held before Brian Darcey. It is contained in a rare and beautiful little
black-letter book,[103] and is spoken of by Scot in his 'Discovery'
without much sparing of ridicule. It opens thus: "If there hath bin at
anytime (Right Honorable) any meanes used to appease the wrath of God, to
obtaine his blessing, to terrifie secreete offenders by open transgressors
punishments, to withdraw honest natures from the corruption of euill
company, to diminish the great multitude of wicked people, to increase the
small number of virtuous persons, 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 punished. Rygorously? sayd I; why it is too milde
and gentle a tearme for such a mercilesse generation: I should rather have
sayd most cruelly execueted; for that no punishment can be thought vpon,
be it in neuer so high a degree of torment, which may be deemed sufficient
for such a deuilishe and damnable practise." These were the sentiments of
W. W., as propounded to his patron "the right honourable and his singular
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 offered 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 Thurlowe, 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 magistrates 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
suffered me to have the keeping and nursing of it." Then a trouble and a
"fratch" ensued, and Ursley threatened Grace with lameness, whereat Grace
answered, "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 well 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 Ratcliffe, a skilful woman, doubted if
she could do it any good; yet for all 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 testimony went chiefly
on the imps at home. His mother had four, he said--Tyffin, 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 her imps
to Godmother Newman, who put them into an earthen pot which she hid under
her apron, and so carried them away. One Laurence 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 having 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[104] "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 office 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 cattle. 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 enchantments; and
that she had bewitched that little babe of Annis Letherdall'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
from a potcharde from 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 revelations. But in spite of his soft
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 wicked imps. The which testimony
her sister, Margerie Sammon, confirmed, saying that old Joan was as clever
as their own mother (a noted witch, one Mother Barnes), or any one else
in S. Osees skilled in sorcery and magic. Another examinate then came
forward with a story of a bewitched 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 earthern pot with wool, colour white and black, and which she
fed with milk out of a black "trening" dish. 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 Robbin; 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 whispered 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 she had carried them away that same
evening 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 them on bread and milk, otherwise they would suck her blood. Their
names were Tom and Robbin, and last evening she took them away--being
perhaps afraid to keep them longer, now that the scent was warm--and went
into Read'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 ever
heard 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 had 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
man: she also 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 asked of what colour were they? she answered tartly, "Ye may goe and
see."
Ales Newman was also condemned and executed; being obstinate to the last;
denying the four counts with which she was charged, viz. her imps, the
slaughter of her own husband, of John Johnson, and of his wife. But
William Hoke deposed that on his death-bed her husband had been
perpetually crying out against her, saying, "Dost thou not see--dost thou
not see?" meaning 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 shee, "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. Wherevpon
presently after her vpper Lippe swelled and was very bigge, and her eyes
much sunked 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 district to the gallows. And then Ursley Kemp's
testimony was remembered against Elizabeth, and the mysteries of Suckin
and Liard sought to be fathomed. Elizabeth at the first 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 persuaded 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 quarrelling of
ill-tempered country folk, and nothing very 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 had first come to her a long time ago, as she was returning home
from the mill; he held her by the coats, she being amazed, but vanished
when she prayed. Again, when nigh hand at home, he tugged 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 the work she was accused of. 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
still 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 Margaret Greuell (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; escaping 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 Robert Sanneuer, drawing his mouth all awry so that it
could 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 well, 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 hangman's cord, because
Mychel the shoemaker charged her with being a "naughtie woman," and
because Ursley Kemp, informed by Tiffin, accused her of sundry things
about as true as all the rest of the story. Being found well 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, all the time ignorant and innocent of her
devilish arts.
Then came the sad story of Henry Celles (Selles) and his wife Cysley. They
were said to have killed Richard 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, affirmed that at Candlemas last past about midnight
there came to his brother John a spirit, which took him by the left 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, father, 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 further said that 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 Mercurie, white and a she; that their eyes
were like 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 Ross 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 deposition, 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 imperfect. 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
Redworth'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 Redworth's wife, looking on it, said, 'Here is a iolie and likely
childe--God blesse it.' After which speeches, Selles his wife saide,
'shee hath neuer the more children for that, but a little babe to play
withall for a time.' And she saith within a short time after her said
childe sickened and died. 'But,' she saith"--her womanly heart carrying it
over her superstition--"'that her conscience will not 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 Selles 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 Selles and his wife Cicely 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, so 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
got hold of her little "base" daughter of seven, who gave them plenty of
information. Asked if her mother had imps, she said "Yes;" 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 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 blackbirds 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 little
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 all and
sundry of the stories of Crow or Dun; which, indeed, with some others
spoken of by the children, seem to have been, _if existing at all_, toys
or treasures kept hoarded from them, to which they added these magical and
absurd conditions as their imaginations taught them or their examiners
prompted.
Joan Robinson, 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.