In the July of 1682, Temperance Lloyd, of Bideford, or "Bytheford," was
accused of bewitching Mrs. Grace Thomas. Temperance, being a little crazy,
had cried one day on meeting Mrs. Grace, who had been for long months but
a poor, "dunt," feckless body; and when asked why she wept had made
answer, "For joy to see her who had been so ill, walk abroad again without
disaster." But that very same night Mrs. Grace was taken with fresh pains,
"sticking and pricking Pains, as if Pins and Awls had been thrust into her
Body, from the Crown of her Head to the Soles of her Feet, and she lay as
if she had been upon a rack;" and none but Temperance Lloyd the cause
thereof, despite all her hypocritical tears. And did not Elizabeth
Eastcheap see her knee, which looked as if it had been pricked in nine
places with a thorn? And when Temperance was asked if she had any clay or
wax wherewith to torment Mrs. Grace, did she not confess to a bit of
leather which she had pricked nine times, and which was as full of venom
and sorcery as any wax or clay in the world? Besides, it came out
afterwards, that she had gone to Thomas Eastcheap's shop in the form of a
gray or "braget cat," and thence taken out a "puppit or picture, commonly
called a child's baby," which she stuck full of pins, whereby to prick
Grace to death. When asked in what part of the house the said puppet or
picture was hidden, she refused to tell, saying the devil would tear her
in pieces if she confessed. Anne Wakely, too, the neighbour who went to
nurse poor Grace, had her word to say; for one morning--it was on a bonny
day in June--she saw "something in the shape of a magpye come at the
chamber window;" and when Temperance was questioned as to what she knew of
this fluttering thing, she made answer that it was the Black Man in the
shape of a bird which she had sent to trouble poor rheumatic pain-racked
Grace. For Temperance was not stiff. She was easily brought to confess how
she had given herself over to the service of a black man, who made her do
all manner of hurt to her neighbours--made her pinch Grace Thomas, and
bewitch William Herbert to his death twelve years ago, and destroy Anne
Fellows three years since--for both of which crimes she had been arraigned
and questioned at the time, but had managed to get clear. Now, however,
she confessed that she had been guilty of them. The dread and evil fame
and poverty under which she had lived so long had done their appointed
work on her poor old brain; and she was ready to confess to anything
which it was desired she should allow. Yes, she had bewitched the eyes of
Jane Dalbin, but so secretly that no one had suspected her: and she had
destroyed one woman by kissing her, holding her so tight that she squeezed
her to death--the blood gushing out of her mouth and nose: and she hunted
with the devil, he going before her in the shape of a hound; "doubtless he
hunted for souls," says a very odd tract which gives this additional trait
of diabolical management and the economy of time. Being asked of what
stature was her black man, she said "he was above the Length of her Arm;
and that his Eyes were very big; and that he hopped, or leaped in the way
before her;" but when asked if she had made any contract with him she said
"No; neither had she gone through the keyhole when she went to harm Grace
Thomas, but through the door, the devil leading her, and both invisible;
and that she had been made to pinch and torment Grace; and that the devil
beat her about the head grievously because she would not kill her." She
had never bewitched any ships or boats, nor done a child to death; for the
child who stole her apple died of the small-pox, and she was guiltless of
its decease; nor had she ever ridden over an arm of the sea on a cow--"No,
master, never; it was she," meaning another delated witch, Susanna
Edwards, who did this. The worst thing she had ever done was to Grace
Thomas, and then the devil made her do it, beating her about the head and
back in shape and form, "black like a bullock." Temperance Lloyd was
executed; and died penitent and crazy.
Mary Trembles was another delated witch. She bewitched Agnes Whitefield
with all manner of pains; and Grace Barnes deposed to pricks and pains
like awls and pins thrust into her, which evil Mary Trembles and Susanna
Edwards had done together; for they were comrades and cronies, and would
go hand-in-hand about the world, invisible to all save themselves and
their master the devil. It was Susanna Edwards who had seduced Mary and
got her to accept the service of the devil, who came to her as a lion; at
which she was much frightened, though not hurt; and made her bewitch Grace
Barnes, because said Grace would give her no meat. She was also executed,
very penitent and quite resigned.
Susanna Edwards was active and powerful in forespeaking. She sent pains to
Dorcas Coleman--tormenting pains, and very grievous--so that Dr. George
Bear could do her no good, but openly proclaimed her beyond his power for
that she was bewitched; and she held Anthony Jones pretty hardly, as Joane
his wife deposed. For when Susan was apprehended, Anthony "observing her
to gripe and twinkle her Hands upon her own Body, said to her, 'Thou
Devil, thou art now tormenting some Person or other.'" Upon which the said
Susanna was displeased with him, and said, "Well enough I will fit thee."
And fit him she did, for on his making one of the rabble that dragged her
before the magistrates, Susanna turned round and looked at him, "so that
he cried out, 'I am now bewitched with this Devil, wife,' meaning Susanna
Edwards, and presently leaped and capered like a madman, and fell
a-shaking, quivering, and foaming, and for the space of half an Hour like
a dying or dead Man." Susan knew the devil as a gentleman dressed in black
clothes, and also as a little boy; but could not be induced to confess to
any of the more striking monstrosities beyond what might have well
belonged to an ordinary case of hallucination. She was executed as the
other two; but we are not told if Grace Thomas, or Dorcas Coleman, or
Grace Barnes, or Anthony Jones recovered their health now that the witches
were dead, or if hysteria and rheumatism and neuralgia and scrofula were
found more troublesome enemies to conquer than three crazy old women. It
would be curious as well as interesting to know the condition of the
honestly deceived and actually diseased after the death of the possessing
witch. In those instances where crutches were thrown away, and fits
suddenly brought to a close, the instant the law had laid its gripe on the
neck of the unfortunate accused, we have no choice but to refer the whole
proceedings to imposture quickened by enmity or the desire of notoriety;
but there were cases where a strange and sudden disease did really appear
as bewitchment to the afflicted, and of these one would be glad to know
the after mental condition when the obsessing witch was killed, yet the
obsessing sickness unconquered. Did experience ever open their eyes or
shake their faith? or did they die in their belief that the stake and the
gallows were the finest remedies known for disordered functions or organic
mischief? No one of the time was sufficiently accurate, or sufficiently
unprejudiced, to be able to give us reliable information, and thus we have
lost a most valuable indication of the absolute power exercised by the
mind over the body.