[The references are to the alphabetical letters or signatures at the
bottom of each page: _a_ is intended for the first and _b_ the second
page, marked with such letter or signature.]
[Transcriber's Note: In the original text, a single note reference
sometimes applies to more than one note. For clarity's sake, in this
e-text a number has been added to the end of such references to
distinguish among the notes.]
DEDICATION. "_The Right Honorable Thomas Lord Knyvet._"] Sir Thomas
Knivet, or Knyvet, Gentleman of the Privy Chamber to James the First,
was afterwards created Baron of Escricke, in the county of York. He it
was who was intrusted to search the vaults under the Parliament House,
and who discovered the thirty-six barrels of gunpowder, and
apprehended Guido Fawkes, who declared to him, that if he had happened
to be within the house when he took him, as he was immediately before,
he would not have failed to blow him up, house and all. (Howell's
_State Trials_, vol. ii., p. 202.) His courage and conduct on this
occasion seem to have recommended him to the especial favour of James.
Dying without issue, the title of Lord Howard of Escrick was conferred
on Sir Edward Howard, son of Thomas Howard, Earl of Suffolk, who had
married the eldest daughter and co-heir of Sir H. Knivet; and, having
been enjoyed successively by his two sons, ended in his grandson
Charles, in the beginning of the last century. It must be admitted
that the writer has chosen his patron very felicitously. Who so fit to
have the book dedicated to him as one who had acted so conspicuous a
part on the memorable occasion at Westminster? The blowing up of
Lancaster Castle and good Mr. Covel, by the conclave of witches at
Malkin's Tower, was no discreditable imitation of the grand
metropolitan drama on provincial boards.
A 2. FIRST IMPRIMATUR. "_Ja. Altham, Edw. Bromley._"] These two judges
were Barons of the Court of Exchequer, but neither of them seems to
have left a name extraordinarily distinguished for legal learning.
Altham was one of the assistants named in the commission for the trial
of the Countess of Somerset for the murder of Sir Thomas Overbury in
1616. Bromley appears, from incidental notices contained in the diary
of Nicholas Assheton, (see Whitaker's _Whalley_, third edition, page
300,) and other sources, to have frequently taken the northern
circuit. He was not of the family of Lord Chancellor Bromley, but of
another stock.
A 3. SECOND IMPRIMATUR: "_Edward Bromley. I took upon mee to reuise
and correct it._"] This revision by the judge who presided at the
trial gives a singular and unique value and authority to the work. We
have no other report of any witch trial which has an equal stamp of
authenticity. How many of the rhetorical flourishes interspersed in
the book are the property of Thomas Potts, Esquier, and how many are
the interpolation of the "excellent care" of the worthy Baron, it is
scarcely worth while to investigate. Certainly never were judge and
clerk more admirably paired. The _Shallow_ on the bench was well
reflected in the _Master Slender_ below.
B _a_. "_The number of them being knowen to exceed all others at any
time heretofore at one time to be indicted, arraigned, and receiue
their tryall._"] Probably this was the case, at least in England; but
a greater number had been convicted before, even in this country, at
one time, than were found guilty on this occasion, as it appears from
Scot, (_Discovery of Witchcraft_, page 543, edition 1584,) that
seventeen or eighteen witches were condemned at once, at St. Osith, in
Essex, in 1576, of whom an account was written by Brian Darcy, with
the names and colours of their spirits.
B _b_. "_She was a very old woman, about the age of fourescore._"] Dr.
Henry More would have styled old Demdike "An eximious example of
Moses, his Mecassephah, the word which he uses in that law,--Thou
shalt not suffer a witch to live." Margaret Agar and Julian Cox, (see
Glanvill's _Collection of Relations_, p. 135, edition 1682,) on whom
he dwells with such delighted interest, were very inferior subjects to
what, in his hands, Elizabeth Sothernes would have made. They had
neither of them the finishing attribute of blindness, so fearful in a
witch, to complete the sketch; nor such a fine foreground for the
painting as the forest of Pendle presented; nor the advantage, for
grouping, of a family of descendants in which witchcraft might be
transmitted to the third generation.
B 2 _a_. "_Roger Nowell, Esquire._"] This busy and mischievous
personage who resided at Read Hall, in the immediate neighbourhood of
Pendle, was sheriff of Lancashire in 1610. He married Katherine,
daughter of John Murton, of Murton, and was buried at Whalley, January
31st, 1623. He was of the same family as Alexander Nowell, the Dean of
St. Paul's, and Lawrence Nowell, the restorer of Saxon literature in
England; and tarnished a name which they had rendered memorable, by
becoming, apparently, an eager and willing instrument in that wicked
persecution which resulted in the present trial. His ill-directed
activity seems to have fanned the dormant embers into a blaze, and to
have given aim and consistency to the whole scheme of oppression. From
this man was descended, in the female line, one whose merits might
atone for a whole generation of Roger Nowells, the truly noble-minded
and evangelical Reginald Heber.
B 2 _b_ 1. "_Gouldshey_,"] so commonly pronounced, but more properly
Goldshaw, or Goldshaw Booth.
B 2 _b_ 2. "_The spirit answered, his name was Tibb._"] Bernard, who
is learned in the nomenclature of familiar spirits, gives, in his
_Guide to Grand Jurymen_, 1630, 12mo, the following list of the names
of the more celebrated familiars of English witches. "Such as I have
read of are these: Mephistophiles, Lucifer, Little Lord, Fimodes,
David, Jude, Little Robin, Smacke, Litefoote, Nonsuch, Lunch,
Makeshift, Swash, Pluck, Blue, Catch, White, Callico, Hardname, Tibb,
Hiff, Ball, Puss, Rutterkin, Dicke, Prettie, Grissil, and Jacke." In
the confession of Isabel Gowdie, a famous Scotch witch, (in
_Pitcairne's Trials_, vol. iii. page 614,) we have the following
catalogue of attendant spirits, rather, it must be confessed, a
formidable band. "The names of our Divellis, that waited upon us, ar
thes: first, Robert the Jakis; Sanderis, the Read Roaver; Thomas the
Fearie; Swain, the Roaring Lion; Thieffe of Hell; Wait upon Hirself;
Mak Hectour; Robert the Rule; Hendrie Laing; and Rorie. We would ken
them all, on by on, from utheris. Some of theim apeirit in sadd dunn,
som in grasse-grein, som in sea-grein, and some in yallow." Archbishop
Harsnet, in his admirable _Declaration of Popish Impostures, under the
pretence of casting out Devils_, 1605, 4to, a work unsurpassed for
rich humour and caustic wit, clothed in good old idiomatic English,
has a chapter "on the strange names of these devils," in which he
observes, (p. 46,) "It is not amiss that you be acquainted with these
extravagant names of devils, least meeting them otherwise by chance
you mistake them for the names of tapsters, or juglers." Certainly,
some of the names he marshalls in array smell strongly of the tavern.
These are some of them: Pippin, Philpot, Modu, Soforce, Hilco,
Smolkin, Hillio, Hiaclito, Lustie Huffe-cap, Killico, Hob, Frateretto,
Fliberdigibbet, Hoberdidance, Tocobatto, and Lustie Jollie Jenkin.
B 2 _b_ 3. "_About Day-light Gate._"] Day-light Gate, i.e. Evening,
the down gate of daylight. See _Promptuarium Parvulorum_, (edited by
Way for the Camden Society,) page 188, "Gate down, or downe gate of
the Sunne or any other planet."--Occasus. Palgrave gives, "At the
sonne gate downe; sur le soleil couchant."
B 3 _a_ 1. "_The said Deuill did get blood vnder her left arme._"] It
would seem (see Elizabeth Device's Examination afterwards) as if some
preliminary search were made, in the case of this poor old woman, for
the marks which were supposed to come by the sucking or drawing of the
Spirit or Familiar. Most probably her confession was the result of
this and other means of annoyance and torture employed in the usual
unscrupulous manner, upon a blind woman of eighty. Of those marks
supposed to be produced by the sucking of the Spirit or Familiar, the
most curious and scientific (if the word may be applied to such a
subject) account will be found in a very scarce tract, which seems to
have been unknown to the writers on witchcraft. Its title is "A
Confirmation and Discovery of Witchcraft, containing these several
particulars; That there are Witches called bad Witches, and Witches
untruly called good or white Witches, and what manner of people they
be, and how they may be knowne, with many particulars thereunto
tending. Together with the Confessions of many of those executed since
May, 1645, in the several Counties hereafter mentioned. As also some
objections Answered. By John Stearne, now of Lawshall, neere Burie
Saint Edmunds in Suffolke, sometimes of Manningtree in Essex. Prov.
xvii. 15, He that justifieth the wicked, and he that condemneth the
just, even they both are an abomination to the Lord. Deut. xiii. 14,
Thou shall therefore enquire, and make search, and aske diligently
whether it be truth and the thing certaine. London, Printed by William
Wilson, dwelling in Little Saint Bartholomews, neere Smithfield, 1648,
pages 61, besides preface." Stearne, in whom Remigius and De Lancre
would have recognized a congenial soul, had a sort of joint commission
with Hopkins, as Witch-finder, and tells us (see address to Reader)
that he had been in part an agent in finding out or discovering about
200 witches in Essex, Suffolk, Northamptonshire, Huntingtonshire,
Bedfordshire, Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, and the Isle of Ely. He deals
with the subject undoubtedly like a man whose extensive experience and
practice had enabled him to reduce the matter to a complete system.
(See his account of their marks, pp. 43 to 50.) He might, like John
Kincaid in Tranent, (see Pitcairne's _Criminal Trials_, vol. iii. p.
599,) have assumed the right of Common Pricker, i.e. Searcher for the
devil's marks, and had his own tests, which were infallible. He
complains, good man, "that in many places I never received penny as
yet, nor any am like, notwithstanding I have hands for satisfaction,
except I should sue; [he should have sued by all means, we might then
have had his bill of particulars, which would have been curious;] but
many rather fall upon me for what hath been received, but I hope such
suits will be disannulled, and that where I have been out of moneys
for Towns in charges and otherwise such course will be taken that I
may be satisfied and paid with reason." He was doubtless well
deserving of a recompense, and his neighbours were much to blame if he
did not receive a full and ample one. Of the latter end of his
coadjutor, Hopkins, whom Sir Walter Scott (see Somers's Tracts, vol.
iii. p. 97, edit. 1810,) and several other writers represent as
ultimately executed himself for witchcraft, he gives a very different,
and no doubt more correct account; which, singularly enough, has
hitherto remained entirely unnoticed. "He died peaceably at
Manningtree, after a long sicknesse of a consumption, as many of his
generation had done before him, without any trouble of conscience for
what he had done, as was falsely reported of him. He was the son of a
godly minister, and therefore, without doubt, within the Covenant."
Were not the interests of truth too sacred to be compromised, it might
seem almost a pity to demolish that merited and delightful retribution
which Butler's lines have immortalized.
B 3 _a_ 2. "_I will burne the one of you and hang the other._"] The
following extracts from that fine old play, "The Witch of Edmonton,"
bear a strong resemblance to the scene described in the text. Mother
Sawyer, in whom the milk of human kindness is turned to gall by
destitution, imbittered by relentless outrage and insult, and who,
driven out of the pale of human fellowship, is thrown upon strange and
fearful allies, would almost appear to be the counterpart of Mother
Demdike. The weird sisters of our transcendant bard are wild and
wonderful creations, but have no close relationship to the plain old
traditional witch of our ancestors, which is nowhere represented by
our dramatic writers with faithfulness and truth except in the Witch
of Edmonton:--
_Enter_ ELIZABETH SAWYER, _gathering sticks._
_Saw._ And why on me? why should the envious world
Throw all their scandalous malice upon me?
'Cause I am poor, deform'd, and ignorant,
And like a bow buckled and bent together,
By some more strong in mischiefs than myself,
Must I for that be made a common sink,
For all the filth and rubbish of men's tongues
To fall and run into? Some call me Witch,
And being ignorant of myself, they go
About to teach me how to be one; urging,
That my bad tongue (by their bad usage made so)
Forespeaks their cattle, doth bewitch their corn,
Themselves, their servants, and their babes at nurse.
This they enforce upon me; and in part
Make me to credit it; and here comes one
Of my chief adversaries.
_Enter_ Old BANKS.
_Banks._ Out, out upon thee, witch!
_Saw._ Dost call me witch?
_Banks._ I do, witch, I do; and worse I would, knew I a name more
hateful. What makest thou upon my ground?
_Saw._ Gather a few rotten sticks to warm me.
_Banks._ Down with them when I bid thee, quickly; I'll make thy bones
rattle in thy skin else.
_Saw._ You won't, churl, cut-throat, miser!--there they be; [_Throws
them down._] would they stuck across thy throat, thy bowels, thy maw,
thy midriff.
_Banks._ Say'st thou me so, hag? Out of my ground! [_Beats her._
_Saw._ Dost strike me, slave, curmudgeon! Now thy bones aches, thy
joints cramps, and convulsions stretch and crack thy sinews!
_Banks._ Cursing, thou hag! take that, and that. [_Beats her, and
exit._
_Saw._ Strike, do!--and wither'd may that hand and arm
Whose blows have lamed me, drop from the rotten trunk!
Abuse me! beat me! call me hag and witch!
What is the name? where, and by what art learn'd,
What spells, what charms or invocations?
May the thing call'd Familiar be purchased?
* * * * *
_Saw._ Still vex'd! still tortured! that curmudgeon Banks
Is ground of all my scandal; I am shunn'd
And hated like a sickness; made a scorn
To all degrees and sexes. I have heard old beldams
Talk of familiars in the shape of mice,
Rats, ferrets, weasels, and I wot not what,
That have appear'd, and suck'd, some say, their blood;
But by what means they came acquainted with them,
I am now ignorant. Would some power, good or bad,
Instruct me which way I might be revenged
Upon this churl, I'd go out of myself,
And give this fury leave to dwell within
This ruin'd cottage, ready to fall with age!
Abjure all goodness, be at hate with prayer,
And study curses, imprecations,
Blasphemous speeches, oaths, detested oaths,
Or anything that's ill; so I might work
Revenge upon this miser, this black cur,
That barks and bites, and sucks the very blood
Of me, and of my credit. 'Tis all one,
To be a witch, as to be counted one:
Vengeance, shame, ruin light upon that canker!
_Enter a_ Black Dog.
_Dog._ Ho! have I found thee cursing? now thou art
Mine own.
_Saw._ Thine! what art thou?
_Dog._ He thou hast so often
Importuned to appear to thee, the devil.
_Saw._ Bless me! the devil!
_Dog._ Come, do not fear; I love thee much too well
To hurt or fright thee; if I seem terrible,
It is to such as hate me. I have found
Thy love unfeign'd; have seen and pitied
Thy open wrongs, and come, out of my love,
To give thee just revenge against thy foes.
_Saw._ May I believe thee?
_Dog._ To confirm't, command me
Do any mischief unto man or beast.
And I'll effect it, on condition
That, uncompell'd, thou make a deed of gift
Of soul and body to me.
_Saw._ Out, alas!
My soul and body?
_Dog._ And that instantly,
And seal it with thy blood: if thou deniest,
I'll tear thy body in a thousand pieces.
_Saw._ I know not where to seek relief: but shall I,
After such covenants seal'd, see full revenge
On all that wrong me?
_Dog._ Ha, ha! silly woman!
The devil is no liar to such as he loves--
Didst ever know or hear the devil a liar
To such as he affects?
_Saw._ Then I am thine; at least so much of me
As I can call mine own--
_Dog._ Equivocations?
Art mine or no? speak, or I'll tear--
_Saw._ All thine.
_Dog._ Seal't with thy blood.
[_She pricks her arm, which he sucks.--Thunder and lightning._
See! now I dare call thee mine!
For proof, command me: instantly I'll run
To any mischief; goodness can I none.
_Saw._ And I desire as little. There's an old churl,
One Banks--
_Dog._ That wrong'd thee: he lamed thee, call'd thee witch.
_Saw._ The same; first upon him I'd be revenged.
_Dog._ Thou shalt; do but name how?
_Saw._ Go, touch his life.
_Dog._ I cannot.
_Saw._ Hast thou not vow'd? Go, kill the slave!
_Dog._ I will not.
_Saw._ I'll cancel then my gift.
_Dog._ Ha, ha!
_Saw._ Dost laugh!
Why wilt not kill him?
_Dog._ Fool, because I cannot.
Though we have power, know, it is circumscribed,
And tied in limits: though he be curst to thee,
Yet of himself, he is loving to the world,
And charitable to the poor; now men, that,
As he, love goodness, though in smallest measure,
Live without compass of our reach: his cattle
And corn I'll kill and mildew; but his life
(Until I take him, as I late found thee,
Cursing and swearing) I have no power to touch.
_Saw._ Work on his corn and cattle then.
_Dog._ I shall.
The WITCH OF EDMONTON shall see his fall.
_Ford's Plays_, edit. 1839, p. 190.
B 3 _a_. "_Alizon Device._"] Device is merely the common name Davies
spelled as pronounced in the neighbourhood of Pendle.