_Gen._ My blood is turn'd to ice, and all my vitals
Have ceas'd their working. Dull stupidity
Surpriseth me at once, and hath arrested
That vigorous agitation, which till now
Exprest a life within me. I, methinks,
Am a meer marble statue, and no man.
Unweave my age, O time, to my first thread;
Let me lose fifty years, in ignorance spent;
That, being made an infant once again,
I may begin to know. What, or where am I,
To be thus lost in wonder?
_Wife._ Sir.
_Gen._ Amazement still pursues me, how am I chang'd,
Or brought ere I can understand myself
Into this new world!
_Rob._ You will believe no witches?
_Gen._ This makes me believe all, aye, anything;
And that myself am nothing. Prithee, Robin,
Lay me to myself open; what art thou,
Or this new transform'd creature?
_Rob._ I am Robin;
And this your wife, my mistress.
_Gen._ Tell me, the earth
Shall leave its seat, and mount to kiss the moon;
Or that the moon, enamour'd of the earth,
Shall leave her sphere, to stoop to us thus low.
What, what's this in my hand, that at an instant
Can from a four-legg'd creature make a thing
So like a wife!
_Rob._ A bridle; a jugling bridle, Sir.
_Gen._ A bridle! Hence, enchantment.
A viper were more safe within my hand,
Than this charm'd engine.--
A witch! my wife a witch!
The more I strive to unwind
Myself from this meander, I the more
Therein am intricated. Prithee, woman,
Art thou a witch?
_Wife._ It cannot be denied,
I am such a curst creature.
_Gen._ Keep aloof:
And do not come too near me. O my trust;
Have I, since first I understood myself,
Been of my soul so chary, still to study
What best was for its health, to renounce all
The works of that black fiend with my best force;
And hath that serpent twined me so about,
That I must lie so often and so long
With a devil in my bosom?
_Wife._ Pardon, Sir. [_She looks down._]
_Gen._ Pardon! can such a thing as that be hoped?
Lift up thine eyes, lost woman, to yon hills;
It must be thence expected: look not down
Unto that horrid dwelling, which thou hast sought
At such dear rate to purchase. Prithee, tell me,
(For now I can believe) art thou a witch?
_Wife._ I am.
_Gen._ With that word I am thunderstruck,
And know not what to answer; yet resolve me.
Hast thou made any contract with that fiend,
The enemy of mankind?
_Wife._ O I have.
_Gen._ What? and how far?
_Wife._ I have promis'd him my soul.
_Gen._ Ten thousand times better thy body had
Been promis'd to the stake; aye, and mine too,
To have suffer'd with thee in a hedge of flames,
Than such a compact ever had been made. Oh--
Resolve me, how far doth that contract stretch?
_Wife._ What interest in this Soul myself could claim,
I freely gave him; but his part that made it
I still reserve, not being mine to give.
_Gen._ O cunning devil: foolish woman, know,
Where he can claim but the least little part,
He will usurp the whole. Thou'rt a lost woman.
_Wife._ I hope, not so.
_Gen._ Why, hast thou any hope?
_Wife._ Yes, sir, I have.
_Gen._ Make it appear to me.
_Wife._ I hope I never bargain'd for that fire,
Further than penitent tears have power to quench.
_Gen._ I would see some of them.
_Wife._ You behold them now
(If you look on me with charitable eyes)
Tinctur'd in blood, blood issuing from the heart.
Sir, I am sorry; when I look towards heaven,
I beg a gracious pardon; when on you,
Methinks your native goodness should not be
Less pitiful than they; 'gainst both I have err'd;
From both I beg atonement.
_Gen._ May I presume 't?
_Wife._ I kneel to both your mercies.
_Gen._ Knowest thou what
A witch is?
_Wife._ Alas, none better;
Or after mature recollection can be
More sad to think on 't.
_Gen._ Tell me, are those tears
As full of true hearted penitence,
As mine of sorrow to behold what state,
What desperate state, thou'rt fain in?
_Wife._ Sir, they are.
_Gen._ Rise; and, as I do you, so heaven pardon me;
We all offend, but from such falling off
Defend us! Well, I do remember, wife,
When I first took thee, 'twas _for good and bad_:
O change thy bad to good, that I may keep thee
(As then we past our faiths) 'till Death us sever.
O woman, thou hast need to weep thyself
Into a fountain, such a penitent spring
As may have power to quench invisible flames;
In which my eyes shall aid: too little, all.
_Late Lancashire Witches, Act 4._
P 2 _a_ 1. "_Being examined by my Lord._"] She had evidently learned
her lesson well; but this was, with all submission to his Lordship, if
adopted as a test, a mighty poor one. Jennet Device must have known
well the persons of the parties she accused, and who were now upon
their trial, as they were all her near neighbours.
P 2 _a_ 2. "_Whether she knew Iohan a Style?_"] His Lordship's
introduction of this apocryphal legal personage on such an occasion is
very amusing. Had he studied Littleton and Perkins a little less, and
given some attention to the Lancashire dialect, and some also to the
study of that great book, in which even a judge may find valuable
matter, the book of human nature, he might have been more successfull
in his examination. Jack's o' Dick's o' Harry's would have been more
likely to have been recognised as a veritable person of this world by
Jennet Device, than such a name as Johan a Style; which, though very
familiar at Westminster, would scarcely have its prototype at Pendle.
But Jennet Device, young as she was, in natural shrewdness was far
more than a match for his lordship.
P 3 _a_. "_Katherine Hewit, alias Movld-heeles._"] Of this person, who
comes next in the list of witches, our information is very scanty. She
was not of Pendle, but of Colne; and as her husband is described as a
"clothier," may be presumed to have been in rather better
circumstances than Elizabeth Southernes or Anne Whittle's families.
She made no confession.
P 4 _a_ 1. "_Anne Foulds of Colne. Michael Hartleys of Colne._"] Folds
and Hartley are still the names of families at and in the
neighbourhood of Colne.
P 4 _a_ 2. "_Had then in hanck a child._"] The meaning of this term is
clear, the origin rather dubious. It may come from the Scotch word,
_to hanck_, i.e. to have in holdfast or secure, vide Jamieson's Scotch
Dictionary, tit. hanck, or from handkill, to murder, vide Jamieson,
under that word; or lastly, may be metaphorically used, from hanck,
also signifying a skein of yarn or worsted which is tied or trussed
up.
Q 2 _a_. "_Iohn Bulcocke, Iane Bulcocke his mother._"] The condition
of these persons is not stated. It may be conjectured that they were
of the lowest class.
Q 3 _a_ 1. "_At the Barre hauing formerly confessed._"] Why is not
their confession given?
Q 3 _a_ 2. "_Crying out in very violent and outrageous manner, even to
the gallowes._"] The latter end of these unfortunate people was
perhaps similar to that of Isobel Crawford, executed in Scotland the
year after for witchcraft, who, on being sentenced, openly denied all
her former confessions, and died without any sign of repentance,
offering repeated interruption to the minister in his prayer, and
refusing to pardon the executioner.
Q 4 _a_. "_Master Thomas Lister of Westby._"] See note on p. Y _a_.
Q 4 _b_. "_The said Bulcockes wife doth know of some Witches to bee
about Padyham and Burnley._"] Precious evidence this to put the lives
of two poor creatures into jeopardy.
R _a_. "_Accused the said Iohn Bulcock to turne the Spitt there._"]
What a fact this would have been for De Lancre. With all his accurate
statistics on the subject of the witches' Sabbath, he was not aware
that a turnspit was a necessary officer on such occasions, as well as
a master of ceremonies. This artful and well instructed jade, Jennet
Device, must have borne especial malice against John Bulcock.
R 1 _b_. "_The names of the Witches at the Great Assembly and Feast at
Malking-Tower, viz. vpon Good-Friday last, 1612._"] In this list of
fourteen individuals, Master Potts has omitted "the painful steward so
careful to provide mutton," James Device, who made up the number to
fifteen. Of these persons seven were not indicted: Jennet Hargraves,
the wife of Hugh Hargraves, of Barley under Pendle; Elizabeth
Hargraves, the wife of Christopher Hargraves; Christopher Howgate, the
son of Old Demdike; Christopher Hargraves, who is described as of
Thurniholme, or Thornholme, and as Christopher o' Jacks, and was
husband of Elizabeth Hargraves; Grace Hay, of Padiham; Anne Crunkshey,
of Marchden, or more properly, Cronkshaw of Marsden; and Elizabeth
Howgate, the wife of Christopher Howgate. The two Howgates were, it
may be, the "one Holgate and his wife," mentioned in Robinson's
deposition in 1633. Alice Graie, or Gray, included in the list, was
indicted, though no copy of the indictment is afforded by Potts, and,
singular as it may seem, acquitted. Richard Miles' wife, of the Rough
Lee, stated to have been present in some of the depositions, (G 3
_b_,) was, beyond doubt, Alice Nutter, so called as the wife of
Richard and mother of Miles Nutter.
It may afford matter for speculation, whether any real meeting took
place of any of the persons above enumerated, which gave occasion for
the monstrous versions of the witnesses at this trial. It is far from
unlikely, that on the apprehension and commitment of Old Demdike, Old
Chattox, Alizon Device, and Anne Redfern to Lancaster, a meeting would
take place of their near relations, and others who might attend from
curiosity, or from its being rumoured that they were themselves
implicated by the confessions of those apprehended, and who by such
attendance sealed their dooms. In all similar fabrications there is
generally some slight foundation of fact, some scintilla of homely
truth, from which, like the inverted apex of a pyramid, the
disproportioned fabric expands. It is possible that, from the simple
occurrence of an unusual attendance at Malking Tower on Good Friday,
not unnatural under the circumstances, some of the witnesses, ignorant
and easily persuaded, might be afterwards led to believe in the
existence of those monstrous superadditions with which the convention
was afterwards clothed. However this may be, there must have been at
hand for working up the materials into a plausible form, some drill
sergeant of evidence behind the curtain, who had his own interest to
serve or revenge to gratify. The two particulars in the narrative that
one feels least disposed to question, are, that James Device stole a
wether from John Robinson of Barley, to provide a family dinner on
Good Friday, and that when the meat was roasted John Bulcock performed
the humble, but very necessary, duty of turning the spit.
R 3 _a_. "_My Lord Gerrard._"] Thomas Gerard, son and heir of Sir
Gilbert Gerard, Master of the Robes 23d Elizabeth, was raised to the
peerage by the title of Lord Gerard of Gerard's Bromley, in
Staffordshire, 1603. He died 1618.
S _a_. "_Kniues, Elsons, and Sickles._" In the _Promptorium
Parvulorum_, p. 138, to Elsyn (elsyng^k) Sibula, Mr. Way appends this
note: "This word occurs in the Gloss on Gautier de Bibelesworth,
Arund. MS. 220, where a buckled girdle is described:--
"Een isy doyt le hardiloun (þe tunnge)
Passer par tru de subiloun (a bore of an alsene.)
"An elsyne,--acus, subula. Cath. Ang. Sibula, an elsyn, an alle or a
bodkyn. ORTUS. In the inventory of the goods of a merchant at
Newcastle, A.D. 1571, occur, 'vj. doss' elsen heftes, 12_d_; 1 clowte
and 1/2 a C elsen blades, viij_s_. viij_d_; xiij. clowtes of talier,
needles, &c.' Wills and Inventories published by the Surtees Society,
l. 361. The term is derived from the French _alene_; elson for
cordwayners, alesne. Palsg. In Yorkshire and some other parts of
England an awl is still called an elsen."
S _b_. "_Which the said Alizon confessing._"] In the case of this
paralytic pedlar, John Law, his mishap could scarcely be called such,
as it would for the remainder of his life, be an all-sufficient
stock-in-trade for him, and popular wonder and sympathy, without the
judge's interposition, would provide for his relief and maintenance.
The near apparent connection and correspondence of the _damnum
minatum_ and _damnum secutum_, in this instance, imposed upon this
unfortunate woman, as it had done upon many others, and gave to her
confession an earnestness which would appear to the unenlightened
spectator to spring only from reality and truth.
S 3 _b_. "_Margaret Pearson._"] This Padiham witch fared better than
her neighbours, being sentenced only to the pillory. Nothing affords a
stronger proof of the vindictive pertinacity with which these
prosecutions were carried on than the fact of this old and helpless
creature being put on her trial three several times upon such evidence
as follows. Chattox, like many other persons in her situation, was
disposed to have as many companions in punishment, crime or no crime,
as she could compass, and denounced her accordingly: "The said
Pearson's wife is as ill as shee."
T _a_. "_The said Margerie did carrie the said Toade out of the said
house in a paire of tonges._"] This toad was disposed of more easily
than that of Julian Cox, as to which see Glanvil's _Collection of
Relations_, p. 192:--
Another witness swore, that as he passed by Cox her door,
she was taking a pipe of tobacco upon the threshold of her
door, and invited him to come in and take a pipe, which he
did. And as he was talking Julian said to him, Neighbour,
look what a pretty thing there is. He look't down, and there
was a monstrous great toad betwixt his leggs, staring him in
the face. He endeavoured to kill it by spurning it, but
could not hit it. Whereupon Julian bad him forbear, and it
would do him no hurt. But he threw down his pipe and went
home, (which was about two miles off of Julian Cox her
house,) and told his family what had happened, and that he
believed it was one of Julian Cox her devils. After, he was
taking a pipe of tobacco at home, and the same toad appeared
betwixt his leggs. He took the toad out to kill it, and to
his thinking cut it in several pieces, but returning to his
pipe, the toad still appeared. He endeavoured to burn it,
but could not. At length he took a switch and beat it. The
toad ran several times about the room to avoid him he still
pursuing it with correction. At length the toad cryed and
vanish't, and he was never after troubled with it.
Dr. More's comment on the circumstance is written with all the
seriousness so important a part of a witch's supellex deserves. He
commences defending the huntsman, who swore that he hunted a hare, and
when he came to take it up, he found it to be Julian Cox:
Those half-witted people thought he swore false, I suppose
because they imagined that what he told implied that Julian
Cox was turned into an hare. Which she was not, nor did his
report imply any such real metamorphosis of her body, but
that these ludicrous dæmons exhibited to the sight of this
huntsman and his doggs the shape of an Hare, one of them
turning himself into such a form, and others hurrying on the
body of Julian near the same place, and at the same
swiftness, but interposing betwixt that hare-like spectre
and her body, modifying the air so that the scene there, to
the beholders sight, was as if nothing but air were there,
and a shew of earth perpetually suited to that where the
hare passed. As I have heard of some painters that have
drawn the sky in an huge large landskip, so lively that the
birds have flown against it, thinking it free air, and so
have fallen down. And if painters and juglers by the tricks
of legerdemain can do such strange feats to the deceiving of
the sight, it is no wonder that these airy invisible spirits
as far surpass them in all such præstigious doings as the
air surpasses the earth for subtilty.
And the like præstigiæ may be in the toad. It might be a
real toad (though actuated and guided by a dæmon) which was
cut in pieces, and that also which was whipt about, and at
last snatcht out of sight (as if it had vanished) by these
aerial hocus-pocus's. And if some juglers have tricks to
take hot coals into their mouth without hurt, certainly it
is not surprising that some small attempt did not suffice to
burn that toad. That such a toad, sent by a witch and
crawling up the body of the man of the house as he sate by
the fire's side, was overmastered by him and his wife
together, and burnt in the fire; I have heard credibly
reported by one of the Isle of Ely. _Of these dæmoniack
vermin, I have heard other stories also, as of a rat that
followed a man some score of miles trudging through thick
and thin along with him._ So little difficulty is there in
that of the toad.--_Glanvil's Collection of Relations_, p.
200.
T 2 _a_ 1. "_Isabel Robey._" This person was of Windle, in the parish
of Prescot, a considerable distance from Pendle. The Gerards were
lords of the manor of Windle. Sir Thomas Gerard, before whom the
examinations were taken, was created baronet, 22nd May, 9th James I.;
and thrice married. From him the present Sir John Gerard, of New Hall,
near Warrington, is descended. Sir Thomas was determined that the
hundred of West Derby should have its witch as well as the other parts
of the county. A more melancholy tissue of absurd and incoherent
accusations than those against this last of the prisoners convicted on
this occasion, it would not be easy to find; who was hanged, for all
that appears, because one person was suddenly "pinched on her thigh,
as she thought, with four fingers and a thumb," and because another
was "sore pained with a great warch in his bones."
T 2 _a_ 2. "_This Countie of Lancaster, which now may lawfully bee
said to abound asmuch in Witches of diuers kindes as Seminaries,
Iesuites, and Papists._"] Truly, the county palatine was in sad case,
according to Master Potts's account. If the crop of each of these was
over abundant, it was from no fault of the learned judges, who, in
their commissions of _Oyer and Terminer_, subjected it pretty
liberally to the pruning-hook of the executioner.
T 2 _a_ 3. "_This lamentable and wofull Tragedie, wherein his Maiestie
hath lost so many Subjects, Mothers their Children, Fathers their
Friends and Kinsfolk._" The Lancashire bill of mortality, under the
head witchcraft, so far as it can be collected from this tract, will
run thus:--
1. Robert Nutter, of Greenhead, in Pendle.
2. Richard Assheton, son of Richard Assheton, of Downham, Esquire.
3. Child of Richard Baldwin, of Wheethead, within the forest of Pendle.
4. John Device, or Davies, of Pendle.
5. Anne Nutter, daughter of Anthony Nutter, of Pendle.
6. Child of John Moore, of Higham.
7. Hugh Moore, of Pendle.
8. John Robinson, _alias_ Swyer.
9. James Robinson.
10. Henry Mytton, of the Rough Lee.
11. Anne Townley, wife of Henry Townley, of the Carr, gentleman.
12. John Duckworth.
13. John Hargraves, of Goldshaw Booth.
14. Blaze Hargraves, of Higham.
15. Christopher Nutter.
16. Anne Folds, of Colne.
Sixteen persons reported dead of this common epidemic, besides a
countless number with pains and "starkness in their limbs," and "a
great warch in their bones!" No wonder that Doctors Bromley and Potts
thought active treatment necessary, with a decided preference for
hemp, as the leading specific.
T 3 _b_. "_With great warch in his bones._"] Warch is a word well
known and still used in this sense, _i.e._, pain, in Lancashire.
T 4 _b_ 1. "_The said Peter was now satisfied that the said Isabel
Robey was no Witch, by sending to one Halseworths, which they call a
wiseman._"] I honour the memory of this Halsworth, or Houldsworth, as
I suppose it should be spelled, for he was indeed a wise man in days
when wisdom was an extremely scarce commodity.
T 4 _b_ 2. "_To abide vpon it._"] _i.e._, my abiding opinion is.
X _a_. "_Elizabeth Astley, John Ramsden, Alice Gray, Isabel
Sidegraues, Lawrence Hay._"] The specific charges against these
persons, with the exception of Alice Gray, do not appear, nor is it
said where their places of residence were. Alice Gray was reputed to
have been at the meeting of witches at Malkin's Tower, and to her the
judge refers, perhaps, in particular, when he says, "Without question,
there are amongst you that are as deepe in this action as any of them
that are condemned to die for their offences."
X _b_. "_The Execution of the Witches._"] We could have dispensed with
many of the flowers of rhetoric with which the pages of this discovery
are strewed, if Master Potts would have favoured us with a plain,
unvarnished account of what occurred at this execution. It is here, in
the most interesting point of all, that his narrative, in other
respects so full and abundant, stops short, and seems curtailed of its
just proportions. The "learned and worthy preacher," to whom the
prisoners were commended by the judge, was probably Mr. William Leigh,
of Standish, before mentioned. Amongst his papers or correspondence,
if they should happen to have been preserved, some account may
eventually be found of the sad closing scene of these melancholy
victims of superstition.
X 2 _a_. "_Neither can I paint in extraordinarie tearmes._"] The
worthy clerk is too modest. He is a great painter, the Tintoretto of
witchcraft.
Y _a_ 1. "_Hauing cut off Thomas Lister, Esquire, father to this
gentleman now liuing._"] Thomas Lister, of Westby, ancestor of the
Listers, Lords Ribblesdale, married Jane, daughter of John Greenacres,
Esquire, of Worston, county of Lancaster, and was buried at Gisburn,
February 8th, 1607. His son, Thomas Lister, referred to as the
"gentleman now living," married Jane, daughter of Thomas Heber, Esq.,
of Marton, after mentioned, and was buried at Gisburn, July 10th,
1619.
Y _a_ 2. "_Was Indicted and Arraigned for the murder of a Child of one
Dodg-sonnes._"] One acquittal was no protection to these unhappy
creatures. It caused only additional exasperation, and, sooner or
later, they were brought within what Donne calls "the hungry statutes'
gaping jaws." Whether superstition or malice prompted this
prosecution, on the part of Mr. Lister, it is difficult to say. Some
grudge he entertained, or cause of offence he had taken up against
this Jennet Preston, might be her death warrant in those days, when it
was penal for a woman to be old, helpless, ugly, and poor. She was not
so fortunate as the females tried at York, nine years afterwards, for
bewitching the children of Edward Fairfax, of Fuyston, in the forest
of Knaresborough, to whom we owe the only English translation of Tasso
worthy of the name. These females, six in number, were indicted at two
successive assizes, and every effort was made by the
"Prevailing poet! whose undoubting mind
Believed the magic wonders which he sung,"
to procure their conviction. Never was a more unequal contest. On the
one side was a relentless antagonist, armed with wealth, influence,
learning, and accomplishments, and whose family connections gave him
an unlimited power in the county; and on the other, six helpless
persons, whose sex, age, and poverty were almost sufficient for their
condemnation, without any evidence at all. Yet, owing to the
magnanimous firmness of the judge, whose name, deserving of immortal
honour, I regret has not been preserved, these efforts were
frustrated, and the women accused delivered from the gulph which
yawned before them. The disappointment he experienced in this
instance, in being defrauded, as he thought, of a conviction for
which he had strained every nerve and sinew, and in not being allowed
to render the forest of Knaresborough as famous as that of Pendle,
cast a gloom of despondency over the remaining days of this admirable
poet, who has left a narration of the whole transaction, of most
singular interest and curiosity, yet unpublished. The MSS. now in my
possession, and which came from Mr. Bright's collection, consists of
seventy-eight closely-written folio pages. It is entitled "A Discourse
of Witchcraft, as it was enacted in the family of Mr. Edward Fairfax,
of Fuystone, coun. Ebor, 1621." From page 78 to 144 are a series of
ninety-three most extraordinary and spirited sketches, made with the
pen, of the witches, devils, monsters, and apparitions referred to in
the narrative.
Y 2 _a_. "_Master Heyber._"] This was Thomas Hayber, or Heber, of
Marton, in Craven, Esquire, who was buried at Marton, 7th February,
1633. He was the ancestor of Bishop Reginald Heber and the late
Richard Heber, Esq.
Y 3 _a_. "_The said Iennet Preston comming to touch the dead corpes,
they bled fresh bloud presently._"] On the popular superstition of
touching the corpse of a murdered person, as an ordeal or test for the
discovery of the innocence or guilt of suspected murderers, the reader
cannot better be referred than to the very learned and elaborate essay
in Pitcairne's _Criminal Trials_, vol. iii. p. 182-189. Amongst the
authors there quoted, Webster is omitted, who, (see _Displaying of
supposed Witchcraft_, p. 304,) discusses the point at considerable
length, and with an earnest and implicit faith singularly at variance
with his enlightened scepticism in other matters. But there were
regions of superstition in which even this Sampson of logic became
imbecile and powerless. The rationale of the bleeding of a murdered
corpse at the touch of the murderer is given by Sir Kenelm Digby with
his usual force and spirit:
To this cause, peradventure, may be reduced the strange
effect which is frequently seen in England, when, _at the
approach of the Murderer, the slain body suddenly bleedeth
afresh_. For certainly the Souls of them that are
treacherously murdered by surprise, use to leaue their
bodies with extreme unwillingness, and with vehement
indignation against them that force them to so unprovided
and abhorred a passage! That Soul, then, to wreak its evil
talent against the hated Murderer, and to draw a just and
desired revenge upon his head, would do all it can to
manifest the author of the fact! To _speak_ it cannot--for
in itself it wanteth the organs of voice; and those it is
parted from are now grown too heavy, and are too benummed,
for to give motion unto: Yet some change it desireth to
make in the body, which it hath so vehement inclination to;
and therefore is the aptest for it to work upon. It must
then endeavour to cause a motion in the subtilest and most
fluid parts (and consequently the most moveable ones) of it.
This can be nothing but THE BLOOD, which then being
violently moved, _must needs gush out at those places where
it findeth issue_!
In the two following Scotch cases of witchcraft, this test was
resorted to. The first was that of
MARIOUN PEEBLES,[79] _alias_ Pardone, spouse to SWENE, in
Hildiswick, who was, on March 22, 1644, sentenced to be
strangled at a stake, and burnt to ashes, at _the Hill of
Berrie_, for WITCHCRAFT and MURDER. Marion and her husband
having 'ane deadlie and venefical malice in her heart'
against Edward Halero in Overure, and being determined 'to
destroy and put him down,' being 'transformed in the lyknes
of ane pellack-quhaill, (the Devill changing her spirit,
quhilk fled in the same quhaill,') and the said Edward and
other four individuals being in a fishing-boat, coming from
the Sea, at the North-banks of Hildiswick, 'on ane fair
morning, did cum under the said boat, and overturnit her
with ease, and drowned and devoired thame in the sey, right
at the shore, when there wis na danger wtherwayis.' The
bodies of Halero and another of these hapless fishermen
having been found, Marion and Swene 'wir sent for, and
brought to see thame, and to lay thair hands on thame, ...
dayis after said death and away-casting, quhaire thair bluid
was evanished and desolved, from every natural cours or
caus, shine, and run; the said umquhill Edward _bled at the
collir-bain or craig-bane_, and the said ...,[80] _in the
hand and fingers, gushing out bluid thairat_, to the great
admiration of the beholders--and revelation of the judgement
of the Almytie! And by which lyk occasionis and miraculous
works of God, made manifest in Murders and the Murderers;
whereby, be many frequent occasiones brought to light, and
the Murderers, be the said proof brought to judgment,
conuict and condemned, not only in this Kingdom, also this
countrie, but lykwayis in maist forrin Christiane Kingdomis;
and be so manie frequent precedentis and practising of and
tuitching Murderis and Murdereris, notourlie known: So, the
forsaid Murder and Witchcraft of the saidis persons, with
the rest of their companions, through your said Husband's
deed, art, part, rad,[81] and counsall, is manifest and
cleir to all, not onlie through and by the foirsaid
precedentis of your malice, wicked and malishes[82]
practises, by Witchcraft, Confessionis, and Declarationis of
the said umquill Janet Fraser, Witch, revealed to her, as
said is, and quha wis desyrit by him to concur and assist
with you to the doing thereof; but lykways _be the
declaration and revelation of the justice and judgementis of
God, through the said issuing of bluid from the bodies_!'
&c.
A similar and very remarkable instance is related in the
following Triall: In the Dittay of CHRISTIAN WILSON, alias
_the Lanthorne_,[83] accused of Murder, Witchcraft, &c.,
(which is founded upon the examinations of James Wilson,
Abraham Macmillan, William Crichton, and Fyfe and George
Erskine, &c. led before Sir William Murray of Newtoun, and
other Commissioners, at Dalkeith, Jun. 14, 1661,) it is
stated, that 'Ther being enimitie betuixt the said
Christiane and Alexander Wilsone, her brother, and shoe
having often tymes threatned him, at length, about 7 or 8
monthes since, altho' the said Alexander was sene that day
of his death, at three houres afternoone, in good health,
walking about his bussnesse and office; yitt, at fyve howres
in that same night, he was fownd dead, lying in his owne
howse, naked as he was borne, with his face torne and rent,
without any appearance of a spot of blood either wpon his
bodie or neigh to it. And altho' many of the neiboures in
the toune (Dalkeith) come into his howse to see the dead
corpe, yitt shoe newar offered to come, howbeit her dwelling
was nixt adjacent thairto; nor had shoe so much as any
seiming greiff for his death. Bot the Minister and
Bailliffes of the towne, taking great suspitione of her, in
respect of her cairiage comand it that shoe showld be
browght in; bot when shoe come, shoe come trembling all the
way to the howse--bot _shoe refuised to come nigh_ THE CORPS
_or to_ TUITCH _it_ saying, that shoe "nevir tuitched a dead
corpe in her lyfe!" Bot being arnestly desyred by the
Minister, Bailliffes, and hir brother's friends who was
killed, that shoe wold "bot _tuitch the corpes softlie_,"
shoe granted to doe it--but before shoe did it, the Sone
being shyning in at the howse, shoe exprest her selfe thus,
humbly desyring, that "as the Lord made the Sone to shyne
and give light into that howse, that also _he wald give
light to discovering of that Murder_!" And with these words,
shoe TUITCHEING _the wound of the dead man, verie saftlie_,
it being whyte and cleane, without any spot of blod or the
lyke!--yitt IMEDIATLY, _whill her fingers was wpon it_, THE
BLOOD RUSHED OWT OF IT, to the great admiratioune[84] of all
the behoulders, who tooke it for _discoverie of the Murder_,
according to her owne prayers.--For ther was ane great lumpe
of flesh taken out of his cheik, so smowthlie, as no rasor
in the world cowld have made so ticht ane incisioune, wpon
flesh, or cheis--and ther wes no blood at all in the
wownd--nor did it at all blead, altho' that many persones
befor had tuitched it, whill[85] shoe did tuitche it! And
the howse being searched all over, for the shirt of the dead
man, yitt it cowld not be found; and altho' the howse was
full of people all that night, ever vatching the corpes;[86]
neither did any of them tuitch him that night--which is
probable[87]--yitt, in the morneing, his shirt was fownd
tyed fast abowt his neck, as a brechame,[88] non knowing how
this come to pass! And this Cristian did immediatlie
transport all her owne goods owt of her own howse into her
dowghter's, purposing to flie away--bot was therwpon
apprehendit and imprisoned.'--_Pitcairn's Criminal Trials_,
vol. iii. p. 194.
[Footnote 79: See Dr. Hibbert's "History of Orkney," &c., to which
this remarkable Trial is appended.]
[Footnote 80: The name left blank.]
[Footnote 81: Rede; advice.]
[Footnote 82: Malicious.]
[Footnote 83: The name given at her baptism by the Devil. From
"Collection of Original Documents," belonging to the Society of
Antiquaries of Scotland, MS. As a specimen of the other charges, take
the following: "Williame Richardsone, in Dalkeith, haiving felled ane
hen of the said Cristianes with ane stone, and wpone her sight thereof
did imediatly threatne him, and with ane frowneing countenance told
him, that he 'should newer cast ane vther stone!' And imediatly the
said Williame fell into ane franicie and madnes, and tooke his bed,
and newer rose agane, but died within a few dayes: And in the tyme of
his sicknes, he always cryed owt, that the said Cristiane was present
befor him, in the likeness of ane grey catt! And some tyme eftir his
death, James Richardsone, nephew to the said Williame, being a boy
playing in the said Cristiane her yaird, and be calling her Lantherne,
shoe threatned, that, if he held not his peace, shoe sowld cause him
to die the death his nephew (uncle) died of!' Whairby it would appeare
that shoe tooke wpon hir his nepheas (uncle's) death."]
[Footnote 84: Wonder; amazement.]
[Footnote 85: Until. That is, many previous trials had been made of
other persons suspected, or of those who were near neighbours, perhaps
living at enmity with the deceased, who had voluntarily offered
themselves to this solemn ordeal, or had been called upon thus
publicly to attest their innocence of his blood.]
[Footnote 86: Holding the lyke-wake.]
[Footnote 87: Can be proved, by testimony or probation.]
[Footnote 88: The large collar which goes about a draught-horse's
neck.]
Z _a_. "_Master Leonard Lister._"] This Leonard Lister was the brother
of Master Thomas Lister, for whose murder Jennet Preston was indicted;
and married Ann, daughter of ---- Loftus, of Coverham Abbey, county of
York.
Z 2 _a_. "_His Lordship commanded the Iurie to obserue the particular
circumstances._"] The judge in this case was Altham, who seems even to
have been more superstitious, bigotted, and narrow-minded than his
brother in commission, Bromley. Fenner, who tried the witches of
Warbois, and Archer, before whom the trial of Julian Cox took place,
are the only judges I can meet with, quite on a level with this
learned baron in grovelling absurdity, upon whom "Jennet Preston would
lay heavy at the time of his death," whether she had so lain upon Mr.
Thomas Lister or not, if bigotry, habit, and custom did not render him
seared and callous to conscience and pity.
Z 3 _b_ 1. "_Take example by this Gentlemen to prosecute these hellish
Furies to their end._"] It is marvellous that Potts does not, like
Delrio, recommend the rack to be applied to witches "in moderation,
and according to the regulations of Pope Pius the Third, and so as not
to cripple the criminal for life." Not that this learned Jesuit is
much averse to simple dislocations occasioned by the rack. These, he
thinks, cannot be avoided in the press of business. He is rather
opposed, though in this he speaks doubtfully and with submission to
authority, to those tortures which fracture the bones or lacerate the
tendons. Verily, the Catholic and the Protestant author might have
shaken hands; they were, beyond dispute, _poene Gemelli_.
Z 3 _b_ 2. "_Posterities._"] Master Potts, of the particulars of whose
life nothing is known, made, as far as can be discovered, no further
attempt to acquire fame in the character of an author. No subject so
interesting probably again occurred, as that which had diversified his
legal pursuits "in his lodgings in Chancery-lane," from the pleasing
recollections associated with his Summer Circuit of 1612. He was not,
however, the only person of the name of Pott, or Potts, who
distinguished himself in the field of Witchcraft. The author of the
following tract, in my possession, might have garnished it with
various flowers from the work now reprinted, if he had been aware of
such a repository: "Pott (Joh. Henr.) De nefando Lamiarum cum Diabolo
coitu." 4to. Lond. 1689. The other celebrated cases of supposed
witchcraft occurring in the county of Lancaster, besides those
connected with the foregoing republication, are, the extraordinary one
of Ferdinand, Earl of Derby, who died at Latham in 1594, for which the
reader is referred to Camden's _Annals of Elizabeth_, years 1593,
1594; Kennet, 2. 574, 580; or Pennant's _Tour from Downing to Alston
Moor_, p. 29;--the case of Edmund Hartley, hanged at Lancaster in
1597, for bewitching some members of the family of Mr. Starkie, of
Cleworth, which will be fully considered in the proposed republication
of the Chetham Society, which gives the history of that event;--and
lastly, that of a person of the name of Utley, (Whitaker, p. 528;
Baines, vol. i. p. 604,) who was hanged at Lancaster about 1630, for
having bewitched to death Richard, the son of Ralph Assheton, Esq.,
Lord of Middleton, of whose trial, unfortunately, no report is in
existence. Webster also mentions two supposed witches as having been
put to death at Lancaster, within eighteen years before his
_Displaying of supposed Witchcraft_ was published; and which
occurrence, not referred to by any other historian, must therefore
have taken place about the year 1654.
Manchester:
Printed by Charles Simms and Co.
* * * * *