held before Sir Matthew Hale in 1645--Hopkins's great witch-year.
In a very scarce tract called 'A true and exact relation of the severall
Informations, Examinations, and Confessions of the Late Witches Arraigned
and Executed in the county of Essex, Published by Authoritie, and Printed
by M. S. for Henry Overton and Benj. Allen, and are to be sold at their
shops in Popes-head-alley, 1645,' is an account of these Manningtree
witches. One John Rivet's wife, living in Manningtree, was taken sick and
lame and with violent fits, and John swore before Sir Harbottel Grimston,
one of the justices of the peace, that a cunning woman--wife of one Hovye
at Hadleigh--told him that his wife was cursed by two women, near
neighbours; of whom one was Elizabeth Clarke, _alias_ Bedingfield.
Elizabeth's mother, and others of her kinsfolk, had been hanged for
witchcraft in the bygone years: so it ran in the blood, and it was not to
be wondered at if it broke out afresh now. Sir Harbottel Grimston and Sir
Thomas Bowes, the two Justices before whom this deposition was taken, then
admitted the evidence of Matthew Hopkins of Manningtree, gentleman and
witch-finder, who deposed to having watched Elizabeth Clarke last night,
being the 24th of March, 1645, when he and one Master Sterne, who watched
with him, saw some strange things which he would presently tell their
worships of. Elizabeth told this deponent and his companion that if they
would stay and do her no harm, she would call one of her imps, and play
with it in her lap; which at first they refused, but afterwards
consenting, there appeared to them "an Impe like to a Dog, which was
white, with some sandy spots, and seemed to be very fat and plump, with
very short legges, who forthwith vanished away." This was Jarmara. Then
came Vinegar Tom, in the shape of a greyhound with very long legs; and
then for a moment only came one for Master Sterne, a black imp which
vanished instantly; then one like a polecat, only bigger.[131] Elizabeth
now told them that she had five imps of her own, and two of Beldam West's,
and that they sucked turn and turn about: now she was sucked by Beldam
West's and now Beldam West by hers. She further said that Satan, whom she
knew very much too well as "a proper Gentleman with a laced band, having
the whole proportion of a Man," would never let her have any peace till
she slew the hogs of Mr. Edwards of Manningtree, and Mr. Taylor's horse.
When she had slain them Satan let her be quiet. Then of his own accord,
Mr. Hopkins said that going from Mr. Edwards's house to his own, that
night at nine or ten, he saw the greyhound which he had with him jump as
if after a hare; and coming up hurriedly, there was a white thing like a
"kitlyn," and his greyhound standing aloof from it; but by-and-by the
white kitlyn came dancing round and about the greyhound, "and by all
likelihood bit off a piece of the flesh of the shoulder of the greyhound;
for the greyhound came shrieking and crying to this Informant, with a
piece of fleshe torne from her shoulder." To crown all, coming into his
own yard, Mr. Hopkins saw a thing like a black cat, only three times as
big, sitting on the strawberry-bed glaring at him; but when he went
towards it, it leaped over the pale, ran right through the yard--his
greyhound after it--then flung open a gate which was "underset with a
paire of Tumbrell strings," and so vanished, leaving the greyhound in a
state of extreme terror. Which, if there was any truth at all in these
depositions, and they were not merely arbitrary lies, would make one
suspect that Master Matthew Hopkins had been drinking, and knew a few of
the phenomena of delirium tremens.
John Sterne, Matthew's slavey or attendant, then gave information.
Watching with Matthew Hopkins, he asked Elizabeth Clarke if she were never
afraid of her imps? to whom she made this notable answer, "What, doe you
thinke I am afraid of my children?" His tale of imps was rather different
to his patron's: they had consulted hurriedly, or John's memory was bad.
The white imp was Hoult; Jarmara had red spots; Vinegar Tom was like a
"dumbe Dogge;" and Sack-and-Sugar was a hard-working imp, which would tear
Master John Sterne when it came. And it was well that Master Sterne was so
quick, else this imp would have "soon skipped upon his face, and perchance
had got into his throate, and then there would have been a feast of toades
in this Informant's belly." Elizabeth had one imp, she said, for which she
would fight up to her knees in blood before she would lose it; and when
asked what the devil was like as a man, said he was a "proper man," a deal
"properer" than Matthew Hopkins.
Other witnesses affirmed that if Elizabeth smacked with her mouth then a
white cat-like imp, would come, and that they saw five more imps, named as
above. And furthermore that she confessed that old Beldam, meaning Ann
West--which was a very disrespectful way of speaking of her gossip--had
killed Robert Oakes' wife and a clothier's child of Dedham, both of whom
had died about a week since; and also that "the said old Beldam Weste had
the wife of one William Cole of Mannintree in handling, who deid not long
since of a pining and languishing disease," and that she had raised the
wind which sunk the hoy in which was Tom Turner's brother thirty months
agone. She also said that Beldam West had taught her all she knew; for
that one day as she was pitying her for her lameness--she had but one
leg--and for her poverty, she told her how she might get imps and be rich,
for that the imps would help her to a husband who would keep her ever
after, so that she need not be put to such miserable shifts as gathering
sticks for a living. Elizabeth Clarke then accused Elizabeth Gooding of
being one of the tribe: and Robert Taylor came forward to give
corroborative evidence against her. He said that nine weeks since,
Elizabeth Gooding came to his shop for half a pound of cheese, on trust;
that he denied it to her; whereupon she went away, "muttering and
mumbling" to herself, and soon came back with the money. That very night
his horse, which was in the stable, sound and in good condition, fell lame
and in four days' time died of a strange disease, and Elizabeth Gooding
was the cause thereof. Elizabeth Gooding "is a lewd woman, and to this
Informant's knowledge, hath kept company with the said Elizabeth Clarke,
Anne Leech, and Anne West, which Anne West hath been suspected for a Witch
many years since, and suffered imprisonment for the same." Elizabeth
Gooding contented herself with saying quietly that she was not guilty of
any one particular charged upon her in the examination of the said Robert
Taylor. Nevertheless she was executed at Chelmsford.
Richard Edwards said that twelve months since he was driving his cows near
to the house of Anne Leech, widow, when they both fell down and died in
two days; the next day his white cow fell down within a rod of the same
place, and died in a week after. In August last his child was out at nurse
at goodwife Wyles', who lived near Elizabeth Gooding and Elizabeth Clarke;
which said child was taken very sick, with rolling of the eyes, strange
fits, extending of the limbs, and in two days it died: and Elizabeth
Gooding and Anne Leech were the cause of its death.
And now poor old Anne Leech was brought on the scene, to "confess," as so
many wretched victims did. She said that she and Elizabeth Clarke and
Elizabeth Gooding sent their imps to kill Mr. Edwards's black cow, and his
white cow; she sent a grey imp, Elizabeth Clarke a black one, and Gooding
a white; also that thirty years since she sent her grey imp to kill Mr.
Bragge's two horses, because he had called her a naughty woman--and that
the imps did their work without fear of failure. When these imps were
abroad, she said, and after mischief, she had her health, but when they
were unemployed and for ever hanging about her, she was sick. They often
spoke to her in a hollow voice which she easily understood, and told her
that she should never feel hell's torments: which it is very sure the poor
old maniac never did. She and Gooding killed Mr. Edwards's child too; she
with her white imp, and Elizabeth with her black one. She had her white
imp about thirty years since, and a grey and a black as well, from "one
Anne, the wife of Robert Pearce of Stoak in Suffolk, being her brother."
Three years since she sent her grey imp to kill Elizabeth Kirk; and
Elizabeth languished for about a year after and then died; the cause of
her, Anne Leech's, malice being that she had asked of Elizabeth a coif,
which she refused. The grey imp killed the daughter of Widow Rawlyns,
because Widow Rawlyns had put her out of her farm; and she knew that
Gooding had sent her imp to vex and torment Mary Taylor, because Mary
refused her some beregood; but when she wanted to warn her, the devil
would not let her. Lastly, she said, that about eight weeks ago she had
met West and Gooding at Elizabeth Clarke's house "where there was a book
read wherein she thinks there was no goodnesse."
So all these wretched creatures were hanged at Chelmsford, and the
informants plumed themselves greatly on their evidence. But before their
execution, poor Hellen Clark, wife of Thomas Clark, and daughter of Anne
Leech, was "fyled." On the 4th of April, 1645, Richard Glascock gave
information that he had heard a falling out between Hellen, and Mary wife
of Edward Parsley, and that he "heard the said Hellen to say as the said
Hellen passed by this Informant's door in the street, that Mary the
daughter of the said Edward and Mary Parsley should rue for all, whereupon
presently the said Mary, the daughter, fell sick and died within six weeks
after." When Helen was arrested she made her confession glibly. She said
that about six weeks since the devil came to her house in the likeness of
a white dog by name Elimanzer, and that she fed him with milk porridge;
that he spoke to her audibly, bidding her deny Christ and she should never
want; which she did: but she did not kill Mary Parsley nevertheless. She
was executed at Manningtree all the same as if she had spoken sober truth.
On the 23rd of the same month Prudence Hart came to the magistrates with
an accusation. About eight weeks since, she said, being at church very
well and healthful--some twenty weeks gone with child--she was suddenly
taken with pains, and miscarried before she could be got home: and about
two months since, being in bed, something fell upon her right side, but
being dark she could not tell of what shape it was: but presently she was
taken lame on that side, and with extraordinary pains and burning, and she
believed that Anne West and Rebecca West, the daughter, were the cause of
her pains. John Edes also swelled the count of accusations. He said that
Rebecca had confessed to him that seven years since her mother incited her
to intercourse with the devil, who had since appeared to her at divers
times and in various shapes, but chiefly as a proper young man, desiring
of her such things as proper young men are wont to desire of women;
promising her that if she would yield to his wishes she should have what
she would, and especially should be avenged of her enemies; and that then
Rebecca had demanded the death of Hart's son of Lawford, who, not long
after, was taken sick and died. At which Rebecca had said "that shee
conceived hee could do as God." And furthermore, that Rebecca said, while
she lived at Rivenall her mother Anne came to her and said, "the Barley
Corn was picked up," meaning one George Francis; and that shortly after
George's father said his son was bewitched to death; to which Anne
replied, "Be it unto him according to his faith." When Rebecca was called
on the 21st of March, to answer to these charges, she confirmed all that
John Edes had said, adding a few unimportant particulars which insured the
execution of her mother in the August following; but in spite of her own
confession she herself, though found guilty by the grand jury, was
acquitted for life and death. Matthew Hopkins struck a few dashes of
colour over the canvas, telling the judges that Rebecca had told him she
was made a witch by her mother; and that when she met the four other
goodies in Clarke's house, the devil, or their familiars, had come, now in
the shape of a dog, then of two kittyns, then of two dogs--and that they
first did homage to Elizabeth Clarke, skipping up into her lap and kissing
her, and then to all the rest, kissing each one of them save Rebecca.
Afterwards, when Satan came as a man, he gave her kisses enough: and not
quite so innocently as the "kittyns and the dogges."
Susan Sparrow and Mary Greenliefe lived together. Each had a daughter
thirteen or fourteen years old; and one night Susan Sparrow, being awake,
heard Mary's child cry out, "Oh mother, now it comes, it comes! Oh helpe,
mother, it hurts me, it hurts me!" So Susan said, "Goodwife Greenliefe,
Goodwife Greenliefe, if your childe be asleep awaken it, for if anybody
comes by and heare it make such moans (you having an ill name already),
they will say you are suckling your Impes upon it." To which Mary replied
that this was just what she was doing, and that she would "fee" with them
(meaning her Imps), that one night they should suck her daughter, and one
night Susan Sparrow's; which fell out as she said. For the very next night
Susan's child cried out in the same manner as Mary's had done, and clasped
her mother round the neck, much affrighted and shrieking pitifully. She
complained of being pinched and nipped on her thigh; and in the morning
there was a black and blue spot as broad and long as her hand. Susan
Sparrow also said that the house where they lived was haunted by a
leveret, which came and sat before the door; and knowing that Anthony
Sharlock had a capital courser, she went and asked him to banish it for
her. Whether the dog killed it or not she did not know; all that she did
know was, that Goodman Merrill's dog coursed it but a short time before,
but the leveret never stirred, and "just when the dog came at it he
skipped over it, and turned about and stood still, and looked on it, and
shortly after that dog languished and dyed. But whether this was an Impe
in the shape of a Leveret, or had any relation to the said Mary, this
Informant knows not, but does confesse shee wondered very much to see a
Leveret, wilde by nature, to come so frequently and sit openly before the
dore in such a familiar way." Mary was searched, and found marked with
witch marks, but contented herself with quietly denying all knowledge of
familiars, witchcraft, "bigges," and the like.
Mary Johnson was accused of having a familiar, in shape like a rat
"without tayl or eares," which she used to carry about in her pocket, and
set to rock the cradle. She kissed Elizabeth Otley's child, and gave it an
apple, and the child sickened and died of fits; and Elizabeth herself had
extraordinary pains, which left her when she had scuffled with Mary
Johnson and gotten her blood. And she killed Annabell Durant's child by
commending it as a pretty thing, stroking its face, and giving it a piece
of bread and butter; and Annabell knew that she had been the death of the
child, because, "setting up of broome in the outhouse after the little one
had been taken, she saw the perfect representation of a shape just like
Mary Johnson, and was struck with such a lamenesse in her Arms that she
was not able to bow her arms, and so continued speechless all that day and
night following. Mary came also as the noise of a Hornet, to the room
where Annabell's husband lay sick, for he cried out, 'It comes, it comes!
Now Goodwife Johnson's Impe is come! Now she hath my life!'" And
immediately a great part of the wall fell down. So was not Mary Johnson an
undoubted witch with all this testimony against her?
Anne Cooper was executed at Manningtree because she had three black imps,
by name Wynow, Jeso, and Panu; because she gave her daughter Sarah a grey
imp like a kite, and called Tomboy, telling her there was a cat for her to
play with; because she cursed a colt and it broke its neck directly after;
and because she sent one of her imps to kill little Mary Rous--which it
did. Elizabeth Hare was condemned, but afterwards reprieved, for giving
two imps to Mary Smith. The poor old woman "praying to God with her hands
upward, that if she was guilty of any such thing, He would show some
example on her, presently after she shaked and quivered, and fell to the
ground backward, and tumbled up and down the ground, and hath continued
sick ever since."
Old Margaret Moone had twelve imps, but her informants could only remember
the names of "Jesus, Jockey, Sandy, Mrs. Elizabeth, and Collyn." Her imps
killed cows and babes; spoiled brewings; broke horses' necks; bewitched
"aples" so that the eaters thereof died; sent Rawbodd's wife such a plague
of lice that they might have been swept off her clothes with a stick; and
did other maleficent things, proper to imps and witches. When searched she
was found to have "bigges" where the imps sucked; and confessed the same,
saying that "if she might have some bread and beere she would call her
said Impes; which being given unto her, she put the bread into the beere
and set it against a hole in the wall, and made a circle round about the
pot, and then cried, Come Christ, come Christ, come Mounsier, come
Mounsier." No imps appearing, she said her daughters had carried them off
in a white bag, and demanded that the said daughters might be "searched,"
"for they were naught." They were searched, and were found witch-marked.
Margaret denied all the charges against herself, but was condemned
nevertheless; and only escaped the executioner's hands by dying on her way
to the gallows.
Judith Moone helped her mother a step gallowsward by a rambling, pointless
confession about some wood, and how her mother threatened her, and how
something seemed to come about her legs that night; but when she searched
she found nothing; so Judith Moone probably died because she did not know
how to distinguish a false sensation from a true one.
Elizabeth Harvey, widow, Sarah Hating, wife, Marian Hocket, widow, were
"searched:" the first two were marked, the last not, but yet was the worst
witch of all, for she had made Elizabeth Harvey as bad as herself by
bringing her three things the bigness of mouses, which she said were
"pretty things," and to be made use of. As for Sarah Hating, she had sent
Francis Stock's wife a snake, which the said wife espied lying on a shelf,
and strove to kill with a spade, but the snake was too quick for her and
vanished away; so Francis Stock's wife was taken sick, and within one week
died. A daughter was taken ill immediately after her mother, and she also
died, and then another child; all because Francis Stock had impressed
Sarah Hating's husband for a soldier, and Sarah Hating was angered. Marian
Hocket was told on by her own sister, Sarah Barton, who said that she had
given her three imps, "Littleman, Prettyman, and Dainty." They were all
executed, Sarah and Marian denying their guilt, but Elizabeth Harvey
sticking to her tale of the three mouses which Marian had brought her, and
which sucked her.
Rose Hallybread bewitched Robert Turner's servant so that he crowed like a
cock, barked like a dog; groaned beyond the ordinary course of nature,
and, though but a youth, struggled with such strength that four or five
men could not hold him. Says Rose, fifteen or sixteen years ago, Goodwife
Hagtree brought an imp to her house which she nourished on oatmeal, and
suckled according to the manner of witches, for the space of a year and a
half--when she lost it; then Joyce Boanes brought her another, as a small
grey bird, which she carried to Thomas Toakley's house in St. Osyth,
putting it into a cranny of the door, so that his son should die, as he
did--crying out all the time that Rose Hallybread had killed him. She then
accused Susan Cocks and Margaret Landish, and died in prison, cheating the
hangman.
Old Joyce Boanes now took up the tale. She had two imps like mouses she
said, and they killed the lambs at the farm-house called Cocket-wick, and
one of these imps called "Rug" she took to Rose Hallybread, that they
might torment Turner's servant. Wherefore her imp made him bark like a
dog; Rose Hallybread's "inforced him to sing sundry tunes in his great
extremity of paines;" Susan Cock's compelled him to crow like a cock; and
Margaret Landish's made him groan. Poor old Joyce Boanes was hanged in
return for her drivelling ravings.
So was Susan Cock; who confirmed all that had gone before, adding only
that the night her mother died she gave her two imps, one like a mouse
"Susan," the other yellow and like a cat "Besse," with which she did
sundry acts of spite and damage. Wherefore Susan was put out of the way of
further harm. Margaret Landish knew not much about the matter, but was
executed nevertheless, for having bewitched Thomas Hart's child--incited
thereto by the girl's pointing at her and crying "There goes Pegg the
witch!" upon which Peg turned back and clapped her hands in a threatening
manner, saying "she should smart for it," and that very night the child
fell sick in a raving manner, and died within three weeks after; often in
its fits crying out that "Pegg the witch was by the bedside making strange
mouths at her."
Rebecca Jones owned to knowing the devil as a handsome young man, who
pricked her wrist and made her his in soul and body. This was about four
or five and twenty years ago, when living with John Bishop as his servant.
About three months since too, going to St. Osyth to sell her master's
butter, she met a man in a ragged suit and with such great eyes that she
was afraid of him, and he gave her three things like "moules," having four
feet apiece but no tails, and black, which he told her to nurse carefully
and feed on milk. Their names were Margaret, Anie, and Susan, and they
killed cows and sheep and hogs, and revenged her on her enemies. So
Rebecca was hanged as befitted.
Johan Cooper, widow, had three imps, two like mouses and one like a frog;
their names were "Prickeare, Robyn, and Frog," and they killed men and
beasts. Wherefore she too was hanged like the rest.
Anne Cate had four, given her by her mother twenty years ago, "James,
Prickeare, Robyn, and Sparrow:" the first three like mouses, and the
fourth like a sparrow; and they did evil and mischief and killed all whom
she would. She was hanged too.
At the end of the tract is a very curious bit of evidence, given by an
honest man of Manningtree, one Goff, a glover, concerning old Anne West,
then on her trial. He said that one moonlight morning, about four o'clock,
as he was passing Anne West's house, the door being open, he looked in and
saw three or four little things like black rabbits which came skipping
towards him. He struck at them, but missed; when, by better luck, he
caught one in his hand and tried to wring its head off; but "as he wrung
and stretched the neck of it, it came out betweene his hands like a lock
of wooll," so he went to drown it at a spring not far off. But still as he
went he could not hinder himself from falling down, so that at last he
was obliged to creep on his hands and knees, till he came to the water,
when he held the imp for a long space underneath, till he conceived it was
drowned, but, "letting goe his hand, it sprang out of the water up into
the aire, and so vanished away." Coming back to Anne West's, he found her
standing at her door in terrible undress, and to his complaint of why did
she send her imps to molest him? she answered "that they were not sent out
to trouble him, but as Scouts upon another designe."
But one of the most painful murders of the Hopkins Session was that of old
Mr. Lewis,[132] the "Reading Parson" of Franlingham; a fine old man of
good character, but generally regarded as a Malignant, because he
preferred to read Queen Elizabeth's Homilies instead of composing nasal
discourses of his own, of the kind so dear to the Puritan party: wherefore
the authorities and Matthew Hopkins--who was a devout Puritan--had their
eyes upon him, and were not disposed to be lenient. He was swum in
Hopkins's manner, cross-bound; set on a table cross-legged; kept several
nights without sleep, and twenty-four hours without food; run backwards
and forwards in the room, two men holding him, until he was out of breath;
"pricked" and searched for marks; after all which barbarity it is not
surprising to find that the poor old Reading Parson of eighty-five
"confessed." Yes, he had made a compact with the devil and sealed it with
his blood; and he had two imps that sucked him, one of which, the yellow
dun imp, was always urging him to do some mischief, but the other was more
amiable. Accordingly, to please the yellow dun he had one day sent it to
sink an Ipswich ship, which he spied out in the offing: a commission
which the imp executed with zeal and precision before the eyes of a whole
beach full of spectators. This Ipswich ship was one of many that rode
safely enough in the calm sea, but the imp troubled the waters immediately
about her, and down she went like a stone, as all present could testify.
Asked if he had not grieved to make so many--they were fourteen--widows in
a few moments he said "No, he was glad to have pleased his imp." This
confession and various witch "bigges" found on him were held proofs
conclusive; and Mr. Lewis was condemned to be hanged; his eighty years,
and his gown, protecting him nowise. As soon as he was a little refreshed
he denied all the ravings he had been induced to utter, read the burial
service for himself with cheerfulness and courage, and met his death
calmly and composedly; perhaps not sorry to resign into God's keeping a
life which Matthew Hopkins and the Puritans were rendering intolerable.
A Penitent Woman[133] of the same time confessed that when her mother lay
sick a thing like a mole ran into bed to her. She, the Penitent Woman,
started, but her mother told her not to fear, but to take the mole and
keep it, saying, "Keep this in a pot by the fire, and thou shalt never
want." The daughter did as she was bid, and made the mole comfortable in
its pot. And after she had done this, a seemingly poor boy came in and
asked leave to warm himself by the fire. When he went away she found some
money under the stool whereon he had sat. This happened many times, and so
her mother's promise and her imp brought the poor penitent romancer
Barmecidal good luck. It could not have been much, for Hopkins, or at
least his friend and comrade John Sterne, says in the examination of Joan
Ruccalver, of Powstead, Suffolk, that "six shillings was the largest
amount he had ever known given by an imp to its dame."
That all this seemed right and rational in the eyes of sane men is one of
the most marvellous things connected with the delusion: that well-educated
Englishmen should send such a wretch as Matthew Hopkins with legal
authorisation to prick witches, associating with him Mr. Calamy "to see
that there was no fraud:" that they should arraign miserable old women by
scores, and hang them by dozens: and that Baxter should gravely argue for
the validity of ghosts and spectres on the plea that "various Creatures
must have a various Situation, Reception, and Operation: the Fishes must
not dwell in our cities nor be acquainted with our affairs"--strikes me
chiefly with amazement at the marvellous imbecility of superstition. It is
well for the leaders of sects to bid us cast down our reason before blind
faith; for, assuredly, our reason, which is the greatest gift of God,
pleads loudly against the follies of belief and the vital absurdities into
which religionists fall when unchecked by common sense. It was only the
"Atheists" and "Sadducees," as they were called, who at last managed to
put a stop to this hideous delusion: all the pious believers upheld the
holy need of searching for witches, and of not suffering them to live
wherever they might be found. All sects and denominations of Christians
joined in this, and found a meeting-place of brotherly love and concord
beneath the witches' gallows. And though one's soul revolts most at the
so-called "Reformed Party," because of the greater unctuousness of their
piety, and their mighty professions, yet they were all equally guilty, one
with the other; all equally steeped to the lips in insanest superstition.
The temper of the times has so far changed now that men and women are no
longer hung because they have mesmeric powers, or because hysterical and
epileptic patients utter wild ravings: but the thing remains the same;
there is the same amount of superstition still afloat, if somewhat altered
in its direction; and modern Spiritualism, which has come to supersede
Witchcraft, is, when it is true at all and not mere legerdemain, as little
understood and as falsely catalogued as was ever the art of magic and
sorcery.