attorney, to go to the said Anne and discourse her, as from me, about
the most strange passages of her life. He answers my letter September
13th, 1691, and saith: 'I have been with Anne Jefferies, and she can
give me no particular account of her condition, it being so long since.
My grandmother and mother say that she was in Bodmin jail three months,
and lived six months without meat; and during her continuance in that
condition several eminent cures were performed by her; the particulars
no one can now state. My mother saw the fairies once, and heard one say
that they should give some meat to the child, that she might return unto
her parents, which is the fullest relation can now be given.' But I, not
being satisfied with the answer, did in the year 1693 write into
Cornwall and my sister's husband, Mr. Humphry Martyn, and desired him to
go to Anne Jefferies to see if he could persuade her to give me what
account she could remember of the many and strange passages of her life.
He answered by letter, January 31st, 1693, and saith: 'As for Anne
Jefferies, I have been with her the greatest part of one day, and did
read to her all that you wrote to me; but she would not own anything of
it as concerning the fairies, neither of the cures she then did. I
endeavoured to persuade her she might receive some benefit by it. She
answered that if her own father were now alive she would not discover to
him those things which did happen to her. I asked her the reason why she
would not do it; she replied that if she should discover it to you, that
you would make either books or ballads of it; and she said that she
would not have her name spread about the country in books or ballads, or
such things, if she might have £500 for doing it; for she said she had
been questioned before justices, and at the sessions, and in prison, and
also before the judges at the assizes, and she doth believe that if she
should discover such things now she would be questioned again for it. As
for the ancient inhabitants of S. Teath Church-town, there are none of
them now alive but Thomas Christopher, a blind man. (NOTE: This Thomas
Christopher was then a servant in my father's house, when these things
happened, and he remembers many of the passages you write of her.) And
as for my wife, she then being so little did not mind it, but heard her
father and mother relate most of the passages you wrote of her.'
"This is all I can, at present, possibly get from her, and therefore I
now go on with my relation of the wonderful cures and other strange
things she did, or happened to her, which is the substance of what I
wrote to my brother and that he read to her.
"It is the custom in our county of Cornwall for the most substantial
people of each parish to take apprentices the poor children, and to
breed them up till they attain to twenty-one years of age, and for
their services to give them meat, drink, and clothes. This Anne
Jefferies, being a poor man's child of the parish, by Providence fell
into our family, where she lived many years. Being a girl of a bold,
daring spirit, she would venture at those difficulties and dangers
that no boy would attempt.
"In the year 1645 (she being nineteen years old), she being one day
knitting in an arbour in our garden, there came over the hedge to her,
as she affirmed, six persons of small stature, all clothed in green,
which she called fairies. Upon which she was so frightened that she fell
into a kind of convulsive fit. But when we found her in this condition,
we brought her into the house and put her to bed, and took great care of
her. As soon as she recovered out of her fit she cried out, 'They are
just gone out of the window! Do you not see them?' And thus in the
height of her sickness she would often cry out, and that with eagerness,
which expressions were attributed to her distemper, supposing her
light-headed. During the extremity of her sickness my father's mother
died, which was in April, 1646; he durst not acquaint our maid Anne of
it for fear it might have increased her distemper, she being at that
time so very sick that she could not go, nor so much as stand on her
feet; and also the extremity of her sickness, and the long continuance
of her distemper had almost perfectly moped her, so that she became even
as a changeling; and as soon as she began to recover, or to get a little
strength, she in her going would spread her legs as wide as she could,
and so lay hold with her hands on tables, chairs, forms, stools, etc.,
till she had learnt to go again; and if anything vexed her, she would
fall into her fits, and continue in them for a long time, so that we
were afraid she would have died in one of them.
"As soon as she recovered a little strength she constantly went to
church to pay her devotions to our great and good God. She took mighty
delight in devotion and in hearing the Word of God read and preached,
although she herself could not read. The first manual operation or
cure she performed was on my mother. The occasion was as follows: One
afternoon in the harvest time, all our family being in the fields at
work (and myself a boy at school), there was none in the house but my
mother and this Anne. My mother, considering that bread might be
a-wanting for the labourers, if care were not taken, and she having
before caused some bushels of wheat to be sent to the mill, which was
but a quarter of a mile from our house, desired to hasten the miller
to bring home the meal, that so her maids as soon as they came from
the fields might make and bake the bread; but in the meantime how to
dispose of her maid Anne was her great care, for she did not dare
trust her in the house alone, for fear she might do herself some
mischief by fire, or set the house on fire, for at that time she was
so weak that she could hardly help herself, and very silly withal. At
last, by much persuasion, my mother prevailed with her to walk in the
gardens and orchard till she came from the mill, to which she
willingly consented. Then my mother locked the door of the house and
walked to the mill; but as she was coming home, she slipped and hurt
her leg, so as that she could not rise. There she lay a considerable
time in great pain, till a neighbour, coming by on horseback, seeing
my mother in this condition, lifted her upon his horse. As soon as she
was brought within doors of the house, word was sent into the fields
to the reapers, who thereupon immediately left their harvest work and
came home. The house being presently full of people, a man-servant was
ordered to take a horse and ride for Mr. Lobb, an eminent surgeon who
then lived at Bodmin, which was eight miles from my father's house.
But, while the man was getting the horse ready, in comes our maid
Anne, and tells my mother that she was heartily sorry for the
mischance she had got in hurting her leg, and that she did it at such
a place, naming the place, and further, she desired she might see her
leg. My mother at first refused to show her leg, saying to her, What
should she show her leg to so poor and silly a creature as she was,
for she could do her no good. But Anne being very importunate with my
mother to see her leg, and my mother being unwilling to vex her by
denying her, for fear of her falling into her fits, for at all times
we dealt gently, lovingly, and kindly with her, did yield to her
request, and did show her her leg.
"Upon which Anne took my mother's leg upon her lap and stroked it with
her hand, and then asked my mother if she did not find ease by her
stroking of it? My mother confessed to her she did. Upon this she
desired my mother to forbear sending for the surgeon, for she would, by
the blessing of God, cure her leg. And to satisfy my mother of the truth
of it, she again appealed to my mother whether she did not find further
ease upon her continued stroking of the part affected. Which my mother
again acknowledged she did. Upon this my mother countermanded the
messenger for the surgeon. On this my mother demanded of her how she
came to the knowledge of her fall. She made answer that half a dozen
persons had told her of it. 'That,' replied my mother, 'could not be,
for there were none came by at that time but my neighbour, who brought
me home.' Anne answers again that that was truth, and it was also true
that half a dozen persons told her so, for, said she, 'you know I went
out of the house into the garden and orchard very unwillingly; and now I
will tell you the truth of all matters and things that have befallen me.
You know that this my sickness and fits came very suddenly upon me,
which brought me very low and weak, and have made me very simple. Now
the cause of my sickness was this: I was one day knitting of stockings
in the arbour of the garden, and there came over the garden hedge of a
sudden six small people, all in green clothes, which put me into such a
great fright that was the cause of my sickness; and they continue their
appearance to me, never less than two at a time nor more than eight.
They always appear in even numbers--2, 4, 6, 8. When I said often in my
sickness they were just gone out of the window, it was really so,
although you thought me light-headed. At this time, when I came out into
the garden, they came to me and asked me if you had put me out of the
house against my will. I told them I was unwilling to come out of the
house. Upon this they said you should not fare better for it, and
thereupon, in that place and at that time, in a fair pathway you fell
and hurt your leg. I would not have you send for a surgeon nor trouble
yourself, for I will cure your leg.' The which she did in a little time.
"This cure of my mother's leg, and the stories she told of those
fairies, made a noise all over the county of Cornwall. People of all
distempers, sicknesses, sores, and ages came not only so far off as
the Land's End, but also from London, and were cured by her. She took
no money of them nor any reward that ever I knew or heard of, yet had
she monies at all times, sufficient to supply her wants. She neither
made nor bought any medicines or salves that ever I saw or heard of,
yet wanted them not as she had occasion. She forsook eating our
victuals and was fed by those fairies from the harvest time to the
next Christmas Day, upon which day she came to our table and said
because it was that day she would eat some roast beef with us, the
which she did, I myself being then at the table.
"One time (I remember it perfectly well) I had a mind to speak with
her, and not knowing better where to find her than in her chamber, I
went thither, and fell a-knocking very earnestly at her chamber door
with my foot, and calling to her earnestly 'Anne! Anne! open the door
and let me in.' She answered me, 'Have a little patience and I will
let you in, immediately.' Upon which I looked through the keyhole of
the door and saw her eating; and when she had done eating she stood
still by the bedside as long as thanks might be given, and then she
made a courtesy (or bend) and opened the chamber door, and gave me a
piece of the bread, which I did eat, and I think it was the most
delicious bread that ever I did eat, either before or since.
"Another odd passage, which I must relate, was this: One Lord's Day,
my father with his family being at dinner in our hall, comes in one
of our neighbours, whose name was Francis Heathman, and asked where
Anne was. We told him she was in her chamber. Upon this he goes into
her chamber to see her, but, not seeing her, he calls her. She not
answering, he feels up and down the chamber for her, but not finding
her, comes and tells us she was not in her chamber. As soon as he had
said this, she comes out of her chamber to us, as we were sitting at
table, and tells him she was in her chamber and saw him and heard him
call her, and saw him feel up and down the chamber for her, and had
almost felt her, but he could not see her, although she saw him,
notwithstanding she was, at the same time, at the table in her
chamber, eating her dinner.
"One day these fairies gave my sister (the new wife of Mr. Humphry
Martyn) then about four years of age, a silver cup, which held about a
quart, bidding her give it my mother, and she did bring it my mother;
but my mother would not accept of it, but bid her carry it to them
again; which she did. I presume this was the time my sister owns she
saw the fairies. I confess to your lordship, I never did see them. I
had almost forgot to tell your lordship, that Anne would tell what
people would come to her, several days before they came, and from
whence, and at what time they would come.
"I have seen Anne in the orchard, dancing among the trees, and she
told me she was then dancing with the fairies.
"The great noise of the many strange cures Anne did, and also her
living without eating our victuals, she being fed, as she said, by
these fairies, caused both the neighbouring magistrates and ministers
to resort to my father's house, and talk with her, and strictly
examine her about the matter here related; and she gave them very
rational answers to all their questions they then asked her; for by
this time she was well recovered out of her sickness and fits, and her
natural parts and understanding much improved, my father and all his
family affirming the truth of all she said.
"The ministers endeavouring to persuade her they were evil spirits
resorted to her, and that it was the delusions of the devil. But how
could that be when she did no hurt, but good to all who came to her for
cure of their distempers? and advised her not to go to them when they
called her. However, that night after the magistrates and ministers were
gone, my father, with his family, sitting at a great fire in the hall,
Anne being also present, she spake to my father and said, 'Now they
call!' meaning the fairies. We all of us urged her not to go. In less
than half a quarter of an hour she said, 'Now they call a second time!'
We encouraged her again not to go to them. By and by she said, 'Now they
call a third time!' Upon which, away to her chamber she went to them. Of
all these calls of the fairies, none heard them but Anne. After she had
been in the chamber some time, she came to us again with a Bible in her
hand, and tells us that when she came to the fairies, they said to her,
'What, hath there been some magistrates and ministers to you, and
dissuaded you from coming any more to us, saying we are evil spirits,
and that it is all delusions of the devil? Pray desire them to read in
the 1st Epistle of S. John, chapter 4, verse 1, "Dearly beloved, believe
not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they be of God."' This
place of Scripture was turned down to in the said Bible. I told your
lordship before, Anne could not read.
"After this, one John Tregeagle, Esq., who was steward to John, Earl
of Radnor, being then a Justice of Peace in Cornwall, sent his
warrant for Anne, and sent her to Bodmin jail, and there kept her a
long time. That day the constable came to execute his warrant, Anne
milking the cows, the fairies appeared to her and told her that a
constable would come that day with a warrant to carry her before a
justice of the peace, and she would be sent to jail. She asked them if
she should hide herself. They answered, No, she should fear nothing,
but go with the constable. So she went with the constable to the
justice, and he sent her to Bodmin jail and ordered the prison-keeper
that she should be kept without victuals; and she was so kept, and yet
she lived, and that without complaining. When the sessions came, the
justices of the peace sent their warrant to one Giles Bawden, a
neighbour of ours, who was then a constable, for my mother and myself
to appear before them, at the sessions, to answer such questions as
should be demanded of us about our poor maid Anne.
"Bodmin was eight miles from my father's. When we came to the sessions,
the first who was called in before the justices was my mother. What
questions they asked her I do not remember. When they had done examining
her, they desired her to withdraw. As soon as she came forth I was
brought in, and called to the upper end of the table to be examined, and
there was the clerk of the peace, with the pen ready in his hand, to
take my examination. The first question they asked me was, 'What have
you got in your pockets?' I answered, 'Nothing, sir, but my cuffs':
which I immediately plucked out and I showed them. The second question
to me was, If I had any victuals in my pockets for my maid Anne? I
answered I had not; and so they dismissed me, as well as my mother. But
poor Anne lay in jail for a considerable time after; and also Justice
Tregeagle, who was her great persecutor, kept her in his house some time
as a prisoner, and that without victuals. And at last when Anne was
discharged out of prison, the justice made an order that Anne should not
live any more with my father. Whereupon my father's only sister, Mrs.
Frances Tom, a widow, near Padstow, took Anne into her family, and there
she lived a considerable time and did many cures; but what they were, my
kinsman, Mr. William Tom, who there lived in the house with his mother,
can give your lordship the best account of any I know living, except
Anne herself. And from hence she went to live with her own brother, and,
in process of time, married, etc.
"I am your lordship's most humble and dutiful servant,
"MOSES PITT.
"_May 1st, 1699._"
* * * * *
There are several points to be considered in this curious story. It is
written in all good faith, and is an honest account of what Pitt
remembered of events that took place some fifty years previously, when
he was a boy.
There is nothing in the first portion of the story that cannot be
explained without the intervention of fairies or pixies; but it is not
so easy to account for Anne's abstaining wholly from the food of
mortals like herself and being sustained on fairy food. It is not
uncommon for women to pretend that they do not eat; there have been
many "fasting girls," but all have been shown up to be impostors. In
this case, however, Anne Jefferies did not pretend to be a fasting
girl, but to be nourished by fairies. In the house of the Pitts she
might have surreptitiously procured food, but this she could not do
in the jail at Bodmin, nor in the house of Justice Tregeagle.
As to the cures she wrought, they are to be put in the same category
as faith cures all the world over, whether performed at Lourdes, or by
Christian scientists, or by Shamans in the steppes of Tartary.
Moses Pitt, the writer of the letter, was the son of John Pitt,
yeoman, of S. Teath; he was bound apprentice to Robert Litterbury,
citizen and haberdasher, in London, for seven years from October 1st,
1654. He became a foreman of the Haberdashers' Company 8th November,
1661, and started as a publisher and speculative builder. In 1680 he
began to issue _The English Atlas_ at his shop "The Angel," in S.
Paul's Churchyard. It was to be in twelve volumes, and was dedicated
to the King, but was never completed, as he got into difficulties. In
the first place he became sole executor to a Captain Richard Mill, who
had tenant right to the "Blue Boar's Head," in King Street,
Westminster, at an annual rent of £20. Pitt had to pay this, and also
Captain Mill's widow an annuity of £50. But he found the "Blue Boar's
Head" so dilapidated that he had to rebuild it at a heavy outlay
before he could let it. Then he had a quarrel with a neighbour about a
party wall he was rebuilding, leading to law proceedings, and Pitt was
cast in costs and damages. But his most serious loss was entailed by
his building a house for Lord Chancellor Jeffreys, which that judge
agreed to take at £300 per annum. As part of the land on which it was
to be built was Crown property, Jeffreys guaranteed Pitt that he would
obtain a lease for ninety-nine years of it, and bade him hurry on the
building. When Pitt had spent £4000 on it, Jeffreys was disgraced and
fell, owing to the flight of James II and the advent of William of
Orange. Pitt, greatly embarrassed for money, fled to Ireland; he
mortgaged his estates for £3000, but as his creditors were not
satisfied, he was finally arrested and sent to the Fleet Prison April
18th, 1689, where he remained till the 16th May, 1691, when he was
transferred to the King's Bench.
He published in the same year "The Cry of the Oppressed, being a true
and tragical account of the unparallel'd suffering of multitudes of
poor imprisoned debtors in most of the gaols of England, under the
tyranny of the gaolers and other oppressors.... Together with the case
of the Publisher." The sufferings of the debtors he knew by personal
experience, and his revelation is one of horrors perpetrated in the
Fleet and elsewhere, and illustrated with very graphic copper-plates.
His account of his own troubles occupies sixty-seven pages, and shows
him to have been a reckless speculator. Having been educated as a
haberdasher, he undertook to be a publisher, and simultaneously to be
a builder.
He probably obtained his release before 1695, as in that year he
published a letter relative to some discourses upon Dr. Burnet and Dr.
Tillotson, by a parson named George Hicker, D.D., and in 1696 he wrote
the account of Anne Jefferies, given above. He was married to a Miss
Upman. The date of his death is not known. Justice Tregeagle, who was
the special "persecutor" of Anne Jefferies, is very well remembered in
Cornish legend. He was a particularly wicked man and harsh steward,
and lies buried near the chancel of S. Breock. His home was Trevorder,
in that parish.
THOMAS KILLIGREW, THE
KING'S JESTER
The Killigrew family seems to have possessed a great hankering after
the stage, for four of them were playwrights. Indeed, Henry Killigrew,
educated at Christ Church, Oxford, began at the age of seventeen, when
a play written by him was performed at the nuptials of Lord Charles
Herbert with Lady Mary Villiers, at the Black Friars. Some critics
present objected that one of the characters, representing a boy of
seventeen, talked too freely for his age, and Falkland replied "that
it was neither monstrous nor impossible for one of seventeen years to
speak at such a rate; when he that made him speak in that manner, and
who wrote the whole play, was himself no older."
Sir William Killigrew, Knt., who was loyal to Charles I, and stood
high in favour with Charles II, usher of the privy chamber and
vice-chamberlain to the Queen, also wrote plays, tragi-comedies, but
they do not appear to have taken with the public.
But the man who was most stage-stricken of the family was Thomas, the
fourth son of Sir Robert Killigrew, born in 1611. He became early in
life page of honour to Charles I, and he attended Charles II when in
exile. At this period, when Charles was sorely in need of money,
Thomas Killigrew was despatched as "Resident" to Venice, in 1652, "to
borrow money of English merchants for his (Charles's) owne
subsistence," and "to press the Duke to furnish Us with a present some
(sum) of money and we will engage ourselves by any Act or Acts to
repay with interest, and so likewise for any Arms or Ammunition he
shall be pleased to furnish Us withall. The summe you shall move him
to furnish Us with shall be Ten thousand Pistolls."
[Illustration: _Thomas Killigrew Groome of y^e Bedchamber to King
Charles y^e Second_]
According to Hyde, Charles misdoubted the suitableness of Killigrew
for this delicate negotiation; and was finally prevailed to send him,
simply to gratify Tom.
The misgivings of the Prince were justified, for Killigrew and his
servants behaved so badly at Venice that the Doge, Francisco Erizzo,
had to complain through his ambassador.
Sir Edward Hyde, in a letter to Sir Richard Browne, wrote: "I have
informed the Kinge of the Venetian Ambassador's complainte against Mr.
Killigrew, with which His Majesty is very much troubled, and resolves
upon his returne hither to examyne his miscarriage, and to proceed
therein in such a manner as shall be worthy of him, and as may
manifest his respecte to that Commonwealth, with which the Crowne of
Englande hath alwayes held a very stricte amity, and His Majesty's
Ministers have in all places preserved a very good correspondence with
the Ministers of that State, and therefore His Majesty is more
sensible of this misdemeanour of his Resident."
On Killigrew's return to the Court of S. Germain, Sir John Denham
addressed him in these lines:--
Our Resident Tom
From Venice has come,
And has left the Statesman behind him;
Talks at the same pitch,
Is as wise, is as rich,
And just where you left him, you find him.
But who says he is not
A man of much plot,
May repent of this false accusation;
Having-plotted and penn'd
Six plays to attend
The Farce of his negotiation.
But although Charles might put on an appearance of being indignant,
and though he was vexed that Tom did not return laden with "pistolls,"
he was too careless and too fond of being entertained to part with his
principal buffoon. But thenceforth he employed him mainly in
transactions about wine, canary and sack, of which the Prince needed
much.
The story is told of Louis XIV that he had heard much of the wit of
Tom Killigrew, and sent for him to Versailles, where he talked to him,
but could elicit nothing from him. Thinking that this proceeded from
shyness he drew him apart, and led him into the gallery to show him
the pictures. There he asked him if he knew what they represented. Tom
expressed his ignorance, whereupon the King led him before a painting
of the Crucifixion, and asked him what that represented. "I believe,
your Majesty," replied Tom, "that it is a picture of Christ between
two thieves."
"And who might they be?"
"Your Majesty and the Pope," replied the audacious jester.
The first wife of Thomas Killigrew was Cecilia, a daughter of Sir John
Crofts, of Saxham, in Suffolk, and he was married to her on June 29th,
1636.
The weather on the wedding day was rude and boisterous, which gave
rise to some lines by Thomas Carew:--
"Such should this day be; so the sun should hide
His bashful face, and let the conquering bride
Without a rivall shine, whilst he forbears
To mingle his unequall beams with hers;
Or if sometime he glance his squinting eye
Between the parting clouds, 'tis but to spye,
Not emulate her glories; so comes drest
In vayles, but as a masquer to the feast."
She brought her husband a fortune of £10,000, and a son and heir,
Henry, born in April, 1637. She was buried the 5th January, 1638, in
Westminster Abbey. Tom married again, when in exile, at the Hague, and
his second wife was Charlotte, daughter of John van Hesse, a Dutch
woman. The marriage took place 26th January, 1655, and by her he had
three sons, Robert, Charles, and Thomas.