailed on to spare her for eight or nine days, during which time the lying little girls profeased themselves cured of all their haunting spirits — dun chickens, naked babes, and the like ^ to the old woman's extreme consternation and passionate assurances of innocenca Then the children turned against Agnes Samuel, the daughter, declaring that she had bewitched them equally with the mother : whereupon the father^ Mr. Throckmorton, went to bring her to the house ; when she hid herself in an attic or loft, barricading herself in by sacks of wool piled up on the trap- door. She was forced to come down at last, and her fear was made the chief evidence against her. The 282 THE WrrCHES OP ENGLAND, bour had come round for her on Time's cmel dial, and she could not escape the inevitable decree that had gone fortL All this while the old mother was forcibly- detained at Mr. Throckmorton's house; the children pretending that they could be well only in her presence, and absolutely refusing to let her go, though she was sick and fearful and weary, and cried to get home again to her daughter and husband. That uncompro- mising oaken cudgel of his was less terrible than the awfdl suspicion under which she was living here ; and the harassing uncertainty of her life — ^never knowing what new lie the children might frame against her, nor how much nearer they might bring her to the gallows by same wicked fancy or delusion — was infinitely worse than all the 6aths and iU-usage of home, of whidi she knew at least the extent and end. She seems to have been a gentle-spirited old creature in spite of her crusty tongue ; and at the beck of every one who chose to knock her about and require from her service and sub- mission. When Mr. Throckmorton had teased and threatened and exhorted her, till she was completely " dazed and mazed " with all she heard — and when the children had acted their fits with such power and accu- racy that they simulated nature to the life, and had impressed even her with all the wicked things which their Spirits told them of her and of her daughter — ^her mind, enfeebled by suffering and terror, gave way, and she was deluded into a confession of sin and penitence ; after which she obtained leave to go home. As her husband gave her but a harsh welcome, angry with her 'for her weakness in confessing, she recanted as of course ; when Mr. Throckmorton, getting hold of her by an open window beneath which his fiiends were stationed, bullied and deluded her once more THE WITCHES OF WARBOIS. 233 into maJdng a confession which they might hear ; and on the strength of which he carried off both dame and daughter, to be examined by the Bishop of Linoobi. The Bishop found her easy. Tes, she had an imp ; a dun chicken which sucked on her chin, and which she had sent to torment the Throckmorton girls. The dun chicken and the rest of the spirits were now at the bottom of her stomach, and made her so full and heavy that she could not lace her coat, nor was the horse on which she rode able to carry her all the way : she had three spirits, all like dun chickens — ^Pluck, Catch, and White, which had been given her by an "upright man," extremely hard, of the name of Langland, of no par- ticular dwelliDg and now gone beyond seas ; and she had sent all three to the children and had plagued them sorely. This she said at various times, at each clause conjuring the devil and her spirits to inform her of the facts required by the Bight Eeverend Father in God. After her examination she and her daughter were committed to gaol; but Mr. Throckmorton got Agnes out on bail that he might take her home to the children, and see what they would say of her. This seemed to him the best way to complete the evidences of guiltiness agcdnst her, which at present were very slight and worthless. So the net closed tighter and tighter round this hapless fanuly, and soon the deep black waves, rolling onward, dashed over their devoted heads. When they heard that Agnes was brought back to Warbois, the children fell into their fits again, each saying, '^I am glad, I am glad; none so glad as I." They knew the cruel sport preparing for them, and were in no hurry to abandon the pleasant excitement of their 234 THE WITCHES OP ENGLAND. Possession, during which they were made so many centres of public interest, petted and commiserated and looked at and talked about and made of more consequence than the finest lady in the land. When the game was ovw they must sink down into the humdrum liyes of good little girls in a country town, of no possible interest to living being outside llieir own house door. Surely an event to be deferred to the latest moment possible 1 For the first three or four days after Agnes' arrival they condescended to be well, but, being by that time tired of their new companion, they fell back into their former state, and cried out against her more bitterly than they had ever done against her mother. She was more helpless, too, than the mother, and more entirely in their power ; so that the sport was greater, and the fear of opposition or detection less. Specially did Mis- tress Joan, the eldest girl, torment her ; who, being at this time seventeen, had other ideas of spirits than dun chickens, mice, or frogs, which were all very well in the days of her infancy but quite uninteresting to her now. The manner in which she introduced her Spirits was singular. One day, just after her nose had bled, and she had said '^ it would be a good thing to throw her handkerchief into the fire, and bum the young witch," she suddenly looked about her smiling^ and said, "What is this in God's Name that comes tum- bling to me ? It tumbles like a Foolrbal, it looks like a puppit-player, and appears much like its Dame's old thrumb Cap. * What is your Name, I pray you ?* said she. The Thing answered, his Name was Blew. To which she answered, *Mr. Blew you are welcome, I never saw you before ; I thought my Nose bled not for nothing, what News have you brought ? What,' says she, * dost thou say I shall be worse handled than ever THE WITCHES OF WARBOIS. 235 I was? Ha! what dost thou say? that I shall now haye my Fits, when I shall both hear and see and know every Body? that's a new Trick indeed. I think never any of my Sisters were so used, but I care not for you : do your worst, and when you have done, you will make an end.' " Then she cried out that Agnes Samuel had too mueh liberty, and must be more strictly looked to ; for that Mr. Blew had told her she should have no peace till she and the old dame were hanged. Mrs. Joan had opened a most prolific and amusing vein. Her imagination stopped at nothing, and she showed herself no mean hand at romance. She was very consecutive too, and kept up the likeness well. In the evening Mr. Blew appeared again, chiefly for the purpose of telling her that young Nan Samuel was his Dame, and to ask when the Spirit Smack, of whom he was jealous, had been with her. Mrs. Joan said she knew of no Smack. "You do," says the Thing, " and it is he that tells' you all these things, but I wiU curse him for it" " Do your worst to me or him, I care not for you," says she. " Farewel," says the Thing. " Do you bid me farewel ?" says she ; " farewel, and be hanged ; and come again when you are sent for." So then she came out of her fit. The next day a strange gentleman coming, Mrs. Elizabeth passed off into one of her wild states, and Mr. Throckmorton, " to show the gentleman a wonder," sent for yoimg Agnes, and made her say after him, " I charge thee, thou Devil, as I love thee, and have Authority over thee, and am a Witch, and guilty of this matter, that thou suffer this Child to be well at this present." Upon which Mrs. Elizabeth wiped her eyes, and was perfectly well ; and the wretched young girl was by so many steps nearer to her doom. The next day was a grand field-day for 236 THE WITCHES OF ENGLAND. Mrs. JoaiL Her spirits were in admirable disorder. Mr. Smack came ftom fightrog with Pluck about her, for they were both in love with her, and had fought with great cowl staves last night in old dame's back yard, and Smack had broken Pluck's head, for which Mrs. Joan was not at all thankful, but, when he looked for a little loving word of gratitude, answered, scorn- fully, that she wished Pluck had broke his neck also, and so bid him go and be hanged for she would have nought to do with him. Presently in came Mr. Pluck, hanging down his broken head and looking very sheep- ish, but jealous and angry with Smack who seemed to have the best chance of them all with the young lady. Another day it was Catch who came in limping, with a broken leg got from the redoubtable Smack ; but when Mrs. Joan tried to break his other leg with a stick she had in her hand — ^for she was a very scornful young lady to them — she could not ; fot* ever as she struck at him he leaped over the stick, "just like a Jack-cm- apes," as she said. Mi:. Slew's turn came next. He appeared before her at supper with his arm in a sling : Smack had broken it. So Smack broke Pluck's head, Catch*s leg, and Slew's arm, and then came himself to tell her that he would beat them all again, with the help of his cousin another Smack, and one Hardname, whose "Name standeth upon eight Letters, and every Letter standeth for a Word, but what his Name is otherwise we know not" Then Smack and she con- versed about the propriety of "scratching" Agnes Samuel ; and it was agreed between them that she should not scratch her then, because her feice would be healed by the Assizes, but just before that time when aU the world might see the marks. And now began a scene of painful brutality. When- THE WITCHES OP WARBOIS: 257 JBver tte children fell intp their fits, they would only consent to be got out of them by Agnes' repeating a form of conjiu^tion, in which she acknowledged her- self to be a witch and guilty of their disease, command- ing the devil, whom she had sent into them, to leave them. Then they came round, and were well until strangers called, when they invariably went off into their fits — which we can quite well understand — or until they got tired of the monotony of health. The most terrible threats were held out against Nan Samuel ; and each child talked to its particular spirit with passion and fury of scratching her. It came at last : the little diabolical tempers which rose higher and higher with each fresh indulgence, getting weary of only fits and muttered communications with spirits and the thirst for blood grew into a frenzy. One of the younger children, Mrs. Mary, one day fell into a " very trouble- some Fit," which held her half an hour, and at the last, growing better, she said, " Is it true ? Do you say this is the day I must scratch the young Witch ? I am glad of it ; I will pay her home both for myself and Sisters." The young Pickering men who were standing by, hearing this, sent for Agnes to come into the room ; when she came in the child cried out, " Art thou come, thou young Witch, who hath done all this mischief?*' At which Agnes seemed surprised, this being the first time Mrs. Mary had abused her. Then one of the com- pany told her to take Mary in her arms, and carry her down stairs ; but she had no sooner got hold of her than the child fell to scratching her head and face with eager fierceness; the poor girl standing still and holding down her head, not defending herself but only crying out pitifully, while the child scratched on her face a broad and bleeding wound. When she was out of breath and 238 THE WITCHES OF ENGLAND. thus forced to leave off, she cried and said '' she was sorry for her cruelty, but the Thing made her do it, so that she could not help herself." Another day it was another of them who fell upon the maid, she not defend- ing herself or resenting, but •* crying out sadly, desiring the Lord to pitty her." Then they abused her, saying, ** Thy Mother is a Witch, thy Father is a Witch, and thou art a Witch, and the worst of all ;" and then they clamoured for the father, the old Turk, and would have him in to scratch him toa Just at that moment old Samuel chanced to come in to see his daughter — for he knew what kind of treatment she had to undergo — ^when a great hubbub arose. The children cried out against him, and — ^wretched young hypocrites ! — exhorted him in the godliest terms to confess and repent; called him witch and naughty man and all the rest of the injuries then current; while he retorted fiercely and rudely, and told one of the little baggages she lied — ^as she did. But Mr. Throckmorton got angry, and would not let 'him go till he had pronounced the same conju- ration as that by which his poor daughter was forced to " fyle " herself ; and when he had said the words, the child came out of her fit» and acted amazement and shame to the life. So it went on : the children having their fits, being visited by their spirits, of whom there were nine now afloat — three Smacks, Pluck, Blew, Catch, White, Callicot, and Hardname — and every day or so scratching poor Nan till her face and back and hands were one mass of scars and wounds. And then the Assize time came, and the three Samuels — ^father, mother, and daughter — ^were put upon their trial for bewitching Lady Cromwell to death, and tormenting Mrs. Joan Throckmorton and her sisters. There could be no mistake about it now, for not only had they all THE WITCHES OF WAKBOIS. 239 three convicted themselves by their own confessions in the conjuration which they had been obliged to repeat, but even before the judge, Mrs. Jane played ofif the like trick, falling into a terrible fit which only old Samuel could get her out of by repeating the charm. At first he was obstinate and sturdily refused to say the words ; but on the judge telling him that he should be brought in guilty if he did not, he consented, and had no sooner said — " As I am a witch, and did consent to the death of the Lady Cromwell, so I charge thee. Devil, to suffer Mrs. Jane to come out of her Fit at this present" — than Mrs. Jane wiped her eyes, looked round her, and said, " Lord father where am I ?" pretend- ing to be quite amazed at her position. No hand is wanting when there is stoning to be done. Now that the Samuels were fairly convicted of witchcraft in one instance, witnesses came forward to prove them guilty of the like in others. It was remembered how certain persons had died who had offended the old dame ; how others had lost their cows and whole farm stock in consequence of giving her rough language; how, even since she had been in gaol, she had bewitched to his death one of the turnkeys who had chained her to a bedpost^ and had cruelly afflicted the gaoler's own son, so that he could not be recovered but by " scratching " her ; with the further proof that when the grand jury returned a true biU, "billa vera," against them, old father Samuel burst out passionately to her with, " A plague of God light on thee, for thou art she that has brought us all to this, and we may thank thee for it." So the judge, " after good divine counsel given to them, proceeded to Judgment, which was to death." But the poor old woman set up a plea of being with child, though she was necu: fourscore years of age ; at which all the 240 THE WITCHES OP BNGLAIID. oonrt laughed^ and she herself most of aU* thinking it might save her. Some one standing near to Agnes counselled her to try the like plea; but the brave young girl, who had something of her father's spirit in her, indignantly refused. " No," said Agnes, with the gallows straight before her, and this desperate plea per- haps able to save her — " no ; it shall never be said that I was both Witch and ." She died with the sam& haughty courage maintained to the last: but old mother Samuel maundered through a vast number of confessions — implicated her husband — confessed to her spirits — but with one affecting touch of nature, through all her drivel and imbecility steadily refused to crimi- nate her daughter. No, her Nan was no witch; she was clear and pure before God and towards man ; and neither force nor cajolery could make her forswear that bit of loving truth. When those three helpless wretches were fairly dead, the children, upon whose young souls lay the inefface- able stain of Murder, and whose first steps in life had been through innocent blood, gave up the game and pronounced themselves cured : so we hear no more of their fits or their spirits, or Mrs. Joan's ghostly lovers fighting with cowl staves and breaking each other's heads out of jealousy and revenge : and the last record of the Gajsfd is, that Sir Henry Cromwell left an annual sum of forty shillings to provide for a yearly sermon against witchcraft, to be preached at Huntingdon by a B.D. or D.D. member of Queen's College, Cambridge. How terrible to think that three himian lives were sacrificed for such wild and wilful nonsense, and that sane and thoughtful and noble-minded people of this present day walk on the way towards the same faith ! Better by far the most chill and desolate scepticism. THE MAN OF HOPE AND THE DEVIL. ^1 which at least will light no Smithfield fires for any forms of creed or monstrous imaginings of superstition, than beliefs which can only be expressed and main- tained by blood, and the culmination of which is in the suffering and destruction of all dissentients. THE MAN OF HOPE AND THE DEVIL .♦ A young lawyer, a Mr. Darrel, had a call to the ministry. He was made aware of this by the extra- ordinary sluggishness that came upon him when he turned to open a law book ; so, as preaching puritanical sermons extempore was less toilsome and cost less study than learning the intricacies of the Codex Angli- canus, he became converted to extreme doctrines, and was principally regarded as a Man of Hope, skilful in casting out devils and marvellously apt at discovering witchcraft. His first essay at this work was in 1587 with Katherine Green, a young girl of seventeen, who had some hysterical affection which caused her to swell to an enormous size and led her to fancies and delu- sions, as, that she saw shapes and apparitions, and a young child without feet or legs looking at her from out a welL She also had fits, which she afterwards confessed were simulated in order to make her father-in-law, who was generally exceedingly severe with her, more kind and pliable : but Mr. Darrel said they were the fits of possession, and, as a proof, cast eight devils out of her ; specially one sturdy devil, called Middlecub, which had been sent into her by Margaret Roper. Mr. Darrel * Hutchinson^s ' Historical Essay concerning Witchcraft.' Boolton's ' History of Magic* Harsent's ' Discovery of the Fravdvlent Practises of J. Darrel.' ' A Tme Relation of the Strange and Grevovs Vexation by the Devil of 7 Persons in Lancashire, and William Somers of Not- tingham.* ByJohnDorreL 1600. B 242 tHE WlTOHfiS OP ESTOLAND. at once seized Margaret Eo^, accositog he!r of this Middlecnb imp, and sending her off to llie magistante, Mr. Fonliamb ; and in the meanwhile Katherine gaflered herself to be repossessed, having been impmdent enough to talk with the devil in the likeness of a handsome young man who met her in the lanes, where he entertained her with propositions of marriage, and gave her some bread to eat Mr. Fouliamb happened to be a man of sense, and discharged Margaret Boper, at the same time threatening to send Darrel to prison in her stead if he took on himself to calumniate honest folk without cause. This rebuff cooled the young lawyer parson's ardour a little ; but in 1594 the Starkies of Lancashire announced themselves possessed, and Mr. Darrel must needs go down to vex the foul fiend that had gotten them. For he was so holy a man that the devils hated him mightily, being sorely vexed in his presence, and eying out, " Now he is gone ; now he is gone ; now blacke coate is gone," as soon as he quitted them, wearied with his wrestling. The story of the Starkies was this : — Anne, aged nine, and John, of ten, were taken with " dumpish heavie countenances," and fearful startings of their bodies, loud shouting fits, and convulsions. The father went to Hartley, a known conjuror, who came to their aid with popish charms and certain herbs ; and so stilled them for a year and a half. Btit when he *' fained as thought he would haue gone into another countrey," the children fell ill again, and Mr. Starkie thought it best to secure the perpetual services of the conjuror by a fee of forty shillings yearly. But Hartley wanted more, and thereupon began a quarrel which ended in the Possession of ttie children, of three scholars living at the Starkies, of ^Margaret Byron, and lastly of THE MAN OP HOPE AND THE DEVIL. 243 Hartley himself. Now Hartley bad a devily and wiiom- Boeyer he Idssed he inoculated with this devil and breathed it into them. And as he was always kisnng some one— John for lo^e often, t^e little wenches in jest, to Margaret Hardman ^^ promising a thraue of kisses/' " wrestling with Johan Smyth, a maid, to kiss her "'— he had given the devil in ridi proportion all through tixe Starkies' house, and only Mr. Barrel eould exorcise him. The possessed leaped a)bout like goats, and crawled on all fours like beasts, and barked like dogs, and had communications from a white dove, and saw homed devils under *the beds, and had visions of \Ag black dogs , with monstrous tails and bound with chains, and huge black cats and big mice that knocked them down at a blow, and left them speechless, cold, and dead. And then they took to " slossinge up their meat like greedy dogges or hogges," and they made the same noises as a broken-winded horse ; and they howled and shrieked ; and one of them, Jane Ashton the servant aged thirty, fell foul of Edmund Hartley for all his kisses and pro- mises of marriage ; and they " yelled and whupped ;" and there was in very troth the devil to pay in that horrible house when Mr. More and Mr. Barrel went to exorcise the fiends and restore the possessed to their senses. After some days of prayer, and of fighting with the devil who would cry out when Mr. Barrel was preaching, " Bible bable, he will never have done prating, prittle prattle ;" and " I must goe, I must away ; I cannot tarrie ; whither shall I goe ? I am hot, I am too hot, I wiU not dye ! " and such like, six of them were delivered, and visibly and bodily dispossessed. With one, Mary Byron, the devil came up from her stomach to her breast, then to her throat, when it gave her '' a sore lug," whilst a mist dazzled her eyes. 244 THE WITCHES OP ENGLAND. Then she felt it go out of her mouth, leaving behind it a sore throat and a filthy smell, and it was in the likeness of a crow's head, and it sat in a comer of the parlour in the dark ; but suddenly flashing out all a fire it flew out of the window, and the whole place was in a blaze, according to her imagination. John Starkie lost his in the shape of a man with a hump- back and very ill-favoured, who, when he had gone out wished much to re-enter, but Master John with- stood him, and had the best of it He was like a " foule ugly man with a white beard and a ' bulch ' on his back." The same tale had little Ellin Holland and Anne Starkie to tell, all save the white beard. Elinor Hardman lost hers as an urchin, but presently return- ing through a little hole in the parlour, he offered her gold and silver in any quantity if she would let him enter again, and when she resisted he threatened to cast her into the fire and the pit, and to break her neck ; all of which threats being unheeded by the little maid of ten, he left her again in his old form of " urchin." The next day, and the next, all these devils came again, seeking to repossess the children. They came in va- rious forms — as a black raven ; a black boy, with his head bigger than his body ; a black rough dog with a firebrand in his mouth ; five white doves ; a brave fallow like a wooer ; two little whelps that played on the table, and ran into a dish of butter ; an ape ; a bear with fire in his mouth ; a haystack — all, haystack ar, v\. II i^s the rest, promising them bags of gold and tllvti' if tliey might come into them again, but threaten- ing (n \tnm\i their necks and their backs, and throw tlti^iu U\Ui the pit and the fire, and out of the window, if iltutitid But Messrs. More and Darrel were instant in ^iHivuc, mid successfully withstood them. The children \ THE MAN OF HOPE AND THE DEVIL. 245 were pronounced finally dispossessed: all save Jane Ashton, who went away to a popish family and became popish herself ; wherefore the devil recovered her, says Mr. Darrel, and her last state was worse than her first. As for Edmund Hartley, he was hanged at Lancaster, chiefly through Mr. Darrel's exertions. In 1596 Mr. Darrel had more work. Thomas Dar- ling, " the Boy of Burton," had offended old Alice Goodridge; so Alice possessed him, and Mr. Darrel was sent for the undoing. His chief weapon in this case was a ranting tract called " The Enemie of Secu- ritie," which the devil could not abide any how, and during the reading of which he would cry out — ^through the earthly medium of the Boy of Burton — " Badul- phus, Belzebub can doe no good, his head is stricken off with a word." — " We cannot prevaile (against the church and Mr. Darrel), for they will not be holpen by witches. Brother Eadulphus, we cannot prevaile ; let us go to our mistress and torment her ; I have had a draught of her blood to-day." " Againe — * There is a woman earnest at prayer, get her away.' * Nay,* quoth John Alsop (a man that was present), with a loude voice, * we cannot spare her.* Thus the Boy graced Mistress Wightman, his aunt. And againe, * Brother Glassop (another devil), we cannot prevaile, his faith is soe strong. And they fast and pray, and a preacher prayeth as fiast as they.' " And " I bayted my hooke often, and at last I catcht him. Heere I was before, and heere I am againe, and heere I must stay, though it be but for a short tyme. I leade them to drink, carouse, and quaffe. I make them to sweare. I have leave given mee to doe what I will for a time. What is wightier thanaEingeinhisownelande? A King I am, in whome I raigne, heere I am King for a time." With much 246 THE WITCHES OF EXGLAND. more of the same kind. In the mean time old Alice Gk)odiidge, who had wrought all this mischief, died in prison, while her deyilish spirit or imp, Minnie, whom she had sent into the boy, racketed and rioted in his sonl and body, and Mr. Darrel wrestled against him with prayer and " the Enemie of Secnritie." He finally prerailed, and after Thomas Darling had been pos- sessed and dispossessed and repossessed again, delivered him from Badulphus and Minnie and Glassop and Beelzebub, and so had leisure to turn to some one else when needed. That some one else was soon found; for there was Will Somers, a lad living with Mr. Brakenbury at Adiby-de-la-Zouch during the time of Mr. Darrel's ministry there, who was now at Nottingham, and one of the most accomplished demoniacs of the day. No- thing would satisfy Will but that Mr. Darrel should be sent for to cast the devil out of him. He had known of his prowess with Eatherine Wright, and the Starkies, and the Boy of Burton, and why should he not glorify GUxi and the Puritans as well in Nottingham as in Lancashire? Accordingly, that gentleman was sent for on the 5th of November, 1597, and the farce began. Before Mr. Darrel even saw the lad he said he was possessed, and he said the same thing to himself — counterfeiting or illness being of course put out of couil ; and he described to the bystanders in what shape the devil would appear when driven out of the lad — ^for he would make himself visible to them if they had but faith and courage and patience to see the end, and if they would not be terrified when the boy " scriehed or eryed aloude in a strange and supematurall manner ; eoiiietimes roaring fearfiillye lyke a beare, and trying like a swyne." The shapes, then, in which he would THE MAN OF HOPE AND THE DEVIL. 247 go were th o a o. ^^ a Moose, a Man with a ^unoh-baclv higher than, his Hea4> ^tol ugly Man with a white Beard, Sk Crow's Hea4 round, a great Breath, uglj like a Tostd,. an Urohhn, &e," And he told theipa, also in the tad's hearing, of what other possease^ pepons had done : how they had cast thein^elye^ into fire or water, gnashed with their teeth, writhed with their necks, imd drawn their n^outh^ awry, foaming. Then he said that Will Sp^iers was afficted for the sins of Notting- ham, and God had ^lade eyen the deyil a preacher to deter the^n from, them ; wher^t Will acte4 by signs c^l the 9im pf Nottinghcgoi, $^id Mr. Darrel expired them to the pepple 6^8 he went on. With suc|i ^ master as thii^ it was no difficult mittter for th^ pupil to auc-r C6ed« Two sermons were preached on his behalf. During Mr, Aldred's he lay still, ej^cepting a little struggle now and then: this was to show that Mr, ^dred was not powerful as a i^au of God. But when Mr, Darrel b^gftu, he reused hipase}f i|p, a;nd on his desoribiag the fourteen signs of Possession one after the other, acted them all to th^ life as he told thepa off. ^' He tore ; he foamed ; he waUpwed ; his Face was drawn awry ; his Eyes would st$^:e and bis Tongue haug out; he had a Swelling would seem to run from his Forehead dowri by his £ar and Throat, and through his BeUy and Thighs, to the Calf of his Legs ; he would speak with his Mouth scarce moving ; ^ud when they looked his Tongue would seem drawn down his Throat ; he would try to cast himself into the Fire and Water ; he would seem heavy that they could not lift him, and his Joints stiff that they could not bend them." And when Mr, Darrel farther e:diQrted them all to stand firm, and they would see the glory of God in the dispossession, he cried and rended and laid as if dead, just in the order 248 THE WITCHES OF ENGLAND. which the preacher desired Then he rose up cured and exorcised ; but Mr. Darrel told him he might be pos- sessed again, and he must be very careful and watchfoL Of course he was possessed again. He had been too great a gainer by the first trial not to venture on a second. If he had been bought off his apprenticeship, had large presents of clothes, and kept in idleness at his &ther-in-law's, for a first trial, what might not fall from the skies on this second occasion ? So Will began to talk wildly of a black dog that haunted him, offering him gold and ginger, and of the devil who came with six more shapes to torment him — ^namely, as a cock, a crane, a snake, an angel, a toad, a newt, a set of viols, and dancers, and that he stood before him ^^ with a foure- forked cappe on his heade;" sometimes, too, making noises and motions like whelps or " kitlings." Fourteen persons were thrown into prison, accused of bewitching Master Will, of whom the most celebrated was Millicent Horslie, whom no human skill could have saved had not the impostor betrayed himself in time. For Will Somers had a revelation concerning her, which must be told in the words of his " confession, " as reported by Harsnet : — *^ Maister Darrel told my father-in-law and others in my hearing, that he, the said Maister Barrel, Maister Aldred,.and some others, were going to carrie MiUicent Horsley (that present morning) to the said Maister Perkins, to be examined. Whereupon, I gessing by the time of Maister Darrel's departure, and by the distance of the way, and of the likelihood that she woulde deny herselfe to bee a witche, said to those that were, present by mee in one of my fittes, about eleven of the clocke, that Millicent Horsley was in examining, and that she denyed herselfe to be a witch." This co- incidence was too striking an instance of supernatural THE MAN OP HOPE AND THE DEVIL. 249 power to be overlooked. Mr. Darrel worked on it as one of the most marvellous proo& of the boy's unde- niable possession, and Millicent Horsley lay in gaol, together with thirteen others, to satisfy the craft of one and the credulity of the other, and to prove the whole age sick, diseased, and enfeebled by superstition. Wfll's sister, Mary Cowper, seeing how pleasant and profitable a thing it W8ts to be bewitched, followed in her brother's steps, and cried out on Alice Freeman, a poor old creature who thought to escape by saying she was with child. The plea was not a very safe one, for Mr. Darrel told her if she was, it was by the devil, and she had better have held her tongue. But by this time the parish authorities got frightened, and inter- fered; sending Will oflf to the workhouse, where he still continued his fits and antics, until a rough fellow there, one John Shepheard, told him that if he " did not leave and rise up he would set such a pair of Knip- knaps upon him as should make him rue it" — ^when he gathered himself up and confessed his imposture. Mr. Darrel would have none of this recantation. He said he was more possessed than ever, and that it was the devil within him that made him to lie. So WiQ wrote the following letter, as a kind of quietus to his zealous friend : — " Mr. Darrel, my hearty Commendations unto you. This is to desire you that you would let me be at quiet : For whereas you said that I was Possessed, I was not ; and for those Tricks that I did before you came, was through Folks Speeches that came to me : And those that I did since, was through your Speeches, and others. For as you said I could not hear, I did hear all Things that were done in the House^ and all Things that I did were coimterfeit ; And I pray you to let it pass ; for 250 T9B WITCHES QF ENGI«ANI). the viore yon meddle in it, the more dkeiedit it will be for joa : Aad I {Hray Qoi, as4 7<W9 and aU the World to forgiYe ma" 'EiYen this was not enoagh. WHl waa bribed over by the promise of a good jAaee in a gentleman's honae if he would be prop^ly demoniae again ; and consenting thereto, played again hjs old tricks ; but the Lord Chief Justice, Sir Edmund Anderson, not beljeving a word of it all, encouraged him kindly to tell the truth, and not be afraid ; so Will started up and was perfectly well, and for the greater satisfaction of the gentlefolks showed them how he worked. And to prove how small was the yaln^ of eyidence in those days, one Biohard Mee— ^who was held to have deposed ^^ That he bad ^een William Somers turn his Face directly backward, not moYing his Body, and that his Eyes were as great as Beasts' Syes^ and that his Tongue would be thrust ont of hi^ Head to the bigness of a Galve's Tongue " when re-examined explained him- self thus i-^'^ My Meaning was that he turned his Faoe a good Way towards his Shoulder, ajad that his Kyef were something gogling; and by reason that it waa Candle-light when I paw his Tongue .thrust out, and by reason of my Conceit of the Strangeness of Somers's Troubles, it seemed somewhat bigger than, if Somor^ had been well, I should have thought it to have been." Again, a black dog which Will had cried out oi^ as the devil, and which, by reaaon of his words had actually be^n taken for the devil with eyes glaring like fire, cgme back to repossess him> turned ont to be nothing but a spurrier's dog crouching in the back- ground of the darkening chamber. So, when care- fully sifted, wonld the evidence of all suchflike marvels prove to be merest chaff scattered on the ground; GIFFABiyS ANECDOTES. ^1 and yet, a eentuiry after, Mr. Richard Boulton is foimd repeating the story of Will Sonaers' possession as if it had never been disproved; and there are some even now living who would cite it as a case of proved spiritualism. Mr. Darrel was degraded from the mi* nistry, and committed to close prison: rather harsh measures simply because he had more faith and a Uttle leaa discretion than his neighbours. GIFFARD'S ANECDOTES.* George Giffard, "minister of God's word in Mai- don," put forth a little book in 1603, containing a number of witch stories and anecdotes, without names, dates, or places, yet written in a manner and style evidently proving their reliability, and all seeming to have come within his own personal knowledge as be- lieved in by others. One, whom he knew, tmder the assumed name of one of his characters was constantly troubled by a hare, which his conscience accused him was a witch "she stared at him so ;" and sometimes an ugly weasel would run through his yard ; and sometimes a foul big cat sit upon his bam, for which he had no manner of liking; and an old woman of the place, whom he had been as careful to please as if she had been his mother, stiU frowned upon him to his exceeding discomfort ; and a hog which overnight had eaten his meat with his fellows, quite hearty and well, in the morning was stark dead ; and five or six hens died too, in a manner no one could understand, save by the power of witchcraft. And once another of his friends * ' A Dialogue ooncerning Witches and Witohcrafti.' 1603. 252 THE WITCHES OF ENGLAND. went to a cmming man who lived twenty miles off, complaimng of his fiEinn-yard losses: so the cunning man took a glass, and bidding him look in it, showed him a certain suspected witch therein, telling him that she had three or four imps, " some call them puckrels," one of which was like a gray cat, another like a weasel, a third like a mouse. There was also another cunning person — a woman — to whom a father took a child that had long been lame and pained. The woman told the man he had an ill neighbour, and that the child was forespoken. " Marie, if he wbuld go home and bring her some of the clothes which the child lay in all night, she would tell him certainely." The father went home and did as he was bid, when the wise woman informed him that the girl was bewitched, counselled him what to do, and the ^^ girle is well at this day, and a pretie quicke girle," says George Giffard, with a sneer at his neighbour's easy faith. Another had his wife much troubled ; so he, too, went off to a wise woman, who told him that his wife was haunted by a fairy. As a counter-charm she was bidden to wear a part of St John's Gospel ever about her, against which the fairies could not stand, so fled. Another good wife could not make her butter come: it was bewitched, and for a whole week obstinately disregarded the laws of butter nature: wherefore they heated a spit, red hot, and thrust it into the cream — and it came at once. The next morning the good wife met the suspected witch — *^ the old filth," she calls her with more emphasis than euphony. " Lord, how sowerly she looked upon me, and mumbled as she went ! Ah, quoth she, you have an honest man to your husband. I hear how he doth use me !" The wife longed to scratch the witch, her stomach rose so against her, but she was a&aid she GIFFARB'S ANECDOTES. 253 would prove the stronger, for she was " a lustie old quean/' and let her pass unmolested. In a certain Village a wealthy man was suddenly reduced to comparative poverty by extraordinary losses in his farm ; he himself fell ill, and his child of seven years of age sickened and died. He sent to the same wise woman at E. H., who told him that he was be- witched, and moreover, that there were three witches and one wizard in the town where he lived. The fore- spoken farmer caused the one whom he most suspected to be seized and examined, who at last confessed, after making " much ado," and taking up the time of the worshipM justice to no good. She said that she had three imps, a cat Lightfoot, a toad Lunch, a weasel Makeshift. Lightfoot had been given to her sixteen years ago, by one Mother Barlie of W. in return for an oven cake ; the toad and the weasel came of their own accord and offered their services gratuitously. The cat killed kine, the weasel killed horses, and the toad plagued men ; so the poor old creature was sent to the county gaol, where she died before the assizes. Another woman, old Mother W. of Great T., had an imp like a weasel. " She was offended highly with one H. M. ; home she went, and called forth her spirit, which lay in a pot of woole under her bed : she willed him to go plague the man: he inquired what she would give him, and he would kiU H. M. She said she would give him a cocke, which she did, and he went, and the man fell sicke with a greate paine in his belly, languished and died; the witch was arraigned, condemned, and hanged, and did confesse all this." Seven miles hence, at W. B., a man in good health suddenly fell sick, pined for half a year, and then died. 254 THE WITCHES OP ENGLAiND. His wife, suspecting evil doings, went to a ciim»i|g woman, who showed her in a glass the likeness of the witch who had destroyed him, wearing an old red cap with comers, snch as women were used to wear. The old red-capped woman was taken, tried, soon brought •to confess to the bewitching of the man, and executed. But before she died she told them all, how that (sdie had a spirit in the likeness of a yellow dun cat, which came to her one night as she sat by the fire nursing angry thoughts against a neighbour with whom she had fallen out. She was frightened, she said, but the <2at bid her not be a&aid, for it had served an old dame, that was now dead, for five years down in Kent, and would serve her now, an she would. The woman took the cat at its word, and by it killed many a cow and hog of those who angered her : at last she sent it to this man, and the cat killed him. She was hanged, and the yellow dun imp was never more seen. Mr. Giflkrd knew a church which had been robbed of its communion service : a wise, man told the church- wardens what to do and the thief would surely ride in all haste to confess. As it proved. Another case was that of a child taken piteously ilL Under the cunning man's advice the father burnt its clothes, and while they were burning, the witch came running in, grievously pained. The child was well within two days. A butcher had a son, John, terribly afflicted with sores. Salves and plasters would not' heal him ; but when a cunning man showed him in a glass the form of the witch who had laid this harmful thing upon him, and they had cut off some of the boy's hair and burnt ife the old woman came to the house in all speed, crying, *' John, John, scratch me !" So John scratched her till the blood oame, and his sores all healed of themselves. OIPrARiyS ANECDOTES. 265 without salve <m- jdadt^ liel{»ng. A woman had bleaj* eyes that were watery ; a knave lodging at the house wrote a charm which die was always to wear about her neck, and nevet lose or look at. She Wore her chana> and her eyes got quite well ; but one day, prompted by Eve's sin^ she opened ibe packet, and found a piece of paper on which Was written, in the €rerman tongue, " The devil plucke out thine eyes and fill their holes with dirt." Terrified at the unholy nature of her cure, the woman flung the charm awa,y, and her eyes imme- diately became bleared and watery as before.* A woman suspected of witchcraft was taken in hand by a gentleman, who undertook to induce her to con- fess. She was very stiff about the matter, and denied all dealings with the devil in any way. Suddenly, at some distance from thetn, appeared a weasel or a lobster, looking straight at them. " Look !" said the gentleman, " yonder same is thy spirit !" " Oh, master," said she, " that is a vermine. There be many of them everywhere." But as they went towards it, the weasel or lobster vanished clean out of sight. " Surely,'^ said the gentleman, " it is thy spirit" But still she denied, " and with that her mouth was drawn all awrie." When a little further pressed she allowed all, and the gentleman, being no justice, sent her home, exhorting her to go to a magistrate and ease her soul by confession. As she got home she was met by another witch who came violently enraged against her. " Ah, thou beast ! what hast thou done ? thou hast bewrayed us aU !" she said. " What remedy now ?" said fiiie. " What remedy ?" saith the other, " send thy spirit and touch him." At that moment the gen- tleman felt, fis it were, a flash of fire about him ; but he * This is an old story, found in aU boohs on witchcraft. 256 THE WrrCHES OP ENGLAND. lifted his hat and prayed, and the spirit came back and said it could do him no hurt, because he had faith. So then they sent it against his child, and the child was taken ill with great pain and died. The witehes confessed and were hanged. Another witch had her spirit hidden in the boll of a tree ; and there she held long conversations with this ghastly Ariel, he answering in a hollow ghoustie voice, as might be expected. When any offended her, she would go to the tree and release her imp to do them harm. She had killed many hogs, horses, and the like by this spirit ; but at last justice got hold of her with its mailed hand and killed her. Another friend of Giffard's, also under the disguise of one of his characters, was twice on a jury, when certain old women were charged with harming their neighbours' goods and lives. There was no proof in either case, and the old women protested their inno- cence passionately; but the jury brought them in guilty, which was perfectly logical and right according to their notions of the law of that God who suffers the devil to torment the sons of men, and to delude old women into the possession of unholy powers. What, indeed, could be done with them when, by a look or a word, they could afflict even unto death the most beautiful of God's creatures, and send the devil to inhabit the purest of souls ? The mischief lay in the fundamental creed, not so much in the application of it, terrible and bloody as it was ; and it is against this creed, that I would most earnestly insist. It must be remembered, too, that Grffard writes ironically, and brings together all these cases as evidence of the foolishness and wicked- ness of the faitL 267 THE POSSESSED MAID OF THAMES STREET,* In 1603, Mary Glover, a merchant's daughter in Thames Street, gave herself out as bewitched, and said that Mother Jackson had done it. A little glimmering of reason made the physician Dr. Boncraft tell the Lord Chief Justice Anderson that Mother Jackson was wrong- fully accused, and the girl was counterfeiting. So the Lord CJhief Justice caused the Eecorder of London, Sir John Crook, have her to him in his chambers in the Temple. The maid went with her mother and some neighbours, and in an hour's time came Mother Jackson, disguised , like a country market woman, with a muffler hiding her face, an old hat, and a short cloak bespattered with mire. As soon as she entered the maid fell backward on the floor ; " her Eyes drawn into her Head, her Tongue toward her Throat, her Mouth drawn up to her Ear, her Bodie became stiff and senseless. Her Lips being shut closs a plain and audible Voice came out from her Nostrils saying ' Hang her, hang her.' " The Eecorder, willing to try her, called for a candle at which to light a sheet of paper, then held the burning paper to her hand till a bUster came, rising and breaking and the water running down on the floor. But still the maid lay as if dead, with the Voice coming out of her Nostrils, saying, " Hang her, hang her." Not satisfied with the trial of burning, the Eecorder got a long pin, which he made hot and thrust up her nostrils to see if she would " neese," wink, bend her brows, or stir her head ; but still she lay as before, stiff,, senseless, and as one dead. The minister, one Lewis Hughes, who teUs this story which Sinclair quotes, told the Eecorder that he had ♦ George Sinclair's • Satan's Invisible World Displayed.' S 258 THE WITCHES OF ENGLAND. often prayed with the maid, and that when he con- cluded with the Lord's Prayer and came to " but deliver us from all evil," the maid would be tost and shaken as a mastiff might shake a cur. Then the Eecorder bade the witch say the Lord's Prayer, but she could not say it : she kept on all right until the clause " deliver us from evil," and this she skipped over ; neither would she confess that Jesus Christ was our Lord in the Articles of the Christian Faith. When Mary was in her fits, if the witch but so much as laid her hand upon her she was tost and shaken fearfully. This the Becorder wished to verify: so he bade first . one, then another, of the neighbours come forward and touch her ; which they did ; but she never stirred tfll Mother Jackson touched her, when she was shaken as before. Then the Recorder said, " Lord, have mercy upon the woman !" for he was now fiilly convinced ; and sent poor old Mother Jackson off to Newgate. As soon as she was sent off the maid came to herself, the voice ceased out of her nostrils, and she went home with her mother. Three weeks or more after the witch was condemned, the maid had the same fits, strange and fearful to behold, and the Recorder told the minister, and all the ministers of London, ** that we might be ashamed to see a Child of Gk)d in the Claws of the Devil without any hope of deliverance but by such means as God had appointed— Fasting and Prayer." Then five ministers, all good Christians and sound believers, assembled and prayed from morning to candle-light, when Mary suddenly started out of her chair — ^they crying "Jesus help, Jesus savel" — and came up to Lewis Hughes, in a state of wildness and dismay. As he stood behind her holding her by the arms, she lifted both herself and him off the ground, foam- THE POSSESSED MAID OP THAMES STREET. 259 ing at the mouth and struggling thus all over the chamber ; and then her strength gave way, and she fell as if dead, her head hanging down and her limbs, which had been so stiff and frozen, now supple and limber. In a short time her eyes came back into their place and her tongue came out of her throat, and she looked round and said cheerfully, " Oh ! he is come, he is come ! The Comforter is come 1 the Comforter is come ! I am delivered, I am delivered !" Her father hearing these words wept and said, " These were her grand- father's words when he was at the stake, the fire crack- ling about him," for he died a martyr to the Eeformed Faith in Queen Mary's time. Then she prayed and* thanked God till her voice was weak, and so the com- pany separated, and Mary went home. Afterwards she was put with Lewis Hughes for a year, lest Satan should assault her again, and Mr. John Swan wrote the most canting and nauseating book on her '^ case " that ever fenatic penned or the duped and the gulled be- lieved. But poor old Mother Jackson was dead : and those who mourned for her, motuned in secret and silence and shame. There was another case of possession, this same year — Thomas Harrison, the Boy of Norwich — chiefly remarkable for having procured such attention from the ecclesiastical authorities that seven persons were formally licensed to have private prayers and fasting for his deliverance. But the bishop and commissioners who had seen his fits thought him an impostor, so his case died out for want of public support* And now we have the master of kingcraft on the throne, with his mania against witches, his private vices, and public follies, treacherous, cruel, narrow-minded, * HatchinBon*8 'Essay on Witchcraft.' 260 THE WITCHES OF ENGLAOT). and cowardly beyond anything that has ever disgraced the English throne before or since. And one of the first trials for witchcraft during his reign was that disgraceful affair in which Somerset and his wife. Foreman, Sir Thomas Overbury, and Mrs. Turner were all mixed up together. SWEET FATHER FOREMAN. That Carr and Lady Essex should have an intrigue together was not so bad, but that Mrs. Turner should have recourse to charms and conjurations, " to inchant the Viscount's affection towards her," that " much time should be spent, many words of witchcraft, great cost in making pictures of wax, crosses of silver, and little babies for that use," that specially, there should be among the images of wax, one " very sujnptuously ap- parrelled in silke and sattin, as alsoe another sitting in forme of a naked woman spreading and laying forth her haires in a glass," was terrible misdoing against both God and the king. The murder of Sir Thomas Overbury was venial ; the intrigue between his favourite and another man's wife was venial too ; his own vices were mere kindly fiea-bites on his dignity ; but charms and conjurations, and my Lady Essex calling that old wizard Foreman her " sweet father "—this was more than the British Solomon could well digest. So when he had got tired of Carr and wanted to be rid of him, he suddenly remembered sweet Father Foreman, disciple of Dr. Dee, and Mrs. Turner, inventor of yellow starch for ruffs and falling bands, and not only smote Somerset straight in the face for his own share, but sent a side shaft after him, through his " creatures." Well for himself THE WITCHES OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 261 was it that sweet Father Foreman was dead and buried deep ; so there only remained Mrs. Turner and one or two inferior agents in the matter — just enough to keep the people amused, and satisfy the royal lust for witch blood. Somerset came to the block on another count, about as false as the rest ; and Mrs. Turner swung from the gibbet in her yellow ruff on every plea but the right one, and for any sin but those of her real and actual life. After her deati was found her black scarf fuU of white crosses : and the mould in which Father Foreman had cast his leaden images of women ; and written charms spread out on fair white parchment ; and, worst of all, a List of aU the ladies who had gone to consult the sorcerer as to how they might gain the love of other lords than their own ; which list the Lord Chief Justice would not read out in court because, said the gossips, his own wife's name was the first that caught his eye. THE WITCHES OP NORTHAMPTONSHIRE.* " Of poor parentage, and poor education," old Agnes Browne had but a sorry life of it in the little town of Gilsborough where she lived. She had one daughter, Joan Vaughan, or Vamham, "a maide, or at least unmarried," says the old black-letter book maliciously ; *' as gratious as the mother, and both of them as farre from grace as Heaven from hell ;" which Joan was " so • ' The Witches of Northamptonshire. Agnes Browne, 1 Arthur BiU, ) ^j^^jj^gg^ loane Vaughan, ) HeUen lenkinson, ! Mary Barber. Who were all executed at Northampton the 22 of Inly last, 1612. 'London. Printed by Tho. Purfoot for Arthur Johnson. 1612.' A rare and valuable little black-letter tract. 262 THE WITCHES OP ENGLAND. well brought up vnder her mother's elbow, that she hangd with her for company ynder her mother's nosa" It seems that one day, Joan, being in the company of a certain Mistress Belcher, '' a yirtuons and godly Gentle- woman of the same towne of Gilsborough, whether of purpose to giue occasion of anger to the saide Mistris Belcher, or but to continue her yilde and ordinary cus- tome of behauiour, committed something either in speech or gesture so vnfitting, and vnseeming the nature of womanhood " that Mistress Belcher's patience could bear with her no longer. She got up, beat Joan Vaughan, and "forced her to avoid the company." Joan went away muttering that she would be revenged ; to which replied Mrs. Belcher stoutly, that she feared neither her nor her mother, and bade her do her worst Then Jo'an went home to her mother, and both together devised such a punishment that Mrs. Belcher was griped and gnawed of her body, her mouth drawn all awry, and in such powerful fits that she could scarce be held, crying out incessantly in her fits, " Here comes Joane Vaughan, away with Joane Vaughan !" till all the world knew that she was bewitched, and that old Agnes Browne and her daughter had caused the trouble. Mistress Belcher's brother, one Master Avery, hearing of his sister's sickness and extremity, came to see her ; and when he saw her, was moved to such anguish and indignation that he must needs go to the house of the witches to hale them to his sister, that she might draw their blood. But though he twice essayed, he was twice arrested by some miraculous agency, spell-bound, and unable to move hand or foot; he could not, by any possibility, advance beyond a certain spot, whereby the witches were safe for this time at least, " the devil, who was standing sentinel," being stronger than he» THE WITCHES OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 263 Wherefore sorrowfully he turned back, and went home to his own place. But these "imps of the devil" had longer arms than he, and in a very short time he was as grievously tormented as his sister, his torments enduring until the witches were arrested and taken to Northampton gaol. When there, nothing would satisfy Mistress Belcher and her brother Master Avery but that they should goto the prison and "scratch" the witfches; which they did, and both recovered of their pains mar- vellously on the instant. "Howbeit they were no sooner out of sight, but they fell againe into their old traunces, and were more violently tormented than before ; for when Mischiefe is once a foote, she grows in short time so headstrong, that she is hardly curbed." Mistress Belcher and Master Avery returning home from North- ampton in a coach, after their godly exercise of drawing blood from these two wretched women, saw suddenly a man and woman riding both upon a black horse. At which Master Avery cried out that either they or their horses should presently miscarry ; and he had no sooner spoken than both their horses fell down dead. Where- fore, for all these crimes, as well as for bewitching a young child to death, Agnes Browne and her daughter Joan were adjudged guilty, and hanged on that 22nd of July, protesting their innocence to the last. And then it came out that about a fortnight before her apprehension Agnes Browne, Eatherine Gkurdiner, and Joan Lucas, "all birds of a winge," had been seen riding on a sow's back to a place called Bavenstrop, to see one Mother Bhoades, an old witch that dwelt there. But before they got there old Mother Bhoades had died, " and in her last cast cried out that there were three of her old friends comming to see her, but they came too late. Howbeit she would meet with them in another 264 THE WITCHES OF ENGLAND. place within a month after. And thns much concerning Agnes Browne and her daughter Joane Vaughan," says the old black-letter book contemptuously. The Qon of witches, Arthur Bill could not control his appointed feite. Suspected by the authorities, but with- out proof, he and his father and mother were, swum for trial, tied cross bound and flung into the water, where they floated and did not sink. Arthur was accused of bewitching to her death one Martha Aspine, as also of having bewitched sundry cattle ; and as the parents had a bad name, it was thought best to try them all. After this trial of the water, Arthur was afraid, says the black- letter book, lest his father should relent and betray him and them all ; whereupon he sent for his. mother, and both together bewitched a round ball into his father's throat, so that he could not speak a word. When the ball was got out, the father proved the principal witness against them. The poor mother, who seems to have been a loving, sensitive, downcast woman, fainted many times during this terrible period ; " Many times com- plaining to her spirit^" says the bitter, uncharitable, anonymous author, " that the power of the Law would bee stronger than the power of her art, and that shea saw no other likelihood but that shee should be hanged as her Sonne was like to bee : To whom her spirit answered, giuing this sorry comfort, that shee should not bee hanged, but to preuent that shee should cut her owne throatt. Shee, hearing this sentence and holding it definitive, in great agony and horror of minde and conscience fell a rauing, crying out that the irreuocable Judgement of her death was giuen, and that shee was damned perpetually; cursing and banning the time wherein shee was borne, and the houre wherein shee was conceiued." A short time after ^' shee made good THE WITCHES OP NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 265 the Demi's worde, and to preuent the lustiee of the Law, and to saue the hangman a labour, cnt her owne throate." The poor boy was in great misery when he heard of his mother's death, and knew now that what despair had done for her, the tyranny of superstition would do for him ; yet " he stood out stiffly for his inno- cence," and when found guilty, broke out into grievous cries, saying that he had now found the Law to have a power above Justice, for that it had condemned an Lino- cent. At the gallows he said the same thing, refusing to confess to Martha Aspine's murder, and " thus with a dissembling Tongue, and a corrupted conscience, hee ended his course in this world, with little hope or respect (as it seemed) of the world to come." What became of his three familiars, Grissil, Ball, and Jack, we are not informed, neither of what forms or func- tions they were, nor of what colours or dimensions. Grievously did Mistress Moulsho ofifend Ellen Jen- kinson, when she caused her to be searched for witch- marks, which of course were found ; for Helen's character was notorious, and there is no smoke without a little fire. So Helen, in revenge, played Mistress Moulsho a trick that brought herself to the gallows. For " at that time Mistris Moulsho had a Bucke of clothes to be washt out. The next morning, the Mayd, when shee came to hang them forth to dry, spyed the Cloathes, but especially Mistris Moulsho's Smocke, to bee all be- spotted with the pictures of Toades, Snakes,' and other ougly Creatures, which making her agast, she went presently and told her mistris, who, looking on them, smild, saying nothing else but this: 'Here are fine Hobgoblins indeede.' And being a Gentlewoman of a stout courage, went immediately to the house of the sayd Hellen lenkinson, and with an angry countenance 266 THE WITCHES OP ENGLAND. told her of this matter, threatening her that if her Linnen were not shortly cleered from those foule spots shee would scratch out both her eyes ; and so not staying for any answere, went home and found her linnen as white as it was at first" Helen was soon after arraigned for the death of a child, by witchcraft, but this story of Mrs. Moulsho's clothes all bespotted with the figures of toads and snakes stood in the stead of any more rational evidence. When found guilty, the poor creature cried out, " Woe is me, I now cast away T* And when at the place of execution, she " made no other Confession but this. That shee was guiltlesse, and neuer shewed signe of Contrition for what was past, nor any sorrow at all, more than did accompany the feare of death. Thus ended this Woman her miserable life, after shee had lived many yeares poore, wretched, scorned, and for- saken of the world." Of Mary Barber, the last of Hhe sad crew hanged at Northampton on those bloody assizes, the author gives no special account, but plenly of abuse, mixed up with the strangely cruel and immoral morality of the day. He says that "as shee was of meane Parents, so was she monstrous and hideous both in her life and actions. Her education and barbarous Nature neuer promising to the world anything but what was rude, violent, and without any hope of proportion more than only in the square of uitiousnesse. For out of the oblyuion and blindnesse of her seduced senses, she gaue way to all the passionate and earthly faculties of the flesh, and followed all the Fantazmas Vanities and Chimeras of her polluted and vnreasonable delights, forsaking the Society of Grace, and growing enamored vpon all the euill that Malice or Frenzy could minister to her vicious desires and intendments." She was put- THE WITCHES OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 267 in prison on the charge of bewitching a man to death, but "the prison (which makes men bee fellowes and chambermates with theeves and mnrtherers) the common guests of such dispised Innes, and should cause the Imprisoned Party (like a Christian Arithme- tician) to number and cast yp the amount of his own Life, neuer put her in minde of the hatefull transgres- sions shee had committed, and to consider the filth and leprosie of her soule, and intreate heaven's mercy for the release thereof. Prison put her not in minde of her graue, nor the grates and lockes put her in remem- brance of hell, which depriued her of the ioy of liberty, which shee saw others possesse. The iangling of irons did not put her in minde of the chaines wherewith shee should be bound in etemall torments, vnlesse heayen's mercy vnloosed them, nor of the howling terrors and gnashing of teeth which in hel euery soule shall receiue for the particular o£fences committed in this life, without vnfained and hearty contrition. Shee neuer remembered or thought shee must die, or trem- bled for feare of what should come to her after death. But 83 her use was alwaies knowne to be deuilish, so her death was at last found to be desperate. For shee (and the rest before named) being brought firom the common gaole of Northampton to Northampton Castle, where the Assizes are vsuaUy held, were seuerally arraigned and indited for the offences they had formerly com- mitted, but to the inditement they pleaded not guilty. Futtiog therefore their causes to the triall of the Countrey, they were found guilty, and deserved death by the verdit of a credible lury returned. So without any confession or contrition, like birds of a feather they all held and hangd together for company at Abington gallowes hard by Northampton the two and twintieth 268 THE WITCHES OF ENGLAND. day of luly last past ; Leauing behinde them in prison many others tainted with the same corruption, who without much mercy and repentance are likely to follow them in the same tract of Preoedencie." THE WITCHES OP LANCASHIRE * In Pendle Forest, a wild tract of land on the borders of Yorkshire, lived an old woman about the age of fourscore, who had been a witch for fifty years, and had brought up her own children, and instructed her grand- children, to be witches. " She was a generall agent for the Deuill in all these partes ;" her name was Elizabeth Southernes, usually called Mother Demdike ; the date of her arraignment 1612. She was the first tried of this celebrated " coven," twenty of whom stood before Sir James Altham and Sir Edward Bromley, charged with all the crimes lying in sorcery, magic, and witchcraft. Old Mother Demdike died in prison before her trial, but on her being taken before the magistrate who con- victed them all, Eoger Nowell, Esq., she made such a confession as effectually insured her due share of exe- cration, and hedged in the consciences of all who had assailed her from any possible pangs of seK-reproach or doubt About fifty years ago, she said, she was returning home from begging, when, near a stone pit in the Pendle Forest, she met a spirit or devil in the shape of a boy, with one haK of his coat brown and the other half black, who said to her, if she would give him her ♦ * The Wonderful Discoverie of Witches in the County of Lancaster.* By Thomas Potts. 1613. Thomas Wright* s • Narrative of Sorcery and Magic' 1851. THE WITCHES OF LANCASHIRE. 269 soul, she should have all that she might desire. After a little further talk, during which he told her that his name was Tibb, he vanished away, and she saw him no more for this time. For five or six years Mother Dem- dike never asked any kind of help or harm of Tibb, who always came to her at " daylight gate " (twilight) ; but one Sabbath morning, she having her little child on her knee, and being in a light slumber, Tibb came to her in the likeness of a brown dog, and forced himself on her knee, trying to get blood from under her left arm. Mother Demdike awoke sore troubled and amazed, and strove to say, " Jesus, save my child," but could not, neither could she say, " Jesus, save myself." In a short time the brown dog vanished away, and she was '^ almost starke madde for the space of eight weekes." She and Tibb had never done much harm, she said ; not even to Bichard Baldwin, for all that he had put them off his land, and taken her daughter's day's work at his mill without fee or reward, and when she, led by her grandchild Alison (for she was quite blind), went to ask for pay, gave them only hard words and insolence for their pains, saying, " he would bum the one, and hang the other," and bidding them begone for a couple of witches — and worse. She confessed though, after a little pressing, that at that moment Tibb called out to her, " Bevenge thee of him !" to whom she answered, "Bevenge thou either of him or his I" on which he vanished away, and she saw him no more^ She would not say what was the vengeance done, or if any. But if she was silent, and not prone to confes- sion, there were others, and those of her own blood, not so reticent Elizabeth Device her daughter, and Alison and James and Jennet Device, her grandchil- dren, testified against. her and each other in a wonderful 270 THE WITCHES OP ENGLAND. tnanner, and filled np all the blanks in the most masterly and graphic style. Alison said that her grandmother had seduced her to the service of the devil, by giving her a great black dog as her imp or spirit, with which dog she had lamed one John Law, a petit chapman or pedlar, as he was going through Colnefield with his pack at his back. Alison wanted to buy pins of him, but John Law re- fused to loose his pack or sell them to her ; so Alison in a rage called for her black dog, to see if revenge could not do what fair words had failed in. When the black dog came he said, " What wouldst thou have me to do with yonder man ? " To whom she answered, " What canst thou do at him ?" and the dog answered again, " I can lame him." " Lame him,*' says Alison Device ; and before the pedlar went forty yards he fell lame. When questioned, he, on his side, said, that as he was going through Colnefield he met a big black dog with very fearful fiery eyes, great teeth, and a terrible countenance, which looked at him steadily then passed away ; and immediately after he was be- witched into lameness and deformity. And this took place after having met Alison Device and refused to sell her any pins. Then Alison fell to weeping and praying, beseeching God and that worshipful company to pardon her sins. She said further that her grand- mother had bewitched John Nutter's cow to death, and JElichard Baldwin's woman-child on account of the quarrel before reported, saying that she would pray for Baldwin himseK, " both still and loud," and that she was always after some matter of devilry and en- chantment, if not for the bad of others then for the good of herseK. For once, Alison got a piggin full of blue milk by begging, and when she came to look into THE WITCHES OP LANCASHIRE. 271 it, she foimd a quarter of a pound of butter there, which was not there before, and which she verily believed old Mother Demdike had procured by her enchantments. Then Alison turned against the rival Hecate, Anne Whittle, alias Chattox, between whom and her family raged a deadly feud with Mother Demdike and her family ; accusing her of having be- witched her father, John D.evice, to death, because he had neglected to pay her the yearly tax of an aghen dole (eight pounds) of meal, which he had covenanted to give her on consideration that she would not harm him. For they had been robbed, these poor people, of a quarter of a peck of cut oatmeal and linens worth some twenty shillings, and they had found a coif and band belonging to them on Anne Whittle's daughter ; so John Device was afraid that old Chattox would do them some grievous injury by her sorceries if they cried out about it, therefore made that covenant for the aghen dole of meal, the non-payment of which for one year set Chattox free from her side of the bargain and cost John's life. She said, too, that Chattox had bewitched sundry persons and cattle, kilh'ng John Nutter's cow because he, John Nutter, had kicked over her canfull of milk, misliking her devilish way of placing two sticks across it ; and slaying Anne Nutter because she laughed and mocked at her ; slaying John Morris' child, too, by a picture of day — ^with other misdeeds to be hereafter verified and substanti^rted. So Alison Device was hanged, weeping bitterly, and very penitent. James Device, her brother, testified to meeting a brown do^ coming from his grandmother's about a month ago, and to hearing a noise as of a number of children shrieking and crying, ^ near daylight gate." 272 THE WITCHES OF ENGLAND. Another time he heard a foul yelling as of a multitade of cats, and soon after this there came into his bed a thing like a cat or a hare, and coloured black, which lay heavily on him for about an hour. He said that his sister Alison had bewitched Bullock's child, and that old Mother Chattox had dug up three skulls, and taken out eight teeth, four of which she kept for her- self and gave four to Mother Demdike; and that Demdike had made a picture of clay of Anne Nutter, and had burned itj by which the said Anne had been bewitched to death. Also she had bewitched to death one Mitton, because he would not give her a penny ; with other iniquities of the same sort He said that his mother, Elizabeth Device, had a spirit like a brown dog called Ball, and that they all met at Malking Tower ; all the witches of Pendle — ^and they were not a few — agoing out in their own shapes, and finding foals of different colours ready for their riding when they got out : Jennet Preston was the last : when they all vanished. He then confessed, for his own part, that his grandmother Demdike told him not to eat the com- munion bread one day when he went to church, but to give it to the first thing he met on the road on his way homewards. He did not obey her, but ate the bread as a good Christian should ; and on the way he met with a thing like a hare which asked him for the bread ; but he said he had not got it ; whereupon the hare got very angry and threatened to tear him in pieces, but James " sained " himself, and the devil vanished. This, repeated in various forms, was about the pith of what James Device confessed, his confes- sion not including any remarkable betrayal of himself, or admission of any practical and positive eviL His young sister Jennet, a little lassie of nine, supplied the THE WITCHES OF LANCASHIRE. 273 defidendes. She had eyidently been suborned, says Wright, and gave evidence enough to have hanged half Lancashire. She said that James had sold himself to the devil, and that his spirit was a black dog caUed Dandy, by whom he had bewitched many people to death ; and she confirmed what he had said of Jennet Preston's spirit, which was a white foal with a black spot in its forehead. And then she said that she had seen the witches' meetings, but had taken no part in them ; and that on Good Friday they had all dined off a roasted wether which James had stolen &om Christian Swyers ; and that John Bulcocke turned the spit She said that her mother Elizabeth had taught her two prayers, the one to get drink and the other to cure the bewitched. The one to get drink was a very short one, simply — " Crucifixus, hoc signum vitam etemam, Amen ;" but this would briug good drink into the house in a very strange manner. The other, the prayer to cure the bewitched, was longer : — ** Vpon Good Friday, I wiU &8t while I may, YntiU I heare them kneU, Our Lord's owne BeU, Lord in his messe With his twelve Apostles good, What hath he in his hand ? Idgh in* Leath f wand : What hath he in his other hand ? Heauen's doore key. Open, open, Heanen doore keyes, Steok, stock, heU doore. Let Crizmn { child Go to it Mother mild. * ** Ligh in,*' perhaps lykinge, lusty, or craske. t "Leath," flexible. X The chrism was the white cloth placed over the brow of a newly- baptized child in the Roman Catholic serrice. When children died within the month. they were caUed chrisoms. T 274 THE WITCHES OP ENaLAND. What is yonder that OMto a light 80 fiirrandly?* Mine owne deare Sone that*8 naiVd to the Tree, He iB nail'd sore by the heart and hand. And holy hame Panne.t Well it that man That Fzyday spell can. His Ghilde to leame A GrosBe of Blewe, and another of Red, As good Lord was to tlie Boode. Gkibiiel laid him downe to sleepe Vpon the gronnde % of boly weepe ; Gk)od Lord came walking by, Sleep'st thon, wak'st thoo, Gabriel ? -No, Lord, I am sted with stick and stake. That I can neither sleepe nor wake : Bise yp, Gabriel, and god with me, The stick nor the stake shall nener deere § thee, Sweete Jesns oar Lorde. Amen/* On such conclusiye testimony as this, and for such fearfdl crimes, James Device was condemned for ^' as dangerous and malicious a witch as eyer lived in these parts of Lancashire, of his time, and q>otted with as much Innocent bloud as euer any witch of his yeares/' Poor lad! " O Barbarous and inhumane Monster, beyond ex- ample; so farre from sensible vnderstanding of thy owne miserie as to bring thy owne naturall children into mischiefe and bondage, and thyselfe to be a^ witnesse vpone the gallowes, to see thy owne childr^, by thy deuillish instructions, hatcht vp in villanie and witch- craft, to suffer with thee, euen in the beginning of their time, a shameMl and untimely Death ! " These are the words which Thomas Potts addresses to Elizabeth Device, widow of John the bewitched, daughter to old * " Fanandly," Mr, handsome. t " Hame panne,'* ham case, omnimn. t Gethsemane. § ** Deera," haut. THE WITCHES OF LANCASHIRE. 275 Demdikethe "rankest hag ibat ever troubled daylight/' and mother of Alison and James the confessing witches ; mother, also, of young Jennet of nine, their accuser and hers, by whose testimony she was mainly con- demned. Elizabeth was chained with having bewitched sundry people to death, by means and aid of her q>irit, the brown dog Ball, spoken of by James ; also she had gone to the Sabbath held at Malking Tower, where they had assembled to consult how they could get old Mother Demdike, their leader, out of prison, by killing her gaoler and blowing up the castle, and where they had beef and bacon and roasted mutton — the mutton that same wether of Christopher Swyers' of Barley, which James had stolen and killed; with other things as damnable and insignificant. So Elizabeth Device, ^* this odious witch, who was branded with a preposterous marke in Nature even from her Birth, which was her left Eye standing lower than the other, the one looking down the other looking up," was condemned to die because she was poor and ugly, and had a little lying jade for a daughter, who made up fine stories for the gentlefolks. Anne Whittle, alias Ghattox, was next in influence, power, and age to Mother Demdike, and she begau her confession by saying that old Demdike had originally seduced her by giving her the devil in the shape and proportion of a man, who got her, body and soul, and sucked on her left ribs, and was called Fancie. After- wards she had another spirit like a spotted bitch, called Tibbe, who gave them all to eat and to drink, and said they should have gold and silver as much as ihey wanted. But they never got the gold and silver at all, and what they ate and drank did not satisfy themu '' This Anne Whittle, alias Chattox, was a very 276 THE WrrCHBS OP ENGLAND. old withered, spent, decrepid creature, her Sight ahnost gone; A dangerous • Witch of very long continuance; always opposite to old Demdike; For whom the one fetuonred tibe other hated deadly : and how they curse and accuse one an other in their Examinations may ap-» pear. In her Witchcraft always more ready to doe mischiefe to men's goods than themselves ; Her lippes ever chattering and talking ; but no man knew what. She lived in the Forrest of Pendle amongst this wicked Company of dangerous Witches. Yet in her Examina-* tion and Confession she dealt always very plainely and truely ; for vpon a speciall occasion, being oftentimes examined in open Court, she 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 Firebrand of mischiefe, old Demdike, because from these two spnmg all the rest in order ; and even the Children and Friendes of these two notorious Witches." Nothing special or very graphic was elicited about old Chattox. She had certainly bewitched to death sundry of the neighbourhood, lately deceased ; but then, they all did that ; and her devil, Fancie, came to her in various shapes — sometimes like a bear, gaping as though he would worry her, which was not a pleasant manner of fulfilling his contract — ^but generally as a man, in whom she took great delight. She confessed to a charm for blessing forespoken drink ; which she had chanted for John Moore's wife, she said, whose beer had been spoilt by Mother Demdike or some of her crew : — *' Three Biters hast thoa bitten, The Hart, iU Eye, ill Tonge ; Three Bitter shall be thy boote. Father, Sonne, and Holy Ghost a Gk)d*s Name THE WITCHES OP LANCASHIRE. 277 Fine Paternosters, fine Ames, and a Creede, Por worship of fine woundes of our Lord." Of course there was no help or hope for old Chattox if she said sach wicked things as these. The righteous justice of England must be satisfied, and Anne Whittle was hung — one of the twelve who sorrowed the sunlight in Lancaster on that bloody assize. Her daughter, Ann Eedfeame, was then taken, ac- cused of making pictures of clay and other maleficent arts; and she, too, was hanged; and then well-bom, well-bred, but unfortunate Alice Nutter — a gentle- woman of fortune living at Bough Lee, whose relatives were anxious for her death that they might come into some property, out of which she kept them while living, and between whom and Mr. Justice Nowell there was a long-standing grudge on the question of a boundary- line between their several properties — ^Alice ♦Nutter, whom one would have thought far removed from any such possibility, was accused by young Jennet of com- plicity and companionship, and put upon her trial with but a faint chance of escape behind her. For Elizabeth Device swore that she had joined with her and old Demdike in bewitching the man Mitton, be- cause of that twopence so fatally refused ; and young Jennet swore that she was one of the party who went on many-coloured foals to the great witch meeting at Malking Tower ; and so poor Alice Nutter, of Eough Lee, the well-bom, well-bred gentlewoman, was hanged with the rest of that ragged crew ; and her relations stood in her place, quite satisfied with their dexterity. Then there was Katherine Hewitt, alias Mouldheels, accused by James Device, who seemed to think that if 278 THE WITCHES OP ENGLAND. he had to be hanged for nothing he would be hanged in brave company, and, by sharing with as many as could be found, lessen the obloquy he could not escape ; and John Bulcocke, who turned the spit, and Jane his mother, for the same crimes and on the same testimony ; for the added crime, too, of helping in the bewitching of Master Leslie, about which nefarious deed other hands were also busy ; and Margaret Pearson, delated by Chattox as entertaining a man spirit cloven-footed, with whom she went by a loophole into Dodson's stable, and sat all night, on his mare until it died. She was also accused by Jennet Booth, who went into her house and begged some milk for her child ; Margaret good- naturedly gave her some, and boiled it in a pan, but aU her reward was, that Jennet accused her of witch- craft, for there was, said she, a toad, or something very like a toad, at the bottom of the pan when the milk was boiled, which Margaret took up with a pair of tongs aad carried out of the house. Of course the toad was an imp, and Jennet Booth was quite right to repay an act of neighbourly generosity by accusation and slander. Margaret got off with standing in the pillory in open market, at four market towns on four market days, bearing a paper on her head setting forth her offence written in great letters, about which there could be no mistake; after which she was to confess, and afterwards be taken to prison, where she was to lie for a year, and then be only released when good and re- sjionedble sureties would come forward to answer for her good behaviour. And there was Isabel Eoby, who bewitched Peter Cboddock for jilting her, and in the spirit pinched and buffeted Jane Williams, so that she fell sick with the impression of a thumb and four fingers on her' GRACE SOWBRBUTS AND THE PRIESTS. 279 thigh ; and Jennet Preston, she who had the white foal spirit, and who was afterwards hung at T(»rk for the murder of Majster Thomas Lister— for Master Thomas in his last illness had been for ever crying out that. Jennet Preston was lying on him, and when she waa brought to see the body it gushed out fresh Uood on her, which settled all doubts^ if haply there had be^a any. So the famous trial of the Pendle Witches came to an end ; and of the twenty who were accused twelve were hanged while the rest escaped only for the present, many of them meeting with ^eir doom a few years afterwards. GRACE SOWERBUTS AND THE PRIESTS.* At the same time and place, namely, ^^ at the Assizes and GroneraU Gaole-deEvery, holden at Lancaster, before Sir Edward Bromley," old Jennet Bierly, Ellen Bierly her daughter-in-law, and Jane Southworth, were accused by Grace Sowerbuts of bewitching her, so that her " bodie wasted and was consumed." Grcw^ was foui^ teen years old — a very ripe time for bewitchment and possession — and her evidence ran that for some years past she had been fearfully tormented by these women, for that " they did violently draw her by the Haire of the Head, and layd her on the toppe of a Hay-mowe ;" and that Jennet Bierly appeared to her, first under her own shape and form, then as a black dog, and that as she was going over a style " she picked* her off," but did not hurt her much, for soon she was enabled to rouse herself up, and go on her way without any great damage. But often the women came to her as black ♦ PoUb's • DiacoTery.' "Webster's * Displajing.' 280 THE WITCHES OF ENGLAND. dogs, tempting her to cast herself into the water, or dragging her into the hay-loft where they coyered her with hay on her head and with straw on her body, they, the black dogs, lying on the top of the straw till they took away all sense and feeling and she knew not where she was ; and oft they ^' carried her where they met black things like men that danced with them and did abuse their bodies, and they brought her to one Thomas Walsham's House in the Night, and there they killed his Child, by putting a Nail into the Navil, and after took it forth of the Orave, and did boil it, and eat some of it, and made Oyl of the bones ; and such like horrid Uqs," says honest Webster, indignantly. But fortunately for the three accused, Grace Sowerbuts was a popish pet, and suspected of decided papistical leanings ; and- it was said that she was put up to all this by one Thomson, a popish priest, whose real name was Southworth, and who was a relation of old Sir John Southworth the great popish lord of the district ; to whom also Jane, one of the accused, was a near relative, but a hated enemy, as is often the case — Sir John having been known to ride miles round to avoid passing by her house. Jane Southworth was a Protestant and a convert, therefore likely to receive the protection of public opinion in those parts ; likely, too, to be doubly hated by her relative, first for herself, and secondly for her apostacy. So Grace Sowerbuts, an excitable young maid with but a slender regard to truth, was hit upon as the person best fitted to carry confusion into tiie enemy's camp, and it was resolved to prove her bewitched by the devilish arts of the two Bierlys and the popish recusant But Sir Edward Bromley, who cared nothing for the protestations of the Fendle witches, and hung every one of them with GRACE SOWERBUTS AND THE PRIESTS. 281 the most placid belief that he was doing a just and righteous work, gave a very diflferent countenance to these Samesbury witches, all of whom would have been strung up like dogs had not the taint of papistry rested on Grace and her supporters. Leading her quietly to a denial of all she had asserted, Sir Edward got her to confess that she was an impostor, and that eyery article of her accusation was a lie and a fallacy from beginning to end. She had neyer known nor seen any devils ; she had never been cast upon the henroof nor upon the hay-mow, but when she was found there she had gone of her own accord, and had covered herself with hay and straw to better prove the witches' despite against her ; she knew nothing of any child done to death by nails in its body ; and all timt she had said about the bones, and the oil, and the tender flesh roasted at the fire, was as false as the rest. She had never been possessed, but had flung herself into these fits by her own will and independent power ; and what she did in them was a mere trick, which she could show their worships if they L'ked. In short, Grace Sowerbuts wa^ forced to play the losing game in as masterly a manner as might be, and to own herself a cheat and an impostor while yet there was time for pardon. So the three Samesbury witches got oflf with a stem exhortation from the judge, who scarcely seemed to relish the release of even Protestant witches delated by papistical accusers. 282 THE WITCHES OF ENGLAND. MARY AND HER CATS.* Mary Smith of Lynn, wife of Henry Smithy glover, was enyious of her neighbours for their greater skill in Tuaking cheese : in the midst of her discontents, and while her mind, by its passion and evil thoughts, was in. a fit condition for the devil to enter therein, Satan came to her as a black man, provoking her in a '^ lowe mm> muring and hissing Voyce," to forsake God and follow him ; to which she " condescended " in express terms. The devil then constantly appeared to her — sometimes as a mist ; sometimes as a ball of fire, with dispersed spangles of black ; but chiefly as a black man ; and some- times as a horned man, in which shape he came to her when in prison. Mary was a good hand at banning. She cursed John Orkton, and wished his fingers might rot off, and they did so ; she cursed Elizabeth Hancock, whom she accused of stealing her hen, wishing that the bones might stick in her throat, calling her a ^'prowde linny, prowde flurts, and shaking the hand bade her go in, for she should repent it ;" and incontinently Eliza^ beth Hancock was taken with a pinching at the heart, and sudden weakness of all her body, and fainting fits, and racking pains, and madness, and raving, so that she tcxce the hair off her head as she tossed about distracted. Her father went to a wise man, who showed him Mary Smith's &Lce in a glads, and bade him make a cake aceordiag to certain directions, which then he was to lay, half on Bessie's head and half on her back, and which would infallibly cure her, as she was not ill but be- witched. The father did so, and the daughter mended. • A * Treatise of Witchcraft' By Alexander Roberts. B.D., and ' \}iex of Gk)d's word at King's linne in Norfolk. 1616. MABY AND HEB CATS. 28S Soon after this she mairied one James Soot, who, having a mortal hatred against Mary Smith, killed her cat» and threatened that if his wife had any such fits as she had before they married, he would hang Mary Smith withoutmercy. At this Mary clapped her hands, and CTied " They had killed her cat I" and the next day Elizabeth had the old nipping round her heart So James went to Mary and said he would most certainly take her before the magistrates, if she did not amend her ways and heal his wife at once. Fortunately for Mary the woman got better, and the evil day was staved off for a time. To Cecily Balye, the maid-servant next door, she sent her cat to sit upon her breast when she slept, in revenge at the maid's sweeping a Uttle dust awry ; and Cicely gave awfdl evidence how, through the thin partition which divided them, she used to see Mary Smith adoring her imp in a submissive manner — down on her knees, using strange gestures and uttering many murmuring and broken speeches ; and if she had Listened, and looked more attentively, she might have seen and heard more : ^' but she was with the present spectacle so afi&ighted, that she hurried away in much feare and distemper.'* ^ The fourth endammaged by this Hagge," says Boberts, was one Edmund Newton. He was a cheese- monger, like herself, and she thought he got the best of the trade; so she, or her imp in her likeness, came to him as he was lying in bed, and ^* whisked about his hice a wet death of very loathsome savour; after which he did see one clothed in russet, with a little bush beard, who told him he was sent to looke vpon his sore legge, and would heale it" When Newton rose to take a fairer look, he saw that the russet man with a little bush beard had cloven feet^ so refused his offer of iiiiimrlj wTfidiTig her . ciswled about .<«»h ""Tgi^n -«» . ^amo» jjfiMilM 11 cl with ^ir{«* ^ •^'€i9BB:i ide • ou i ^ 1 Aso maker) did -znrr ^ivii zim no ^fwek. nvs grieyously r^u - - .. nmnir^-wLEd hstp^ Rchmmii Newton's ■^ - • iBfi -* ^' racu ^*r: * vpr^;i4iiHE he stroye to ? u^ jLiAM Jaii aasoemt aoui he had no m«-t "-■ ' r. n : •»« -. 1 r MBj ''lue* -J^TTT 9D mnch as a -•" '*'-*-^ - we "ssscrt lAiTP- )£m&. At another "^^^ " - ^'"•^ • *ii.«r-^'ic '"wi. • i^'PT uiH iwi — lAe chamber " ■—■ ^ ^ • ' iim . t zi^ . vEO^ m Tig - Biflnd, and did * • . . -t ,-, .^ jytn: ^tuf t&aa the law ^ -^'■•^ -u U.V- ^«iut ^wft' jacniH&i before the ^^"••^=^' "^ - ur*«t»r • :ir • isais^ j£ ^v^otehcraft — by • - -^^stAst -r*! ♦» ar«ji' ->qptf- jpflitT by judge *-*^'^ uoii-**. ^ tr 'rMeifi-iiL^ai^wwdead, as **•--• ^ -ult^ .*JM. s:r*«aianiL Thk murder ** x^^ ^«M. \ t^«i9a«^ : c. 3aaijod. tial diown much *y M»»i^ ritfoi FiiwBE;. and her two "^'.^ :« >i4ii. IkMaoKHi; Juwa and Philip v^-^ « .tt^ iBifeCtt' ^^^^^ ooniifeHatily as char- ^U(bi3SPB>% ^«i^ "itfr^iR. ami tdh^ eMiUe itself^ -'M^ «>wu \t ito >jii&ttv^ ^iHHttii and the wash- *^.tva AisM-Tt«^' iMft f^titttit^ a great &YOurite ^^ . »««.''. ^iiii xiaftM. Mr nuadk. Their good *^HMw^ ^ ^jMHriK ^ « A n^ tir L Btanea, dwelling in BUTTEBKIN. 285 fortune raised them up a host of enemies, as is always the case ; and backbiters went with tales to the Lord and Lady, saying, ** First, that loane Flower the Mother was a monstrous malicious woman, full of oathes, curses, and imprecations, irreligious, and, for any thing they saw by her, a plaine Atheist ; besides of late days her very countenance was estranged, her eyes were fiery and hollow, her speech fell and enuious, her demeanour strange and exoticke, and her conuersation sequestered ; so that the whole course of her life gaue great suspition that Ae was a notorious witch, yea some of her neighbours dared to affirme that she dealt with familiar Spirits, and terrified them all with curses and threatening of reuenge, if there were neuer so little cause of displeasure and ynkindnesse. Concerning Margaret, that she often resorted from the Castle to her Mother, bringing such Provision as they thought was vnbefitting for a seruant to purloyne, and coming at such unseasonable houres, that they could not but coniecture some mischeife between them, and that their extraordinary ryot and expences tended both to rob the Lady, and to maintaine certaine deboist and base company which frequented this loane Flower's house the motiier, ajid especially her youngest Daughter. Concerning Philip that she was lewdly transported with the loue of one Th. Simpson, who presumed to say, that she had bewitched him : for he had no power to leaue, and was as he supposed maruellously altered both in minde and body, since her acquainted company : these complaints began many yeares before either their conuiction or publique apprehension : Notwithstanding such was the honour of this Earle and his Lady ; such was the cunning of this monstrous woman in her obser- uation ^towards them; such was the subtilty of the 286 THE WITCHES OP BNGLAOT). Dinell to bring his purposes to passe; such was the pleasure of Grod to make tryall of his semants; and sach was the effect of a damnable womans wit and malitious ennj, that all things were carried away in the smooth Channell of liking and good entertainment on eoery side, untill the Earle by degrees conoeiued some mislike against ; and so peraduenture estranged himself from that familiarity and accustomed conferences he was wont to haue with her ; untill one Peate offered her some wrong ; against whom she complained, but found that my Lord did affect her clamours and malicious information, yntillone Mr. Yauasor abandoned her com- pany, as either suspicious of her lewd life, or distasted with his oun misliking of such base and poore Creatures, whom nobody loued but the Earle's household ; vntiU the Countesse misconceiuing of her daughter Margaret and discovering some vndecencies both in her life and neglect of her businesse, discharged her from lying any more in the Castle, yet gave her 40«., a bolster, and a mattresse of wooU ; commanding her to go home vntill the slacknesse of her repayring to the Castle, as she was wont, did tume her loue and liking toward this honourable Ecurle and his family into hate and rancor ; wherevpon despighted to bee so neglected, and ezpro- bated by her neighbours for her Daughters casting out of doores, and other conceiued displeasures, she grew past all shame and womanhood, and many times cursed them till liiat were the cause of this discontentment, and aiH'le her so loathsome to her former familiar Mends aiul beneficial acquaintance." 'riiings being oome to this pass, it was not di£$cult to pi^iHiKuie the Earl and his Countess that, when their ul J(^t son Henry, Lord Boss, sickened very strangely, ain! ufter a whUe died, — ^when their second son Francis EUTTERKIN. 287 was also tortured by a strange sickness — and the Lady Katherine their dai^hter was in danger of her life ** through extreame maladies and vnusuall fits " — it was all done by Joan Flower's witchcraft, and that the quickest way out of their troubles was to arrest the widow and her two daughters and see what could be done with them, both by their own confessions and the neighbours' relations. They were arrested accordingly, and carried before the magistrates where witnesses were not awanting. The first evidence given was that of Philip Flower, sister to Margaret, and daughter of poor old Joan. On the 4th of February she confessed that her mother and sister " maliced " the Earl of Eut- land, his countess, and their children, because they were put out of the Castle ; wherefore her sister Mar- garet, by desire of her mother, got Lord Henry's right- hand glove which she found on the rushes in the nursery, and delivered it to Joan, who presently rubbed it on the back of her spirit Butterkin, bidding him ** height and goe and doe some hurt to Henry Lord Bosse," then put it into boiling water, pricking it many times with a knife, and burying it in the yard with a wish that Lord Henry might never thrive. Whereupon he fell sick and shortly after died. She also said that she often saw the spirit Butterkin leap on her sister Margaret's shoulder and suck her neck, and that her mother had often cursed the earl and his lady, and boiled feathers and blood together, "vsing many Deuillish speeches and strange gestures." On the 22nd of the same month Margaret was examined, and she also gave no trouble. She confessed that truly she had got Lord Henry's glove, and that her mother had done with it in all particulars of stroking Butter- kin's back, and putting it into boiling water, and prick- :» THE TITCSBa 0^ £X<n.AKD. mr^ JUL fnrrczir x. mx^aSng to die words of Philip ; ijei^ aa& -Mine> ~wn a- :iiree years ago she had found a _- .-ff. I zt: I-Ljra JraDcs . wiiieh her mother nibbed on -L^iTT^rcn Hir ac iCii janie hmi go iq>ward, and which, T .1^ Tf^r^ani i» jmi jurr^^iesy cansed a grieyous .^tr?«> ^ :irts -a "iitr littie noblenaa. And she got a iv^^ 1. l^mMLT^ T.trnHmtt^i haniikerdier, which her :3itii^r -^us ^:i/ .K'T wac^c^ *^and then taking it out -^^ ■ ^4. 5 -a iam^rsm, bidttrng him * flye and go ;' ir.tr^ux»a ium-rsm whimfd and erred * Mew,' "and =.«; m^usi^ ^mu It* jaii oo power orer Lady Eatherine V .•iTt itr. A :tw iays later both saetas were examined sfcTwr^ «ti»:a J^iilip -'♦JoifcaBeii diat she had a spirit which >«JL Sk*i sr^ n "iitf iniL of a white rat, and which she ^Mi^ 'rar?^i*at*i IT rot* ?pai!e q£ two or three years, on «• .«^.r.u iiaic r si^'OLii ^^ansfr Thomas Simpson to loye .•:<- *i^* 3bir^?w>t Alluwuti that she had two spirits, 'i«^ «iu:w lit* >ttiifr biia^-^poCled^ to whom she had ^«^t -t ^4" ^vu» ~ut«T ^'^v>HiiinTring to do all that she com- «aiuut«« ut^qL. ritHi :siii^ rambled oS into a wild state- s' -u fi unv /iLiit« iurciietaof Januaiylast, she, being u --mvin j:>a/i* jyar ifvi appeired to her at eleven or nt-w. J H^ rw 4C liiric : cijj cue stood at her bed's foot, .«uvc lau. 4t iuanL atf^ ok^ aa ape, and spake unto her ; >ci %;Mr >a^ .vuLii iiiC v^ n?m!emb»; at which she was - ittkc^ iittC itf w^ald HOC ^peak plainer and let her A .1 cT^uoiL iii> mMom^. She said that the other three f - jiitti^ciai^ Ixizie Kofcin* and Spirit, "but she© ^ t.r :ttii(Cr%tfi^ :a!i»i ifcor suspected herselfe till then.'* X^ :\<f^^ ^ ^xiOttaiiWii^ of the two younger women : $m >i^ft y^^ v^Mtt 3tti died on her way to gaol ^' with a kricfs^^ ^3:.i:mr«ttBx^ of so«l and body," and so an end «ii .v(tt!^ V ^^ iier. Bm if there was nothing more to ^ ^ «Mft wf lli^ FWwer tiunily, their neighbours were BUTTEEKIK* '^d hoi backward to help them with a bad word, wheii handy. Anne Baker, evidently mad, Joan Willimot, and Ellen Greene, were brought to say their say in the fistce of the conntry and before the county justices. Joan Willimott gave evidence that Joan Flower had often- times complained to her of the unfriendly conduct of my Lord of Butland, in turning her daughter out of the house, adding that though she could not have her will of my Lord himself, she had spied his son and stricken 1dm to the heart — stricken him with a whit6 spirit, which yet could be cured if she so willed. Joan Willimott then "fyled " herself for a witch, saying that she had a spirit called Pretty, given to her by her master, William Berry of Langholme, in Butlandshire, whom she had served three years. When he gave it to her, he bade her open her mouth and he would blow into her a Fairy which should do her good ; and she did so ; imd he blew into her mouth, and presently after there came out of her mouth a spirit which stood upon the ground in the shape and form of a woman, an^ asked of her her soul — which Joan granted — ^being willed thereto by her master. She did not own to having ever hurt anyone, but said instead that she had helped divers who had been stricken and forespoken, and that the use she made of her spirit was to know how those did whom she had undertaken to mend. She said, too, that her spirit came to her last night, in the form of a woman mum- bling something, but she could not understand what ; and that she was not asleep, but was as waking as at this present On another occasion she fyled two of her neighbours, saying how Cooke's wife had said that John Patchet might have had his child alive, if he had asked for it, insinuating that Cooke's wife had forespoken the said child, and that Patchet's wife had an evil thing u 90 THE WITCHES OF ENGLAND, widiin her, and she knew it by her girdle. Also that Gamaliel Crveete, of Waltham, had a spirit like a white moose put into him in his swearing, and that those on whom he looked with intent to hurt were hurt; and that he had a mark on his left arm, which had been cut away ; and that her own spirit had told her all this. And that she, and Joan, and Margaret Flower, had met in BlackboRow hill, the week before Joan's apprehen- 81011 ; and that she had seen in Joan's house two spirits, the one like a rat, and the other like an owl, and that one of them had sucked under her left ear — as she thought; and that Joan Flower said her spirits had infixmed her she should be neither burnt nor hanged. On this same day Ellen Green gave in her aocount, aayiBg that some six years since Joan WiUimott had come to her in the wolds, persuading her to forsake > God and betake her to the devil, and she would give ker two qfibits: which this Examinate consented unta Whete«qpoii Joan called two spirits, one in the likeness of a ^kittan," the other of a '^moldiwarp," the first of wUch was called ^posse," and the second '^hiffe hiffe ;" and they l^ufi on her shoulder, cmd sucked her. And that die sent the kittin to a baker in the town who had offettded her> bat whose name she had forgotten, and hade it bewitdi him to death ; and the moldiwarp she d^^$palched to Ann Dawse, for the same purpose and the cwttd u£&iieew And of other deaths by the like means did ElWft C^een accuse herself; adding that Joan Wmidftott s spirit was in the form of a white dog, and tibat ^ had seen it suck her in Barley harvest last. Attd thdn came mad Ann Baker, who started with ^ajStmaif]^ hec aiidknce that there are four colours of TJiitH^tt hUok» yellow, green, and blue, and that black -Jtw^ de«itlv and that she saw the blue planet strike RUTTERKIK. 291 William Fairbaim's son, but when William Fairbaim did beat her and break her head, his said son Thomas did mend. Tet she sent not the blue planet. She said that she saw a hand appear to her, and a voice in the air say, " Anne Baker, save thyself, for to-morrow thou and thy maister must be slain ;" and that the next day, as she and her master were together in a cart, suddenly she saw a flash of fire, but when she said her prayers the fire went away, and then a crow came and pecked her clothes ; whereat she said her prayers again, and bade the crow go to whom it was sent, " and the Crow went vnto her Maister and did beat him to death, and flhee with her pi;ayer8 recouered him to life : but he was sick a fortnight after and saith that if shee had not had more knowledge than her Maister, both he and shee and all the Cattell had beene slaine." The rest of her confessions turned upon the histories of the various deaths and bewitchments with which she was charged, and most of which she denied ; saying, that she had merely lain Ann Stannidge's child on her skirt, but had done it no harm, and that when the mother had burnt the little one's hair and nail parings, and she, Ann Baker, had gone in to the house in great pain and suflfering, she knew nothing whatever of this burning, but that she was sick and knew not whither she went. Of the Rutland case all she knew was, that when she came back from Northamptonshire, whither she had gone three years ago, two good wives had told her that my young Lord Henry was dead, and that there was a glove of the said Lord buried underground, and that "as his glove did rot and wast, so did the liver of the young Lord rot and wast ;" and that her spirit was a good spirit and in the shape of a white dog. The tract does not inform us what was done with these three 2E THE imCHES OF EXGLAXD. ^iTra!iied ^vQ^ieiL The twa Fkywera were hanged, the ^ud iij.niitT haxiur: dSed s& I have said: bat whether liir urmiitih' de-iiih of a aekly hd was revenged by Tft-rv- Ttm yyanT ljiv*;«d than this remains unknown. The 0*1^7': -aaigrrac^rtg erf sarages, the witches of Afidca, and insr im^i liiziiji -Medicine-men,** are not so very far rraii.'vr*i fr^m our own fore&thers that we should quite ipi.c^ ibr likrTtegs between them and the recent past THE BOY OF BILSTON * Tiif w«r benneirn Papists and Protestants still went •^su uj£ iiir ibTx:<:nie weapon with each was the old *afe .£ r.^6t?5ea:iL. axkd its le^t — exorcism. The patient :xL 'ziK 7c*ssiaLi case was William Perry, a youth of TV -.> t. i^oirraZy cillrd the Boy of Bilston, whom Joan C%.i >:<«'>.i>fc i:r the better showing forth the glory «£ .^<c. 4iu£ ii*r d:;:rvi, and to the hurt of her own soul aoiL xc: .. C*ifcj ^T William Perry met old Joan as he r^«"ijnt*i fr.'fft icbx'L and forbore to give her good time L Vjt iiiT^ ae^ a well-bied youth should : whereat the .vl v\ama w:k *c^^* *^ called him "a foul thing," s> .lu: ""tiiu 15 had been better for him if he had ^^•r-,\I irc.'^ At which words the boy felt something ,c*vk Lvit x^ hi? h^?art, and when he came home feU UM^ ^-^ .c lie 33x>>l demoniae kind. The parents seeing ^ t\tr^mi:Y w^nt cap and knee to some Catholics in yM tK'»^'''X>areoo«t and they, after long solicitation, l^ijcv^u tk> tbie exotdsing. They poured holy water ijyJ Ifculj *<^il itt goodly quantity upon him, and left ^i^ff^ac^ K^i WcJl to be iKed in their absence. The devil * Wk^g^ and Hutchinson. . THE BOY OF BILSTON. ' 693 WM sore afflicted by the holy water and the holy oil, end made the boy cast up pins, and wool, and knotted thread, and rosemary leaves, and walnut leaves, and feathers, and "thrums/* For there were three devils inside him, he said, and they had uncommon power. On Corpus Christi day he brought up eleven pins, and a knitting needle folded in divers folds ; all after ex- treme fits and heavings ; and then the spirit told him not to listen to the exorcising priest — which was a great compliment from the devil — and that the witch had said she would make an end of him. When told to pray for the witch, the boy and the devils were furious ; but after- wards calmed down on the exorciser getting extra power ; and then the boy prayed his prayer and grew better. Then he demanded that everything about him should be blessed, and that all his family should be Catholics ; but when any Puritans came in, he said the devil assaulted him in the shape of a black bird. So it was a vastly pretty little case of witness and conversion, and the Catholics made the most of it. Joan must now be arrested ; for the fits continued, and the young gentle- man was not to be pacified with anything short of the witch's blood. When brought into his presence the boy had extreme fits, crying out : " * Now she comes, now my Tormentor comes!' writhing and tearing and twisting himself into such Shapes as bred at once Amazement and Pity in the Spectators:" so the old woman was sent to Stafford gaol, but, because this was a Popish matter, acquitted without long delay. Then the Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield, desirous of testing the matter, and unwilling that the Catholics should take any glory to themselves for their holy oils and their anointings which were said to have calmed the most " sounding fits," took William Perry home to the Castle, and there 294 THE WITCHES OP ENGLAND. had him watched: and watched so well that certaixi dirty tricks not to be spoken of here were found ont, and the physiological part of the ^* miracle " set at rest. But before this the Bishop tried the devils with Greek. For they could not abide the first verse of the first chapt^ of St John, and always feU on the boy with fury when it was read ; so, said the Bishop, whose wits sectarian hatred had sharpened — one bigotry driving out another — " Boy, it is either thou or the Devil that abhorrest those Words of the Gospel : and if it be the Devil (he being so ancient a Scholar, as of almost six Thousand Years' standing) knows, and understands all Languages; so that he cannot but know when I recite the same sentence out of the Greek Text : But if it be thyself then art thou an execrable Wretch, who plays the Devil's part; wherefore look to thyself for now thou art to be put to Trial, and mark diligently, whether it be that same Scripture which shall be read." Then was read the twelfth verse of the first chapter, at which William, supposing it to be the abhorred first, feU into his customary fits ; but when, immediately after, the first yerse was read, he, supposing it was another, was not moved at alL By which means this part of the fraud was discovered also ; and when, moving his eyes and staring about him wildly, he declared that he saw mice running round the bed, no one gave any credit to his words. When the whole thing was blown to the winds, and the Greek test had failed, and the dirty tricks had been found out, the boy made a pretended confession, which was evidently no more true than anything else had been. He said that one day as he was coming home, an old man called Thomas, with gray hair and a cradle of glasses on his shoulders, met him, and after asking him if he went to school and how he liked it, told MR FAIRFAX'S FOLLY. 295 Um that he could teadi him a few tricks which should prevent his goiug to school any more, and would instead lead aU people to pity and lament him, holding him to be bewitched. But it was shrewdly suspected that the old man Thomas, with his gray hair and cradle of glass, was but a pleasant phantasy of the imagination ; and that the real secret had lain with the Catholic priests, who, finding the boy apt and handy, thought they could make good capital out of him for their Church, and put him forth as a witness for its divine power and holy office, seeing that it could dispossess the demoniac and drive away evil spirits. Fortunately they reckoned without their host — ^the host of " reformed " bigotry and hatred : for we need not congratulate ourselves on any clearsightedness or common sense in the matter. Had the Boy of Bilston been a sound Protestant, he would have been held as indubitably Possessed by the Devil, and some poor wretch would have been found as a con- venient sacrifice to the stupidity of that deviL MR. FAIRFAX'S FOLLY. The next year saw Mr. Fairfax of Knaresborough — Edward Fairfax, the scholar, the gentleman, the classic, our best translator of Tasso, graceful, learned, elegcmt Edward Fairfax — ^pursuing with incredible zeal six of his neighbours for supposed witchcraft on his children. The children had fits and were afflicted with imps, so Edward Fairfax thought his paternal duty consisted in getting the lives of six supposed witches, the hanging of whom would infallibly cure his children, and drive away the evil spirits possessing them. But fortunately for the accused the judge had more sense than Mr. 296 THE WITCHES OF ENGIiAKD. Fairfax ; and, though the women were sent back agcun for another assize, suffered them to escape with only the terror of death twice repeated. It is strange to find ourselves face to face with such stupid bigotry as this in a man so estimable and so refined as Fairfax. THE COUNTESS.* Lady Jennings and her young daughter Elizabeth, of thirteen, lived at Thistlewood in the year 1622. One day an old woman, coming no one knew whence, perhaps from the bowels of the earth, appeared suddenly before the girl, demanding a pin. The child was fright- ened, and had fits soon after — fits of the usual hysteric character, but quite sufficiently severe to alarm Lady Jennings. A doctor was sent for ; but also, as weU as the doctor, came a clever shrewd woman called Mar- garet Eussill, or " Countess," a bit of a doctress in her way, perhaps a bit of a white witch too, who thought she could do the afflicted child some good, and had beside a love of putting her fingers into everybody's pie. At the end of one of her fits the child began to cry out wildly, then mentioned Margaret and three others as the persons who had bewitched her. And then she went on, incoherently, " These have bewitched all my . mother's children — east, west, north, and south all tlif'He lie — all these are witches. Set up a great sprig of rusornary in the middle of the house — ^I have sent this child to speak, to show aU these witches — Put Countess ill prison, this child will be well — ^If she had been long ii|ir<>, all together had been alive — ^Them she bewitched with a cat-stick — Till then I shall . be in great pain — ♦ Wright, quoting Lord Londesborough's MS8. THE COUNTESS. 297 Till then, by fits, I shall be in great extremity — ^They died in great misery/' No mother's heart could resist the appeal contained in these wild words; poor Countess was arrested, and taken before Mr. Slingsby, a magis- trate. When. there she said, though heaven knows what prompted her to tell such falsehoods, '* Yesterday she went to Mrs. Dromondbye in Black-and-White Court, in the Old Baylye ; and told her that the Lady Jennings had a daughter strangely sicke, whereuppon the said Dromondbye wished her to goe to inquire at Clerkenwell for a minister's wiflfe that cold helpe people that were sicke, but she must not aske for a witch or a -cunning woman, but for one that is a phisition woman ; and then this examinate found her and a woman sitting with her and told her in what case the child was, and shee said shee wold come this day, but shee ought her noe service, and said shee had bin there before and left receiptes there, but the child did not take them. And she said further that there was two children that her Lady Jennins had by this husband, that were be- witched and dead, for there was controversie betweene two bowses, and that as long as they dwelt there, they cold not prosper, and that there shold be noe blessing in that bowse by this man." When asked what was this ** diflference," she answered, "Between the house of God and the house of the world :" but when told that this was no answer, and that she must explain herself more clearly, she said that " she meant the apothecary Higgins and my Lady Jennings.'* " And shee further confessed that above a moneth agoe she went to Mrs. Saxey in Gunpouder Alley, who was forespoken herself, and that had a boke that cold helpe all those that were forespoken, and that shee wold come and shewe her the booke and help her under God. And further said to 29g THE WITCHES OF ENGLAND. this examinate, that none but a seminary priest cold cure her.** So here again we have the constantly re- curring element of sectarianism^ without which^ indeed^ we should be at a loss how to understand much that meets us. *^ Countess " was committed ta Newgate, and the bewitched child cried out more and more against her, making new revelations with each fit^ when the pitiful farce was brought to a close by the minister's wife, Mrs. Goodcole, who, when confronted with Coun- tess, denied point blank the more important parts of her evidence. And then all this evil — ^this much ado about nothing — ^was found to have arisen from a private quarrel ; and when Dr. Napier was sent for, he un- bewitched the possessed child with some very simple remedies, and the great balloon burst and fell to the ground in hopeless collapse. THE TWO VOICES.* On the 13th of August, 1626, Edward Bull and Joan Greedie were indicted at Taunton for bewitching Edward DinhanL Dinham was a capital ventriloquist, and could speak in two diiSerent voices beside his own, as well as counterfeit fits and play the possessed to the life. One of his two feigned voices was pleasant and shrill, and belonged to a good spirit ; the other was deadly and hollow, and belonged to an evil spirit. And when he spoke his lips did not move, and he lay as if in a trance, and both he and the voices said that he was bewitched, and aU the people believed them. And the good voice asked who had bewitched him, to which the bad replied, *' A woman in greene cloathes and a blacke • Wright. THE TWO VOICES. 299- hait with long poll, and a man in gray srite, with blewe stockiligs.** When asked where she was now, the bad spirit answered, " At her own house," while he was at a tavern in " Yeohnll," Ireland. Then after some pressing the bad spirit said that the name of one was " Johan," of the other " Edward ;" and after more pressing still, confessed to the surnames, '^ Greedie and BulL" So in consequence of this reliable report mes- sengers were sent off to find old Joan, and when found arrest her. Then the good spirit, who played the part of a benevolent Pry, asked how these two became witches, to which the bad answered, "By descent" **But how by descent?" says the good spirit, anxious not to leave a lock unfastened or a problem unsolved. " From the grandmother to the mother, and from the mother to the children," says the bad. "But howe were they soe?" says Goody. "They were bound to us and we to them," answered the bad, with more words than explanation. Good Spirit — " Lett me see the bond." Bad Spirit—" Thou shalt not" Good Spirit — "Lett me see it> and if I like it I will seale it alsoe." Bad Spirit — " Thou shalt, if thou wilt not reveale the contentes thereofl" Good Spirit—" I will not" At this point it was pretended that a spectral bond was passed from the bad to the good ghost ; and then broke out the "sweet and shrill voice" of the ven- triloquist with " Alas ! oh, pittifall, pittifuU, pittifull ! What I eight scales ? bloody scales I four dead and four alive ; o^ miserable !" Then came in the man's natural voice, addressing the spirit: "Come, come, prithee tell me why did they bewitch me ?" Bad Spirit 300 THE WITCHES OF ENGLAND. — " Because thou didst call Johan Greedie witche." Man — "Why, is shee not a witche?" Bad Spirit — " Yes, but thou shouldst not have said so," which was a fine bit of worldly policy in the bad ghost Good Spirit— "But why did Bull bewitche him?" Bad— " Because Greedie was not strong enough." On this evidence further messengers were sent off for Edward Bull, but whether to Yeohull or not I cannot say. They were disappointed for the moment, for BuU had run away ; and then, in a future interview, and to fill up the time until braver sport should be provided, the bad and the good spirits had a wrestle for Dinham's soul, which, judging from what evidence we have had left us, was not worth the struggle, and would be no great gain to either party. In the struggle the good spirit speaks Latin. " Laudes, laudes, laudes," says he, being well educated and not ashamed. But the bad was, as befitted his nature, churlish and ill-taught, and did not understand his opponent's talk, but translated it into "ladies," which made a laugh among them alL Then they struggled for the Prayer Book; but here again the bad was discomfited, and the man kept the talisman ; after which the good spirit made " the sweet- est musicke that ever was heard." When they set out to catch Bull again, they found him in bed; and now, when both the Possessors were safe, Dinham was freed and his voices dumb for ever. Perhaps he had (^iiutrht cold. I do not know the fate of these poor wn t(*hes, but I should not think it doubtful. In 1627 Mr. Eothnell exorcised an evil spirit out of (tilt' John Fox ; but notwithstanding this John con- iiiHitHl dumb for three years after; which was rather an tniinrtunate comment on the exorcism, but not at all Hla ly to open the eyes of any one willing to be blind. 301 THE SECOND CURSE OF PENDLE.* We have seen wha.t Lancashire was in sixteen hun- dred and twelve : it was not much better twenty-one years later ; for in 1633 we find that Pendle Forest was still of bad repute, and that traditions of old Demdike and her rival Mother Chattox yet floated round the MalTrin Tower, and hid, spectre-like, in the rough and desert places of the barren waste. Who ever knew of evil example waiting for its followers? What Mothers Demdike and Chattox had done in their day, their children and grandchildren were ready to do after them. The world wiU never lose its old women, "toothless, blear-eyed, foul-tongued, malicious," for whom love died out and sin came in long years ago ; and Edmund Eobinson, son of Ned of Eoughs, was one of those specially appointed by Providence to bring such evil- doers to their reward. Edmund, then about eleven years of age (how many of these sad stories come from children and young crea- tures !), lived with his father in Pendle Forest ; lived poorly enough, but not without some kind of romance and interest ; for on the 10th day of February, 1 633, he made the following deposition : — "Who upon oath informeth, being examined con- cerning the great meeting of the Witches of Pendle, saith that upon All Saints' Day last past, he, this In- former, being with one Henry Parker, a near-door neighbour to him in Wheatley-lane, desired the said Parker to give him leave to gatlier some Bulloes, which he did. In gathering whereof he saw two Grayhounds, viz., a black and a brown one, come running over the next field towards him, he verily thinking the one of them to be Mr. Nutter's, and the other to be Mr. Eobin- * Webster. Wright. Harleian MSS. 802 THE WITCHES OF ENGLAND. son's, the said Gentlemen then having such like. And saith, the said Grayhounds came to hhn, and fawned on him, they haying about their necks either of them a Collar, unto each of which was tied a String; which Collars (as this Informer affirmeth) did shine like Gold. And he thinking that some either of Mr. Nutters or Mr. Bobinsons Family should have followed them ; yet seeing no body to follow them, he took. the same Gray- hounds, thinking to course with them. And presently a Hare did rise very near before him. At the sight whereof he cried Loo, Loo, Loo : but the Doggs would not run. Whereupon he being very angry took them, and with the strings that were about their Collars, tied them to a little bush at the next hedge, and with a switch that he had in his hand he beat them. And in stead of the black Grayhound, one . Dickensons Wife stood up, a Neighbour, whom this Informer knoweth. And in stead of the brown one a little Boy, whom this Informer knoweth not At which sight this Informer, being afraid, endeavoured to run away; but being stayed by the Woman, (viz.) by Dickensons Wife, she put her hand into her pocket, and pulled forth a piece of Silver much like to a fair shilling, and offered to give him it to hold his tongue and not to tell ; which he refused, saying, Nay, titiou art a Witch. Whereupon she put her hand into her pocket again, and pulled out a thing like unto a Bridle that gingled, which she put on the little Boyes head ; which said Boy stood up in the likeness of a white Horse, and in the brown Gray- hounds stead. Then immediately Dickensons wife took this Informer before her upon the said Horse and carried him to a new house called Hoarstones, being about a quarter of a mile off. Whither when they were come, there were divers persons about the door, and he THE SECOND CUBSE OF PENDLB, 808 saw divers others riding on Horses of several colours towards the said House, who tied their Horses to a hedge near to the said House. Which persons went into the said House, to the number of three score or thereabouts, as this Informer tbinketh, where they had a fire, and meat roasting in the said House, whereof a young Woman (whom this Informer knoweth not) gave him Flesh and Bread upon a Trencher, and Drink in a Glass, which after the first taste he refused, and would have no more, but said it was nought " And presently after, seeing divers of the said com- pany going into a Bam near adjoining, he followed after them, and there he sSw six of them kneeling, and pulling all six of them sis several ropes, which were festened or tied to the top of the Bam. Presently after which pulling, there came into this Informers sight flesh smoakin^ butter in lumps, and milk as it were syleing (straining) irom the said ropes. All which fell into basons which were placed under the said ropes. And after that these six had done, there came other six which did so likewise. And during all the time of their several pulling, they made such ugly faces as scared this Informer, so that he was glad to run out and steal homewards ; who immediately finding they wanted one that was in their company, some of them ran after him near to a place in a Highway called Boggard-hole, where he, this Informer, met two Horsemen. At the sight whereof the said persons left following of him. But the foremost of those persons that followed him he knew to be one Loinds Wife ; which said Wife, together with one Dickensons Wife, and one Jennet Davies, he hath seen since at several times in a Croft or Close adjoining to his Fathers house, which put him in great fear. And farther this Informer saith, upon Thursday K4 THE WITCHES OF ENGLAND* after New Years Day last past he saw the said Loinds Wife sitting upon a cross piece of wood being within the Chimney of his Fathers dwelling-house; and he, calling to her, said, Come down, thou Loynds Wife. And immediately the said Loynds Wife went up out of his sight. And further, this Informer saith, that after he was come from the company aforesaid to his Fathers house, being towards evening, his Father bad him go and fetch home two kine to seal (tie up). And in the way, in a field called the Filers, he chanced to hap upon a Boy, who began to quarrel with him, and they fought together, till the Informer had his ears and face made up very bloody by figHting, and looking down he saw the Boy had a cloven foot. At which sight, he being greatly affrighted, came away from him to seek the kine. And in the way he saw a light like to a Lanthom, towards which he made haste, supposing it to be carried by some of Mr. Eobinson's people ; but when he came to the place he only found a Woman standing on a Bridge, whom, when he saw, he knew her to be Loinds Wife, and knowing her he turned back again ; and immediately he met the aforesaid Boy, from whom he offered to run, which Boy gave him a blow on the back that made him to cry. And fiui;her this Informer saith, that when he was in the Barn, he saw three Women take six Pictures from off the beam, in which Pictures were many Thorns or such like things sticked in them, and that Loynds Wife took one of the Pictures down, but the other two Women that took down the rest he knoweth not. And being further asked what per&ons 'were at the aforesaid meeting, he nominated these persons following." Here follows a list of names of no interest to the modem reader. At the end of this Reposition is one from the Father. THE SECOND CUESE OP PENDIiE. 305 • "Edmund Bobinson of Pendle, Father of the afore-* said Edmuud Eobinson, Mason, informeth, " That upon All Saints-day last he sent his Son the aforesaid Informer, to fetch home two kine to seal, and saith that his Son, staying longer than he thought he should have done, he went to seek him, and in seeking of, him heard him cry pitifully, and found him so affiighted and distracted that he neither knew his Father nor did know where he was, and so continued very near a quarter of an hour before he came to himself. And he told this Informer his Father all the particular pas- sages that are before declared in the said Bobinson his Son's Information. (Signed) ** Eichabd Shuttleworth. " John Starkey," Who would dare to doubt such testimony as this?>. Here was another child of God grievously mishandled ; and what might not be done to the servants of the devil who had so evilly intreated him ? And was not Edmund Bobinson evidently raised up and directed by God to be the scourge of all witches, and the great discoverer of their naughty pranks ? So the lad was elevated to the post of witch-finder, and was taken about from church to church — accusing any who might strike his fancy or his fears, and sending them off to prison at the impulse of his childish will. Among other places, he was brought to the parish church of Kildwick, where Webster was then curate. It was during the afternoon service, and the lad was put upon a stall to look the better about him, and discern the witches more clearly. After service Webster went to him and found him with " two very unlikely persons that did conduct him and 306 THE WITCHES OP ENGLAND. manage the business:** the curate of Kildwick would have drawn him aside, but the men would not suffer this. Then said Webster, " * Good boy, tell me truly and in earnest, didst thou hear and see such strange things of the meeting of witches as is reported by many that thou dost relate, or did some person teach thee to say such things of thyself?' 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.' " So Webster got nothing by this, and the boy was not damaged nor his credit shaken. Very many persons were arrested on this young imp's accu- sations, beside those seventeen whom he had seen "syleing" butter and bacon from witch-ropes in the magic barn. And among the rest Jennet Device, (was she our old acquaintance of perjured memory?) who was charged with killing Isabelle, the wife of William Nutter ; and Mary Spencer, who was in imminent danger for having " caused a pale or ceUocke to come to her, full of water, fourteen yards up a hiU from a well ;" and Margaret Johnson, accused of killing Henry Heape, and wasting and impairing the body of Jennet Shackle- ton — but there was no proof against her, save certain witch marks, which, however, were indisputable, and on the finding of which she was soon brought to confess. She said that, seven or eight years since, she was in a mighty rage against life and the world in general, when there appeared to her the devil like a man, dressed all in black tied about with silk points, who offered her aU she might wish or want in return for her soul ; telling her that she might kill man or beast as she should desire^ and take her revenge when she would ; and that THE SECOND CURSE OF PENDLE. 307 if she did but call " Mamillion" when she wanted him, he would come on the instant and do as he was bid. So ** after a sollicitacion or two, she contracted and con- dicioned with the said deviU or spiritt for her soul," and henceforth became one of the most notorious of the Lancashire witches. She confessed that she was at the great witch-meeting held at Harestones, in Pendle, on All Saints'-day last past, and again at another the Sunday after; and that all the witches rode there on horses, and went to consult on the killing of men and beasts ; and that " there was one deyill or spiritt that was more greate and grand deyill than the rest, and yf anie witch desired to have such an one, they might have such an one to kUl or hurt anie body/' She said, too, which was a new idea on her part, that the sharp- boned witches were more powerful and malignant than those with " biggs " only ; and then she wandered off, and accused certain of her neighbours, of whom one, "Kckhamer's wife, was the most greate, grand, and auncyent witcL" Then she told her audience that if any witch desired to be carried to any place, a cat, or a dog, or a rod would convey them away ; but not their bodies, only their souls in the likeness of their bodies. The judge was not quite satisfied with either Edmund Eobinson's depositions or Margaret's confessions, and for all that the jury brought in a verdict of guilty, managed to get a reprieve, and to send up some of the accused to London. He managed also to interest the king, Charles L, who had not his father's craze on the subject; and Charles ordered the bishop to make a special examination of the case, and send in his report. By this time, too, Edmund and his father were sepa- rated, and the boy fully examined; when at last he confessed to the entire worthlessness and fraud of all he 308i . THE WITCHES OF ENGLANP, had said He had been robbing an orchard of bullees (plums) more than a mile off the bam at the day and hour named ; and, counselled by his father, had made up those wicked lies to screen himself. And then, find- ing the game profitable-— -for in a short time they made so good a thing by it that the father bought a couple of cows — he flew further a-field, and attacked every one within reach. Fortunately for his victims, the judge was a man of sense and independent judgment ; so the judiciary records of England are stained with one crime the less, and the neighbours lost the excitement of an execution. THE WITCH ON A PLANK.* " Many are in a belief that this silly sex of women can by no means attaine to that so vile and damned a practise of Sorcery and Witchcraft, in regard of their illiteratenesse and want of learning, which many men have by great learning done ;" nevertheless the Earl of Essex and his army, marching through Newberry, saw a feat done by a woman which not the most learned man of them all could have accomplished by natural means* Two soldiers were loitering behind the main body, gathering nuts, blackberries, and the like, when one climbed up a tree for sport, and the other followed him, jesting. From their vantage place, looking on the river, they there espied a " tall, lean, slender woman ♦ • A most Certain Strange and true Discovery of a witcK being taken by some Parliamentary Forces as she was standing on a smaU planck-board and sayling on it over the River of Newberry. 1643/ Evidently a political matter, and perhaps with no substratum of truth in the story at all. \ X X . THE WITCH ON A PLANK. 309 treading of the water with her feet with as much ease and firmnesse as if one should walk or trample on the earth." The soldier called to his companion, and he to the rest; and soon they all— -captains, privates, and commanders alike — ^saw this marvellous lean woman, who now they perceived was standing on a thin plank, "which she pushed this way and that at her pleasure, making it a pastime to her, little perceiving who was on her tracks." Then she crossed the river, and the army after her ; but there they lost her for a time, and when they found her all were too cowardly to seize her. At last one dare-devil went up and boldly caught her, demanding what she was. The poor wretch was dumb — perhaps with terror — and spoke nothing ; so they dragged her before the commanders, "to whom, though she was mightily urged, she did reply as little." As they could bethink themselves of nothing better to do with her, they set her upright against a mud bank or wall, and two of the soldiers, at their captain's command, made ready and fired. "But with a deriding and loud laughter at them, she caught their bullets in her hands and chew'd them, which was a stronger testimony than her treading water that she was the same that their imagination thought her for to be." Then one of the men set his carbine against her breast and fired ; but the bullet rebounded like a ball, and narrowly missed the face of tihe shooter, which " so enraged the Gentler' man, that one drew out his sword and manftdly run at her with all the force his strength had power to make, but it prevailed no more than did the shot, the woman though still speechlesse, yet in a most contemptible way of Scorn still laughing at them, which did the more exhaust their furie against her^life; yet one amongst ihe rest had heard that piercing or drawing bloud firom X 310 THE WITCHES OP ENGLAOT). forth the veines that croese the temples of the head, it would prevail against the strongest sorcery, and quell the force of Witchcraft, which was allowed for Triall : the woman, hearing this, knew then the DeviU had left her, And her power was gone ; wherefore she began alowd to cry and roare, tearing her haire, and making pitious moan, which in these words expressed were : And is it come to passe that I must dye indeed? Why then his Excellency the Earle of Essex shall be fortunate and win the field. After which no more words could be got from her; wherewith they immediately discharged a FistoU underneath her eare, at which she straight sunk down and dyed, leaving her legacy of a detested carcasse to the wormes, her soul we ought not to iudge of, though the euills of her wicked life and death can scape no censure. Finis. This Book is not Printed according to order." THE WITCH-FINDING OF HOPKINS. ' And now the reign of Matthew Hopkins, of Manning- ton, gent, begins — ^that most infamous follower of an infamous trade — the witch-finder general of England. It was Hopkins who first reduced the practice of witch- finding to a science, and Established rules as precise as any to be made for mathematics or logic. His method of proceeding was to " walk " a suspected witch between two inquisitors, who kept her from food and sleep, and ^esftantly walking, for four-and-twenty hours ; or if she d not be thus walked she was cross-bound — her t toe fastened to her left thumb, and her left toe to ight thumb — care'being taken to draw the cords as ly as possible, and to keep her as uneasily, and in THE WITCH-FINDING OP HOPKINS, :311 this state she was placed on a high stool or chair, kept without food or sleep for the prescribed four-and-twenty hours, and vigilantly watched. And Hopkins recom- mended that a hole be made in the door, through which her imps were sure to come to be fed, and that her watchers be careful to kill everything they saw — ^fly, spider, lice, mouse, what not ; for none knew when and under what form her familiars might appear ; and if by any chance they missed or could not kill them, then they might be sure that they were imps, and so another proof be indisputably established. If neither of these ways would do, then, still cross-bound, she was to be " swuul" If she sank, she was drowned ;' if she floated — «nd by putting her carefiilly on the water she gene- rally would float — then she was a witch, and to be taken out and hung. For water, being the sacred element used in baptism, thus manifestly refused to hold such an accursed thing as a witch within its bosom; so that, when she swam, it was a proof that this '^ sacred element " rejected her for the more potent keeping of the fire. This was the explanation which, it seemed to King James the First, was a rational and religious manner of accounting for a certain physical fact. This, then, was the wise and liberal manner in which an impossible sin was discovered, and judgment executed, in those fatal years when Matthew Hopkins ruled the mind of England; yet years wherein Harvey was patiently at work on his grand physiological discovery, and when WaUis, and Wilkins, and Boyle were found- ing the Koyal Society of liberal art and free discussion. It was only a piece of poetical justice that in the fiiture he should be '^ swum " cross-bound in his own manner, .and found to float according to the hydrostatics of witches. The shame and fear of this trial hastened the 312 THE WITCHES OP ENGLAND. consiimption to which he was hereditarily predisposed ; and after this stringent test we hear no more of this yile impostor and impudent deceiver, this canting hypocrite, who cloaked his cruelty and covetousness under the garb of religion, and professed to be serving God and delivering man fix)m the power of the devil when he was pandering to the worst passions of the time, and sacrificing to his own corrupt heart. The blood money, for which he sent so many hapless wretches to the gallows (he charged twenty shillings a town for his labours), though not an exceeding bribe, as he himself boasts^ was money pleasantly earned and pleasantly spent; for what man would object to travel through a beautifiil country, surrounded by friends, and carrying influeace and importance wherever he went, and have all his expenses paid into the bargain? In 1664* we find bim at Yarmouth, accusing sixteen women in a batch, among whom was an old woman 'easily got to confess. She said she used to work for Mr. Moulton, a stocking merchant and alderman of the town ; but one day, going for work, she found him from home, and his man refused to let her have any till his return, which would not be for a fortnight She, being exasperated against the man, applied to the maid to let her have some knitting to do, but the maid gave her the like answer : upon which she went home sorely dis^ contented with both. In the middle of the night some one knocked at the door : on her rising to open it she mm a tidl black man, who told her that she should have as m^ich work from him as she would, if she would write her name in his book. He then scratched her hand with ii penknife, and filled the pen with her blood— guiditig her hand while she made her mark. This done» * A collection of Modem Belations. 1693. THE WITCH-FINDING OF HOPKINS. 813 lie asked what he could do for her: but wheo she desired to have her revenge on Mr. Moulton's man, he told her he had no power over him, because he went constantly to church to hear Whitfield and Brinsley, and said his prayers morning and evening. The same of the maid ; but there was a young child in the house more easy to be dealt with, for whom he would make an image of wax which then they must bury in the churchyard, and as the waxen image wasted and con- sumed, so would the child ; which was done, and the child thrown into a languishing condition in conse- quence; so bad, indeed, that they all thought it was dying. But as soon as the witch confessed, the little one lifted up its head and laughed, and from that instant began to recover* The waxen image was found where she said she and the devil had buried it, and thus the whole of the charm was destroyed, and . the child was saved ; but the poor old crazy woman with her black- bird imp, and her fifteen compeers with their whole menagerie of imps, were hung at Yarmouth, amid the rejoicings of the multitude. At Edmonsbury, that same year, another witch had a little black smooth imp dog, which she sent to play with the only child of some people she hated. At first the child refused to play with its questionable companion, but soon got used to its daily appearance, and lost all fear. So the dog-imp, watchmg its oppor- tunity, got the boy one day to the water, when it dragged him underneath and tirowned him. The witch was hanged : could they do less in such a dear case as this? Another woman was hanged at Oxford for a story as wild as any to be found in Grimm or Mother Bunch. There were two sisters, left orphans but well provided for. 3U THE UTTCHES OF ENGLAKB. The eiiiesc jume w li at prodigal, maiiied a man as bad ur wrjise dian. ln^r^rffy who spent her money and after- wain^ 'it^asted hsr^ lemving her with one child and in tsmvine ptTvertT. The Toimgery being yery serious and E^iiipjQBi. waited fibrtwo or three years before she settled ht^abid dieii marriei a good, honesty sober £Gurmer, with winsL jOft* lired well and ptosperously ; her gear in- eraun^ Teady; and henelf the happy mother of a pretcy emliL Her sister was moved to envy to see all mis pn^pecEty and contentment^ and in her passion m^B a eumpttct with the deyi!, by which she became a wik*SL &r tile purpose of killing her sister's child as the ^reatast t^i^pite she eoold do them. For this purpose siu used ui aMxmt a bedslafl^ which, by the uttering of cecQiaL ma^BLiil wordsy canied her to her sister's room; but ;sifce ounld meirer harm the child, because it was so w^tl protectied by the ptayos of its parents. Her own sttiis;ticer> ft IittL» cae of about seyen, watched her ttucaer in btir antus with the bedstaff, and firom watch- ing tuuk u> imilaiting' — goii^ through the air one night aitt.'r it2< Jamie^ and in like fashion. However, it chanced tiufi $Qi^ w)a» left behind in her nnde's house ; so pre- ;MttCiY ^iii» fell ^^rpng, her powers being apparently limited ^ ^9Jtt^ not including the magic words that ttwttred t&^ i^^tonL Her undo and aunt, hearing a v'hjjid cnr whi»i» Berer a child should be, took a candle jttid dbtvvvfed th» whole matter. Next day the child w^ takent befon^ the magistrate, to whom it told its Ititi^ Mel tk^ mother was apprehended. On the trial ^tw^ bttW vHr^ijUw^ of seven years old waa admitted as tW chief e^iivlettce ^tgainst her mother ; and after they WmI vmmI^ th^ poor woman mad among them, she con- li^^^H.^ Aikd w^ hanged quite quietly. These were only l^iM ^mI U*^ th» himdreda whom that miserable man, THE MANNINGTREE WITCHES. 815 Matdiew Hopkins, gent, contrived to send to the gallows. Beaumont, in his Treatise on Spirits, mentions that " thirty-six were arraigned at the same time before Judge Goniers, An. 1645, and fourteen of them hanged, and an hundred more detained in several prisons in Suffolk and Essex." But the most celebrated and the saddest of all the trials in which Hopkins played a part was that of THE MANNINGTREE WITCHES, held before Sir Matthew Hale in 1645 — ^Hopkins's great witch-year. In a very scarce tract called * A true and exact relation of the severall Informations, Examinations, and Confessions of the Late Witches Arraigned and Ex- ecuted in the county of Essex, Published by Authoritie, and Printed by M. S. for Henry Overton and Benj. Allen, and are to be sold at their shops in Popes- head-alley, 1645,' is an account of these Manningtree witches. One John Eivet's wife, living in Manningtree, was taken sick and lame and with violent fits, and John swore before Sir Harbottel Grimston, one of the justices of the peace, that a cunning woman — wife of one Hovye at Hadleigh — told him that his wife was cursed by two women, near neighbours ; of whom one was Elizabeth Clarke, alias Bedingfield. Elizabeth's mother, and others of her kinsfolk, had been hanged for witchcraft in the bygone years : so it ran in the blood, and it was not to be wondered at if it broke out afresh now. Sir Har^ bottel Grimston and Sir Thomas Bowes, the two Justices before whom this deposition was taken, then admitted the evidence of Matthew Hopkins of Manningtree, gen- tleman and witch-finder, who deposed to having watched \ 316 THE WITCHES OP ENGLAND. Elizabeth Clarke last night, being the 24th of March, 1645, when he and one Master Sterne, who watched with him, saw some strange things which he would presently tell their worships of. Elizabeth told this deponent and his companion that if they would stay and do her DO harm, she would call one of her imps, and play with it in her lap; which at first they refused, but afterwards ccMisenting, there appeared to them '' an Impe Uke to a Dog, which was white, with some sandy spots, and seemed to be very fat and plump, with very short l^gg^s, who forthwith vanished away." This was Jarmara. Then came Vinegar Tom, in the shape of a greyhound with very long legs ; and then for a moment only came one for Master Sterne, a black imp which vanished instantly; then one like a polecat, only bigger.* Elizabeth now told them that she had five imps of her own, and two of Beldam West's, and that they sucked turn and turn about : now she was sucked by Beldam West's and now Beldam West by hers. She further said that Satan, whom she knew very much too well as *^ a proper Grentleman with a laced band, having * Matthew 8 own account of them in a little tract called * Certaine Queries Answered, which have been and are likely to be objected i^piiudt Matthew Hopkins, in his way of finding out witches,' was idi^htly different— 1. Holt, like a white kitling. — 2. Jarmara, a &t M^^nio) without any legs at all, which she said she kept f&t, for he jiui k^-vl pHxi Wood ftrom her body. — 3. Vinegar Tom, a long-legged Itftiylitiuud with an head like an ox, a long tail and broad eyes, who, ytiwu tiiijjkkina spoke to, and bade him go to the place provided for Uiui ibiul Ills angels, transformed himself into the shape of a child of l^kUit> )i^^t:t without a head, and gave half a dozen turns about the hmm^ imA vanished at the door.-— 4. Sack-and-sugar, like a black mUtiU : mA A« Newea, like a polecat Also he said that no mortal ^\kU[ iu\mi »uoh names as Elemauzer, Pyewacket, Peck in the t^itmu^ I hlt>»tJl UrtHxligut, &o., which, however, one of our great word- iUMilltrx. i ^\\m\^ Uiokens, would find no difficulty in doing, and which -■Mlitly UibV9 no very infernal sound in them. THE MANNINGTREE WITCHES; 317 the whole proportion of a Man," would never let her hare any peace till she slew the hogs of Mr. Edwards of Manningtree, and Mr. Taylor's horse. When she had slain them Satan let her be quiet Then of his. own accord, Mr. Hopkins said that going from Mr. Ed- wards's house to his own, that night at nine or ten, he saw the greyhound which he had with him jump as if after a hare ; and coming up hurriedly, there was a white thing like a " kitlyn," and his greyhound stand- ing aloof from it ; but by-and-by the white kitlyn came dancing round and about the greyhound, " and by all; likelihood bit off a piece of the flesh of the shoulder of the greyhound; for the greyhound came shrieking and crying to this Informant, with a piece of fleshe tome from her shoulder." To crown all, coming into his own yard, Mr. Hopkins saw a thing like a black cat,, only three times as big, sitting on the strawberry-bed glaring at him ; but when he went towards it, it leaped over the pale, ran right through the yard — ^his greyhound after it — then flung open a gate which was " underset with a paire of Tumbrell strings," and so vanished, leaving the greyhound in a state of extreme terror. Which, if there was any truth at aU in these deposi- tions, and they were not merely arbitrary lies, would make one suspect that Master Matthew Hopkins had been drinking, and knew a few of the phenomena of delirium tremens. John Sterne, Matthew's slavey or attendant, then gave information. Watching with Matthew Hopkins, he asked Elizabeth Clarke if she were never afraid of her imps? to whom she made this notable answer, " What, doe you thinke I am afraid of my children ?" His tale of imps was rather different to his patron's : they had consulted hurriedly, or John's memory was r 318 THE WITCHES OF ENCftiAND. bad. The white imp was Honlt; Jarmara had red spots ; Vinegar Tom was like a " dnmbe Dogge ;" and Sack-and-Sugar was a hard-working imp, which would tear Master John Sterne when it came. And it was well that Master Sterne was so quick, else this imp would have " soon skipped upon his face, and perchance had got into his throate, and then there would have been a feast of toades in this Informant's belly." Eli- zabeth had one imp, she said, for which she would fight up to her knees in blood before she would lose it ; and when asked what the devil was like as a man, said he was a " proper man," a deal " properer " than Matthew Hopkins. Other witnesses affirmed that if Elizabeth smacked with her mouth then a white cat-like imp, would come, and that they saw five more imps, named as above. And furthermore that she confessed that old Beldam, meaning Ann West — ^which was a very disrespectful way of speaking of her gossip — had kiUed Eobert Oakes' wife and a clothier's child of Dedham, both of whom had died about a week since ; and also that '' the said old Beldam Weste had the wife of one William Cole of Mannintree in handling, who deid not long since of a pining and languishing disease," and that she had raised the wind which sunk the hoy in which was Tom Turner's brother thirty months agone. She also said tliat Beldam West had taught her all she knew; for that one day as she was pitying her for her lameness — she Imit hut one leg — and for her poverty, she told her how iflir? nii^^ht get imps and be rich, for that the imps would JuJp ]wr to a husband who would keep her ever after, so t liat nh- need not be put to such miserable shifts as gather- ing Biivkn for a living. Elizabeth Clarke then accused Sisth Gooding of being one of the tribe : and Eobert THE MANNINGTREE WITCHES. 819 Taylor came forward to give corroborative evidence against her. He said that nine weeks since, Elizabeth Grooding came to his shop for half a pound of cheese, on trust ; that he denied it to her ; whereupon she went away, "muttermg and mumbling" to herself, and soon came back with the money. That very night his horse, which was in the stable, sound and in good condition, fell lame and in four days' time died of a strange dis- ease, and Elizabeth Gooding was the cause thereof. Elizabeth Grooding '' is a lewd woman, and to this In- formant's knowledge, hath kept company with the said Elizabeth Clarke, Anne Leech, and Anne West, which Anne West hath been suspected for a Witch many years since, and suffered imprisonment for the same." Elizabeth Gooding contented herself with saying quietly that she was not guilty of any one particular charged upon her in the examination of the said Bobert Taylor. Nevertheless she was executed at Chelmsford. Sichard Edwards said that twelve months since he was driving his cows near to the house of Anne licech, widow, when they both fell down and died in two days ; the next day his white cow fell down within a rod of the same place, and died in a week after. In August last his child was out at nurse at goodwife Wyles', who lived near Elizabeth Gooding and Elizabeth Clarke; which said chUd was taken very sick, with rolling of the eyes, strange fits, extending of the limbs, and in two days it died : and Elizabeth Gooding and Anne Leech were the cause of its death. And now poor old Anne Leech was brought on the scene, to " confess," as so many wretched victims did. She said that she and Elizabeth Clarke and Elizabeth Gooding sent their imps to kill Mr. Edwards's black cow, and his white cow ; she sent a grey imp, Elizabeth 1 f 820 THE WITCHES OP ENGLAND, Clarke a black one, and Gk>oding a white ; also thsLt thirty years since she sent her grey imp to kill Mr. Bragge's two horses, because he had called her a naughty woman — and that the imps did their work without fear of failure. When these imps were abroad, she said, and after mischief, she had her health, but when, they were unemployed and for ever hanging about her, she was sick. They often spoke to her in a hollow voice which she easily understood, and told her that she should never feel hell's torments : which it is very sure the poor old maniac never did. She aid Gooding killed Mr. Edwards's child too ; she with her white imp> and Elizabeth with her black one. She had her white imp about thirty years since, and a grey and a black as well, from " one Anne, the wife of Eobert Pearce of Stoak in Suffolk, being her brother." Three years since she sent her grey imp to Idll Elizabeth Kirk; and Elizabeth languished for about a year after and then died; the cause of her, Anne Leech's, malice being that she had asked of Elizabeth a coif, which she refused. The grey imp killed the daughter of Widow Eawlyns, because Widow Eawlyns had put her out of her farm; and she knew that Gooding had sent her imp to vex and torment Mary Taylor, because Mary refused lier some beregood; but when she wanted to warn herj the devil would not let her. Lastly, she said, that about eight weeks ago she had met West and Gooding: at Elizabeth Clarke's house ^' where there was a Look read wherein she thinks there was no So all these wretched creatures were hanged at Chelniatbrd, and the informants plumed themselves "^■^Uy on their evidence. But before their execution, dollen Clark, wife of Thomas Clark, and daughter [ THE MANNINGTRBE WITCHES. 321 of Anne Leech, was " fyled." On the 4th of April, 1645, Bichard Glascock gave information that he had heard a falling out between Hellen, and Mary wife of Edward Parsley, and that he " heard the said Hellen to say as the said Hellen passed by this Informant's door in the street, that Mary the daughter of the said Edward and Mary Parsley should rue for all, whereupon presently the said Mary, the daughter, fell sick and died within six weeks after." When Helen was arrested she made her confession glibly. She said that about six weeks since the devil came to her house in the likeness of a white dog by name Elimanzer, and that she fed him with milk porridge ; that he spoke to her audibly, bidding her deny Christ and she should never want ; which she did : but she did not kill Mary Parsley nevertheless. She was executed at Manning- tree all the same as if she had spoken sober truth. On the 23rd of the same month Prudence Hart came to the magistrates with an accusation. About eight weeks since, she said, being at church very well and healthful — some twenty weeks gone with child — she was suddenly taken mth pains, and miscarried before she could be got home : and about two months siace, being in bed, something fell upon her right side, but being dark she could not tell of what shape it was : but presently she was taken lame on that side, and with extraordinary pains and burning, and she believed that Anne West and Eebecca West, the daughter, were the cause of her pains. John Edes also swelled the count of accusations. He said that Eebecca had confessed to him that seven years since her mother iucited her to intercourse with the devil, who had since appeared to her at divers times and in various shapes, but chiefly as a proper young man, desiring of her such things as T ^rrraEB :r esgland. 1 «p -wmc *D •ieabe of women ; pro- rr ^as i ^-r iprraiii jieid to his wishes she :&.-» TTZic rOr -vTiiiiiL sBil especially ebould be c .MX- -^as^Mir^. iok ^QAt then Befoecca had ■- ^ir -t-tfn * Tarr"j> »& of Lawfcsd, who, not r. ':^ ^i^z:-^ ^ATis: iod. hisd. At which Bebecca ••m-^^-j-a fcee conid do as Goi" ac-b«t.-^a aid, wUle she lired at • ^- ^**- *rr a.-^'rr t.ine vanw^ to ho* and said, " the '"^^ - rn ^afc- 7ti.»fi?a to*.'* meaniDg one GeOTge •^twx. >^ ^1.. S2if -4a..r*i'9^ iiast GieoBge's £i;&er said his *- "wjf •'••IV. .T*». Xi vfAdxz iU whick Anne replied, "Be : n: A.**»r'.du-r t; in* 3i*ra^'* ^(lien Bebecca was >w. ^^ s :.» ^:^ .1 liatriu 7: SBt^vcf to these charges, «i*^ <-.'.:-rt^^^ ififtC r««iiAiZfti0»hdil said, adding a few : • •:. * - -:u>\ ^iwTtL-uiOss ni^'h. seared the execution of ». r r-r ^ i-? ^.COT* ^^aIl'tox^: Iwt in Spite of her •*^ ■•■*: 7«*»A. 4 -OS' irC5%fit^ ^aiHi^ foomd guilty by the /^«^ u^. ««»- ^«i.um«i: XX Iiif anddeathu Matthew r «^is- ^jr^:"v a t*"*^ izttsiti*^ iC cv^toor OTer the canyas, -i. M^ '.K -c:*;^ ixs^ IcMiKtt had told him she was Y«r«-* ^ "u— •< n lur mnsisr: and that when she rr. .►, viT ^u^r ^jvuitf* a Claike's house, the ^ 1. I*: r ^n.ifrf?^ JM AMne« now in the shape . ^ •. ^ :»;*i: •« "^^y i±::Tri&. tbjen of two dogs — and rrw :^^ t;>4 uu Moutr^ 1^ Eoabeth Clarke, skip- •«*.^ .V- . ** ^s^^ i>fr^ «iii insm^ ker^ and then to all the >*«^ >^>«N..;;^ *wt-i AW ^c :3iffli. saxe Bebecca. Afker- ^o*%riv %i^« >*4»a .-ittiw » ^ B»n, he gave her kisses ais^^-rt *^^ 1*^ wi» ^ Ktajciaiitfy as the "kittyns SsRQft.^ S^itfi^*^ 4t>«i Itirr Grcenliefe liyed together. yi^^ ^,j^i 4 ,ttiu;:r>*^ f* iur^ii^aor feorteen years old ; and t *^K ^N8«it ^g^cr*,^* t«ing awake, heard Mary's THE MANNINGTREE WITCHES. 323 child cry out, " Oh mother, now it comes, it comes ! Oh helpe, mother, it hurts me, it hurts me ! " So Susan said, " Goodwife Greenliefe, Goodwife Greenliefe, if your childe be asleep awaken it, for if anybody comes by and heare it make such moans (you having an ill name already), they will say you are suckling your Lnpes upon it." To which Mary replied that this was just what she was doing, and that •she would " fee " with them (meaning her Imps), that one night they should suck her daughter, and one night Susan Spar- row's ; which fell out as she said. For the very next night Susan's child cried out in the same manner as Mary's had done, and clasped her mother round the neck, much aflTrighted and shrieking pitifully. She complained of being pinched and nipped on her thigh ; and in the morning there was a black and blue spot as broad and long as her hand. Susan Sparrow also said that the house where they lived was haunted by a leveret, which came and sat before the door; and knowing that Anthony Sharlock had a capital courser, she went and asked him to banish it for her. Whether the dog killed it or not she did not know ; all that she did know was, that Goodman Merrill's dog coursed it but a short time before, but the leveret never stirred, and " just when the dog came at it he skipped over it, and turned about and stood still, and looked on it, and shortly after that dog languished and dyed. But whether this was an Impe in the shape of a Leveret, or had any relation to the said Mary, this Informant knows not, but does confesse shee wondered very much to see a Leveret, wilde by nature, to come so fre- quently and sit openly before the dore in such a familiar way." Mary was searched, and found marked with witch marks, but contented herself with quietly 824 THE WITCHES OF ENGLAND. denying all knowledge of familiars, witchcraft, ** bigges/' and the like. Mary Johnson was accused of having a familiar, in shape like a rat " without tayl or eares," which she used to carry about in her pocket, and set to rock the cradle. She kissed Elizabeth Otley's child, and gave it an apple, and the child sickened and died of fits ; and Elizabeth herself had extraordinary pains, which left her when she had scuffled mth Mary Johnson and gotten her blood. And she killed Annabell Durant's child by commending it as a pretty thing, stroking its face, and giving it a piece of bread and butter ; and Annabell knew that she had been the death of the child, because, " setting up of broome in the outhouse after the little one had been taken, she saw the perfect representation of a shape just like Mary Johnson, and was struck with such a lamenesse in her Arms that she was not able to bow her arms, and so continued speech- less all that day and night following. Mary came also as the noise of a Hornet, to the room where Annabell's husband lay sick, for he cried out, * It comes, it comes ! Now Goodwife Johnson's Impe is come ! Now she hath my life !' " And immediately a great part of the wall fell down. So was not Mary Johnson an undoubted witch with all this testimony against her ? Anne Cooper was executed at Manningtree because she had three black imps, by name Wynow, Jeso, and Panu; because she gave her daughter Sarah a grey imp like a kite, and called Tomboy, telling her there waa a cat for her to play with ; because she cursed a colt and it broke its neck directly after ; and because jhe sent one of her imps to kill little Mary Rous — ^which it did. Elizabeth Hare was condemned, but afterwards reprieved, for giving two imps to Mary Smith, The THE MANNIKGTREE WITCHES. 325 poor old woman " praying to God with her hands up- ward, that if she was guilty of any such thing, He would show some example on her, presently after she shaked and quivered, and fell to the ground backward, and tumbled up and down the ground, and hath continued sick ever since." Old Mai^aret Moone had twelve imps, but her in- formants could only remember the names of " Jesus, Jockey, Sandy, Mrs. Elizabeth, and CoUyn." Her imps killed cows and babes ; spoiled brewings ; broke horses' necks ; bewitched " aples " so that the eaters thereof died; sent Eawbodd*s wife such a plague of Kce that they might have been swept off her clothes with a stick ; and did other maleficent things, proper to imps and witches. When searched she was found to have " bigges " where the imps sucked ; and con- fessed the same, saying that " if she might have some bread and beere she would call her said Impes ; which being given unto her, she put the bread into the beere and set it against a hole in the wall, and made a circle round about the pot, and then cried. Come Christ, come Christ, come Mounsier, come Mounsier." No imps ap- pearing, she said her daughters had carried them off in a white bag, and demanded that the isaid daughters might be " searched," " for they were naught." They were searched, and were found witch-marked. Margaret denied all the charges against herself, but was con- demned nevertheless ; and only escaped the executioner's hands by dying on her way to the gallows. Judith Moone helped her mother a step gallowsward by a rambling, pointless confession about some wood, and how her mother threatened her, and how something seemed to come about her legs that night ; but when she searched she found nothing ; so Judith Moone pro- 2S THE WITCHES OF ENGLAND. htJokv ued beeaoK At did not know how to distiDguigh s iiiise ^&xmsiaML dmn. a true one. Eliaujtfdi Hurrey. widow, Sarah Hating, wife, Marian Ht--kt?^ wiiiuw. w^?e * searched :" the first two were jittCKc^L ^iie IuBt not,, bnt yet was the worst witch of i«JL l r ^e !i2ui matie Elizabeth Harvey as bad as her- 2*rii >ir 'jrtniiinir hear three things the bigness of mouses, T»uiea iie satii were ** fwetty things,'' and to be made :ce ^C A^ jur Sarah Hating, she had sent Francis S:Lvk < wiiV* a aiake* which the said wife espied lying on A sat \l\ ;uid 3trT-we to kill with a spade, bnt the snake wllB^ ri>o nui:k fiar her and yanished away; so Francis :?fe.»v'i*> wife wai* tak^i ack, and within one week died. ,V lauiricvjr was t^en ill immediately after her mother, uw >i^i^ ;iifiu died» and then another child; all be- -•^^^ Y-^ancJij Stock hdd impressed Sarah Hating's hus- \miu A»r :4 :5Uiiiier. and Sarah Hating was angered. ^.u^ifcU V-«»vkiet wau told on by her own sister, Sarah '^^-tviu ^bu ^saisi that die had given her three imps, •* l.at:t »ttiuw F^ctynaanu and Dainty." They were all ^•x^vniv-^i^ Suah aad Manan denying their gmlt, bnt > Viiuvui Hicvvy sticking to her tale of the three nivHisi^^ >%ujx'a Margin had brought her, and which v\v*5i^ Ivvil'ybcvad bewitched Bobert Turner's servant >«/ uiao biv^ vn^>w^ Uke a cock, barked like a dog> ;i#vaitv>l W>fvtrt,l the ordinary course of nature, and, j^ii^^ Cktt« ^ yv«al^ tiSfOgsLrled with such strength that 1^^ y# H^ mt0m tfMoM ikH liold him. Says Bose, fifteen ^^tkMb v^MT^ «^\ lT\H»«l^ife Hagtree brought an imp ^ We h^'vm mhkh she nourished on oatmeal, and ««^l)«iJl ^x'VtililMit ^ tlk^ manner of witches, for the M^*it ^ y^i**^ ^'Mtot a half — when she lost it ; then Joyce ^^l^ ii Tf ^'" *'*f^* her aiK^her^ as a small grey bird, which THE MANNINGTREE WITCHES. 327 she earned to Thomas ToaMey's house in St. Osyth, putting it into a cranny of the door, so that his son should die, as he did — crying out all the time that Bose Hallybread had killed him. She then accused Susan Cocks and Margaret Landish, and died in prison, cheating thd hangman. Old Joyce Boanes now took up the tale. She had two imps like mouses she said, and they killed the lambs at the farm-house called Cocket-wick, and one of these imps called "Bug " she took to Eose Hallybread, that they might torment Turner's servant. Wherefore her imp made him bark like a dog ; Eose Hallybread's "inforced him to siog sundry tunes in his great ex- tremity of paines ;" Susan Cock's compelled him to crow like a cock ; and Margaret Landish's made him groan. Poor old Joyce Boanes was hanged in return for her drivelling ravings. So was Susan Cock ; who confirmed aU that had gone before, adding only that the night her mother died she gave her two imps, one like a mouse "Susan," the other yellow, and like a cat " Besse," with which she did sundry acts of spite and damage. Wherefore Susan was put out of the way of further harm. Margaret Landish knew not much about the matter, but was executed never- theless, for having bewitched Thomas Hart's child — in- cited thereto by the girl's pointing at her and crying " There goes Pegg the witch !" upon which Peg turned back and clapped her hands in a threatening manner, saying " she should smart for it," and that very night the child fell sick in a raving manner, and died within three weeks after ; often in its fits crying out that '^Pegg the witch was by the bedside making strange mouths at her." Bebecca Jones owned to knowing the devil as a a3B THE WITCHES OF EXGLASTD. htftdBTjone jocmg nuui, wlio prkked her wiist and made Ler bi» in Bcnl azftd bodj. This was about four or fire acd tr^^iity rean ago, when Ihring with John Bishop as Lkserrazit. About three months mice too, going to St Omh to aell her master's butter, she met a man in a nez^eii s^iit and with sodi great eyes that she was afraid o{ him, and he gare her three tilings like ** mouleSy" baring four feet apiece bat no tails, and black, which he told her to nurse careftdlj and feed on milk. Their names were Margaret, Anie, and Snsan, and they killed eows and sheep and hogs, and rerenged her on her enemies. So Rebecca was hanged as befitted. Jcdian Cooper, widow, had three imps, two like mouses and one like a frog ; their names were " Frick- eare, Bobyn, and Frog," and they killed men and beasts. Wh^^fore she too was hanged like the rest Anne Cate had four, given her by her mother twenty years agoi, ^ James, Prickeare, Bobyn, and Sparrow:" the first three like mouses, and the fourth like a spar- row ; and they did evil and mischief and killed all whom she would. She was hanged too. At the end of the tract is a very curious bit of evi- dence, given by an honest man of Manningtree, one Goff, a glover, concerning old Anne West, then on her trial. He said that one moonlight morning, about four o'clock, as he was passing Anne West's house, the door beine: open, he looked in and saw three or four little tluLi;^^ like black rabbits which came skipping towards liiiiL He struck at them, but missed ; when, by better luck, u^ ituight one in his hand and tried to wring its head 4^11*; Imt "as he wrung and stretched the neck of it, it (^tiiui^ out betweene his hands like a lock of wooU," so he wvut to drown it at a spring not far off. But still as he ^iiul ho could not hinder himseK fit)m £Edling down, so THE MANNINGTREE WITCHES. 329 that at last he was obliged to 'creep on his hands and knees, till he came to the water, when he held the imp for a long space nndemeath, till he conceived it was drowned, bnt> 'letting goe his hand, it sprang out of the water up into the aire, and so vanished away." Coming back to Anne West's, he found her standing at her door in terrible undress, and to his complaint of why did she send her imps to molest him? she answered *^ that they were not sent out to trouble him, but as Scouts upon another designa" But one of the most painful murders of the Hopkins Session was that of old Mr. Lewis,* the ^ Beading Parson " of Franlingham ; a fine old man of good character, but generally regarded as a Malignant, because he preferred to read Queen Elizabeth's Homilies instead of com- posing nasal discourses of his own, of the kind so dear to the Puritan party: wherefore the authorities and Matthew Hopkins — ^who was a devout Puritan — had their eyes upon him, and were not disposed to be lenient. He was swum in Hopkins's manner, cross-bound ; set on a table cross-legged ; kept several nights without sleep, and twenty-four hoiurs without food; run backwards and forwards in the room, two men holding him, until he was out of breath; ** pricked" and searched for marks; after all which barbarity it is not surprising to find that the poor old Beading Parson of eighty-five ^' confessed." Yes, he had made a compact with the devil and sealed it with his blood ; and he had two imps that sucked him, one of which, the yellow dun imp, was always urging him to do some mischief, but the other was more amiabla Accordingly, to please the yellow dun he had one day sent it to sink an Ipswich ship, which he spied out in the offing: a commission which * Baxter, Hatohinaoii, Ac 830 THE WITCHES OF ENGLAND. the imp executed with zeal and precision before the eyes of a whole beach foil of spectators. This Ipswich ship was one of many that rode safely enough in llie calm sea, but the imp troubled the waters immediately about her, and down she went like a stone, as all present could testify. Asked if he had not grieved to make so many — ^they were fourteen — ^widows in a few moments he said "No, he was glad to have pleased his imp." This confession and various witch " bigges " found on him were held proofs conclusive ; and Mr. Lewis was condemned to be hanged; his eighty years, and his gown, protecting him nowise. As soon as he was a little refreshed he denied all the ravings he had been induced to utter, read the burial service for himseK with cheerfulness and courage, and met his death calmly and composedly; perhaps not sorry to resign into God's keeping a life which Matthew Hopkins and the Puritans were rendering intolerable. A Penitent Woman* of the same time confessed that when her mother lay sick a thing like a mole ran into bed to her. She, the Penitent Woman, started, but her mother told her not to fear, but to take the mole and keep it, saying, " Keep this in a pot by the fire, and thou shalt never want" The daughter did as she was bid, and made the mole comfortable in its pot. And after she had done this, a seemingly poor boy came in and asked leave to warm himself by the fire. When he went away she found some money under the stool whereon he had sat. This happened many times, and so her mother's promise and her imp brought the poor penitent romancer Barmecidal good luck. It could not have been much, for Hopkins, or at least his friend and comrade John Sterne, says in the es * Baxter. THE MANNINGTREE WITCHES. 331 Joan Euccalver, of Powstead, Suffolk, that " six shillings was the largest amount he had ever known given by an imp to its dame." That all this seemed right and rational in the eyes of sane men is one of the most marvellous things con- nected with the delusion : that well-educated English- men should send such a wretch as Matthew Hopkins with legal authorisation to prick witches, associating with him Mr. Calamy "to see that there was no fraud :" that they should arraign miserable old women by scores, and hang them by dozens : and that Baxter should gravely argue for the validity of ghosts and spectres on the plea that '^ various Creatures must have a various Situation, Beception, and Operation : the Fishes must not dwell in our cities nor be acquainted with our affairs" — strikes me chiefly with amazement at the marvellous imbecility of superstition. It is well for the leaders of sects to bid us cast down our reason before blind fidth ; for, assuredly, our reason, which is the greatest gift of God, pleads loudly against the follies of belief and the vital absurdities into which religionists fall when unchecked by common sense. It was only the "Atheists" and "Sadducees," as they were called, who at last managed to put a stop to this hideous delusion : all the pious believers upheld the holy need of searching for witches, and of not suffering them to live wherever they might be found. All sects and denominations of Christians joined in this, and found a meeting-place of brotherly love and concord beneath the witches' gallows. And though one's soul revolts most at the so-called "Eeformed Party," be- cause of the greater tmctuousness of their piety, and mighty professions, yet they were all equally ^4^ with the other ; all equally steeped to the lips 3tt THE WITCHES OF ENGLAND. in iDBBiiest auper ai i l i oiL The temper of the times has ao &r changed now that men and women are no longer hmig beeanae tliey hare mesmeric powara, or because hysterical and epileptic patients nttor wild rayings : bat the thing remains the same ; there is the same amount of superstition still afloat, if somewhat altered in its direction ; and modem Spiritualism, which has come to supersede WitchcEaft, ia» ^dien it is troe at all and not mere l^erdemain, as little understood and as fisdsely catalogoed as was eyer Hbe art of magic and sorcery. THE HUNTINGDON IMPS. In another very scarce tract by ** J. D.** (John Dayen- port) ^ present at the tnat," we come to a strange and mournful group of judicial murders that took place in Huntingdon, 1646. First, there was Elizabeth Weed, of Great Catworth, who ccmfessed that twenty-one years ag!0« as she was saying her prayers, three spirits came suddenly to her, one of which was like a man or youth, and the other two like puppies^ of which one was white and the other black. The yoimg man asked her if she would renounce Grod and Christ : to which she assented, her Mth being weak; and then the deyil promised that she should do all the mischief she would, if she would covenant to give him her soul at the end of twenty-one years. She assented to this too ; and sealed the bargain with her blood. He drew the blood £rom under her left arm, and '^ a great lump of flesh did rise there» and has increased ever since;" and the deyil scribbled with her blood, and the covenant was signed and sealed. The name of her white imp^ like a puppy, was ** lilly*'* of the black '' PrisdUe ;" and the office of THE HUNTINGDON IMPS, S33 the white was to hurt man, woman, and child, but of the black to hurt cattle. The man spirit's function was that of her husband, in which relation she lived with him to her great satisfaction. Lilly killed Mr. Henry Bedell's child, and Priscille sundry cattle ; but she had not had much good of the bargain, for the twenty-one years were to be out next Low Simday, when her soul would be required of her and the devil would take her away ; and she desired to be rid of the burden of her life before then. The judges acquiesced in her desire : which a little good food and careful watching would have proved to them was but the phantasy of disease ; and the hangman had her body, though no devil took her soul, and her sufferings and her sins vexed the universe no more. John Winnick's confession is one of the most graphic and extraordinary of any in the tract. I give it word for word as I found it. "The examination of John Winnick, of Molseworth in the said County, Labourer, taken upon the 11th day of Aprill, 1(>46, before Eobert Bernard, Esquire, one of His Majesties Justices of the Peace for this County. Hee saith, that about 29 yeares since, the 29th yeare ending about Midsommer last past, he being a Batchel- lour, lived at Thropston with one Buteman, who then kept the Inne at tiie George, and withall kept Hus- bandry : this Examinate being a servant to him in his Husbandry, did then loose a purse with la. in it, for which he suspected one in the Family. He saith that on a Friday being in the bame, making hay-bottles for his horses about noon, swearing, cursing, raging, and wishing to himselfe that some wise body (or Wizzard) would helpe him to his purse and money again : there appeared unto him a Spirit, blacke and shaggy, and having pawes like a Beare, but in bulk not fully so bi^ 834 THE WITCHES OP ENGLAOT). as a Coney. The Spirit asked him what he ailed to be so sorrowfoll, this Ezaminate answered that he had lost a purse and money, and knew not how to come by it again. The Spirit replied, if you will forsake God and Christ and fall down and worship me for your God, I will help you to your purse and money again. This Exami- nate said he would, and thereupon fell down upon his knees and held up his hands. Then the Spirit said, to- morrow about this time of the day, you shall find your purse upon the floor where you are now making bottles, I will send it to you, and will also come my selfe. Whereupon this Examinate told the Spirit he would meete him there, and receire it, and worship him. Whereupon at the time prefixed, this Examinate went unto the place, and found his purse upon the fioore, and tooke it up, and looking afterwards into it, he found there all the money that was formerly lost : but before he had looked into it, the same Spirit appears unto him and said, there is your purse and your money in it : and then this Examinate fell downe upon his knees and said, My Lord and God I thanke you. The said Spirit at thBki time brought with him two other Spirits for shape, bignesse, and colour, the one like a white Cat, the other like a grey Coney; and while this Examinate was upon his knees, the Beare Spirit spake to him, say- ing, you must worship these two Spirits as you worship me, and take them for your Gods also: then this Examinate directed his bodie towards them, and called them his Lords and Gods. Then the Beare Spirit told him that when he dyed he must have his soule, where- unto this Examinate yielded. Hee told him then also that they must suck of his body, to which this Examinate also yielded ; but they did not sucke at that time. The Beare Spirit promised him that he should never want victuals. The Cat Spirit that it THE HUNTINGDON IMPS. 335 would hurt Cattel when he would desire it. And the Coney-like Spirit that it would hurt men when he desired. The Bear Spirit told him that it must have some of his blood wherewith to seale the Covenant, whereunto this Examinate yielded, and then the beare Spirit leapt upon his shoulder, and prickt him on the head, and from thence tooke blood; and after thus doing, the said three spirits ranisht away. The next day about noone, the said Spirits came to him while hee was in the field, and told him they were come to suck of his body, to which he yielded, and they suckt his body at the places where the marks are found, and from that time to this, they haye come constantly to him once every 24 hours, sometimes by day, and most commonly by night. And being demanded what mischiefe he caused any of the said spirits to do, he answered never any, onely hee sent his beare Spirit to provoke the maid-servant of Mr. Say of Molmesworth, to steale victualls for him out of her Master's house, which she did, and this Examinate received the same. The marke of John Winnicke Bob. Bernard. He was hanged, 1646. Eight years before this — ^namely, in 1638 — Frances Moore had a black puppy imp of Margaret Simson of Great Catworth, which she caUed Pretty, and whose office was to harm cattle. Then Goodwife Weed gave her a thing like a white cat, called Tissy, saying, if she would deny God and affirm the same by her blood, to whomsoever she sent this cat, and cursed, would die. Bo she cursed William Foster, who, sixteen years ago would have hanged two of her children because they offered to take a piece of bread ; and he died : but she 336 THE WITCHES OP ENGLAND. could not remember what the cat imp did to him. Poor old creature! such naive little bits of truth and scientific direction come out in the midst of all the wild- ness and raying of the ^^ examined I" — such little quiet bits of unconscious common sense, to redeem the whole account fix)m the mere maunderings of lunacy I Frances Moore did not remember what her imp did to William Foster, yet she went on to say that she got tired of haying them about her, and killed them both a year since ; but they haunted her still, and when she was apprehended crept up her clothes and tortured her so that she could not speak. Elizabeth Chandler, widow, had something that came to her in a *' puffing and roaring manner," and that now hurt her sorely. She denied that she eyer spoiled Goodwife Darnell's furmety, but Goodwife Darnell, by causing her to be ducked, die did heartily desire to be reyenged on. She had been troubled with these roaring things for a quarter of a year, and had two imps besides, one called " Beelzebub," and the other " Trul- libub." This she denied when asked, while sane and awake, saying that " Beelzebub was a logg of wood and Trullibub a stick." But the neighbours testified against her, so her denial went for naught Ellen Shepheard had four iron-grey rat imps that sucked her ; and Anne Desborough had two — mouses — Tib and Jone, one brown and the other white. She had been told to forsake God and Christ, and that she would then haye her will on men and cattle ; as she did, and got her mouse imps in consequence. Jane Wallis saw a man in black clothes, about six weeks since, as she was making her bed. She bid him ciyilly good morning, and asked him his name. He told her it was '^ Blackeman," and, in turn, asked her if THE HUNTINGDON IMPS. 337 she was poor. Yes, she said " she was." Then he would send her two imps said he, Grissel and Greedi- gut, that should do anything for her she would. At this moment, Jane, looking up, saw he had ugly feet, and was fearful ; still more fearful when he became at one moment bigger and at another less, and then suddenly vanished Grissel and Greedigut came in the shape of " dogges, with great brisles of hogges hair upon their backs." They said they came from Blackeman to do whatever she might command : and sometimes aU three of them — the two dogs and the man — brought her two or three shillings at a time ; and once they robbed a man and pulled him from his horse. On September 25, 1645,* Joan WaUiford confessed before the major and other jurates, " that the diveU, about seven yeares agoe did appeare to her in the shape of a little dog, and bid her to forsake God and leane to him ; who repKed, that she was loath to forsake him." Still, she wished to be revenged on Thomas Letherland and Mary Woodrufe, now his wife ; and as " Bunne," the devil, promised she should not lack, and did actually send her money, she knew not whence — sometimes a shilling and sometimes eightpence, " never more " — devil-worship did not seem such a bad trade after all. She further said that her retainer, Bunne, once carried Thomas Gardler out of a window ; and that twenty yearsi ago she promised her soul to the devil, and that he wrote the covenant between them in her blood, pro-- mising to be her servant for that space of time, which time was now almost expired; that Jane Hot, Eliza- beth Harris, and Joan ArgoU, were her fellows; that Elizabeth Harris curst the boat of one John Woodcott, " and so it came to passe ;" that Goodwife ArgoU, • Tract. ^ Z 838 THE WITCHES OF ENGLAND. curst Mr. Major and John Mannington, and so it came to pass in these cases too ; and that Bunne had come to her twice since in prison, and sucked her " in the forme of a muce." So poor Joan Walliford was hanged, and at the place of execution exhorted all good people to take warning by her, and not to suffer themselves to be deceived by the divell, neither for love of money, malice, or anything else, as she had done, but to sticke fast to God ; for if she had not first forsaken God, God would not have forsaken her. Joan Cariden, Widow, said that about three quarters of a year since, " as she was in the bed about twelve or one of the docke in the night, there lay a * rugged soft thing ' upon her bosome which was very soft, and she thrust it off with her hand; and she saith that when she had thrust it away she thought God forsooke her, and she could never pray so well since as she could before ; and further saith that shee verily thinks it was alive." On a second examination she said that the divell came to her in the shape of a " blacky rugged Dog in the night time, and crept into the bed to her, and spake to her in a mumbling tongue." Two days after nshe made further revelations of how " within these- two daies," she had gone to Goodwife Pantery's house, where were other good wives, and where ike divell sat at the upper end of the table. Jane Hot said that a thing like a " hedg-hog " had usually visited her for these twenty years. It sucked her in her sleep, and pained her, so that she awoke : and lay on her breast, when she would strike it off. It was as soft as a cat. On coming into the gaol she was very urgent on the others to confess, but stood out sturdily for her own innocence ; saying, " that she would lay tw^enty shillings that if she was swum she would sink." THE HOmXGDOX DIPS. 3Sd She was swum and die floated ; whereat a gendemaii asked her ^ how it 'was possil:»le that she coald be so impadent as not to confesse heiselfe?" to whom she answered, " That the DiveD went with her all the way, and told her that she should sroke ; but when she waais in the Water he sat upon a Crosse beame. and laughed at her." ^ That three were executed an Munday to^,** says the tract in emj^tic italics. It now came to the turn of Elizabeth Harris^ She said that nineteen years ago the devil came to her in the form of a mnse (mon^) and told her she should be revenged. And she was revenged on all who offended her; on Groodman Chilman, who said she had stolen a pigge, and who therefore she wished might die — ^and her Lnpe destroyed him ; on Groodman Woodcot, in whose High (hoy?) her son had been drowned, when ** she wished that Grod might be her revenger, which was her watchword to the Divell " — and the hoy was cast away, as she conceived, in consequence of her wish. And did not Joan Williford's imp tell her that " though the Boate went chearfully oute it should not come so chearfiilly home ?" She said fuHher that sundry good wives, named, had ^ in tongues ;" and that she had made a covenant with the devil, written in the blood which she had scratched with her nails from out her breast Alexander Sussums of MeUbrd, Sussex, said he had things which drew his marks, and that he could not help being a witch, for all his kindred were naught — his mother and aunt hanged, his grandmother burnt, and ten others questioned and hanged. At Faver- sham about this time, three witches were hanged, one of whom had an impnlog, Bun ; and on the 9th of September* Jane Lakeland was burnt at Ipswich for ♦ • The Laws against Witches.' Published by Authority, 1615. 340 THE WITCHES OP ENGLAKD. haying bewitched to death her husband, and Mrs. Jen^* nings' maid, who once refused her a needle and dunned her for a shilling. Jane Lakeland had contracted with the devil twenty years ago. He came to her when between sleeping and waking, speaking to her in a hollow voice, and offering her her will if she would covenant with him. To which she, assenting, he then stroke his claw into her hand and with her blood wrote out the covenaat. She had bewitched men and women and cows and com, and sunk ships, and played all the devilries of her art, but remained ever unsuspected, holding the character of a pious woman, and going regularly to church and sacrament She had three imps — two Kttle dogs and a mole — and Hopkins burnt her as the best way of settling the question of her sanity or disease. It would have been well for all these poor people if their respective judges — Sir Matthew Hale included — had had only as much liberality and common sense as Mr. Gaule, the minister of Stoughton in Huntingdon- shire ; for though Gaule was no wise minded to give up his belief either in the devil or*in witches, he utterly repudiated Matthew Hopkins and his tribe and his ways, and condemned his whole manner of proceeding, from first to last. He preached against him, and when he heard a rumour of his visiting Stoughton he strongly opposed him, whereupon Matthew wrote this insolent letter, which Mr. Gaule printed as a kind of preface to his book of " Select Cases," put out soon after. " My Service to your Worship presented. I have this Day received a letter, &c., to come to a Town called Great Stoughton, to search for evil disposed Persons, called Witches (though I heare your Minister is farre against us through Ignorance:) I intend to THE HUNTINGDON IMPS. 341 come the sooner to heare his singular Judgement in the Behalfe of such Parties ; I have known a Minister in Suffolk preach as much against this Discovery in a Pulpit, and forced to recant it, (by the Committee) in the same place. I much marvaile such evil Members should have any (much more any of the Clergy) who should dayly preach Terrour to convince such Offenders, stand up to take their Parts, against such as are Com- plainants for the King and Sufferers themselves, with their Families and Estates. I intend to give your Towne a visite suddenly. I am to come to Eimbolton this Week, and it shall be tenne to one, but I will come to your Town first, but I would certainly know afore, whether your Town affords many Sticklers for such Cattell, or willing to give and afford as good Welcome and Entertainment, as other where I have beene, else I shall wave your Shire, (not as yet beginning in any Part of it myself) and betake me to such Places, where I doe, and may persist without Controle, but with Thanks and Kecompense. So I humbly take my leave and rest, Your Servant to be Commanded, " Matthew Hopkins." I have not been able to find what was the result of this letter, but I do not suppose that Hopkins, who was a great coward like aU tyrants, cared to brave even the small danger of one minister's opposition, not knowing how many " sticklers for such cattle " might be at his back. In his Apology, or " Certaine Queries An- swered, which have been and are likely to be objected against Matthew Hopkins, in his way of finding out Witches," he says that "he never went to any towne or place, but they rode, writ, or sent often for him, and were (for ought he knew) glad of him ;" and if this was 342 THE WITCHES OP ENGLAND. true, Mr. Graule moet likely was rid of him at Great Stou^liton^ and one rood of English land left undefiled. Besides, his hands were full elsewhere; for when we think that at Bury St. Edmunds eighteen persons were hanged on one day alone, and a hundred and twenty more left lying in prison, aU through his instrumentality, we must imagine that he had enough to do in places where he was caressed and desired, not to forbear troubling those where he was abhorred and might run some danger. MK. CLARK'S EXAMPLES. A few other men, too, were about as sane as Mr. Gaule on this maddest of all mad subjects. Mr. Clark, a minister — and the ministers were generally the worst — had a marvellous allowance of common sense, remem- bering the times. A certain parishioner of his cried out that she was grievously beset by a neighbour who came in the spirit, that is, as an apparition, to teaze and tor- ment her. Mr. Clark, the minister, knew the accused woman, and believed in her innocency ; but it happened one day, by one of those curious coincidences which, by- the-bye, are so often exaggerated into far more signi- ficance than they deserve, that the suspected woman while milking her cow was struck by it on the forehead, and natm-ally fell a-bleeding. At that moment, or said to be at that moment, her " spectre " appeared to the afflicted person, and she, pointing out the place where it stood, desired some of those who were with her to strike at it They did so, and she said they fetched blood. Hereupon a posse of them went to the supposed witch, and found her with her forehead bleeding, just \ MB. CLARK'S EXAMPLES. 343 as the afflicted had said. There was no question now of doubt, and they rushed off to Mr. Clark to tell them what they had seen, and demand that she be put to the proof. Mr. Clark went to the woman and asked what had made her forehead bleed ? She told him, a blow from her cow's horn ; " whereby he was satisfy'd that it was a Design of Satan to render an innocent person suspected." Another instance of the same kind of thing happened at Cambridge. A man believed that a certain widow sent her imps, as cats, to bewitch and torment him. One night as he lay in bed one of these imps came within reach, and he struck it on the back : when it vanished away, as was to be expected. The next day the man sent to inquire of his old enemy, and found that she had a sore back ; at which he rejoiced exceed- ingly, having now in his hands the clew which would guide him to revenge and her to justice and the scaffold. But Mr. Day, her surgeon, stopped his triumph before it was ripe, and cut the clew before it had spun out ; telling him that the sore back was nothing but a boil, which had gathered, headed, and healed, like any other boil, and that it could have had no connexion whatever with the blow which he had so valiantly given the cat-imp when in bed. So this bit of cruelty was put a stop to, and the poor old creature, with a boil on her back, slept her laist sleep unhastened by the hangman. Another wretched being who had been kept without sleep or food for twenty-four hours, pricked, tried^ and tortured into a state of temporary imbecility, at last confessed to her imp Nan ; but a gentleman in the neighbourhood, very indignant at the folly and barbarity of the whole tihing, rescued the poor victim, and made her eat some meat and go to sleep. When she woke up she said she knew nothing of what 344 THE WITCHES OF ENGLAND. she had confessed, but that she had a pullet which she sometimes called Nan, and which of a surety was no imp, but an honest little hen that had to lay good eggs some day, and be eaten at table when her work was done. THE NEWCASTLE PRICKERS. Hopkins was not the only one of his trade in England, for Ralph Gardner, in his " England's Grievance Dis- covered** (1655), speaks of two prickers, Thomas Shovel and Cuthbert Nicholson, who, in 1649 and 1650, were sent by the Newcastle magistrates into Scotland, there to confer with a very able man in that line, and bring him back to Newcastle. They were to have twenty shillings, but the Scotchman three pounds, per head of aU they could convict, and a free passage there and back. When these DVTetches gpt to any town — ^for they tried all the chief market towns of the district — the crier used to go Toimd with his bell, desiring " all people that would bring ii\ any complaint against any woman for a witch, they should be sent for and tryed by the person appointed." As mai\y as thirty women were brought at once into the Newcastle town-hall, stript, pricked, and twenty-seven s%>t tkudo as guilty. This said witch-finder told Lieut- (\>Iouol Hobson that "he knew women, whether they woiv >Yitches or no, by their looks ; and when the saM |Hn>*vui was searching of a personable and good-like vwuuuu, the said Colonel replyed and said. Surely this \v\»u\uu is none, and need not be tried ; but the Scotch- u\HU Hiud she was, for all the Town said she was, and thoit^foiH^ ho winild try her: and presently, in sight of M tho |HH>iJt\ laid her body naked to the Waste, with lu^r i^Kmth8 inor her head, by which Fright and Shame 1 THE NEWCASTLE PRICKERS^ S48 all her blond contracted into one part of her body, and then he ran a Pin into her Thigh, and then anddenly let her Coats fall, and then demanded whether she had nothing of his in her body, but did not bleed, but she, being amazed, replied little, and then he put his hand up her coats and pulled out the pin and set her aside as a guilty person and child of the Devil, and feU to try others, whom he made guilty. Lieut.-Colonel Hobson, perceiving the alteration of the foresaid woman by her blood settling in her right parts, caused that woman to be brought again, and her cloaths pulled up to her Thigh, and required the Scot to run the pin in the same place, and then it gushed out of blood, and the said Scot cleared her, and said she was not a child of the Devil." If this Scotch witch-finder had not been stopped he would have found half the women in the north country witches ; at last Henry Ogle got hold of him, and " re- quired Bond of him to answer the Sessions ;" but he got away to Scotland, and so escaped for the time. Fifteen women lay in prison, charged by him, and were executed — all protesting their innocence ; and "one of them, by name Margaret Brown, beseeched God that some re- markable sign might be seen at the time of their execu- tion, to evidence their innocency ; and as soon as ever she was turned off the Ladder her blood gushed out upon the people to the admiration of the beholders." Which touching little history we must relegate to the realms of fable and delusion, like others just as sad and supernatural. This precious wretch (was it John Kin- caid 7) was hung in Scotland, when the magistrates and people had got tired of him and his cruelty, and at " the gaUows he confessed that he had been the death of two hundred and twenty men and women in England and Scotland, simply, for the sake of the twenty shillings 9» THE WITCHES OF EXGLAXB. a Lt^ttl cu:«:)d-ffi':iKT.* Tnilyitwastiiiie fiir brareBaljih *nipint?r to write hk bcdd and floorcfaing ''England's ^ Trbevujii*ie> Dfist^DTered," when such moDstroas crimes as taerse :n:At be done without er^i the ooloor of a moQ- Li **STkfess Local Becofds" mention is made of a «ftsu:a2$ little entiy in the paridi books of Grateshead, iu?ttr Xewwistle: "Paid as M* Watson's when the JastaL>?s caQ to examine witches, 3^4^ ; for a grane for a wicoiu ^^; Ibr trying the witches^ £1. 5." This was in 1*54:^. in whidi year Jean Martin, "the myller's wyfe of Ouittim,* was executed for a witch, and the antho- rtJtM^ of Bewick sent for the witch-finder to come and try wit^'bes there, promising that no Tiolence should be d«:ce hisi by the townspeople. In the parish roister vc Hjjx iLi^ the date of Jnly 28, 1582, the office of )ti£>t^r C!iuia«.vlIor against Allison Lawe, of Hart, was btvu^ac into i^uisition. Alhson was "a notoorious ^'rwrvr dOil enchanter," bat was polled np in the midst oc^ bxT c^vu otfeer, and sentenced to a milder pmiishment tluut ^e wuttid have had a centmy later. Notorious ^tCvHX ;fta»l enchanter as she was, aU she had to suffer >ii;)^ v.>(.va (voance iHiee in the market-place at Durham, ^ ua « tij^per on her head setting forth her offences, once Uit Hviurt cattrcK and once in Norton church ; but what %iA^ the ;i^w^tfd to Janet Bainbridge and Jannet Allinson, v»^' ^vkcv>iv ^"^ tl>r asking counseU of witches^ and resort- iib^ K* AHb>ott Lawe for the cure of the sicke," we are %^m tv>lvt Ttie wuiiiness which possessed all men's minds iu ll^ ue\l ^vutury had not then begun to rage : the ^igtiu ^K<Al w;i^ to burst oxer the world was then giviDg ^NfciK \*«uN il$ w^yruiug mutterings, and it was reserved ^^^^ ^ Utx'T <^^^ with all its prepress in art and science 4JU^ f^Hivlv^m v^^' thou^t and religious .knowledge, to lay THE WITCH IN THE BRAKE. 347 the eopmg-Btone to . the most monstrous temple of iniquity which fear has ever raised to ignorance. It is a humiliating thought; humiliating, too, the milder phases of this same fiiry which have so often possessed society ; but it must be remembered that, though each wave of the tide recedes, each succeeding wave dashes farther over the reach, and the long lines of sea- wrack mark the point of progress as well as the poiot of declension. THE WITCH IN THE BRAKE.* At Droitwich, in Worcestershire, a boy, looking for his mother's cow, saw a bush in a brake move as if something was there. Thinking it to be his mother's cow he went to the place, but found no cow, only an old woman who cried "Oohl" and so frightened the lad that he could not speak intelligibly. But no one knew what he meant by his strange mouthings and mutterings, xmtil one day, seeing the old woman eating porridge before Sir Edward Barret's door, he rushed up to her, and flung her porridge in her face, and otherwise behaved violently and iH The neighbours, thinking there was something in it, apprehended her as a witch, and took her to the Checker Prison. At night, the mother of the boy, hearing a great noise overhead, ran up stairs and found her son with the leg of a form in his hand, fighting furiously with something in the window; but what it was she could not see^ He then put on his clothes and ran to the prison, midway recovering his speech. When he got there he found that the gaoler had kept the witch without food or sleep till she would say the Lord's Prayer and '' God bless * *CoUection of Modem Relations.* :«* TEE V'7 VTfif:f^ or ENGtLAJCDl til* 'i-';^ :*" villi piivuF exercise she had completed IT likt very nmmeiit viieii lik fifieeeh was restored. T^ii-^i. iu*r Ui^T {-(imjjiuiiied to tlie gaoler of his n^li- ir-U't iL itniiii: Ler out to Imrt and annoy him, the in* 'i-iT uii*n^erf d tliu2 lie had tept her Tery safe. *^Ni'7^.'' siVh liie Ih'v, -^for she came and sat in my 'jin*ii.!*r»r viiii.*w, and irrmned at me; irhetecpon I took vr, fc i-m. and baur^t-d her:" the gaoler looked and 'Liit'j ijniii Hi*: nit^ks. Slie vas a Ldmcai^hire woman, Tij .. viieL l^rie Hamilton vas defeated, and there ▼ u^ ii tiii^idTT in thc»»e parte, *" irandred abroad to get Tj.Tui^'' Site wa& hanged, jkxh* half^taired Tagiant ! rEx rrrrKEsr-rnT witch that sucked the sow. A'tvirt iLe same time a Tewkesboiy man had a sow ^zsi a Ihr-rr of pig?^: the sow with abundance of milk, let tL? j.L;:? kan and miserable. He concluded that y'TDr-V'-.g wii.h had no right to it came and robbed L5> ji^lii^ of their milk; so he watched; and sure eiij:*^^ a - black four-footed Creature like a Pole-Cat" «ar>e aiid beat away the pigs and sucked the sow ; but the &rmer got a pitchfork and ran it into the thigh of the pole-cat, which straggled so mightily that, though it was nailed to the ground, it got away and made off. When he asked some neighbours, standing near, what they had seen, they said they had only seen a wench go by, with blood falling from her as she went. They caught the wench and searched her, and, sure enough, found her wounded as the man said he had wounded the thing sucking his sow. She was apprehended, tried, and hanged, because she made herself into a (Toature like a black pole-cat, and went and sucked the THE DEVIL'S DELUSION. 349 farmers' sows. " These two Eelations, I received from a Person of Quality, of good Ability and of unquestion- able Credit, who was present at both the Tryals, and wrote them in his Presence, and afterwards read them to him ; and he assured me they were very true in all the Particulars, as they were given in Evidence," says the author of the "Collection of Modem Eelations" complacently. THE DEVIL'S DELUSION.* That same year, in the month of July, a man and woman, John Palmer and Elizabeth Knott, were hanged at St, Albans for curing folks of disease without the leave and Kcense of the authorities, and by the aid of the devil. John made some curious revelations. He said, first of all, that Marsh of Dunstable was the head of the whole college of witches, and that he could do more than all the rest. Then he went on to say that he, John Palmer, had held a blood covenant with the devil for sixty years, and that he bore his brand ; also that he had two imps, " George," a dog, and " JezabeU," a woman, who did what he would. He had seduced to himself and his arts Elizabeth Knott, his kinswoman ; and both together they made a clay picture of good- wife Pearls of Norton, which they put under some embers, and as the picture consumed away, so did goodwife Pearls — miserably and fatally. This was out of revenge for hanging a lock on his door because he did not pay his rent Then he sent "George" to kill Cleaver's horses; and Elizabeth killed John Laman's cow by sending her imp, which was a cat. The cat had promised that she should have all she * * The DeTil's Delusion.* 1649. i«u:n-L ia''> lu «ni*'^ : tnrr y^ar HSmJiedi Knott did not b ..* liiiT I'li* Ji2iL ir-imih^E tf- r:^ thsm a haher and "I**" pul.^^ a* 'iut -tniL iif ^dtir rpren^rer ndiicli would L-v^ i-^a lilt inl-j inri zl Tiiif -wiicJe relatioiL She £LlL-Ll-4maa t^ »*;^¥^.im^ «jlL^»^!!seihip she 1^ been teazed i.r Hi mt^ dut i. Vim,, :ir nniar V' is wife. When she TTbr tsrinu. iitr »:{£ iuL} euK" t^ to her and sncked r>.iL i*^ "rttifcicr «: fiii*- adi. poor imTing creatnre: i»ir ▼i*t!L ihtt VMS •uier on :if liie vvter she nerer saw X 3u i"t-. r uboHT aiko ^tieasied that once he lay as a z iui II "iit vtT :<f a y-niTn^s^ xdeus be hated, to get himself linn. TAii T^^^ ^^ilh Idc^^d the toad, and Palmer iiui h a.Tr* s'Jz.: \i^ Le lieTrtohei the youth, so that 2kt ]a.i:ri>iit«i j.r je-are in woe and torment. Then is liT-ra "Utr Jis: .f kZ iL-r f te^r-t'le bederilled and bewitched 'i^ iij^itr TV-. Ter!»:*:s.ai*dtbea-?ooant is signed^ "Yours, Xii^iizni.c.' lf254>iaiinon would have done better if ie .-.iLji li^T-t •:!all«cd himisplf Philalethes. THE WITCH OF WAPPING, Li ApriL 1632, Joan Peterson, the witch of Wapping, ^ haiiz^ at Tyburn ia just retribution of her sins. Jc«n had long had an ugly name in that mean house of hers on the small island near Shadwell ; for she was known to heal the sick in a manner more suggestive than satisfactory, and she had a black beast that used to suck her : which every one knew was the art and func- tion of an imp* That this was true of her who could doubt, for a man said he had seen it, and it took even lt>8S direct testimony than this to prove a woman a witi^h. Let the sceptical read the " Country Justice " to »oo what subtle threads were strong enough for a THE WITCH OP WAPPING. iol witcli-lialter I One evening a neighbour woman was watching by the cradle of a child who was strangely distempered. In jumped a black cat, coming no one knew whence, and stopped her cradling. This woman, and another watching with her, flung the fire-fork at the cat, when it vanished as quickly as it had come. In an hour's time it came again from the other side : one of the women raised her foot and kicked it ; and immediately her foot and leg swelled, and were very sore and painfuL Then, terrified, they called the mas- ter of the house, told him that they could not watch in a place so beset with evil spirits, and left him and the child to get on as they could. On their way home they lighted on a baker, who told them that he had just met a big black cat which had affrighted him so that his hair Stood aU on end ; and when the women told their tale, he said " on his conscience he thought it was Mother Peterson, for he had met her going towards the island a little while before." When on his oath, under exami- nation, this valiant baker declared that he had never been afraid of any cat before in his life; and to a further question answered,, "No, he had never seen such a cat before, and he hoped in God he should never see the like again." But what connection old Joan Peterson was assumed to have with this mysterious black cat remains a mystery to this day : it was none to the judge and jury, who condemned her to be hanged with safe and tranquil minds. 36^ THE WITCHES OF ENGLAND. THE GEOLOGICAL BEWITCHMENT.* In April, 1652, Mary EllinSy aged nine years, daugh- ter of Edward EUins, of Evesham in the county of Worcester, was playing in the fields with some neigh- bours' children. They were gathering cowslips in a pretty innocent way, in which it would have been well if they had been contented to remain ; but on passing by a ditch they saw crouching therein one Catherine Huxley, an old woman of no very good repute, gene- rally supposed to be a witch of the worst kind, and quick at casting an evil eye when offended. The children seeing her, took up stones to throw at her, calling her "witch" and other opprobrious names; whereat old Catherine cursed them, and especially Mary EUins, who made herself conspicuous as the chief tormentor. Her curses had the desired effect. Mary went home, be- witched, and who but Catherine had done it? For ever from that day she had strange and troublesome passages with stones, so that it seemed as if the child had fed upon stones, and nothing but stones, of all kinds of geological formation. Scores of people went to see them : they were handled, and looked at, and reasoned about, and discussed, and yet so many as ever might come away, more still remained behind, and the supply was never failing. When Mary's extraordinary power of elaborating flint and granite and boulder and pebble in her young body had become troublesome and expensive, and the parents wanted to get rid of the whole concern, they undertook the pro- secution of old Catherine, and cm thh evidence alone, that she had cursed their daughter, and that their daughter had » Baxter. THE BUBlfING BEWITOHMENt. 35B muse then had eoatraordinary discharges of stones, the old woman was condemned and executed — ^hung np as a public show at Worcester in the bonny summer months of 1652. As soon as she was hanged Mary had instant and complete relief; and hid no more pebbles in her pockets to delude good, credulous, prayerful Mr. Baxter into the profound belief that she was be- witched. THE BURNING BEWITCHMENT.* Brighiling of Sussex, too, where now we have our sea-side London, was under a cloud, with the devil iji actual human form possessing the place and haunting good folk out of their proper wits ; for Joseph Crutten- den's house was bewitched, and they were sore holden how to restore the spirit of grace withia it, and exorcise the spirit of evil. Joseph Cruttenden had a young servant girl, to whom one day came an old woman, unknown, saying to her that sad calamities were coming on her master's femily by-and-bye, but that she was not to speak of them to any one ; for he and his dame should be haunted, and their house fired and bewitched. She was to be particularly careful not to give warn- ing of this to any, for if she did, the devil would tear her in pieces. The girl kept her own counsel; of course she did ; there woidd have been no sport else : and that very night the troubles began. As Joseph and his wife lay in bed, dirt and dust and rubbish of all kinds were thrown at them, so that there was no way of escaping the handfuls of filth flung fast and furiously, and aU the doors and windows shook as with a storm, though the air was still outside. On another night the house was ♦ Baxter's • Certainty of the World of SpiritB.' 2 A 354 THE WITCHES OP ENGLAND. set on fire in many places at once, flashing out like gunpowder ; and as fast as one comer was extinguished another began ; for they had no sooner trodden out the ashes and gone to another part, than they flamed up afresh, and they had all their work to do over again. Some said that a thing like a black bull was seen tumbling about in the flames ; but Mr. Baxter halts at this, and declines to endorse it. At another time the furniture was all flung about, and a wooden " tut " came flying through the air, and a horseshoe struck the man on the breast, and there was no peace night or day for the black bull, the fire, and all the other things beset- ting. And then the man confessed that he had been a thief long time agone, whereby Satan had this extra- ordinary power over him ; and the girl, despising the threat of the devil's tearing her to pieces, confessed to her mistress what the old woman had said. So the country was searched for an old woman answering the maid's description, and a poor old wretch was pitched upon as being most like. She was sent for and ex- amined — watched for twenty-four hours; but nothing seems to have come of it this time. The girl " thought" she was " like " the same woman as had spoken to her, yet declined to swear positively. But the old woman had a bad name. She had been suspected as a witch before, ^* and been had to Maidstone to clear herself," which it peems she had done, for she got off, and had been living near Brightling ever since. She had a narrow escape now, for the country people were much excited against her, and naturally did not wish the pre- sence, of one who could haunt their houses with fire and diii:^ and a big black bull tumbling about at his wilL Had the maid had one grain less of conscience, this -^leaa wretch would have closed her earthly career a THE STRINGY MEAT. 355 few years too soon ; as it was she got off, and " lived miserably about Burwast ever since." It was a small sign of grace in that young jade that she woidd not swear away the life of an innocent woman to conceal her own childish tricks. It was not often that the accusing witnesses showed even this scant mercy to their victims, for the excitement of the game seemed to be in the largest amount of cruelty that could be perpetrated within the rules.j THE STRINGY MEAT.* " Kent, the first Christian, last conquered, and one of the most flourishing and fruitful Provinces of England, is the Scene, and the beautiful Town of Maidstone, the Stage, whereon this Tragicall Story was publicly acted at Maidstone Assizes, last past." In this Christian province and most beautiful country, Anne Ashby, Anne Martyn, Mary Browne, Mildred Wright, and Ajme Wilson, aU of Cranbrooke, and Mary Eeade, of Lenham, were brought before Sir Peter Warburton, charged with "the Execrable and Diabolicall crime of Witchcraft." Anne Ashby, *' who was the chiefe Actresse, and who had the greatest part in this Tragedy," and Anne Martyn were "confessing^' witches ; but their confessions did not amount to much, compared * * A Prodigious and Tragicall History of the Arraignment, Tryall, Confession, and Condemnation of six Witches at Maidstone, in Kent, at the Assizes held there in July, Fryday 30, this present year 1652. Before the Bight Honourable Peter Warburton, one of the Justices of the Common Pleas. CoUected from the Obserrations of E. G. Gent, a learned Person, present at their Conviction and Condemnation, and digested by H. F. Gent.* London : Printed for Bichard Harper in Smithfield, 1652. 366 THE WITCHES OF ENGLAND. with the more highly spiced accouutfi of other witches* That they had both known the devil as a man, and in' dishonesty and sin« was of course one of the chief items of their confession, as it was of most witches ; but Anne Ashby further informed the Bench that the devil had given them each a piece of flesh, which, whensoever they should touch, would give them their desires ; and that this piece of flesh was hid somewhere among the grass. As was proved : for upon search it was found. Of a sinewy substance and scorched was this redoubtable talisman, for it was both seen and felt by this Observator, E. G., and reserved for public view at the sign of the Swan in Maidstone. Anne Ashby had an imp too, called ^ Bug," which sometimes came out of her mouth like a mouse, and was of so malicious and venificall a nature that a certain groom belonging to Colonel Hum- frey's regiment* for sport, said, "Come Bug into my mouth," and the said groom was dead in a fortnight after : " as it is reported," adds E. G. with saving grace. Anne was hysterical, poor soul : and ^' in view of this Observa- tion,, fell into an extasie before the Bench, and swell'd j into a monstrous and vast bigness, screeching and crying i out dolefuUy." When she recovered they asked her if * she had been possessed by the devil at that time, to which she made answer " that she did not know that, but that her Spirit Bug had come out of her mouth like a mouse." After they were " cast " and judgment i had been pronounced against them she and Anne Martyn pleaded that they were with child : but, being pressed on this point, they confessed that it was by no man of honest flesh and blood, but by the devil, their customary spouse. The plea was not suffered to stand. For prooif against the rest, all that is recorded by E. G. is, that when pricked neither Mary Browne, nor Anne THE LOST WIFE. 357 Wflson, nor yet Mildred Wright felt pain, or lost blood ; and that Mary Bead had a visible teat under her tongue which she did show to this Obseryator as well as to many others. But they were all hanged, at the common place of execution; though some there were who wished that they might be burnt instead, for burning had such virtue, that it prevented the blood of a witch " becom- ming hereditary to her Progeny in the same evill, which by hanging is not" The hangers, however^ carried the day, and the blood of the progeny was left to take its chance of hereditary eviL It was supposed that these six witches, to whom were added five other per* sons, had bewitched nine children, one man, and one woman, lost five hundred pounds' worth of cattle, and wrecked much com at sea. THE LOST WIPE.* That same month and year saw a strange matter of witchcraft at Warwick. " In Warwick Town one Mrs. Katherine Atkins, a Mercer's Wife, standing at her Door on Saturday night, the 21 July 1652. A certain unknown Woman came to her and sayd, Mistris, pray give me two-pence, she answered, two-pences are not so plentifull, and that she would give her no Mony. Pray Alistress, sayd she, then give me that Pin, so she took the Pin off her sleeve and gave her, for which she was very thankfull, and was going away. Mistress Atkins seeing her so thankfull for a Pin^ called her again, and told her if she would stay, she woidd fetch some victuals * A true Belation of one Mrs. Atkins, a Mercer's Wife in Warwick, who was strangely carried away from ber honse in Jnly last^ and hath not since been heaird ot 358 I'HE WITCHES OP ENGLAND. for her, or give her some thread, or something out of the shop. She answered, she would have nothmg else, and bid a pox of her victuals, and swore (by God) say- ing. You shall be an hundred miles off within tfads week, when you shall want two-pence as much as I, and so she went grumbling Away. " Hereupon the sayd Mistress Atkins was much troubled in mind, and did advise with some Friends what were best to be done in such a case, but receiving no re- solution from any one what to do, she attended the Event what might befall within such a time, and upon the 29 of July she exprest to a kinsman, Mr. Nicholas Bikar, that she was much troubled about the forsayd businesse, but hoped the time was so much expired, that it would come to nothing. " But the sayd Thursday night, betwixt the hours of 8 and 9, She, going into the Shop, and returning thence in the Entry adjoyning to the sayd Shop, she was im- mediately gone, by what means and whither we do not know, nor can we hear of upon enquiry made to this present. " The desire of her Husband and Friends is of all the Inhabitants of this Nation, That if they hear of any such Party in such a lost condition as is before ex- pressed. That there may be speedy Notice given thereof to her Husband in Warwick, and that aU convenient Provisions, both of Horse and Mony may be made for the conveying of her to the place aforesayd, and such as shall take pains, or be at expences herein shall be sufficiently recompenced for the same, with many thanks. " It's likewise desired that Ministers in London, and elsewhere, when the notice of these presents shall come, would be pleased to present her sad condition to Grod in DR. LAMB AND HIS DARLINGf. 359^ their severall Congregations. The truth hereof we testifie, whose names are subscribed. IEichard Vennour Hen. Butler, Ministers of Warwick. Joseph Fisher, Minister. DR. LAMB AND HIS DARLING.* Dr. Lamb, Buckingham's domestic physician in times past, and his maid Anne Bodenham, both met with a tragical fate, though not in the same year, for Dr. Lamb was brutally murdered for a conjuror and wizard by a mob in 1640, while Anne Bodenham was not executed until 1653. That Lamb was a terrible necromancer is testified by Eichard Baxter, in his * World of Spirits,' a book " written for the conviction of Sadducees and Infidels," but which now would convince none but the weak or half crazed of anything beyond Eichard Baxter's own exceeding credulity and want of critical faculty. His story of Dr. Lamb's necromancy is so curious, it had better be given verbatim, for to translate would be to ruin it. " Dr. Lamb, who was killed by the Mob for a Conjuror about 1640, met one Morning Sir Miles Sands and Mr. Barbor in the Street, and invited them to go and drink their Mornings Draught at his House : Discoursing about his Art, he told them that if they would hold their Tongues, and their Hands from medling with any thing, he would shew them some Sport. So falling to his Practice in the middle of the Eoom springs up a Tree ; sone after appeared three little Fellows, with Axes on * Dr. George Here's 'Antidote to Atheifim/ Dr. Lamb's ' Darling.' By James Bower. 1653* 360 THE WITCHES OF ENGLAND. their Shotdders, and Baskets in their Hands, who presently fell to work, cut down the Tree, and carried all away. But Mr. Barbor observing one Chip to fall on his Velvet Coat, he slips it into his Pocket, That Night when he and his Family were in Bed, and asleep, all the Doors and Windows in the House opened and clattered, so as to awaken and affi-ight them all. His Wife said, Hiubani, y<m told me you was at Dr. Lamb's this Day, and I fear you medled with something. He replied, Ijmt a Chip into my Pocket. I pray you^ said she, fling it out, or we shall have no Quiet. He did so, and all the Windows and Doors were presently shut, and aU quiet, so they went to sleep." With such powers of conjuration and sorcery as these, it is not surprising if Dr. Lamb's character tainted that of Anne Bodenham his maid ; for the very fact of their living together under the same roof was inimical enough to Anne's reputation. We hear nothing of her for some years, beyond that she lived near New Sarum, was married to one Edward Bodenham, "clothyer," and that she was eighty years of age at the time of her trial. So at least says Edmund Bower, in his " Doctor Lamb revived." But her getting into trouble at all proves that she had long lived under the suspicion of commonly practising witchcraft and sorcery; for Anne Styles, the accuser, had been backwards and forwards to her on her own account scores of times, and thought nothing of it ; neither was it considered won- derful when Mr. Mason, son-in-law of Eichard Goddard, Anne Styles's master, sent her to Anne Bodenham to learn how their lawsuit would turn. Bodenham, who had a knack of " foretelling things to come, and helping men to their stolen goods, and oth^ such like feats," expressed no surprise, but at once began her conjure- DR. LAMB AND HIS DABLING. 861 tions. " She took her staff, and there drew it about the hoiise^ making a kinde of a Circle, and then took a book, and carrying it oyer the Circle with her hands, and taking a green glasse, did lay it upon the book, and placed in the Circle an earthem Pan of Coals, wherein she threw something, which burning caused a very noisome stink, and told the Maid she should not be afraid of what she should then see, for now they would come (they are the words she used), and so calling Belzebub, Tormentor, Satan, and Lucifer appear, there suddenly arose a very high wind, which made the house sh&ke, and presently the back door of the house flying open, there came five Spirits, as the Maid supposed, in the likenesse of ragged Boyes, some bigger than othtrs, and ran about the House, where she had drawn the staff : and the witch threw down upon the ground crums of bread!, which the Spirits picked up, and leapt over the Pan of Coals oftentimes, which she set in the midst of the Circle, and a Dog and a Cat of the witches danced with tKem ; and after some time the witch looked again in her book, and threw some great white Seeds upon the growd, which the said Spirits picked up, and so in a short time the wind was laid and the witch going forth at the back door the Spirits yanished." After which Aime told the girl that Mr. Mason should demand fifteen hundred pounds, and one hundred and fifty pounds per annum of Mr. Goddard, and if it was denied he vas to take the law and prosecute. For all which Anni Bodenham receired the sum of three shillings: httle enough too, considering the charges she must hare been at for noisome roots and magic lanthoms, not to speak of the chance of being haled off to prison wheiiever the maid Anne Styles might choose to accuse her. 362 THE WITCHES OP ENGLAND. Another time Anne Styles was sent to her by Mrg* Goddard, to find where was hidden the poison which she said' her two young step-daiighters were designing to giye her, but which Anne Styles herself had bought, as she said, by the mtch's request. This Anne Boden- ham denied. The witch took her stick as before, going through the same forms of conjuration ; when on her adjuring "Belzebub, Tormentor, Lucifer, Satan," to appear, there came out of the mist first a little boy, who then turned into a snake, and then into " a shagged dog with great eyes, which went about in the Circle." And after she had burnt her noisome herbs again, and looked in her Magic book — ^her Book of Charms as she called it-^he took a glass and showed in that '^Mistress Sarah Goddard's Chamber, the colour of the Curtains, and the bed turned up the wrong way, and under that part of the bed where the Bolster laye she shewed the poison in a white paper." It was no discredit to maid or witch that this poisoning matter was found a mere suspicion and delusion, and that the young ladies never designed to poison their mother-in-law ; though she, on the other hand, sent to Bodenham for charms and poisons against them. This time Anne got vervain and dill, which the little ragged boys (spectres, or spirits, or imps) gathered for her, in return for which she threw them bread which they ate, dancing about, thea vanished on their mistress reading in her book. The witch gave the maid the leaves powdered, and dried— one packet of each — while, in a third packet, she put the parings of her nails ; all of which the maid wa6 tc give to her mistress. The powder was to be put into Mistresses Sarah and Anne Goddard's drink or broth, to give them hideous indigestipn rather too coarsely expressed for modem reading • the leaves were to rub about the rim DR. LAMB AND HIS DARLING: deSf of the pot, to make their teeth fall out of tiieir heads t and the paring of the nails to make them drunk and mad. But Mrs. Goddard only laughed when she got these charms, and said " they were brave things :" she did not use them, luckily for her ; though the young ladies would not have been much the worse, save for the white poison before mentioned. Anne Bodenham had taken a great fancy to this servant girl, and wanted her to live with her, telling her that she would teach her all she knew, and enable her to do as she did; asking her, too, whether she would go to London high or low : for if high she should be carried through the air and be there in two hours, if low she should be taken at Sutton's town end, and before, " unless she had help." When she thus sought to seduce the girl, Anne Styles asked what she could do, whereupon Bodenham incontinently appeared in the form of a great black cat, and lay along by the chim-" ney ; but the girl being much frightened, she appeared in her own shape again, and tempted her no more. But first, before she would let her go, she made her swear to seal with her body and blood a vow that she would never discover what she had seen ; so she took her forefinger and pricked it, and fiUed a pen with the blood, and made her write in a book, one of the imps — • like " great boys with long shagged black hair," this time — ^having his hand or claw on the witch's, while Anne Styles wrote. And when she had done writing, the witch said "Amen," and the maid said "Amen," and the spirits said "Amen" each: and the spirit gave the witch a bit of silver for the maid, which he first bit. The maid's hand touched his, and she found that his was cold. Then Bodenham stuck two pins in her head- dress, which she bid her keep, and be gone ; saying, " I 864 THE WITCHES OF ENGLAND. will vex the Gentlewoman well enough, as I did the man in Clarington Park; which I made walk about with a bundle of Pales on his back aU night in a pond of water, and could not lay them down till the next morning.'* The piece of silyer, and the hole in her forefinger, the maid showed the judge and jiny in the trial ; and both were held to be conclusiye evidence against Dr. Lamb's unfortunate *' Darling." How far Anne Styles may be believed is not difficult to deter- mine ; for as to the conjurations about poisoning Mis. Groddard, it came out that she, the maid, had gone to the apothecary's for an ounce of arsenic ; and then set abroad the report that the two young ladies had bought it for the purpose of poisoning their step-mother. As the young ladies were not disposed to sit down quietly under this suspicion, they had the report sifted to the bottom, and Anne Styles fled in fear ; which was the meaning of the witch's demanding how she would like to go to London — high or low — by witch's art, or justice's power. Mr. Chandler, Mr. Groddard's son-in-law, pur- sued her, and overtook her at Sutton-town end ; when, to save herself from the unpleasant consequences of her various misdeeds, beginning with stealing a silver spoon and ending with buying arsenic, she madef this " confession," which was safety to her but death to old Anne. Anne earnestly and passionately denied every word the girl said: whereupon Anne Styles, to give greater colour to her story, fell into fits, so strong that six men could not hold her. She was drawn up high into the air — so at least runs the report — ^her feet as high as the spectators' breasts; and she had scufSes with a black man with no head, who came and tumbled her about, as a little boy deposed. The little boy was sleeping in the same room with her, and he said BB. LAMB AND HIS DARLING; 365 that the black spirit came to her, and wanted her soul, but the maid answered her soul was none of hers to give ; that he had got her blood ah*eady, but should never have her soul ; and after a tumbling and throw- ing of her about rarely, he vanished away. At another time the witch was brought to the maid suddenly, when she instantly closed her eyes and fell back in so deep a sleep that they could not by any means awaken her ; but so soon as the witch had gone, she woke up of herself, and was quite welL Anne Bodenham was condemned to die, and there was no help for her ; but when sentence was passed, Anne Styles fell to bitter weeping and wailing, lamenting her own wickedness, and willing that the witch should be reprieved, if possible to the law. This was taken as a sign of her sweet and loving Christian spirit of forgiveness ; we, who nead such signs more clearly by the light of a better knowledge, know that it meant simply the weak pity of a selfish conscience, grieving for itd sin, yet afraid to retract and make amends. Beside all this evidence, and its lies, Anne Bodenham had a tame toad which she wore in a green, bag round her neck; and she had a great deal of natural clairvoyance and mesmeric power ; and she was evidently a highly superstitious woman, who believed in her own powers, and was not unwilling to aid them by a little extra supernaturalism and good mechanical tricks. But she would confess to no witchcraft ; knew nothing of a Bed Book half written over in blood, which red book with its bloody writing contained a catalogue of those who had sold themselves to the devil ; though she acknowledged that she had a Book of Charms, much as a servant maid of to-day might have a Book of Dreams : and that she could say the Creed backwards as well as forwards ; and that she sometime^ prayed to 366 THE WITCHES OP ENGLAND. the planet Japiter. The time-honoured belief in astro- logy and the power of the planets might well linger in the brain of an old country woman, who had a smatter- ing of knowledge far beyond her station, and who had dabbled in mechanics and the art of conjuring ; who could not, moreover, understand her own sensitive con- dition ; and who had the alternative, as one of the wit- nesses said, of passing for a witch or a woman of God. The judge and jury had a very distinct idea as to which category she ought to be placed in ; and fully believed j what James Bower reports, that she could turn herself i into a "mastive Dog, a black Lyon, a white Bear, a WooK, a Monkey, a Horse, a Bull, and aCdf." Such a woman as this had no business here on this solid earth, so she was hanged at Salisbury, 1653, dying very hard and completely crazed. Before the hour came she wrote a letter to her husband desiring him never to live in his own house again ; and she asked the woman who was to " shroud " her, to root up all her garden herbs and flowers when she should be dead ; and she clamoured for a knife to stick into her heart ; and she wanted to die drunk, calling for beer on her way to execution, and giving her gaolers much trouble to hold her in at all ; and she would have no psalm sung, and no prayer read, and would forgive none of them, but cursed them all fiercely as she stood on the rungs of the ladder despairing and defying. So miserably she died, poor old wretch ! and Anne Styles never looked up again into the fair face of heaven without the stain of blood across her hand, and the brand of Cain on her brow. 367 THE SPRIGHTLY LAD OF SOMERSETSHIRE.* One certain Sunday afternoon, in November 1657, Bichard Jones, " a sprightly youth of twelve," living at Shepton Mallet, in Somersetshire^ being left at home alone, and looking abroad as sprightly youth will, saw an old woman of the place, by name Jane Brooks, look in at the window^ He went to the door to see what she wanted, when she asked him to give her a piece of "close bread," and she would give him an apple. He did so, and she thanked him, stroked him down the right side, shook him by the hand, and bade him good night When the father and our coz. Gibson came back, they found the sprightly youth ill, and complaining of pain in the right side. He continued in the same state through the night, and on the follow- ing day became much worse, falling into fits of speech- lessness, &c, immediately after having roasted and eaten the apple which Jane Brooks had.given him. He then told the £Either that an old woman of the place, name unknown but person remembered, had stroked his right side, and thus had caused his illness ; whereupon his father decided that all the women of Shepton Mallet should come to see him, and that in case he was in his fit, and not able to speak when the true witch came, he should give a " jogg," which would be .suffi- ciently expressive. All the women of Shepton Mallet were brought in by turns; but the boy remained quiet imtil Jane Brooks appeared, when he feU into a fit, and was for some time unable to see or speak. Eecovering himself, " he gave his father the Item," and drew towards Jane. She was standing behind her two * Glanya*8*Saducismu8Trimnphad;ii8.* 368 THE WITCHES OF ENGLAND. sisters, but the boy singled her out and put his band upon her ; which the father seeing, he flew on the poor creature, scratched her face " above her breath," and drew blood. After this rather rough manner of exor- cism, Master Bichard Jones cried out that he was well, and condescended to remain well for seven or eight days. But at the end of this time, Alice Coward, sister to Jane, happening to meet him and to say, ^How do you do, my Honey?" he fell ill again, and ** cried out " on them without intermission. One Simday he was in his fits, his father and cousin Gibson with him as usual, when he suddenly exclaimed that he ''saw Jane Brooks there" — pointing to the wall. Cousin Gibson at once struck a knife into the spot ; whereupon the sprightly youth cried, " O father, couz Gibson hath cat Jane Brooks's hand, and 'tis Bloody." The father and Gibson on this went to the constable, '' a discreet Person," and telling him what had happened, took him with them to Jane's house, where they found her sit- ting on a stool, with one hand over the other. *Afiber a few questions they drew her hand away, and found that which Vas underneath all bloody; which appearance she explained away as well as she could, by saying that it was scratched with a great pin. This kind of thing going on for some time, the pitiful plot grew ripe for execution, and on the 8th of December Jane Brooks and her sister, Alice Coward, were taken to Castle Cary to be examined by the justices, Mr. Hunt and Mr. Cary. Here Bichard performed all the usual tricks of the bewitched, lying speechless and motionless while the suspected women were in the room ; springing up into tetanic fits if they laid their hands upon him, or so much as looked towards him; bringing on himself, by his own will, convulsive fits and catalepsy, and many of the THE SPRIGHTLY LAD OF SOMERSETSHIRE. S69 more yiolent symptoms of hysteria, and insisting that the two women came constantly to see him — as appa- ritions — ^' their Hands cold, their Eyes staring, and their Lips and Cheeks looking pale." " In this •manner on a Thursday about Noon, the Boy being newly laid in his Bed, Jane Brooks and Alice Coward appeared to him, and told him that what they bad begun they could not perform. But if he would say no more of it, they would give him Money, and so put a Twopence into his Pocket After which they took him out of his Bed and laid him on the ground and vanished, and the Boy was found by those that came next into the Boom lying on the Floor as if he had been dead." This twopence had odd properties. When put upon the fire and made hot, the boy fell ill ; when taken out and cooled, he was all right again. The trick was tried in the presence of many, and was found to answer admirably. Between the 8th of December and the 17th of February, he practised another variation of the same air. " Divers persons at sundry times " heard a croaking, as of a toad, proceed from the boy, and though they held a candle to his face they could not discern any movement of tongue, teeth, or lips. And this croaking as of a toad repeated incessantly, " Jane Brooks, Alice Coward, Jane Brooks, Alice Coward." On the 25th of February he performed his greatest feat of all ; or was reported to have done so — ^which did quite as well in those days ; for Bichard Isles's wife said she saw him raised up from the ground, mounting gradually higher and higher till he was carried full thirty yards over the garden wall, when, falling at last at one Jordan's door, he was there found as if dead. Coming to himself, he declared that Jane Brooks had taken him by the arm, and carried him up, as Isles's wife had seen; 2 B 3m THE WITCHES OP ENGLAND. wnidi &et was told mud belieyed in as a fearful instance ^' iifr iBift&kmjiB aiid wicked sorcery against the sprightly ]niara^ As moodier time, as many as nine people at once AW imi hainging bom a beam, his hands placed flat ^•C'lULsC cie wood, and his whole body raised two or :iiP!rr» ^et^ froooL the gronnd. He continued to play t&f<« t*sizm>niuitfY tricks from the 15th of Novem- b^^ a* die l^.th ol March ; when, being much wasted and ^•c!u it w»» deemed advisable to save his life if yet :at-w mii;:ht be time. Jane Brooks was sent to gaol, .vndsk-mned^ and hanged at Charde assizes, March 26th, I vv*^ : ;uid Kiehard Jones, having no longer any in- iucvmeat to act the possessed, consented to remain m:ia hte 6?et on the ground and his head in the air, ;it>vmmg to the laws of nature and Newton, and took ^> More tits> real or simnlated, to extort compassion or vvuiiii revenge. THE WITCHES OF THE RESTORATION. r^e poor witches were always seeing troublous times. Vt ^jUxHit the time of the Lord Protector's death one >^5i^ iv^n^iyd in Xonrich and several in Cornwall. In t s <i t>fcv sufl^^red at Lancaster, for crimes which I x>i:tvK*t vii?^VTer : while in 1660, on the 14th of May, the Kv^viv^TAtk^Mi hiid its victims in the persons of a widow, Vht r»v» d^u^ters* and a man, who were carried to A^ r i:*>l cm the double charge of witchcraft and t^ am. For the eldest daughter had been heard ^ \ a if tfcev h^ftd not been taken the king would it la^v cvMKe tv> England: which was enough to Ite ^^ ^^ vvurt into fits. And when they were fcai it itmL «tt^) ci^idemned, she said further that W ife^^ ^^ come, yet he shall not live long THE WITCH-FINDER FOUND. 371 l)ut shall die as ill a death as they/' adding that had they not been taken " they would have made com like pepper:" that is, they would have blighted it. As there were many other charges against them, they were swum : when they floated like ducks — or witches ; and then they were searched: when the man was found to have five " bigges," two of the women three, but the eldest daughter only one. When first searched, none of these marks were visible on any of the women, whereat the inquisitors were advised to put them flat on their backs and keep their mouths open, until they should appear ; which advice was taken, with the happiest and most palpable results. THE WITCH-FINDER FOUND. Sometimes knavery defeated itseK, though unhappily not often, as in the case of the famous witch-finder Mother Baker* and the young maid Stuppeny, of New Bomsey in Kent The young maid Stuppeny was sick, and as sickness in those days never meant the natural consequence of filthy habits, filthy food, and filthy habi- tations, but was by the supernatural devilry of witches and wizards, the parents concluded that their young maid must be bewitched, so set off to old Mother Baker to learn who was the guilty person. Old Mother Baker asked whom they suspected ? and they mentioned a near neighbour of theirs — ^particulars not given. " Yes," says the hag, *^ it is she, and she has made a heart of wax, which she daily pricks with pins and knitting-needles, and which is now concealed in the house, for the destruc- tion of the young maid your daughter." So the parents * Reginald Scot 872 THE WITCHES OF ENGLAND. Stuppeny searched their house, but found no heart of wax; whereupon old Mother Baker, with big pockets, to her 8ide«, said she herself must search. And she did search^ and turned out the charm from the very spot where she said it was. But certain prying neighbours, wfai^e eyes were sharp and wits clear, had watched old Baker and her pockets ; and as she laid the image in a comer that had been most diligently searched and kx^ked inux her cheat was discovered, and the anony- mous wretch living next door escaped, while Mother Fiiker saifer^ the penalties awarded in Scot's time to OMeiue^e and deoHt with intent to defraud or do ilL rOlL BILBT AND HER COMPEER.* ?nrr»*a Ajnes^ in the county of York, was troubled ; St Ifjiiti Ocr^»«. the vt^wag daughter of Henry Corbet, ^«^ ^ai^a TOientlx in. and Alice Huson and Doll ^li^^v lad Wwirv'h^ her. (Jood Mrs. Corbet — beyond ^i> r dur^ ii »ii?r»xis unbeKrf-^^fused to entertain her i:%al^l^«•^^ sa^tt.'toai>: indeed she had chidden her ^>tiw v»?«ju:?^ atf'^ S,^r falling old Alice a witch, for she tai * J&atr ^* ^ tvor widow, and kept her about the V*«^ Ivkxaar j^J^** her young turkeys, &c., and was i ib^fwl V tier.aiid sought to make her wasting >lv -^^ «^ iMiidLV ^ n^t be« But Miss Faith hated ttif /%ii ^•iwtnak. ^vpi <ff%ed out against her as a witch ; «^it«: ^a^ JL'^ fcw gloves* swore that Alice had ttfttt V ^ojiy «-TUiti^ witii, and that she should >- ,»*? ^•'tfit »«nL Tlieii she began to fall into fits, ^ikva ^^ ^«u<ta W :$M teiriUy tormented that it took 1^ 4r ttCM X^ Sk'&i ker: and she would screech and DCKLL BILBY AND HER COMPEER. 873 cry out vehemently, and bite and scratch anything she could lay hold of, all the while exclaiming, " Ah, Alice; old witch, have I gotten thee !" And sometimes she would lie down, all drawn together in a round, and be speechless and half swooning for days together; and then she would be wildly merry, and as full of antics as. a monkey. Physicians were consulted, but none came near to her disorder; and though her father carried her about hither and thither, for change of air, nothing would cure her, she said, so long as Alice Huson and Doll Bilby remained at liberty. Still the father and mother held out, until, one day, before a whole concourse of people come to look at her in her fits, she cried out, ** Oh Faithless and incredulous People ! shell I never be believed till it be past Time? For I am as near Death as possibly may be, and when they have got my Life you will repent when it is past Time." Gn hearing this the father went to the minister of Burton Agnes, Mr. WeUfet, and he. Sir Fr. Boynton — ^a justice of the peace — and Mr. Corbet himseK at last dragged the old woman Huson into Faith's chamber. At whioh Miss Faith gave a great screech, but presentiy called for toast and beer ; then for cordials ; and having taken a somewhat large quantity of both, she got up, dressed herself, and came down stairs. This, too, after she had been so weak that she could not turn herself in bed : which proved that Mother Huson had some extre^ ordinary influence over the girl — an influence more potent than holy said the bystanders. This happy state did not continue. Faith said she should never be well while the two women were at liberty ; and so it proved ; for when they were at last arrested, and held in strict security and durance, the young lady pronounced her- self healed, and gave no one any more trouble. Then 874 THE WITCHES OP ENGLAND. Alice Huson was got to make confession to Mr. Wellfet, the minister, and thus sealed her own doom, and saved the prosecution the pain of conviction. She said that for three years she had had intercourse with the devil, who, one day as she was on the moor, appeared tb her in the form of a black man riding on horseback. He told her she should never want if she would follow his ways and give herself up to him: which Alice promised to do. Then he sealed the bar- gain by giving her five shillings ; at another time he gave her seven ; and often — indeed six or seven times — ^re- peating his gifts to the like munificent extent. He was like a black man with cloven feet, riding on a black horse, and Alice fell down and worshipped him, as she had covenanted. And she had hurt Faith Corbet by her evil spirit, for she did, in her apprehension, ride her ; and when Mr. Wellfet examined her once before, the devil stood by, and gave her answers ; and she was under the Corbets' window as a cat when Mrs. Corbet said she was — for even her kindly faith was shaken at last ; and Doll Bilby had a hand in all this evil too ; for Doll wanted to kill Faith outright, but old Alice inter- posed, thinking they had done enough harm already. She confessed to killing Dick Warmers " by my wicked heart and wicked eyes ;" and to having lent Lancelot Harrison eight shillings of the ten which the devil had given her at Baxter's door, a fortnight ago, " about twi- light or daygate ;" and she had a bigge, or witch mark, where the devil sucked from supper-time till after cock- crowing, twitching at her heart as if it was drawn with pincers the while ; and she meant to practise witchcraft four years ago, when she begged old clothes of Mrs. Corbet, and the children refused her ; and the devil told her not to tell of Doll Bilby. And to all this raving THE ASTRAL SPIRirS ASSAULT. 375 Timothy Wellfet, minister of Burton Agneg, set his name, and so hanged Alice Huson and Doll Bilby at the next York assizes : after which Miss Faith Corbet was for eyer rid of her fits and fancies. THE ASTRAL SPIRIT'S ASSAULT. Can we wonder at anything which it might please those servants of the devil, the witches, to do, when even a spirit — a disembodied ghost — a mere appearance — a spectre — an apparition — could audibly box a lad's ears before a whole room fuU of spectators, and at last box them so soundly as to break his neck, and kill him? Baxter's "World of Spirits" gives this story as happening to a barber's apprentice in Cambridge, in the year 1662. The spectre who killed the boy was in the garb and appearance of a gentlewoman; and at about the same hour, as near as they could guess, when it boxed the boy's ears and broke his neck at Cambridge, while the father was sitting at dinner with the boy's master at Ely, " the appearance of a Gentle- woman comes in, looldng very angrily, taking a Turn or two, disappeared." It seems that the spectre had that night been endeavouring to persuade the boy to leave his apprenticeship and return home to Ely, where she and he were very free and had long been wont to disport together, even while company was in the room, and while the father, a minister named Franklin, was sitting thera After some treaty the boy reso- lutely said he would not go home, whereupon the spirit gave him a sounding box on the ear, which made him very ill ; but he rose as usual when the morning came, though unfit for work or even play. When the master heard the story, he rode over to Ely to see 2 %:if;HKSf tW ENGLAND. J* rmuar wim Um req)ecting the un- Kx^.-r7L^.n xi^ jMrr^mPFomaait (Leaies of the spirit ; and I its iciHiij«4K c :titt .ii«r^ die boy sitting by the ^.:.-:*:l Tr* .m xm clh> hhii^ by, suddenly cried out, ii-OTMSh .«/iii tuiaiit * tail* gentlewoman !" The '•.-►o-?"^ A *«k»^ »£! *ir jucirniz; jet soon after heard a .: ?♦• ar L - ^7***!: ^ix m. :iiif ^eius.^ and taming round -iiiiF iir i>^ j?4i..TTnr iin«zL ks nerk : and presently he ^h-^^ Tm- * iir «irr xraT^elr told by Baxter, in the T:.***^ i&jc i2ia^ id. ^i» ai be iianated, and that there i«ft> :k Ti>Tr^ sqiaiMCMm pcnable to a circumstance iKTii-M ^r-ar-r.ic ]& oihr iB^tcstaDce from its supematu- ^^ '^la?^ s»nu a iv ^ws later — in 1667 — ^took to s&wnia^ a sisl*> bnsp at Kintony six miles from \ •i-*3-^8fc>r : anc hocfid hi$ ears as be sat by the fire ti.tc awffiS in^ maid. At vUch the man cried out, a:ic w*-m awkj v las son s in the town, not caring to nuitmv wiitTf a ^ihofll omld make itself equal to a honr iiociv misJi himm aad Musckfl, and give him Qiui^^utaiiiit nnwi^ of tiie sum^ A minister of the pl£tce, . 'nan.*^ T*^^ wait to tJbe kooae to exoidse the ghost by im^-^. aw: bad nrt beoa tliere kng before ''there was n ^rtwx B<«^ m i^ smi room, of groaning, or rather j-mnUmc. i^ * Ho^ and then a lowd Shriek." Mr. lMrt«3$ Haft |iniT€^ <»; and after the spectre had . .^ 1^ i«^ 10 irigteen him with ndses, but finding ^ Utt i4ind(r it iinmckid the kmder he prayed, it ^f^ I vkv. and tiie man wis tronUed no more to the ^^ ^ tifr iMsk, wUck ki^paMd about two years I iJ^e^ wn^^ a li^ok «a ^Nrite instead of on witchcraft ^. ^«n.* wwi SiJWOonU be given bearing on the ^ juiiaiiTinx V ^7 ^^ ^^7 ^^ some- JULIANAS TOADS. 377 what foreign t5 my design ; so I must pass them by, and go on to the more material, and more guilty, records of the witchcraft superstition. All the mere spectre or ghost stories are both tame and innocent compared to the witch delusions At least they caused no blood^r shed ; and if they broke hearts it was not through shame and despair and ruin. JULIAN'S TOADS/ At the Taunton assizes, in 1663, Julian Cox, about seventy years old, was indicted before Judge Archer for practising her arts of witchcraft upon a '^ young Maid, whereby her Body languished, and was impaired of Health." And first were taken proofe of her witchcraft;. One witness, a huntsman, swore that one day, as he was hunting not tax from Julian's house, he started a . hare, which the dogs ran yery close till it came to a bush ; when, going round to the other »de to keep it from the dogs, he perceived Julian Cox grovelling on the ground, panting and out of breath. She was the hare, and had had just time enough to say the magic stave which changed her back to woman's form again, ere the dogs had caught her. Another man swore that one day, passing her house as '' she was taking a Pipe of Tobacco upon the Threshold of the Door," she invited him to come in and join her; which he did; when presently she cried out, " Neighbour, look what a pretty thing there is I" and there was '^ a monstrous great Toad betwixt his Legs, staring him in the Face." He tried to hit it, but could not, whereupon Julian told him to desist striking it and it would <;|p him no hurt ; but he was frightened, and went off to his family, telling them » Glanvil. r> THE WITCHES OF ENGLAND. -lus :!•» lad flees one of Julian Cox her devils. Yet -wtM^ he WM at heme this same toad appeared a Vfwizt his legs, and though he took it out, and u in seTeiml {necea, still, when he retomed to his pip^, xbere was the toad. He tried to bum it, but f»iiid not ; then to beat it with a switch, but the toad ran almnt the room to escape him ; presently it gave a cry and yanished, and he was never after troubled with it. A third witness swore that one day, when milking, Julian Cox passed by the yard wh»e he was, and ^ stooping down scored upon the gromid tor some small time, during which time his Cattle ran Had, and some of them ran their Heads agaiast 1^ Trees, and most of them died speedily.** Coaching by which signs that they were bewitched, he cwt off tiieir ears to burn them, and, while they woe oa the fire, Jalian Gox came in a great heat ajid rage, cryi^ «itt that Aey abused her wiUiout cause ; but g»g s^ ^ to the fire, she took off the ears, and them was qioec By the laws of witch-^ craft it was die wfe was tncniK:. mH die beasts' ears. A foufth. as vetaeifns a^ ^e SoEmec swote to having aeen her ^ fty iadi • her tmt. dMfmher'vmdow in her full proportioii :" aL At whsr usaauBrr gai« wdght and JnKanROD^ ^^ 4a<-Y aiC: vraJDK:\«a the maid gave H^"* } "vvv^ ^— r^ «Bc ^ak. i^ ThwiM have none ; so .lnl«« r.«. 1^ ^Hi^ ^ii^ -MoTic JiyM her incivility ^'^ - M^-^ ^m ^iSfe^ itiL . wr :iai^ was taken with Mfle of the house !lMrfiiUowing her. &at she saw Wifcale, and that iiird the Devil's JULIAN'S TOADS. 379 Drenches." The next night, expecting the same hind of conflict, she took up a knife and laid it at the head of her bed. In the middle of the night came the spiritual Julian and the black man, as before, so the maid took the knife, and stabbed at Julian, whom she said she had wounded in the leg. The people, riding out to see, found Julian in her own house with a fresh wound on her leg, and blood was also on the maid's bed. The next day Julian appeared to the maid and forced her to eat pins. Her apparition was on the house wall ; and " all the Day the Maid was observ'd to convey her Hand to the House wall, and from the Wall to her Mouth, and she seem'd by the motion of her Mouth as if she did eat something." So towards night, still crying out on Julian, she was undressed, and all over her body were seen great, swellings and bunches in which were' huge pins — as many as thirty or more — which she said Julian Cox, when in the house wall, had forced her to eat. Was not all this enough to hang a dozen Julian Coxes ? Judge Archer thought so ; especially when was added to this testimony Julian's own enforced confession, of how she had been often tempted by the devil to become a witch, but would never consent ; yet how one evening, walking about a mile from her house, she met three persons riding on broom-staves, borne up about a yard and a half from the ground, two of whom she knew — a witch and a wizard, hanged for witchcraft several years ago— but the third, a black man, she did not then know. He however tempted her to give up her soul, which she did by pricking her finger and signing her name with her blood. So that, by her own showing, as well as by the unimpeachable testimony of reputable witnesses, she was a witch and one coming under the provisions of the ks^- o.^*":-„.^v«>''^*^'' alae ce^A' H^' 'iM «**"".« <5»^."v^'^_.^,.o CT'f^*- THE YOUGHAL WITCH. 881 little old Man in silk Cloatfas, and that this Man, whom she took to be a Spirit, drew the Vail from off the Woman's Face, and then she knew it to be Goody Newton ; and that the Spirit spake to the Deponent, and would have had her promise him to follow his Advice, and she should have all things after her own Heart ; to which she says she answered * That she would have nothinir to say to him, for her Trust was in the Lord.' " After this Mary Longdon was taken very ill, vomiting pins and needles and horse^nails and stubbs and wool and straw, while small stones followed her about the room, and from place to place, striking her sharply on her head and shoulders and arms, then vanishing away. She was also strangely put upon by beds, and other such assailants. Sometimes she was forcibly carried from one bed to another; sometimes taken to the top of the house, or laid on a board betwixt two sollar beams, or put into a chest, or laid under a parcel of wool, or betwixt two feather beds, or (in the day time) between the bed and the mat in her master's room. All of these pranks done by Florence Newton's Astral Spirit, by which Mary maid was bewitched. Florence Newton* also bewitched to his death David Jones, who had constituted himself one of her watchers while she was in "bolts" in prison. David took gre^t pains to teach her the Lord's Prayer, but Florence, being a witch, could not repeat it correctly ; at last she called out to him, " David ! David ! come hither ; I can say the Lord's Prayer now." Not that she could, for when she came to the clause " Forgive us our Trespasses," she skipped over it, or boggled at it, or got round it in some way or other that was not holy ; then seizing David's hand between the bars of the grate she kissed it thankfully ; and thus and there possessed him, 382 THE WITCHES OP ENGLAND. so that he died fourteen days after of that strange lan- guishing disease known to all the world as a bewitch- ment THE WITCHES OP STYLES'S KNOT.* Elizabeth Hill, aged thirteen, had strange fits. She was much convulsed and contorted ; she writhed, foamed, and could with difficulty be held or mastered ; she had moreover swellings and holes in her flesh, which were made she said by thorns, and whence the bystanders averred they saw the child hook out thorns. Even the clergyman of the parish, William Parsons rector of Stoke Trister, added his testimony to the rest : and on the 26th of January, 1664, in an examination taken before Robert Hunt, vouched for the truth of the fits, and the swellings, and the black thorns in the midst of the swellings ; but he did not add to this testimony the further assertion that it was Elizabeth Styles who had bewitched the child, though she herself " cried out" on her, and said that she tormented her in her fits. Elizabeth Styles was farther accused of causing Eichard Hill's horse to sit down and paw with his fore feet when attempted to be crossed, and of having bewitched Agnes Vining by means of a rosy-cheeked apple, which was no sooner eaten than it caused a grievous pricking in Agnes' thigh, who forthwith languished and died, " her hip rotted, and one of her eyes swelled out" lliese are signs of a worse bewitchment than poor old Mother Styles's rosy-cheeked apple — signs of the deadly sorcery of scrofula induced by the poverty, dirt, bad food and worse lodging of the times; for the oflects of which many a poor wretch lost her life who * GlanvU. THE WITCHES OF STYLES'S KNOT. 383 yet had done no more harm than the nursling at the breast Robert Hunt the Justice, and one of our fine old English gentlemen, did not take this materialistic view of the matter. When told of Agnes Vining's ill- ness and manner of disease, and seeing Elizabeth Styles looking appaUed and concerned, he said to her : " You have been an old sinner, you deserve little mercy." To -which the poor soul answered, humbly, "I have asked God for it" She then said that the devil had seduced her, and so began her confession on the 26th of January — three days after the first accusation by the Hills. She said that about ten years ago the devil appeared to her as a handsome man changing afteiv wards to the shape of a black dog ; *' that he pro- mised her money, and that she should live gallantly, and have the Pleasures of the World for twelve years," if only she would sign a certain bond with her blood, give him her soul, obey his laws, and let him suck her blood. To all of which she consented after four soli* citations, whereupon he pricked her finger — ^the mark thereof to be seen at this time — ^and she, with her own blood signed the paper with an 0, when the devil gave her sixpence and vanished with the bond. Since then he appeared to her constantly, under the forms of a man, a cat, a dog, or a " fly like a miliar " (a large white moth), as which last he usually sucked her poll about four in the morning ; and hurt- her terribly in doing so. She also said that when she wanted him to do anything for her, she called him by the name of " Eobin," adding, " Satan give me my purpose !" which he never failed to do. It was he who stuck the thorns into Elizabeth Hill; but then she implicated three other women, Alice Duke, Ann Bishop, and Mary Fenny, saying that they too had stuck thorns into an 384 THE WITCHES OF ENGLAND. enchanted picture meant for Elizabeth Hill, one night when they had all met the devil on the common, he, as a man in black dothes with a little band, first anointing its forehead with oil, saying, ^' I baptize thee with this oyU' After which they had a. supper of wine, cakes, and roast meat, aU brought by the man in black, and they ate and drank and danced and weie merry. This ^ey did always, whenever they would destroy any one obnoxious ; and so had a merry time of it upon the whole. When they wanted to go to their meetings " they would anoint their wrists and foreheads with an oyl the spirit brings them, which smells raw," after which they were carried off, saying : " Thout, tout, a tout, tout, throughout and about:" on their return changing the stave to " Eentum Tormentum," which was the shibboleth to bring them back. But before they left they used to make obeisance to the man in black, who usually played to their dancing, saying, " A Boy ! merry meet, merry part ;" on which he vanished, and the conclave was broken up. She then told the "several grave and orthodox divines " who assisted Eobert Hunt to take her examination, that Alice Duke's familiar was a cat, and Ann Bishop's a rat Her own was a miliar ; concerning which Nicholas Lambert made some strange revelations. He said that as he and two others, hired to watch Elizabeth Styles in prison, were sitting near her as she crouched by the fire — ^he, Nicholas Lambert, reading in " The Practise of Piety " — about three in the morning they saw a " glistering bright fly," about an inch in length, come from her head and pitch on the chimney: then instantly vanish. In less than a quarter of an hour after, in came two other flies and seemed to strike at his band, but which dodged him cleverly when he struck at them with his book. At this, Styies's THE WITCHES OF STYLES'S KNOT. 885 countenance became very black and ghastly, and the fire also changed its colour ; so the watchers, conceiving that her familiar was about her, and seeing* also her hair shake very strangely, went to examine her poll, when out flew a great miliar, which pitched on a table board and then vanished away. Her poll was red like raw beef, but presently regained its natural colour. Upon which Elizabeth confessed that it was her familiar, and that she had felt it tickle her poll. She was condemned, after having inculpated thirteen other persons, but " prevented execution by dying in gaol, a little before the expiring of the term her confederate dsBmon had set for her enjoyment of Diabolical Plea- sures." Alice Duke, " another witch of Styles's Knot," a widow living in Wincaunton, county of Somerset, was then apprehended and examined. She seems to have given no trouble, but to have come frankly to the point, and to have admitted whatever they liked to demand. She said that, eleven or twelve years ago, Ann Bishop per- suaded her to go one night to the churchyard, and " being come thither to go backward round the church, which they did three times." In their first round they met a man in black clothes who accompanied them :> in their second a thing like a great black toad, which leaped up against Duke's apron : in the third, " some- what in the shape of a rat " which vanished away. After which they both went home, but before they went the man in black said something softly to Ann Bishop, yet what it was Alice did not hear. Soon after this she signed herself away in the same manner and for the same purposes as Elizabeth Styles had done ; and the devil gave her sixpence as he had given Styles, and vanished away with the fatal paper. She confirmed 2 386 THE WITCHES OF ENGLAND. all that Styles had said concerning the meetings on the common, the enchanted pictures and the greenish oil, the devil, the wine, and cakes, and music ; she gave infor- mation, though, of many more such pictures which were to doom the imfortunate likenesses to death ; and she said farther that Ann Bishop was the devil's favourite, and that she sat next him, and wore *' a green Apron, a French Waistcoat, and a red Petticoat." She gave the same phrase that Elizabeth Styles had given, as the magic password which took ijiem to and from the devil's meetings ; and she confessed that her fa,mi1iar came to her each night, about seven o'clock, *' in the shape of a little Cat of a dunnish colour, which is as smooth as a Want, and when she is suck'd she is in a kind of Trance." She had hurt several people ; specially Thomas Hanway's daughter by giving her a pewter dish for a " good handsel " in the time of her lying in. This pewter dish was of such a malicious and venefical nature that when Thomas Hanway's daughter used it to heat some deer suet and rose water for her breasts, she was put to extreme pain ; which pain she had not when she heated the same deer suet and the same rose water in a common spoon. So, suspecting harm in the dish, she put it into the fire, " which then presently vanished, and nothiug of it was afterwards to be found." Alice Duke also said that she called the devil " Eobin," and demanded of him aid and help in her undertakings. Like Styles and many others, she said that when the devil vanished he left an ill smell behind him ; which is explained as, " Those ascititious Particles lie held together in his visible vehicle, being loosened at his vanishing, and so offending the Nostrils by their floating and diffusing themselves in the open air." S87 KOBIN AND HIS SERVANTS.* Somersetshire was sorely aflBiicted at this time. On the 2nd of March still in the year of grace, 1664, Christian Green, aged about thirty-three, and wife of Eobert Green of Brewham, was taken before Bobert Hunt, Esq., to be examined and induced to confess. She did confess, without torture as it would appear ; at all events without more than the ordiaary torture of " pricking " and sleeplessness always applied to witches. She said that about a year and a half ago, she being in great poverty, was induced by one Catherine Green (her husband's sister?) to give her body and soul to the devil on condition that he would give her clothes, victuals, and money, as she might desire. She was to keep his secrets, and suffer him to suck her once in the twenty- four hours; to which at last she consented, the devil giving her fourpence-halfpenny as earnest money where- with to buy bread in Brewham. Since this time he came to her ever at five o'clock in the morning, much in the likeness of a hedgehog bending, and sucked her left breast : a painful process, though she was g^ierally in a kind of trance at the time. Christian Green gave no new particulars relative to the devil and his works. He was always as a man in black clothes; and he charmed pictures to the undoing of those for whom they were designed; and when he vanished he left an 111 smell behind him ; and he spake them very low when they arrived; and they did three horses to death by saying simply, " A Murrain on them Horses to death ;" and they bewitched unlikely sinners by mere word or look : all of which processes we have read of twenty « Glanvil, 388 THE WITCHES OF ENGLAND. times before. Nor was there much more to be got oat of " the villainous Feats of that rampant hag Margaret Agar," of Brewham, tried also in 1664, whom poor hys- terical Christian Green had delated, for she did nothing beyond curse her enemies and those who offended her, whereupon they died " as if stabbed with daggers," or were " consumed and pined away ;" some with one dis- ease, some with another ; but all dying without reprieve because of her curse. She also, in company with many others, was proved to have met " a little man in black clothes," whom they called " Eobin," and to whom they all made obeisance, the little man putting his hand to his head, saying, " How do ye ?" speaking low, but big. And they made " pictures " of wax into which the little black man stuck thorns, one in the crown, another in the breast, and a third in the side, which then Margaret would fling down saying, " This is Cornish's figure with a murrain to it," and Elizabeth Cornish would languish and die ; or " This is Bess Hill's;" or any other person's whom it was desired to " forespeak " and destroy ; who of course were fore- spoken and destroyed from that hour. Margaret Agar was a " rampant hag " indeed in one sense, being evi- dently an ill-conditioned old woman, quick at a curse, and passionately eager to avenge herself, but her ma- gical arts appear to have been of the lowest possible order, and pale and lifeless compared with the more highly-coloured doings of others. Anything, however, was sufficient for the worshipful Master Eobert Hunt and his fellow justices, and curses did as well as the rest ; so poor old Margaret Agar was taken to the tree whereon grew the fatal fruit of death, to meditate there on Christian charity and the wise compassionateness of men, before learning by what steps the weary soul SIR MATTHEW HALE'S JUDGMENT. 389 passes from earth to immortaKty. She was probably no great loss to the community, but her death placed her among the martyrs to superstition, and left her for ever as an object of historic pity. SIR MATTHEW HALE'S JUDGMENT** At Bury St Edmonds, in the county of Suffolk, a remarkable " Tryal of witches " was held on the tenth day of March, 1664, before Sir Matthew Hale, Lord Chief Baron of the Court of Exchequer. Eose Cul- lender and Amy Duny, both widows and both of Leystoff, were indicted for bewitching Elizabeth and Ann Durent, Jane Booking, Susan Chandler, William Durent, and Elizabeth and Deborah Pacy. William Durent, being an infant, was sworn by grace of his mother Dorothy, and she deposed that some little time ago, having occasion to go from home, she desired Amy, who was her neighbour, to look after her child, but ex- pressly forbade her to suckle it in her absence. When asked by the court why she gave this caution to an old woman far past the age of performing such an office, Dorothy answered that Amy had long had the character of a witch who might suckle the devil himself or any of his imps ; and that moreover old women were apt to give the breast to a crying chUd, to please it during its mother's absence; a habit that made the children ilL But it seems that Amy disobeyed her, for when she came home the old woman told her that she had given the breast to her iofant, which made Dorothy very cross, and a high quarrel ensued. And that very night her child was taken with " strange fits of swounding," and * Tract ; Published 1682. 890 THE WITCHES OF ENGLAND, was held in sach a terrible manner that she expected to lose it every moment. Not knowing what to do or where to get it relief, she went to a certain Doctor Jacob, well known through the country for skill in helping children that were bewitched, and this Dr. Jacob advised her to hang up the child's blanket in the chimney comer all the day, and to put the child into it at night, and not be afraid at anything she might see, but to throw it at once into the fire. Dorothy did as she was bid, and when she took the blanket from the chimney-comer, down fell a great toad, " which ran up and down the hearth, and she having a young youth only with her in the House, desired him to catch the Toad and throw it into the Fire ; which the youth did accordingly, and held it there with the Tongs ; and as soon as it was in the Fire it made a great and horrible noise, and after a space there was a flashing in the Fire like Gunpowder, making a noise like the discharge of a Pistol, and thereupon the Toad was no more seen nor heard." But Amy Duny sat by her fireside all smirched and scorched, and in revenge bewitched the little daughter Elizabeth to death, and further afflicted Dorothy herseK with a lameness in both her legs, so that she was forced to go upon crutches. About which the strongest thing was, that though she had gone on them for three years now, no sooner was Amy Duny condemned than she cast them away and went home without them, " to the great admiration of all persons.'* This was the first count completed. The second was made by Samuel Pacy, " a Merchant of Leystoff aforesaid (a Man who carried himself with so much soberness during the Tryal, from whom pro- ceeded no words either of Passion or Malice, though his Children were so greatly Afflicted)," on behalf of his Sm MATTHEW HALE'S JUDGMENT. 391 daughters, Elizabeth and Deborah ; the one aged about eleven, the other nine. Elizabeth had fits. She re- mained as one wholly senseless or in a deep sleep, the only sign of life being that, as she lay on cushions in the court, her stomach was raised to a great height on the drawing of her breath. After she had remained there for some time she came somewhat to herself, and then " laid her Head on the Bar of the Court with a Cushion imder it, and her hand and her Apron upon that;" when Amy Duny was brought privately to touch her. She had no sooner done so than the child, although not seeing her, suddenly leaped up and caught her by the hand and face, and scratched her till the blood came : after which she was easier. Samuel deposed that his younger daughter, Deborah, was sud- denly taken with a lameness in her legs, which con- tinued from the 10th to the 17th of October ; when the day, being fair and sunshiny, she desired to be carried to the east part of the house, and then set upon a bank which looks towards the sea. While sitting there, came Amy Duny to buy some herrings; but being denied she went away grumbling, and on the instant " the Child was taken with the most violent Fits, feeling most extream Pain in her Stomach, like the pricking of Pins, and shreeking out in a most dreadful manner, like unto a Whelp, and not Hke unto a sensible Creature." The doctor, not understanding this disorder, and Amy Duny being under ill fame for a witch, Samuel Pacy caused her to be set in the stocks, as the most powerful remedy he knew of for his child's disorder. Being in the stocks, a neighbour told her that she was suspected of being the cause of Mr. Pacy's trouble : whereupon Amy answered, " Mr. Pacy keeps a great stir about his Child; let him stay until he has 39S THE WITCHES OF EK6LAND. •une m mmh hj hs duUren as I have by mine." And jein^r mrdier examined wbat she had done to her •niliirov ^ answoed, " That she had been £ain to "iMi liM* •rhiiifs Mondi wilh a Tap to give it victuals." ^ oea. ±ere^ate. Hiaabeth, the elder girl, fell ill within rwo iar? ^fter rfaia. and ooold by no means be made to ■r-fl jcr nHJBth without a good-^zed tap being put into ii. :s«? Thing w«» c^tain, and mi^t no longer be gain- Av^ And when they both vomited crooked pins, and ja aatfiy as turty broad-headed nails, and were deprived ^ =jdif and heanng; and crfed ont perpetually against Aziy r-uny and Bose Cullender, and could not be got -30 ^T ±e oames " JesoB," "Lord,'' .or "Christ," but wiMi ±^Y came to "Satan" or "Devil," would clap dieir iiiJ?»r5 on the bod^ (the New Testament), crjdng •-*«t. - T!ii* bitBs^ hot makes me speak right well," what :9iie person oould donbt the truth? Other strange riiiavr* b«rtaiie hsppened to theuL They used to see rrr^ttnnt^ oi the appearance of mice run up and down ifetr x-asi^. and one of th»n " suddainly snapt one with ±!t r^c» and threw h into the Fire, and it screeched 4tt likr a Sat." At anothiK' time a thing like a bee irw afo IVKMrah*s fiice» and would have got into her aaMCU ^aa ^e i>o4 gone shrieking into the house; ^^3. vzra aic»c& apparent pain and effort, she brought ^ ^ scc^eoxT :ttu with a bioad head, which she said ai jbct>ed inio her moutL Again, another bS*tt cxMi out that she saw a mouse under . m^-k ^ cu^t np in her apron and flung ir^ IVwDejftt. her aunt, confessed that she _ :^ ddkTs hand, nevertheless the fire if ^ca^''*^^ 1^ ^^^^ fl^^g ^ ; also " at f«.^^^^vr «iai^ ^ ^>i^ C^SA being speechless, but W ^'' wJoct oAeislandiDg, ran roimd about the SIB MATTHEW HALFS JUDGMENT. 393 HoTise, holding her Apron, crying * Hush, hush,' as if there had been Poultry in the House ; but this Depo- nent could perceive nothing; but at last she saw the Child stoop as if she had catch't at something, and put it into her Apron, and afterwards made as if she had thrown it into the Fire ; but this Deponent could not discover any thing ; but the Child afterwards being re- stored to her speech, she, this Deponent, demanded of her what she saw at the time she used such a posture ? who answered. That she saw a Duck." Others deposed to the same kind of things: as Edmund Durent, father to the girl Ann, whom Eose Cullender had bewitched — also because denied the right of buying herrings; and Diana Booking, mother to Jane likewise afflicted with crooked pias and tenpenny naUs ; and Mary Chandler, mother of Susan, who was stricken blind and dumb, and had the plague of pios upon her too, and who cried out "in a miserable manner, *Bum her, bum her,'" which were aU the words she could speak, and which meant that poor old Eose was to be burnt that Susan Chandler might be dispossessed. And there was Dr. Brown, of Norwich, a person of great knowledge, who gave it as his de- liberate opinion that the girls were bewitched, every one of them, and that "the Devil in such cases did work upon the Bodies of Men and Women upon a Natural Foundation, (that is) to stir up and excite such Humours superabounding ia their Bodies to a great Excess, whereby he did in an Extraordinary Manner Afflict them with such Distempers as their Bodies were most subject to, as particularly appeared in these Chil- dren ; for he considered that these swooning Fits were Natural, and nothing else but that they call the Mother, but only heightened to a great excess by the subtilty of 804 THE WITCHES OP ENGLAND. the Devil co-operating with the Malice of these which we term Witches, at whose instance he doth these Vil- lanies." Such an argument as this was then held quite as pertinent and irresistible as would now be the evi- dence of the microscope and the test of chemical expe- riment It is refreshing, in the midst of all this wild nonsense, to find that some gentlemen — ^Lord Corn- wallis, Sir Edmund Bacon, and Mr. Serjeant Keeling, who had been directed by the Lord Chief Justice to make an experiment with these girls^-openly protested against the whole thing, affirming it to be an imposture from first to last ; and that when the children covered up their heads in their aprons, and shrieked and writhed when Rose Cullender or Amy Dimy touched them, they did it in full possession of their senses, and per- fectly understanding what they were about. For when they tried them with other women whom they made believe were the two cried out on, and took care that their eyes were held, so that they should not see, the children shrieked and howled, and went off into their fits all the same ; which double experiment satisfied the gentlemen of the fraudulent character of it all. But this little nucleus of rationality was not strong enough to disperse the thick darkness gathered round the minds of all present — gathered round the mind of even Sir Thomas Brown and the " good " Sir Matthew Hale ; and when one witness had deposed that his cart had stuck fast between some posts, and that the haymakers could nfit unload the hay until the next morning, because Roi^e Cullender had threatened him ; and another that his pigs and cattle died in a most extraordinary manner, and he himself swarmed with vermin which he could not get rid of, because he also had been threatened by and a third that she had lost her geese because THE WAITING-MAID AND THE PIN. 395 Amy Drmj had said she should ; and that a chimney had fallen down because Amy Duny had said it would— when all these things had been sworn to and proyed, then the minds of the judge and jury admitted of no ftirther doubt. Amy Duny and Eose Cullender were brought in guilty, and hanged at Cambridge on Monday, March 17, confessing nothing. **The next morning the children came with their Parents to the Lodgings of the Lord Chief Justice, and were in as good Health as ever they were in their lives, being restored within half an hour after the witches were convicted." A feet then sufficiently conclusive, but which now is the strongest proof that could be offered of the wicked deception of the whole matter. THE WAITING-MAID AND THE PIN.* In 1665 Elizabeth Brooker, servant to Mrs. Hieron, of Honiton, in Devonshire, waiting at table one Lord's day, suddenly felt a pricking as of a pin in her thigh, and, on looking, found indeed a pin there, but inside her skin, drawing no blood nor breaking the skin, and thrust in so fej that she could scarce feel the head of it with her finger. By Tuesday it had worked so far inwards that she could no longer feel it at all ; and the day after she went to Mr. Anthony Smith, a surgeon of great repute, who was obliged to have recourse to inci- sions and cataplasms, and all the appliances of the surgery, in order to extract this obstinate and male- volent pin. For it was a bewitched pin; and either Agnes Eichardson, who had been angry with Elizabeth " about miscarriage in an errand that she sent her on,'* ♦ Baxter's • World of Spirits.' d96 THE WITCHES OF ENGLAND. or im unknown woman who had lately heen near her, was gospected of the crime of sticking it into her. Mrs. Hieron was a widow, and kept a dnq>er*8 shop in Honi- ton, and Elizabeth Brooker, her senrant, sold small wares in a stall before her mistress's door. On market day, which was Satorday, came a certain woman and asked Elizabeth for a pin. She took one from her sleeve readily enough ; bat the woman was dissatisfied, and demanded one of a bigger sort hung up in a paper to selL The maid said they were not hers to give; they were her mistress's : if she would ask her mistress for one, and get her leave to have it, she, Elizabeth, would then give her one willingly. This woman went away in a great fume, saying ^' she should hear farther from her, and that she would wish e'er long she had given the pin as desired." The next day a pin was thrust into her thigh as she was waiting at table, and no Christian person could doubt whence it came or why it was sent Mr. Anthony Smith, the '^ Chirurgeon of great Beputation," who could not extract a pin without a fortnight's illness supervening, wrote a detailed ac- count of the whole matter ; but whether the unknown woman was traced and found, or whether Agnes Kichard- son got any mishandling for the suspicion cast on her, or whether, again, the trick passed off without result, and no one was the worse because a maid-servant chose to run a pin into her thigh, I can find no record to inform me. As not much harm was done, perhaps the dtnil was let off easy this time, and the hags, his Huntresses, suffered to extend their trade a little longer. 897 JANE STRETTON AND THE CUNNING WOMAN.* Jane Stretton and her parents lived at Ware in the year 1669, Jane being then a young maid of about twenty, generally out at service. It chanced that Thomas, her father, lost a Bible, and must needs go to a cunning man to ask where it was, and who had it — a thing which, as a good Christian, he should have been ashamed of: to which the cunning man replied darkly, " he could tell him if he would." Whereupon Stretton, not in the least grateful for such a doubtful reply, broke out with, " Then thou must be either a witch or a devil, seeing thou canst neither read nor write." This was all that passed, and it seems but scant substance for a deadly quarrel ; but a few days afterwards this cunning man's wife went slily to Stretton's, and asked daughter Jane for a pot of drink. This was to establish direct communication. **Innocency dreads no danger: the child will play with the Bee for his gaudy Coat, and mistrusts not his sting," says this flowery tract ; but soon after Jane had thus committed herself to transfers and communication with the witch, the " devil, who is a sly thief, and though he keeps his servants poor, yet in- dues them, with a plentiftdl stock of malice, revenge, and dissimulation," sufTered this bad woman, or this cunning man, to afflict Jane, but not so grievously as they were suflTered to do hereafter. In about a week's time the cunning man's wife went and desired a pin of her, which Jane, granting, became suddenly beset with fits, most terrible to behold. "But her misery ends not ♦ • Hartfordshire Wonder ; or, Strange News from Ware.' London. Printed for John Clark, at the Bible and Harp, in West-Smith-Field, near the Hospital Gate. 1669. S98 THE WITCHES OP ENGLAND. here : the squib is not ran out to the end of the rope. When the Devil has an inch given to him he will take an ell';" so poor Jane was not only troubled with fits, but must needs have her mouth stopped so that she ate nothing for weeks and months, and was forced to live like a chameleon, on air. Besides this, she was made to perpetually vomit flax and hair and thread-ends and crooked pins ; while blue, white, and red flames came in the intervals out of her mouth, and her body was continually slashed and cut with a knife, and imps in the shape of frogs^ and toads, and mice, and the like, for ever haunted her ; and the wise man's wife was the cause of alL Then the neighbours took some of the foam which Jane had always hanging round her mouth, and burnt it for a counter charm, and to hurt the besetting witch ; and chancing to light on the woman, they told her they would take her to the maid to be scratched- To which she made answer, " That if they had not come she could not have stayed any longer &om her :" so great was the potency of the burnt foam. For nine months did this girl befool her world, and then — the cunning man and his wife being probably put to death — she managed to get well of all her ailments, and to find meat and milk more sustaining diet than crooked pins, hair, or wool ; though, indeed, the meat and milk had never been wanting in the dark hours undiscovered, for Jane had taken care to live as usual when the night had blinded prying eyes, and there was no one to count off the tale of slices cut and devoured. Fortunately for the sanity of society, every one did not believe these monstrous stories. Webster's book, published about this time, was one of those brave few which openly discredited the truth of the witch stories afloat in the world, and made as great a sensation, or JANE STRETTON AOT) THE CUNNING WOMAN. 399 even greater^ than the grand old work of Eeglnald Scot Like him, Webster doubted the truth of the witch of Endor's enchantments, which the upholders of the faith rested on as the very keystone of their position. The witch herself he calls " a cozening quean," " a crafty subtile quean," " an idolatrous, wicked, and couzening witch:" for they understood the value of forcible lan- guage in those days : Saul is " a drowned puppet " — ^to Glanvil's intense wrath at this rude mishandling of a "noble prince;" Samuel but "a confederate knave," or " but a lying phantasie ;" in the conjurations the witch, " casting herself into a feigned Trance, lay grovelling upon the Earth with her face downwards, and so changing her voice did mutter, and murmur, and peep, and chirp, like a bird coming forth of the shell ;" with other knock- down assertions of common sense not afraid, by which the curate of Kildwick demolished the whole argument of supematuralism, and left the poor witch of Endor and Saul himself not an inch of ground to stand on. So with all the other stories that came into his bauds ; so with the special points of faith, peculiar to the creed of witch- craft, such as communion and covenant with the devil, transportation through the air on sticks, straws, or bed- staves ; transformation into the shapes of cat, dog, wolf, raven, &c. ; intercourse with imps and familiars ; witches' sabbaths; charms; conjurations; weeping the pre- scribed three tears with the left eye only, or not weep- ing at aU; swimming on the surface of the water, because of the Christian character of that element, which refused to admit a devil-devoted soul within its bosom; apparitions, or spectres of witches troubling the afficted — souls quitting their bodies, but taking with them the spiritual substance even of woven gar^ ments; with the whole course of lies and delusions 400 THE WrrOHES OP ENGLAND. belonging to the subject^ from the devil's baptism to the imps' bigges. All tiiis seemed but so much delusion to plain John Webster, with his unidealising common sense and kindly heart ; yet a delusion so fraught with sin and danger as to make it a Christian man's first duty to combat and destroy it Wherefore was he most barbarously and evilly entreated by Glanvil in his " Saducismus Triumphatus " — the answer to the " Dis- playing of Supposed Witchcraft " — and a mighty pretty quarrel, fiill of the choicest amenities, was the result. But as Glanvil had error and credulity, and Webster reason and right judgment on his side, it mattered little who was assumed to have the best of it for the moment. Time and education gradually settled the question, and buried it for a time out of sight ; yet it has sprung up anew of late, and now needs settling again. THE BIDEPORD TROUBLES.* In the July of 1682, Temperance Lloyd, of Bideford, or " Bytheford," was accused of bewitching Mrs. Grace Thomas. Temperance, being a little crazy, had cried one day on meeting Mrs. Grace, who had been for long months but a poor, "dunt," feckless body; and when asked why she wept had made answer, " For joy to see her who had been so ill, walk abroad again without disaster." But that very same night Mrs. Grace was taken with fresh pains, " sticking and pricking Pains, as if Pins and Awls had been thrust into her Body, from the Crown of her Head to the Soles of her Feet> and she lay as if she had been upon a rack ;" .and none but Temperance Lloyd the cause thereof, despite all her hypocritical tears. And did not Elizabeth Eastcheap * Boolton^s ' Gompleat Histoiy of Magick.* .THE BIDlFORD TROUBLEa 401 see her knee, wticli looked as if it had been pricked in nine places with a thorn ? And when Temperance *wa« asked if she had any clay or wai wherewith to torment Mrs. Grace, did she not confess to a bit of leather which she had pricked nine times, and which was as fall of venom and sorcery as any wax or clay in the world? Besides, it came out afterwards, that she had gone to Thomas Eastcheap's shop in the form of a gray or " braget cat," and thence taken out a " puppit or picture, commonly called a child's baby," which she stuck full of pins, whereby to prick Grace to death. When asked in what part of the house the said puppet or picture was hidden, she refused to tell, saying the devil would tear her in pieces if she confessed. Anne Wakely, too, the neighbour who went to nurse poor Grace, had her word to say ; for one morning — ^it was on a bonny day in June — she saw " something in the shape of a magpye come at the chamber window ;" and when Temperance was questioned as to what she knew of this fluttering thing, she made answer that it was the Black Man in the shape of a bird which she had sent to trouble poor rheumatic pain-racked Grace. For Temperance was not stiff. She was easily brought to confess how she had given herself over to the ser- vice of a black man, who made her do all manner of hurt to her neighbours — ^made her pinch Grace Thomas, and bewitch William Herbert to his death twelve years ago, and destroy Anne Fellows three years since — for both of which crimes she had been arraigned and ques- tioned at the time, but had managed to get clear. Now, however, she confessed that she had been guilty of them. The dread and evil fame and poverty under which she had lived so long had done their appointed work on her poor old brain; and she was ready to 2 D 402 THE WITCHES OF ENGLAND. confess to anything which it was desired she should allow. Yes, she had bewitched the eyes of Jane Dalbin, but so secretly that no one had suspected her : and she had destroyed one woman by kissing her, holding her so tight that she squeezed her to death — the blood gushing out of her mouth and nose: and she hunted with the devil, he going before her in the shape of a hound; '^doubtless he hunted for soulsy** says a very odd tract which gives this additional trait of diabolical management and the economy of time. Being asked of what stature was her black man, she said " he was above the Length of her Arm ; and that his Eyes were very big ; and that he hopped, or leaped in the way before her ;" but when asked if she had made any contract with him she said '^Ko; neither had she gone through the keyhole when she went to harm Grace Thomas, but through the door, the devil leading her, and both invisible ; and that she had been made to pinch and torment Grace ; and that the devil beat her about the head grievously because she would not kni her." She had never bewitched any ships or boats, nor done a child to death ; for the child who stole her apple died of the small-pox, and she was guiltless of its decease ; nor had she ever ridden over an arm of the sea on a cow — " No, master, never ; it was she," mean- ing another delated witch, Susanna Edwards, who did this. The worst thing she had ever done was to Grace Thomas, and then the devil made her do it, beat- ing her about the head and back in shape and foma, ** black like a bullock." Temperance Lloyd was exe- cuted ; and died penitent and crazy. Mary Trembles was another delated witcL She be- witched Agnes Whitefield with all manner of pains ; and Grace Barnes deposed to pricks and pains like awls -THE BIDEFOBD TROUBLES. 408 'Blad. ping thrust into her, which evil Mary Trembles and Susanna Edwards had done together; for they were comrades and cronies, and would go hand-in-hand about the world, invisible to all save themselves and their master the devil. It was Susanna Edwards who had seduced Mary and got her to accept the service of the devil, who came to her as a Uon ; at which she was much frightened, though not hurt ; and made her be* witch Grace Bames, because said Grace would give her no meat She was also executed, very penitent and quite resigned. Susanna Edwards was active and powerful in forespeak- ing.* She sent pains to Dorcas Coleman — ^tormenting pains, and very grievous — so that Dr. George Bear could do her no good, but openly proclaimed her beyond his power for that she was bewitched; and she held Anthony Jones pretty hardly, as Joane his wife deposed. For when Susan was apprehended, Anthony " observing her to gripe and twinkle her Hands upon her own Body, said to her, * Thou Devil, thou art now torment- ing some Person or other.' " Upon which the said Susanna was displeased with him, and said, ''Well enough I will fit thee." And fit him she did, for on his making one of the rabble that dragged her before the magistrates, Susanna turned round and looked at him, " so that he cried out, * I am now bewitched with this Devil, wife,' meaning Susanna Edwards, and presently leaped and capered like a madman, and fell a-shaking, quivering, and foaming, and for the space of half an Hour like a dying or dead Man." Susan knew the devil as a gentleman dressed in black clothes, and also as a little boy ; but could not be induced to confess to any of the more striking monstrosities beyond what might have well belonged to an ordinary case of hallucination. 404 THE WITCHES OP ENGLAND. She was executed as the other two ; but we are not t<dd if Grace Thomas, or Dorcas Coleman, or Grace Barnes^ or Anthony Jones recoTered their health now that the witches were dead, or if hysteria and rheumatism and neuralgia and scrofula were found more troublesome enemies to conquer than three crazy old women. It would be curious as weU as interesting to know the con- dition of the honestly deceived and actually diseased after the death of the possessing witch. In those in- stances where crutches were thrown away, and its sud- denly brought to a close, the instant the law had laid its gripe on the neck of the unfortunate accused, we have no choice but to refer the whole proceedings to imposture quickened by enmity or the desire of noto- riety ; but there were cases where a strange and sudden disease did really appear as bewitchment to the afflicted^ and of these one would be glad to know the after mental condition when the obsessing witch was killed, yet the obsessing sickness unconquered. Did expe- perience ever open their eyes or shake their faith ? or did they die in their belief that the stake and the gallows were the finest remedies known for disordered functions or organic mischief? No one of the time was suflSciently accurate, or sufficiently unprejudiced, to be able to give us reliable information, and thus we have lost a most valuable indication of the absolute lM>wer exercised by the mind over the body. SIR JOHN HOLT'S JUDGMENTS.* Mr, May Hill, minister of Beckington, in Somerset- niiire (near Frome), had a servant, one Mary HiU, * Baxter. Hutchinson. SIB JOHN HOLT'S JUDGMENTS. 405 whom Satan and the malice of his servants had griev- ously bewitched. Mr. Baxter had brought to him a bag of iron, nails, and brass which the girl had vomited, and he kept some of them to show his friends. "Nails about three or four inches long, doubled, crooked at the end, and pieces of old Brass doubled, about an Inch broad and two Inches long, with crooked edges," all of which Mary had brought up, together with about two hundred crooked pins. Elizabeth Carrier was first committed on the charge of having bewitched her ; but a fortnight after, Mary, whom this sacrifice had tempo- rarily appeased, went back to her old ways, and began to vomit nails and pieces of nails, brass, and handles of spoons, and so continued to do for six months and more ; aU the while crying out against Margery Coombes and Ann More, who, she said, appeared to her and tormented her. These two poor creatures were immediately ap- prehended and committed to the county gaol ; but Margery died as soon as she was imprisoned : and when my Lord Chief Justice Holt came to try old Ann, he said there was not sufficient evidence against her, so directed the jury to acquit her. But the maid was worse than ever after this acquittal, and took to vomiting pieces of glass, and several pieces of bread and butter besmeared with a poisonous matter, ad- judged to be white mercury, and a great board nail, and, in short, Mr. May Hill and the neighbours did not know what she might not throw up at last, her mouth was so capacious, and the space against her gums so flexible. But as it was observed that she never vomited these things save in the morning, and that in the after- noon she was quiet; and when, upon inquiry, it was found that she always slept with her mouth wide open, and slept so soundly, that she could not be awakened 406 THE WITCHES OP ENGLAIH). ^ by pulling, or jogging, or calling ; then Mr. Hill com- manded that some one should sit up with her, and keep her mouth rigidly and pertinaciously shut And when they did this she vomited nothing, for the witches had not been able to convey their trash into her month. This experiment was satisfactorily tried for thirteen nights ; but as soon as she was left to sleep by herself, and with her mouth open, the wicked witches were sure to come to her and force all kinds of trash into it. But at last she wearied of her work ; and, Sir John Holt not holding out much inducement to ill-tempered young women to declare themselves possessed because they had a disagreeable neighbour or two, she owned herself quite cured, and no more was heard of her fits or her nails. Poor old Widow Chambers,* of Upaston, in Suffolk, " a diligent, industrious, poor woman," was accused of witchcraft, upon what grounds does not appear. " After she had been walk'd betwixt two," and, we may natu- rally suppose, pressed and plied with questions, she became confused and overwrought, and began to confess a great many things of herself. She said that she had killed both her husband and Lady Blois, though the last had died a fair and evident death, "without any Hurt from that poor Woman :" and then some, to make trial of her wits, asked her if she had not killed such and such persons then living? to which old Widow Chambers maundered out yes, she* had killed them sure enough. She was committed to Beccles Gaol, even after this ; but died before her trial, happily for her. This was in 1693. The following year was a busy one for the witch^finders, but fortunate for such of the witches as came before Lord Chief Justice Holt, a man * Dr. Hutohinson. gIR JOHN HOLrS JUDGMENTS. 407 of clear, "well-balanced mind, evidently not given to superstitious beliefs, or to much veneration for the Black Art Mother Mimnings, of Hartis, in Suffolk, was one of those brought before him at Bury St. Edmunds. She came Mith a bad character enough, accused of be- witching men to their death, spoiling brewings and chumings, and hurting cattle and com — of being, in fact, a terrible pest to the whole neighbourhood. She killed Thomas Pannel her landlord, who had offended her by a rather summary method of ejectment, namely, taking her door off the hinges, since he could not get her out of his house any other way. Mother Munnings was angry : who would not have been ? " Go thy way," she cried to him passionately ; "thy Nose shall lie upward in the Churchyard before Saturday next." This was enough. Thomas Pannel sickened on Monday and died on Tuesday, and was buried within the week according to her word. That this was true was attested by a certain witness, a doctor, who said also that Mother Munnmgs " was a dangerous woman : she could touch the Line of Life." Mother Munnings had an imp, a thing like a polecat ; and a man swore that one night, coming from the alehouse — a rather important circumstance — he saw her lift out of her basket two imps, a black one and a white ; and it was well known that Sarah Wager was taken both dumb and lame after a quarrel with her, and was in that condition even at the time of trial. But in the face of aU these tremendous accusations thie Lord Chief Justice Holt directed the jury to bring her in Not Guilty, and poor old Mother Mimnings lived in peace and quietness for about two years longer, doing no harm to anybody, and when dying declaring her inno- cence. Dr. Hutchinson gives a very rational, but some- what quaint, explanation of two of the charges against 408 THE WITCHES OP ENGLAND. her. On the death of her landlord, he says, that he, Thomas Pannel, " was a consumptive spent Man, and the Words not exactly as they swore them, and the whole Thing 17 years before;" and as to the imps— ** the White Imp is believed to have been a Lock of Wool taken out of her Basket to spin ; and its Shadow, it is supposed, was the Black one." Not an impossibility with an ignorant country clown, reeling home half drunk from the alehouse, and disposed to make a miracle out of the plainest matter before him seen through a witch's window. At the Ipswich assizes of that same year the Lord Chief Justice had to hold the sword of judgment un- sheathed between Margaret Elnore and her accusers. Margaret belonged to a family of witches, her grand- mother and her aunt having been both hanged for that rational offence ; and now, when Mrs. Eudge had been for three years in ^ languishing condition — ever since her husband had refused to take Elnore for his tenant — what so likely as that she was bewitched, and that the enraged witch and relative of witches had done it ? Beside^, women who had quarrelled with Margaret had found themselves suddenly covered with vermin, not at all due to their own uncleanly habits, but to the diabolical power of old Elnore, who would send lice or locusts, disease or death, just as it suited her. For she had eight or nine imps, and she was plainly branded with the witch marks. Lord Chief Justice Holt pooh-poohed the iinps and the vermin, and directed ^ain a verdict of Not Guilty, So Margaret Elnore was suffered to live out the natural term of her life, and Mrs. Eudge recovered her health for a certain time ; but — some years after Margaret was peaceably Jftid ift her gi:ave — " fell again into the same Kind of SIR JOHN HOLT'S JUDGMENTS. 409 Pains (supposed from the Salt Humour), and died of the same Distemper." The next year Mary Guy was tried at Launceston for bewitching Philadelphia Row, who swore to her appa- rition perpetually troubling her, and who had the un- comfortable habit of vomiting pins, straws, and fea- thers. But the Lord Chief Justice turned a deaf ear to Philadelphia Row also, and Mary Guy was acquitted. So was Elizabeth Horner, who, in 1696, was brought before, him at Exeter, charged with having bewitched three children belonging to William Bovet, whereof one was dead : " another had her Legs twisted, and yet from her Hands and Knees she would spring Five Foot high." The children brought up crooked pins, and were grievously bitten, and pinched, and pricked, and bruised — ^the marks of all this ill usage appearing plainly on the flesh ; and they swore that Bess Homer's head would go off her shoulders and walk quietly into their stomachs : and the mother deposed " that one of them walked up a smooth plastered Wall, till her Feet were nine Foot high, her Head standing off from it." This she did five or six times, laughing and saying that Bess Homer held her up. Old Bess had a kind of wart or excrescence on her shoulder, which William Bovet's children said was her witch-mark, and where her imp — a toad — sucked ; but the Lord Chief Justice shook his head, and Bess Homer was let to live on in her own way, taking off her head at will, and sending it into children's bodies, and nourishing a devil in shape of a toad on her shoulder — ^the law and judgment not inter- posing. The Lord Chief Justice had very many cases of witchcraft brought before him — about eleven places in all being supposed to be so infected — but he brought in every one " not guilty," 410 THE WITCHES OF ENaLAND. One of the most celebrated cases tried by him was that of Richard Hathaway, who came before him at the Guildford Assize of 1701 with a pitiful tale of possession and bewitchment, all owing to Sarah Mor- duck, of Southwark, in which parish he too was liying as apprentice to Thomas Wellyn, blacksmith. Richard had fits and convulsions, in all probability real enough^ for he was sent to the hospital, where he lay for seven weeks in a pitiable condition, sometimes bent double, and at all times strangely and fearfully contorted. This began in September, 1690,* he said, when the first appearances of being bewitched manifested themselves. For then he vomited crooked pins in great numbers, and lumps of tin, and loose nails, and nutrshells, and stones ; and he foamed at the mouth ; and bowed him- self into an arch ; and lay as if dead ; and barked like a dog ; and burnt as if with fire ; and in the midst of all signed that Sarah Morduck had bewitched him, and that he should never be well till he had " scratched ** her. So she was brought to him to be scratched ; after which he ate and drank and had his sight and was perfectly well for six weeks together. Then he fell ill again, and must needs scratch her for this attack ; and this time with more unction, for Sarah " was assaulted in her own House, and grievously abused ; her Hair and Face torn ; she was kicked, thrown to the Ground, stamped on, and threatened to be put into a Horse Pond, to be tried by Swimming, and very hardly escaped with her Life." To avoid being absolutely murdered, she left Southwark and went into London ; but still was not safe, for she was constantly being followed in the streets, and was often in danger of being pulled to pieces by a mob which credited all that Richard Hath- * That date seems wroDg : ought it not to be 1699 Z am JOHN HOLT'S JUDGMENTS. 411 away said and did. Id 1701 she was taken before one Sir Thomas Lane, who ordered her to be stript and searched,^ and let Hathaway loose again on her to scratch her. After which he was well as before ; and then Sarah Morduck was committed, and prayers were offered up in the churches for Hathaway, and col- lections made for him in the congregations, and six or seven pounds at a time got for him, besides various other sums, to bear his chto'ges at the Assizes, and in^ demnify him for the evil the witch had inflicted. At the Assizes (Guildford, July, 1701) Sarah Morduck was brought out of prison to be tried for her life by the Lord Chief Justice : with the usual result in his trials of witches : she was released, but Hathaway took her place, and was committed to the Marshalsea as a cheat and impostor, lying, for the first part of the time, well and hearty, but afterwards falling into his fits again as if bewitched. He was then experimented with; given another woman to scratch, under the idea that it was Sarah ; whom he scratched quite contentedly, and as weU after he had done so. When he found out his mistake he was blind and dumb again. But now, it being specially desired to know the truth, when he brought up his crooked pins, his hands were kept care- fidly out of his pockets, which then were searched, and found plentifully supplied ; and all the strange noises which had been heard to issue out of his bed were discovered to have been made by his own feet scratching the bedposts ; and his miraculous fasting was proved a cheat, for Mrs. Eensy's maid, who had got into his con- fidence by a stratagem, brought him meat and drink pri- vately, and Mr. Kensy and his Mends peeping through a private hole saw him eat it quite composedly. So one by one his pretences were destroyed, and he was openly 412 THE WITCHES OF ENGLAND. convicted of cozening and imposture. The Lord Chief Justice thought this a more cognizable crime than witchcraft, and condemned Eichard Hathaway to be imprisoned for a year, and to stand in the pillory thrice during the period. Thus he was made a warning to all hysterical youths and maidens who took to possesr don as a good trade, and who liked the prayers of the faithful, and the money of the credulous, and the luxury of ill-treating any one specially spited, and the attenr tions of the gentry, and the pity of the commonalty, and all manner of petting and cossiting better than coarse hard fare and the scanty pleasures wrung fron^ homy-handed labour. This Lord Chief Justice, Sir John Holt, may be taken as one of the greatest, if of the less noisy and notorious, benefactors of England known ; setting himself so firmly as he did against this cruel and debasing superstition, and so manfully up- holding the claims of humanity and common sense against all the " possibilities " of idealism, and the wild errings of credulity. From his time the witch madness sensibly declined, and folks woke gradually to the pos- session of their ordinary faculties. [THE SURREY DEMONIAC* "What, Satan! is this the Dancing that Eichard gave himself to thee for ? Can'st thou Dance * n6 better? Ransack the old Eecords of all past Times and Places in thy Memory : Can'st thou not there find out some better way of Trampling? Pump thine In- Tention dry : Cannot that universal Seed-plot of subtile * BoultoirB * Oompleat History of Magick.' Dr. Hutchinson's VlUstorioal Essay/ THE SURREY DEMONIAC. 4ia Wiles and Stratagems spring up one new Method of Cutting Capers ? Is this the top of Skill and Pride, to shuffle Feet, and brandish Knees thus, and to trip like a Doe, and skip like a Squirrel ? And wherein differs thy Leapings from the Hoppings of a Frog, or Boun- cings of a Goat, or Friskings of a Dog, or Gesticula- tions of a Monkey? And cannot a Palsy shake such a loose Leg as that ? Dost thou not twirl like a Calf that hath the Turn, and twitch up thy Houghs just like a Spring-hault Tit?" This was one of the conversations, or rather exhortations, which the dissenting ministers had with the devil inhabiting Kichard Dugdale — ^he who was called by some the Surrey demoniac,* by others the impostor, as faith or reason was the stronger. Bichard drew largely upon the faith of his generation, largely even for the credulous generation flourishing in the year of our Lord 1695 : for Richard the " possessed'' vomited gold, silver, and brass rings, hair buttons, blue stones like flints, and once a big stone bloody at the edges ; and he was transformed sometimes to the man- ner of a horse, when he would gaUop round the bam on all fours, quite as quickly as any cob ever foaled, and whinny like a cob, and eat provender like a cob; and sometimes he was like a dog, "barring" and snarling and growling and barking so like a mastiff, that once a dog, a real mastiff and no counterfeit, set upon him, and would have given him rather an undesirable taste of canine fraternity had he not been prevented. Then he would be heavy or light in the same fit — now so heavy that six men could not lift him, now so light that he did not weigh six pounds : " sometimes light as a Feather- Boulster, but before he came out heavier than a Load of Com," says a husbandman ; " as light as a Chip, and as * Surrey in Lancaahlza. 414 THE WITCHES OP ENGLAND. heavy as a horse/' says a carpentar : and he had fits of leaping, as fast as a man could count ; and he would dance on his toes and his knees, with marrellous agility — dance more quickly than ordinary men, not possessecU could do on their honest feet ; then he would lie as if dead; or he would gape and snatch with his mouth, catching at flies ; and he had noises in his mouth and breast, as if a family of young whelps were lapping, snarling, or sucking in his inside ; and he rolled up his tongue into a lump and turned his eyes inward ; and talked gibberish, which some one said was Latin ; and played with rushes as if they had been dice and bowla. *^ And when he had thrown the 'Jack,' he said, 'I mnst now throw my Gill ;' then running a good way, as if he had been running after a bowl, swearing, * Kun, Eon, Flee, Flee, Hold a Biass ;' and sometimes he catched up rushes, as if they had been bowls, swearing, ' Sirrah, stand out of the Way, or I'll knock out your Brains,' adding, * I never was a Bowler, But don't Gentlemen do thus ?* " which is scarcely evidence to us that he was |H»8i)e88t>d, or in any abnormal condition whatsoever. JJ either was his habit of swearing and cursing, " so that bo would have affrighted ordinary men," any very dis- tiuot sign of supematuralism ; nor yet his insolence in Hi^yiug to Mr. Carrington, who had adjured the devil in bJm uughtily, " Thou shalt be Porter of Hell-Gates, "riiou'4 have Brewis and Toad Broath," Any bold- ftu'tnl lad of eighteen might have said the same under ruur i\( what he chose to call a fit And as for the iihui^K^* swoUing, as big as a turkey's egg, which ran liko iv mouse about his body, whatever in that account ^U4H luUurally impossible was either trick on his part, or nt*K Uoot^ption on the part of those who gave their testi- numy. Besides, they were all inclined to believe. THE SUBREY DEMONIAC. 413 Why, John Fletcher, who slept one night with Richard, and felt something come up towards his knees, creeping higher and higher till it got to his heart — something about the bigness of a little cat or dog, which when he thought to catch ''slipped through his hands like a Snig" — even that most unterrifying occmrence was trans- formed into a demoniacal visitant and the thing that slipped through John Fletcher's hands like a snig was no other than Richard Dugdale's devil come to pay him a midm'ght visit. Then Richard laid stones like hens' eggs, and in the manner of hens ; and he flung them to incredible distances when newly laid, and they felt warm as milk; and he showed a slight amount of power in the matter of clairvoyance; but, oh faithless, feeble devil ! when Drs. Chew and Orabtree got hold of him, and bled him well, and gave him physic, the devil, who hates blue pill and black draught worse than holy water, flew away, and what all the prayers and fastings and exhortations of the ministry could not do, the lancet and a good dose of calomel and aloes efiected without trouble. And then Richard Dugdaie confessed that he had never been possessed, but only ill, in consequence of a fight he had had with a man at a rush-bearing at WhaUey, while he. Master Richard, was in drink. The next day he was heavy and troubled in his mind, and drank a quantity of cold water while in the hay field making hay; but being advised to go up to the hall and get a drink of something more nourishing, he took the advice, and went into the house, where the cook maid gave him some drink ; and then he went into his own room and lay down. While thus on the bed the chamber door seemed to him to open of itself, and there came a thick smoke or mist, which on vanishing left him in extreme fear and horror; then appeared one 4ie THE WITCHES OF ENGLAND. Hindle, a fellow servant, with his hair cropped close to' his ears, and he lay very heavy on his breast, but soon turned himself into the likeness of a naked child, which he caught by the knee ; but the child became a "filmet" (foumart pole-cat?), and went away with a shrill phriek. After this he raved, and was delirious ; but when Dr. Chew physicked him, and Dr. Crabtree bled him, and Dr. Chew physicked him again, he had no more " fits," no more " obsessions " or " possessions,** was no longer the demoniac of Surrey, half maniac, half impostor, but went quietly back to ordinary life, and the whole tribe of exorcising ministers were for once discomfited. It was a singular mercy to his friends and acquaintances that Master Eichard did not take it into his head to delate any of them as witches, for assuredly he might have hanged half Lancashire on the strength of the whelps inside his body, and his galloping on all fours like a horse. He would not have been the first to shed innocent blood for the sake of keeping up a notoriety which, originally begun in very ordinary and natural disease, was afterwards continued in decep- tion, fraud, and lies. THE GROCER'S YOUNG MAN.* A few yeai^ after (1704) Sarah Griffiths petted for a witcli, and a bad one, for in hor neighbourhood were afflicted tempers, and had visions of cats and^ one coveted poor Sarah's com pan v^ because of lier. Hex guilt was jolly youug grocer's ladj T^ho • ATmctofoneleaf ii THE GROCER'S YOUNQ MAK. 417 out some sosap, but the scales wonld not hang right, whereat he laughed and cried out they were bewitched. Sarah Griffiths did not understand joking. She got yery angry, and ran out of the shop threatening re- venge ; and the next night all the goods in the shop were turned topsy-turvy, and the day after the jolly young fellow was troubled with a strange disease— but by prayer released. Meeting her by chance some time after, as he and some friends were walking up to New Biver Head, they resolved to swim her. They tossed her in, and she swam like a cork. They kept her there for some time, but at last she got out, and struck the young man on the arm, telling him he should pay dearly for what he had done. He looked at his arm and found it black as a coal, with the exact mark of her hand and fingers on it He went home much tor- mented, vomiting old nails, pins, and the like, afflicted with fits and strange contortions, and for ever calling out against Mother Griffiths as he lay sickening and disabled. And then his arm gangrened and rotted off: whereby he died. Mother Griffith was taken by the constable, who, on her attempting to escape, knocked her down. She was secured more firmly, taken before the judge, and committed to Bridewell, whence — though I find no sequel to this strange little page — there is very little doubt that she was haled forth at the assizes only to be convicted and hanged. We are coming now (1712) to the last authentic trial for witchcraft where the accused was condemned to death for an impossible crime by a jury of sane, decent, respectable Englishmen. Jane Wenham was this latest offdioot of the old tree of judicial bigotry ; not the latest fruit, but the last iostance of the law and judg- ment. There is a report current in most witch books 2 E 418 THE WITCHES OF ENGLAND. of a case at a later period — ^but I can find no cmthevdic account of it — that, in 1716, of a Mrs. Hicks and her little daughter of nine, hanged at Huntingdon for selling their souls to the devil, bewitching their neighboursi to death and their crops to ruin, and, as a climax to all, taking off their stockings to raise a storm. It may well be so, but I have not met with it in any reliable shape, so meanwhile we must accept Jane Wenham as the last officially condemned. THE WITCH OP WALKERNE.' Jane Wenham was the witch of Walkeme, a little Tillage in the north of Hertford. She had long lived under £11 fame, and her neighbours were resolved to get rid of her at the earliest opportunity. That oppor- tunity presented itself in the person of John Chap- man's man, one Matthew Gilson, whom Jane sen into a daft state by asking him for a pennyworth of straw, which he refused to give her. The old woman went away, muttering and complaining, whereupon Matthew, impelled by he knew not what impulse, ran out of the bam for a distance of three miles, asking as he went for pennyworths of straw. Not getting any, he went on to some dirt heaps, and gathered up straw from them, which he put in his shirt and brought home. A witness testified that he had seen Gilson come back with his shirt stuffed full of straw, that he moved along quickly, and walked straight through the water, instead of passing over the bridge like any other decent man. For this odd behaviour of his servant, John Chapman, who had all along suspected Jane of more cunning than was good for him or her- ♦ VariouB Ti»ct8-and 'Thomas Wright's Nanrative.' THE WITCH OP WALKERNE. 419 called her a witch the next time he saw ner; and Jane took him before the magistrate, Sir Herbert Chauncey, to answer to the charge of defamation. But the magis- trate recommended them to go to Mr. Gardiner the minister, and a great believer in witchcraft, and get their matter settled without more trouble or vexation. Mr. Gardiner was too zealous to be just He scolded poor old Jane roundly, and advised her to live more peaceably with her neighbours — ^which was just what she wanted to do-— and gave as his award that Chapman do pay the fine of one shilling. While this bit of one- sided justice was going on, Anne Thome, Mr. Gardiner's servant, was sitting by the fire with a dislocated knee. Jane, not able to compass her wicked will on Chapman, and angry that Mr. Gardiner had spoken so harshly to her, turned her malice on the girl, and bewitched her, so that as soon as they all left the kitchen Anne felt a strange " Beaming in her Head, and she thought she must of Necessity run somewhere." In spite then of her dislocated knee, she started off and ran up the close, and away over a five-barred gate '^ as nimbly as a greyhound," along the highway and up a hill. And there she met two of John Chapman's men, who wanted her to go home with them ; and one took her hand ; but she was forced away from them, speechless, and not of her own volition, and so was driven on, on, towards Cromer, where the great sea would have either stopped or received her. But when she came to Hockney Lane, she met there a "little Old Woman muffled up in a Biding-Hood," who asked her whither she was going. " To Cromer," says Anne, " for sticks to make me a fire." " There be no sticks at Cromer," says the little old woman in the riding hood : " here be sticks enow ; go to that oak tree and pluck them there." 420 THE WITCHES OF ENGULND. Which Anne did, laying them on the gionnd as they were gathered. ISien the old woman bade her pnll off her gown and apron, and wrap the sticks in them; asking her if she had ne'er a pin aboat her ; bat finding that ^e had not, she gave her a large crooked pin, with which she bade her pin her bundle, then vanished away. 80 Anne Thome ran home half naked, with her bundle of leaves and sticks in her hand, and sat down in the kitchen, crying ont '^ I am mined and undone !'* When Mrs. Gardiner had opened the bundle, and seen all the twigs and leaves, she said they would bum the witch, and not wait long about it ; so they flung the twigs and leaves into the fire; and while they were burning in* came Jane Wenham, asking for Anne's mother, for she had, she said, a message to her, how that she was to go and wash next day at Ardley Bury, Sir Herbert Chauncey's place : which on inquiry turned out to be a falsehood: consequently Jane Wenham was set down doubly as a witch, the charm of burning her in the sticks having proved so effectual John Chapman and his men then told their tale. Mr. Gar- diner was not slow in fanning the flame into a fire, and p6or old Jane was examined, searched for marks but none found, and committed to gaol, there to wait her trial at the next assizes. She earnestly entreated not to go to prison ; protested her innocence, and appealed to Mrs. Gardiner to help her, woman-like, and not to swear against her; offering to submit to be swum — anything they would — so that she might be kept free of jail. But Sir Herbert Chauncey was just manly and rational enough not to allow of this test, though the Yicar of Ardeley tried her with the Lord's Prayer, which she could not repeat : and terrified and tortured her into a kind of confession, wherein she implicated three other THE WITCH OF WALKERNE. 421 "women, who were immediately put under arrest^ though they came to no harm in the end. When she was brought to trial, sixteen witnesses, including three clergymen, were standing there ready to testify against her, how that she had bewitched this one's cattle, and that one's sheep; and taken all the power from this one's body, and all the good from that one's gear ; and slaughtered this child, and that man, by her eyil eye and her curses ; and in fact how that she had done all the mischief that had happened in the neighbourhood for years past And there was Matthew Gilson, who had been sent mad, and forced to wander about the country with his shirt stuffed full of straw like a scare- crow; and Anne Thome, who had had fits ever since her marvellous journey with the dislocated knee ; and another Anne, very nearly as hardly holden as the first ; and others beside, whom her malice had rendered sick and lame, and unfit for decent life: moreover, two veracious witnesses deposed positively to her taking the form of a cat when she would, and to hear- ing her converse with the devil when under the form of a cat, 'he also as a cat; together with Anne Thome's distinct accusation that she was beset with cats — ^tor- mented exceedingly — and that all the cats had the face and the voice of Jane Wenham. The lawyers, who believed little in the devil and less in witchcraft, refused to draw up the indictment on any other charge save that of " conversing familiarly with the devil in the form of a cat." But in spite of Mr. Bragge's earnest appeals against such profsmation, and the ridicule which it threw over the whole matter, the jury found the poor old creature guilty, and the judge passed sentence of death against her. The evidence was too strong. Even one of the Mr. Chaun- w 422 THE WITCHES OF ENGLAOT). eejB deposed that a cat came knocking at his door, and that he killed it — ^when it vanished away, for it was no other than one of Jane Wenham's imps ; and all Mr. Gardiner's honse went mad, some in one way and some in another: and credible witnesses deposed that they had seen pins come jumping through the air into Anne Thome's mouth, and when George Chapman clapped his hand before her mouth to prevent them skipping in, he felt one stick against his hand, as sharp as might be; and every night Anne's pincushion was left full, and 'fevery morning found empty, and who but Jane could have conveyed them aU from the pincushion into her mouth, where they were to be found all crooked and bent ? But though the jury could not resist the tre- mendous weight of all this evidence, and the judge could not resist the jury, he managed to get a reprieve which left the people time to cool and reflect, and then he got a pardon for her — quietly and kindly done. And Colonel Plummer, of Gilston, tx)ok her under his pro- tection, and gave her a small cottage near his house, where she lived, poor soul, in peace and safety for the end of her days, doing harm to no one and feared by none. As for Anne Thome, the doctor, who had ordered her, as part of his remedy, to wash her hands and face twice a day in fair water, and who, as another part, had her watched and sat with by a " lusty young fellow " who asked nothing better, managed matters so weU, that in a short time Anne and her brisk bachelor were married ; and from that time we hear no more of her vomiting crooked pins, or being tormented with visions of cats wearing Jane Wenham's face, and speak- ing with Jane Wenham's voice. But though all the rest got well oflf with their frights and follies, no public, compensation was given to poor old Jane for the bmtal OUR LATEST. 423 attacks of the mob upon her, for the hauling and maiming and scratching and tearing, by which they proved to their own satisfaction that she was a witch, and deserved only the treatment accorded to witches. OUR LATEST. But if the last officially condemned, Jane was not the last actually destroyed, for a curious MS. letter to be found in the British Museum "From Mr. Manning, Dissenting Teacher, at Halstead, in Essex, to John Morley, Esq,, Halstead," gives us a strange garbled account of a reputed sacrifice; and the sadder and more brutal story of Buth Osborne foUows a few years after. "Halstead, Angnst 2, 1782. "Sir — ^The narrative which I gave you in relation to witchcraft, and which you are pleased to lay your com- mands upon me to repeat, is as follows : — There was one Master Collett, a smith by trade, of Haveningham, in the county of Suffolk, who, as 'twas customary with him, assisting the maide to chume, and not being able (as the phrase is) to make the butter come, threw a hot iron into the chum, under the notion of witchcraft in the case, upon which a poore labourer, then employed in carrying of dung in the yard, cried out in a terrible manner, * They have killed me, they have killed me ;' still keeping his hand upon his back, intimating where the pain w«ts, and died upon the spot. " Mr. Collett, with the rest of the servants then present, took off the jx)or man's clothes, and found to their great surprise, the mark of the iron that was heated and thrown into the chum, deeply impressed upon his back. 424 THB WITCHES OF ENGLAND. This aoooant I had from Mr. CoUett's own mouth, who being a man of unblemished character, I yerily believe to be matter rf £Btct * I am. Sir, your obliged humble Servant, "Sam. Manning." The only Cedsehood, probably, in the history is the manner of the poor fellow's death, for either he was foully murdtt^ on a wild sni^icion of being concerned in the witching of a dirty milk vessel, or he died suddenly of some ordinary organic complaint^ and the circumstances of the horse-shoe and the scarred back were purely imaginary. Bat again in 1751 was witch blood actually poured out on English soil, and the cry of the innocent murdered sent up to heaven in vain for mercy. At Tring, in Hertfordshire, lived an old man, one Osborne, and his wife ; poor as witches always were ; old — ^past seventy both of them — and obliged to beg from door to door for what^ if the popular superstition was true, the devil had given them power to possess at any moment for themselves. But this was a point of view no one ever took. In the rebellion of '45, just six years ago, old Mother Osborne had gone to one Butterfield, a dairyman living at Gubblecot, to beg for buttermilk. Butterfield was a churlish fellow,, and told her roughly that he had not enough for his hogs, stiU less for her. Says old Mother Osborne, grumbling, " The Pretender will soon have thee and thy h(^ too." Now the Pre- h oder and the devil were in league together, according U I the belief of many, and old Mother Osborne might just as well have told the dairyman at once that he wiHA going to the devil, or that she would s^d her itu|>s to bewitch him; for soon Butterfield's calves ** Thomas Wright \ OUR LATEST. 425 became distempered, and soon his cows died, and his affairs went so far to the bad that he left his dairy and took a pubKc-house, in hopes that the imps which could bewitch the one might be powerless against the other. But he reckoned without his host, for in 1751 he him- self was bewitched ; he had fits — bad fits — ^and sent for a white witch all the way from Northamptonshire to tell him what aUed him. The white witch told him he was bewitched, and bade six men, with stayes and pitchforks hanging round their necks as counter charms for their own safety, watch his house night and day. Doubtless they discovered all they were set there to Suddenly there appeared a notice that certain and various witches were to be ducked at Longmarston the 22nd day of ApriL A crowd assembled at liing to watch the sport; and but one thought went through that crowd — ^the Osbornes were to be the ducked witches, and the sport they would have would be rare. The parish officers had taJ^en the old couple into the workhouse for safety, but the mob broke through the gates, and crushed down the doors, and searched the whole place through, from end to end, even to the salt box, " lest the witch should have made herself little," and have hidden in the comers. But they could not find her, not even there ; so, in a rage, they broke the windows, smashed the furniture, and then heaped up straw high against the house, threatening to bum it down, and every living soul within it, if the Osbomes were not given up them. The master was frightened he had never faced such a scene before, and his nerve forsook him — ^not unreasonably. He brought the old people from their hiding place, and gave them up to that wild, tossing, furious mob. In a moment they were 426 THE WITCHES OF ENGLAND. stripped stark naked, then cross-bound in the prescribed manner, wrapped loosely in a sheet, and dragged two miles along the road to a small pond or river, where with many a curse and many a kick they were thrown in, to prove whether they were witches or not. A chimney sweeper, called Colley, was the most active of the crew. Seeing that Mother Osborne did not sink, he waded into the water and turned her over with his stick. She slipped out of the sheet, and thus lay exposed, naked, and half choked with mud, before the brutal crowd, who saw nothing pitifiil, and nothing shame- ful, in her state. After a time they dragged her out, flung her on the bank, and kicked and beat her till she died. Her husband died also, but not on the spot The man who had arranged this rare diversion then went round among the crowd collecting money in return for his amusement. But government took the matter up. A coroner's inquest was held, and a verdict of wilful murder returned against Colley, the chinmey sweep, who, much to his own surprise and the indigna- tion of the people — many ranking him as a martyr — was hanged by Ae neck till he was dead, for the murder of the witch of Tring, poor old Buth Osborne. The act against witchcraft^ under colour and favour of which all the judicial murders had been done, had been repealed a few years before, namely, in 1736, and Colley's com- rades bewailed piteously the degenerate times that were at hand, when a witch was no longer held fit sport the pubKc, but was protiit^ted tiud defei ordinary folk, and let to live on to work her wi unchecked. ^^k But the snake is scotched, not kill§f>^^ in advance of the men of t]i our superstitions, though quit It E^ort %^^0| glided _^J||^^^^H OUR LATEST. 42'/ than theirs, and hurt no one but ourselves. Yet still we have our wizards and witches lurking round area gates and prowling through the lanes and yards of the re- moter country districts ; stiU we have our necromancers, who call up the dead from their graves to talk to us more trivial nonsense than ever they talked while livuig, and who reconcile us with earth and humanity by showing us how infinitely inferior are heaven and spirituality ; stOl we have the unknown mapped out in clear lines sharp and firm ; and still the impossible is asserted as existing, and men are ready to give their lives in attestation of what contravenes every law of reason and of nature ; still we are not content to watch and wait and collect and fathom before deciding, but for every new group of facts or appearances must at once draw up a code of laws and reasons, and prove, to a mathematical certainty, the properties of a chimera, and the divine life and beauty — of a Ue. Even the mere vulgar beUef in witchcraft remains among the lower classes ; as witness the old gentleman who (hed at Polstead not so long ago, and who, when a boy, had seen a witch swum in Polstead Ponds, " and she went over the water like a cork;" who had also watched another witch feeding her three imps like blackbirds ; and who only wanted five pounds to have seen all the witches in the parish dance on a knoll together: as witness also the strange letter of the magistrate, in the ' Times ' of April 7, 1857 ; and the stranger trial at Stafford, concerning the bewitched condition of the Charlesworths, small farmers living at Eugely, which trial is to be found in the * Times * of March 28, 1857 ; the case reported by the clergyman of East Thorpe, Essex, who had actually to mount guard against ihe door of an old Trot accused of witchcraft ; while the 428 THE WITCHES OP ENGLAND. instances of dlly servant maids, and fortune tellers whose hands are to be crofssed mth silyer, and the stars propitiated mth east off dresses and broken meat, are as numerous as ever. And, indeed, so long as eonviction without examination, and belief without proof, pass as the righteous operations of faith, so long wHl superstition and credulity reign supreme over the mind, and the functions of critical reason be abandoned and foresworn. And as it seems to me that credulity is even a less de- sirable frame of mind than scepticism, I have set forth this collection of witch stories as landmarks of the ex- cesses to which a blind beUef may hurry and impel humanity, and perhaps as some slight aids to that much misused common sense which the holders of im- possible theories generally consider " enthusiastic," and of " a nobler life " to tread under foot, and loftily ignore. THE EKD. LONDOK : PRINTED BY W, CLOVXS AND SONS, STAMFORD STRBXT. tefe are* fc: 111' » v^ «,ag^^^^^^ THE BORROWER WILL BE CHARrPn AN OVERDUE FEE IFTHIS BOOK^S So? RETURNED TO THE LIBRARY onSI BEFORE THE LA-$T DATF STAMP^n NOTICED DOES NOT EXEMPT THF BORROWER FROM OVERDUE FEES JAN f \ ^gg^ 4

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