of many frauds, and she only escaped prosecution by inducing her husband
to move frequently from place to place, so as to escape apprehension;
and at length poor Bateman, driven almost wild by the tricks of his
wife, entered the supplementary militia. Mrs. Bateman was now entirely
thrown upon her own resources, and unable to follow any reputable trade,
she in the year 1799 took up her residence in Marsh Lane, near Timble
Bridge, Leeds, and proceeded to deal in fortune-telling and the sale of
charms. From a long course of iniquity, carried on chiefly through the
medium of the most wily arts, she had acquired a manner, and a mode of
speech peculiarly adapted to her new profession; and abundance of
credulous victims, upon whom she was able to prosecute her schemes,
daily presented themselves to her.
Her first daring attempt was upon a Mrs. Greenwood, whom she persuaded
that her husband was in a situation of the greatest peril, which would
be aggravated by the circumstance being mentioned to him; that he was in
danger of being accused of a crime, for which he would be instantly
sacrificed, and that so relentless and determined were his prosecutors,
that unless four pieces of gold, four pieces of leather, four pieces of
blotting-paper, and four brass screws were given to her, to "screw them
down," he would be dead before the morning. Mrs. Greenwood,
unfortunately for the trick, was not possessed of even one piece of
gold, and the proposition of the "witch," that she should steal what she
wanted, so startled her, that she had fortitude enough to emancipate
herself from the trammels which had been thrown round her.
Her next attempt was upon a poor woman named Stead, upon whose jealous
fears she worked so far, as to obtain from her nearly the whole of her
furniture, under pretence of "screwing down," a woman, with whom she
represented that her husband was intimate. Stead was about to enter the
army; and Mrs. Bateman next easily found means to persuade him, as she
had persuaded his wife, of her powers, and she obtained from him all the
little money, which he had obtained as his bounty, under the pretence of
"screwing down" his officers to give him promotion. The fascinating and
all powerful Miss Blythe had not yet been discovered, but all her
operations were now performed through the medium of a Mrs. Moore, whose
existence, it may readily be supposed, was as doubtful as that of her
subsequent coadjutor.
Terror was the great engine by which this woman carried on her frauds,
and as the wife of Stead had still a few articles of furniture and
clothing--the last sad wreck of their property, she persuaded her if
something was not done to prevent it, her daughter who was then only
about eight years of age, would, when she attained the age of fourteen,
become pregnant of an illegitimate child, and that either she would
murder herself, or would be murdered by her seducer, to prevent which,
17_s._ was to be placed in Mary Bateman's hands. This money she was to
hand over to the invisible Mrs. Moore, who was to reduce the coin to a
"silver charm," which charm was to be worn round the girl's arm till the
period of danger was past, but which, when the bubble burst three months
after, was cut from the child's arm, when by a strange transmutation of
metal, the silver had turned to pewter.
In the midst of these scenes of fraud in one party, and weakness in the
other, a relation of Stead's came over to Leeds in a state of pregnancy,
and forsaken by her lover. This young woman was a fine subject for the
artful Mary Bateman, who soon learned her misfortune, and undertook, on
condition that a guinea was given to her, for Mrs. Moore, to make the
lover marry her. The money was paid, but no lover appeared. It was then
found out that he was too strong for the first charm, and that more
money and more screws would be necessary to screw him down to the altar
of Hymen. Still he came not; and the girl finding the money she had fast
diminishing, procured a service in a respectable family in Leeds, the
master of which being a bachelor, Mary soon contrived to persuade the
silly girl that she could by her arts oblige him to marry her. Here a
difficulty arose--the unborn child was in the way; but Mary, ever ready
to undertake any business, however desperate, engaged to remove the
impediment, and for that purpose administered certain medicines to the
ill-fated young woman, which produced the desired effect, and abortion
ensued. The master after all was not to be caught; but the girl's former
sweetheart coming over to Leeds married her, though she was, at that
time, owing as is supposed to the medicine given to her by Mary Bateman,
in a very emaciated state. In speaking of her connexion with this vile
woman, she used the following remarkable expression:--"Had I never known
Mary Bateman, my child would now have been in my arms, and I should have
been a healthy woman--but it is in eternity, and I am going after it as
fast as time and a ruined constitution can carry me." The unhappy girl
died soon after, a melancholy instance of the direful effects which too
great credulity and weakness of mind may produce.
The artifices and frauds of which she had been hitherto guilty, however,
shrink into comparative obscurity, when opposed with the offences which
Mrs. Bateman subsequently committed. The case of the unhappy Mrs. Perigo
has been already mentioned, and its circumstances detailed, but there is
too much reason to believe that she was concerned in producing the death
of three persons, a crime of still greater and more cold-blooded
cruelty. The Misses Kitchen were quaker ladies, who carried on the
business of linen-drapers, near St. Peter's Square, Leeds, and Mrs.
Bateman, by representations of her skill in divination, and reading the
stars, managed so far to ingratiate herself into their good graces as to
become their confidant and most intimate adviser. She attended their
shop, was a constant visitor at their house, and her interference
extended even to the domestic concerns of the family. In the month of
September, 1803, the younger Miss Kitchen was attacked with a severe and
painful illness, and Bateman possessing the full confidence of the
family procured medicines from a person whom she described as a country
doctor, but instead of their producing any improvement in the condition
of the unhappy patient, in less than a week she died. Her mother arrived
from Wakefield, where she lived, in time only to receive the last breath
of her daughter, but in two days, she, as well as the surviving sister,
died, and they were all three placed in the same grave. Throughout the
whole of these distressing illnesses Mary Bateman was the sole attendant
upon the unhappy women, and after their death she took upon herself the
task of rendering them those last melancholy offices, which are usually
the duty of the near relations of the deceased. No person was permitted
by her to enter the house, under pretence that the deceased persons had
been affected by the plague, except those, whose presence was rendered
necessary in order to the performance of the rites of sepulture; and for
many weeks the neighbourhood was shunned, lest the supposed infection
might spread. Mrs. Bateman, however, in the midst of all, exhibited the
most praiseworthy and disinterested affection for the poor ladies, and
in the face of all danger, hesitated not to minister to their wants, and
even after death to take those precautions, in fumigating the house,
which were supposed to be necessary. She prepared their meals, and by
her hands alone were the medicines administered, which she professed to
have been prescribed. Several months had elapsed before any inquiries
were made as to the condition in which the deceased persons had died,
and then some of their creditors having determined to ascertain what
property they had left behind them, entered the house. To their surprise
they discovered that of the furniture and stock, of which the deceased
had been known to be possessed, scarce a vestige remained; and the
discovery of some articles of property in the house of Bateman, which
were known to have belonged to the deceased ladies, but which the former
declared had been given to her by them, afforded grounds for a
well-founded suspicion that poison was the "plague" of which they had
died, although under the circumstances of the case, and after the lapse
of so long a time, evidence could not be obtained which could be deemed
conclusive upon the subject. The determined cruelty exercised in the
case of the Perigos appeared to sanction the suspicions which were
entertained, and after conviction Mrs. Bateman was minutely questioned
upon the subject, but all efforts to induce a confession of this crime,
or of that of which she was found guilty, proved unavailing.
It would be useless to follow this wretched woman through the subsequent
scenes of her miserable life. Fraud and deceit were the only means, by
which she was able to carry on the war, and numerous were the impudent
and heartless schemes which she put into operation to dupe the unhappy
objects of her attacks. Her character was such as to prevent her long
pursuing her occupation in one position, and she was repeatedly
compelled to change her abode until she at length took up her residence
in Black Dog Lane, where she was apprehended. Her husband at this time
had returned from the militia several years, and although he followed
the trade to which he had been brought up, there can be little doubt
that he shared the proceeds of his wife's villanies.
Mary Bateman was neat in her person and dress, and though there was
nothing ingenuous in her countenance, it had an air of placidity and
composure, not ill adapted to make a favourable impression on those who
visited her. Her manner of address was soft and insinuating, with the
affectation of sanctity. In her domestic arrangements she was regular,
and was mistress of such qualifications in housewifery as, with an
honest heart, would have enabled her to fill her station with
respectability and usefulness.
A few anecdotes upon the subject of the belief in witchcraft, in former
days, we trust will not prove uninteresting to our readers.
The reign of James the Sixth of Scotland, and First of England, may be
said to have been the witchcraft age of Great Britain. Scotland had
always been a sort of fairy land; but it remained for that sagacious
prince, at a time when knowledge was beginning to dispel the mists of
superstition, to contribute, by his authority and writings, to resolve a
prejudice of education into an article of religious belief amongst the
Scottish people. He wrote and published a "Treatise on Dæmonologie;" the
purpose of which was, to "resolve the doubting hearts of many, as to the
fearful abounding of those detestable slaves of the Devil, witches, or
enchanters." The authority of Scripture was perverted, to show, not only
the possibility, but certainty, that such "detestable scenes" do exist;
and many most ridiculous stories of evil enchantment were added, to
establish their "fearful abounding." The treatise, which is in the form
of a dialogue, treats also of the punishment which such crimes deserve;
concluding, that
[Illustration: _Meeting of Witches._
_P. 468._]
"no sex, age, nor rank, should be excused from the punishment of death,
according to the law of God, the civil and imperial law, and the
municipal law of all Christian nations." In answer to the question,
"What to judge of deathe, I pray you?" The answer is, "It is commonlie
used by fyre, but there is an indifferent thing to be used in every
country, according to the law or custume thereof."
Such, in fact, was the cruel and barbarous law of James's native
country; and such became the law also of England, when he succeeded to
the sceptre of Elizabeth. Many hundreds of unfortunate creatures, in
both countries, became its victims, suffering death ignominiously, for
an impossible offence: neither sex, nor age, nor rank, as James had
sternly enjoined, was spared; and it was the most helpless and
inoffensive, such as aged and lone women, who were most exposed to its
malignant operation.
There were persons regularly employed in hunting out, and bringing to
punishment, those unfortunate beings suspected of witchcraft.
Matthew Hopkins resided at Manningtree, in Essex, and was witch-finder
for the associated counties of Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk, and
Huntingdonshire. In the years 1644, 1645, and 1646, accompanied by one
John Stern, he brought many to the fatal tree as reputed witches. He
hanged, in one year, no less than sixty reputed witches of his own
county of Essex. The old, the ignorant, and the indigent, such as could
neither plead their own cause nor hire an advocate, were the miserable
victims of this wretch's credulity, spleen, and avarice. He pretended to
be a great critic in _special marks_, which were only moles, scorbutic
spots, or warts, that frequently grow large and pendulous in old age;
but were absurdly supposed to be teats to suckle imps. His ultimate
method of proof was by tying together the thumbs and toes of the
suspected person, about whose waist was fastened a cord, the ends of
which were held on the banks of the river by two men, in whose power it
was to strain or slacken it. Swimming, upon this experiment, was deemed
a sufficient proof of guilt; for which king James (who is said to have
recommended, if he did not invent it) assigned a ridiculous reason,
that, "as some persons had renounced their baptism by water, so the
water refuses to receive them." Sometimes those who were accused of
diabolical practices, were tied neck and heels, and tossed into a pond:
if they floated or swam, they were consequently guilty, and were
therefore taken out and burned; but if they were innocent, they were
only drowned. The experiment of swimming was at length tried upon
Hopkins himself, in his own way, and he was upon the event condemned,
and, as it seems, executed as a wizard. In a letter from Serjeant
Widrinton to Lord Whitelocke, mention is made of another fellow of the
same profession as Hopkins. This fellow received twenty shillings a-head
for every witch he discovered, and thereby obtained rewards amounting to
thirty pounds.
In an old print of this execrable character, he is represented with two
witches. One of them, named Holt, is supposed to say, "My Impes are, 1.
Ilemauzyr; 2. Pyewackett; 3. Pecke in the Crown; 4. Griezell
Griediegutt." Four animals attend: Jarmara, a black dog; Sacke and
Sugar, a hare; Newes, a ferret; Vinegar Tom, a bull-headed greyhound.
This print is in the Pepysian library.
Amongst a number of women (as many as sixteen) whom Hopkins, in the year
1644, accused at Yarmouth, was one, of whom the following account is
given. It appears that she used to work for Mr. Moulton (a stocking
merchant, and alderman of the town), and upon a certain day went to his
house for work; but he being from home, his man refused to let her have
any till his master returned; whereupon, being exasperated against the
man, she applied herself to the maid, and desired some knitting-work of
her; and when she returned the like answer, she went home in great
discontent against them both. That night, when she was in bed, she heard
a knock at her door, and going to her window, she saw (it being
moon-light) a tall black man there: and asked what he would have? He
told her that she was discontented, because she could not get work; and
that he would put her into a way that she should never want anything. On
this, she let him in, and asked him what he had to say to her? He told
her he must first see her hands; and taking out something like a
penknife, he gave it a little scratch, so that a little blood followed,
a scar being still visible when she told the story; then he took some of
the blood in a pen, and pulling a book out of his pocket, bid her write
her name; and when she said she could not, he said he would guide her
hand. When this was done, he bid her now ask what she would have. And
when she desired first to be revenged on the man, he promised to give
her an account of it next night, and so leaving her some money went
away. The next night he came to her again, and told her he could do
nothing against the man, for he went constantly to church, and said his
prayers morning and evening. Then she desired him to revenge her on the
maid; and he again promised her an account thereof the next night: but
he said the same of the maid, and that therefore he could not hurt her.
But she said that there was a young child in the house, which was more
easy to be dealt with. Whereupon she desired him to do what he could
against it. The next night he came again, and brought with him an image
of wax, and told her they must go and bury that in the church-yard, and
then the child, which he had put in great pain already, should waste
away as that image wasted. Whereupon they went together and buried it.
The child having laid in a languishing condition for about eighteen
months, and being very near death, the minister sent this woman with
this account to the magistrates, who thereupon sent her to Mr.
Moulton's, where, in the same room that the child lay, almost dead, she
was examined concerning the particulars aforesaid; all which she
confessed, and had no sooner done, but the child, who was three years
old, and was thought to be dead or dying, laughed, and began to stir and
raise up itself: and from that instant began to recover. The woman was
convicted upon her own confession, and was executed accordingly.
A more melancholy tale does not occur in the annals of necromancy, than
that of the Lancashire Witches, in 1612. The scene of the story is in
Penderbury Forest, four or five miles from Manchester, remarkable for
its picturesque and gloomy situation. It had long been of ill repute, as
a consecrated haunt of diabolical intercourse, when a country
magistrate, Roger Nowel by name, took it into his head that he should
perform a great public service by routing out a nest of witches, who had
rendered the place a terror to all the neighbouring vulgar. The first
persons he seized on, were Elizabeth Demdike and Ann Chattox. The former
was eighty years of age, and had for some years been blind, and
principally subsisted by begging, though she had a miserable hovel on
the spot, which she called her own. Anne Chattox was of the same age,
and had for some time been threatened with the calamity of blindness.
Demdike was held to be so hardened a witch that she had trained all her
family to the mystery: namely, Elizabeth Device, her daughter, and James
and Alison Device, her great-grandchildren. These, together with John
Balcock, and Jane his mother, Alice Natter, Catherine Hewitt, and Isabel
Roby, were successively apprehended by the diligence of Nowel, and one
or two neighbouring magistrates, and were all of them by some means
induced, some to make a more liberal, and others a more restricted
confession of their misdeeds in witchcraft, and were afterwards hurried
away to Lancaster Castle, fifty miles off, to prison. Their crimes were
said to have universally proceeded from malignity and resentment; and it
was reported to have repeatedly happened for poor old Demdike to be led
by night from her habitation into the open air, by some member of her
family, where she was left alone for an hour to curse her victim, and
pursue her unholy incantations, and was then sought and brought back
again to her hovel, her curses never failing to produce the desired
effect.
The poor wretches had been but a short time in prison, when information
was given that a meeting of witches was held on Good-Friday, at Malkin's
Tower, the habitation of Elizabeth Device, to the number of twenty
persons, to consult how, by infernal machinations, to kill one Lovel, an
officer, to blow up Lancaster Castle, deliver the prisoners, and to kill
another man, of the name of Lister. The last object was effected; the
other plans, by some means, which are not related, were prevented.
The prisoners were kept in jail till the summer assizes; but in the mean
time, the poor blind Demdike died in confinement.
The other prisoners were severally indicted for killing by witchcraft
certain persons who were named, and were all found guilty. The principal
witnesses against Elizabeth Device were James Device and Jennet Device,
her grandchildren, the latter only nine years of age. When this girl was
put into the witness-box, the grandmother, on seeing her, set up so
dreadful a yell, intermixed with dreadful curses, that the child
declared that she could not go on with her evidence, unless the prisoner
was removed. This was agreed to, and both brother and sister swore that
they had been present, when the Devil came to their grandmother, in the
shape of a black dog, and asked her what she desired. She said the death
of John Robinson; when the dog told her to make an image of Robinson in
clay, and after crumble it into dust, and as fast as the image perished,
the life of the victim should waste away, and in conclusion the man
should die. This testimony was received; and upon the conviction, which
followed, ten persons were led to the gallows, on the twentieth of
August, Anne Chattox, of eighty years of age, among the rest, the day
after the trials, which lasted two days, were finished.
The judges who presided on these trials were Sir James Altham and Sir
Edward Bromley, barons of the exchequer.
Guluim, who gives the most simple and interesting account of this
melancholy case, conjectures, with much reason, that the old women had
played at the game of commerce with the Devil, in order to make their
simpler neighbours afraid of them; and that they played the game so
long, that in an imperfect degree they deceived themselves. But when one
of them actually saw her grandchild of nine years old placed in the
witness-box, with the intention of consigning her to a public and
ignominious death, then the reveries of the imagination vanished, and
she deeply felt the reality, that, when she had been somewhat imposing
on the child, in devilish sport, she had been whetting the dagger that
was to take her own life. It was then no wonder that she uttered a
supernatural yell, and poured curses from her heart.
Such was the first case of the Lancashire Witches. In that which
follows, the accusation was clearly traced to be founded on a most
villanous conspiracy.
About the year 1634, a boy named Edmund Robinson, whose father, a very
poor man, dwelt in Pendle Forest, the scene of the alleged witching,
declared that, while gathering wild-flowers in one of the glades of the
forest, he saw two greyhounds, which he supposed to belong to a
gentleman in the neighbourhood. Seeing nobody following them, the boy
alleged that he proposed to have a course; but, though a hare was
started, the dogs refused to run. Young Robinson was about to punish
them with a switch, when one Dame Dickenson, a neighbour's wife, started
up instead of the one greyhound; and a little boy instead of the other.
The witness averred that Mother Dickenson offered him money to conceal
what he had seen, which he refused, saying, 'Nay; thou art a witch!'
Apparently, she was determined he should have full evidence of the truth
of what he said, for she pulled out of her pocket a bridle, and shot it
over the head of the boy, who had so lately represented the other
greyhound. He was then directly changed into a horse; Mother Dickenson
mounted, and took Robinson before her. They made to a large house or
barn, called Hours town, into which the boy entered with the others. He
there saw six or seven persons pulling at halters, from which, as they
pulled them, meat ready-dressed came flying in quantities, together with
lumps of butter, porringers of milk, and whatever else might, in his
fancy, complete a rustic feast. He declared that, while engaged in the
charm, they made such ugly faces and looked so fiendish, that he was
frightened.