At the same time and place, namely, "at the Assizes and Generall
Gaole-delivery, holden at Lancaster, before Sir Edward Bromley," old
Jennet Bierly, Ellen Bierly her daughter-in-law, and Jane Southworth, were
accused by Grace Sowerbuts of bewitching her, so that her "bodie wasted
and was consumed." Grace was fourteen years old--a very ripe time for
bewitchment and possession--and her evidence ran that for some years past
she had been fearfully tormented by these women, for that "they did
violently draw her by the Haire of the Head, and layd her on the toppe of
a Hay-mowe;" and that Jennet Bierly appeared to her, first under her own
shape and form, then as a black dog, and that as she was going over a
style "she picked her off," but did not hurt her much, for soon she was
enabled to rouse herself up, and go on her way without any great damage.
But often the women came to her as black dogs, tempting her to cast
herself into the water, or dragging her into the hay-loft where they
covered her with hay on her head and with straw on her body, they, the
black dogs, lying on the top of the straw till they took away all sense
and feeling and she knew not where she was; and oft they "carried her
where they met black things like men that danced with them and did abuse
their bodies, and they brought her to one Thomas Walsham's House in the
Night, and there they killed his Child, by putting a Nail into the Navil,
and after took it forth of the Grave, and did boil it, and eat some of it,
and made Oyl of the bones; and such like horrid lies," says honest
Webster, indignantly. But fortunately for the three accused, Grace
Sowerbuts was a popish pet, and suspected of decided papistical leanings;
and it was said that she was put up to all this by one Thomson, a popish
priest, whose real name was Southworth, and who was a relation of old Sir
John Southworth the great popish lord of the district; to whom also Jane,
one of the accused, was a near relative, but a hated enemy, as is often
the case--Sir John having been known to ride miles round to avoid passing
by her house. Jane Southworth was a Protestant and a convert, therefore
likely to receive the protection of public opinion in those parts; likely,
too, to be doubly hated by her relative, first for herself, and secondly
for her apostacy. So Grace Sowerbuts, an excitable young maid with but a
slender regard to truth, was hit upon as the person best fitted to carry
confusion into the enemy's camp, and it was resolved to prove her
bewitched by the devilish arts of the two Bierlys and the popish recusant.
But Sir Edward Bromley, who cared nothing for the protestations of the
Pendle witches, and hung every one of them with the most placid belief
that he was doing a just and righteous work, gave a very different
countenance to these Samesbury witches, all of whom would have been strung
up like dogs had not the taint of papistry rested on Grace and her
supporters. Leading her quietly to a denial of all she had asserted, Sir
Edward got her to confess that she was an impostor, and that every article
of her accusation was a lie and a fallacy from beginning to end. She had
never known nor seen any devils; she had never been cast upon the henroof
nor upon the hay-mow, but when she was found there she had gone of her own
accord, and had covered herself with hay and straw to better prove the
witches' despite against her; she knew nothing of any child done to death
by nails in its body; and all that she had said about the bones, and the
oil, and the tender flesh roasted at the fire, was as false as the rest.
She had never been possessed, but had flung herself into these fits by her
own will and independent power; and what she did in them was a mere trick,
which she could show their worships if they liked. In short, Grace
Sowerbuts was forced to play the losing game in as masterly a manner as
might be, and to own herself a cheat and an impostor while yet there was
time for pardon. So the three Samesbury witches got off with a stern
exhortation from the judge, who scarcely seemed to relish the release of
even Protestant witches delated by papistical accusers.