appearing to her in sundry shapes, and giving her money._
Lancashire is a famous and noted place, abounding with rivers,
hills, woods, pastures, and pleasant towns, many of which are of
great antiquity. It has also been famous for witches, and the
strange pranks they played. Therefore, since the name of Lancashire
Witches has been so frequent in the mouths of old and young, and
many imperfect stories have been rumoured abroad, it would
doubtless tend to the satisfaction of the reader, to give some
account of them in their merry sports and pastimes.
Some time since lived one Mother Cuthbert, in a little hovel at the
bottom of a hill, called Wood-and-Mountain Hill, in Lancashire.
This woman had two lusty daughters, who both carded and spun for
their living, yet was very poor; which made them often repine at
and lament their want. One day, as Mother Cuthbert was sauntering
about the hill-side, picking the wool off the bushes, out started a
thing like a rabbit, which ran about two or three times, and then
changed into a hound, and afterwards into a man, which made the old
beldame to tremble, yet she had no power to run away. So, putting a
purse of money in her hand, and charging her to be there the next
day, he immediately vanished away, and old Mother Cuthbert returned
home, being somewhat disturbed between jealousy and fear.
Such is the first chapter of this marvellous story, which, it is clear,
is a fiction based upon real narratives. It relates the witcheries of
Mother Cuthbert and her two daughters, Margery and Cicely, under the
auspices of an arch-witch, "Mother Grady, the Witch of Penmure
[Penmaen-mawr] a great mountain of Wales." Here is "_The Description of
a Spell._--A spell is a piece of paper written with magical characters,
fixed in a critical season of the moon, and conjunction of the planets;
or sometimes by repeating mystical words. Of these there are many
sorts." As showing what was the popular notion as to witches, take the
following:--"About this time great search was made after witches and
many were apprehended, but most of them gave the hangman and the gaoler
the slip; though some hold that when a witch is taken she hath no power
to avoid justice. It happened, as some of them were going in a cart to
be tried, a coach passed by, in which appeared a person like a judge,
who, calling to one, bid her be of good comfort, for neither she nor any
of her companions should be harmed. In that night all the prison locks
flew open, and they made their escape; and many, when they had been cast
into the water for a trial, have swam like a cork. One of them boasted
she could go over the sea in an egg-shell. It is held on all hands they
adore the devil, and become his bond-slaves, to have for a term of years
their pleasure and revenge. And indeed many of them are more mischievous
than others in laming and destroying cattle, and in drowning ships at
sea, by raising storms. But the Lancashire witches, we see, chiefly
divert themselves in merriment, and are therefore found to be more
sociable than the rest." The closing chapter in this chap-book, contains
"A short description of the famous Lapland Witches."
DR. DEE CHARGED WITH WITCHCRAFT.
On the usual proclamation of a general pardon, on the accession of James
I., the crime of witchcraft was specially excepted from the general
amnesty; and the credulous King's belief in this superstition encouraged
witch-finders and numerous accusations in all parts of the country.
Amongst others, it was remembered that Dr. Dee, then warden of the
Collegiate Church of Manchester, had in the preceding reign predicted a
fortunate day for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth, and had also
undertaken to render innocuous the waxen effigy of that Queen, found in
Lincoln's Inn-fields. He was also known to have made various
predictions, to be the possessor of a magic crystal or stone,[126] and
to have held a close intimacy with Edward Kelly, _alias_ Talbot, a noted
seer, conjuror and necromancer of the time. Accordingly Dr. Dee was
formally accused of practising witchcraft, and a petition from him,
dated 5th January, 1604, (preserved in the _Lansdowne MSS._, Cod. 161,)
praying to be freed from this revolting imputation, even at the risk of
a trial for his life, sufficiently indicates the horror excited by the
charge. The doctor's petition sets forth that "It has been affirmed that
your Majesty's supplicant was the conjuror belonging to the most
honourable privy council of your Majesty's predecessor of famous memory,
Queen Elizabeth, and that he is, or hath been, a caller or invocator of
devils or damned spirits. These slanders, which have tended to his utter
undoing, can no longer be endured; and if, on trial, he is found guilty
of the offence imputed to him, he offers himself willingly to the
punishment of death, yea, either to be stoned to death, or to be buried
quick, or to be burned unmercifully." He seems to have escaped
scatheless, save in reputation; and in 1594, when applied to for the
purpose of exorcising seven demons who held possession of five females
and two of the children of Mr. Nicholas Starkie, of Leigh, he refused to
interfere; advising they should call in some godly preachers, with whom
he would, if they thought proper, consult concerning a public or private
fast. He also sharply reproved Hartlay, a conjuror, for his practices in
this case.
THE LANCASHIRE WITCHES.
Come, gallant sisters, come along,
Let's meet the devil ten thousand strong;
Upon the whales' and dolphins' backs,
Let's try to choak the sea with wracks,
Spring leaks, and sink them down to rights.
[_Line wanting._]
And then we'll scud away to shour,
And try what tricks we can play more.
Blow houses down, ye jolly dames,
Or burn them up in fiery flames;
Let's rowse up mortals from their sleep,
And send them packing to the deep,
Let's strike them dead with thunder-stones,
With lightning search [? scorch] to skin and bones;
For winds and storms, by sea and land,
You may dispose, you may command.
Sometimes in dismal caves we lie,
Or in the air aloft we flie;
Sometimes we caper o'er the main,
Thunders and lightnings we disdain;
Sometimes we tumble churches down,
And level castles with the ground;
We fire whole cities, and destroy
Whole armies, if they us annoy.
We strangle infants in the womb,
And raise the dead out of their tomb;
We haunt the palaces of kings,
And play such pranks and pretty things
And this is all our chief delight,
To do all mischief in despight;
And when we've done, to shift away,
Untoucht, unseen, by night or day.
When imps do * * *
We make them act unlucky feats;
In puppets' wax, sharp needles' points
We stick, to torture limbs and joints.
With frogs' and toads' most poys'nous gore
Our grizly limbs we 'noint all o'er,
And straight away, away we go,
Sparing no mortal, friend or foe.
We'll sell you winds, and ev'ry charm
Or venomous drug that may do harm;
For beasts or fowls we have our spells
Laid up in store in our dark cells;
For there the devils used to meet,
And dance with horns and cloven feet;
And when we've done, we frisk about,
And through the world play revel-rout.
We ride on cows' and horses' backs,
O'er lakes and rivers play nice knacks;
We grasp the moon and scale the sun,
And stop the planets as they run.
We kindle comets' whizzing flames,
And whistle for the winds by names;
And for our pastimes and mad freaks,
'Mongst stars we play at barley-breaks.[127]
We are ambassadors of state,
And know the mysteries of fate;
In Pluto's bosom there we ly,
To learn each mortal's destiny.
As oracles their fortunes show,
If they be born to wealth or wo,
The spinning Sisters' hands we guide,
And in all this we take a pride.
To Lapland, Finland, we do skice,
Sliding on seas and rocks of ice,
T' old beldames there, our sisters kind,
We do impart our hellish mind;
We take their seals and hands in blood
For ever to renounce all good.
And then, as they in dens do lurk,
We set the ugly jades a-work.
We know the treasures and the stores
Lock'd up in caves with brazen doors;
Gold and silver, sparkling stones,
We pile on heaps, like dead men's bones.
There the devils brood and hover,
Keep guards, that none should them discover;
Put upon all the coasts of hell,
'Tis we, 'tis we, stand sentinel.
SUPERSTITIOUS FEAR OF WITCHCRAFT.
During the sixteenth century whole districts in some parts of Lancashire
seemed contaminated with the presence of witches; men and beasts were
supposed to languish under their charm, and the delusion which preyed
alike on the learned and the vulgar did not allow any family to suppose
that they were beyond the reach of the witch's power. Was the family
visited by sickness? It was believed to be the work of an invisible
agency, which in secret wasted the image made in clay before the fire,
or crumbled its various parts into dust. Did the cattle sicken and die?
The witch and the wizard were the authors of the calamity. Did the yeast
refuse to ferment, either in the bread or the beer? It was the
consequence of a "bad wish." Did the butter refuse to _come_? The
"familiar" was in the churn. Did the ship founder at sea? The gale or
hurricane was blown by the lungless hag who had scarcely sufficient
breath to cool her own pottage. Did the Ribble overflow its banks? The
floods descended from the congregated sisterhood at Malkin tower. The
blight of the season, which consigned the crops of the farmer to
destruction, was the saliva of the enchantress, or distillations from
the blear-eyed dame who flew by night over the field on mischief bent.
To refuse an alms to a haggard mendicant, was to incur maledictions soon
manifest in afflictions of body, mind, and estate, in loss of cattle and
other property, of health, and sometimes even of life itself. To escape
from evils like these no sacrifice was thought too great. Superstitions
begat cruelty and injustice; the poor and the rich were equally
interested in obtaining a deliverance; and the magistrate in his
mansion, no less than the peasant in his cot, was deeply interested in
abating the universal affliction. The Lancashire witches were
principally fortune-tellers and conjurors. The alleged securities
against witchcraft were numerous, the most popular being the horse-shoe;
hence we see in Lancashire so many thresholds ornamented with this
counter-charm. Under these circumstances the situation of the reputed
witch was not more enviable than that of the individuals or families
over whom she exerted her influence. Linked by a species of infernal
compact to an imaginary imp, she was shunned as a common pest, or
caressed only on the same principle which leads some Indian tribes to
pay homage to the devil. The reputed witches themselves were frequently
disowned by their families, feared and detested by their neighbours, and
hunted by the dogs as pernicious monsters. When apprehended they were
cast into ponds in the belief that witches swim; so that to sink or swim
was almost equally perilous to them; they were punctured by bodkins to
discover the witch imp or devil marks; they were subjected to hunger and
kept in perpetual motion till confessions were obtained from a
distracted mind. On their trials they were listened to with incredulity
and horror, and consigned to the gallows with as little pity as the
basest of malefactors. Their imaginary crimes created a thirst for their
blood; and people of all stations, from the highest to the lowest,
attended their trials at Lancaster with an intensity of interest that
such mischievous persons, now divested of their sting, naturally
excited. It has been said that witchcraft and kingcraft in England came
in and went out with the Stuarts. This is not true. The doctrine of
necromancy was in universal belief in the fourteenth and fifteenth
centuries, and there was not perhaps a man in Lancashire who doubted its
existence. The belief in witchcraft and in demoniacal possession was
confined to no particular sect or persuasion; the Roman Catholics, the
members of the Church of England, the Presbyterians, Independents, and
even the Methodists (though a sect of more recent standing) have all
fallen into this delusion; and yet each denomination has upbraided the
other with gross superstition, and not unfrequently with wilful fraud.
It is due, however, to the ministers of the Established Church to say
that they were among the first of our public writers to denounce the
belief in witchcraft with all its attendant mischiefs; and the names of
Dr. Harsnett, afterwards Archbishop of York, of Dr. John Webster (who
detected Robinson, the Lancashire witch-hunter), of Zach. Taylor, one of
the king's preachers for Lancashire, and of Dr. Hutchinson, the chaplain
in ordinary to George I., are all entitled to the public gratitude for
their efforts to explode these pernicious superstitions. For upwards of
a century the sanguinary and superstitious laws of James I. disgraced
the English statute-book; but in the ninth year of George II. (1735) a
law was enacted repealing the statute of James I., and prohibiting any
prosecution, suit, or proceeding against any person for witchcraft,
sorcery, enchantment, or conjuration. In this way the doctrine of
witchcraft, with all its attendant errors, was finally exploded, except
among the most ignorant of the vulgar.[128]
A HOUSEHOLD BEWITCHED.
(From the _Late Lancashire Witches_, a comedy, by Thomas Heywood.)
My Uncle has of late become the sole
Discourse of all the country; for a man respected
As master of a govern'd family;
The house (as if the ridge were fix'd below,
And groundsills lifted up to make the roof),
All now's turn'd topsy turvy
In such a retrograde, preposterous way
As seldom hath been heard of, I think never.
The good man
In all obedience kneels unto his Son;
He, with an austere brow, commands his Father.
The Wife presumes not in the Daughter's sight
Without a prepared curtsey; the Girl, she
Expects it as a duty, chides her mother,
Who quakes and trembles at each word she speaks;
And what's as strange, the Maid, she domineers
O'er her young Mistress, who is awed by her.
The Son, to whom the Father creeps and bends,
Stands in as much fear of the groom, his Man!
All in such rare disorder, that in some
As it breeds pity, and in others wonder,
So in the most part laughter. It is thought
This comes by WITCHCRAFT!
THE LANCASHIRE WITCHES OF 1612.
King James VI. of Scotland, in 1594 (nine years before he ascended the
English throne as James I.), wrote and published his disgracefully
credulous and cruel treatise, entitled "Dæmonologie," containing
statements as to the making of witches, and their practice of
witchcraft, which, _if true_, would only prove their revealer to be deep
in the councils of Satan, and a regular member or attendant of
assemblages of witches. The royal witch-hater held that, as witchcraft
is an act of treason against the prince, the evidence of barnes
[children] or wives [weak women], or ever so defamed persons [_i.e._, of
character however infamous], may serve for sufficient witnesses against
them; for [he asks], who but witches can be provers, and so witnesses of
the doings of witches? Besides evidence, "there are two other good helps
that may be used for their trial; the one is the finding of their
_mark_, and then trying the insensibleness thereof; the other is
floating on the water" [or drowning], &c. Having thus opened the door by
admitting the loosest evidence and the most absurd tests for the most
unjust convictions, the royal fanatic adds, that all witches [_i.e._,
persons thus convicted] ought to be put to death, without distinction of
age, sex, or rank. This "British Solomon" ascended the English throne in
1603, and, as might have been expected, witch-finders soon plied their
infamous vocation with success. The wild and desolate parts of the
parish of Whalley furnished a fitting scene for witch assemblies, and it
was alleged that such meetings were held at Malkin Tower, in Pendle
Forest, within that parish. At the assizes at Lancaster in the autumn of
1612, twenty persons, of whom sixteen were women of various ages, were
committed for trial, and most of them tried for witchcraft. Their names
were--1. Elizabeth Southerne, widow, _alias_ "Old Demdike" (aged eighty
or more); 2. Elizabeth Device [probably Davies], _alias_ "Young
Demdike," her daughter; 3. James Device, son of No. 2; 4. Alizon Device,
daughter of No. 2; 5. Anne Whittle, widow, _alias_ "Chattox," _alias_
Chatterbox [more probably Chadwicks], the rival witch of "Old Demdike"
(and, like her, eighty or more years of age); 6. Anne Redferne, daughter
of No. 5; 7. Alice Nutter; 8. Katherine Hewytt, _alias_ "Mould-heels;"
9. Jane Bulcock, of the Moss End; 10. John Bulcock, her son; 11. Isabel
Robey; and 12. Margaret Pearson, of Padiham. No. 12 was tried first for
murder by witchcraft; 2nd for bewitching a neighbour; 3rd for bewitching
a horse; and, being acquitted of the two former charges, was sentenced
for the last to stand upon the pillory in the markets of Clitheroe,
Padiham, Colne, and Lancaster for four successive market days, with a
printed paper upon her head, stating her offence. The twelve persons
already named were styled "Witches of Pendle Forest." The following
eight were called "Witches of Samlesbury:"--13. Jennet Bierley; 14.
Ellen Bierley; 15. Jane Southworth; 16. John Ramsden; 17. Elizabeth
Astley; 18. Alice Gray; 19. Isabel Sidegraves; and 20. Lawrence Haye.
The last four were all discharged without trial. The sensation produced
by these trials was immense, not only in this, but throughout
neighbouring counties, and Thomas Potts, Esq., the clerk of the court,
was directed by the judges of assize, Sir Edward Bromley, Knt., and Sir
James Altham, Knt., to collect and publish the evidence and other
documents connected with the trial, under the revision of the judges
themselves; and Potts's "Discovery of Witches," originally published in
1613, has been reprinted by the Chetham Society (vol. vi.), under the
editorship of its president, Mr. James Crossley, F.S.A. According to
Potts, Old Mother Demdike, the principal actress in the tragedy, was a
general agent for the devil in all these parts; no man escaping her or
her furies that ever gave them occasion of offence, or denied them
anything they stood in need of. The justices of the peace in this part
of the country, Roger Nowell and Nicholas Bannister, having learned that
Malkin Tower [Malkin is a north-country name for a hare], in the Forest
of Pendle, the residence of Old Demdike and her daughter, was the resort
of the witches, ventured to arrest their head and another of her
followers, and to commit them to Lancaster Castle. Amongst the rest of
the voluntary confessions made by the witches, that of Dame Demdike is
preserved. She confessed that, about twenty years ago, as she was coming
home from begging, she was met near Gould's Hey, in the forest of
Pendle, by a spirit or devil in the shape of a boy, the one half of his
coat black and the other brown, who told her to stop, and said that if
she would give him her soul, she should have anything she wished for.
She asked his name, and was told _Tib_. She consented, from the hope of
gain, to give him her soul. For several years she had no occasion to
make any application to her evil spirit; but one Sunday morning, having
a little child upon her knee, and she being in a slumber, the spirit
appeared to her in the likeness of a brown dog, and forced himself upon
her knee, and begun to suck her blood under her left arm, on which she
exclaimed, "Jesus! save me!" and the brown dog vanished, leaving her
almost stark mad for eight weeks. On another occasion she was led, being
blind, to the house of Richard Baldwyn, to obtain payment for the
services her daughter had performed at his mill, when Baldwyn fell into
a passion, and bid them to get off his ground, calling them w----s and
witches, and saying he would burn the one and hang the other. On this,
_Tib_ appeared, and they concerted matters to revenge themselves on
Baldwyn; how, is not stated. This poor mendicant pretender to the powers
of witchcraft, in her examination stated that the surest way of taking a
man's life by witchcraft is to make a picture of clay, like unto the
shape of the person meant to be killed, and when they would have the
object of their vengeance suffer in any particular part of his body, to
take a thorn or pin and prick it into that part of the effigy; and when
they would have any of the body to consume away, then to burn that part
of the figure; and when they would have the whole body to consume, then
to burn the clay image; by which means the afflicted will die. The
substance of the examinations of the so-called witches and others, may
be given as follows:--Old Demdike persuaded her daughter, Elizabeth
Device, to sell herself to the devil, which she did, and in turn
initiated her daughter, Alizon Device, in these infernal arts. When the
old witch had been sent to Lancaster Castle, a grand convocation of
seventeen witches and three wizards was held at Malkin Tower on Good
Friday, at which it was determined to kill Mr. M'Covell, the governor of
the castle, and to blow up the building, to enable the witches to make
their escape. The other two objects of this convocation were to christen
the familiar of Alizon Device, one of the witches in the castle, and
also to bewitch and murder Mr. Lister, a gentleman of Westby-in-Craven,
Yorkshire. The business being ended, the witches, in quitting the
meeting, walked out of the barn, named Malkin Tower, in their proper
shapes, but on reaching the door, each mounted his or her spirit, which
was in the form of a young horse, and quickly vanished. Before the
assizes, Old Demdike, worn out by age and trouble, died in prison. The
others were brought to trial. The first person arraigned before Sir
Edward Bromley, who presided in the criminal court, was Ann Whittle,
_alias_ "Chattox," who is described by Potts as a very old, withered,
spent, and decrepit creature, eighty years of age, and nearly blind, a
dangerous witch, of very long countenance, always opposed to Old
Demdike, for whom the one favoured, the other hated deadly, and they
accused each other in their examinations. This witch was more
mischievous to men's goods than to themselves; her lips ever chattered
as she walked (hence, probably, her name of Chattox or Chatterbox), but
no one knew what she said. Her abode was in the Forest of Pendle,
amongst the company of other witches, where the woollen trade was
carried on, she having been in her younger days a wool-carder. She was
indicted for having exercised various wicked and devilish arts called
witchcrafts, enchantments, charms and sorceries, upon one Robert Nutter,
of Greenhead, in the Forest of Pendle, and with having, by force
thereof, feloniously killed him. To establish this charge her own
examination was read, from which it appeared that fourteen or fifteen
years ago, a thing like "a Christian man" had importuned her to sell her
soul to the devil, and that she had done so, giving to her familiar the
name of _Fancy_. On account of an insult offered to her daughter,
Redfern, by Robert Nutter, they two conspired to place a bad wish upon
Nutter, of which he died. It was further deposed against her that John
Device had agreed to give Old Chattox a dole of meal yearly if she would
not hurt him, and that when he ceased to make this annual tribute, he
took to his bed and died. She was further charged with having bewitched
the drink of John Moore, and also with having, without using the churn,
produced a quantity of butter from a dish of skimmed milk! In the face
of this evidence, and no longer anxious about her own life, she
acknowledged her guilt, but humbly prayed the judges to be merciful to
her daughter, Anne Redfern; but her prayer was in vain. Against
Elizabeth Device, the testimony of her own daughter, a child nine years
of age, was received; and the way in which her evidence was given,
instead of filling the court with horror, seems to have excited their
applause and admiration. Her familiar had the form of a dog and was
called _Bull_, and by his agency she bewitched to death John and James
Robinson and James Mitton; the first having called her a strumpet, and
the last having refused to give Old Demdike a penny when she asked him
for charity. To render her daughter proficient in the art, the prisoner
taught her two prayers, by one of which she cured the bewitched, and by
the other procured drink. The person of Elizabeth Device, as described
by Potts, seems witch-like. "She was branded (says he) with a
preposterous mark in nature; her left eye standing lower than her right;
the one looking down and the other up at the same time." Her process of
destruction was by modelling clay or marl figures, and wasting her
victims away along with them. James Device was convicted principally on
the evidence of his child-sister, of bewitching and killing Mrs. Ann
Towneley, the wife of Mr. Henry Towneley, of the Carr, by means of a
picture of clay; and both he and his sister were witnesses against their
mother. This wizard (James Device), whose spirit was called _Dandy_, is
described as a poor, decrepit boy, apparently of weak intellect, and so
infirm, that it was found necessary to hold him up in court on his
trial.
Upon evidence of this kind no fewer than ten of these unfortunate people
were found guilty at Lancaster, and sentenced to suffer death. Eight
others were acquitted; why, it is not easy to see, for the evidence
appears to have been equally strong, or rather equally weak and absurd,
against all. The ten persons sentenced were--Ann Whittle _alias_
"Chattox," Elizabeth Device, James Device, Anne Redfern, Alice Nutter,
Catherine Hewytt, John Bulcock, Jane Bulcock, Alizon Device, and Isabel
Robey.
The judge, Sir Edward Bromley, in passing sentence on the convicted
prisoners, said, "You, of all people, have the least cause of complaint;
since on the trial for your lives there hath been much care and pains
taken; and what persons of your nature and condition were ever arraigned
and tried with so much solemnity? The court hath had great care to
receive nothing in evidence against you but matter of fact(!)[129] As
you stand simply (your offence and bloody practices not considered)
your fate would rather move compassion than exasperate any man; for whom
would not the ruin of so many poor creatures at one time touch, as in
appearance simple, and of little understanding? But the blood of these
innocent children, and others his Majesty's subjects whom cruelly and
barbarously you have murdered and cut off, cries unto the Lord for
vengeance. It is impossible that you, who are stained with so much
innocent blood, should either prosper or continue in this world, or
receive reward in the next." Having thus shut the door of hope, both as
to this life and the future, the judge proceeded to urge the wretched
victims of superstition to repentance! and concluded by sentencing them
all to be hanged. They were executed at Lancaster on the 20th of August,
1612, for having bewitched to death "by devilish practices and hellish
means" no fewer than sixteen inhabitants of the Forest of Pendle. These
were, 1. Robert Nutter, of Greenhead. 2. Richard Assheton, son of
Richard Assheton, Esq., of Downham. 3. A child of Richard Baldwin, of
Westhead, in the Forest of Pendle. 4. John Device, or Davies, of Pendle.
5. Ann Nutter, daughter of Anthony Nutter, of Pendle. 6. A child of John
Moor, of Higham. 7. Hugh Moor, of Pendle. 8. John Robinson, _alias_
Swyer. 9. James Robinson. 10. Henry Mytton, of Rough Lee. 11. Ann
Towneley, wife of Henry Towneley, of Carr Hall, gentleman. 12. John
Duckworth. 13. John Hargreaves, of Goldshaw Booth. 14. Blaize
Hargreaves, of Higham. 15. Christopher Nutter. 16. Ann Folds, near
Colne. John Law, a pedlar, was also bewitched, so as to lose the use of
his limbs, by Alizon Device, because he refused to give her some pins
without money, when requested to do so by her on his way from Colne.
Alizon Device herself _was a beggar by profession_, and the evidence
sufficiently proved that Law's affliction was nothing more than what
would now be termed paralysis of the lower extremities.
In his _Introduction_ to _Potts's Discovery of Witches_, Mr. Crossley
observes that "the main interest in reviewing this miserable band of
victims will be felt to centre in Alice Nutter. Wealthy, well conducted,
well connected, and placed probably on an equality with most of the
neighbouring families, and the magistrate before whom she was brought
and by whom she was committed, she deserves to be distinguished from the
companions with whom she suffered, and to attract an attention which has
never yet been directed to her. That James Device, on whose evidence she
was convicted, was instructed to accuse her by her own nearest
relatives, and that the magistrate, Roger Nowell, entered actively as a
confederate into the conspiracy, from a grudge entertained against her
on account of a long-disputed boundary, are allegations which tradition
has preserved, but the truth or falsehood of which, at this distance of
time, it is scarcely possible satisfactorily to examine. Her mansion,
Rough Lee, is still standing, a very substantial and rather fine
specimen of the houses of the inferior gentry, _temp._ James I., but now
divided into cottages."
THE SAMLESBURY WITCHES.
The trials of these persons took place at the same assizes, and before
the same judge. Against Jane and Ellen Bierley and Jane Southworth, all
of Samlesbury, charged with having bewitched Grace Sowerbutts there, the
only material evidence was that of Grace Sowerbutts herself, a girl of
licentious and vagrant habits, who swore that these women (one of them
being her grandmother), did draw her by the hair of the head and lay her
upon the top of a hay-mow, and did take her senses and memory from her;
that they appeared to her sometimes in their own likeness, and sometimes
like a black dog. She declared that they by their arts had induced her
to join their sisterhood; and that they were met from time to time by
"four black things going upright and yet not like men in the face," who
conveyed them across the Ribble, where they danced with them, &c. The
prisoners were also charged with bewitching and slaying a child of
Thomas Walshman's, by placing a nail in its navel; and after its burial,
they took up the corpse, when they ate part of the flesh, and made an
"_unxious_ ointment" by boiling the bones. This was more than even the
capacious credulity of the judge and jury could digest. The Samlesbury
witches were, therefore, acquitted, and a seminary priest named Thompson
_alias_ Southworth, was suspected by two of the county magistrates [the
Rev. William Leigh and Edward Chisnall, Esq.,] to whom the affair was
afterwards referred, of having instigated Sowerbutts to make the charge;
but this imputation was not supported by any satisfactory evidence.
WITCHCRAFT AT MIDDLETON.
About 1630, a man named Utley, a reputed wizard, was tried, found
guilty, and hanged, at Lancaster, for having bewitched to death,
Richard, the son of Ralph Assheton, Esq., of Downham, and Lord of
Middleton.[130]
WITCHCRAFT IN 1633-34.
In 1633, a number of poor and ignorant people, inhabitants of Pendle
Forest, or the neighbourhood, were apprehended, upon the information of
a boy named Edmund Robinson, and charged with witchcraft. The following
is a copy of Robinson's deposition:--
"The examination of Edmund Robinson, son of Edmund Robinson, of
Pendle Forest, mason, taken at Padiham, before Richard Shuttleworth
[of Gawthorpe, Esq., then forty-seven or forty-eight] and John
Starkie, Esq. [one of the seven demoniacs of Cleworth, in 1595] two
of his Majesty's Justices of the Peace, within the county of
Lancaster, 10th of February, A.D. 1633 [1634]. Who informeth upon
oath (being examined concerning the great outrages of the witches),
and saith, that upon All Saints' Day last past [Nov. 1, 1633], he,
this informer, being with one Henry Parker, a next door neighbour to
him, in Wheatley-lane, desired the said Parker to give him leave to
get some bulloes [? bullace], which he did. In which time of getting
bulloes, he saw two greyhounds, viz., a black and a brown one, come
running over the next field towards him; he verily thinking the one
of them to be Mr. Nutter's, and the other to be Mr. Robinson's, the
said Mr. Nutter and Mr. Robinson having then such like. And the said
greyhounds came to him and fawned on him, they having about their
necks either of them a collar, and to either of which collars was
tied a string, which collars, as this informant affirmeth, did shine
like gold; and he thinking that some either of Mr. Nutter's or Mr.
Robinson's family should have followed them, but seeing nobody to
follow them, he took the said greyhounds, thinking to hunt with
them, and presently a hare rise [rose] very near before him, at the
sight of which he cried 'Loo! loo!' but the dogs would not run.
Whereupon being very angry he took them, and with the strings that
were at their collars, tied either of them to a little bush on the
next hedge, and with a rod that he had in his hand he beat them. And
instead of the black greyhound, one Dickonson wife stood up (a
neighbour), whom this informer knoweth; and instead of the brown
greyhound a little boy, whom this informer knoweth not. At which
sight this informer being afraid, endeavoured to run away, but being
stayed by the woman, viz., by Dickonson's wife, she put her hand
into her pocket and pulled out a piece of silver much like to a fair
shilling, and offered to give him to hold his tongue, and not to
tell, which he refused, saying, 'Nay, thou art a witch.' Whereupon
she put her hand into her pocket again, and pulled out a string like
unto a bridle, that jingled, which she put upon the little boy's
head that stood up in the brown greyhound's stead; whereupon the
said boy stood up a white horse. Then immediately the said
Dickonson's wife took this informer before her upon the said horse
and carried him to a new house called Hoare-stones, being about a
quarter of a mile off; whither when they were come there were divers
persons about the door, and he saw divers others come riding upon
horses of several colours towards the said house, which tied their
horses to a hedge near to the said house, and which persons went
into the said house, to the number of three score or thereabouts, as
this informer thinketh, where they had a fire and meat roasting,
and some other meat stirring in the house, whereof a young woman,
whom he, this informer, knoweth not, gave him flesh and bread upon a
trencher, and drink in a glass, which, after the first taste, he
refused, and would have no more, and said it was nought. And
presently after, seeing divers of the company going to a barn
adjoining, he followed after, and there he saw six of them kneeling,
and pulling at six several ropes, which were fastened or tied to the
top of the house, at or with which pulling came then in this
informer's sight flesh smoking, butter in lumps, and milk as it were
syling [skimming or straining] from the said ropes, all which fell
into basins which were placed under the said ropes. And after that
these six had done, there came other six, which did likewise; and
during all the time of their so pulling, they made such foul faces
that feared this informer, so as he was glad to steal out and run
home; whom, when they wanted, some of their company came running
after him, near to a place in a highway called Boggard-hole, where
this informer met two horsemen, at the sight whereof the said
persons left following him; and the foremost of which persons that
followed him, he knoweth to be one Loynd wife, which said wife,
together with one Dickonson wife, and one Janet Davies, he hath seen
at several times in a croft or close adjoining to his father's
house, which put him in a great fear. And further this informer
saith, upon Thursday after New Year's Day last past, he saw the said
Loynd wife sitting upon a cross piece of wood being near the chimney
of his father's dwelling-house: and he, calling to her, said, 'Come
down, thou Loynd wife,' and immediately the said Loynd wife went up
out of his sight. And further, this informer saith, that after he
was come from the company aforesaid to his father's house, being
towards evening, his father bade him go fetch home two kine to seal
[cows to yoke], and in the way, in a field called the Ollers
[_i.e._, Alders,] he chanced to hap upon a boy who began to quarrel
with him, and they fought so together till this informer had his
ears made very bloody by fighting; and looking down, he saw the boy
had a cloven foot, at which sight he was afraid, and ran away from
him to seek the kine. And in the way he saw a light like a lantern,
towards which he made haste, supposing it to be carried by some of
Mr. Robinson's people; but when he came to the place he only found a
woman standing on a bridge, whom, when he saw her, he knew to be
Loynd wife, and knowing her he turned back again, and immediately he
met with the aforesaid boy, from whom he offered to run; which boy
gave him a blow on the back, which caused him to cry. And he further
saith, that when he was in the barn, he saw three women take three
pictures from off the beam, in the which pictures many thorns, or
such like things, sticked; and that Loynd wife took one of the said
pictures down; but the other two women that took the other two
pictures down he knoweth not. And being further asked what persons
were at the meeting aforesaid, he nominated these persons hereafter
mentioned; viz., Dickonson wife, Henry Priestly wife and her son,
Alice Hargreaves, widow, Jennet Davies, William Davies, the wife of
Henry Jacks and her son John, James Hargreaves of Marsden, Miles
wife of Dicks, James wife, Saunders as he believes, Lawrence wife of
Saunders, Loynd wife, Boys wife of Barrowford, one Holgate and his
wife as he believes, Little Robin wife of Leonards of the West
Close.
"Edmund Robinson of Pendle, father of the said Edmund Robinson, the
aforesaid informer, upon oath saith, that upon All Saints' Day he
sent his son, the aforesaid informer, to fetch home two kine to
seal, and saith that he thought his son stayed longer than he
should have done, and went to seek him; and in seeking him heard
him cry very pitifully, and found him so afraid and distracted,
that he neither knew his father, nor did know where he was, and so
continued very near a quarter of an hour before he came to himself;
and he told this informer his father all the particular passages
that are before declared in the said Edmund Robinson his son's
information."
Upon such evidence as the above, these poor creatures, chiefly women and
children, were committed by the two magistrates named, to Lancaster
Castle, for trial. On their trials at the assizes, a jury, doubtless
full of prejudice and superstitious fear, found seventeen of them
guilty. The judge respited the convicts and reported the case to the
king in council. They were next remitted to the Bishop of Chester (Dr.
Bridgeman), who certified his opinion of the case, which, however, does
not appear. Subsequently, four of these poor women, Margaret Johnson,
Frances Dickonson, Mary Spencer, and the wife of one of the
Hargreaveses, were sent for to London, and examined, first by the king's
physicians and surgeons, and afterwards by Charles I. in person. The
strangest part of this sad story of superstition is that one of the
four, who underwent examination before the magistrates, trial before "my
lords the king's justices," a sifting question by the Right Rev. the
Lord Bishop of Chester, aided, probably, by his chancellor, archdeacons,
chaplains, proctors, &c., next before the lords of his majesty's privy
council, and lastly, before his sacred majesty the king himself, whose
very touch would remove the king's evil,--one of these four women,
doubtless after much badgering, bullying, and artful questioning,
actually made a confession of her guilt as a witch. When this was made
it does not appear; but here is the confession as preserved in
Dodsworth's Collection of MSS., vol. lxi. p. 47:--
"THE CONFESSION OF MARGARET JOHNSON.--That betwixt seven and eight
years since, she being in her own house in Marsden in a great
passion of anger and discontent, and withal pressed with some want,
there appeared unto her a spirit or devil in the proportion or
similitude of a man, apparelled in a suit of black, tied about with
silk points; who offered that if she would give him her soul he
would supply all her wants, and bring to her whatsoever she did
need; and at her appointment would in revenge either kill or hurt
whom or what she desired, were it man or beast. And saith, that
after a solicitation or two, she contracted and covenanted with the
said devil for her soul. And that the said devil or spirit bade her
call him by the name of Mamilian; and when she would have him do
anything for her, call in 'Mamilian,' and he would be ready to do
her will. And saith, that in all her talk and confidence she calleth
her said devil, 'Mamil, my God.' She further saith that the said
Mamilian, her devil (by her consent) did abuse and defile * * * And
saith that she was not at the great meeting at Hoare-stones, at the
Forest of Pendle, upon All Saints' Day, where * * * But saith she
was at a second meeting the Sunday next after All Saints' Day, at
the place aforesaid, where there was at the time between thirty and
forty witches, who did all ride to the said meeting, and the end of
the meeting was to consult for the killing and hurting of men and
beasts. And that besides their private familiars or spirits, there
was one great or grand devil or spirit, more eminent than the rest.
And if any desire to have a great and more wonderful devil, whereby
they may have more power to hurt, they may have one such. And saith
that such witches as have sharp bones given them by the devil to
prick them, have no paps or dugs whereon the devil may suck; but the
devil receiveth blood from the place pricked with the bone; and they
are more grand witches than any that have marks. She also saith,
that if a witch had but one mark, she hath but one spirit; if two,
then two spirits; if three, yet but two spirits. And saith that
their spirits usually have keeping of their bodies. And being
desired to name such as she knew to be witches, she named, &c. And
if they would torment a man, they bid their spirit go and torment
him in any particular place. And that Good Friday is one constant
day for a yearly general meeting of witches, and that on Good Friday
last they had a meeting near Pendle water-side. She also saith that
men witches usually have women spirits, and women witches men
spirits. And their devil or spirit gives them notice of their
meeting, and tells them the place where it must be. And saith, if
they desire to be in any place upon a sudden their devil or spirit
will, upon a rod, dog, or anything else, presently convey them
thither; yea, into any room of a man's house. But she saith, it is
not the substance of their bodies, but their spirit [that] assumeth
such form and shape as go into such rooms. She also saith that the
devil (after he begins to suck) will make a pap or dug in a short
time, and the matter which he sucks is blood. And saith that their
devils can cause foul weather and storms, and so did at their
meetings. She also saith that when her devil did come to suck her
pap, he usually came to her in the likeness of a cat, sometimes of
one colour and sometimes of another. And that since this trouble
befel her, her spirit hath left her, and she never saw him since."
One cannot read this farrago of revolting absurdities without
instinctively feeling that no uneducated woman could have dictated it;
that it must have been prepared and dressed up for her to attach her
mark, and that all she did was to make the cross to it, in fear,
peradventure, of impending tortures. It is at least satisfactory to know
that all these examinations of the poor women by legal, ecclesiastic,
and regal authorities had a beneficial result. Strong presumption was
afforded that the chief witness, the boy Robinson, had been suborned to
accuse the prisoners falsely; and they were accordingly discharged. The
boy afterwards confessed that he was suborned. The story excited, at the
time, so much interest in the public, that in the following year, 1634,
was acted and published a play entitled "The Witches of Lancashire,"
which Steevens cites in illustration of Shakspeare's witches. _Dr.
Whitaker's Whalley._ [Reference is probably made here to Heywood and
Broome's play of "The late Lancashire Witches" (London, 1634, quarto).
There was a much later play entitled "The Lancashire Witches," by
Shadwell (London, 1682)].
THE LANCASHIRE WITCHES OF 1633-4.
Sir Wm. Pelham writes, May 16, 1634, to Lord Conway:--"The greatest news
from the country is of a huge pack of witches, which are lately
discovered in Lancashire, whereof, 'tis said, 19 are condemned, and that
there are at least 60 already discovered, and yet daily there are more
revealed: there are divers of them of good ability, and they have done
much harm. I hear it is suspected that they had a hand in raising the
great storm, wherein his Majesty [Charles I.] was in so great danger at
sea in Scotland." The original is in the State Paper Office.[131]
LANCASHIRE WITCH-FINDERS.
Dr. Webster, in his "Display of Witchcraft," depicts the consternation
and alarm amongst the old and decrepit, from the machinations of the
witch-finders. Of the boy Robinson, who was a witness on several trials
of witches, he says--"This said boy was brought into the church at
Kildwick [in Yorkshire, on the confines of Lancashire], a large parish
church, where I, being then curate there, was preaching in the
afternoon, and was set upon a stool to look about him, which moved some
little disturbance in the congregation for a while. After prayers, I
enquired what the matter was: the people told me that it was the boy
that discovered witches; upon which I went to the house where he was to
stay all night, and here I found him and two very unlikely persons, that
did conduct him and manage the business. I desired to have some
discourse with the boy in private, but that they utterly refused. Then,
in the presence of a great many people, I took the boy near me and said:
'Good boy, tell me truly and in earnest, didst thou see and hear such
strange things at the meeting of witches as is reported by many thou
didst relate?' But the two men, not giving the boy leave to answer, did
pluck him from me, and said he had been examined by two _able_ justices
of the peace, and _they did never ask him such a question_. To whom I
replied, the persons accused had therefore the more wrong." Dr. Webster
subsequently adds, that "The boy Robinson, in more mature years,
acknowledged that he had been instructed and suborned to make these
accusations against the accused persons, by his father and others, and
that, of course, the whole was a fraud. By such wicked means and
unchristian practices, divers innocent persons lost their lives; and
these wicked rogues wanted not greater persons (even of the ministry
too) that did authorise and encourage them in their diabolical courses;
and the like in my time happened here in Lancashire, where divers, both
men and women, were accused of supposed witchcraft, and were so
unchristianly and inhumanly handled, as to be stript stark naked, and
laid upon tables and beds to be searched for their supposed witch-marks;
so barbarous and cruel acts doth diabolical instigation, working upon
ignorance and superstition, produce."
THE FOREST OF PENDLE--THE HAUNT OF THE LANCASHIRE WITCHES.
The Forest of Pendle is a portion of the greater one of
"Blackburnshire," and is so called from the celebrated mountain of that
name, over the declivity of which it extends, and stretches in a long
but interrupted descent of five miles to the Water of Pendle, a barren
and dreary tract. Dr. Whitaker observes of this and the neighbouring
forests, and the remark even yet holds good, "that they still bear the
marks of original barrenness and recent cultivation; that they are still
distinguished from the ancient freehold tracts around them, by want of
old houses, old woods, high fences (for these were forbidden by the
forest laws); by peculiarities of dialect and manners in their
inhabitants; and lastly, by a general air of poverty which all the
opulence of manufactures cannot remove." He considers that "at an
uncertain period during the occupancy of the Lacies, the first principle
of population (in these forests) commenced;" it was found that these
wilds, bleak and barren as they were, might be occupied to some
advantage in breeding young and depasturing lean "cattle, which were
afterwards fattened in the lower domain. _Vaccaries_, or great upland
pastures, were laid out for this purpose; _booths_ or mansions erected
upon them for the residence of herdsmen; and at the same time that herds
of deer were permitted to range at large as heretofore, _lawnds_, by
which are meant parks within a forest, were enclosed, in order to chase
them with greater facility, or by confinement to produce fatter venison.
Of these lawnds Pendle had New and Old Lawnd, with the contiguous Park
of Ightenhill." In the early part of the 17th century the inhabitants of
this district must have been, with few exceptions, a wretchedly poor and
uncultivated race, having little communication with the occupants of the
more fertile regions around them, and in whose minds superstition, even
yet unextinguished, must have had absolute and uncontrollable
domination. Under the disenchanting influence of steam, still much of
the old character of its population remains. The "parting genius" of
superstition still clings to the hoary hill tops and rugged slopes and
mossy water sides, along which the old forest stretched its length, and
the voices of ancestral tradition are still heard to speak from the
depth of its quiet hollows, and along the course of its gurgling
streams. He who visits Pendle will find that charms are yet generally
resorted to amongst the lower classes; that there are hares which, in
their persuasion, never can be caught, and which survive only to baffle
and confound the huntsman; that each small hamlet has its peculiar and
gifted personage, whom it is dangerous to offend; that the wise man and
woman (the white witches of our ancestors) still continue their
investigations of truth, undisturbed by the rural police or the progress
of the schoolmaster; that each locality has its haunted house; that
apparitions still walk their ghostly rounds,--and little would his
reputation for piety avail that clergyman in the eyes of his
parishioners, who should refuse to lay those "extravagant and erring
spirits," when requested, by those liturgic ceremonies which the
orthodoxy of tradition requires. In the early part of the reign of James
I., and at the period when his execrable statute against witchcraft
might have been sharpening its appetite by a temporary fast for the full
meal of blood by which it was eventually glutted--for as yet it could
count no recorded victims--two wretched old women with their families
resided in the Forest of Pendle. Their names were Elizabeth Southernes
and Ann Whittle, better known, perhaps, in the chronicles of witchcraft
by the appellations of Old Demdike and Old Chattox [perhaps, Chadwick].
Both had attained, or reached the verge of the advanced age of eighty,
and were evidently in a state of extreme poverty, subsisting with their
families by occasional employment, by mendicancy, but principally,
perhaps, by the assumption of that unlawful power which commerce with
spirits of evil was supposed to procure, and of which their sex, life,
appearance, and peculiarities might seem to the prejudiced neighbourhood
in the Forest to render them not unsuitable depositaries.[132]
[For the details of the witchcraft alleged to be practised by these old
crones and their families, with their trials and fate, see an article
(page 185 _suprâ_) in the present volume, entitled "The Lancashire
Witches of 1612."]
PENDLE HILL AND ITS WITCHES.
(From Rev. Richard James's _Iter Lancastrense_.)
"Penigent, Pendle Hill, and Ingleborough,
Three such hills be not in all England thorough."[133]
I long to climb up Pendle[134]: Pendle stands
Round cop, surveying all the wild moor lands,
And Malkin's Tower,[135] a little cottage, where
Report makes caitiff witches meet, to swear
Their homage to the devil, and contrive
The deaths of men and beasts. Let who will dive
Into this baneful search, I wonder much
If judges' sentence with belief on such
Doth pass: then sure, they would not for lewd gain
Bad clients favour, or put good to pain
Of long pursuit; for terror of the fiend
Or love of God, they would give causes end
With equal justice. Yet I do confess
Needs must strange fancies poor old wives possess,
Who in those desert, misty moors do live,
Hungry and cold, and scarce see priest to give
Them ghostly counsel. Churches far do stand
In laymen's hands, and chapels have no land
To cherish learned curates,[136] though Sir John
Do preach for four pounds unto Haslingden.
Such yearly rent, with right of begging corn,
Makes John a sharer in my Lady's horn:
He drinks and prays, and forty years this life
Leading at home, keeps children and a wife.[137]
These are the wonders of our careless days:
Small store serves him who for the people prays.
WITCHCRAFT ABOUT 1654.
Dr. Webster, in his _Display of Witchcraft_, dated February 23, 1673,
mentions two cases somewhat vaguely, in the following terms:--"I myself
have known two supposed witches to be put to death at Lancaster, within
these eighteen years [_i.e._, between 1654 and 1673] that did utterly
deny any league or covenant with the devil, or even to have seen any
visible devil at all; and may not the confessions of those (who both
died penitent) be as well credited as the confessions of those that were
brought to such confessions by force, fraud, or cunning persuasion and
allurement?"
A LIVERPOOL WITCH IN 1667.
In the MS. _Rental of Sir Edward More_ (p. 62), dated in the year 1667,
it is gravely recorded that one of his tenants residing in
Castle-street, Liverpool, was a witch, descended from a witch, and
inheriting the faculty of witchcraft in common with her maiden
sister:--"Widow Bridge, a poor old woman, her own sister Margaret Ley,
being arraigned for a witch, confessed she was one, and when she was
asked how long she had so been, replied, since the death of her mother,
who died thirty years agone, and at her decease she had nothing to leave
her and this widow Bridge, that were sisters, but her two spirits, and
named then the elder spirit to this widow, and the other spirit to her,
the said Margaret Ley. God bless me and all mine from such legacies.
Amen."[138]
THE WITCH OF SINGLETON.
The village of Singleton [in the Fylde] is remarkable only for having
been the residence of "Mag Shelton," a famous witch in her day. Her
food, we are told, was _haggis_ (at that time commonly used in the
district) made of boiled groats, mixed with thyme or parsley. Many are
the wild tales related of her dealings in the black art. The cows of her
neighbours were constantly milked by her; the pitcher in which she
conveyed the stolen milk away, walking before her in the shape of a
goose. Under this disguise her depredations were carried on till a
neighbour, suspecting the trick, struck the seeming goose, and lo!
immediately it was changed into a broken pitcher, and the vaccine liquor
flowed. Once only was this witch foiled by a powerful spell, the
contrivance of a maiden, who, having seated her in a chair, before a
large fire, and stuck a bodkin, crossed with two weaver's healds, about
her person, thus fixed her irremovably to her seat.[139]
WITCHCRAFT AT CHOWBENT IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.
In the beginning of this [the eighteenth] century, one Katherine
Walkden, an old woman of the township of Atherton, Chowbent, was
committed to Lancaster as a witch. She was examined at Hulton Hall,
where the magistrate then resided, by a jury of matrons, by whom a
private teat was discovered, and upon this and other evidence (I suppose
of equal importance) her _mittimus_ was made out, but she died in gaol
before the ensuing assizes.[140]
KILLING A WITCH.
Some years ago I formed the acquaintance of an elderly gentleman who had
retired from business, after amassing an ample fortune by the
manufacture of cotton. He was possessed of a considerable amount of
general information--had studied the world by which he was
surrounded--and was a leading member of the Wesleyan connexion. The
faith element, however, predominated amongst his religious principles,
and hence both he and his family were firm believers in witchcraft. On
one occasion, according to my informant, both he and the neighbouring
farmers suffered much from loss of cattle, and from the unproductiveness
of their sheep. The cream was _bynged_ [soured] in the churn, and would
bring forth no butter. Their cows died mad in the shippons, and no
farrier could be found who was able to fix upon the diseases which
afflicted them. Horses were bewitched out of their stables through the
loopholes, after the doors had been safely locked, and were frequently
found strayed to a considerable distance when they ought to have been
safe in their stalls. Lucky-stones had lost their virtues; horse-shoes
nailed behind the doors were of little use; and sickles hung across the
beams had no effect in averting the malevolence of the evil-doer. At
length suspicion rested upon an old man, a noted astrologer and
fortune-teller, who resided near New Church, in Rossendale, and it was
determined to put an end both to their ill-fortune and his career, by
performing the requisite ceremonials for "killing a witch." It was a
cold November evening when the process commenced. A thick fog covered
the valleys, and the wild winds whistled across the dreary moors. The
farmers, however, were not deterred. They met at the house of one of
their number, whose cattle were then supposed to be under the influence
of the wizard; and having procured a live cock-chicken, they stuck him
full of pins and burnt him alive, whilst repeating some magical
incantation. A cake was also made of oatmeal, mixed with the urine of
those bewitched, and, after having been marked with the name of the
person suspected, was then burnt in a similar manner.... The wind
suddenly rose to a tempest and threatened the destruction of the house.
Dreadful moanings as of some one in intense agony, were heard without,
whilst a sense of horror seized upon all within. At the moment when the
storm was at the wildest, the wizard knocked at the door, and in piteous
tones desired admittance. They had previously been warned by the "wise
man" whom they had consulted, that such would be the case, and had been
charged not to yield to their feelings of humanity by allowing him to
enter. Had they done so, he would have regained all his influence, for
the virtue of the spell would have been dissolved. Again and again did
he implore them to open the door, and pleaded the bitterness of the
wintry blast, but no one answered from within. They were deaf to all his
entreaties, and at last the wizard wended his way across the moors as
best he could. The spell, therefore, was enabled to have its full
effect, and within a week the Rossendale wizard was locked in the cold
embrace of death.[141]
A RECENT WITCH, NEAR BURNLEY.
Not many years ago there resided in the neighbourhood of Burnley an old
woman, whose malevolent practices were supposed to render themselves
manifest by the injuries she inflicted on her neighbours' cattle; and
many a lucky-stone, many a stout horse-shoe and rusty sickle may now be
found behind the doors or hung from the beams in the cow-houses and
stables belonging to the farmers in that locality, which date their
suspension from the time when this "witch" in reputation held the
country-side in awe. Not one of her neighbours ever dared to offend her
openly; and if she at any time preferred a request, it was granted at
all hazards, regardless of inconvenience and expense. If, in some
thoughtless moment, any one spoke slightingly, either of her or her
powers, a corresponding penalty was threatened as soon as it reached her
ears, and the loss of cattle, personal health, or a general "run of bad
luck" soon led the offending party to think seriously of making peace
with his powerful tormentor. As time wore on, she herself sickened and
died; but before she could "shuffle off this mortal coil" she must needs
_transfer her familiar spirit_ to some trusty successor. An intimate
acquaintance from a neighbouring township was consequently sent for in
all haste, and on her arrival was immediately closeted with her dying
friend. What passed between them has never fully transpired, but it is
confidently affirmed that at the close of the interview this associate
_received the witch's last breath into her mouth, and with it the
familiar spirit_. The dreaded woman thus ceased to exist, but her powers
for good or evil were transferred to her companion; and on passing along
the road from Burnley to Blackburn, we can point out a farm-house at no
great distance, with whose thrifty matron no one will yet dare to
quarrel.
"LATING" OR "LEETING" WITCHES.
All-Hallows' Eve, Hallowe'en, &c. (from the old English _halwen_,
saints), denote the vigil and day of All Saints, October 31 and November
1, a season abounding in superstitious observances. It was firmly
believed in Lancashire that the witches assembled on this night at their
general rendezvous in the Forest of Pendle,--a ruined and desolate
farm-house, called the _Malkin Tower_ (_Malkin_ being the name of a
familiar demon in Middleton's old play of _The Witch_; derived from
_maca_, an equal, a companion). This superstition led to another, that
of _lighting_, _lating_, or _leeting_ the witches (from _leoht_, A.-S.
light). It was believed that if a lighted candle were carried about the
fells or hills from eleven to twelve o'clock at night, and burned all
that time steadily, it had so far triumphed over the evil power of the
witches, who, as they passed to the Malkin Tower, would employ their
utmost efforts to extinguish the light, and the person whom it
represented might safely defy their malice during the season; but if, by
any accident the candle went out, it was an omen of evil to the luckless
wight for whom the experiment was made. It was also deemed inauspicious
to cross the threshold of that person until after the return from
_leeting_, and not then unless the candle had preserved its light. Mr.
Milner describes this ceremony as having been recently performed.[142]
FOOTNOTES:
[122] Hall's _Chronicle_.
[123] William of Worcester's _Annales Rerum Anglicarum_, pp. 460-61.
[124] _Pictorial History of England_, vol. ii. p. 81; also Hall's
_Chronicle_.
[125] This is the title-page of an old 12mo chap-book, the date of
publication of which is not shown.
[126] This was sold by auction only a few years ago.
[127] For Sir Philip Sidney's poetical description of this old game, see
his _Arcadia_, or Brand's _Popular Antiquities_ (Ed. 1841, vol. ii. p.
236).
[128] Baines's _History of Lancashire_.
[129] To prove the guilt of one of the prisoners, evidence was received
that it was the opinion of a man not in court, that she had turned his
beer sour. To prove the charge of murder, it was thought sufficient to
attest that the sick person had declared his belief that he owed his
approaching death to the maledictions of the prisoner. The bleeding of
the corpse on the touch of Jennet Preston, was received as an
incontrovertible evidence of guilt. It would be nearer the truth to say
that nothing but fiction was received in evidence.
[130] Dr. Whitaker's _Whalley_, p. 528.
[131] W. N. S., in _Notes and Queries_, 2nd series, vol. iv. p. 365.
[132] Mr. James Crossley's introduction to _Potts's Discovery of
Witches_.
[133] This is an old local proverb, amongst the Yorkshire proverbs in
Grose's _Provincial Glossary_. Ray gives it thus:--
"Ingleborough, Pendle, and Penigent,
Are the highest hills between Scotland and Trent."
[134] Pendle Hill, or _Pen hull_ (_i.e._, the head hill) is situated on
the borders of Lancashire, in the northern part of Whalley, and rises
about 1800 feet above the level of the sea. The views from the summit
are very extensive, including the Irish sea on one side, and York
Minster (at a distance of nearly sixty miles) on the other.
Notwithstanding the boast of the old proverb above, there are several
hills round it of higher elevation.
[135] Malkin Tower, in the Forest of Pendle, and on the declivity of
Pendle Hill, was the place where, according to vulgar belief, a sort of
assembly or convention of reputed witches took place on Good Friday in
1612, which was attended by seventeen pretended witches and three
wizards, who were afterwards brought to trial at Lancaster Assizes, and
ten of these unfortunate creatures being found guilty, were executed.
[136] The laymen here referred to were not the patrons, but the persons
officiating, who were called readers, and had no orders. Nearly every
chapel in the parish of Whalley was destitute of land in 1636.
[137] The Sir John was probably John Butterworth, clerk, curate of
Haslingden about this period. "Sir John" was a designation frequently
applied to an illiterate priest. The old allowance to the priest in
Haslingden, according to Bishop Gastrell, was 4_l._ Formerly parish
clerks (and perhaps the priests of poor cures also) claimed once a year
a bowl of corn from each parishioner of substance.
[138] The _Moore Rental_, p. 62.
[139] Rev. W. Thornber's _History of Blackpool_, p. 308.
[140] _MS. Description of Atherton and Chowbent in 1787_, by Dorning
Rasbotham, Esq.
[141] See _Transactions of Lancashire and Cheshire Historical Society_.
[142] _Year Book_, part xiii. col. 1558.