One certain Sunday afternoon, in November 1657, Richard Jones, "a
sprightly youth of twelve," living at Shepton Mallet, in Somersetshire,
being left at home alone, and looking abroad as sprightly youth will, saw
an old woman of the place, by name Jane Brooks, look in at the window. He
went to the door to see what she wanted, when she asked him to give her a
piece of "close bread," and she would give him an apple. He did so, and
she thanked him, stroked him down the right side, shook him by the hand,
and bade him good night. When the father and our coz. Gibson came back,
they found the sprightly youth ill, and complaining of pain in the right
side. He continued in the same state through the night, and on the
following day became much worse, falling into fits of speechlessness, &c.,
immediately after having roasted and eaten the apple which Jane Brooks had
given him. He then told the father that an old woman of the place, name
unknown but person remembered, had stroked his right side, and thus had
caused his illness; whereupon his father decided that all the women of
Shepton Mallet should come to see him, and that in case he was in his fit,
and not able to speak when the true witch came, he should give a "jogg,"
which would be sufficiently expressive. All the women of Shepton Mallet
were brought in by turns; but the boy remained quiet until Jane Brooks
appeared, when he fell into a fit, and was for some time unable to see or
speak. Recovering himself, "he gave his father the Item," and drew towards
Jane. She was standing behind her two sisters, but the boy singled her
out and put his hand upon her; which the father seeing, he flew on the
poor creature, scratched her face "above her breath," and drew blood.
After this rather rough manner of exorcism, Master Richard Jones cried out
that he was well, and condescended to remain well for seven or eight days.
But at the end of this time, Alice Coward, sister to Jane, happening to
meet him and to say, "How do you do, my Honey?" he fell ill again, and
"cried out" on them without intermission. One Sunday he was in his fits,
his father and cousin Gibson with him as usual, when he suddenly exclaimed
that he "saw Jane Brooks there"--pointing to the wall. Cousin Gibson at
once struck a knife into the spot; whereupon the sprightly youth cried, "O
father, couz Gibson hath cut Jane Brooks's hand, and 'tis Bloody." The
father and Gibson on this went to the constable, "a discreet Person," and
telling him what had happened, took him with them to Jane's house, where
they found her sitting on a stool, with one hand over the other. After a
few questions they drew her hand away, and found that which was underneath
all bloody; which appearance she explained away as well as she could, by
saying that it was scratched with a great pin. This kind of thing going on
for some time, the pitiful plot grew ripe for execution, and on the 8th of
December Jane Brooks and her sister, Alice Coward, were taken to Castle
Cary to be examined by the justices, Mr. Hunt and Mr. Cary. Here Richard
performed all the usual tricks of the bewitched, lying speechless and
motionless while the suspected women were in the room; springing up into
tetanic fits if they laid their hands upon him, or so much as looked
towards him; bringing on himself, by his own will, convulsive fits and
catalepsy, and many of the more violent symptoms of hysteria, and
insisting that the two women came constantly to see him--as
apparitions--"their Hands cold, their Eyes staring, and their Lips and
Cheeks looking pale." "In this manner on a Thursday about Noon, the Boy
being newly laid in his Bed, Jane Brooks and Alice Coward appeared to him,
and told him that what they had begun they could not perform. But if he
would say no more of it, they would give him Money, and so put a Twopence
into his Pocket. After which they took him out of his Bed and laid him on
the ground and vanished, and the Boy was found by those that came next
into the Room lying on the Floor as if he had been dead." This twopence
had odd properties. When put upon the fire and made hot, the boy fell ill;
when taken out and cooled, he was all right again. The trick was tried in
the presence of many, and was found to answer admirably. Between the 8th
of December and the 17th of February, he practised another variation of
the same air. "Divers persons at sundry times" heard a croaking, as of a
toad, proceed from the boy, and though they held a candle to his face they
could not discern any movement of tongue, teeth, or lips. And this
croaking as of a toad repeated incessantly, "Jane Brooks, Alice Coward,
Jane Brooks, Alice Coward." On the 25th of February he performed his
greatest feat of all; or was reported to have done so--which did quite as
well in those days; for Richard Isles's wife said she saw him raised up
from the ground, mounting gradually higher and higher till he was carried
full thirty yards over the garden wall, when, falling at last at one
Jordan's door, he was there found as if dead. Coming to himself, he
declared that Jane Brooks had taken him by the arm, and carried him up, as
Isles's wife had seen; which fact was told and believed in as a fearful
instance of her malicious and wicked sorcery against the sprightly youth.
At another time, as many as nine people at once saw him hanging from a
beam, his hands placed flat against the wood, and his whole body raised
two or three feet from the ground. He continued to play these
extraordinary tricks from the 15th of November to the 10th of March; when,
being much wasted and worn, it was deemed advisable to save his life if
yet there might be time. Jane Brooks was sent to gaol, condemned, and
hanged at Charde assizes, March 26th, 1658; and Richard Jones, having no
longer any inducement to act the possessed, consented to remain with his
feet on the ground and his head in the air, according to the laws of
nature and Newton, and took no more fits, real or simulated, to extort
compassion or obtain revenge.