Hamilton; and it seems was called Hattaraick by the devil, and so by
others, as a nick-name. He was first a nolt-herd in East Lothian to a
gentleman there. He was much given to charming and curing of men and
beasts by words and spells. His charms sometimes succeeded, sometimes
not. On a day herding his kine upon a hill-side in the summer-time,
the devil came to him in the form of a mediciner, and said, “Sandie,
you have too long followed my trade, and never acknowledged me for
your master; you must now take on with me, and be my servant, 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 through the country, for his charming
and curing of diseases in men and beasts, and turned a vagrant
fellow, like a jockie, gaining meal and flesh, and money by his
charms; such was the ignorance of many at that time. Whatever house
he came to, none durst refuse Hattaraick an alms, rather for his ill
than his good. One day he came to the yait of Samuelston, when some
friends after dinner were going to horse. A young gentleman, brother
to the lady, seeing him, switched him about the ears, saying, “You
warlock carle, what have you to do here?” Whereupon the fellow goes
away grumbling, and was overheard 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
supped. After supper, taking his horse, and crossing Tyne water to
go home, he rides through a shadow piece of a haugh, commonly called
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 Samuelston hearing of it, was heard say, “Surely
that knave Hattaraick is the cause of this trouble, call for him in
all haste.” When he had come to her, “Sandie,” says she, “what is
this you have done to my brother William?” “I told him,” says he,
“I should make him repent his striking of me at the yait lately.”
She giving the rogue fair words, and promising him his pock full of
meal, with beef and cheese, persuaded the fellow to cure him again.
He understood the business, “But I must first,” says he, “have one
of his sarks.” Which was soon gotten. What pranks he played with it
cannot be known. But within a short while the gentleman recovered
his health. When Hattaraick came to receive his wages, he told the
Lady, “Your brother William shall quickly go off the country, 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 young brother George. After that
this warlock had abused the country for a long time, he was at last
apprehended at Dunbar, and brought into Edinburgh, and burnt upon
the Castle hill.——I have inserted this story, which I had from the
gentleman’s own brother, a thing well known at that time through
the country, not so much for any matter in it, as that it may be
an occasion to me to speak a little of charms. The word charm or
incantation comes from the Latin word _carmen_, signifying a verse,
because the Roman soothsayers gave their charms in verse. It is only
a strange composure of words to blind the understanding of people,
pretending, by virtue of words, great matters may be brought to pass.
But words of themselves, either spoken or written, (as these charms)
have no force to bring any thing to pass. It is only the power of
the almighty God. Charming is much practised by the Pope and the
Romish church. Their whole forms of religion, both in private and
in public, consisting of charms of all sorts. Pope Leo had a charm,
which he said he had from an angel, who taught him, that whosoever
carried that charm in write about him, and said every day three Pater
Nosters, three Aves, and one Creed, shall not that day be conquered
of his enemies, nor be in other danger, ghostly or bodily, but shall
be protected by these holy names of Jesus Christ, written with the
four Evangelists, and crosses between them, as † Jesus, † Christus, †
Messias, † Sotar, † Emmanuel, &c. It is still a common practice among
the Papists to carry charms about them to make them shot-free when
they go to war; as also hath been found by experience in the late
Irish wars, many of the idolatrous Irish being found with charms in
their pockets, composed by the Popish clergy. They make their holy
water by a charm or conjuration, thus: “I conjure thee, thou creator
of water, in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, that thou
drive the devil out of every corner of this church and altar, so
that he remain not within our precincts, which are just and holy.”
This is used in the dedication of their churches. Thus, by holy
water, they not only conjure the devil from their churches, but from
dwelling houses, from meat and drink, from salt upon the table. They
dedicate their bells in steeples, which have power to clear the air
from devils. It is likewise a sort of charm which many witches have,
namely, to cut the rowan tree between the two Beltan days. If any man
or woman, horse, or cow, shall have a piece thereof upon them, no
devils or fairy shall have power to meddle with them. An old woman
whom I read of, used this charm when she went to bed,
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John,
The bed be blest that I lie on.
And another old woman taught her neighbour this charm, when the
butter would not churn,
Come butter, come,
Come butter, come:
Peter stands at the gate
Waiting for a butter’d cake,
Come butter, come.
XVIII.—_The Ghost of Mrs. Breton._
Dr. Breton, late rector of Ludgate, at Deptford, lived formerly
in Herefordshire, and married the daughter of Dr. Santer. This
gentlewoman was a person of extraordinary piety, which she expressed,
as in her life, so at her death. She had a maid that she had a great
kindness for; who was married to a near neighbour, whose name, as I
remember, was Alice. Not long after her death, as Alice was rocking
her child in the evening, she was called from the craddle by one
knocking at the door, which being opened, she was surprised at
the sight of a gentlewoman, not to be distinguished from her late
mistress, neither in person or in habit. She was in a morning gown,
the same in appearance with that she had often seen her mistress
wear. At first sight she expressed very great amazement, and said,
“Were not my mistress dead, I should not question but you are she.”
She replied, “I am the same that was your mistress;” and took her by
the hand, which Alice affirmed was cold as stone.
She added, “That she had business of great importance to employ her
in, and that she must go immediately a little way with her.” Alice
trembled and beseeched her to excuse her, and entreated her very
importunately to go to her master, who must needs be more fit to be
employed. She answered, “That he who was her husband, was not at
all concerned; but yet she had a desire rather to make use of him,
and in order thereunto had several times been in his chamber, but
he was still asleep; nor had she power to do more than once uncover
his feet towards the awakening of him.” And the doctor said, “That
he did hear a walking in his chamber in the night, which till now,
he could give no account of.” Alice next objected, “That her husband
was gone a journey, and she had no one to look to her child; that it
was very apt to cry vehemently, and she feared if it awakened before
her return, it would cry itself to death, or do itself mischief.” The
apparition replied, “The child shall sleep till you return.”
Alice seeing there was no avoiding it, sorely against her will,
followed her over a stile into a large field, who then said to her,
“Observe how much of this field I measure with my feet.” And when she
had taken a good large and leisurely compass, she said, “All this
belongs to the poor, it being gotten from them by wrongful means,”
and charged her to go and tell her brother, whose it was at that
time, that he should give it up to the poor again, forthwith, as he
loved her and his deceased mother. This brother was not the person
who did this unjust act, but his father. She added, “That she was
the more concerned, because her name was made use of at some writing
that related to this land.” Alice asked her, how she should satisfy
her brother that this was no cheat or delusion of her fancy. She
replied, “Tell him this secret which he knows, that only himself and
I are privy to, and he will believe you.” Alice having promised to
her to go on this errand, she proceeded to give her good advice, and
entertained her all the rest of the night with heavenly and divine
discourse. When the twilight appeared, they heard the noise of
horse-bells, whereupon the apparition said, “Alice, I must be seen
by none but yourself;” and so she disappeared.—Immediately Alice in
all haste runs home, being thoughtful for her child, but found it, as
the apparition had said, asleep as she left it. When she had dressed
it, and committed it to the care of a neighbour, away she went to her
master the doctor, who amused at the account she gave him, sent her
to his brother-in-law. He at first hearing her story and message,
laughed at it heartily. But she had no sooner told him the secret,
but he changed his countenance, and told her, he would give the poor
their own, and accordingly he did it, and they now enjoy it.—This
with more circumstances, many times has been related by Dr. Breton
himself, who was well known to be a person of great goodness and
sincerity. He gave a large narrative of this apparition of his wife
to two of my friends, saith my author. First, to one Mrs. Nedham, and
afterwards, a little before his death, to Dr. Witchcot.
XIX.—_Touching an Apothecary’s Servant that returned to the Shop
after he had been dead._
This is a known passage, which happened in the year 1669, at Crossen
in Silesia; that is a part in Germany, which long since was under
the Polonians, but is now subject to the crown of Bohemia; the chief
magistrate of that town at the time, was the princess Elizabeth
Chalotta, a person famous in her generation. In the spring of the
aforesaid year, one Christopher Monig, a native of Serbell, a town
belonging to the princess of Anhalt, servant to an apothecary, died
and was buried with the usual ceremonies of the Lutheran Church.
A few days after his decease, a shape exactly like him in face,
clothes, stature, mien, &c. appeared in the apothecary’s shop, where
he would set himself down, and walk sometimes, and take boxes, pots,
and glasses from the shelves, and set them again in other places,
and sometimes try and examine the goodness of the medicines, weigh
them in a pair of scales, pound the drugs with a mighty noise in the
mortar: nay, serve the people that came with their bills to the shop,
take their money, and lay it safe up in the counter; in a word, do
all things that a journey-man in such cases used to do. He looked
very ghostly upon these that had been his fellow servants, who were
afraid to say any thing to him; and his master being sick at that
time of the gout, he was often very troublesome to him, would take
the bills that were brought to him out of his hand, snatch away the
candle sometimes, and put it behind the stove. At last, he took
a cloak that hung in the shop, put it on, and walked abroad, but
minding no body on the streets; he entered into some of the citizens
houses, and thrust himself into their company, especially of such as
he had formerly known, yet saluted no body, nor spoke to any one,
but to a maid servant whom he met with hard by the church-yard, and
desired her to go home to his master’s house and dig in a ground
chamber, where she would find inestimable treasure; but the maid,
amazed at the sight of him, swooned; whereupon he lift her up, but
left such a mark upon her flesh with lifting her, that it was to
be seen for some time after; the maid having recovered herself,
went home, but fell desperately sick upon it, and in her sickness,
discovered what Monig had said to her, and accordingly they digged
in the place she had named, but found nothing but one old decayed
pot with an Hemarites, or blood-stone, in it. The princess hereupon
caused the young man’s body to be digged up, which they found
putrified, with purulent matter flowing from it: and the master
being advised to remove the young man’s goods, linens, clothes, and
things he left behind him when he died, out of the house, the spirit
thereupon left the house, and was seen no more. And this some people
now living will give their oath upon, who very well remember they saw
him after his decease; and the thing being so notorious, there was
instituted a public disputation about it in the academy of Leipsic,
by Henry Couradus, who disputed for his doctor’s degree in the
university. And this puts me in mind of an apothecary at Reichenback
in Silesia, about fifteen years ago, who after his death, appeared to
divers of his acquaintance, and cried out, That in his life time he
had poisoned several men with his drugs; whereupon the magistrates of
the town took up his body and burnt it; which being done, the spirit
disappeared, and was seen no more.
XX.—_A wonderful Story of one Robert Churchman, inveigled in_
Quakerism, _written by_ Dr. John Templar.
Sir, your desiring to be acquainted with some passages concerning
the Quakers in this town of Balsham, obligeth me to give you the
following account: At my first settlement here in the ministry, I
found them very busy in enticing my people to a compliance with their
persuasions in religion; this design they did attempt to accomplish
by dispersing their papers among them. Two of my parishioners I had
a particular eye upon, namely, Robert Churchman and his wife, they
being persons of a very good life, and a pleasant estate, I was under
a fear, that their departure from the church might be a means to
induce others to the same practice. The first in my discourses I had
with him, did manifest a very strong inclination to the principles
of the Quakers. The second was so far engaged, (meaning the said
Robert’s wife) that the Quakers did commonly report, that a principle
was begun in her.
As I was one day in conference with the said Robert Churchman, I
desired him, that when any of their books came to hand, he would
do me the kindness to bring them to me, that we might read them
over together, assuring him of no unwillingness in me to hearken to
whatsoever should appear reasonable. What I desired, he performed
not long after; when I had received the paper into my hand, before
I began to read, I suggested to him, that it would be convenient,
that the person who had been, the cause of his seduction should
be sent for, and hear what was replied to the contents, which he
willingly consented to. When the Quaker was come, one branch of our
discourse, was, Whether the scripture is to be owned as a rule,
which the Quaker denied, asserting, That the rule was within them.
After the expence of two or three hours discourse about this and
other matters, I desired Robert Churchman to take notice, that the
Quakers did not own the Scriptures for their rule, which before this
conference I had intimated to him, but found him unwilling to believe
it.——It pleased God so far to bless what was spoken, that the next
time he met his brother Thomas Churchman, he told him of what had
passed at my house, and that now he was assured, that the Quakers
did not acknowledge the Scripture for their rule; and, for his part,
he would not be of that religion, which doth disown the Scripture
in that particular.——Not long after, the wife of the forementioned
Quaker coming to his house to visit his wife, he met her at the
door, and told her she should not come in, intimating that her visit
would make division between them. After some parley, the Quaker’s
wife spake to him in these words: “Thou wilt not believe except thou
see a sign, and thou mayest see some such.” Within a few nights
after, Robert Churchman had a violent storm upon the room where he
lay, when it was very calm in all other parts of the town, and a
voice within him, as he was in bed, spake to him, and bid him sing
praises, telling him, That he should see the New Jerusalem, about
which time a glimmering light appeared all about the room. Towards
the morning, the voice commanded him to go out of his bed naked, with
his wife and children. They all standing upon the floor, the spirit
making use of his tongue, bid them to be down, and put their mouths
in the dust; which they did accordingly. It likewise commanded him
to go and call his brother and sister, that they might see the New
Jerusalem, to whom he went naked about half a mile. When he delivered
his message, that which spake within him charged him to denounce
wrath against them, and declare that fire and brimstone would fall
upon them, as it did upon Sodom and Gomorrah, if they did not obey,
and so he returned into his own house, where upon the floor of a low
room, he stood naked three or four hours. All that while he was acted
in a very unusual manner. Sometimes the spirit within forced him
to sing, sometimes to bark like a dog. When his brother and sister
followed him, and were very importunate with him to resist it, it
bid him kill them, making use of these words, “These mine enemies
which would not that I should reign over them, bring and slay before
my face.” It made him to utter with great readiness many places of
Scripture which he had no knowledge of before. The drift of what was
spoken, was to persuade him to comply with the Quakers, and it named
some who lived in the neighbouring towns. About three or four hours
being thus spent, he came to himself, and was able to give a perfect
account of what had befallen him.——Several nights after, the same
trouble returned upon him. His wife was tortured with extraordinary
pains. The children which lay in the room complained, that their
mouths were stopped with wool as they were in bed. The disturbance
was so great, that they had thoughts of leaving his house for a time,
and made it his desire to be at me, in mine. I prevailed with him,
not to be so sudden in his removal, but to make some further trial.
It pleased God, upon a continuance with him in prayer every day in
the house, that he was at last perfectly free from all molestation.
The Quakers hearing of his condition, gave it out, that the power of
God would come upon him again, and that the wound was but skinned
over by the priest, which made me the more importunate with him to
keep close to the public service of God, and have nothing to do with
them or their writings.——Which direction he observed till November
1661, and perusing one of their books, a little after, on the 10th of
that month his trouble returned. A voice within him began to speak
after the former manner. The first sentence it uttered was, “Cease
from man, whose breath is in his nostrils, for wherein is he to be
accounted?” The design which he discerned that it did aim at, was
this, To take him off from coming to the church (where he had been
that day) and from hearing the word of God. It suggested several
other Scriptures, in order to the persuading him to a compliance with
the Quakers, and told him, “That it would strive with him as the
angel did with Jacob.” Upon Wednesday at night, he was peremptory
in his resisting of it. When it began to solicit him, he replied,
“That he saw it was a spirit of delusion, which he would not obey.”
Upon which the spirit pronounced these words, “Go ye cursed into
everlasting fire;” and so left him with a very great heat in his body.
After this he was, in his own apprehension, in a very comfortable
condition; and while he was considering what had happened, a voice
within him spake to him, saying, That the spirit that was before
upon him, was a spirit of delusion, but now the true Spirit of God
was come unto him. Now Satan is turned into an angel of light.
It acquainted him that the doctrine of the Trinity was true; and
that God had an elect people; and that those whom the Father had
elected, the Son had redeemed; and whom Christ redeemed, the Holy
Ghost sanctifieth. And told him, “That the minister of the town
would further instruct him about the truth of these things. Upon
Thursday morning, about break of day, it set him upon his knees, as
he was in bed, and bid him farewell.——The same day it came upon him
in the fields, as he was going to and coming from the market, and
pressed upon him to believe that it was the good spirit which he was
acted with, which he still doubted of. One night that week, among
many arguments, which it used to that purpose, it told him, “If he
would not believe without a sign, he might have what he would.”
Upon that Robert Churchman desired, “If it was a good spirit, that
a wire candlestick which stood upon the cupboard, might be turned
into brass,” which the spirit said he would do. Presently there was a
very unsavoury smell in the room, like that of the snuff of a candle
newly put out; but nothing else was done towards the fulfilling of
the promise.——Upon the Lord’s day following, he being at church, it
came upon him. When the chapters were named, he turned to them in
his Bible, but was not able to read. When the psalms were sung, he
could not pronounce a syllable. Upon Monday morning, his speech was
wholly taken from him. When I came to him, and asked him how it was
with him? He moved his head towards me, but was not able to speak.
I waited an hour or two in the room, hoping that his speech might
have returned unto him, and that I might have gained from him some
account of his condition. But finding no alteration, I desired those
who were present to join with me in prayer. As we were praying, his
body with much violence was thrown out of the bed, and then with
great vehemency he called me to hold my tongue. When prayer was done
his tongue was bound as before, till at last he brake forth into
these words, “Thine is the kingdom, thine is the kingdom,” which
he repeated above a hundred times. Sometimes he was forced into
extreme laughter, sometimes into singing. His hands were usually
employed in beating his breast. All of us (there present) who stood
by, could discern unusual heaving in his body. The distemper did
continue towards the morning of the next day; and the voice within
him signifying to him, it would leave him, bidding him to get upon
his knees, in order to that end, which he did, and presently he
had a perfect command of himself.—When I came to him, he gave me
a sober account of all the passages of the day before, having a
distinct remembrance of what the spirit forced him to do, and what
was spoken to him by those who stood by. In particular, he told me
he was compelled to give me that disturbance in prayer, which before
I mentioned, the spirit using his limbs and tongue as it pleased,
contrary to the inclination of his own thought and mind.—Upon the
Thursday following the spirit began to rage after its former manner,
as I was praying with him. It was very discernable how it wrought
upon his body, forced him to grate his teeth, and draw his mouth
awry. He told me, after I had done, that it bid him denounce woe
against me. It pleased God, upon continuance in prayer with me, to
release him out of his trouble, and so far make it advantageous to
him and his wife, and some others who were so much biassed with the
principles of the Quakers, that now they have a perfect dislike of
that way, and do diligently attend upon the public service of God, in
the parish church.—Sir, you may be confident of the truth of what is
here related by your friend.
_Basham, Jan. 1, 1682._ JOHN TEMPLAR.
XXI.—_Touching Isabel Heriot._
This woman was born at Peaston, in the parish of Ormiston, and was
for several years a very useful servant to the minister there, for
all manner of out-house work. She was of a low stature, small and
slender of body, of a black complexion, her head stood somewhat awry
upon her neck; she was of a drolling and jeering humour, and would
have spoken to persons of honour with great confidence.
After several years service, the minister began to dislike her,
especially upon account of her not profiting in the knowledge of
God, she having so much opportunity and occasion to know and learn;
therefore she was put away, and went to other service for a long
time; after which she returned to Ormiston town, and was sometimes
haunting the minister’s house, but without his knowledge. She took
sickness about the beginning of winter 1680; and about the time of
her death, her face became extremely black. Within three or four
nights after she was buried, one Isabel Murray, relict of William
Craig the kirk officer, saw her apparition about twelve o’clock at
night, and her white robes upon her, such as she was put into her
coffin with, walking from the chapel toward the minister’s louping-on
stone, where, according to her custom when she was alive, she
halted a little while with her elbow leaning upon it. After this,
she observed her to walk in at the minister’s back-yard towards the
stable. We have only the bare testimony of this one woman for it.
Within some few nights after, there was a throwing of stones over
the minister’s house, and some thrown at the hall-door and windows.
The stones were found in the close next morning, when they lighted;
they fell softly for the most part. The minister coming in one night
(against whom the devil’s malice chiefly was) at the back-door, and
shutting it after him, had a great stone cast after him, which hit
the door very smartly, and left a mark and impression behind it; this
she did, or rather the devil, in imitation of a prank she had played
while alive, for the minister having caused the other servants thrust
her out at the same door, she threw a great stone at it with violence
out of wrath and anger. The foresaid Isabel Murray coming out of the
minister’s house one night, or going into it, was hit very sharply
with a stone upon her back. The servant-man that keeped the horses,
after he had been at his devotion, and was going into his bed in the
stable, was by somewhat gripped by the heel, to his great amazement;
he giving a great and loud cry, the mistress of the family and others
came into the stable, and found the lad under a great affrightment:
this night several clods and stones were thrown, but no person
touched. One thing was remarkable, that an old horse comb, which had
been wanting for several years, was thrown at the lad’s bed-stead
with great violence, yet wronged nobody. The horses would have been
found the next morning standing and lying disorderly, and sometimes
all in a great sweat.——While the servant-man had been dressing the
garden, he hath found several stones thrown at him, but was never
touched, save by one, which hit him very favourably; the house was
sometimes troubled within with some small noise and din.—One time
there was a burning coal thrown under one of the beds. One of the
family upon a night, had his night-cap taken of his head in the bed,
and found the next morning full of cinders and ashes, lying under
the chimney. If the devil could have done more, surely he would have
done it. This is the most part of the trouble which the family met
with, which continued for eight or nine weeks, not every night, but
now and then; during which time, frequent and fervent prayers were
sent up to God by those of the family, and others out of it, which
wanted not success. There was much talking of this ghost, and things
spoken rashly, and some out of malice did invent lies and untruths.
One jeering, said, “Now let the minister and his brethren, with all
their prayers, drive away the devil.” It is very remarkable, after
that time, that there was no more trouble found about the family.—For
what follows, we have only the simple word of the foresaid Isabel
Murray, who, coming home from the church between the sermons, to
the town of Ormiston, to visit her house and kail-yard, for fear of
vagrant cows coming over the dyke, and going down her yard, she saw
in the minister’s yard, being next adjacent, the apparition of Isabel
Heriot, in that very habit she was laid in the coffin with. Never was
an egg liker to another, than this apparition was like her face, her
stature, her motion, her tongue, and behaviour. As like was the devil
to her, as Apollo was to old Butes, whom Virgil excellently describes
in the ninth book of his Eneids, bringing him down from heaven to
wait upon Ascanius.
_Ascantiumque petit, forma tum vertiture oris
Antiquum in Butten—Ibut Apollo
Omnia longacvo similes, vocemque coloremque
Etrorines albos et saeva sonantibus arma._
Apollo went, and from the heaven descends,
And in old Butes’ form, to Ascanius bends.
In all points, like the old man still he went,
Whom then to wait on’s son, Æneas, sent;
Such his white hair, complexion, and his voice,
And dreadful arms, rattling with mighty noise.