A.D. 1662-1686
THE DEVIL AT DAMERVILLE--AND AT BALLINAGARDE--TAVERNER AND HADDOCK'S
GHOST--HUNTER AND THE GHOSTLY OLD WOMAN--A WITCH RESCUED BY THE
DEVIL--DR. WILLIAMS AND THE HAUNTED HOUSE IN DUBLIN--APPARITIONS SEEN
IN THE AIR IN CO. TIPPERARY--A CLERGYMAN AND HIS WIFE BEWITCHED TO
DEATH--BEWITCHING OF MR. MOOR--THE FAIRY-POSSESSED BUTLER--A GHOST
INSTIGATES A PROSECUTION--SUPPOSED WITCHCRAFT IN CO. CORK--THE DEVIL
AMONG THE QUAKERS.
From the earliest times the Devil has made his mark, historically and
geographically, in Ireland; the nomenclature of many places indicates that
they are his exclusive property, while the antiquarian cannot be
sufficiently thankful to him for depositing the Rock of Cashel where he
did. But here we must deal with a later period of his activity. A quaint
tale comes to us from co. Tipperary of a man bargaining with his Majesty
for the price of his soul, in which as usual the Devil is worsted by a
simple trick, and gets nothing for his trouble. Near Shronell in that
county are still to be seen the ruins of Damerville Court, formerly the
residence of the Damer family, and from which locality they took the title
of Barons Milton of Shronell. The first of the family to settle in
Ireland, Joseph Damer, had been formerly in the service of the Parliament,
but not deeming it safe to remain in England after the Restoration, came
over to this country and, taking advantage of the cheapness of land at
that time, purchased large estates. It was evidently of this member of the
family that the following tale is told. He possessed great wealth, and
'twas darkly hinted that this had come to him from no lawful source, that
in fact he had made a bargain with the Devil to sell his soul to him for a
top-boot full of gold. His Satanic Majesty greedily accepted the offer,
and on the day appointed for the ratification of the bargain arrived with
a sufficiency of bullion from the Bank of Styx--or whatever may be the
name of the establishment below! He was ushered into a room, in the middle
of which stood the empty top-boot; into this he poured the gold, but to
his surprise it remained as empty as before. He hastened away for more
gold, with the same result. Repeated journeys to and fro for fresh
supplies still left the boot as empty as when he began, until at length in
sheer disgust he took his final departure, leaving Damer in possession of
the gold, and as well (for a few brief years, at all events) of that
spiritual commodity he had valued at so little. In process of time the
secret leaked out. The wily Damer had taken the sole off the boot, and had
then securely fastened the latter over a hole in the floor. In the storey
underneath was a series of large, empty cellars, in which he had stationed
men armed with shovels, who were under instructions to remove each
succeeding shower of gold, and so make room for more.
Another story[36] comes from Ballinagarde in co. Limerick, the residence
of the Croker family, though it is probably later in point of time; in it
the Devil appears in a different rôle. Once upon a time Mr. Croker of
Ballinagarde was out hunting, but as the country was very difficult few
were able to keep up with the hounds. The chase lasted all day, and late
in the evening Croker and a handsome dark stranger, mounted on a
magnificent black horse, were alone at the death. Croker, delighted at his
companion's prowess, asked him home, and the usual festivities were kept
up fast and furious till far into the night. The stranger was shown to a
bedroom, and as the servant was pulling off his boots he saw that he had a
cloven hoof. In the morning he acquainted his master with the fact, and
both went to see the stranger. The latter had disappeared, and so had his
horse, but the bedroom carpet was seared by a red-hot hoof, while four
hoof-marks were imprinted on the floor of the horse's stall. What incident
gave rise to the story we cannot tell, but there was a saying among the
peasantry that such-and-such a thing occurred "as sure as the Devil was in
Ballinagarde"; while he is said to have appeared there again recently.
A most remarkable instance of legal proceedings being instituted at the
instigation of a ghost comes from the co. Down in the year 1662.[37]
About Michaelmas one Francis Taverner, servant to Lord Chichester, was
riding home on horseback late one night from Hillborough, and on nearing
Drumbridge his horse suddenly stood still, and he, not suspecting anything
out of the common, but merely supposing him to have the staggers, got down
to bleed him in the mouth, and then remounted. As he was proceeding two
horsemen seemed to pass him, though he heard no sound of horses' hoofs.
Presently there appeared a third at his elbow, apparently clad in a long
white coat, having the appearance of one James Haddock, an inhabitant of
Malone who had died about five years previously. When the startled
Taverner asked him in God's name who he was, he told him that he was James
Haddock, and recalled himself to his mind by relating a trifling incident
that had occurred in Taverner's father's house a short while before
Haddock's death. Taverner asked him why he spoke with him; he told him,
because he was a man of more resolution than other men, and requested him
to ride along with him in order that he might acquaint him with the
business he desired him to perform. Taverner refused, and, as they were at
a cross-road, went his own way. Immediately after parting with the spectre
there arose a mighty wind, "and withal he heard very hideous Screeches and
Noises, to his great amazement. At last he heard the cocks crow, to his
great comfort; he alighted off his horse, and falling to prayer desired
God's assistance, and so got safe home."
The following night the ghost appeared again to him as he sat by the fire,
and thereupon declared to him the reason for its appearance, and the
errand upon which it wished to send him. It bade him go to Eleanor Walsh,
its widow, who was now married to one Davis, and say to her that it was
the will of her late husband that their son David should be righted in the
matter of a lease which the father had bequeathed to him, but of which the
step-father had unjustly deprived him. Taverner refused to do so, partly
because he did not desire to gain the ill-will of his neighbours, and
partly because he feared being taken for one demented; but the ghost so
thoroughly frightened him by appearing to him every night for a month,
that in the end he promised to fulfil its wishes. He went to Malone, found
a woman named Eleanor Walsh, who proved to be the wrong person, but who
told him she had a namesake living hard by, upon which Taverner took no
further trouble in the matter, and returned without delivering his
message.
The same night he was awakened by something pressing upon him, and saw
again the ghost of Haddock in a white coat, which asked him if he had
delivered the message, to which Taverner mendaciously replied that he had
been to Malone and had seen Eleanor Walsh. Upon which the ghost looked
with a more friendly air upon him, bidding him not to be afraid, and then
vanished in a flash of brightness. But having learnt the truth of the
matter in some mysterious way, it again appeared, this time in a great
fury, and threatened to tear him to pieces if he did not do as it
desired. Utterly unnerved by these unearthly visits, Taverner left his
house in the mountains and went into the town of Belfast, where he sat up
all night in the house of a shoemaker named Peirce, where were also two or
three of Lord Chichester's servants. "About midnight, as they were all by
the fireside, they beheld Taverner's countenance change and a trembling to
fall upon him; who presently espied the Apparition in a Room opposite him,
and took up the Candle and went to it, and resolutely ask'd it in the name
of God wherefore it haunted him? It replied, Because he had not delivered
the message; and withal repeated the threat of tearing him in pieces if he
did not do so speedily: and so, changing itself into many prodigious
Shapes, it vanished in white like a Ghost."
In a very dejected frame of mind Taverner related the incident to some of
Lord Chichester's family, and the chaplain, Mr. James South, advised him
to go and deliver the message to the widow, which he accordingly did, and
thereupon experienced great quietness of mind. Two nights later the
apparition again appeared, and on learning what had been done, charged him
to bear the same message to the executors. Taverner not unnaturally asked
if Davis, the step-father, would attempt to do him any harm, to which the
spirit gave a very doubtful response, but at length reassured him by
threatening Davis if he should attempt anything to his injury, and then
vanished away in white.
The following day Taverner was summoned before the Court of the celebrated
Jeremy Taylor, Bishop of Down, who carefully examined him about the
matter, and advised him the next time the spirit appeared to ask it the
following questions: Whence are you? Are you a good or a bad spirit? Where
is your abode? What station do you hold? How are you regimented in the
other world? What is the reason that you appear for the relief of your son
in so small a matter, when so many widows and orphans are oppressed, and
none from thence of their relations appear as you do to right them?
That night Taverner went to Lord Conway's house. Feeling the coming
presence of the apparition, and being unwilling to create any disturbance
within doors, he and his brother went out into the courtyard, where they
saw the spirit coming over the wall. He told it what he had done, and it
promised not to trouble him any more, but threatened the executors if they
did not see the boy righted. "Here his brother put him in mind to ask the
Spirit what the Bishop bid him, which he did presently. But it gave him no
answer, but crawled on its hands and feet over the wall again, and so
vanished in white with a most melodious harmony." The boy's friends then
brought an action (apparently in the Bishop's Court) against the executors
and trustees; one of the latter, John Costlet, who was also the boy's
uncle, tried the effect of bluff, but the threat of what the apparition
could and might do to him scared him into a promise of justice. About five
years later, when the story was forgotten, Costlet began to threaten the
boy with an action, but, coming home drunk one night, he fell off his
horse and was killed. In the above there is no mention of the fate of
Davis.
Whatever explanation we may choose to give of the _supernatural_ element
in the above, there seems to be no doubt that such an incident occurred,
and that the story is, in the main, true to fact, as it was taken by
Glanvill from a letter of Mr. Thomas Alcock's, the secretary to Bishop
Taylor's Court, who must therefore have heard the entire story from
Taverner's own lips. The incident is vividly remembered in local
tradition, from which many picturesque details are added, especially with
reference to the trial, the subsequent righting of young David Haddock,
and the ultimate punishment of Davis, on which points Glanvill is rather
unsatisfactory. According to this source,[38] Taverner (or Tavney, as the
name is locally pronounced) _felt something get up behind him_ as he was
riding home, and from the eerie feeling that came over him, as well as
from the mouldy smell of the grave that assailed his nostrils, he
perceived that his companion was not of this world. Finally the ghost
urged Taverner to bring the case into Court, and it came up for trial at
Carrickfergus. The Counsel for the opposite side browbeat Taverner for
inventing such an absurd and malicious story about his neighbour Davis,
and ended by tauntingly desiring him to call his witness. The usher of the
Court, with a sceptical sneer, called upon James Haddock, and at the third
repetition of the name a clap of thunder shook the Court; a hand was seen
on the witness-table, and a voice was heard saying, "Is this enough?"
Which very properly convinced the jury. Davis slunk away, and on his
homeward road fell from his horse and broke his neck. Instead of
propounding Bishop Taylor's shorter catechism, Taverner merely asked the
ghost, "Are you happy in your present state?" "If," it replied in a voice
of anger, "you were not the man you are, I would tear you in pieces for
asking such a question"; and then went off in a flash of fire!!--which, we
fear, afforded but too satisfactory an answer to his question.
In the following year, 1663, a quaintly humorous story[39] of a most
persistent and troublesome ghostly visitant comes from the same part of
the world, though in this particular instance its efforts to right the
wrong did not produce a lawsuit: the narrator was Mr. Alcock, who appears
in the preceding story. One David Hunter, who was neat-herd to the Bishop
of Down (Jeremy Taylor) at his house near Portmore, saw one night, as he
was carrying a log of wood into the dairy, an old woman whom he did not
recognise, but apparently some subtle intuition told him that she was not
of mortal mould, for incontinent he flung away the log, and ran terrified
into his house. She appeared again to him the next night, and from that on
nearly every night for the next nine months. "Whenever she came he must go
with her through the Woods at a good round rate; and the poor fellow
look'd as if he was bewitch'd and travell'd off his legs." Even if he were
in bed he had to rise and follow her wherever she went, and because his
wife could not restrain him she would rise and follow him till daybreak,
although no apparition was visible to her. The only member of the family
that took the matter philosophically was Hunter's little dog, and he
became so accustomed to the ghost that he would inevitably bring up the
rear of the strange procession--if it be true that the lower classes
dispensed with the use of night-garments when in bed, the sight must truly
have been a most remarkable one.
All this time the ghost afforded no indication as to the nature and object
of her frequent appearances. "But one day the said David going over a
Hedge into the Highway, she came just against him, and he cry'd out, 'Lord
bless me, I would I were dead; shall I never be delivered from this
misery?' At which, 'And the Lord bless me too,' says she. 'It was very
happy you spoke first, for till then I had no power to speak, though I
have followed you so long. My name,' says she, 'is Margaret ----. I lived
here before the War, and had one son by my Husband; when he died I married
a soldier, by whom I had several children which the former Son maintained,
else we must all have starved. He lives beyond the Ban-water; pray go to
him and bid him dig under such a hearth, and there he shall find 28_s._
Let him pay what I owe in such a place, and the rest to the charge
unpay'd at my Funeral, and go to my Son that lives here, which I had by my
latter Husband, and tell him that he lives a very wicked and dissolute
life, and is very unnatural and ungrateful to his Brother that nurtured
him, and if he does not mend his life God will destroy him.'"
David Hunter told her he never knew her. "No," says she, "I died seven
years before you came into this Country"; but she promised that, if he
would carry her message, she would never hurt him. But he deferred doing
what the apparition bade him, with the result that she appeared the night
after, as he lay in bed, and struck him on the shoulder very hard; at
which he cried out, and reminded her that she had promised to do him no
hurt. She replied that was if he did her message; if not, she would kill
him. He told her he could not go now, because the waters were out. She
said that she was content that he should wait until they were abated; but
charged him afterwards not to fail her. Ultimately he did her errand, and
afterwards she appeared and thanked him. "For now," said she, "I shall be
at rest, and therefore I pray you lift me up from the ground, and I will
trouble you no more." So Hunter lifted her up, and declared afterwards
that she felt just like a bag of feathers in his arms; so she vanished,
and he heard most delicate music as she went off over his head.
An important witch-case occurred in Scotland in 1678, the account of which
is of interest to us as it incidentally makes mention of the fact that one
of the guilty persons had been previously tried and condemned in Ireland
for the crime of witchcraft. Four women and one man were strangled and
burnt at Paisley for having attempted to kill by magic Sir George Maxwell
of Pollock. They had formed a wax image of him, into which the Devil
himself had stuck the necessary pins; it was then turned on a spit before
the fire, the entire band repeating in unison the name of him whose death
they desired to compass. Amongst the women was "one Bessie Weir, who was
hanged up the last of the four (_one that had been taken before in
Ireland and was condemned to the fyre for malifice before_; and when the
hangman there was about to cast her over the gallows, the devill takes her
away from them out of their sight; her _dittay_ [indictment] was sent over
here to Scotland), who at this tyme, when she was cast off the gallows,
there appears a raven, and approaches the hangman within an ell of him,
and flyes away again. All the people observed it, and cried out at the
sight of it."
A clergyman, the Rev. Daniel Williams (evidently the man who was pastor of
Wood Street, Dublin, and subsequently founded Dr. Williams's Library in
London), relates the manner in which he freed a girl from strange and
unpleasant noises which disturbed her; the incident might have developed
into something analogous to the Drummer of Tedworth in England, but on the
whole works out rather tamely. He tells us that about the year 1678 the
niece of Alderman Arundel of Dublin was troubled by noises in her uncle's
house, "as by violent Sthroaks on the Wainscots and Chests, in what
Chambers she frequented." In the hope that they would cease she removed to
a house near Smithfield, but the disturbances pursued her thither, and
were no longer heard in her former dwelling. She thereupon betook herself
to a little house in Patrick Street, near the gate, but to no purpose. The
noises lasted in all for about three months, and were generally at their
worst about two o'clock in the morning. Certain ministers spent several
nights in prayer with her, heard the strange sounds, but did not succeed
in causing their cessation. Finally the narrator, Williams, was called in,
and came upon a night agreed to the house, where several persons had
assembled. He says: "I preached from Hebrews ii. 18, and contrived to be
at Prayer at that Time when the Noise used to be greatest. When I was at
Prayer the Woman, kneeling by me, catched violently at my Arm, and
afterwards told us that she saw a terrible Sight--but it pleased God there
was no noise at all. And from that Time God graciously freed her from all
that Disturbance."[41]
Many strange stories of apparitions seen in the air come from all parts of
the world, and are recorded by writers both ancient and modern, but there
are certainly few of them that can equal the account of that weird series
of incidents that was seen in the sky by a goodly crowd of ladies and
gentlemen in co. Tipperary on 2nd March 1678.[42] "At Poinstown in the
county of Tepperary were seen divers strange and prodigious apparitions.
On Sunday in the evening several gentlemen and others, after named, walked
forth in the fields, and the Sun going down, and appearing somewhat bigger
than usual, they discoursed about it, directing their eyes towards the
place where the Sun set; when one of the company observed in the air, near
the place where the Sun went down, an Arm of a blackish blue colour, with
a ruddy complection'd Hand at one end, and at the other end a cross piece
with a ring fasten'd to the middle of it, like one end of an anchor, which
stood still for a while, and then made northwards, and so disappeared.
Next, there appeared at a great distance in the air, from the same part
of the sky, something like a Ship coming towards them; and it came so near
that they could distinctly perceive the masts, sails, tacklings, and men;
she then seem'd to tack about, and sail'd with the stern foremost,
northwards, upon a dark smooth sea, which stretched itself from south-west
to north-west. Having seem'd thus to sail some few minutes she sunk by
degrees into the sea, her stern first; and as she sunk they perceived her
men plainly running up the tacklings in the forepart of the Ship, as it
were to save themselves from drowning. Then appeared a Fort, with somewhat
like a Castle on the top of it; out of the sides of which, by reason of
some clouds of smoak and a flash of fire suddenly issuing out, they
concluded some shot to be made. The Fort then was immediately divided in
two parts, which were in an instant transformed into two exact Ships, like
the other they had seen, with their heads towards each other. That towards
the south seem'd to chase the other with its stem [stern?] foremost,
northwards, till it sunk with its stem first, as the first Ship had done;
the other Ship sail'd some time after, and then sunk with its head first.
It was observ'd that men were running upon the decks of these two Ships,
but they did not see them climb up, as in the last Ship, excepting one
man, whom they saw distinctly to get up with much haste upon the very top
of the Bowsprit of the second Ship as they were sinking. They supposed the
two last Ships were engaged, and fighting, for they saw the likeness of
bullets rouling upon the sea, while they were both visible. Then there
appear'd a Chariot, drawn with two horses, which turn'd as the Ships had
done, northward, and immediately after it came a strange frightful
creature, which they concluded to be some kind of serpent, having a head
like a snake, and a knotted bunch or bulk at the other end, something
resembling a snail's house. This monster came swiftly behind the chariot
and gave it a sudden violent blow, then out of the chariot leaped a Bull
and a Dog, which follow'd him [the bull], and seem'd to bait him. These
also went northwards, as the former had done, the Bull first, holding his
head downwards, then the Dog, and then the Chariot, till all sunk down one
after another about the same place, and just in the same manner as the
former. These meteors being vanished, there were several appearances like
ships and other things. The whole time of the vision lasted near an hour,
and it was a very clear and calm evening, no cloud seen, no mist, nor any
wind stirring. All the phenomena came out of the West or Southwest, and
all moved Northwards; they all sunk out of sight much about the same
place. Of the whole company there was not any one but saw all these
things, as above-written, whose names follow:
"Mr. Allye, a minister, living near the place.
Lieutenant Dunsterville, and his son.
Mr. Grace, his son-in-law.
Lieutenant Dwine.
Mr. Dwine, his brother.
Mr. Christopher Hewelson.
Mr. Richard Foster.
Mr. Adam Hewelson.
Mr. Bates, a schoolmaster.
Mr. Larkin.
Mrs. Dunsterville.
Her daughter-in-law.
Her maiden daughter.
Mr. Dwine's daughter.
Mrs. Grace, her daughter."
The first of the sixteen persons who subscribed to the truth of the above
was the Rev. Peter Alley, who had been appointed curate of Killenaule
Union (Dio. Cashel) in 1672, but was promoted to livings in the same
diocese in the autumn of the year the apparitions appeared.[43] There is a
townland named Poyntstown in the parish of Buolick and barony of
Slievardagh, and another of the same name in the adjoining parish of
Fennor. It must have been at one or other of these places that the sights
were witnessed, as both parishes are only a few miles distant from
Killenaule. Somewhat similar tales, although not so full of marvellous
detail, are reported at different periods from the west of Ireland. Such
indeed seem to have been the origin of the belief in that mysterious
island O'Brasil, lying far out in the western ocean. About the year 1665,
a Quaker pretended that he had a revelation from Heaven that he was the
man ordained to discover it, and accordingly fitted out a ship for the
purpose. In 1674, Captain John Nisbet, formerly of co. Fermanagh, actually
landed there! At this period it was located off Ulster.[44]
Between the clergy and the witches a continuous state of warfare existed;
the former, both Protestant and Roman Catholic, ever assumed the
offensive, and were most diligent in their attempts to eradicate such a
damnable heresy from the world--indeed with regret it must be confessed
that their activity in this respect was frequently the means of stirring
up the quiescent Secular Arm, thereby setting on foot bloody persecutions,
in the course of which many innocent creatures were tortured and put to a
cruel death. Consequently, human nature being what it is, it is not a
matter of surprise to learn that witches occasionally appear as the
aggressors, and cause the clergy as much uneasiness of mind and body as
they possibly could. In or about the year 1670 an Irish clergyman, the
Rev. James Shaw, Presbyterian minister of Carnmoney, "was much troubled
with witches, one of them appearing in his chamber and showing her face
behind his cloke hanging on the clock-pin, and then stepping to the door,
disappeared. He was troubled with cats coming into his chamber and bed; he
sickens and dyes; his wyfe being dead before him, and, as was supposed,
witched." Some equally unpleasant experiences befel his servant. "Before
his death his man going out to the stable one night, sees as if it had
been a great heap of hay rolling towards him, and then appeared in the
shape and likeness of a bair [bear]. He charges it to appear in human
shape, which it did. Then he asked, for what cause it troubled him? It bid
him come to such a place and it should tell him, which he ingaged to do,
yet ere he did it, acquainted his master with it; his master forbids him
to keep sic a tryst; he obeyed his master, and went not. That night he
should have kept, there is a stone cast at him from the roof of the
house, and only touches him, but does not hurt him; whereupon he conceives
that had been done to him by the devill, because he kept not tryst;
wherefore he resolutely goes forth that night to the place appointed,
being a rash bold fellow, and the divill appears in human shape, with his
heid running down with blood. He asks him again, why he troubles him? The
devill replyes, that he was the spirit of a murdered man who lay under his
bed, and buried in the ground, and who was murdered by such a man living
in sic a place twenty years ago. The man comes home, searches the place,
but finds nothing of bones or anything lyke a grave, and causes send to
such a place to search for such a man, but no such a one could be found,
and shortly after this man dyes." To which story Mr. Robert Law[45] sagely
adds the warning: "It's not good to come in communing terms with Satan,
there is a snare in the end of it, but to resyst him by prayer and faith
and to turn a deaf ear to his temptations."
Whatever explanation we may choose to give of the matter, there is no
doubt but at the time the influence of witchcraft was firmly believed in,
and the deaths of Mr. Shaw and his wife attributed to supernatural and
diabolical sources. The Rev. Patrick Adair, a distinguished contemporary
and co-religionist of Mr. Shaw, alludes to the incident as follows in his
_True Narrative_: "There had been great ground of jealousy that she [Mrs.
Shaw] in her child-bed had been wronged by sorcery of some witches in the
parish. After her death, a considerable time, some spirit or spirits
troubled the house by casting stones down at the chimney, appearing to the
servants, and especially having got one of them, a young man, to keep
appointed times and places, wherein it appeared in divers shapes, and
spake audibly to him. The people of the parish watched the house while Mr.
Shaw at this time lay sick in his bed, and indeed he did not wholly
recover, but within a while died, it was thought not without the art of
sorcery."
Classon Porter in his pamphlet gives an interesting account of the
affair, especially of the trend of events between the deaths of the
husband and wife respectively; according to this source the servant-boy
was an accomplice of the Evil One, not a foolish victim. Mrs. Shaw was
dead, and Mr. Shaw lay ill, and so was unable to go to the next monthly
meeting of his brethren in the ministry to consult them about these
strange occurrences. However, he sent his servant, who was supposed to be
implicated in these transactions, with a request that his brethren would
examine him about the matter, and deal with him as they thought best. The
boy was accordingly questioned on the subject, and having confessed that
he had conversed and conferred with the evil spirit, and even assisted it
in its diabolical operations, he was commanded for the future to have no
dealings of any kind with that spirit. The boy promised obedience, and was
dismissed. But the affair made a great commotion in the parish, so great
that the brethren not only ordered the Communion (which was then
approaching) to be delayed in Carnmoney "until the confusion should fall a
little," but appointed two of their number to hold a special fast in the
congregation of Carnmoney, "in consideration of the trouble which had come
upon the minister's house by a spirit that appeared to some of the family,
and the distemper of the minister's own body, with other confusions that
had followed this movement in the parish." The ministers appointed to this
duty were, Kennedy of Templepatrick, and Patton of Ballyclare, who
reported to the next meeting that they had kept the fast at Carnmoney, but
with what result is not stated. Mr. Shaw died about two months later.
Most wonderful and unpleasant were the bodily contortions that an Irish
gentleman suffered, as the result of not having employed a woman who to
the useful trade of _sage-femme_ added the mischievous one of witch--it is
quite conceivable that a country midwife, with some little knowledge of
medicine and the use of simples, would be classed in popular opinion
amongst those who had power above the average. "In Ireland there was one
Thomas Moor, who had his wife brought to bed of a child, and not having
made use of her former midwife, who was _malæ famæ_, she was witched by
her so that she dies. The poor man resenting it, she was heard to say that
that was nothing to that which should follow. She witches him also, so
that a certain tyme of the day, towards night, the Devil did always
trouble him, once every day for the space of 10 or 12 yeirs, by possessing
his body, and causing it to swell highly, and tearing him so that he
foamed, and his face turned about to his neck, having a most fearfull
disfigured visage. At which tyme he was held by strong men, out of whose
grips when he gott, he would have rushed his head against the wall in
hazard of braining himself, and would have leaped up and down fearfully,
tumbling now and then on the ground, and cryed out fearfully with a wyld
skirle and noise, and this he did ordinarily for the space of ane hour;
when the fitt was over he was settled as before; and without the fitt he
was in his right mynd, and did know when it came on him, and gave notice
of it, so that those appoynted for keeping of him prepared for it. He was,
by appointment of the ministers, sent from parish to parish for the ease
of his keepers. At length, people being wearied with waiting on him, they
devysed a way for ease, which was to put him in a great chyer [chair]
fitted for receiving of his body, and so ordered it that it clasped round
about so that he could not get out, and then by a pillue [pulley] drew him
up off the ground; and when the fitt came on (of whilk he still gave
warning) put him in it and drew him up, so that his swinging to and froo
did not hurt him, but was keept till the fitt went over save fra danger,
and then lett down till that tyme of the next day, when the fitt recurred.
Many came to see him in his fitts, but the sight was so astonishing that
few desired to come again. He was a man of a good report, yet we may see
givin up to Satan's molestations by the wise and soveraigne God. Complains
were givin in against her [the midwife] for her malefices to the magistrat
there, but in England and Ireland they used not to judge and condemn
witches upon presumptions, but are very sparing as to that. He was alive
in the year 1679." The concluding words of the story would lead us to
infer that trials for witchcraft had taken place in Ireland, of which Law
had heard, and from the report of which he formed his opinion relative to
the certain amount of common-sense displayed by the magistrates in that
country, in contradistinction to Scotland, where the very slightest
evidence sufficed to bring persons to torture and death.
In the following tale[46] the ghostly portion is rather dwarfed by the
strong fairy element which appears in it, and, as we have already shown,
many witchcraft cases in Scotland were closely interwoven with the older
belief in the "good people"; Lord Orrery, when giving the account to
Baxter, considered it to be "the effect of Witchcraft or Devils." The
reader is free to take what view he likes of the matter! The Lord Orrery
mentioned therein is probably Roger, the second Earl, whom Lodge in his
_Peerage_ describes as being "of a serious and contemplative disposition,
which led him to seek retirement." If this identification be correct the
following event must have occurred between 1679 and 1682, during which
years the Earl held the title.
The butler of a gentleman living near the Earl was sent to buy a pack of
cards. As he was crossing a field he was surprised to see a company of
people sitting down at a table loaded with all manner of good things, of
which they invited him to partake, and no doubt he would have accepted had
not someone whispered in his ear, "Do nothing this company invites you
to," upon which he refused. After this they first fell to dancing, and
playing on musical instruments, then to work, in both of which occupations
they desired the butler to join, but to no purpose.
The night following the friendly spirit came to his bedside and warned him
not to stir out of doors the next day, for if he did so the mysterious
company would obtain possession of him. He remained indoors the greater
part of that day, but towards evening he crossed the threshold, and hardly
had he done so when a rope was cast about his waist, and he was forcibly
dragged away with great swiftness. A horseman coming towards him espied
both the man and the two ends of the rope, but could see nothing pulling.
By catching hold of one end he succeeded in stopping the man's headlong
course, though as a punishment for so doing he received a smart blow on
his arm from the other.
This came to the ears of the Earl of Orrery, who requested the butler's
master to send him to his house, which the latter did. There were then
staying with the Earl several persons of quality, two Bishops, and the
celebrated Healer, Valentine Greatrakes. Here the malice of the spirits or
fairies manifested itself in a different manner. The unfortunate man was
suddenly perceived to rise from the ground, and the united efforts of
Greatrakes and another were unable to check his upward motion--in fact all
that the spectators could do was to keep running under him to protect him
from being hurt if the invisible power should suddenly relax its hold. At
length he fell, but was caught by them before he reached the ground, and
so received no harm.
That night the spectre, which had twice proved so friendly, appeared at
his bedside with a wooden platter full of some grey liquid, which it bade
him drink, as he had brought it to him to cure him of two sorts of fits he
was subject to. He refused to drink it, and it would appear from another
part of the narration that his refusal was based on the advice of the two
Bishops, whom he had consulted in the matter. At this the spirit was very
angry, but told him he had a kindness for him, and that if he drank the
juice of plantain-roots he would be cured of one sort of fit, but that he
should suffer the other one till his death. On asking his visitant who he
was, he replied that he was the ghost of a man who had been dead seven
years, and who in the days of his flesh had led a loose life, and was
therefore condemned to be borne about in a restless condition with the
strange company until the Day of Judgment. He added that "if the butler
had acknowledged God in all His ways he had not suffered such things by
their means," and reminded him that he had not said his prayers the day
before he met the company in the field; and thereupon vanished. Had this
story rested alone on the evidence of the butler the "two sorts of fits"
would have been more than sufficient to account for it, but what are we to
say to the fact that all the main points of the narrative were borne out
by the Earl, while Mr. Greatrakes (according to Dr. More, the author of
_Collections of Philosophical Writings_) declared that he was actually an
eye-witness of the man's being carried in the air above their heads.
At the instigation of a ghost a lawsuit took place at Downpatrick in 1685.
The account of this was given to Baxter[47] by Thomas Emlin, "a worthy
preacher in Dublin," as well as by Claudius Gilbert, one of the principal
parties therein concerned: the latter's son and namesake proved a liberal
benefactor to the Library of Trinity College--some of his books have been
consulted for the present work. It appears that for some time past there
had been a dispute about the tithes of Drumbeg, a little parish about four
miles outside Belfast, between Mr. Gilbert, who was vicar of that town,
and the Archdeacon of Down, Lemuel Matthews, whom Cotton in his _Fasti_
describes as "a man of considerable talents and legal knowledge, but of a
violent overbearing temper, and a litigous disposition." The parishioners
of Drumbeg favoured Gilbert, and generally paid the tithes to him as being
the incumbent in possession; but the Archdeacon claimed to be the lawful
recipient, in support of which claim he produced a warrant. In the
execution of this by his servants at the house of Charles Lostin, one of
the parishioners, they offered some violence to his wife Margaret, who
refused them entrance, and who died about a month later (1st Nov. 1685) of
the injuries she had received at their hands. Being a woman in a bad state
of health little notice was taken of her death, until about a month after
she appeared to one Thomas Donelson, who had been a spectator of the
violence done her, and "affrighted him into a Prosecution of Robert
Eccleson, the Criminal. She appeared divers times, but chiefly upon one
Lord's Day-Evening, when she fetch'd him with a strange force out of his
House into the Yard and Fields adjacent. Before her last coming (for she
did so three times that Day) several Neighbours were called in, to whom he
gave notice that she was again coming; and beckon'd him to come out; upon
which they went to shut the Door, but he forbad it, saying that she looked
with a terrible Aspect upon him, when they offered it. But his Friends
laid hold on him and embraced him, that he might not go out again;
notwithstanding which (a plain evidence of some invisible Power), he was
drawn out of their Hands in a surprizing manner, and carried about into
the Field and Yard, as before, she charging him to prosecute Justice:
which Voice, as also Donelson's reply, the people heard, though they saw
no shape. There are many Witnesses of this yet alive, particularly Sarah
(Losnam), the Wife of Charles Lostin, Son to the deceased Woman, and one
William Holyday and his Wife." This last appearance took place in
Holyday's house; there were also present several young persons, as well as
Charles and Helen Lostin, children of the deceased, most of whom appeared
as witnesses at the trial.
Upon this Donelson deposed all he knew of the matter to Mr. Randal Brice,
a neighbouring Justice of the Peace; the latter brought the affair before
the notice of Sir William Franklin in Belfast Castle. The depositions were
subsequently carried to Dublin, and the case was tried at Downpatrick
Assizes by Judge John Lindon in 1685.[48] On behalf of the plaintiff,
Charles Lostin, Counseller James Macartney acted--if he be the Judge who
subsequently makes his appearance in a most important witch-trial at
Carrickfergus, he certainly was as excellent an advocate as any plaintiff
in a case of witchcraft could possibly desire, as he was strongly
prejudiced in favour of the truth of all such matters. "The several
Witnesses were heard and sworn, and their Examinations were entred in the
Record of that Assizes, to the Amazement and Satisfaction of all that
Country and of the Judges, whom I have heard speak of it at that time with
much Wonder; insomuch that the said Eccleson hardly escaped with his
life, but was Burnt in the Hand."
A case of supposed witchcraft occurred in Cork in 1685-6, the account of
which is contained in a letter from Christopher Crofts to Sir John
Perceval (the third Baronet, and father of the first Earl of Egmont)
written on the fifteenth of March in that year. Though the narrator
professes his disbelief in such superstitions, yet there seems to have
been an unconscious feeling in his mind that his strict administration of
the law was the means of bringing the affliction on his child. He says:
"My poor boy Jack to all appearances lay dying; he had a convulsion for
eight or nine hours. His mother and several others are of opinion he is
bewitched, and by the old woman, the mother of Nell Welsh, who is reputed
a bad woman; and the child was playing by her that day she was upon her
examination, and was taken ill presently after she was committed to
Bridewell. But I have not faith to believe it was anything but the hand of
God. I have committed the girl to Bridewell, where she shall stay some
time."[49]
At one period in their history that peculiar people, known amongst
themselves as the Society of Friends, and by their opponents as Quakers,
appear to have been most troublesome, and to have caused a good deal of
annoyance to other religious bodies. Not unnaturally their enemies
credited any wild tales which were related about them to their detriment,
especially when they had reference to their doctrine of the influence of
the Spirit. Dr. More, in his continuation to Glanvill's book, has in the
sixth Relation an account of a man, near Cambridge in England, who was
possessed by an evil spirit which led him to do the most extraordinary
things in its attempt to convert him to Quakerism. In the _Life of Mr.
Alexander Peden, late Minister of the Gospel at New Glenluce in Galloway_,
who died in 1686, there is an account of a Quakers' meeting in this
country at which the Devil appeared in most blasphemous parody of the Holy
Ghost. As Mr. Peden was travelling one time by himself in Ireland "the
night came on, and a dark mist, which obliged him to go into a house
belonging to a Quaker. Mr. Peden said, 'I must beg the favour of the roof
of your house all night.' The Quaker said, 'Thou art a stranger, thou art
very welcome and shalt be kindly entertained, but I cannot wait upon thee,
for I am going to the meeting.' Mr. Peden said, 'I will go along with
you.' The Quaker said, 'Thou may, if thou please, but thou must not
trouble us.' He said, 'I will be civil.' When they came to the meeting, as
their ordinary is, they sat for some time silent, some with their faces to
the wall, and others covered. There being a void in the loft above them
there came down the appearance of a raven, and sat upon one man's head,
who started up immediately, and spoke with such vehemence that the froth
flew from his mouth; it went to a second, and he did the same; and to a
third, who did as the former two. Mr. Peden sitting near to his landlord
said, 'Do you not see that? Ye will not deny it afterwards?' When they
dismissed, going home Mr. Peden said to him, 'I always thought there was
devilry among you, but never thought that he did appear visibly among you
till now that I have seen it.' The poor man fell a-weeping, and said, 'I
perceive that God hath sent you to my house, and put it into your heart to
go along with me, and permitted the Devil to appear visibly among us this
night. I never saw the like before. Let me have the help of your prayers.'
After this he became a singular Christian."
Mr. Peden was also somewhat of a prophet, and his speciality appears to
have been the prognostication of unpleasant events, at all events to
persons in Ireland. Two instances will suffice. When in a gentleman's
house in co. Antrim he foretold that a maid-servant was _enceinte_, that
she would murder the child, and would be punished. "Which accordingly came
to pass, and she was burnt at Craig Fergus." On another occasion two
messengers were sent to inform the Lord-Lieutenant that the Presbyterian
ministers in Ireland should affirm that they had nothing to do with the
rebellion at Bothwell Bridge. Mr. Peden said they were on the Devil's
errand, but God would arrest them by the gate. Accordingly one was
stricken with sickness, while the other fell from his horse and broke his
leg.