thow seruis, and quha techis the all this vytchcraft and sorcerie,
apperit to the, in the licknes of ane horss, in ane how and den, and
spak and conferrit with the a lang speace.--[Being sent for to another
case] and the said guidman of Kincragie sendand his awin best horss,
with ane boy of his awin, to bring the to his wyiff; and the said boy
on horse cuming to the, and thow beand on the horss behind the boy,
att thy awin dure, thy maister Satane, the Dewill, apperit in the
licknes of ane gray staig, and convoyit the and the boy fra thy awin
houss to Kincragie, and keipit cumpanie all the way with you, with
quhome thow haid thy secreitt conference.--Vpone Nwris [New-year's]
day, thow was att the loche syid besyid Boigloche, and thair thow
pudlit be ane lang speace, thy selff alane, in ane deip holl amongis
the watter, castand watter, erd and stone oure thi schowlderis, and
thair was besyid the thy maister the Deuill, quhome thow seruis, in
the licknes of ane hen flichtering, with quhome thow was thane
consultand, and quhais directiounis than thow was taikand.'[834]
In Derbyshire in 1597, 'Whereas Alice Gooderige said her familiar was like
one William Gregories dog of Stapenhill, there arose a rumor, his dog was
her familiar: Wherefore hee with his neighbour maister Coxe went the next
day to examin her concerning this report; and she saide, my diuel (I say)
was like your dog. Now out vpon thee (saide Gregorie) and departed: she
being further examined, saide she had her familiar of her mother.'[835]
Alexander Hamilton, tried at Edinburgh in 1630, confessed that--
'haifing ane battoun of fir in his hand the devill than gave the said
Alexr command to tak that battoun quhan evir he had ado with him and
thairwt to strek thruse upone the ground and to nhairge him to ruse up
foule theiff Conforme to the whilk directioun and be streking of the
said battone thryse upone the ground the devill was in use sumtymes to
appeir to the said Alexr in the liknes of ane corbie at uther tymes in
the schape of ane katt and at uther tymes in the schape of ane dog and
thereby the said Alexr did ressave reponsis frome him.--The said Alexr
Hamiltoun coming to the said Thomas Homes house and seing him visseit
with the said seiknes declairit to him that he was bewitchet and
promeist to cure him thereof Lykas for this effect the said Alexr
schortlie thereftir past to clarkingtoun burne besyde the rottoneraw
haifing ane katt under his okister and thair wt his said battoun
raisit Sathan his maister quha than appeirit to him in the liknes of
ane corbie and thair instructit him be quhat meanis he sould cure the
said Thomas of his said seiknes and he haifing ressauit that respons
fra the devill the said Alexr thereftir cuist to him the kat quha
therewt vanischet away'.[836]
Two of the Somerset witches in 1664 had familiars; to Elizabeth Style the
familiar came as a black dog, 'and when she hath a desire to do harm, she
calls the Spirit by the name of _Robin_, to whom when he appeareth, she
useth these words, _O Sathan give me my purpose_. She then tells him what
she would have done. And that he should so appear to her was part of her
Contract with him.--Alice Duke saith, that when the Devil doth any thing
for her, she calls for him by the name of _Robin_, upon which he appears,
and when in the shape of a Man, she can hear him speak'.[837] This shows
that the familiar, or Devil as she called him, was not always in the form
of a man. The trial of Margaret Nin-Gilbert at Thurso was as late as 1719:
'Being interrogat, If ever the devil appeared afterwards to her? Confessed,
That sometimes he appeared in the likeness of a great black horse, and
other times riding on a black horse, and that he appeared sometimes in the
likeness of a black cloud, and sometimes like a black henn'.[838]
2. _The Domestic Familiar_
Forbes, the great Scotch lawyer, says that 'to some he [the Devil] gives
certain Spirits or Imps to correspond with, and serve them as their
Familiars, known to them by some odd Names, to which they answer when
called. These Imps are said to be kept in Pots or other Vessels.'[839]
Though the domestic familiar is thus mentioned in the law of Scotland, it
never occurs in the trials. It is confined so strictly to England that
Hutchinson is able to say 'I meet with little mention of _Imps_ in any
Country but ours, where the Law makes the feeding, suckling, or rewarding
of them to be Felony'.[840] It is not found north of Lancashire, and the
chief records are in Essex, Suffolk, and the other Eastern counties.
The domestic familiar was always a small animal, was fed in a special
manner on bread and milk and blood, and was kept, as Forbes points out, in
a box or earthen pot on a bed of wool. It was used for working magic on the
persons and property of other people, never for divining. Giffard records
the general belief: 'The witches have their spirits, some hath one, some
hath more, as two, three, foure, or five, some in one likenesse, and some
in another, as like cats, weasils, toades, or mise, whom they nourish with
milke or with a chicken, or by letting them suck now and then a drop of
bloud.'[841]
In the earlier trials the witches confessed to pricking the hands or face
and giving the resulting drop or drops of blood to the familiar. In the
later trials this has developed into the sucking of the witch's blood by
the familiar; and the supernumerary nipple, which was so marked a feature
of the English witches, was popularly supposed to be caused by such
sucking. It is more probable, however, that the witch who was possessed of
a supernumerary nipple would regard it as something supernatural, and would
use it to nourish a supernatural animal.
Elizabeth Francis, tried at Chelmsford in 1556,
'learned this arte of witchcraft of hyr grandmother whose nam mother
Eue. Item when shee taughte it her, she counseiled her to renounce God
and his worde and to geue of her bloudde to Sathan (as she termed it)
whyche she delyuered her in the lykenesse of a whyte spotted Catte,
and taughte her to feede the sayde Catte with breade and mylke, and
she dyd so, also she taughte her to cal it by the name of Sathan and
to kepe it in a basket. Item that euery tyme that he did any thynge
for her, she sayde that he required a drop of bloude, which she gaue
him by prycking herselfe, sometime in one place and then in an other.
When shee had kept this Cat by the space of XV or XVI yeare, and as
some saye (though vntruly) beinge wery of it, she came to one mother
Waterhouse her neyghbour, she brought her this cat in her apron and
taught her as she was instructed by her grandmother Eue, telling her
that she must cal him Sathan and geue him of her bloude and breade and
milke as before.--Mother Waterhouse receyued this cat of this Frances
wife in the order as is before sayde. She (to trye him what he coulde
do) wyld him to kyll a hog of her owne, which he dyd, and she gaue him
for his labour a chicken, which he fyrste required of her and a drop
of her blod. And thys she gaue him at all times when he dyd anythynge
for her, by pricking her hand or face and puttinge the bloud to hys
mouth whyche he sucked, and forthwith wold lye downe in hys pot
againe, wherein she kepte him. Another tym she rewarded hym as before,
wyth a chicken and a droppe of her bloud, which chicken he eate vp
cleane as he didde al the rest, and she cold fynde remaining neyther
bones nor fethers. Also she said that when she wolde wyl him to do any
thinge for her, she wolde say her Pater noster in laten. Item, this
mother Waterhouse confessed that shee fyrst turned this Cat into a
tode by this meanes, she kept the cat a great while in woll in a pot,
and at length being moued by pouertie to occupie the woll, she praied
in the name of the father and of the sonne, and of the holy ghost that
it wold turne into a tode, and forthwith it was turned into a tode,
and so kept it in the pot without woll.'[842]
In 1579 at Windsor--
'one Mother Dutton dwellyng in Cleworthe Parishe keepeth a Spirite or
Feende in the likenesse of a Toade, and fedeth the same Feende liyng
in a border of greene Hearbes, within her Garden, with blood whiche
she causeth to issue from her owne flancke. Mother Deuell, dwellyng
nigh the Ponde in Windesore, hath a Spirite in the shape of a Blacke
Catte, and calleth it Gille, whereby she is aided in her Witchcrafte,
and she daiely feedeth it with Milke, mingled with her owne bloud.
Mother Margaret, dwellying in the Almeshouse at Windesore, dooeth
feede a Kitlyng or Feende by her named Ginnie, with crummes of bread
and her owne blood. The saied Elizabeth Stile, of her self confesseth
that she the same Elizabeth kept a Ratte, beeyng in very deede a
wicked Spirite, namyng it Philip, and that she fedde the same Ratte
with bloode, issuing from her right handwrest, the markes whereof
euidently remaine.'[843]
At St. Osyth in Essex in 1582 Thomas Rabbet, aged eight, said that his
mother Ursley Kemp 'hath foure seuerall spirites, the one called Tyffin,
the other Tittey, the third Pigine, and the fourth Iacke: and being asked
of what colours they were, saith, that Tyttey is like a little grey
Cat,[844] Tyffin is like a white lambe, Pygine is black like a Toad, and
Iacke is blacke like a Cat. And hee saith, hee hath seen his mother at
times to giue th[~e] beere to drinke, and of a white Lofe or Cake to eate,
and saith that in the night time the said spirites will come to his mother,
and sucke blood of her vpon her armes and other places of her body.' Febey
Hunt, stepdaughter of Ales Hunt, one of the accused witches, stated that
'shee hath seen her mother to haue two little thinges like horses,[845] the
one white, the other blacke, the which shee kept in a little lowe earthen
pot with woll, colour white and blacke, and that they stoode in her chamber
by her bed side, and saith, that shee hath seene her mother to feede them
with milke'. Ales Hunt herself said that 'shee had within VI. dayes before
this examination two spirits, like unto little Coltes, the one blacke, and
the other white: And saith she called them by the names of _Iacke_ and
_Robbin_. This Examinate saith that her sister (named Margerie Sammon) hath
also two spirites like Toades, the one called _Tom_, and the other
_Robbyn_.' Ursley Kemp confessed that 'about a quarter of a yere past, she
went vnto mother Bennets house for a messe of milke, the which shee had
promised her: But at her comming this examinate saith shee knocked at her
dore, and no bodie made her any answere, whereupon shee went to her chamber
windowe and looked in therat, saying, ho, ho, mother Bennet are you at
home: And casting her eyes aside, shee saw a spirit lift up a clothe,
lying ouer a pot, looking much lik a Ferret. And it being asked of this
examinate why the spirite did looke vpon her, shee said it was hungrie'.
Elizabeth Bennet acknowledged that she had two 'spirits, one called
_Suckin_, being blacke like a Dogge, the other called _Lierd_, beeing red
like a Lion. Suckin this examinat saith is a hee, and the other a shee.
Many tymes they drinke of her milke bowle. And when, and as often as they
did drinke of the mylke: This Examynate saith they went into the sayd
earthen pot, and lay in the wooll.' Ursley Kemp also gave evidence
concerning Ales Hunt's familiars: 'About the foureteene or fifteene day of
Januarie last, shee went to the house of William Hunt to see howe his wife
did, and shee being from home, shee called at her chamber window and looked
in, and then espied a spirite to looke out of a potcharde from vnder a
clothe, the nose thereof beeing browne like vnto a Ferret.'[846] In 1588 in
Essex an old woman, whose name is not given,
'confessed all: Which was this in effect: that she had three spirits:
one like a cat, which she called Lightfoot, another like a toad, which
she called Lunch, the third like a Weasill, which she called
Makeshift. This Lightfoot, she said, one mother Barlie of W. solde her
aboue sixteene yeares agoe, for an ouen cake, and told her the Cat
would doe her good seruice, if she woulde, she might send her of her
errand: this Cat was with her but a while, but the Weasill and the
Toad came and offered their seruice: The Cat would kill kine, the
Weasil would kill horses, the Toad would plague men in their
bodies.--There was one olde mother W. of great T. which had a spirite
like a Weasill: she was offended highlie with one H. M. home she went,
and called forth her spirite, which lay in a pot of woll vnder her
bed, she willed him to goe plague the man; he required what she would
give him. She said she would give him a cocke, which she did.' Another
Mother W. 'sayd she had a spirit in the likenesse of a yellow dun
cat'.[847]
In Lancashire in 1613 old mother Demdike confessed that 'vpon a Sabbath day
in the morning, this Examinate hauing a litle Child vpon her knee, and she
being in a slumber, the sayd Spirit appeared vnto her in the likenes of a
browne Dogg, forcing himselfe to her knee, to get blood vnder her left
Arme: and she being without any apparrell sauing her Smocke, the said
Deuill did get blood vnder her left arme'.[848] Of the witches who plagued
the Fairfax family at Fewstone in 1621, five had domestic familiars:
Margaret Waite's was 'a deformed thing with many feet, black of colour,
rough with hair, the bigness of a cat'; her daughter, Margaret Waite, had
as 'her spirit, a white cat spotted with black, and named Inges'; Jennet
Dibble had 'her spirit in the shape of a great black cat called Gibbe,
which hath attended her now above 40 years'; Dibble's daughter, Margaret
Thorpe, had a 'familiar in the shape of a bird, yellow of colour, about the
bigness of a crow--the name of it is Tewhit'; Elizabeth Dickenson's spirit
was 'in the likeness of a white cat, which she calleth Fillie, she hath
kept it twenty years'.[849] The witch of Edmonton, Elizabeth Sawyer, in
1621, said: 'It is eight yeares since our first acquaintance, and three
times in the weeke, the Diuell would come and see mee; he would come
sometimes in the morning, and sometimes in the evening. Alwayes in the
shape of a dogge, and of two collars, sometimes of blacke and sometimes of
white. I gaue him leaue to sucke of my bloud, the which hee asked of me.
When he came barking to mee he then had done the mischiefe that I did bid
him to doe for me. I did call the Diuell by the name of Tom. I did stroake
him on the backe, and then he would becke vnto me, and wagge his tayle as
being therewith contented.'[850] Margaret Johnson, another Lancashire witch
in 1633, 'alsoe saith, yt when her devill did come to sucke her pappe, hee
usually came to her in ye liknes of a cat, sometymes of one colour, and
sometymes on (_sic_) an other. And yt since this trouble befell her, her
spirit hath left her, and shee never sawe him since.'[851]
From 1645 to 1647 are the chief records of the witch trials of Essex and
the eastern counties, celebrated as the scene of Matthew Hopkins's work.
The Essex trials took place in 1645: John Sterne, Hopkins's assistant,
deposed that when watching Elizabeth Clarke,