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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, Discovery of Witches, by Thomas Potts, Edited
+by James Crossley
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: Discovery of Witches
+       The Wonderfull Discoverie of Witches in the Countie of Lancaster
+
+
+Author: Thomas Potts
+
+Editor: James Crossley
+
+Release Date: April 25, 2006  [eBook #18253]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DISCOVERY OF WITCHES***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Clare Boothby, Linda Cantoni, and the Project Gutenberg
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net/)
+
+
+
+Transcriber's note:
+
+   The following symbols are used in this e-text:
+
+      ^ before a letter indicates that the letter is superscripted
+      in the original
+
+      = before a vowel in brackets indicates that the vowel has a
+      macron over it in the original, indicating a final n or m
+
+
+
+
+
+Remains Historical & Literary Connected with the Palatine Counties
+of Lancaster and Chester
+
+Published by the Chetham Society.
+
+Vol. VI.
+
+Printed for the Chetham Society.
+M.DCCC.XLV.
+
+
+
+[Illustration: THE CHETHAM SOCIETY]
+
+
+
+Council.
+
+EDWARD HOLME, ESQ., M.D., PRESIDENT.
+REV. RICHARD PARKINSON, B.D., CANON OF MANCHESTER, VICE-PRESIDENT.
+THE HON. & VERY REV. WILLIAM HERBERT, DEAN OF MANCHESTER.
+GEORGE ORMEROD, ESQ., D.C.L., F.R.S., F.S.A., F.G.S., SEDBURY PARK.
+SAMUEL HIBBERT WARE, ESQ., M.D., F.R.S.E., EDINBURGH.
+REV. THOMAS CORSER, M.A.
+REV. GEORGE DUGARD, M.A.
+REV. C.G. HULTON, M.A.
+REV. J. PICCOPE, M.A.
+REV. F.R. RAINES, M.A., F.S.A., MILNROW PARSONAGE, NEAR ROCHDALE.
+JAMES CROSSLEY, ESQ.
+JAMES HEYWOOD, ESQ., F.R.S.
+WILLIAM LANGTON, ESQ., TREASURER.
+WILLIAM FLEMING, ESQ., M.D., HON. SECRETARY.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+POTTS'S DISCOVERY OF WITCHES
+
+In the County of Lancaster,
+
+Reprinted from the Original Edition of 1613.
+
+With an Introduction and Notes, by JAMES CROSSLEY, ESQ.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Printed for the Chetham Society.
+M.DCC.XLV.
+Manchester:
+Printed by Charles Simms and Co.
+
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION.
+
+
+Were not every chapter of the history of the human mind too precious
+an inheritance to be willingly relinquished,--for appalling as its
+contents may be, the value of the materials it may furnish may be
+inestimable,--we might otherwise be tempted to wish that the miserable
+record in which the excesses occasioned by the witch mania are
+narrated, could be struck out of its pages, and for ever cancelled.
+Most assuredly, he, who is content to take the fine exaggeration of
+the author of _Hydriotaphia_ as a serious and literal truth, and who
+believes with him that "man is a glorious animal," must not go to the
+chapter which contains that record for his evidences and proofs. If he
+should be in search of materials for humiliation and abasement, he
+will find in the history of witchcraft in this country, from the
+beginning to the end of the seventeenth century, large and abundant
+materials, whether it affects the species or the individual. In truth,
+human nature is never seen in worse colours than in that dark and
+dismal review. Childhood, without any of its engaging properties,
+appears prematurely artful, wicked and cruel[1]; woman, the victim of
+a wretched and debasing bigotry, has yet so little of the feminine
+adjuncts, that the fountains of our sympathies are almost closed; and
+man, tyrannizing over the sex he was bound to protect, in its helpless
+destitution and enfeebled decline, seems lost in prejudice and
+superstition and only strong in oppression. If we turn from the common
+herd to the luminaries of the age, to those whose works are the
+landmarks of literature and science, the reference is equally
+disappointing;--
+
+    "The sun itself is dark
+    And silent as the moon
+    Hid in her vacant interlunar cave."
+
+[Footnote 1: Take, as an instance, the children of Mr. Throgmorton, of
+Warbois, for bewitching whom, Mother Samuels, her husband, and
+daughter, suffered in 1593. No veteran professors "in the art of
+ingeniously tormenting" could have administered the question with more
+consummate skill than these little incarnate fiends, till the poor old
+woman was actually induced, from their confident asseverations and
+plausible counterfeiting, to believe at last that she had been a witch
+all her life without knowing it. She made a confession, following the
+story which they had prompted, on their assurances that it was the
+only means to restore them, and then was hanged upon that confession,
+to which she adhered on the scaffold. Few tracts present a more vivid
+picture of manners than that in which the account of this case of
+witchcraft is contained. It is perhaps the rarest of the English
+tracts relating to witchcraft, and is entitled "The most strange and
+admirable Discoverie of the three Witches of Warboys, arraigned,
+convicted, and executed at the last Assizes at Huntingdon, for the
+bewitching of the five daughters of Robert Throckmorton, Esquire, and
+divers other persons with sundrie Devilish and grievous torments. And
+also for the bewitching to Death of the Lady Crumwell, the like hath
+not been heard of in this age. London, Printed by the Widdowe Orwin
+for Thomas Man and John Winnington, and are to be sold in Paternoster
+Rowe at the Signe of the Talbot." 1593, 4to. My copy was Brand's, and
+formed Lot 8224 in his Sale Catalogue.]
+
+We find the illustrious author of the Novum Organon sacrificing to
+courtly suppleness his philosophic truth, and gravely prescribing the
+ingredients for a witches' ointment;[2]--Raleigh, adopting miserable
+fallacies at second hand, without subjecting them to the crucible of
+his acute and vigorous understanding;[3]--Selden, maintaining that
+crimes of the imagination may be punished with death;[4]--The detector
+of Vulgar Errors, and the most humane of physicians,[5] giving the
+casting weight to the vacillating bigotry of Sir Matthew
+Hale;[6]--Hobbes, ever sceptical, penetrating and sagacious, yet here
+paralyzed, and shrinking from the subject as if afraid to touch
+it;[7]--The adventurous explorer, who sounded the depths and channels
+of the "Intellectual System" along all the "wide watered" shores of
+antiquity, running after witches to hear them recite the Common Prayer
+and the Creed, as a rational test of guilt or innocence;[8]--The
+gentle spirit of Dr. Henry More, girding on the armour of persecution,
+and rousing itself from a Platonic reverie on the Divine Life, to
+assume the hood and cloak of a familiar of the Inquisition;[9]--and
+the patient and enquiring Boyle, putting aside for a while his
+searches for the grand Magisterium, and listening, as if spell-bound,
+with gratified attention to stories of witches at Oxford, and devils
+at Mascon.[10] Nor is it from a retrospect of our own intellectual
+progress only that we find how capricious, how intermitting, and how
+little privileged to great names or high intellects, or even to those
+minds which seemed to possess the very qualifications which would
+operate as conductors, are those illuminating gleams of common sense
+which shoot athwart the gloom, and aid a nation on its tardy progress
+to wisdom, humanity, and justice. If on the Continent there were, in
+the sixteenth century, two men from whom an exposure of the
+absurdities of the system of witchcraft might have been naturally and
+rationally expected, and who seem to stand out prominently from the
+crowd as predestined to that honourable and salutary office, those two
+men were John Bodin[11] and Thomas Erastus.[12] The former a
+lawyer--much exercised in the affairs of men--whose learning was not
+merely umbratic--whose knowledge of history was most philosophic and
+exact--of piercing penetration and sagacity--tolerant--liberal
+minded--disposed to take no proposition upon trust, but to canvass and
+examine every thing for himself, and who had large views of human
+nature and society--in fact, the Montesquieu of the seventeenth
+century. The other, a physician and professor, sage, judicious,
+incredulous,
+
+     "The scourge of impostors, the terror of quacks,"
+
+who had routed irrecoverably empiricism in almost every
+shape--Paracelsians--Astrologers--Alchemists--Rosicrucians--and who
+weighed and scrutinized and analyzed every conclusion, from
+excommunication and the power of the keys to the revolutions of comets
+and their supposed effects on empires, and all with perfect
+fearlessness and intuitive insight into the weak points of an
+argument. Yet, alas! for human infirmity. Bodin threw all the weight
+of his reasoning and learning and vivacity into the scale of the witch
+supporters, and made the "hell-broth boil and bubble" anew, and
+increased the witch _furor_ to downright fanaticism, by the
+publication of his _Demo-manie_,[13] a work in which
+
+    "Learning, blinded first and then beguiled,
+    Looks dark as ignorance, as frenzy wild;"
+
+but which it is impossible to read without being carried along by the
+force of mind and power of combination which the author manifests, and
+without feeling how much ingenious sophistry can perform to mitigate
+and soften the most startling absurdity. His contemporary, Erastus,
+after all his victories on the field of imposition, was foiled by the
+subject of witchcraft at last. This was his pet delusion--almost the
+only one he cared not to discard--like the dying miser's last
+reserve:--
+
+    ---- "My manor, sir? he cried;
+    Not that, I cannot part with that,--and died."
+
+[Footnote 2: Lord Bacon thinks (see his _Sylva Sylvarum_) that
+soporiferous medicines "are likeliest" for this purpose, such as
+henbane, hemlock, mandrake, moonshade, tobacco, opium, saffron, poplar
+leaves, &c.]
+
+[Footnote 3: See his _History of the World_.]
+
+[Footnote 4: See his _Table Talk_, section "_Witches_."]
+
+[Footnote 5: Sir Thomas Browne's evidence at the trial of Amy Duny and
+Rose Cullender at Bury St. Edmunds in 1664, is too well known to need
+an extract from the frequently reprinted report of the case. To adopt
+the words of an able writer, (_Retros. Review_, vol. v. p. 118,) "this
+trial is the only place in which we ever meet with the name of Sir
+Thomas Browne without pleasurable associations."]
+
+[Footnote 6: Those who wish to have presented to them a faithful
+likeness of Sir Matthew Hale must not consult Burnet or Baxter, for
+that great judge, like Sir Epicure Mammon, sought "for his meet
+flatterers the gravest of divines," but will not fail to find it in
+the pages of Roger North, who has depicted his character with a
+strength and accuracy of outline which no Vandyck or Lely of biography
+ever surpassed. Would that we could exchange some of those "faultless
+monsters" with which that fascinating department of literature too
+much abounds, for a few more such instantly recognised specimens of
+true but erring and unequal humanity, which are as rare as they are
+precious. In the unabridged life of Lord Guildford by Roger North,
+which, with his own most interesting and yet unpublished
+autobiography, are in my possession in his autograph, are found some
+additional touches which confirm the general accuracy of the portrait
+he has sketched of Hale in the work which has been printed. (Vide
+North's _Life of Lord Guildford_, by Roscoe, vol. i. p. 119.)]
+
+[Footnote 7: See his _Dialogue on the Common Laws of England_.]
+
+[Footnote 8: Dr. Cudworth was the friend whom More refers to without
+naming, _Collections of Relations_, p. 336, edit. 1726, 8vo.]
+
+[Footnote 9: There is no name in this catalogue that excites more
+poignant regret than that of Dr. Henry More. So exalted was his
+character, so serene and admirable his temper, so full of harmony his
+whole intellectual constitution, that, irradiated at once by all the
+lights of religion and philosophy, and with clearer glimpses of the
+land of vision and the glories behind the veil than perhaps uninspired
+mortality ever partook of before, he seems to have reached as near to
+the full standard of perfection as it is possible for frail and feeble
+humanity to attain. Dr. Outram said that he looked upon Dr. More as
+the holiest person upon the face of the earth; and the sceptical
+Hobbes, who never dealt in compliment, observed, "That if his own
+philosophy were not true, he knew of none that he should sooner like
+than More's of Cambridge." His biographer, Ward, concludes his life in
+the following glowing terms:--"Thus lived and died the eminent Dr.
+More: thus set this bright and illustrious star, vanishing by degrees
+out of our sight after, to the surprise and admiration of many, (like
+that which was observed in Cassiopeia's chair,) it had illuminated, as
+it were, both worlds so long at once." At the lapse of many years I
+have not forgotten the impassioned fondness with which the late and
+most lamented Robert Southey dwelt upon the memory of the Cambridge
+Plato, or the delight with which he greeted some works of his
+favourite author which I was fortunate enough to point out to him,
+with which he had not been previously acquainted. The sad reverse of
+the picture will he seen by those who consult the folio of More's
+philosophical works and Glanville's _Sadducismus Triumphatus_, the
+greatest part of which is derived from More's _Collections_. His
+hallucinations on the subject of witchcraft, from which none of the
+English writers of the Platonic school were exempt, are the more
+extraordinary, as a sister error, judicial astrology, met in More with
+its most able oppugner. His tract, which has excited much less
+attention than its merit deserves, (I have not been able to trace a
+single quotation from it in any author during the last century,) is
+entitled "Tetractys Anti-astrologica, or a Confutation of Astrology."
+Lond. 1681, 4to. I may mention while on the subject of More, that the
+second and most valuable part of the memoir of him by Ward, his
+devoted admirer and pupil, which was never printed, is in my
+possession, in manuscript.]
+
+[Footnote 10: See Boyle's letter on the subject of the latter, in the
+5th vol. of the folio edition of his works.]
+
+[Footnote 11: I have always considered the conclusion of Bodin's book,
+_De Republica_, the accumulative grandeur of which is even heightened
+in Knolles's admirable English translation, as the finest peroration
+to be found in any work on government. Those who are fortunate enough
+to possess a copy of his interdicted _Examination of Religions_, the
+title of which is, "Colloquium heptaplomeres de abditis sublimium
+rerum arcanis, libris 6 digestum," which was never printed, and of
+which very few MSS. copies are in existence, are well aware how little
+he felt himself shackled in the spirit of examination which he carried
+into the most sacred subjects by any respect for popular notions or
+received systems or great authorities. My MS. copy of this
+extraordinary work, which came from Heber's Collection, is contained
+in two rather thick folio volumes.]
+
+[Footnote 12: Few authors are better deserving of an extended
+biography, a desideratum which, in an age characterised by its want of
+literary research, is not likely to be soon supplied, than Thomas
+Erastus, whose theological, philosophical, and medical celebrity
+entitle him to rank with the greatest men of his century. At present
+we have to collect all that is known of his life from various
+scattered and contradictory sources. John Webster, in his _Displaying
+of Supposed Witchcraft_, contrary to the usual candour and fairness of
+his judgments, speaks slightingly of Erastus. There was, however, a
+sufficient reason for this. Erastus had shown up the empiricism of
+Webster's idol Paracelsus, and was in great disfavour with the writers
+of the Anti-Galenic school.]
+
+[Footnote 13: I cannot concur with Mr. Hallam in the extremely low
+estimate he forms of the literary merit of Bodin's _Demomanie_, which
+he does not seem to have examined with the care and impartiality which
+he seldom is deficient in. Like all Bodin's works, it has a spirit
+peculiarly his own, and is, in my opinion, one of the most
+entertaining books to be found in the circle of Demonology.]
+
+In his treatise _De Lamiis_, published in 1577, 8vo., he defends
+nearly all the absurdities of the system with a blind zealotry which
+in such a man is very remarkable. His book has accordingly taken its
+place on the same shelf with Sprenger, Remigius, Delrio, and De
+Lancre, and deserves insertion only in a list which has yet to be made
+out, and which if accurately compiled would be a literary curiosity,
+of the singularly illogical books of singularly able reasoners.
+What was left unaccomplished by the centurions of literature came
+ultimately from the strangest of all possible quarters; from the
+study of an humble pupil of the transmuter of metals and prince
+of mountebanks and quacks--the expounder of Reuchlin _de verbo
+mirifico_, and lecturer in the unknown tongues--the follower of
+Trismegistus--cursed with bell, book and candle, by every decorous
+Church in Christendom--the redoubted Cornelius Agrippa; who, if he
+left not to his pupil Wierus the secret of the philosopher's stone or
+grand elixir, seems to have communicated a treasure perhaps equally
+rare and not less precious, the faculty of seeing a truth which should
+open the eyes of bigotry and dispel the mists of superstition, which
+should stop the persecution of the helpless and stay the call for
+blood. If, in working out this virgin ore from the mine, he has
+produced it mixed up with the _scoria_ of his master's _Occult
+Philosophy_; if he gives us catalogues of devils and spirits, with
+whose acquaintance we could have dispensed; if he pleads the great
+truth faintly, inconsistently, imperfectly, and is evidently unaware
+of the strength of the weapons he wields; these deductions do not the
+less entitle Wierus to take his place in the first rank of Humanity's
+honoured professors, the true philanthropists and noble benefactors of
+mankind.
+
+In our own country, it may be curious and edifying to observe to whom
+we mainly owe those enlightened views on this subject, which might
+have been expected to proceed in their natural channel, but for which
+we look in vain, from the "triumphant heirs of universal praise," the
+recognized guides of public opinion, whose fame sheds such a lustre on
+our annals,--the Bacons, the Raleighs, the Seldens, the Cudworths, and
+the Boyles.
+
+The strangely assorted and rather grotesque band to whom we are
+principally indebted for a vindication of outraged common sense and
+insulted humanity in this instance, and whose vigorous exposition of
+the absurdities of the prevailing system, in combination with other
+lights and sources of intelligence, led at last to its being
+universally abandoned, consists of four individuals--on any of whom a
+literary Pharisee would look down with supercilious scorn:--a country
+gentleman, devoted to husbandry, and deep in platforms of hop
+gardens,[14]--a baronet, whose name for upwards of a century has been
+used as a synonyme for incurable political bigotry,[15]--a little,
+crooked, and now forgotten man, who died, as his biographer tells us,
+"distracted, occasioned by a deep conceit of his own parts, and by a
+continual bibbing of strong and high tasted liquors,"[16]--and last,
+but not least assuredly, of one who was by turns a fanatical preacher
+and an obscure practitioner of physic, and who passed his old age at
+Clitheroe in Lancashire in attempting to transmute metals and discover
+the philosopher's stone.[17] So strange a band of Apostles of reason
+may occasion a smile; it deserves, at all events, a little more
+particular consideration before we address ourselves to the short
+narration which may be deemed necessary as an introduction to the
+republication which follows.
+
+Of the first of the number, Reginald or Reynold Scot, it is to be
+regretted that more particulars are not known. Nearly the whole are
+contained in the following information afforded by Anthony a Wood,
+_Athenae._, vol. i. p. 297; from which it appears that he took to
+"solid reading" at a crisis of life when it is generally thrown aside.
+"Reynolde Scot, a younger son of Sir John Scot, of Scot's Hall, near
+to Smeeth, in Kent, by his wife, daughter of Reynolde Pimp, of Pimp's
+Court, Knight, was born in that county, and at about 17 years of age
+was sent to Oxon, particularly as it seems to Hart Hall, where several
+of his countrymen and name studied in the latter end of K. Henry
+VIII. and the reign of Edward VI., &c. Afterwards he retired to his
+native country, without the honour of a Degree, and settled at Smeeth,
+where he found great encouragement in his studies from his kinsman,
+Sir Thomas Scot. _About which time, taking to him a wife, he gave
+himself up solely to solid reading_, to the perusing of obscure
+authors that had, by the generality of scholars, been neglected, and
+at times of leisure to husbandry and gardening. He died in September
+or October in 1599, and was buried among his ancestors, in the church
+at Smeeth before mentioned." Retired as his life and obscure as his
+death might be, he is one whose name will be remembered as long as
+vigorous sense, flowing from the "wells of English undefiled," hearty
+and radiant humour, and sterling patriotism, are considered as
+deserving of commemoration. His _Discoverie of Witchcraft_, first
+published in 1584, is indeed a treat to him who wishes to study the
+idioms, manners, opinions, and superstitions of the reign of
+Elizabeth. Its entire title deserves to be given:--
+
+"_The discouerie of witchcraft, wherein the lewde dealing of witches
+and witchmongers is notablie detected, the knauerie of coniurors, the
+impietie of inchantors, the follie of soothsaiers, the impudent
+falshood of cousenors, the infidelitie of atheists, the pestilent
+practises of Pythonists, the curiositie of figurecasters, the vanitie
+of dreamers, the beggerlie art of Alcumystrie, the abhomination of
+idolatrie, the horrible art of poisoning, the vertue and power of
+naturall magike, and all the conueiances of Legierdemaine and iuggling
+are deciphered: and many other things opened, which haue long lien
+hidden, howbeit verie necessarie to be knowne. Heerevnto is added a
+treatise vpon the nature and substance of spirits and diuels, &c: all
+latelie written by Reginald Scot Esquire._ 1 John, 4, 1. _Beleeue not
+euerie spirit but trie the spirits, whether they are of God; for many
+false prophets are gone out into the world, &c._ 1584."
+
+[Footnote 14: Reginald Scot.]
+
+[Footnote 15: Sir R. Filmer.]
+
+[Footnote 16: John Wagstaffe.]
+
+[Footnote 17: John Webster.]
+
+This title is sufficient to show that he gives no quarter to the
+delusion he undertakes to expose, and though he does not deny that
+there may be witches in the abstract, (to have done so would have left
+him a preacher without an audience,) yet he guards so cautiously
+against any practical application of that principle, and battles so
+vigorously against the error which assimilated the witches of modern
+times to the witches of Scripture, and, denying the validity of the
+confessions of those convicted, throws such discredit and ridicule
+upon the whole system, that the popular belief cannot but have
+received a severe shock from the publication of his work.[18] By an
+extraordinary elevation of good sense, he managed, not only to see
+through the absurdities of witchcraft, but likewise of other errors
+which long maintained their hold upon the learned as well as the
+vulgar. Indeed, if not generally more enlightened, he was, in some
+respects, more emancipated from delusion than even his great
+successor, the learned and sagacious Webster, who, a century after,
+clung still to alchemy which Reginald Scot had ridiculed and exposed.
+Yet with all its strong points and broad humour, it is undeniable that
+_The Discoverie of Witchcraft_ only scotched the snake instead of
+killing it; and that its effect was any thing but final and complete.
+Inveterate error is seldom prostrated by a blow from one hand, and
+truth seems to be a tree which cannot be forced by planting it before
+its time. There was something, too, in the book itself which militated
+against its entire acceptance by the public. It is intended to form a
+little Encyclopaedia of the different arts of imposition practised in
+Scot's time; and in order to illustrate the various tricks and modes
+of cozenage, he gives us so many charms and diagrams and conjurations,
+to say nothing of an inventory of seventy-nine devils and spirits, and
+their several seignories and degrees, that the _Occult Philosophy_ of
+Cornelius Agrippa himself looks scarcely less appalling, at first
+sight, than the _Discoverie_. This gave some colour to the declamation
+of the author's opponents, who held him up as Wierus had been
+represented before him, as if he were as deeply dipped in diabolical
+practises as any of those whom he defended. Atheist and Sadducee, if
+not very wizard himself, were the terms in which his name was
+generally mentioned, and as such, the royal author of the _Demonology_
+anathematizes him with great unction and very edifying horror. Against
+the papists, the satire of Scot had been almost as much directed as
+against what he calls the "witch-mongers," so that that very powerful
+party were to a man opposed to him. Vigorous, therefore, as was his
+onslaught, its effect soon passed by; and when on the accession of
+James, the statute which so long disgraced our penal code was enacted,
+as the adulatory tribute of all parties, against which no honest voice
+was raised, to the known opinions of the monarch, Scot became too
+unfashionable to be seen on the tables of the great or in the
+libraries of the learned. If he were noticed, it was only to be
+traduced as a sciolist, (imperitus dialecticae et aliarum bonarum
+artium, says Dr. Reynolds,) and to be exposed for imagined lapses in
+scholarship in an age when for a writer not to be a scholar, was like
+a traveller journeying without a passport. Meric Casaubon, who
+carried all the prejudices of the time of James the first into the
+reign of Charles the second, but who, though overshadowed by the fame
+of his father, was no unworthy scion of that incomparable stock, at
+the same time that he denounces Scot as illiterate, will only
+acknowledge to having met with him "at friends houses" and
+"booksellers shops," as if his work were one which would bring
+contamination to a scholar's library. Scot was certainly not a scholar
+in the sense in which the term is applied to the Scaligers, Casaubons,
+and Vossius's, though he would have been considered a prodigy of
+reading in these days of superficial acquisition. But he had original
+gifts far transcending scholarship. He had a manly, straightforward,
+vigorous understanding, which, united with an honest integrity of
+purpose, kept him right when greater men went wrong. How invaluable a
+phalanx would the battalion of folios which the reign of James the
+first produced now afford us, if the admirable mother-wit and
+single-minded sincerity of Reginald Scot could only have vivified and
+informed them.[19]
+
+[Footnote 18: In the epistle to his kinsman Sir Thomas Scot, prefixed
+to his _Discoverie_, he observes:--
+
+"I see among other malefactors manie poore old women conuented before
+you for working of miracles, other wise called witchcraft, and
+therefore I thought you also a meet person to whom I might commend my
+booke."--And he then proceeds, in the following spirited and gallant
+strain, to run his course against the Dagon of popular superstition:--
+
+"I therefore (at this time) doo onelie desire you to consider of my
+report, concerning the euidence that is commonlie brought before you
+against them. See first whether the euidence be not friuolous, &
+whether the proofs brought against them be not incredible, consisting
+of ghesses, presumptions, & impossibilities contrarie to reason,
+scripture, and nature. See also what persons complaine vpon them,
+whether they be not of the basest, the vnwisest, & most faithles kind
+of people. Also may it please you to waie what accusations and crimes
+they laie to their charge, namelie: She was at my house of late, she
+would haue had a pot of milke, she departed in a chafe bicause she had
+it not, she railed, she curssed, she mumbled and whispered, and
+finallie she said she would be euen with me: and soone after my child,
+my cow, my sow, or my pullet died, or was strangelie taken. Naie (if
+it please your Worship) I haue further proofe: I was with a wise
+woman, and she told me I had an ill neighbour, & that she would come
+to my house yer it were long, and so did she; and that she had a marke
+aboue hir waste, & so had she: and God forgiue me, my stomach hath
+gone against hir a great while. Hir mother before hir was counted a
+witch, she hath beene beaten and scratched by the face till bloud was
+drawne vpon hir, bicause she hath beene suspected, & afterwards some
+of those persons were said to amend. These are the certeinties that I
+heare in their euidences.
+
+"_Note also how easilie they may be brought to confesse that which
+they neuer did, nor lieth in the power of man to doo_: and then see
+whether I haue cause to write as I doo. Further, if you shall see that
+infidelitie, poperie, and manie other manifest heresies be backed and
+shouldered, and their professors animated and hartened, by yeelding to
+creatures such infinit power as is wrested out of Gods hand, and
+attributed to witches: finallie, if you shall perceiue that I haue
+faithfullie and trulie deliuered and set downe the condition and state
+of the witch, and also of the witchmonger, and haue confuted by reason
+and lawe, and by the word of God it selfe, all mine aduersaries
+obiections and arguments: then let me haue your countenance against
+them that maliciouslie oppose themselues against me.
+
+"_My greatest aduersaries are yoong ignorance and old custome._ For
+what follie soeuer tract of time hath fostered, it is so
+superstitiouslie pursued of some, as though no error could be
+acquainted with custome. But if the lawe of nations would ioine with
+such custome, to the maintenance of ignorance, and to the suppressing
+of knowledge; the ciuilest countrie in the world would soone become
+barbarous, &c. For as knowledge and time discouereth errors, so dooth
+superstition and ignorance in time breed them."
+
+The passage which I next quote, is a further specimen of the
+impressive and even eloquent earnestness with which he pleads his
+cause:--
+
+"In the meane time, I would wish them to know that if neither the
+estimation of Gods omnipotencie, nor the tenor of his word, nor the
+doubtfulnes or rather the impossibilitie of the case, nor the small
+proofes brought against them, nor the rigor executed vpon them, nor
+the pitie that should be in a christian heart, nor yet their
+simplicitie, impotencie, or age may suffice to suppresse the rage or
+rigor wherewith they are oppressed; yet the consideration of their sex
+or kind ought to mooue some mitigation of their punishment. For if
+nature (as Plinie reporteth) haue taught a lion not to deale so
+roughlie with a woman as with a man, bicause she is in bodie the
+weaker vessell, and in hart more inclined to pitie (which Ieremie in
+his lamentations seemeth to confirme) what should a man doo in this
+case, for whome a woman was created as an helpe and comfort vnto him?
+In so much as, euen in the lawe of nature, it is a greater offense to
+slea a woman than a man: not bicause a man is not the more excellent
+creature, but bicause a woman is the weaker vessell. And therefore
+among all modest and honest persons it is thought a shame to offer
+violence or iniurie to a woman: in which respect Virgil saith, _Nullum
+memorabile nomen foeminea in poena est_.
+
+"God that knoweth my heart is witnes, and you that read my booke shall
+see, that my drift and purpose in this enterprise tendeth onelie to
+these respects. First, that the glorie and power of God be not so
+abridged and abased, as to be thrust into the hand or lip of a lewd
+old woman: whereby the worke of the Creator should be attributed to
+the power of a creature. Secondlie, that the religion of the gospell
+may be seene to stand without such peeuish trumperie. Thirdlie, that
+lawfull fauour and christian compassion be rather vsed towards these
+poore soules, than rigor and extremitie. Bicause they, which are
+commonlie accused of witchcraft, are the least sufficient of all other
+persons to speake for themselues; as hauing the most base and simple
+education of all others; the extremitie of their age giuing them leaue
+to dote, their pouertie to beg, their wrongs to chide and threaten (as
+being void of anie other waie of reuenge) their humor melancholicall
+to be full of imaginations, from whence cheefelie proceedeth the
+vanitie of their confessions; as that they can transforme themselues
+and others into apes, owles, asses, dogs, cats, &c: that they can flie
+in the aire, kill children with charmes, hinder the comming of butter,
+&c.
+
+"And for so much as the mightie helpe themselues together, and the
+poore widowes crie, though it reach to heauen, is scarse heard here
+vpon earth: I thought good (according to my poore abilitie) to make
+intercession, that some part of common rigor, and some points of
+hastie iudgement may be aduised vpon. For the world is now at that
+stay (as Brentius in a most godlie sermon in these words affirmeth)
+that euen as when the heathen persecuted the christians, if anie were
+accused to beleeue in Christ, the common people cried _Ad leonem_: so
+now, if anie woman, be she neuer so honest, be accused of witchcraft,
+they crie _Ad ignem_."]
+
+[Footnote 19: In the intervening period between the publication of
+Soot's work and the advertisement of Filmer, several books came out on
+the subject of witchcraft. Amongst them it is right to notice "A
+Dialogue concerning Witches and Witchcraft, by George Giffard,
+Minister of God's Word in Maldon," 1593, 4to. This tract, which has
+been reprinted by the Percy Society, is not free from the leading
+fallacies which infected the reasonings of almost all the writers on
+witchcraft. It is, nevertheless, exceedingly entertaining, and well
+deserves a perusal, if only as transmitting to us, in their full
+freshness, the racy colloquialisms of the age of Elizabeth. It is to
+be hoped that the other works of Giffard, all of which are deserving
+of attention, independently of their theological interest, as
+specimens of pure and sterling English, may appear in a collected
+form. The next tract requiring notice is "The Trial of Witchcraft, by
+John Cotta," 1616, 4to, of which a second and enlarged edition was
+published in 1624. Cotta, who was a physician of great eminence and
+experience, residing at Northampton, has supplied in this very able,
+learned, and vigorous treatise, a groundwork which, if pursued to its
+just results, for he writes very cautiously and guardedly, and rather
+hints at his conclusions than follows them out, would have sufficed to
+have overthrown many of the positions of the supporters of the system
+of witchcraft. His work has a strong scholastic tinge, and is not
+without occasional obscurity; and on these accounts probably produced
+no very extensive impression at the time. He wrote two other
+tracts--1. "Discovery of the Dangers of ignorant practisers of Physick
+in England," 1612, 4to; 2. "Cotta contra Antonium, or An Ant-Anthony,"
+Oxford, 1623, 4to; the latter of which, a keen satire against the
+chymists' aurum potabile, is exceedingly rare. Both are intrinsically
+valuable and interesting, and written with great vigour of style, and
+are full of curious illustrations derived from his extensive medical
+practice. I cannot conclude this note without adverting to Gaule's
+amusing little work, ("Select Cases of Conscience touching Witches and
+Witchcraft, by John Gaule, Preacher of the Word at Great Haughton, in
+the county of Huntingdon," 1646, 24mo.) which gives us all the
+casuistry applicable to witchcraft. We can almost forgive Gaule's
+fundamental errors on the general question, for the courage and spirit
+with which he battled with the villainous witchfinder, Hopkins, who
+wanted sorely to make an example of him, to the terror of all
+gainsayers of the sovereign power of this examiner-general of witches.
+Gaule proved himself to be an overmatch for the itinerating
+inquisitor, and so effectually attacked, battled with, and exposed
+him, as to render him quite harmless in future. The minister of Great
+Haughton was made of different metal to the "old reading parson
+Lewis," or Lowes, to whose fate Baxter refers with such nonchalance.
+As the only clergyman of the Church of England, that I am aware of,
+who was executed for witchcraft, Lewis's case is sufficiently
+interesting to merit some notice. Stearne's (vide his _Confirmation of
+Witchcraft_, p. 23,) account of it, which I have not seen quoted
+before, is as follows:--
+
+"Thus was Parson Lowis taken, who had been a Minister, (as I have
+heard) in one Parish above forty yeares, in Suffolke, before he was
+condemned, but had been indited for a common imbarriter, and for
+Witchcraft, above thirty yeares before, and the grand Jury (as I have
+heard) found the bill for a common imbarriter, who now, after he was
+found with the markes, in his confession, he confessed, that in pride
+of heart, to be equall, or rather above God, the Devill tooke
+advantage of him, and hee covenanted with the Devill, and sealed it
+with his bloud, and had three Familiars or spirits, which sucked on
+the markes found upon his body, and did much harme, both by Sea and
+Land, especially by Sea, for he confessed, that he being at Lungarfort
+in Suffolke, where he preached, as he walked upon the wall, or workes
+there, he saw a great saile of Ships passe by, and that as they were
+sailing by, one of his three Impes, namely his yellow one, forthwith
+appeared to him, and asked him what hee should doe, and he bade it goe
+and sinke such a Ship, and shewed his Impe a new Ship, amongst the
+middle of the rest (as I remember) one that belonged to Ipswich, so he
+confessed the Impe went forthwith away, and he stood still, and viewed
+the Ships on the Sea as they were a sayling, and perceived that Ship
+immediately, to be in more trouble and danger then the rest; for he
+said, the water was more boystrous neere that then the rest, tumbling
+up and down with waves, as if water had been boyled in a pot, and
+soone after (he said) in a short time it sanke directly downe into the
+Sea, as he stood and viewed it, when all the rest sayled away in
+safety, there he confessed, he made fourteen widdowes in one quarter
+of an houre. Then Mr. Hopkin, as he told me (for he tooke his
+Confession) asked him, if it did not grieve him to see so many men
+cast away, in a short time, and that he should be the cause of so many
+poore widdowes on a suddaine, but he swore by his maker, no, he was
+joyfull to see what power his Impes had, and so likewise confessed
+many other mischiefes, and had a charme to keep him out of Goale, and
+hanging, as he paraphrased it himselfe, but therein the Devill
+deceived him; for he was hanged, that Michaelmas time 1645. at Burie
+Saint Edmunds, but he made a very farre larger confession, which I
+have heard hath been printed: but if it were so, it was neither of Mr.
+Hopkins doing nor mine owne; for we never printed anything untill
+now."
+
+Hutchinson gives the explanation of this confession. What can be more
+atrocious than the whole story, which is yet but the common story of
+witch confessions?
+
+"_Adv._ Then did not he confess this before the Commissioners, at the
+Time of his Tryal?
+
+"_Clerg._ No, but maintained his Innocence stoutly, and challenged
+them to make Proof of such Things as they laid to his Charge. I had
+this from a Person of Credit, who was then in Court, and heard his
+Tryal. I may add, that tho' his Case is remembered better than others
+that suffered, yet I never heard any one speak of him, but with great
+Compassion, because of his Age and Character, and their Belief of his
+Innocence: And when he came to his Execution, because he would have
+Christian Burial, he read the Office himself, and that way committed
+his own Body to the Ground, in sure and certain Hope of the
+Resurrection to eternal Life.
+
+"In the Notes upon those Verses that I quoted out of Hudibras, it is
+said, that he had been a painful Preacher for many Years, I may add
+for Fifty, for so long he had been Vicar of Brandeston in the County
+of Suffolk, as appears by the Time of his Institution. That I might
+know the present Sense of the Chief Inhabitants of that Place, I wrote
+to Mr. Wilson, the Incumbent of that Town, and by his Means received
+the following Letter from Mr. Rivett, a worthy Gentleman who lived
+lately in the same Place, and whose Father lived there before him.
+
+"'SIR,
+
+"'In Answer to your Request concerning Mr. Lowes, my Father was always
+of the opinion, that Mr. Lowes suffered wrongfully, and hath often
+said, that he did believe, he was no more a Wizzard than he was. I
+have heard it from them that watched with him, that _they kept him
+awake several Nights together, and run him backwards and forwards
+about the Room, until he was out of Breath: Then they rested him a
+little, and then ran him again: And thus they did for several Days and
+Nights together, till he was weary of his Life, and was scarce
+sensible of what he said or did_. They swam him at Framlingham, but
+that was no true Rule to try him by; for they put in honest People at
+the same Time, and they swam as well as he."]
+
+After the lapse of another half century, and at the very period when
+the persecution against witches waxed hotter, and the public
+prejudice had become only more inveterate, from the ingredient of
+fanaticism having been largely thrown in as a stimulant, another ally
+to the cause of compassion and common sense started up, in the person
+of one whose name has rounded many a period and given point to many
+an invective. To find the proscribed author of the _Patriarcha_
+purging with "euphrasy and rue" the eyes of the dispensers of justice,
+and shouldering the crowd to obtain for reason a fair and impartial
+hearing, is indeed like meeting with Saul among the prophets. If there
+be one name which has been doomed to run the gauntlet, and against
+which every pert and insolent political declaimer has had his fling,
+it is that of this unfortunate writer; yet in his short but masterly
+and unanswerable "Advertisement to the Jurymen of England, touching
+Witches, together with a difference between an English and Hebrew
+Witch," first published in 1653, 4to., he has addressed himself so
+cogently and decisively to the main fallacy of the arguments in favour
+of witchcraft which rested their force on Scripture misunderstood, and
+has so pertinently and popularly urged the points to be considered,
+that his tract must have had the greatest weight on the class to whom
+his reasoning was principally addressed, and on whose fiat the fates
+of his unhappy clients may be said to have hung. For this good
+service, reason and common sense owe Sir Robert Filmer a debt which
+does not yet appear to have been paid. The verdict of proscription
+against him was pronounced by the most incompetent and superficial aera
+of our literature, and no friendly appellant has yet moved the court
+of posterity for its reversal. Yet without entering upon the theory of
+the patriarchal scheme, which after all, perhaps, was not so
+irrational as may be supposed, or discussing on an occasion like the
+present the conflicting theories of government, it may be allowable to
+express a doubt whether even the famous author of the "Essay on the
+Human Understanding," to whose culminating star the decadence of the
+rival intelligence is attributable, can be shewn to have been as much
+in advance of his generation in the time of king William, as from the
+tract on witchcraft, and another written on a different subject, but
+with equally enlightened views,[20] Sir Robert Filmer manifestly
+appears to have outrun his at the period of the usurpation.[21]
+
+[Footnote 20: I allude to his little tract on Usury.]
+
+[Footnote 21: Between the period of the publication of Filmer's
+Advertisement and the appearance of Wagstaffe's work, a tract was
+published too important in this controversy to be passed over without
+notice. It is entitled _A Candle in the Dark, or a Treatise concerning
+the Nature of Witches and Witchcraft; being Advice to Judges,
+Sheriffs, Justices of the Peace, and Grand Jurymen, what to do before
+they passe sentence on such as are arraigned for their lives as
+Witches. By Thomas Ady, M.A. London, printed for R.J., to be sold by
+Thomas Newberry, at the Three Lions in Cornhill, by the Exchange,
+1656_, 4to. Ady, of whom, unfortunately, nothing is known, presses the
+arguments against the witchmongers and witchfinders with unanswerable
+force. In fact, this tract comprises the quintessence of all that had
+been urged against the popular system, and his "Candle" was truly a
+burning and a shining light. His Dedication is too curious to be
+omitted:--
+
+"To the Prince of the Kings of the Earth. It is the manner of men, O
+heavenly King, to dedicate their books to some great men, thereby to
+have their works protected and countenanced among them; but thou only
+art able, by thy holy Spirit of Truth, to defend thy Truth, and to
+make it take impression in the heart and understanding of men. Unto
+thee alone do I dedicate this work, entreating thy Most High Majesty
+to grant, that whoever shall open this book, thy holy Spirit may so
+possess their understanding, as that the Spirit of errour may depart
+from them, and that they may read and try thy Truth by the touchstone
+of thy Truth, the holy Scriptures; and finding that Truth, may embrace
+it and forsake their darksome inventions of Antichrist, that have
+deluded and defiled the nations now and in former ages. Enlighten the
+world, thou that art the Light of the World, and let darkness be no
+more in the world, now or in any future age; but make all people to
+walk as children of the Light for ever; and destroy Antichrist, that
+hath deceived the nations, and save us the residue by thyself alone;
+and let not Satan any more delude us, for the Truth is thine for
+ever." He then puts his "Dilemma that cannot be answered by
+Witchmongers." It is too long to quote, but it is a dilemma that would
+pose the stoutest Coryphaeus of the party to whom he addressed
+himself.]
+
+The next champion in this unpopular cause, John Wagstaffe, who
+published "The Question of Witchcraft Debated," 1669, 12mo,[22] was,
+as A. a Wood informs us, "the son of John Wagstaffe, citizen of
+London, descended from those of his name of Hasland Hall, in
+Derbyshire, was born in Cheapside, within the city of London, became a
+commoner of Oriel College in the latter end of 1649, took the degrees
+in Arts, and applied himself to the study of politics and other
+learning. At length, being raised from an academical life to the
+inheritance of Hasland, by the death of an uncle, who died without
+male issue, he spent his life afterwards in single estate." His death
+took place in 1677. The Oxford historian, who had little reverence for
+new lights, and never loses an opportunity of girding at those whose
+weights and measures were not according to the current and only
+authentic standard, has left no very flattering account of his person.
+"He was a little crooked man, and of a despicable presence. He was
+laughed at by the boys of this University, because, as they said, he
+himself looked like a little wizard." Small as might be his stature,
+and questionable the shape in which he appeared, he might still have
+taken up the boast of the author of the _Religio Medici_: "Men that
+look upon my outside do err in my altitude, for I am above Atlas's
+shoulders." None but a large-souled and kindly-affectioned man, whose
+intellect was as comprehensive as his feelings were benevolent, could
+have produced the excellent little treatise which claims him as its
+author. The following is the lofty and memorable peroration in which
+he sums up the strength of his cause:--
+
+"I cannot think without trembling and horror on the vast numbers of
+people that in several ages and several countries have been sacrificed
+unto this idol, Opinion. Thousands, ten thousands, are upon record to
+have been slain, and many of them not with simple deaths, but horrid,
+exquisite tortures. And yet, how many are there more who have
+undergone the same fate, of whom we have no memorial extant. Since,
+therefore, the opinion of witchcraft is a mere stranger unto
+Scripture, and wholly alien from true religion; since it is ridiculous
+by asserting fables and impossibilities; since it appears, when duly
+considered, to be all bloody and full of dangerous consequence unto
+the lives and safety of men; I hope that with this my Discourse,
+opposing an absurd and pernicious error, I can not at all disoblige
+any sober, unbiassed person; especially if he be of such ingenuity as
+to have freed himself from a slavish subjection unto those prejudicial
+opinions which custom and education do with too much tyranny
+impose.--If the doctrine of witchcraft should be carried up to a
+height, and the inquisition after it should be intrusted in the hands
+of ambitious, covetous and malicious men, it would prove of far more
+fatal consequence unto the lives and safety of mankind, than that
+ancient, heathenish custom of sacrificing men unto idol gods; insomuch
+that we stand in need of another Hercules Liberator, who, as the
+former freed the world from human sacrifice, should, in like manner,
+travel from country to country, and by his all-commanding authority,
+free it from _this euil and base custom of torturing people to confess
+themselves witches, and burning them after extorted confessions_.
+Surely the blood of men ought not to be so cheap, nor so easily to be
+shed by those who, under the name of God, do gratifie exorbitant
+passions and selfish ends; for without question, under this side
+heaven, there is nothing so sacred as the life of man; for the
+preservation whereof all policies and forms of government, all laws
+and magistrates are most especially ordained. Wherefore I presume that
+this Discourse of mine, attempting to prove the vanity and
+impossibility of witchcraft, is so far from any deserved censure and
+blame, that it rather deserves commendation and praise, if I can in
+the least measure contribute to the saving of the lives of men."
+
+[Footnote 22: I have not seen his earlier work, "Historical
+Reflections on the Bishop of Rome, &c." Oxford, 1660, 4to. If it be
+written with any portion of the power evinced in his "Question of
+Witchcraft Debated," the ridicule with which Wood says it was received
+by the wits of the university, and the oblivion into which it
+subsequently fell, were both equally undeserved.]
+
+Wagstaffe was answered by Meric Casaubon in his treatise "Of Credulity
+and Incredulity in Things Divine and Spiritual," 1670, 12mo; and if
+his reply be altogether inconclusive, it cannot be denied to be, as
+indeed every thing of Meric Casaubon's writing was, learned,
+discursive and entertaining. He observes of Wagstaffe:--
+
+"He doth make some show of a scholar and a man of some learning, but
+whether he doth acquit himself as a gentleman (which I hear he is) in
+it, I shall leave to others to judge." This is surely the first time
+that a belief in witchcraft was ever made a test of gentlemanly
+propriety.
+
+Two years before the trial, which is the subject of the following
+republication, took place, the hamlet of Thornton, in the parish of
+Coxwold, in the adjoining county of York, gave birth to one who was
+destined so utterly to demolish the unstable and already shaken and
+tottering structure which Bodin, Delrio, and their followers had set
+up, as not to leave one stone of that unhallowed edifice remaining
+upon another. Of the various course of life of John Webster, the
+author of "The Displaying of supposed Witchcraft," his travels,
+troubles, and persecutions; of the experience he had had in restless
+youth and in unsettled manhood of religion under various forms,
+amongst religionists of almost every denomination; and of those
+profound and wide-ranging researches in every art and science in which
+his vigorous intellect delighted, and by which it was in declining age
+enlightened, sobered and composed; it is much to be regretted that we
+have not his own narrative, written in the calm evening of his days,
+when he walked the slopes of Pendle, from where,
+
+            "Through shadow dimly seen
+    Rose Clid'row's castle grey;"[23]
+
+when, to use his own expressions, he lived a "solitary and sedentary
+life, _mihi et musis_, having more converse with the dead than the
+living, that is, more with books than with men." The facts for his
+biography are scanty and meagre, and are rather collected by inference
+from his works, than from any other source. He was born at Thornton on
+the 3rd of February, 1610. From a passing notice of A. a Wood, and an
+incidental allusion in his own works, he may be presumed to have
+passed some time at Cambridge, though with what views, or at what
+period of his life, is uncertain. He was ordained Presbyter by Dr.
+Morton, when Bishop of Durham, who was, it will be recollected, the
+sagacious prelate by whom the frauds of the boy of Bilson were
+detected. In the year 1634, Webster was curate of Kildwick in Craven,
+and while in that cure the scene occurred which he has so vividly
+sketched in the passage after quoted, and which supplied the hint, and
+laid the foundation, for the work which has perpetuated his fame. How
+long he continued in this cure we know not: but, if one authority may
+be relied on, he was Master of the Free Grammar School at Clitheroe in
+1643. To this foundation he may be considered as a great benefactor,
+for, from information supplied from a manuscript source, I find that
+he recovered for its use, with considerable trouble and no small
+personal charge, an income of about L60. per annum, which had been
+given to the school, but was illegally diverted and withheld. From
+this period there is a blank in his biography for about ten years.
+Most probably his life was rambling and desultory. He speaks of
+himself as having been about that time a chaplain in the army. His
+first two works, published in 1653 and 1654, "The Saints' Guide," and
+"The Judgment Set and the Books Opened,"[24] show that in the
+interval he had deserted the Established Church, and, probably, after
+some of those restless fluctuations of belief to which men of his
+ardent temperament are subject, settled at last in a wilder sort of
+Independency, which he eulogizes as "unmanacling the simple and pure
+light of the Gospel from the chains and fetters of cold and dead
+formality, and of restrictive and compulsory power." His language in
+these two works is more assimilated to that of the Seekers or Quakers,
+which it resembles in the cloudy mysteriousness of its phraseology,
+than that of the more rational and sober writers of the Independent
+school. Amongst the dregs of fanaticism of which they consist, the
+reader will look in vain for any germ or promise of future excellence
+or distinction as an author. It would seem that he preached the
+sermons contained in "The Judgment Set and Books Opened" at the church
+of All-Hallows, Lombard-street, at which he must have been for some
+time the officiating minister, and where the amusing incident, in
+which Webster was concerned, narrated by Wood, which had many a
+parallel in those times, no doubt occurred. "On the 12th of Oct.,
+1653," says the author of the _Athenae._,[25] "he (_i.e._ William
+Erbury) with John Webster, sometimes a Cambridge scholar, endeavoured
+to knock down learning and the ministry both together, in a
+disputation that they then had against two ministers in a church in
+Lombard-street, in London. Erbury then declared that the wisest
+ministers and purest churches were at that time befool'd, confounded,
+and defil'd, by reason of learning. Another while he said, that the
+ministry were monsters, beasts, asses, greedy dogs, false prophets;
+and that they are the Beast with seven heads and ten horns. The same
+person also spoke out and said that Babylon is the Church in her
+ministers, and that the Great Whore is the Church in her worship, &c.;
+so that with him there was an end of ministers and churches and
+ordinations altogether. While these things were babbled to and fro,
+the multitude being of various opinions, began to mutter, and many to
+cry out, and immediately it came to a meeting or tumult, (call it
+which you please,) _wherein the women bore away the Bell, but lost
+some of them their kerchiefs_: and the dispute being hot, there was
+more danger of pulling down the church than the ministry."[26]
+
+[Footnote 23: "Poems, by the Rev. R. Parkinson, Canon of Manchester,"
+1845, 12mo. (Hunter's Song.) A most pleasing volume of a very
+accomplished author. Long may he survive to add honours to the ancient
+stock of which he has given so interesting an account, by well-earned
+trophies gathered from the fair fields of literature and theology, and
+by a most exemplary discharge of the appropriate duties of his own
+sacred profession.]
+
+[Footnote 24: "_The Saints' Guide, or Christ the Rule and Ruler of
+Saints. Manifested by way of Positions, Consectaries, and Queries.
+Wherein is contained the Efficacy of Acquired Knowledge; the Rule of
+Christians; the Mission and Maintenance of Ministers; and the Power of
+Magistrates in Spiritual Things. By John Webster, late Chaplain in the
+Army._" London, 1653, 4to.
+
+"_The Judgement Set, and the Bookes Opened. Religion Tried whether it
+be of God or of men. The Lord cometh to visit his own, For the time is
+come that Judgement must begin at the House of God._
+
+              { _The Sheep from the Goats_,
+_To separate_ {          _and_
+              { _The Precious from the Vile._
+
+_And to discover the Blasphemy of those that say_,
+
+           { _Apostles_, }           { _Found Lyars_,
+           { _Teachers_, }           { _Deceivers_,
+_They are_ { _Alive_,    } _but are_ { _Dead_,
+           { _Rich_,     }           { _Poore, blind, naked_,
+           { _Jewes_,    }           { _The Synagogue of Satan._
+
+_In severall Sermons at Alhallows Lumbard-street, By John Webster, A
+servant of Christ and his Church. Micah 3. 5. &c. Thus saith the Lord,
+concerning the Prophets that make my people erre, that bite with their
+teeth, and cry peace: and he that putteth not into their mouths, they
+prepare war against him: Therefore night shall be upon them, that they
+shall not have a vision, &c. The Sun shall goe down over the prophets,
+and the Day shall be dark. Their seers shall be ashamed, and the
+Deviners confounded: yea, they shall All cover their lips, for there
+is no answer of God._" London, 1654. 4to.]
+
+[Footnote 25: _Athen. Oxon._, Vol. ii., p. 175. Edit. 1721.]
+
+[Footnote 26: Old Anthony chronicles this battle of the kerchiefs with
+a sly humour very different from his usual solemn matter-of-fact
+style.]
+
+Of Erbury who, being originally in holy orders and a beneficed
+clergyman, deserted the Established Church and ran into all the
+excesses of Antinomianism, Webster was a great admirer, and has in a
+preface, hitherto unnoticed, prefixed to a scarce tract of Erbury's,
+entitled "The great Earthquake, or Fall of all the Churches,"
+published in 1654, 4to, left a sketch of his opinions and character,
+in which his defence is undertaken with great zeal and no small
+ingenuity. One of his apologist's conclusions most of Erbury's readers
+will find no difficulty in assenting to, "the world is not ripe for
+such discoveries as our author held forth." The verses which are
+appended to this sketch, characterizing Erbury--
+
+                    "As him
+    Who did the saintship sever
+    From the opinion; this fails, that shall never,
+    Chymist of Truth and Gospel;"--
+
+are, also, evidently Webster's, and their quality is not such as to
+make us unreasonably impatient for any further manifestations of his
+poetical skill. In the year 1654 he published another tract of
+singular interest and curiosity, in which he attacks the Universities
+and the received system of education there, always with vigour and
+various learning, and frequently with success. It is entitled
+"Academiarum Examen, or the Examination of Academies; wherein is
+discussed and examined the matter, method, and customes of academick
+and scholastic learning, and the insufficiency thereof discovered and
+laid open; as also some expedients proposed for the reforming of
+schools, and the perfecting and promoting of all kind of science;
+offered to the judgment of all those that love the proficiencie of
+arts and sciences and the advancement of learning. By Jo. Webster. In
+moribus et institutis academiarum, collegiorum et similium conventium
+quo ad doctorum hominum sedes et operas mutuas destinata sunt, omnia
+progressui scientiarum in ulterius adversa inveniri. Franc. Bacon de
+Verulamio lib. de cogitat. et vis. pag. mihi. 14. London: Printed for
+Giles Calvert, and are to be sold at the sign of the Black
+Spread-Eagle, at the west end of Paul's. 1654." 4to. In this tract,
+which, like some other attacks upon the seats of learning, displays
+more power in objection than in substitution, in pulling down than in
+building up again, he shews the same fondness for the philosophers of
+the Hermetic school, for Paracelsus, Dee, Fludd and Van Helmont, and
+the same adhesion to planetary sigils, astrology, and the doctrine of
+sympathies and primaeval signatures, which is perceptible in the
+deliberate performance of his old age. Of himself he observes: "I owe
+little to the advantages of those things called the goods of fortune,
+but most (next under the goodness of God) to industry: however, I am a
+free born Englishman, a citizen of the world and a seeker of
+knowledge, and am willing to teach what I know, and learn what I know
+not." No one can read the _Academiarum Examen_ without feeling that it
+is the production of a vigorous and powerful mind, which had "tasted,"
+and that not scantily, of the "sweet fruit of far fetched and dear
+bought science." Yet it still remains a literary problem rather
+difficult of solution, how a performance so clear, well digested, and
+rational, could proceed, and that contemporaneously, from the same
+author as the cloudy and fanatical "Judgment Set and Books Opened." On
+behalf of the Universities, answerers started up in the persons of
+Ward and Wilkins, both afterwards bishops, and the part taken by the
+first of them in the controversy was considered of sufficient
+importance to form matter of commemoration in his monumental
+inscription. Two opponents so famous, might almost seem to threaten
+extinction to one, of whom it could only be said, that he had been an
+obscure country schoolmaster, and whose acquirements, whatever they
+were, were mainly the result of his own unassisted study. In the joint
+answer, the title of which is "Vindiciae Academiarum, containing some
+briefe animadversions upon Mr. Webster's book entitled the
+'Examination of Academies,' together with an appendix concerning what
+Mr. Hobbes and Mr. Dell have published in this argument, Oxford,
+1654," 4to., there is no want of bitterness nor of controversial
+skill, but though, particularly in the limited arena of the prescribed
+course of academical study, the knowledge displayed in it is more
+exact, there is neither visible in it the same power of mind, nor the
+same breadth of views, nor even the same variety of learning, as is
+conspicuous in the original tract. This, with the two fanatical pieces
+which Webster published contemporaneously with it, were entirely
+unknown to his biographer, Dr. Whitaker, who has ceded him a place
+amongst the distinguished natives and residents of the parish of
+Whalley, in the full confidence "that there is no puritanical taint in
+his writings, and that his taste had evidently been formed upon better
+models.[27]" Had these early theological and literary delinquencies
+of the physician of Clitheroe been communicated to his historian, it
+may be questioned whether the portals of his provincial temple of fame
+would have opened to receive so heinous a transgressor. But Dr.
+Whitaker's deduction would have been perhaps perfectly warrantable,
+had Webster left no remains but his _History of Metals_, and
+_Displaying of Witchcraft_--so little do an author's latest works
+afford a clue to the character of his earliest. From 1654 to 1671,
+when he published his _History of Metals_, little is known of
+Webster's course of life. He appears to have retired into the country
+and devoted himself to medical practice and study, and to have taken
+up his residence in or near Clitheroe. He complains, that in the year
+1658 all his books and papers were taken from him, an abstraction
+which, so far as his manuscripts are concerned, posterity is not
+called upon to lament, if they all resembled his _Judgment Set and
+Books Opened_. But his capacious and acute understanding was gradually
+unfolding new resources, supplying the defects, and overcoming the
+disadvantages of his imperfect education and desultory and irregular
+studies, while his matured and enlightened judgment had abandoned and
+discarded the fanatical pravities and erroneous tenets, which his
+ardent enthusiasm had too hastily imbibed. When he again became a
+candidate for the honours of authorship, it was evident that he knew
+well how to apply those quarries of learning into which, during his
+long recess, he had been digging so indefatigably, to furnish
+materials for solid and durable structures, rising in honourable and
+gratifying contrast to the fabrics which had preceded them. In 1671
+came forth his "Metallographia, or History of Metals,"[28] in which
+all that recondite learning and extensive observation could bring
+together, on a subject which experiment had scarcely yet placed upon a
+rational basis, is collected. He styles himself on the Title page,
+"Practitioner in Physic and Chirurgery." In 1677, he published his
+great work. Its Title is "The Displaying of supposed Witchcraft.
+Wherein is affirmed that there are many sorts of Deceivers and
+Impostors. And Divers persons under a passive Delusion of Melancholy
+and Fancy. But that there is a Corporeal League made betwixt the Devil
+and the Witch, Or that he sucks on the Witches Body, has Carnal
+Copulation, or that Witches are turned into Cats, Dogs, raise
+Tempests, or the like, is utterly denied and disproved. Wherein also
+is handled, the Existence of Angels and Spirits, the truth of
+Apparitions, the Nature of Astral and Sydereal Spirits, the force of
+Charms and Philters; with other abstruse matters. By John Webster,
+Practitioner in Physic. Falsae etenim opiniones Hominum praeoccupantes,
+non solum surdos, sed et caecos faciunt, ita ut videre nequeant, quae
+aliis perspicua apparent. Galen, lib. 8. de Comp. Med. London, Printed
+by J.M. and are to be sold by the Booksellers in London. 1677," (fol.)
+In this memorable book he exhausts the subject, as far as it is
+possible to do so, by powerful ridicule, cogent arguments, and the
+most various and well applied learning, leaving to Hutchinson, and
+others who have since followed in his track, little further necessary
+than to reproduce his facts and reasonings in a more popular, it can
+scarcely be said, in a more effective, form.[29] Those who love
+literary parallels may compare Webster, as he appears in this his
+last and most characteristic performance, with two famous medical
+contemporaries, Sir Thomas Browne, and Thomas Bartholinus the Dane,
+whom he strongly resembled in the character of his mind, in the
+complexion and variety of his studies, in grave simplicity, in
+exactness of observation, in general philosophical incredulity with
+some startling reserves, in elaborate and massive ratiocination, and
+in the enthusiasm, subdued but not extinguished, which gives zest to
+his speculations and poignancy and colouring to his style. He who
+seeks to measure great men in their strength and in their weakness,
+and what operation of literary analysis is more instructive or
+delightful, will find ample employment for collation and comparison
+in this extraordinary book, in which, keen as is the penetration
+displayed on almost every subject of imposition and delusion, he
+appears still to cling, with the obstinacy of a veteran, to some of
+the darling Dalilahs of his youth, "to the admirable and
+soul-ravishing knowledge of the three great Hypostatical principles of
+nature, salt, sulphur, and mercury," and, _proh pudor!_ to alchemy and
+astrology--and those seraphic doctors and professors, Crollius,
+Libavius, and Van Helmont. He closed his literary performances with
+this noble fabric of logic and learning, not the less striking, and
+scarcely less useful, because it is chequered by some of the mosaic
+work of human imperfection,--a performance which may be said to have
+grown up under the umbrage of Pendle, and which he might have
+bequeathed to its future Demdikes and Chattox's as an amulet of
+irresistible power.[30]
+
+[Footnote 27: What would Dr. Whitaker have thought of the following
+explosion, in which Webster sounds the tocsin with a vehemence and
+vigour which no Macbriar or Kettledrumle of the period could have
+surpassed. The extract is from his _Judgment Set and Books Opened_:--
+
+"All those that claim an Ordination by Man, or from Man, that speak
+from the Spirit of the World, from Wit, Learning and Humane Reason,
+who Preach for Hire, and make Merchandize of the Souls of Men; I
+witness they are all Baal's Priests and Idol-Shepherds, who destroy
+the Sheep, and are Theives and Robbers, who came not in by the Door of
+the Sheep-fold, but climbed up another way, and _are the Magicians,
+Sorcerers, Inchanters, Soothsayers, Necromancers, and Consulters with
+Familiar Spirits, which the Lord will cut off out of the Land_, so
+that his People shall have no more Soothsayers; and as Jannes and
+Jambres resisted Moses, so do these resist the Truth; Men of corrupt
+Minds, reprobate concerning the Faith; but they shall proceed no
+farther, for their Folly shall be manifest to all Men, as theirs also
+was. Woe unto them, for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran
+greedily after the Errors of Balaam, for Reward, and Perished in the
+Gainsaying of Core. These are Spots in your Feasts of Charity, when
+they Feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: Clouds they are
+without Water, carried of Winds; Trees, whose Fruit withered, without
+Fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the Roots: Raging Waves of the Sea,
+foaming out their own Shame, wandring Stars, to whom is reserved the
+blackness of Darkness for ever."]
+
+[Footnote 28: "_Metallographia: or, An History of Metals. Wherein is
+declared the signs of Ores and Minerals both before and after digging,
+the causes and manner of their generations, their kinds, sorts and
+differences; with the description of sundry new Metals or Semi-Metals,
+and many other things pertaining to Mineral knowledge. As also, the
+handling and shewing of their Vegetability, and the discussion of the
+most difficult Questions belonging to Mystical Chymistry, as of the
+Philosophers Gold, their Mercury, the Liquor Alkahest, Aurum potabile,
+and such like. Gathered forth of the most approved Authors that have
+written in Greek, Latine, or High Dutch; With some Observations and
+Discoveries of the Author himself. By John Webster, Practitioner in
+Physick and Chirurgery. Qui principia naturalia in seipso ignoraverit,
+hic jam multum remotus est ab arte nostra, quoniam non habet radicem
+veram supra quam intentionem suam fundet. Geber. Sum. perfect. l. c.
+i. p. 21._
+
+    _Sed non ante datur telluris operta subire,
+    Auricomos quam quis discerpserit arbore foetus._
+                                       _Virg._ AEneid. l. 6.
+
+_London, Printed by A.C. for Walter Kettilby at the Bishops-Head in
+Duck-lane, 1671, 4to._"]
+
+[Footnote 29: Dr. Whitaker's assertion, that Webster was "neglected
+alike by the wise and unwise," seems to be a mere _gratis dictum_. The
+age of folios was rapidly passing away; but few folios of the period
+appear to have been more generally read, if we are to judge at least
+from its being frequently mentioned and quoted, than Webster's
+_Displaying of Supposed Witchcraft_. The same able writer's "Doubt
+whether Sir Matthew Hale ever read Webster's _Discovery of Supposed
+Witchcraft_," might easily have been satisfied by a reference to any
+common life of that great judge, which would have shown the historian
+of Whalley that Hale died before the book was published. Nor is Dr.
+Whitaker correct in stating that all tradition of Webster is now lost
+in the neighbourhood where he resided. The following anecdote, which
+would have delighted him, I had from an old inhabitant of Burnley, to
+whom it had been handed down by his grandfather:--In the days of
+Webster's fanaticism, during the usurpation, he is stated, in the
+zealous crusade then so common against superstitious relics, to have
+headed a party by whom the three venerable crosses, now set up in the
+churchyard of Whalley, commonly called the Crosses of Paulinus, and
+supposed to be coeval with the first preaching of Christianity in the
+North of England, were removed and taken away from their site and
+appropriated as a boundary fence for some adjoining fields. After the
+Restoration, and when his religious views had become sobered and
+settled, he is said, in an eager desire to atone for the desecration
+of which he had been guilty, to have purchased the crosses from the
+person who was then in possession of them, and to have been at the
+cost of re-erecting them on their present site, from which no
+sacrilegious hand will, I trust, ever again remove them. It is further
+said, that Webster's favourite and regular walk, in the latter part of
+his life, till his infirmities rendered him unable to take exercise of
+any kind, was to the remains of Whalley Abbey; and that a path along
+the banks of the stream which glides by those most picturesque and
+pleasing ruins, was long called "Webster's Walk." If this tradition be
+founded in fact, and I give it as I received it, John Webster, of
+Clitheroe, if not identical, as Mr. Collier has contended, with the
+dramatic poet of that name, must have felt something assimilated in
+spirit to the fine inspiration of those noble lines of the latter:--
+
+         "I do love these ancient ruins.
+    We never tread upon them but we set
+    Our foot upon some reverend history;
+    And, questionless, here in this open court,
+    Which now lies naked to the injuries
+    Of stormy weather, some men lie interred that
+    Lov'd the Church so well and gave so largely to't,
+    They thought it should have canopied their bones
+    Till doomsday: but all things have their end.
+    Churches and cities, which have diseases like to men,
+    Must have like death that we have."]
+
+[Footnote 30: Webster's death took place on the 18th June, 1682. He
+left an extensive library, composed principally of chemical,
+hermetical, and philosophical works, of which the MSS. catalogue is
+now in the possession of my friend, the Rev. T. Corser. I have two
+books which appear to have at one time formed part of his collection,
+from having his favourite signature, Johannes Hyphantes, in his
+autograph, on the title pages. Before I conclude with Webster, I ought
+perhaps to observe, that in the valuable edition of the works of
+Webster, the dramatic poet, published by the Rev. A. Dyce, that most
+accurate and judicious editor has proved indisputably, by an elaborate
+argument, that the John Webster, the writer of the _Examen
+Academiarum_, and John Webster, the author of the _Displaying of
+Supposed Witchcraft_, were one and the same person, who was not
+identical with the dramatic writer of the same name. Mr. Dyce does
+not, however, appear to have been aware, that the identity of the
+author of the _Examen Academiarum_ and the writer on witchcraft is
+distinctly stated by Dr. Henry More, in his _Praefatio Generalissima_,
+to the Latin edition of his works, whose testimony being that of a
+contemporary, who was, like Webster, "a Cambridge scholar," may
+perhaps be considered sufficient, without resorting to internal and
+circumstantial evidence. The inscription on Webster's monument in the
+chapel of St. Mary Magdalen, at Clitheroe, is too characteristic and
+curious to be omitted. I give it entire:--
+
+    "_Qui hanc figuram intelligunt
+    Me etiam intellexisse, intelligent._
+
+    [Illustration]
+
+    _Hic jacet ignotus mundo, mersusque tumultu
+    Invidiae, semper mens tamen aequa fuit,
+    Multa tulit veterum ut sciret secreta sophorum
+    Ac tandem vires noverit ignis aquae._
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+    _Johannes Hyphantes sive Webster,
+    In villa Spinosa supermontana, in
+    Parochia silvae cuculatae, in agro
+    Eboracensi, natus 1610 Feb. 3,
+    Ergastulum animae deposuit 1682, Junii 18,
+    Annoq. aetatis suae 72 currente._
+
+    _Sicq. peroravit moriens mundo huic valedicens,
+    Aurea pax vivis, requies aeterna sepultis._"]
+
+But it is necessary to proceed from the authors on witchcraft to that
+extraordinary case which forms the subject of the present
+republication, and which first gave to Pendle its title to be
+considered as the Hartz Forest of England.
+
+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 domains.
+_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 inclosed, 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 seventeenth 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, manufactures,
+and projected rail-roads, still much of the old character of its
+population remains. _Hodie manent vestigia ruris._ 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[31] will yet find that charms
+are 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 wise 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 due
+liturgic ceremonies which the orthodoxy of tradition requires.
+
+[Footnote 31: It was my good fortune to visit this wizard-haunted spot
+within the last few weeks, in company with the able and zealous
+Archdeacon[A] within whose ecclesiastical cure it is comprized, and to
+whose singularly accurate knowledge of this district, and courteous
+communication of much valuable information regarding it, I hold myself
+greatly indebted. Following, with unequal steps, such a guide,
+accompanied, likewise, by an excellent Canon of the Church[B] with all
+the "armamentaria coeli" at command against the powers of darkness,
+and a lay auxiliary[C], whose friendly converse would make the
+roughest journey appear smooth, I need scarcely say, I passed through
+
+                          "The forest wyde,
+    Whose hideous horror and sad trembling sownd
+    Full griesly seem'd,"
+
+unscathed by the old lords of the soil, and needed not Mengus's Fuga,
+Fustis et Flagellum Daemonum, as a triple coat of mail.]
+
+[Footnote A: The Venerable the Archdeacon of Manchester, the Rev. John
+Rushton, who is also the Incumbent of New Church, in Pendle.]
+
+[Footnote B: The Rev. Canon Parkinson.]
+
+[Footnote C: J.B. Wanklyn, Esq.]
+
+In the early part of the reign of James the first, 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.[32] Both had
+attained, or had reached the verge of the advanced age of eighty, 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. In both, perhaps, some vindictive wish, which appeared
+to have been gratified nearly as soon as uttered, or some one of those
+curious coincidences which no individual's life is without, led to an
+impression which time, habit, and general recognition would gradually
+deepen into full conviction, that each really possessed the powers
+which witchcraft was believed to confer. Whether it be with witches as
+it is said to be with a much maligned branch of a certain profession,
+that it needs two of its members in a district to make its exercise
+profitable, it is not for me to say; but it is seldom found that
+competition is accompanied by any very amicable feeling in the
+competitors, or by a disposition to underrate the value of the
+merchandize which each has to offer for sale. Accordingly, great was
+the rivalry, constant the feuds, and unintermitting the respective
+criminations of the Erictho and Canidia of Pendle,[33] who had opened
+shops for the vending of similar contraband commodities, and were
+called upon to decry each other's stock, as well as to magnify their
+own. Each "gave her little senate laws," and had her own party (or
+tail, according to modern phraseology) in the Forest. Some looked up
+to and patronized one, and some the other. If old Demdike could boast
+that she had Tibb as a familiar, old Chattox was not without her
+Fancy. If the former had skill in waxen images, the latter could dig
+up the scalps of the dead, and make their teeth serviceable to her
+unhallowed purposes. In the anxiety which each felt to outvie the
+other, and to secure the greater share of the general custom of a not
+very extended or very lucrative market, each would wish to be
+represented as more death-dealing, destructive, and powerful than her
+neighbour; and she who could number up the most goodly assortment of
+damage done to man and beast, whether real or not was quite
+immaterial, as long as the draught was spiced and flavoured to suit
+the general taste, stood the best chance of obtaining a monopoly. It
+is a curious fact, that the son-in-law of one of these two
+individuals, and whose wife was herself executed as a witch, paid to
+the other a yearly rent,[34] on an express covenant that she should
+exempt him from her charms and witchcrafts. Where the possession of a
+commission from the powers of darkness was thus eagerly and
+ostentatiously paraded, every death, the cause of which was not
+perfectly obvious, whether it ended in a sudden termination or a slow
+and gradual decline, would be placed to the general account of one of
+the two (to use Master Potts's description,) "agents for the devil in
+those parts," as the party responsible for these unclaimed dividends
+of mortality. Did a cow go mad, or was a horse unaccountably afflicted
+with the staggers, the same solution was always at hand to clear
+negligence and save the trouble of inquiry; and so far from modestly
+disclaiming these atrocities, the only struggle on the parts of
+Mothers Demdike and Chattox would be which should first appropriate
+them. And in all this it must not be forgotten that their own
+credulity was at least as great as the credulity of their neighbours,
+and that each had the power in question was so much an admitted point,
+that she had long ceased, in all probability, to entertain any doubts
+on the subject. With this general conviction on one hand, and a
+sincere persuasion on the other, it would be surprising if, in the
+course of a few years, the scandalous chronicle of Pendle had not
+accumulated a _corpus delicti_ against them, which only required that
+"_one of his Majesties Justices in these parts, a very religious
+honest gentleman, painful in the service of his country_," should work
+the materials into shape, and make "the gruel thick and slab."
+
+[Footnote 32: The Archdeacon of Manchester suggests that this is
+merely a corruption of Chadwick or Chadwicks, and not, as explained in
+the Note, p. 19, from her chattering as she went along.]
+
+[Footnote 33: These bickerings were no doubt exasperated by the
+robbery committed upon old Demdike and Alizon Device, which is
+detailed in the examinations, some of the _opima spolia_ abstracted on
+which occasion she detected on the person of old Chattox's daughter.]
+
+[Footnote 34: Of an aghendole of meal. Since writing the Note, p. 23,
+I am indebted to Miss Clegg, of Hallfoot, near Clitheroe, for
+information as to the exact quantity contained in an aghendole, which
+is eight pounds. This measure, she informs me, is still in use in
+Little Harwood, in the district of Pendle. The Archdeacon of
+Manchester considers that an aghendole, or more properly, as generally
+pronounced, a nackendole, is a kneading-dole, the quantity of meal,
+&c. usually taken for kneading at one time. There can be no doubt that
+this is the correct derivation.]
+
+Such a man was soon found in the representative of the old family of
+the Nowels of Read, who, desirous of signalizing himself as an active
+and stirring justice, took up the case of these self-accusing
+culprits, for both made confessions when examined before him, with a
+vigour worthy of a better cause. On the 2nd April, 1612, he committed
+old Demdike, old Chattox, Alizon Device, and Anne Redfern to
+Lancaster, to take their trial at the next assizes for various murders
+and witchcrafts. "Here," says the faithful chronicler, Master Potts,
+"they had not stayed a weeke, when their children and friendes being
+abroad at libertie, laboured a speciall meeting at Malking Tower[35]
+in the Forrest of Pendle, vpon Good-fryday, within a weeke after they
+were committed, of all the most dangerous, wicked, and damnable
+witches in the county farre and neere. Vpon Good-fryday they met,
+according to solemne appoyntment, solemnized this great festiuall day
+according to their former order, with great cheare, merry company, and
+much conference. In the end, in this great assemblie it was decreed
+that M. Covell, [he was the gaoler of Lancaster Castle,] by reason of
+his Office, shall be slaine before the next Assises, the Castle at
+Lancaster to be blown up," &c., &c. This witches' convention, so
+historically famous, we unquestionably owe to the "painful justice"
+whose scent after witches and plots entitled him to a promotion which
+he did not obtain. An overt act so alarming and so indisputable, at
+once threw the country, far and near, into the greatest
+ferment--_furiis surrexit Etruria justis_--while it supplied an
+admirable _locus in quo_ for tracing those whose retiring habits had
+prevented their propensities to witchcraft from being generally known
+to their intimate friends and connexions. The witness by whose
+evidence this legend was principally supported, was Jennet Device, a
+child about nine years old, and grand-daughter of old Demdike. A more
+dangerous tool in the hands of an unscrupulous evidence-compeller,
+being at once intelligent, cunning and pliant, than the child proved
+herself, it would not have been easy to have discovered. A foundation
+being now laid capable of embracing any body of confederates, the
+indefatigable justice proceeded in his inquiries, and in the end,
+Elizabeth Device the daughter of old Demdike, James Device her son,
+Alice Nutter, Katherine Hewitt, John Bulcock, Jane Bulcock, with some
+others, were committed for trial at Lancaster. The very curious report
+of that trial is contained in the work now republished, which was
+compiled under the superintendence of the judges who presided, by
+Master Thomas Potts, clerk in court, and present at the trial. His
+report, notwithstanding its prolixity and its many repetitions, it has
+been thought advisable to publish entire, and the reprint which
+follows is as near a fac-simile as possible of the original tract.
+
+[Footnote 35: Baines confounds Malking-Tower with Hoar-stones, a place
+rendered famous by the second case of pretended witchcraft in 1633,
+but at some distance from the first-named spot, the residence of
+Mother Demdike, which lies in the township of Barrowford. The witch's
+mansion--
+
+           "Where that same wicked wight
+    Her dwelling had--
+    Dark, doleful, dreary, like a greedy grave
+    That still for carrion carcases doth crave,
+    On top whereof ay dwelt the ghastly owle,
+    Shrieking his baleful note, which ever drave
+    Far from that haunt all other cheerful fowl,
+    And all about it wandering ghosts did wail and howle"--
+
+is now, alas! no more. It stood in a field a little elevated, on a
+brow above the building at present called Malking-Tower. The site of
+the house or cottage is still distinctly traceable, and fragments of
+the plaster are yet to be found imbedded in the boundary wall of the
+field. The old road to Gisburne ran almost close to it. It commanded a
+most extensive prospect in front, in the direction of Alkincoates,
+Colne, and the Yorkshire moors; while in another direction the vast
+range of Pendle, nearly intercepted, gloomed in sullen majesty. At the
+period when Mother Demdike was in being, Malking-Tower would be at
+some distance from any other habitation; its occupier, as the vulgar
+would opine--
+
+    "So choosing solitarie to abide
+    Far from all neighbours, that her devilish deedes
+    And hellish arts from people she might hide,
+    And hurt far off unknown whomever she envide."]
+
+It is rather strange that Dr. Whitaker, to whom local superstitions
+were always matters of the strongest interest, and welcome as manna to
+the sojourners in the wilderness,[36] should have been ignorant, not
+merely of Master Potts's discovery, but even of the fact of this trial
+of the witches in 1612. It is equally singular that Sir Walter Scott
+should have forgotten, when writing his letters on Demonology and
+Witchcraft, that he had republished this tract, somewhat inaccurately,
+but with rather a long introduction and notes, in the third volume of
+his edition of the Somers Tracts, which appeared in 1810. He mentions
+Potts's _Discoverie_, in the amusing but very inaccurate and imperfect
+historical sketch referred to,[37] as a curious and rare book, which
+he had then for the first time obtained a sight of. What could have
+been his meaning in referring his readers, for an account of Mother
+Demdike and a description of Malking Tower, to "Mr. Roby's Antiquities
+of Lancaster," that apocryphal historian having given no such account
+or description, and having published no such work, it is rather
+difficult to conjecture.
+
+[Footnote 36: In a scarce little book, "The Triumph of Sovereign
+Grace, or a Brand plucked out of the Fire, by David Crosly, Minister,
+Manchester," 1743, 12mo., which I owe to the kindness of the very able
+historian of Cheshire, George Ormerod, Esq., Dr. Whitaker, to whom the
+volume formerly belonged, has been at the pains of chronicling the
+superstitions connected with a family, ranking amongst the more
+opulent yeomen of Cliviger, of the name of Briercliffe, on the
+execution of one of whom for murder the tract was published. The
+Briercliffe's, from the curious anecdotes which the Doctor gives with
+great unction, appear to have been one of those gloomy and fated
+races, dogged by some unassuageable Nemesis, in which crime and horror
+are transmitted from generation to generation with as much certainty
+as the family features and name.]
+
+[Footnote 37: We yet want a full, elaborate, and satisfactory history
+of witchcraft. Hutchinson's is the only account we have which enters
+at all at length into the detail of the various cases; but his
+materials were generally collected from common sources, and he
+confines himself principally to English cases. The European history of
+witchcraft embraces so wide a field, and requires for its just
+completion a research so various, that there is little probability, I
+fear, of this _desideratum_ being speedily supplied.]
+
+With all his habitual tautology and grave absurdity, Master Potts is,
+nevertheless, a faithful and accurate chronicler, and we owe his
+memory somewhat for furnishing us with so elaborate a report of what
+took place on this trial, and giving us, "in their own country terms,"
+the examinations of the witnesses, which contain much which throws
+light on the manners and language of the times, and nearly all that is
+necessary to enable us to form a judgment on the proceedings. It will
+be observed that he follows with great exactness the course pursued in
+court, in opening the case and recapitulating the evidence separately
+against each prisoner, so as most graphically to place before us the
+whole scene as it occurred. The part in which he is felt to be most
+deficient, is in the want of some further account of the prisoners
+convicted, from the trial up to the time of their execution. To Master
+Potts, a man of legal forms and ceremonies, the entire interest in the
+case seems to have come in and gone out with the judge's trumpets.
+
+As most of the points in the trial which appeared to require
+observation, have been adverted to in the notes which follow the
+reprint, it is not considered necessary to enter into any analysis or
+review of the evidence adduced at the trial, which presents such a
+miserable mockery of justice. Mother Demdike, it will be seen, died in
+prison before the trial came on. Of the Pendle witches four, namely
+Old Chattox, Elizabeth Device, James Device, and Alizon Device, had
+all made confessions, and had little chance, therefore, of escaping
+condemnation. They were all found guilty; and with them were
+convicted, Anne Redfern, Alice Nutter, Katherine Hewitt, John
+Bulcock, and Jane Bulcock, who were all of Pendle or its
+neighbourhood, and who maintained their innocence and refused to make
+any confession. They were executed, along with the first-mentioned
+four and Isabel Robey, who was of Windle, in the parish of Prescot,
+and had been found guilty of similar practises, the day after the
+trial, viz. on the 18th of August, 1612, "at the common place of
+execution near to Lancaster."
+
+The main interest in reviewing this miserable band of victims will be
+felt to centre in Alice Nutter.[38] 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 towards her.[39] That Jennet Device,
+on whose evidence she was convicted, was instructed to accuse her by
+her own nearest relatives, to whom "superfluous lagged the veteran on
+the stage," 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.
+With such a witness, however, as Jennet Device, and such an admirable
+engine as the meeting at Malking-Tower, the guests at which she could
+multiply _ad libitum_, doling out the _plaat_, as Titus Oates would
+call it, by such instalments, and in such fragmentary portions, as
+would conduce to an easy digestion of the whole, the wonder seems not
+to be, that one unfortunate victim of a higher class should have
+perished in the meshes of artful and complicated villainy, but that
+its ramifications were not more extensive, and still more fatal and
+destructive. From one so capable of taking a hint as the little
+precocious prodigy of wickedness, in whose examination, Potts tells
+us, "_Mr. Nowell took such great paines_," a very summary deliverance
+might be expected from troublesome neighbours, or still more
+troublesome relatives; and if, by a leading question, she could only
+be induced to marshal them in their allotted places at the witches'
+imaginary banquet, there was little doubt of their taking their
+station at a place of meeting where the sad realities of life were
+only to be encountered, "the common place of execution near to
+Lancaster."
+
+[Footnote 38: The explorer of Pendle will find the mansion of Alice
+Nutter, Rough Lee, still standing. It is impossible to look at it,
+recollecting the circumstances of her case, without being strongly
+interested. It is a very substantial, and rather a fine specimen of
+the houses of the inferior gentry in the time of James the first, and
+is now divided into cottages. On one of the side walls is an
+inscription, almost entirely obliterated, which contained the date of
+the building and the initials of the name of its first owner. At a
+little distance from Rough Lee, pursuing the course of the stream, he
+will find the foundations of an ancient mill, and the millstones still
+unremoved, though the building itself has been pulled down long ago.
+This was, doubtless, the mill of Richard Baldwin, the miller, who, as
+stated in Old Demdike's confession, ejected her and Alizon Device her
+daughter, from his land so contumeliously; immediately after which her
+"Spirit or divell called Tibb appeared, and sayd Revenge thee of him."
+Greenhead, the residence of Robert Nutter, one of the reputed victims
+of the prisoners tried on this occasion, is at some distance from
+Rough Lee, and is yet in good preservation, and occupied as a
+farmhouse.]
+
+[Footnote 39: The instances are very few in England in which the
+statute of James the first was brought to bear against any but the
+lowest classes of the people. Indeed, there are not many attempts
+reported to attack the rich and powerful with weapons derived from its
+provisions. One of such attempts, which did not, like that against
+Alice Nutter, prove successful, is narrated in a curious and scarce
+pamphlet, which I have now before me, with this title--"Wonderful News
+from the North, or a true Relation of the sad and grievous Torments
+inflicted upon the Bodies of three children of Mr. George Muschamp,
+late of the County of Northumberland, by Witchcraft, and how
+miraculously it pleased God to strengthen them and to deliver them; as
+also the prosecution of the say'd Witches, as by Oaths and their own
+Confessions will appear, and by the Indictment found by the Jury
+against one of them at the Sessions of the Peace held at Alnwick, the
+24th day of April, 1650. London, printed by T.H., and are to be sold
+by Richard Harper at his Shop in Smithfield. 1650," 4to. This was
+evidently a diabolical plot, in which these children were made the
+puppets, and which was got up to accomplish the destruction of a
+person of condition, Mrs. Dorothy Swinnow, the wife of Colonel
+Swinnow, of Chatton, in Northumberland, and from which she had great
+difficulty in escaping.]
+
+The trial of the Samlesbury witches, Jennet Bierley, Ellen Bierley,
+and Jane Southworth, forms a curious episode in Potts's _Discoverie_.
+A Priest or Jesuit, of the name of Thomson, _alias_ Southworth, had
+tutored the principal evidence, Grace Sowerbuts, a girl of the age of
+fourteen, but who had not the same instinctive genius for perjury as
+Jennet Device, to accuse the three persons above mentioned of having
+bewitched her; "so that," as the indictment runs, "by means thereof
+her body wasted and consumed." "The chief object," says Sir Walter
+Scott, "in this imposture, was doubtless the advantage and promotion
+of the Catholic cause, as the patient would have been in due time
+exorcised and the fiend dispossessed, by the same priest who had
+taught her to counterfeit the fits. Revenge against the women, who had
+become proselytes to the Church of England, was probably an additional
+motive." But the imposture broke down, from the inability of the
+principal witness to support the scheme of deception. Unsuccessful,
+however, as it proved, the time was well chosen, the groundwork
+excellently laid, the evidence industriously got up, and it must ever
+deserve a prominent place in the history--a history, how delightful
+when it shall be written in the spirit of philosophy and with due
+application of research--of human fraud and imposture.
+
+We can only speculate, of course, on such an occasion, but perhaps no
+trial is recorded as having taken place, with the results of which
+every body, the parties convicted only excepted, was, in all
+probability, better pleased or satisfied, than at this witch trial at
+Lancaster in 1612. The mob would be delighted with a pageant, always
+acceptable, in the execution of ten witches; and still more, that one
+of them was of a rank superior to their own;--the judge had no doubt,
+in his opinion, avoided each horn of the dilemma--the abomination
+mentioned in Scripture--punishing the innocent or letting the guilty
+go free--by tracking guilt with well breathed sagacity, and
+unravelling imposture with unerring skill;--a Jesuit had been
+unkennelled, a spectacle as gratifying to a serious Protestant in
+those days, as running down a fox to a thorough sportsman;--a plot had
+been discovered which might have made Lancaster Castle "to topple on
+its warders" and "slope its head to its foundations," and Master
+Cowell, who had held so many inquests, to vanish without leaving
+anything in his own person whereon an inquest could be holden;--a
+pestilent nest of incorrigible witches had been dug out and rooted up,
+and Pendle Hill placed under sanatory regulations;--and last, and not
+least, as affording matter of pride and exultation to every loyal
+subject, a commentary had at last been collected for two texts, which
+had long called for some such support without finding it, King James's
+_Demonology_, and his statute against witchcraft. When the
+_Discoverie_ of Master Potts, with its rich treasury of illustrative
+evidence, came to hand, would not the monarch be the happiest man in
+his dominions!
+
+Twenty years after the publication of the tract now reprinted, Pendle
+Forest again became the scene of pretended witchcrafts; and from
+various circumstances, the trial which took place then (in 1633) has
+acquired even greater notoriety than the one which preceded it, though
+no Master Potts could be found to transmit a report of the proceedings
+in the second case, a deficiency which is greatly to be lamented. The
+particulars are substantially comprised in the following examination,
+which is given from the copy in Whitaker's _Whalley_, p. 213, which,
+on comparison, is unquestionably more accurate than the other two
+versions, in Webster, p. 347, and Baines's _Lancashire_, vol. i. p.
+604:[40]--
+
+[Footnote 40: The copy in Baines is from the Harl. MSS., cod. 6854,
+fo. 26 _b_, and though inserted in his history as more correct than
+that in Whitaker's Whalley, is so disfigured by errors, particularly
+in the names of persons and places, as to be utterly unintelligible.
+From what source Whitaker derived his transcript does not appear; for
+the confession of Margaret Johnson he cites Dodsworth MSS. in Bodleian
+Lib., vol. 61, p. 47.]
+
+
+"THE EXAMINATION OF EDMUND ROBINSON,
+
+"Son of _Edm. Robinson_, of _Pendle_ forest, mason,[41] taken at
+_Padiham_ before _Richard Shuttleworth_[42] and _John Starkie_,[43]
+Esqs. two of his majesty's justices of the peace, within the county of
+_Lancaster_, 10th of February, A.D. 1633.
+
+[Footnote 41: "The informer was one Edmund Robinson (yet living at the
+writing hereof, and commonly known by the name of Ned of Roughs) whose
+Father was by trade a Waller, and but a poor Man, and they finding
+that they were believed and had incouragement by the adjoyning
+Magistrates, and the persons being committed to prison or bound over
+to the next Assizes, the boy, his Father and some others besides did
+make a practice to go from Church to Church that the Boy might reveal
+and discover Witches, pretending that there was a great number at the
+pretended meeting whose faces he could know, and by that means they
+got a good living, that in a short space the Father bought a Cow or
+two, when he had none before. And it came to pass that this said Boy
+was brought into the Church of Kildwick a large parish Church, where I
+(being then Curate there) was preaching in the afternoon, and was set
+upon a stall (he being but about ten or eleven years old) to look
+about him, which moved some little disturbance in the Congregation for
+a while. And after prayers I inquiring 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, where 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, did thou see and hear such strange things of the meeting
+of Witches, as is reported by many that thou dost relate, or did not
+some person teach thee to say such things of thy self? 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."--Webster's _Displaying of Witchcraft_,
+p. 276.]
+
+[Footnote 42: This was Richard Shuttleworth of Gawthorp, Esq., who
+married the daughter and heiress of R. Fleetwood, Esq., of Barton, and
+died June 1669, aged 82.]
+
+[Footnote 43: John Starkie, Esq., of the family of Starkie of
+Huntroyd, the same probably who was sheriff of Lancashire 9 Charles I,
+and one of the seven demoniacs at Cleworth in the year 1595, on whose
+evidence Hartley was hanged for witchcraft. Having commenced so early,
+he must by this time have qualified himself, if he only improved the
+advantages of his Cleworth education, to take the chair and proceed as
+professor, in all matters appertaining to witchcraft.]
+
+"Who informeth upon oath, (beeinge examined concerninge the greate
+meetings of the witches) and saith, that upon All-saints day last
+past, hee, this informer, beeinge with one _Henry Parker_, a neare
+doore neighbor to him in _Wheatley-lane_,[44] desyred the said
+_Parker_ to give him leave to get some bulloes,[45] which hee did. In
+which tyme of gettinge bulloes, hee sawe two greyhounds, viz. a blacke
+and a browne one, came runninge over the next field towards him, he
+verily thinkinge the one of them to bee Mr. _Nutters_,[46] and the
+other to bee Mr. _Robinsons_,[47] the said Mr. _Nutter_ and Mr.
+_Robinson_ havinge then such like. And the said greyhounds came to him
+and fawned on him, they havinge about theire necks either of them a
+coller, and to either of which collers was tyed a stringe, which
+collers as this informer affirmeth did shine like gould, and hee
+thinkinge that some either of Mr. _Nutter's_ or Mr. _Robinson's_
+family should have followed them: but seeinge noe body to followe
+them, he tooke the said greyhounds thinkinge to hunt with them, and
+presently a hare did rise very neare before him, at the sight whereof
+he cryed, loo, loo, but the dogges would not run. Whereupon beeinge
+very angry, he tooke them, and with the strings that were at theire
+collers tyed either of them to a little bush on the next hedge, and
+with a rod that hee had in his hand, hee bett them. And in stede of
+the blacke greyhound, one _Dickonson_ wife stoode up (a neighb^r.)
+whom this informer knoweth, and in steade of the browne greyhound a
+little boy whom this informer knoweth not. At which sight this
+informer beeinge affraid indevoured to run away: but beeinge stayed by
+the woman, viz. by _Dickonson's_ wife, shee put her hand into her
+pocket, and pulled out a peace of silver much like to a faire
+shillinge, and offered to give him to hould his tongue, and not to
+tell, whiche hee refused, sayinge, nay thou art a witch; Whereupon
+shee put her hand into her pocket againe, and pulled out a stringe
+like unto a bridle[48] that gingled, which shee put upon the litle
+boyes heade that stood up in the browne greyhounds steade; whereupon
+the said boy stood up a white horse. Then immediately the said
+_Dickonson_ wife tooke this informer before her upon the said horse,
+and carried him to a new house called _Hoarestones_,[49] beinge about
+a quarter of a mile off, whither, when they were comme, there were
+divers persons about the doore, and hee sawe divers others cominge
+rideinge upon horses of severall colours towards the said house, which
+tyed theire horses to a hedge neare to the sed house; and which
+persons went into the sed house, to the number of threescore or
+thereabouts, as this informer thinketh, where they had a fyer and
+meate roastinge, and some other meate stirringe in the house, whereof
+a yonge woman whom hee this informer knoweth not, gave him flesh and
+breade upon a trencher, and drinke in a glasse, which, after the first
+taste, hee refused, and would have noe more, and said it was nought.
+And presently after, seeinge diverse of the company goinge to a barn
+neare adioyneinge,[50] hee followed after, and there he sawe sixe of
+them kneelinge, and pullinge at sixe severall roapes which were
+fastened or tyed to ye toppe of the house; at or with which pullinge
+came then in this informers sight flesh smoakeinge, butter in lumps,
+and milke as it were syleinge[51] from the said roapes, all which fell
+into basons whiche were placed under the saide roapes. And after that
+these sixe had done, there came other sixe which did likewise, and
+duringe all the tyme of theire so pullinge, they made such foule faces
+that feared[52] this informer, soe as hee was glad to steale out and
+run home, whom, when they wanted, some of theire company came runninge
+after him neare to a place in a high way, called Boggard-hole,[53]
+where this informer met two horsemen, at the sight whereof the sed
+persons left followinge him, and the foremost of which persons yt
+followed him, hee knoweth to bee one _Loynd_ wife, which said wife,
+together with one _Dickonson_ wife, and one _Jenet Davies_[54] he hath
+seene at severall tymes in a croft or close adioninge to his fathers
+house, whiche put him in a greate feare. And further, this informer
+saith, upon Thursday after New Yeares day last past, he sawe the sed
+_Loynd_ wife sittinge upon a crosse peece of wood, beeinge within the
+chimney of his father's dwellinge house, and hee callinge to her,
+said, come downe thou _Loynd_ wife, and immediately the sed _Loynd_
+wife went up out of his sight. And further, this informer saith, yt
+after hee was comme from ye company aforesed to his father's house,
+beeinge towards eveninge, his father bad him goe fetch home two kyne
+to seale,[55] and in the way, in a field called the Ollers, hee
+chanced to hap upon a boy, who began to quarrell with him, and they
+fought soe together till this informer had his eares made very bloody
+by fightinge, and lookinge downe, hee sawe the boy had a cloven foote,
+at which sight hee was affraid, and ran away from him to seeke the
+kyne. And in the way hee sawe a light like a lanthorne, towards which
+he made hast, supposinge it to bee carried by some of Mr. _Robinson's_
+people: But when hee came to the place, hee onley found a woman
+standinge on a bridge, whom, when hee sawe her, he knewe to bee
+_Loynd_ wife, and knowinge her, he turned backe againe, and immediatly
+hee met with ye aforesed boy, from whom he offered to run, which boy
+gave him a blow on the back which caus'd him to cry. And hee farther
+saith, yt when hee was in the barne, he sawe three women take three
+pictures from off the beame, in the which pictures many thornes, or
+such like things sticked, and yt _Loynd_ wife tooke one of the said
+pictures downe, but thother two women yt tooke thother two pictures
+downe hee knoweth not.[56] And beeinge further asked, what persons
+were at ye meeteinge aforesed, hee nominated these persons hereafter
+mentioned, viz. _Dickonson_ wife, _Henry Priestley_ wife and her sone,
+_Alice Hargreaves_ widdowe, _Jennet Davies_, _Wm. Davies_, uxor.
+_Hen. Jacks_ and her sone _John_, _James Hargreaves_ of _Marsden_,
+_Miles_ wife of _Dicks_, _James_ wife, _Saunders_ sicut credit,
+_Lawrence_ wife of _Saunders_, _Loynd_ wife, _Buys_ wife of
+_Barrowford_, one _Holgate_ and his wife sicut credit, _Little Robin_
+wife of _Leonard's_, of the _West Cloase_.[57]
+
+[Footnote 44: Wheatley-lane is still a place of note in Pendle.]
+
+[Footnote 45: Wild plums.]
+
+[Footnote 46: It would seem as if a case of witchcraft in Pendle,
+without a Nutter in some way connected with it, could not occur.]
+
+[Footnote 47: What Mr. Robinson is intended does not appear. It was a
+common name in Pendle. It is, however, a curious fact, that a family
+of this name, _with the alias of Swyer_, (see Potts, confession of
+Elizabeth Device,) is even now, or very recently was, to be met with
+in Pendle, of whom the John Robinson, _alias_ Swyer, one of the
+supposed victims of Witchcraft, was probably an ancestor. There are
+few instances of an _alias_ being similarly transmitted in families
+for upwards of two centuries.]
+
+[Footnote 48: Mother Dickenson, as Sir Walter Scott remarks, brings to
+mind the magician Queen in the Arabian Tales.]
+
+[Footnote 49: This house is still standing, and though it has
+undergone some modernizations, has every appearance of having been
+built about this period.]
+
+[Footnote 50: The old barn, so famous as the scene of these exploits,
+is no longer extant. A more modern and very substantial one has now
+been erected on its site.]
+
+[Footnote 51: Syleing, from the verb sile or syle, to strain, to pass
+through a strainer. See Jamieson, under "sile."]
+
+[Footnote 52: Frightened.]
+
+[Footnote 53: Boggard Hole lies in a hollow, near to Hoarstones, and
+is still known by that name.]
+
+[Footnote 54: "It is the sport to see the engineer hoist with his own
+petar." Her old occupation as witness having got into other hands,
+Janet or Jennet Davies, or Device, for the person spoken of appears to
+be the same with the grand-daughter of Old Demdike, on whose evidence
+three members of her family were executed, has now to take her place
+amongst the witnessed against.]
+
+[Footnote 55: Seale, from sele, _s._ a yoke for binding cattle in the
+stall. Sal (A.S.) denotes "a collar or bond." Somner. Sile (Isl.)
+seems to bear the very same sense with our sele, being exp. a ligament
+of leather by which cattle and other things are bound. Vide Jamieson,
+under "sele."]
+
+[Footnote 56: Heywood and Broome, in their play, "The late Lancashire
+Witches," 1634, 4to, follow the terms of this deposition very closely.
+It is very probable that they had seen and conversed with the boy, to
+whom, when taken up to London, there was a great resort of company.
+The Lancashire dialect, as given in this play, and by no means
+unfaithfully, was perhaps derived from conversations with some of the
+actors in this drama of real life, a drama quite as extraordinary as
+any that Heywood's imagination ever bodied forth from the world of
+fiction.
+
+"_Enter Boy with a switch._
+
+_Boy._ Now I have gathered Bullies, and fild my bellie pretty well,
+i'le goe see some sport. There are gentlemen coursing in the medow
+hard by; and 'tis a game that I love better than going to Schoole ten
+to one.
+
+_Enter an invisible spirit. J. Adson[D] with a brace of greyhounds._
+
+What have we here a brace of Greyhounds broke loose from their
+masters: it must needs be so, for they have both their Collers and
+slippes about their neckes. Now I looke better upon them, me thinks I
+should know them, and so I do: these are Mr. Robinsons dogges, that
+dwels some two miles off, i'le take them up, and lead them home to
+their master; it may be something in my way, for he is as liberall a
+gentleman, as any is in our countrie, Come Hector, come. Now if I c'ud
+but start a Hare by the way, kill her, and carry her home to my
+supper, I should thinke I had made a better afternoones worke of it
+than gathering of bullies. Come poore curres along with me.
+
+_Exit._"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"_Enter Boy with the Greyhounds._
+
+A Hare, a Hare, halloe, halloe, the Divell take these curres, will
+they not stir, halloe, halloe, there, there, there, what are they
+growne so lither and so lazie? Are Mr. Robinsons dogges turn'd tykes
+with a wanion? the Hare is yet in sight, halloe, halloe, mary hang you
+for a couple of mungrils (if you were worth hanging,) and have you
+serv'd me thus? nay then ile serve you with the like sauce, you shall
+to the next bush, there will I tie you, and use you like a couple of
+curs as you are, and though not lash you, yet lash you whilest my
+switch will hold, nay since you have left your speed, ile see if I can
+put spirit into you, and put you in remembrance what halloe, halloe
+meanes.
+
+_As he beats them, there appeared before him Gooddy_ Dickison, _and
+the Boy upon the dogs, going in._
+
+Now blesse me heaven, one of the Greyhounds turn'd into a woman, the
+other into a boy! The lad I never saw before, but her I know well; it
+is my gammer _Dickison_.
+
+_G. Dick._ Sirah, you have serv'd me well to swindge me thus. You yong
+rogue, you have vs'd me like a dog.
+
+_Boy._ When you had put your self into a dogs skin, I pray how c'ud I
+help it; but gammer are not you a Witch? if you bee, I beg upon my
+knees you will not hurt me.
+
+_Dickis._ Stand up my boie, for thou shalt have no harme,
+Be silent, speake of nothing thou hast seene.
+And here's a shilling for thee.
+
+_Boy._ Ile have none of your money, gammer, because you are a Witch;
+and now she is out of her foure leg'd shape, ile see if with my two
+legs I can out-run her.
+
+_Dickis._ Nay sirra, though you be yong, and I old, you are not so
+nimble, nor I so lame, but I can overtake you.
+
+_Boy._ But Gammer what do you meane to do with me
+Now you have me?
+
+_Dickis._ To hugge thee, stroke thee, and embrace thee thus,
+And teach thee twentie thousand prety things,
+So thou tell no tales; and boy this night
+Thou must along with me to a brave feast.
+
+_Boy._ Not I gammer indeed la, I dare not stay out late,
+My father is a fell man, and if I bee out long, will both
+chide and beat me.
+
+_Dickis._ Not sirra, then perforce thou shalt along,
+This bridle helps me still at need,
+And shall provide us of a steed.
+Now sirra, take your shape and be
+Prepar'd to hurrie him and me.
+
+_Exit._
+
+Now looke and tell mee wher's the lad become.
+
+_Boy._ The boy is vanisht, and I can see nothing in his stead
+But a white horse readie sadled and bridled.
+
+_Dickis._ And thats the horse we must bestride,
+On which both thou and I must ride,
+Thou boy before and I behinde,
+The earth we tread not, but the winde,
+For we must progresse through the aire,
+And I will bring thee to such fare
+As thou ne're saw'st, up and away,
+For now no longer we can stay.
+
+_She catches him up, and turning round._
+
+_Boy._ Help, help.
+
+_Exit._"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"_Rob._ What place is this? it looks like an old barne: ile peep in at
+some cranny or other, and try if I can see what they are doing. Such a
+bevy of beldames did I never behold; and cramming like so many
+Cormorants: Marry choke you with a mischiefe.
+
+_Gooddy Dickison._ Whoope, whurre, heres a sturre,
+Never a cat, never a curre,
+But that we must have this demurre.
+
+_Mal._ A second course.
+
+_Mrs. Gen._ Pull, and pull hard
+For all that hath lately him prepar'd
+For the great wedding feast.
+
+_Mall._ As chiefe
+Of Doughtyes Surloine of rost Beefe.
+
+_All._ Ha, ha, ha.
+
+_Meg._ 'Tis come, 'tis come.
+
+_Mawd._ Where hath it all this while beene?
+
+_Meg._ Some
+Delay hath kept it, now 'tis here,
+For bottles next of wine and beere,
+The Merchants cellers they shall pay for't.
+
+_Mrs. Gener._ Well,
+What sod or rost meat more, pray tell.
+
+_Good. Dick._ Pul for the Poultry, Foule, and Fish,
+For emptie shall not be a dish.
+
+_Robin._ A pox take them, must only they feed upon hot meat, and I
+upon nothing but cold sallads.
+
+_Mrs. Gener._ This meat is tedious, now some Farie,
+Fetch what belongs unto the Dairie,
+
+_Mal._ Thats Butter, Milk, Whey, Curds and Cheese,
+Wee nothing by the bargaine leese.
+
+_All._ Ha, ha, ha.
+
+_Goody Dickison._ Boy, theres meat for you.
+
+_Boy._ Thanke you.
+
+_Gooddy Dickis._ And drinke too.
+
+_Meg._ What Beast was by thee hither rid?
+
+_Mawd._ A Badger nab.
+
+_Meg._ And I bestrid
+A Porcupine that never prickt.
+
+_Mal._ The dull sides of a Beare I kickt.
+I know how you rid, Lady Nan.
+
+_Mrs. Gen._ Ha, ha, ha, upon the knave my man.
+
+_Rob._ A murrein take you, I am sure my hoofes payd for't.
+
+_Boy._ Meat lie there, for thou hast no taste, and drinke there, for
+thou hast no relish, for in neither of them is there either salt or
+savour.
+
+_All._ Pull for the posset, pull.
+
+_Robin._ The brides posset on my life, nay if they come to their
+spoone meat once, I hope theil breake up their feast presently.
+
+_Mrs. Gen._ So those that are our waiters nere,
+Take hence this Wedding cheere.
+We will be lively all,
+And make this barn our hall.
+
+_Gooddy Dick._ You our Familiers, come.
+In speech let all be dumbe,
+And to close up our Feast,
+To welcome every gest
+A merry round let's daunce.
+
+_Meg._ Some Musicke then ith aire
+Whilest thus by paire and paire,
+We nimbly foot it; strike.
+
+_Musick._
+
+_Mal._ We are obeyd.
+
+_Sprite._ And we hels ministers shall lend our aid.
+
+_Dance and Song together. In the time of which the Boy speakes._
+
+_Boy._ Now whilest they are in their jollitie, and do not mind me, ile
+steale away, and shift for my selfe, though I lose my life for't.
+
+_Exit._"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"_Dought._ He came to thee like a Boy thou sayest, about thine own
+bignesse?
+
+_Boy._ Yes Sir, and he asked me where I dwelt, and what my name was.
+
+_Dough._ Ah Rogue!
+
+_Boy._ But it was in a quarrelsome way; Whereupon I was as stout, and
+ask'd him who made him an examiner?
+
+_Dough._ Ah good Boy.
+
+_Mil._ In that he was my Sonne.
+
+_Boy._ He told me he would know or beat it out of me,
+And I told him he should not, and bid him doe his worst;
+And to't we went.
+
+_Dough._ In that he was my sonne againe, ha boy; I see him at it now.
+
+_Boy._ We fought a quarter of an houre, till his sharpe nailes made my
+eares bleed.
+
+_Dough._ O the grand Divell pare 'em.
+
+_Boy._ I wondred to finde him so strong in my hands, seeming but of
+mine owne age and bignesse, till I looking downe, perceived he had
+clubb'd cloven feet like Oxe feet; but his face was as young as mine.
+
+_Dought._ A pox, but by his feet, he may be the Club-footed
+Horse-coursers father, for all his young lookes.
+
+_Boy._ But I was afraid of his feet, and ran from him towards a light
+that I saw, and when I came to it, it was one of the Witches in white
+upon a Bridge, that scar'd me backe againe, and then met me the Boy
+againe, and he strucke me and layd mee for dead.
+
+_Mil._ Till I wondring at his stay, went out and found him in the
+Trance; since which time, he has beene haunted and frighted with
+Goblins, 40 times; and never durst tell any thing (as I sayd) because
+the Hags had so threatned him till in his sicknes he revealed it to
+his mother.
+
+_Dough._ And she told no body but folkes on't. Well Gossip Gretty, as
+thou art a Miller, and a close thiefe, now let us keepe it as close as
+we may till we take 'hem, and see them handsomly hanged o'the way: Ha
+my little Cuffe-divell, thou art a made man. Come, away with me.
+
+_Exeunt._"
+
+Heywood and Broome's _Late Lancashire Witches_, Acts 2 and 3.]
+
+[Footnote D: _Sic in orig._]
+
+[Footnote 57: These names are thus given in Baines's Transcript:--
+
+"Dickensons
+Henrie Priestleyes wife and his ladd
+Alice Hargrave, widdowe
+Jane Davies (als. Jennet Device)
+William Davies
+The wife of Henrie Offep and her sonnes
+John and Myles
+The wife of Duckers
+James Hargrave of Maresden
+Loyards wife
+James wife
+Sanders wife, And as hee beleeveth
+Lawnes wife
+Sander Pynes wife of Baraford
+One Foolegate and his wife
+And Leonards of the West Close."
+
+And thus in Webster:--
+
+"Dickensons Wife, Henry Priestleys Wife, and his Lad, Alice Hargreene
+Widow, Jane Davies, William Davies, and the Wife of Henry Fackes, and
+her Sons John and Miles, the Wife of ---- Denneries, James Hargreene
+of Marsdead, Loynd's Wife, one James his Wife, Saunders his Wife, and
+Saunders himself _sicut credit_, one Laurence his Wife, one Saunder
+Pyn's Wife of Barraford, one Holgate and his Wife of Leonards of the
+West close."]
+
+"_Edmund Robinson_ of _Pendle_, father of ye sd _Edmunde Robinson_,
+the aforesaid informer, upon oath saith, that upon _All Saints' Day_,
+he sent his sone, the aforesed informer, to fetch home two kyne to
+seale, and saith yt hee thought his sone stayed longer than he should
+have done, went to seeke him, and in seekinge him, heard him cry very
+pittifully, and found him soe afraid and distracted, yt hee neither
+knew his father, nor did know where he was, and so continued very
+neare a quarter of an hower before he came to himselfe,[58] and he
+tould this informer, his father, all the particular passages yt are
+before declared in the said _Edmund Robinson_, his sone's
+information."
+
+[Footnote 58: The learned "practitioner in physick," Mr. William
+Drage, in his "Treatise of Diseases from Witchcraft," published Lond.
+1668, 4to. p. 22, recommends "birch" in such cases, "as a specifical
+medicine, antipathetical to demons." One can only lament that this
+valuable remedy was not vigorously applied in the present instance, as
+well as in most others in which these juvenile sufferers appear. I
+doubt whether, in the whole Materia Medica, a more powerful
+_Lamia-fuge_ could have been discovered, or one which would have been
+more universally successful, if applied perseveringly, whenever the
+suspicious symptoms recurred. The following is, however, Drage's great
+panacea in these cases, a mode of treatment which must have been
+vastly popular, judging from its extensive adoption in all parts of
+the country: "_Punish the witch, threaten to hang her if she helps not
+the sick, scratch her and fetch blood. When she is cast into prison
+the sick are some time delivered, some time he or she (they are most
+females, most old women, and most poor,) must transfer the disease to
+other persons, sometimes to a dog, or horse, or cow, &c. Threaten her
+and beat her to remove it._"--Drage, p. 23.]
+
+The name of Margaret Johnson does not appear in Edmund Robinson's
+examination. Whether accused or not, the opportunity was too alluring
+to be lost by a personage full of matter, being like old Mause
+Headrigg, "as a bottle that lacketh vent," and too desirous of
+notoriety, to let slip such an occasion. She made, on the 2nd of March
+following, before the same justices who had taken Robinson's
+examination, the following confession, which must have been considered
+a most instructive one by those who were in search of some short _vade
+mecum_ of the statistics of witchcraft in Pendle:--
+
+
+"THE CONFESSION OF MARGARET JOHNSON.
+
+"That betwixt seaven and eight yeares since, shee beeinge in her owne
+house in _Marsden_, in a greate passion of anger and discontent, and
+withall pressed with some want, there appeared unto her a spirit or
+devill in ye proportion or similitude of a man, apparrelled in a suite
+of blacke, tyed about with silk points, who offered yt if shee would
+give him her soule hee would supply all her wants, and bringe to her
+whatsoever shee did neede. And at her appointment would in revenge
+either kill or hurt whom or what shee desyred, weare it man or beast.
+And saith, yt after a solicitation or two shee contracted and
+covenanted with ye said devill for her soule. And yt ye said devill or
+spirit badde her call him by the name of _Mamilian_. And when shee
+would have him to doe any thinge for her, call in _Mamilian_, and hee
+would bee ready to doe her will. And saith, yt in all her talke or
+conference shee calleth her said devill, _Mamil_ my God. Shee further
+saith, yt ye said _Mamilian_, her devill, (by her consent) did abuse
+and defile her body by comittinge wicked uncleannesse together. And
+saith, yt shee was not at the greate meetings at _Hoarestones_, at the
+forest of _Pendle_, upon All-Saints Day, where ----. But saith yt shee
+was at a second meetinge ye Sunday next after All-Saints Day, at the
+place aforesaid; where there was at yt tyme between 30 and 40 witches,
+who did all ride to the said meetinge, and the end of theire said
+meeting was to consult for the killinge and hurtinge of men and
+beasts. And yt besides theire particular familiars or spirits, there
+was one greate or grand devill or spirit more eminent than the rest.
+And if any desyre to have a greate and more wonderfull devill, whereby
+they may have more power to hurt, they may have one such. And sayth,
+yt such witches as have sharp bones given them by the devill to pricke
+them, have no pappes or dugges whereon theire devill may sucke, but
+theire devill receiveth bloud from the place, pricked with the bone.
+And they are more grand witches than any yt have marks. Shee allsoe
+saith, yt if a witch have but one marke, shee hath but one spirit, if
+two then two spirits, if three yet but two spirits. And saith, yt
+theire spirits usually have knowledge of theire bodies. And being
+desyred to name such as shee knewe to be witches, shee named, &c.[59]
+And if they would torment a man, they bid theire spirit goe and tormt.
+him in any particular place. And yt Good-Friday is one constant day
+for a yearely generall meetinge of witches. And yt on Good-Friday
+last, they had a meetinge neare _Pendle_ water syde. Shee alsoe saith,
+that men witches usually have women spirits, and women witches men
+spirits. And theire devill or spirit gives them notice of theire
+meetinge, and tells them the place where it must bee. And saith, if
+they desyre to be in any place upon a sodaine, theire devill or spirit
+will upon a rodde, dogge, or any thinge els, presently convey them
+thither: yea, into any roome of a man's house. But shee saith it is
+not the substance of theire bodies, but theire spirit assumeth such
+form and shape as goe into such roomes. Shee alsoe saith, yt ye devill
+(after he begins to sucke) will make a pappe or dugge in a short tyme,
+and the matter which hee sucks is blood. And saith yt theire devills
+can cause foule weather and storms, and soe did at theire meetings.
+Shee 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 of an other. And yt since this trouble befell her, her
+spirit hath left her, and shee never sawe him since."
+
+[Footnote 59: The omission here is thus supplied in Baines's
+Transcript; but the actual names are scarcely to be recognised, from
+the clerical errors of the copy:--
+
+"One Pickerne and his wife both of Wyndwall,
+Rawson of Clore and his wife
+Duffice wife of Clore by the water side
+Cartmell the wife of Clore
+And Jane of the hedgend in Maresden."]
+
+On the evidence contained in these examinations several persons were
+committed for trial at Lancaster, and seventeen, on being tried at the
+ensuing assizes, were found guilty by the jury. The judge before whom
+the trial took place was, however, more sagacious and enlightened than
+his predecessors, Bromley and Altham. He respited the execution of the
+prisoners; and on the case being reported to the king in council, the
+Bishop of Chester, Dr. Bridgman, was required to investigate the
+circumstances. The inquiry was instituted at Chester, and four of the
+convicted witches, namely, Margaret Johnson, Frances Dickonson, Mary
+Spencer, and the wife of one of the Hargreaves's, were sent to London,
+and examined, first by the king's physicians and surgeons, and
+afterwards by Charles the first in person.
+
+"A stranger scene" to quote Dr. Whitaker's concluding paragraph "can
+scarcely be conceived; and it is not easy to imagine whether the
+untaught manners, rude dialect, and uncouth appearance of these poor
+foresters, would more astonish the king; or his dignity of person and
+manners, together with the splendid scene with which they were
+surrounded, would overwhelm them. The end, however, of the business
+was, that strong presumptions appeared of the boy having been suborned
+to accuse them falsely, and they were accordingly dismissed. The boy
+afterwards confessed that he was suborned."[60]
+
+[Footnote 60: Webster gives the sequel of this curious case of
+imposture:--"Four of them, to wit Margaret Johnson, Francis Dicconson,
+Mary Spenser, and Hargraves Wife, were sent for up to London, and were
+viewed and examined by his Majesties Physicians and Chirurgeons, and
+after by his Majesty and the Council, and no cause of guilt appearing
+but great presumptions of the boys being suborned to accuse them
+falsely. Therefore it was resolved to separate the boy from his
+Father, they having both followed the women up to London, they were
+both taken and put into several prisons asunder. Whereupon shortly
+after the Boy confessed that he was taught and suborned to devise, and
+feign those things against them, and had persevered in that wickedness
+by the counsel of his Father, and some others, whom envy, revenge and
+hope of gain had prompted on to that devillish design and villany; and
+he also confessed, that upon that day when he said that they met at
+the aforesaid house or barn, he was that very day a mile off, getting
+Plums in his Neighbours Orchard. And that this is a most certain
+truth, there are many persons yet living, of sufficient reputation and
+integrity, that can avouch and testifie the same; and besides, what I
+write is the most of it true, upon my own knowledge, and the whole I
+have had from his own mouth."--_Displaying of Witchcraft_, p. 277.]
+
+In Dr. Whitaker's astonishment that Margaret Johnson should make the
+confession she appears to have done, in a clear case of imposture, few
+of his readers will be disposed to participate, who are at all
+conversant with the trials of reputed witches in this country.
+Confessions were so common on those occasions, that there is, I
+believe, not a single instance of any great number of persons being
+convicted of witchcraft at one time, some of whom did not make a
+confession of guilt. Nor is there anything extraordinary in that
+circumstance, when it is remembered that many of them sincerely
+believed in the existence of the powers attributed to them; and
+others, aged and of weak understanding, were, in a measure, coerced by
+the strong persuasion of their guilt, which all around them
+manifested, into an acquiescence in the truth of the accusation. In
+many cases the confessions were made in the hope, and no doubt with
+the promise, seldom performed, that a respite from punishment would be
+eventually granted. In other instances, there is as little doubt, that
+they were the final results of irritation, agony, and despair.[61] The
+confessions are generally composed of "such stuff as dreams are made
+of," and what they report to have occurred, might either proceed, when
+there was no intention to fabricate, from intertwining the fantastic
+threads which sometimes stream upon the waking senses from the land of
+shadows, or be caused by those ocular hallucinations of which medical
+science has supplied full and satisfactory solution. There is no
+argument which so long maintained its ground in support of witchcraft
+as that which was founded on the confessions referred to. It was the
+last plank clung to by many a witch-believing lawyer and divine. And
+yet there is none which will less bear critical scrutiny and
+examination, or the fallacy of which can more easily be shown, if any
+particular reported confession is taken as a test and subjected to a
+searching analysis and inquiry.
+
+[Footnote 61: The confession in the "Amber Witch" is a true picture,
+drawn from the life. What is there, indeed, unlike truth in that
+wonderful fiction?]
+
+It is said that we owe to the grave and saturnine Monarch, who
+extended his pardon to the seventeen convicted in 1633, that happy
+generalisation of the term, which appropriates honourably to the sex
+in Lancashire the designation denoting the fancied crime of a few
+miserable victims of superstition. That gentle sex will never
+repudiate a title bestowed by one, little given to the playful sports
+of fancy, whose sorrows and unhappy fate have never wanted their
+commiseration, and who distinguished himself on this memorable
+occasion, at a period when
+
+        "'twas the time's plague
+    That madmen led the blind,"
+
+--in days when philosophy stumbled and murder arrayed itself in the
+robes of justice--by an enlightened exercise of the kingly prerogative
+of mercy. Proceeding from such a fountain of honour, and purified by
+such an appropriation, the title of witch has long lost its original
+opprobrium in the County Palatine, and survives only to call forth the
+gayest and most delightful associations. In process of time even the
+term _witchfinder_ may lose the stains which have adhered to it from
+the atrocities of Hopkins, and may be adopted by general usage, as a
+sort of companion phrase, to signify the fortunate individual, who, by
+an union with a Lancashire witch, has just asserted his indefeasible
+title to be considered as the happiest of men.
+
+J.C.
+
+
+
+
+THE
+WONDERFVLL
+DISCOVERIE OF
+WITCHES, &c.
+
+
+
+
+THE
+WONDERFVLL
+DISCOVERIE OF
+WITCHES IN THE COVNTIE
+OF LANCASTER.
+
+With the Arraignement and Triall of
+Nineteene notorious WITCHES, at the Assizes and
+generall Gaole deliuerie, holden at the Castle of
+LANCASTER, _vpon Munday, the seuenteenth_
+_of August last_,
+1612.
+
+Before Sir IAMES ALTHAM, and
+Sir EDWARD BROMLEY, Knights; BARONS of his
+Maiesties Court of EXCHEQVER: And Iustices
+_of Assize_, Oyer _and_ Terminor, _and generall_
+Gaole deliuerie in the circuit of the
+_North Parts._
+
+Together with the Arraignement and Triall of IENNET
+PRESTON, _at the Assizes holden at the Castle of Yorke_,
+_the seuen and twentieth day of Iulie last past_,
+with her Execution for the murther
+of Master LISTER
+_by Witchcraft._
+
+Published and set forth by commandement of his Maiesties
+Iustices of Assize in the North Parts.
+
+_By_ THOMAS POTTS _Esquier._
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+LONDON,
+Printed by _W. Stansby_ for _John Barnes_, dwelling neare
+Holborne Conduit. 1613.
+
+
+[Illustration: decoration]
+
+TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE,
+_THOMAS_, LORD
+KNYVET, BARON OF ESCRICK[A1]
+in the Countie of Yorke, my very honorable
+_good Lord and Master._
+
+AND
+TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE
+_AND VERTVOVS LADIE, THE_
+_Ladie_ ELIZABETH KNYVET _his Wife, my_
+honorable good Ladie and
+MISTRIS.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+RIGHT HONORABLE,
+
+_Let it stand (I beseech you) with your fauours whom profession of
+the same true Religion towards God, and so great loue hath vnited
+together in one, Jointly to accept the Protection and Patronage of
+these my labours, which not their owne worth hath encouraged, but your
+Worthinesse hath enforced me to consecrate vnto your Honours._
+
+_To you (Right Honourable my very good Lord) of Right doe they belong:
+for to whom shall I rather present their first fruits of my learning
+then to your Lordship: who nourished then both mee and them, when
+there was scarce any being to mee or them? And whose iust and vpright
+carriage of causes, whose zeale to Justice and Honourable curtesie to
+all men, have purchased you a Reuerend and worthie Respect of all men
+in all partes of this Kingdome, where you are knowne. And to your good
+Ladiship they doe of great right belong likewise; Whose Religion,
+Iustice, and Honourable admittance of my Vnworthie Seruice to your
+Ladiship do challenge at my handes the vttermost of what euer I may
+bee able to performe._
+
+_Here is nothing of my own act worthie to bee commended to your
+Honours, it is the worke, of those Reuerend Magistrates, His Maiesties
+Iustices of Assizes in the North partes, and no more then a Particular
+Declaration of the proceedings of Iustice in those partes. Here shall
+you behold the Iustice of this Land, truely administred_, PROEMIUM &
+POENAM, _Mercie and Iudgement, freely and indifferently bestowed and
+inflicted; And aboue all thinges to bee remembred, the excellent care
+of these Iudges in the Triall of offendors._
+
+_It hath pleased them out of their respect to mee to impose this worke
+vpon mee, and according to my vnderstanding, I haue taken paines to
+finish, and now confirmed by their Iudgement to publish the same, for
+the benefit of my Countrie. That the example of these conuicted vpon
+their owne Examinations, Confessions, and Euidence at the Barre, may
+worke good in others, Rather by with-holding them from, then
+imboldening them to, the Atchieuing such desperate actes as these or
+the like._
+
+_These are some part of the fruits of my time spent in the Seruice of
+my Countrie, Since by your Graue and Reuerend Counsell (my Good Lord)
+I reduced my wauering and wandring thoughts to a more quiet harbour of
+repose._
+
+_If it please your Honours to giue them your Honourable respect, the
+world may iudge them the more worthie of acceptance, to whose various
+censures they are now exposed._
+
+_God of Heauen whose eies are on them that feare him, to bee their
+Protector and guide, behold your Honours with the eye of fauor, be
+euermore your strong hold, and your great reward, and blesse you with
+blessings in this life, Externall and Internall, Temporall and
+Spirituall, and with Eternall happines in the World to come: to which
+I commend your Honours; And rest both now and euer, From my Lodging
+in Chancerie Lane, the sixteenth of Nouember 1612._
+
+Your Honours
+
+humbly deuoted
+
+Seruant,
+
+_Thomas Potts._
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Vpon the Arraignement and triall of these Witches at the last
+Assizes and Generall Gaole-deliuerie, holden at Lancaster, wee found
+such apparent matters against them, that we thought it necessarie to
+publish them to the World, and thereupon imposed the labour of this
+Worke vpon this Gentleman, by reason of his place, being a Clerke at
+that time in Court, imploied in the Arraignement and triall of them.
+
+_Ja. Altham._
+
+_Edw. Bromley._[A2]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_After he had taken great paines to finish it, I tooke vpon mee to
+reuise and correct it, that nothing might passe but matter of Fact,
+apparant against them by record. It is very little he hath inserted,
+and that necessarie, to shew what their offences were, what people,
+and of what condition they were: The whole proceedings and Euidence
+against them, I finde vpon examination carefully set forth, and truely
+reported, and iudge the worke fit and worthie to be published._
+
+Edward Bromley.[A3]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     Gentle Reader, although the care of this Gentleman the
+     Author, was great to examine and publish this his worke
+     perfect according to the Honorable testimonie of the Iudges,
+     yet some faults are committed by me in the Printing, and yet
+     not many, being a worke done in such great haste, at the end
+     of a Tearme, which I pray you, with your fauour to excuse.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+[Illustration: decoration]
+
+A particular Declaration of
+the most barberous and damnable Practises, Murthers,
+wicked and diuelish Conspiracies, practized
+_and executed by the most dangerous and malitious_
+Witch _Elizabeth Sowthernes_ alias _Demdike_,
+of the Forrest of _Pendle_ in the Countie of
+_Lancaster_ Widdow, who died in the
+Castle at _Lancaster_ before she
+came to receiue her tryall.
+
+Though publique iustice hath passed at these Assises vpon the
+Capitall offendours, and after the Arraignement & tryall of them,
+Iudgement being giuen, due and timely Execution succeeded; which doth
+import and giue the greatest satisfaction that can be, to all men; yet
+because vpon the caryage, and euent of this businesse, the Eyes of all
+the partes of _Lancashire_, and other Counties in the North partes
+thereunto adioyning were bent: And so infinite a multitude came to the
+Arraignement & tryall of these Witches at _Lancaster_, the number of
+them being knowen to exceed all others at any time heretofore, at one
+time to be indicted, arraigned, and receiue their tryall,[B_a_]
+especially for so many Murders, Conspiracies, Charmes, Meetinges,
+hellish and damnable practises, so apparant vpon their owne
+examinations & confessions. These my honourable & worthy Lords, the
+Iudges of Assise, vpon great consideration, thought it necessarie &
+profitable, to publish to the whole world, their most barbarous and
+damnable practises, with the direct proceedinges of the Court against
+them, aswell for that there doe passe diuers vncertaine reportes and
+relations of such Euidences, as was publiquely giuen against them at
+their Arraignement. As for that diuers came to prosecute against many
+of them that were not found guiltie, and so rest very discontented,
+and not satisfied. As also for that it is necessary for men to know
+and vnderstande the meanes whereby they worke their mischiefe, the
+hidden misteries of their diuelish and wicked Inchauntmentes, Charmes,
+and Sorceries, the better to preuent and auoyde the danger that may
+ensue. And lastly, who were the principall authors and actors in this
+late woefull and lamentable _Tragedie_, wherein so much Blood was
+spilt.
+
+Therefore I pray you giue me leaue, (with your patience and fauour,)
+before I proceed to the Indictment, Arraignement, and Tryall of such
+as were prisoners in the Castle, to lay open the life and death of
+this damnable and malicious Witch, of so long continuance (old
+_Demdike_) of whom our whole businesse hath such dependence, that
+without the particular Declaration and Record of her Euidence, with
+the circumstaunces, wee shall neuer bring any thing to good
+perfection: for from this Sincke of villanie and mischiefe, haue all
+the rest proceeded; as you shall haue them in order.
+
+She was a very old woman, about the age of Fourescore[B_b_] yeares,
+and had been a Witch for fiftie yeares. Shee dwelt in the Forrest of
+_Pendle_, a vaste place, fitte for her profession: What shee committed
+in her time, no man knowes.
+
+Thus liued shee securely for many yeares, brought vp her owne
+Children, instructed her Graund-children, and tooke great care and
+paines to bring them to be Witches. Shee was a generall agent for the
+Deuill in all these partes: no man escaped her, or her Furies, that
+euer gaue them any occasion of offence, or denyed them any thing they
+stood need of: And certaine it is, no man neere them, was secure or
+free from danger.
+
+But God, who had in his diuine prouidence prouided to cut them off,
+and roote them out of the Commonwealth, so disposed aboue, that the
+Iustices of those partes, vnderstanding by a generall charme and
+muttering, the great and vniuersall resort to _Maulking Tower_, the
+common opinion, with the report of these suspected people, the
+complaint of the Kinges subiectes for the losse of their Children,
+Friendes, Goodes, and Cattle, (as there could not be so great Fire
+without some Smoake,) sent for some of the Countrey, and tooke great
+paynes to enquire after their proceedinges, and courses of life.
+
+In the end, _Roger Nowell_ Esquire,[B2_a_] one of his Maiesties
+Iustices in these partes, a very religious honest Gentleman, painefull
+in the seruice of his Countrey: whose fame for this great seruice to
+his Countrey, shall liue after him, tooke vpon him to enter into the
+particular examination of these suspected persons: And to the honour
+of God, and the great comfort of all his Countrey, made such a
+discouery of them in order, as the like hath not been heard of: which
+for your better satisfaction, I haue heere placed in order against
+her, as they are vpon Record, amongst the Recordes of the _Crowne_ at
+_Lancaster_, certified by M. _Nowell_, and others.
+
+
+[Illustration: decoration]
+
+The voluntarie Confession
+and Examination of _Elizabeth Sowtherns_ alias
+_Demdike_, taken at the Fence in the Forrest
+of _Pendle_ in the Countie
+of _Lancaster._
+
+The second day of Aprill, _Annoq; Regni Regis Iacobi Anggliae,
+&c. Decimo, et Scotiae, Quadragesimo quinto;_
+Before _Roger Nowell_ of _Reade_ Esquire, one of his
+Maiesties Iustices of the peace within
+the sayd Countie, _Viz._
+
+The said _Elizabeth Sowtherns_ confesseth, and sayth; That about
+twentie yeares past, as she was comming homeward from begging, there
+met her this Examinate neere vnto a Stonepit in _Gouldshey_,[B2_b_1]
+in the sayd Forrest of _Pendle_, a Spirit or Deuill in the shape of a
+Boy, the one halfe of his Coate blacke, and the other browne, who bade
+this Examinate stay, saying to her, that if she would giue him her
+Soule, she should haue any thing that she would request. Wherevpon
+this Examinat demaunded his name? and the Spirit answered, his name
+was _Tibb_:[B2_b_2] and so this Examinate in hope of such gaine as was
+promised by the sayd Deuill or _Tibb_, was contented to giue her Soule
+to the said Spirit: And for the space of fiue or sixe yeares next
+after, the sayd Spirit or Deuill appeared at sundry times vnto her
+this Examinate about _Day-light_ Gate,[B2_b_3] alwayes bidding her
+stay, and asking her this Examinate what she would haue or doe? To
+whom this Examinate replyed, Nay nothing: for she this Examinate said,
+she wanted nothing yet. And so about the end of the said sixe yeares,
+vpon a Sabboth 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.[B3_a_1] And this Examinate awaking, sayd, _Iesus saue my
+Child_; but had no power, nor could not say, _Iesus saue her selfe_:
+wherevpon the Browne Dogge vanished out of this Examinats sight: after
+which, this Examinate was almost starke madd for the space of eight
+weekes.
+
+And vpon her examination, she further confesseth, and saith. That a
+little before Christmas last, this Examinates Daughter hauing been to
+helpe _Richard Baldwyns_ Folkes at the Mill: This Examinates Daughter
+did bid her this Examinate goe to the sayd _Baldwyns_ house, and aske
+him some thing for her helping of his Folkes at the Mill, (as
+aforesaid:) and in this Examinates going to the said _Baldwyns_ house,
+and neere to the sayd house, she mette with the said _Richard
+Baldwyn_; Which _Baldwyn_ sayd to this Examinate, and the said _Alizon
+Deuice_[B3_a_3] (who at that time ledde this Examinate, being blinde)
+get out of my ground Whores and Witches, I will burne the one of you,
+and hang the other.[B3_a_2] To whom this Examinate answered: I care
+not for thee, hang thy selfe: Presently wherevpon, at this Examinates
+going ouer the next hedge, the said Spirit or Diuell called _Tibb_,
+appeared vnto this Examinat, and sayd, _Reuenge thee of him_. To whom,
+this Examinate sayd againe to the said Spirit. _Revenge thee eyther of
+him, or his._ And so the said Spirit vanished out of her sight, and
+she neuer saw him since.
+
+And further this Examinate confesseth, and sayth, that the speediest
+way to take a mans life away by Witchcraft, is to make a Picture of
+Clay,[B3_b_] like vnto the shape of the person whom they meane to
+kill, & dry it thorowly: and when they would haue them to be ill in
+any one place more then an other; then take a Thorne or Pinne, and
+pricke it in that part of the Picture you would so haue to be ill: and
+when you would haue any part of the Body to consume away, then take
+that part of the Picture, and burne it. And when they would haue the
+whole body to consume away, then take the remnant of the sayd Picture,
+and burne it: and so therevpon by that meanes, the body shall die.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The Confession and Examination
+of Anne Whittle _alias_ Chattox, being
+Prisoner at _Lancaster_; taken the 19 day of May,
+_Annoq; Regni Regis Iacobi Angliae, Decimo:
+ac Scotie Quadragesimo quinto_; Before
+_William Sandes_ Maior of the Borrough
+towne of _Lancaster._
+
+_Iames Anderton_ of _Clayton_, one of his Maiesties Iustices
+of Peace within the same County, and _Thomas
+Cowell_ one of his Maiesties Coroners in
+the sayd Countie of Lancaster,
+_Viz._
+
+First, the sayd _Anne Whittle_, alias _Chattox_, sayth, that about
+foureteene yeares past she entered, through the wicked perswasions and
+counsell of _Elizabeth Southerns_, alias _Demdike_, and was seduced to
+condescend & agree to become subiect vnto that diuelish abhominable
+profession of Witchcraft: Soone after which, the Deuill appeared vnto
+her in the liknes of a Man, about midnight, at the house of the sayd
+_Demdike_: and therevpon the sayd _Demdike_ and shee, went foorth of
+the said house vnto him; wherevpon the said wicked Spirit mooued this
+Examinate, that she would become his Subiect, and giue her Soule vnto
+him: the which at first, she refused to assent vnto; but after, by the
+great perswasions made by the sayd _Demdike_, shee yeelded to be at
+his commaundement and appoyntment: wherevpon the sayd wicked Spirit
+then sayd vnto her, that hee must haue one part of her body for him to
+sucke vpon; the which shee denyed then to graunt vnto him; and withall
+asked him, what part of her body hee would haue for that vse; who
+said, hee would haue a place of her right side neere to her ribbes,
+for him to sucke vpon: whereunto shee assented.
+
+And she further sayth, that at the same time, there was a thing in the
+likenes of a spotted Bitch, that came with the sayd Spirit vnto the
+sayd _Demdike_, which then did speake vnto her in this Examinates
+hearing, and sayd, that she should haue Gould, Siluer, and worldly
+Wealth, at her will.[B4_b_1] And at the same time she saith, there was
+victuals, _viz._ Flesh, Butter, Cheese, Bread, and Drinke, and bidde
+them eate enough. And after their eating, the Deuill called _Fancie_,
+and the other Spirit calling himselfe _Tibbe_, carried the remnant
+away: And she sayeth, that although they did eate, they were neuer the
+fuller, nor better for the same; and that at their said Banquet, the
+said Spirits gaue them light to see what they did, although they
+neyther had fire nor Candle light; and that they were both shee
+Spirites, and Diuels.
+
+And being further examined how many sundry Person haue been bewitched
+to death, and by whom they were so bewitched: She sayth, that one
+_Robert Nuter_, late of the _Greene-head_ in _Pendle_, was bewitched
+by this Examinate, the said _Demdike_, and Widdow _Lomshawe_, (late of
+_Burneley_) now deceased.
+
+And she further sayth, that the said _Demdike_ shewed her, that she
+had bewitched to death, _Richard Ashton_, Sonne of _Richard Ashton_ of
+_Downeham_ Esquire.[B4_b_2]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The Examination of Alizon
+Deuice, of the Forrest of Pendle, in the County
+of _Lancaster_ Spinster, taken at _Reade_ in the said
+Countie of _Lancaster_, the xiij. day of
+March, _Anno Regni Jacobi Angliae, &c._
+_Nono: et Scotiae xlv._
+
+Before _Roger Nowell_ of _Reade_ aforesayd Esquire, one of
+his Maiesties Iustices of the Peace within the sayd
+Countie, against _Elizabeth Sowtherns_, alias
+_Demdike_ her Graund-mother.
+_Viz._
+
+The sayd _Alizon Deuice_ sayth, that about two yeares agon, her
+Graund-mother (called _Elizabeth Sowtherns_, alias old _Demdike_) did
+sundry times in going or walking togeather as they went begging,
+perswade and aduise this Examinate to let a Deuill or Familiar appeare
+vnto her; and that shee this Examinate, would let him sucke at some
+part of her, and shee might haue, and doe what shee would.
+
+And she further sayth, that one _Iohn Nutter_ of the _Bulhole_ in
+_Pendle_ aforesaid, had a Cow which was sicke, & requested this
+examinats Grand-mother to amend the said Cow; and her said
+Graund-mother said she would, and so her said Graund-mother about ten
+of the clocke in the night, desired this examinate to lead her foorth;
+which this Examinate did, being then blind: and her Graund-mother did
+remaine about halfe an houre foorth: and this Examinates sister did
+fetch her in againe; but what she did when she was so foorth, this
+Examinate cannot tell. But the next morning this Examinate heard that
+the sayd Cow was dead. And this Examinate verily thinketh, that her
+sayd Graund-mother did bewitch the sayd Cow to death.
+
+And further, this Examinate sayth, that about two yeares agon, this
+Examinate hauing gotten a Piggin full[C_b_] of blew Milke by begging,
+brought it into the house of her Graund-mother, where (this Examinate
+going foorth presently, and staying about halfe an houre) there was
+Butter to the quantity of a quarterne of a pound in the said milke,
+and the quantitie of the said milke still remayning; and her
+Graund-mother had no Butter in the house when this Examinate went
+foorth: duering which time, this Examinates Graund-mother still lay in
+her bed.
+
+And further this Examinate sayth, that _Richard Baldwin_ of _Weethead_
+within the Forrest of _Pendle_, about 2. yeeres agoe, fell out with
+this Examinates Graund-mother, & so would not let her come vpon his
+Land: and about foure or fiue dayes then next after, her said
+Graund-mother did request this Examinate to lead her foorth about ten
+of the clocke in the night: which this Examinate accordingly did, and
+she stayed foorth then about an houre, and this Examinates sister
+fetched her in againe. And this Examinate heard the next morning, that
+a woman Child of the sayd _Richard Baldwins_ was fallen sicke; and as
+this Examinate did then heare, the sayd Child did languish afterwards
+by the space of a yeare, or thereaboutes, and dyed: And this Examinate
+verily thinketh, that her said Graund-mother did bewitch the sayd
+Child to death.
+
+And further, this Examinate sayth, that she heard her sayd
+Graund-mother say presently after her falling out with the sayd
+_Baldwin_, shee would pray for the sayd _Baldwin_ both still and
+loude: and this Examinate heard her cursse the sayd _Baldwin_ sundry
+times.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The Examination of _Iames Deuice_ of the Forrest of
+_Pendle_, in the Countie of _Lancaster_ Labourer, taken the
+27. day of April, _Annoq; Regni Regis Iacobi, Angliae, &c._
+_Decimo: ac Scotie Quadragesimo quinto_: Before
+_Roger Nowell and Nicholas Banister, Esq._[C2_a_]
+two of his Maiesties Iustices of Peace within
+the sayd Countie.
+
+The sayd Examinate _Iames Deuice_ sayth, that about a month agoe,
+as this Examinate was comming towards his Mothers house, and at
+day-gate of the same night, [Sidenote: _Euening_] this Examinate mette
+a browne Dogge comming from his Graund-mothers house, about tenne
+Roodes distant from the same house: and about two or three nights
+after, that this Examinate heard a voyce of a great number of Children
+screiking and crying pittifully, about day-light gate; and likewise,
+about ten Roodes distant of this Examinates sayd Graund-mothers house.
+And about fiue nights then next following, presently after daylight,
+within 20. Roodes of the sayd _Elizabeth Sowtherns_ house, he heard a
+foule yelling like vnto a great number of Cattes: but what they were,
+this Examinate cannot tell. And he further sayth, that about three
+nights after that, about midnight of the same, there came a thing, and
+lay vpon him very heauily about an houre, and went then from him out
+of his Chamber window, coloured blacke, and about the bignesse of a
+Hare or Catte. And he further sayth, that about _S. Peter's_ day last,
+one _Henry Bullocke_ came to the sayd _Elizabeth Sowtherns_ house, and
+sayd, that her Graund-child _Alizon Deuice_, had bewitched a Child of
+his, and desired her that she would goe with him to his house; which
+accordingly she did: And therevpon she the said _Alizon_ fell downe on
+her knees, & asked the said _Bullocke_ forgiuenes, and confessed to
+him, that she had bewitched the said child, as this Examinate heard
+his said sister confesse vnto him this Examinate.
+
+
+[Illustration: decoration]
+
+The Examination of Elizabeth
+Deuice, Daughter of old Demdike, taken
+at _Read_ before _Roger Nowell_ Esquire, one of
+his Maiesties Iustices of Peace within the
+Countie of _Lancaster_ the xxx. day
+of March, _Annoq; Regni Jacobi_
+_Decimo, ac Scotie xlv._
+
+The sayd _Elizabeth Deuice_ the Examinate, sayth, that the sayd
+_Elizabeth Sowtherns_, alias _Demdike_, hath had a place on her left
+side by the space of fourty yeares, in such sort, as was to be seene
+at this Examinates Examination taking, at this present time.
+
+Heere this worthy Iustice M. _Nowell_, out of these particular
+Examinations, or rather Accusations, finding matter to proceed; and
+hauing now before him old _Demdike_, old _Chattox_, _Alizon Deuice_,
+and _Redferne_ both old and young, _Reos confitentes, et Accusantes
+Inuicem_. About the second of Aprill last past, committed and sent
+them away to the Castle at _Lancaster_, there to remaine vntill the
+comming of the Kinges Maiesties Iustices of Assise, then to receiue
+their tryall.
+
+But heere they had not stayed a weeke, when their Children and
+Friendes being abroad at libertie, laboured a speciall meeting at
+_Malking Tower_ in the Forrest of _Pendle_,[C3_a_] vpon Good-fryday,
+within a weeke after they were committed, of all the most dangerous,
+wicked, and damnable Witches in the County farre and neere. Vpon
+Good-fryday they met, according to solemne appoyntment, solemnized
+this great Feastiuall day according to their former order, with great
+cheare, merry company, and much conference.
+
+In the end, in this great Assemblie, it was decreed M. _Couell_ by
+reason of his Office, shall be slaine before the next Assises: The
+Castle of _Lancaster_ to be blowen vp, and ayde and assistance to be
+sent to kill M. _Lister_, with his old Enemie and wicked Neighbour
+_Iennet Preston_; with some other such like practices: as vpon their
+Arraignement and Tryall, are particularly set foorth, and giuen in
+euidence against them.
+
+This was not so secret, but some notice of it came to M. _Nowell_, and
+by his great paines taken in the Examination of _Iennet Deuice_, al
+their practises are now made knowen. Their purpose to kill M.
+_Couell_, and blow vp the Castle, is preuented. All their Murders,
+Witchcraftes, Inchauntments, Charmes, & Sorceries, are discouered; and
+euen in the middest of their consultations, they are all confounded,
+and arrested by Gods Iustice: brought before M. _Nowell_, and M.
+_Bannester_, vpon their voluntary confessions, Examinations, and other
+Euidence accused, and so by them committed to the Castle: So as now
+both old and young, haue taken vp their lodgings with M. _Couell_,
+vntill the next Assises, expecting their Tryall and deliuerance,
+according to the Lawes prouided for such like.
+
+In the meane time, M. _Nowell_ hauing knowledge by this discouery of
+their meeting at _Malkeing Tower_, and their resolution to execute
+mischiefe, takes great paines to apprehend such as were at libertie,
+and prepared Euidence against all such as were in question for
+Witches.
+
+Afterwardes sendes some of these Examinations, to the Assises at
+Yorke, to be giuen in Evidence against _Iennet Preston_, who for the
+murder of M. _Lister_, is condemned and executed.
+
+The Circuite of the North partes being now almost ended.
+
+
+The 16. of August.
+
+Vpon Sunday in the after noone, my honorable Lords the Iudges of
+Assise, came from _Kendall_ to _Lancaster_.
+
+Wherevpon M. _Couell_, presented vnto their Lordships a Calender,
+conteyning the Names of the Prisoners committed to his charge, which
+were to receiue their Tryall at the Assises: Out of which, we are
+onely to deale with the proceedings against Witches, which were as
+followeth.
+
+_Viz._
+
+The Names of the
+Witches committed to the
+Castle of _Lancaster_.
+
+
+_Elizabeth Sowtherns._ } Who dyed before
+     alias             }     shee
+_Old Demdike._         } came to her tryall.
+
+_Anne Whittle_, alias _Chattox._
+_Elizabeth Deuice_, Daughter of old _Demdike._
+_Iames Deuice_, Sonne of _Elizabeth Deuice._
+_Anne Readfearne_, Daughter of _Anne Chattox._
+_Alice Nutter._
+_Katherine Hewytte._
+_Iohn Bulcocke._
+_Iane Bulcocke._
+_Alizon Deuice_, Daughter of _Elizabeth Deuice._
+_Isabell Robey._
+_Magaret Pearson._
+
+
+The Witches of Salmesbury.
+
+_Iennet Bierley._  }  { _Elizabeth Astley._
+_Elen Bierley._    }  { _Alice Gray._
+_Iane Southworth._ }  { _Isabell Sidegraues._
+_Iohn Ramesden._   }  { _Lawrence Haye._
+
+The next day, being Monday, the 17. of August, were the Assises holden
+in the Castle of _Lancaster_, as followeth.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Placita Coronae.
+
+[Sidenote: _Lanc. fss._]
+
+_Deliberatio Gaolae Domini Regis Castri fui Lancasstr. ac
+Prisonarior[=u] in eadem existent. Tenta apud Lancastr. in com.
+Lancastr. Die Lunae, Decimo septimo die Augusti, Anno Regni Domini
+nostri Iacobi dei gratia Anglicae, Franciae, et Hiberniae, Regis fidei
+defensoris; Decimo: et Scotiae Quadragesimo sexto; Coram Iacobo Altham
+Milit. vno Baronum Scaccarij Domini Regis, et Edwardo Bromley Milit.
+altero Baronum eiusdem Scaccarij Domini Regis: ac Iustic. dicti Domini
+Regis apud Lancastr._
+
+Vpon the Tewesday in the after noone, the Iudges according to the
+course and order, deuided them selues, where vpon my Lord _Bromley_,
+one of his Maiesties Iudges of Assise comming into the Hall to
+proceede with the Pleaes of the Crowne, & the Arraignement and Tryall
+of Prisoners, commaunded a generall Proclamation, that all Iustices of
+Peace that had taken any Recognisaunces, or Examinations of Prisoners,
+should make Returne of them: And all such as were bound to prosecute
+Indictmentes, and giue Euidence against Witches, should proceede, and
+giue attendance: For hee now intended to proceede to the Arraignement
+and Tryall of Witches.
+
+After which, the Court being set, M. Sherieffe was commaunded to
+present his Prisoners before his Lordship, and prepare a sufficient
+Iurie of Gentlemen for life and death. But heere we want old
+_Demdike_, who dyed in the Castle before she came to her
+tryall.[C4_b_]
+
+Heere you may not expect the exact order of the Assises, with the
+Proclamations, and other solemnities belonging to so great a Court of
+Iustice; but the proceedinges against the Witches, who are now vpon
+their deliuerance here in order as they came to the Barre, with the
+particular poyntes of Euidence against them: which is the labour and
+worke we now intend (by Gods grace) to performe as we may, to your
+generall contentment.
+
+Wherevpon, the first of all these, _Anne Whittle_, alias
+_Chattox_,[D_b_] was brought to the Barre: against whom wee are now
+ready to proceed.
+
+
+[Illustration: decoration]
+
+The Arraignement and
+Tryall of Anne Whittle, _alias_ Chattox,
+of the Forrest of _Pendle_, in the Countie
+of _Lancaster_, Widdow;
+about the age of Fourescore
+yeares, or thereaboutes.
+
+_Anne Whittle_, alias _Chattox._
+
+If in this damnable course of life, and offences, more horrible and
+odious, then any man is able to expresse: any man lyuing could lament
+the estate of any such like vpon earth: The example of this poore
+creature, would haue moued pittie, in respect of her great contrition
+and repentance, after she was committed to the Castle at _Lancaster_,
+vntill the comming of his Maiesties Iudges of Assise. But such was the
+nature of her offences, & the multitude of her crying sinnes, as it
+tooke away all sense of humanity. And the repetition of her hellish
+practises, and Reuenge; being the chiefest thinges wherein she alwayes
+tooke great delight, togeather with a particular declaration of the
+Murders shee had committed, layde open to the world, and giuen in
+Euidence against her at the time of her Arraignement and Tryall; as
+certainely it did beget contempt in the Audience, and such as she
+neuer offended.
+
+This _Anne Whittle_, alias _Chattox_, was a very old withered spent
+and decreped creature, her sight almost gone: A dangerous Witch, of
+very long continuance; alwayes opposite to old _Demdike_: For whom the
+one fauoured, the other hated deadly: [Sidenote: _Her owne
+examination_] and how they enuie and accuse one an other, in their
+Examinations, may appeare.
+
+In her Witchcraft, alwayes more ready to doe mischiefe to mens goods,
+then themselues. Her lippes euer chattering and walking:[D2_a_1] but
+no man knew what. She liued in the Forrest of _Pendle_, amongst this
+wicked company of dangerous Witches. Yet in her Examination and
+Confession, she dealt alwayes very plainely and truely: for vpon a
+speciall occasion being oftentimes examined in open Court, shee was
+neuer found to vary, but alwayes to agree in one, and the selfe same
+thing.
+
+I place her in order, next to that wicked fire-brand of mischiefe, old
+_Demdike_, because from these two, sprung all the rest in
+order:[D2_a_2] and were the Children and Friendes, of these two
+notorious Witches.
+
+Many thinges in the discouery of them, shall be very worthy your
+obseruation. As the times and occasions to execute their mischiefe.
+And this in generall: the Spirit could neuer hurt, till they gaue
+consent.
+
+And, but that it is my charge, to set foorth a particular Declaration
+of the Euidence against them, vpon their Arraignement and Tryall; with
+their Diuelish practises, consultations, meetings, and murders
+committed by them, in such sort, as they were giuen in Euidence
+against them; for the which, I shall haue matter vpon Record. I could
+make a large Comentarie of them: But it is my humble duety, to obserue
+the Charge and Commaundement of these my Honorable good Lordes the
+Iudges of Assise, and not to exceed the limits of my Commission.
+Wherefore I shall now bring this auncient Witch, to the due course of
+her Tryall, in order. _viz._
+
+
+Indictment.
+
+This _Anne Whittle_, alias _Chattox_, of the Forrest of _Pendle_ in
+the Countie of _Lancaster_ Widdow, being Indicted, for that shee
+feloniously had practised, vsed, and exercised diuers wicked and
+diuelish Artes called Witchcraftes, Inchauntmentes, Charmes, and
+Sorceries, in and vpon one _Robert Nutter_ of _Greenehead_, in the
+Forrest of _Pendle_, in the Countie of _Lanc_: and by force of the
+same Witchcraft, feloniously the sayd _Robert Nutter_ had killed,
+_Contra Pacem, &c._ Being at the Barre, was arraigned.
+
+To this Indictment, vpon her Arraignement, shee pleaded, Not guiltie:
+and for the tryall of her life, put her selfe vpon God and her
+Country.
+
+Wherevpon my Lord _Bromley_ commaunded M. Sheriffe of the County of
+_Lancaster_ in open Court, to returne a Iurie of worthy sufficient
+Gentlemen of vnderstanding, to passe betweene our soueraigne Lord the
+Kinges Maiestie, and her, and others the Prisoners, vpon their liues
+and deathes; as hereafter follow in order: who were afterwardes
+sworne, according to the forme and order of the Court, the Prisoners
+being admitted to their lawfull challenges.
+
+Which being done, and the Prisoner at the Barre readie to receiue her
+Tryall: M. _Nowell_, being the best instructed of any man, of all the
+particular poyntes of Euidence against her, and her fellowes, hauing
+taken great paynes in the proceedinges against her and her fellowes;
+Humbly prayed, her owne voluntary Confession and Examination taken
+before him, when she was apprehended and committed to the Castle of
+_Lancaster_ for Witchcraft; might openly be published against her:
+which hereafter followeth. _Viz._
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The voluntary Confession and Examination of
+_Anne Whittle_, alias _Chattox_, taken at the _Fence_ in the
+Forrest of _Pendle_, in the Countie of _Lancaster_;
+Before _Roger Nowell Esq_, one of the
+Kinges Maiesties Iustices of Peace
+in the Countie of Lancaster.
+Viz.
+
+The sayd _Anne Whittle_, alias _Chattox_, vpon her Examination,
+voluntarily confesseth, and sayth, That about foureteene or fifteene
+yeares agoe, a thing like a Christian man for foure yeares togeather,
+did sundry times come to this Examinate, and requested this Examinate
+to giue him her Soule: And in the end, this Examinate was contented to
+giue him her sayd Soule, shee being then in her owne house, in the
+Forrest of _Pendle_; wherevpon the Deuill then in the shape of a Man,
+sayd to this Examinate: Thou shalt want nothing; and be reuenged of
+whom thou list. And the Deuill then further commaunded this
+Examinate, to call him by the name of _Fancie_;[D3_a_] and when she
+wanted any thing, or would be reuenged of any, call on _Fancie_, and
+he would be ready. And the sayd Spirit or Deuill, did appeare vnto her
+not long after, in mans likenesse, and would haue had this Examinate
+to haue consented, that he might hurt the wife of _Richard Baldwin_ of
+_Pendle_;[D3_b_1] But this Examinate would not then consent vnto him:
+For which cause, the sayd Deuill would then haue bitten her by the
+arme; and so vanished away, for that time.
+
+And this Examinate further sayth, that _Robert Nutter_[D3_b_2] did
+desire her Daughter one _Redfearns_ wife, to haue his pleasure of her,
+being then in _Redfearns_ house: but the sayd _Redfearns_ wife denyed
+the sayd _Robert_; wherevpon the sayd _Robert_ seeming to be greatly
+displeased therewith, in a great anger tooke his Horse, and went away,
+saying in a great rage, that if euer the Ground came to him, shee
+should neuer dwell vpon his Land. Wherevpon this Examinate called
+_Fancie_ to her; who came to her in the likenesse of a Man in a
+parcell of Ground called, _The Laund_; asking this Examinate, what
+shee would haue him to doe? And this Examinate bade him goe reuenge
+her of the sayd _Robert Nutter_. After which time, the sayd _Robert
+Nutter_ liued about a quarter of a yeare, and then dyed.
+
+And this Examinate further sayth, that _Elizabeth Nutter_, wife to old
+_Robert Nutter_, did request this Examinate, and _Loomeshaws_ wife of
+_Burley_, and one _Iane Boothman_, of the same, who are now both dead,
+(which time of request, was before that _Robert Nutter_ desired the
+company of _Redfearns_ wife) to get young _Robert Nutter_ his death,
+if they could; all being togeather then at that time, to that end,
+that if _Robert_ were dead, then the Women their Coosens might haue
+the Land: By whose perswasion, they all consented vnto it. After which
+time, this Examinates Sonne in law _Thomas Redfearne_, did perswade
+this Examinate, not to kill or hurt the sayd _Robert Nutter_; for
+which perswasion, the sayd _Loomeshaws_ Wife, had like to haue killed
+the sayd _Redfearne_, but that one M. _Baldwyn_ (the late
+Schoole-maister at _Coulne_) did by his learning, stay the sayd
+_Loomeshaws_ wife, and therefore had a Capon from _Redfearne_.[D4_a_]
+
+And this Examinate further sayth, that she thinketh the sayd
+_Loomeshaws_ wife, and _Iane Boothman_, did what they could to kill
+the sayd _Robert Nutter_, as well as this Examinate did.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_The Examination of_ ELIZABETH
+SOTHERNES, alias OLD DEMBDIKE: _taken at
+the Fence in the Forrest of Pendle in the Countie of Lancaster,
+the day and yeare aforesaid._
+
+Before,
+
+ROGER NOWEL _Esquire, one of the Kings Maiesties
+Iustices of Peace in the said Countie, against_ ANNE
+WHITTLE, alias CHATTOX.
+
+The said _Elizabeth Southernes_ saith vpon her Examination, that
+about halfe a yeare before _Robert Nutter_ died, as this Examinate
+thinketh, this Examinate went to the house of _Thomas Redfearne_,
+which was about Mid-sommer, as this Examinate remembreth it. And there
+within three yards of the East end of the said house, shee saw the
+said _Anne Whittle_, alias _Chattox_, and _Anne Redferne_ wife of the
+said _Thomas Redferne_, and Daughter of the said _Anne Whittle_, alias
+_Chattox_: the one on the one side of the Ditch, and the other on the
+other: and two Pictures of Clay or Marle lying by them: and the third
+Picture the said _Anne Whittle_, alias _Chattox_, was making: and the
+said _Anne Redferne_ her said Daughter, wrought her Clay or Marle to
+make the third picture withall. And this Examinate passing by them,
+the said Spirit, called _Tibb_, in the shape of a black Cat, appeared
+vnto her this Examinate, and said, turne back againe, and doe as they
+doe: To whom this Examinate said, what are they doing? whereunto the
+said Spirit said; they are making three Pictures: whereupon she asked
+whose pictures they were? whereunto the said Spirit said; they are
+the pictures of _Christopher Nutter_, _Robert Nutter_, and _Marie_,
+wife of the said _Robert Nutter_: But this Examinate denying to goe
+back to helpe them to make the Pictures aforesaid; the said Spirit
+seeming to be angrie, therefore shoue or pushed this Examinate into
+the ditch, and so shed the Milke which this Examinate had in a Can or
+Kit: and so thereupon the Spirit at that time vanished out of this
+Examinates sight: But presently after that, the said Spirit appeared
+to this Examinate againe in the shape of a Hare, and so went with her
+about a quarter of a mile, but said nothing to this Examinate, nor
+shee to it.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_The Examination and euidence of_ IAMES
+ROBINSON,[E_b_1] _taken the day and yeare aforesaid._
+
+Before
+
+ROGER NOWEL _Esquire aforesaid, against_ ANNE
+WHITTLE, alias CHATTOX, _Prisoner at the Barre
+as followeth._ viz.
+
+The said Examinate saith, that about sixe yeares agoe, _Anne
+Whittle_, alias _Chattox_, was hired by this Examinates wife to card
+wooll;[E_b_2] and so vpon a Friday and Saturday, shee came and carded
+wooll with this Examinates wife, and so the Munday then next after
+shee came likewise to card: and this Examinates wife hauing newly
+tunned drinke into Stands, which stood by the said _Anne Whittle_,
+alias _Chattox_: and the said _Ann Whittle_ taking a Dish or Cup, and
+drawing drinke seuerall times: and so neuer after that time, for some
+eight or nine weekes, they could haue any drinke, but spoiled, and as
+this Examinate thinketh was by the meanes of the said _Chattox_. And
+further he saith, that the said _Anne Whittle_, alias _Chattox_, and
+_Anne Redferne_ her said Daughter, are commonly reputed and reported
+to bee Witches. And hee also saith, that about some eighteene yeares
+agoe, he dwelled with one _Robert Nutter_ the elder, of Pendle
+aforesaid. And that yong _Robert Nutter_, who dwelled with his
+Grand-father, in the Sommer time, he fell sicke, and in his said
+sicknesse hee did seuerall times complaine, that hee had harme by
+them: and this Examinate asking him what hee meant by that word
+_Them_, He said, that he verily thought that the said _Anne Whittle_,
+alias _Chattox_, and the said _Redfernes_ wife, had bewitched him: and
+the said _Robert Nutter_ shortly after, being to goe with his then
+Master, called Sir _Richard Shattleworth_,[E2_a_] into Wales, this
+Examinate heard him say before his then going, vnto the said _Thomas
+Redferne_, that if euer he came againe he would get his Father to put
+the said _Redferne_ out of his house, or he himselfe would pull it
+downe; to whom the said _Redferne_ replyed, saying; when you come back
+againe you will be in a better minde: but he neuer came back againe,
+but died before Candlemas in Cheshire, as he was comming homeward.
+
+Since the voluntarie confession and examination of a Witch, doth
+exceede all other euidence, I spare to trouble you with a multitude of
+Examinations, or Depositions of any other witnesses, by reason this
+bloudie fact, for the Murder of _Robert Nutter_, vpon so small an
+occasion, as to threaten to take away his owne land from such as were
+not worthie to inhabite or dwell vpon it, is now made by that which
+you haue alreadie heard, so apparant, as no indifferent man will
+question it, or rest vnsatisfied: I shall now proceede to set forth
+vnto you the rest of her actions, remaining vpon Record. And how
+dangerous it was for any man to liue neere these people, to giue them
+any occasion of offence, I leaue it to your good consideration.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_The Examination and voluntarie Confession
+of_ ANNE WHITTLE, alias CHATTOX, _taken
+at the Fence in the Forrest of Pendle, in the Countie
+of Lancaster, the second day of Aprill_, Anno Regni
+Regis IACOBI ANGLIAE, Franciae, & Hiberniae, decimo
+& Scotiae xlv.
+
+Before
+
+ROGER NOWEL, _Esquire, one of his Maiesties
+Iustices of Peace within the Countie of Lancaster._
+
+She the said Examinate saith, That shee was sent for by the wife of
+_Iohn Moore_, to helpe drinke that was forspoken or bewitched: at
+which time shee vsed this Prayer for the amending of it, _viz._
+
+    _A Charme._[E2_b_]
+
+    _Three Biters hast thou bitten,
+      The Hart, ill Eye, ill Tonge:
+    Three bitter shall be thy Boote,
+      Father, Sonne, and Holy Ghost
+        a Gods name,
+    Fiue Pater-nosters, fiue Auies,
+      and a Creede,
+    In worship of fiue wounds
+      of our Lord._
+
+After which time that this Examinate had vsed these prayers, and
+amended her drinke, the said _Moores_ wife did chide this Examinate,
+and was grieued at her.
+
+And thereupon this Examinate called for her Deuill _Fancie_, and bad
+him goe bite a browne Cow of the said _Moores_ by the head, and make
+the Cow goe madde: and the Deuill then, in the likenesse of a browne
+Dogge, went to the said Cow, and bit her: which Cow went madde
+accordingly, and died within six weekes next after, or thereabouts.
+
+Also this Examinate saith, That she perceiuing _Anthonie Nutter_ of
+Pendle to fauour _Elizabeth Sothernes_, alias _Dembdike_,[E3_a_1] she,
+this Examinate, called _Fancie_ to her, (who appeared like a man) and
+bad him goe kill a Cow of the said _Anthonies_; which the said Deuill
+did, and that Cow died also.
+
+And further this Examinate saith, That the Deuill, or _Fancie_, hath
+taken most of her sight away from her. And further this Examinate
+saith, That in Summer last, saue one, the said Deuill, or _Fancie_,
+came vpon this Examinate in the night time: and at diuerse and sundry
+times in the likenesse of a Beare, gaping as though he would haue
+wearied this Examinate.[E3_a_2] And the last time of all shee, this
+Examinate, saw him, was vpon Thursday last yeare but one, next before
+Midsummer day, in the euening, like a Beare, and this Examinate would
+not then speake vnto him, for the which the said Deuill pulled this
+Examinate downe.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_The Examination of_ IAMES DEVICE,[E3_b_]
+_sonne of_ ELIZABETH DEVICE, _taken the seuen and
+twentieth day of Aprill_, Annoq; Reg. Regis IACOBI
+Angliae, &c. Decimo ac Scotiae xlv.
+
+Before
+
+ROGER NOWEL and NICHOLAS BANISTER,
+_Esquires, two of his Maiesties Iustices of the Peace within
+the said Countie._ viz.
+
+And further saith, That twelue yeares agoe, the said _Anne Chattox_
+at a Buriall at the new Church in Pendle, did take three scalpes of
+people, which had been buried, and then cast out of a graue, as she
+the said _Chattox_ told this Examinate; and tooke eight teeth out of
+the said Scalpes, whereof she kept foure to her selfe, and gaue other
+foure to the said _Demdike_, this Examinates Grand-mother: which foure
+teeth now shewed to this Examinate, are the foure teeth that the said
+_Chattox_ gaue to his said Grand-mother, as aforesaid; which said
+teeth haue euer since beene kept, vntill now found by the said _Henry
+Hargreiues_ & this Examinate, at the West-end of this Examinates
+Grand-mothers house, and there buried in the earth, and a Picture of
+Clay there likewise found by them, about halfe a yard ouer in the
+earth, where the said teeth lay, which said picture so found was
+almost withered away, and was the Picture of _Anne_, _Anthony Nutters_
+daughter; as this Examinates Grand-mother told him.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_The Examination of_ ALLIZON DEVICE
+_daughter of_ ELIZABETH DEVICE: _Taken at
+Reade, in the Countie of Lancaster, the thirtieth day of
+March_, Annoq; Reg. Regis IACOBI nunc Angliae,
+&c. Decimo, & Scotiae Quadragesimo quinto.
+
+Before
+
+ROGER NOWEL _of Reade aforesaid, Esquire, one
+of his Maiesties Iustices of the Peace, within the said
+Countie._
+
+This Examinate saith, that about eleuen yeares agoe, this Examinate
+and her mother had their firehouse broken,[E4_a_] and all, or the most
+part of their linnen clothes, & halfe a peck of cut oat-meale, and a
+quantitie of meale gone, all which was worth twentie shillings, or
+aboue: and vpon a Sunday then next after, this Examinate did take a
+band and a coife, parcell of the goods aforesaid, vpon the daughter of
+_Anne Whittle, alias Chattox_, and claimed them to be parcell of the
+goods stolne, as aforesaid.
+
+And this Examinate further saith, That her father, called _Iohn
+Deuice_, being afraid, that the said _Anne Chattox_ should doe him or
+his goods any hurt by Witchcraft; did couenant with the said _Anne_,
+that if she would hurt neither of them, she should yearely haue one
+Aghen-dole of meale;[E4_b_1] which meale was yearely paid, vntill the
+yeare which her father died in, which was about eleuen yeares since:
+Her father vpon his then-death-bed, taking it that the said _Anne
+Whittle_, alias _Chattox_, did bewitch him to death, because the said
+meale was not paid the last yeare.
+
+And she also saith, That about two yeares agone, this Examinate being
+in the house of _Anthony Nutter_ of Pendle aforesaid, and being then
+in company with _Anne Nutter_, daughter of the said _Anthony_: the
+said _Anne Whittle_, alias _Chattox_, came into the said _Anthony
+Nutters_ house, and seeing this Examinate, and the said _Anne Nutter_
+laughing, and saying, that they laughed at her the said _Chattox_:
+well said then (sayes _Anne Chattox_) I will be meet with the one of
+you. And vpon the next day after, she the said _Anne Nutter_ fell
+sicke, and within three weekes after died. And further, this Examinate
+saith, That about two yeares agoe, she, this Examinate, hath heard,
+That the said _Anne Whittle_, alias _Chattox_, was suspected for
+bewitching the drinke of _Iohn Moore_ of Higham Gentleman:[E4_b_2] and
+not long after, shee this Examinate heard the said _Chattox_ say, that
+she would meet with the said _Iohn Moore_, or his.[E4_b_3] Whereupon a
+child of the said _Iohn Moores_, called _Iohn_, fell sick, and
+languished about halfe a yeare, and then died: during which
+languishing, this Examinate saw the said _Chattox_ sitting in her owne
+garden, and a picture of Clay like vnto a child in her Apron; which
+this Examinate espying, the said _Anne Chattox_ would haue hidde with
+her Apron: and this Examinate declaring the same to her mother, her
+mother thought it was the picture of the said _Iohn Moores_ childe.
+
+And she this Examinate further saith, That about sixe or seuen yeares
+agoe, the said _Chattox_ did fall out with one _Hugh Moore_ of Pendle,
+as aforesaid, about certaine cattell of the said _Moores_, which the
+said _Moore_ did charge the said _Chattox_ to haue bewitched: for
+which the said _Chattox_ did curse and worry the said _Moore_, and
+said she would be Reuenged of the said _Moore_: whereupon the said
+_Moore_ presently fell sicke, and languished about halfe a yeare, and
+then died. Which _Moore_ vpon his death-bed said, that the said
+_Chattox_ had bewitched him to death. And she further saith, That
+about sixe yeares agoe, a daughter of the said _Anne Chattox_, called
+_Elizabeth_, hauing been at the house of _Iohn Nutter_ of the
+Bull-hole, to begge or get a dish full of milke, which she had, and
+brought to her mother, who was about a fields breadth of the said
+_Nutters_ house, which her said mother _Anne Chattox_ tooke and put
+into a Kan, and did charne[F_a_1] the same with two stickes acrosse in
+the same field: whereupon the said _Iohn Nutters_ sonne came vnto her,
+the said _Chattox_, and misliking her doings, put the said Kan and
+milke ouer with his foot; and the morning next after, a Cow of the
+said _Iohn Nutters_ fell sicke, and so languished three or foure
+dayes, and then died.
+
+In the end being openly charged with all this in open Court; with
+weeping teares she humbly acknowledged them to be true,[F_a_2] and
+cried out vnto God for Mercy and forgiuenesse of her sinnes, and
+humbly prayed my Lord to be mercifull vnto _Anne Redfearne_ her
+daughter, of whose life and condition you shall heare more vpon her
+Arraignement and Triall: whereupon shee being taken away, _Elizabeth
+Deuice_ comes now to receiue her Triall being the next in order, of
+whom you shall heare at large.
+
+
+[Illustration: decoration]
+
+THE ARRAIGNMENT
+_and Triall of_ ELIZABETH DEVICE
+(_Daughter of_ ELIZABETH SOTHERNES,
+alias OLD DEMBDIKE) _late wife of_ IO. DEVICE,
+_of the Forrest of Pendle, in the Countie of Lancaster, widow,
+for Witchcraft; Vpon Tuesday the eighteenth of August,
+at the Assises and generall Gaole-Deliuerie holden at
+Lancaster_
+
+Before
+
+_Sir_ EDWARD BROMLEY _Knight, one of his Maiesties
+Iustices of Assise at Lancaster._
+
+_Elizabeth Deuice._
+
+O Barbarous and inhumane Monster, beyond example; so farre from
+sensible vnderstanding of thy owne miserie, as to bring thy owne
+naturall children into mischiefe and bondage; and thy selfe to be a
+witnesse vpon the Gallowes, to see thy owne children, by thy deuillish
+instructions hatcht vp in Villanie and Witchcraft, to suffer with
+thee, euen in the beginning of their time, a shamefull and vntimely
+Death. Too much (so it be true) cannot be said or written of her. Such
+was her life and condition: that euen at the Barre, when shee came to
+receiue her Triall (where the least sparke of Grace or modestie would
+haue procured fauour, or moued pitie) she was not able to containe her
+selfe within the limits of any order or gouernment: but exclaiming, in
+very outragious manner crying out against her owne children, and such
+as came to prosecute Indictments & Euidence for the Kings Maiestie
+against her, for the death of their Children, Friends, and Kinsfolkes,
+whome cruelly and bloudily, by her Enchauntments, Charmes, and
+Sorceries she had murthered and cut off; sparing no man with fearefull
+execrable curses and banning:[F2_b_] Such in generall was the common
+opinion of the Countrey where she dwelt, in the Forrest of Pendle (a
+place fit for people of such condition) that no man neere her, neither
+his wife, children, goods, or cattell should be secure or free from
+danger.
+
+This _Elizabeth Deuice_ was the daughter of _Elizabeth Sothernes_, old
+_Dembdike_, a malicious, wicked, and dangerous Witch for fiftie
+yeares, as appeareth by Record: and how much longer, the Deuill and
+shee knew best with whome shee made her couenant.
+
+It is very certaine, that amongst all these Witches there was not a
+more dangerous and deuillish Witch to execute mischiefe, hauing old
+_Dembdike_, her mother, to assist her; _Iames Deuice_ and _Alizon
+Deuice_, her owne naturall children, all prouided with Spirits, vpon
+any occasion of offence readie to assist her.
+
+Vpon her Examination, although Master _Nowel_ was very circumspect,
+and exceeding carefull in dealing with her, yet she would confesse
+nothing, vntill it pleased God to raise vp a yong maid, _Iennet
+Deuice_, her owne daughter, about the age of nine yeares (a witnesse
+vnexpected) to discouer all their Practises, Meetings, Consultations,
+Murthers, Charmes, and Villanies: such, and in such sort, as I may
+iustly say of them, as a reuerend and learned Iudge of this Kingdome
+speaketh of the greatest Treason that euer was in this Kingdome, _Quis
+haec posteris sic narrare poterit, vt facta non ficta esse videantur?_
+That when these things shall be related to Posteritie, they will be
+reputed matters fained, not done.
+
+And then knowing, that both _Iennet Deuice_, her daughter, _Iames
+Deuice_, her sonne, and _Alizon Deuice_, with others, had accused her
+and layed open all things, in their Examinations taken before Master
+_Nowel_, and although she were their owne naturall mother, yet they
+did not spare to accuse her of euery particular fact, which in her
+time she had committed, to their knowledge; she made a very liberall
+and voluntarie Confession, as hereafter shall be giuen in euidence
+against her, vpon her Arraignment and Triall.
+
+This _Elizabeth Deuice_ being at libertie, after Old _Dembdike_ her
+mother, _Alizon Deuice_, her daughter, and old _Chattocks_ were
+committed to the Castle of Lancaster for Witchcraft; laboured not a
+little to procure a solemne meeting at Malkyn-Tower of the Graund
+Witches of the Counties of Lancaster and Yorke, being yet vnsuspected
+and vntaken, to consult of some speedie course for the deliuerance of
+their friends, the Witches at Lancaster, and for the putting in
+execution of some other deuillish practises of Murther and Mischiefe:
+as vpon the Arraignement and Triall of _Iames Deuice_, her sonne,
+shall hereafter in euery particular point appeare at large against
+her.
+
+
+The first Indictment.
+
+This _Elizabeth Deuice_, late the wife of _Iohn Deuice_, of the
+Forrest of Pendle in the Countie of Lancaster Widdow, being indicted,
+for that shee felloniously had practized, vsed, and exercised diuers
+wicked and deuillish Arts, called _Witch-crafts_, _Inchantments_,
+_Charmes_, and _Sorceries_, in, and vpon one _Iohn Robinson_, alias
+_Swyer_: and by force of the same felloniously, the said _Iohn
+Robinson_, alias _Swyer_, had killed. _Contra pacem, &c._ being at the
+Barre was arraigned.
+
+
+2. Indictment.
+
+The said _Elizabeth Deuice_ was the second time indicted in the same
+manner and forme, for the death of _Iames Robinson_, by Witch-craft.
+_Contra pacem, &c._
+
+
+3. Indictment.
+
+The said _Elizabeth Deuice_, was the third time with others, _viz._
+_Alice Nutter_, and _Elizabeth Sothernes_, alias _Old-Dembdike_, her
+Grand-mother, Indicted in the same manner and forme, for the death of
+_Henrie Mytton_. _Contra pacem, &c._
+
+To these three seuerall Indictments vpon her Arraignement, shee
+pleaded not guiltie; and for the tryall of her life, put her selfe
+vpon God and her Countrie.
+
+So as now the Gentlemen of the Iurie of life and death, stand charged
+to finde, whether shee bee guiltie of them, or any of them.
+
+Whereupon there was openly read, and giuen in euidence against her,
+for the Kings Majestie, her owne voluntarie Confession and
+Examination, when shee was apprehended, taken, and committed to the
+Castle of Lancaster by M. _Nowel_, and M. _Bannester_, two of his
+Maiesties Iustices of Peace in the same Countie. _viz._
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_The Examination and voluntarie Confession
+of_ ELIZABETH DEVICE, _taken at the house of_
+IAMES WILSEY _of the Forrest of Pendle, in the Countie
+of Lancaster, the seuen and twentieth day of Aprill:
+Anno Reg._ IACOBI, _Angl. &c. decimo, & Scotiae_ xlv.
+
+Before
+
+ROGER NOWEL, _and_ NICHOLAS BANNESTER,
+_Esquires; two of his Maiesties Iustices of the Peace
+within the same Countie._ viz.
+
+The said _Elizabeth Deuice_, Mother of the said
+_Iames_, being examined, confesseth and saith.
+
+That at the third time her Spirit,[F4_a_] the Spirit _Ball_,
+appeared to her in the shape of a browne Dogge, at, or in her Mothers
+house in Pendle Forrest aforesaid: about foure yeares agoe the said
+Spirit bidde this Examinate make a picture of Clay after the said
+_Iohn Robinson_, alias _Swyer_, which this Examinate did make
+accordingly at the West end of her said Mothers house, and dryed the
+same picture with the fire and crumbled all the same picture away
+within a weeke or thereabouts, and about a weeke after the Picture
+was crumbled or mulled away; the said _Robinson_ dyed.
+
+The reason wherefore shee this Examinate did so bewitch the said
+_Robinson_ to death, was: for that the said _Robinson_ had chidden and
+becalled this Examinate, for hauing a Bastard-child with one _Seller_.
+
+And this Examinate further saith and confesseth, that shee did bewitch
+the said _Iames Robinson_ to death, as in the said _Iennet Deuice_ her
+examination is confessed.
+
+And further shee saith, and confesseth, that shee with the wife of
+_Richard Nutter_, and this Examinates said Mother, ioyned altogether,
+and did bewitch the said _Henrie Mytton_ to death.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_The Examination and Euidence of_ IENNET
+DEVICE, _Daughter of the said_ ELIZABETH
+DEVICE, _late Wife of_ IOHN DEVICE, _of the
+Forrest of Pendle, in the Countie of Lancaster._
+
+Against
+
+ELIZABETH DEVICE _her Mother, Prisoner at the
+Barre vpon her Arraignement and Triall._ viz.
+
+The said _Iennet Deuice_, being a yong Maide, about the age of nine
+yeares,[F4_b_] and commanded to stand vp to giue euidence against her
+Mother, Prisoner at the Barre: Her Mother, according to her accustomed
+manner, outragiously cursing, cryed out against the child in such
+fearefull manner, as all the Court did not a little wonder at her, and
+so amazed the child, as with weeping teares shee cryed out vnto my
+Lord the Iudge, and told him, shee was not able to speake in the
+presence of her Mother.
+
+This odious Witch was branded with a preposterous marke in Nature,
+euen from her birth, which was her left eye, standing lower then the
+other; the one looking downe, the other looking vp, so strangely
+deformed, as the best that were present in that Honorable assembly,
+and great Audience, did affirme, they had not often seene the like.
+
+No intreatie, promise of fauour, or other respect, could put her to
+silence, thinking by this her outragious cursing and threatning of the
+child, to inforce her to denie that which she had formerly confessed
+against her Mother, before M. _Nowel_: Forswearing and denying her
+owne voluntarie confession, which you haue heard, giuen in euidence
+against her at large, and so for want of further euidence to escape
+that, which the Iustice of the Law had prouided as a condigne
+punishment for the innocent bloud shee had spilt, and her wicked and
+deuillish course of life.
+
+In the end, when no meanes would serue, his Lordship commanded the
+Prisoner to be taken away, and the Maide to bee set vpon the Table in
+the presence of the whole Court, who deliuered her euidence in that
+Honorable assembly, to the Gentlemen of the Iurie of life and death,
+as followeth. _viz._
+
+_Iennet Deuice_, Daughter of _Elizabeth Deuice_, late Wife of _Iohn
+Deuice_, of the Forrest of Pendle aforesaid Widdow, confesseth and
+saith, that her said Mother is a Witch, and that this shee knoweth to
+be true; for, that shee had seene her Spirit sundrie times come vnto
+her said Mother in her owne house, called _Malking-Tower_, in the
+likenesse of a browne Dogge, which shee called _Ball_; and at one time
+amongst others, the said _Ball_ did aske this Examinates Mother what
+she would haue him to doe: and this Examinates Mother answered, that
+she would haue the said _Ball_ to helpe her to kill _Iohn Robinson_ of
+_Barley_, alias _Swyer_: by helpe of which said _Ball_, the said
+_Swyer_ was killed by witch-craft accordingly; and that this
+Examinates Mother hath continued a Witch for these three or foure
+yeares last past. And further, this Examinate confesseth, that about a
+yeare after, this Examinates Mother called for the said _Ball_, who
+appeared as aforesaid, asking this Examinates Mother what shee would
+haue done, who said, that shee would haue him to kill _Iames
+Robinson_, alias _Swyer_, of Barlow aforesaid, Brother to the said
+_Iohn_: whereunto _Ball_ answered, hee would doe it; and about three
+weekes after, the said _Iames_ dyed.
+
+And this Examinate also saith, that one other time shee was present,
+when her said Mother did call for the _Ball_, [Sidenote: Her Spirit.]
+who appeared in manner as aforesaid, and asked this Examinates Mother
+what shee would haue him to doe, whereunto this Examinates Mother then
+said shee would haue him to kill one _Mitton_ of the Rough-Lee,
+whereupon the said _Ball_ said, he would doe it, and so vanished away,
+and about three weekes after, the said _Mitton_ likewise dyed.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_The Examination of_ IAMES DEVICE,
+_sonne of the said_ ELIZABETH DEVICE: _Taken the
+seuen and twentieth day of Aprill_, Annoq; Reg. Regis
+IACOBI Angliae, &c. Decimo ac Scociae, xlv.
+
+Before
+
+ROGER NOWEL _and_ NICHOLAS BANESTER,
+_Esquires, two of his Maiesties Iustices of the Peace, within
+the said Countie._ viz.
+
+The said _Iames Deuice_ being examined, saith, That he heard his
+Grand-mother say, about a yeare agoe, That his mother called
+_Elizabeth Deuice_, and others, had killed one _Henry Mitton_ of the
+Rough-Lee aforesaid, by Witchcraft. The reason wherefore he was so
+killed, was for that this Examinates said Grand-mother _Old Demdike_,
+had asked the said _Mitton_ a penny; and he denying her thereof,
+thereupon she procured his death, as aforesaid.
+
+And he, this Examinate also saith, That about three yeares agoe, this
+Examinate being in his Grand-mothers house, with his said mother;
+there came a thing in shape of a browne dogge, which his mother called
+_Ball_, who spake to this Examinates mother, in the sight and hearing
+of this Examinate, and bad her make a Picture of Clay like vnto _Iohn
+Robinson_, alias _Swyer_, and drie it hard, and then crumble it by
+little and little; and as the said Picture should crumble or mull
+away, so should the said _Io. Robinson_ alias _Swyer_ his body decay
+and weare away. And within two or three dayes after, the Picture shall
+so all be wasted, and mulled away; so then the said _Iohn Robinson_
+should die presently. Vpon the agreement betwixt the said dogge and
+this Examinates mother; the said dogge suddenly vanished out of this
+Examinates sight. And the next day, this Examinate saw his said mother
+take Clay at the West end of her said house, and make a Picture of it
+after the said _Robinson_, and brought into her house, and dried it
+some two dayes: and about two dayes after the drying thereof, this
+Examinates said mother fell on crumbling the said Picture of Clay,
+euery day some, for some three weekes together; and within two dayes
+after all was crumbled or mulled away, the said _Iohn Robinson_ died.
+
+Being demanded by the Court, what answere shee could giue to the
+particular points of the Euidence against her, for the death of these
+seuerall persons; Impudently shee denied them, crying out against her
+children, and the rest of the Witnesses against her.
+
+But because I haue charged her to be the principall Agent, to procure
+a solemne meeting at _Malking-Tower_ of the Grand-witches, to consult
+of some speedy course for the deliuerance of her mother, _Old
+Demdike_, her daughter, and other Witches at Lancaster: the speedie
+Execution of Master _Couell_, who little suspected or deserued any
+such practise or villany against him: The blowing up of the Castle,
+with diuers other wicked and diuellish practises and murthers; I shall
+make it apparant vnto you, by the particular Examinations and Euidence
+of her owne children, such as were present at the time of their
+Consultation, together with her owne Examination and Confession,
+amongst the Records of the Crowne at Lancaster, as hereafter
+followeth.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_The voluntary Confession and Examination
+of_ ELIZABETH DEVICE, _taken at the house of_
+IAMES WILSEY, _of the Forrest of Pendle, in the
+Countie of Lancaster, the seuen and twentieth day of Aprill_,
+Annoq: Reg. Regis IACOBI Angliae, &c. Decimo,
+& Scotiae Quadragesimo quinto.
+
+Before
+
+ROGER NOWEL and NICHOLAS BANISTER,
+_Esquires, two of his Maiesties Iustices of the Peace within
+the same Countie._ viz.
+
+The said _Elizabeth Deuice_ being further Examined, confesseth that
+vpon Good-Friday last, there dined at this Examinates house, called
+_Malking-Tower_, those which she hath said are Witches, and doth
+verily think them to be Witches: and their names are those whom _Iames
+Deuice_ hath formerly spoken of to be there. And she further saith,
+that there was also at her said mothers house, at the day and time
+aforesaid, two women of Burneley Parish, whose names the wife of
+_Richard Nutter_ doth know. And there was likewise there one _Anne
+Crouckshey_[G3_a_] of Marsden: And shee also confesseth, in all things
+touching the Christening of the Spirit, and the killing of Master
+_Lister_ of Westbie, as the said _Iames Deuice_ hath before confessed;
+but denieth of any talke was amongst them the said Witches, to her now
+remembrance, at the said meeting together, touching the killing of the
+Gaoler, or the blowing vp of Lancaster Castle.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_The Examination and Euidence of_ IENNET
+DEVICE, _Daughter of the said_ ELIZABETH
+DEVICE, _late Wife of_ IOHN DEVICE, _of the
+Forrest of Pendle, in the Countie of Lancaster._
+
+Against
+
+ELIZABETH DEVICE, _her Mother, Prisoner at the
+Barre, vpon her Arraignement and Triall_, viz.
+
+The said _Iennet Deuice_ saith, That vpon Good Friday last there
+was about twentie persons[G3_b_1] (whereof onely two were men, to this
+Examinates remembrance) at her said Grandmothers house, called
+Malking-Tower aforesaid, about twelue of the clocke: all which persons
+this Examinates said mother told her, were Witches, and that they came
+to giue a name to _Alizon Deuice_ Spirit, or Familiar, sister to this
+Examinate, and now prisoner at Lancaster. And also this Examinate
+saith, That the persons aforesaid had to their dinners Beefe, Bacon,
+and roasted Mutton; which Mutton (as this Examinates said brother
+said) was of a Wether of _Christopher Swyers_ of Barley: which Wether
+was brought in the night before into this Examinates mothers house by
+the said _Iames Deuice_, this Examinates said brother: and in this
+Examinates sight killed and eaten, as aforesaid. And shee further
+saith, That shee knoweth the names of sixe of the said Witches, _viz._
+the wife of _Hugh Hargraues_ vnder Pendle, _Christopher Howgate_ of
+Pendle, vnckle to this Examinate, and _Elizabeth_ his wife, and _Dicke
+Miles_ his wife of the Rough-Lee; _Christopher Iackes_ of
+Thorny-holme, and his wife:[G3_b_2] and the names of the residue shee
+this Examinate doth not know, sauing that this Examinates mother and
+brother were both there. And lastly, she this Examinate confesseth and
+saith, That her mother hath taught her two prayers: the one to cure
+the bewitched, and the other to get drinke; both which particularly
+appeare.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_The Examination and Euidence of_ IAMES
+DEVICE, _sonne of the said_ ELIZABETH DEVICE,
+_late wife of_ IOHN DEVICE, _of the Forrest of
+Pendle, in the Countie of Lancaster._
+
+Against
+
+ELIZABETH DEVICE, _his Mother, prisoner at the
+Barre, vpon her Arraignement and Triall_, viz.
+
+The said _Iames Deuice_ saith, That on Good-Friday last, about
+twelue of the clocke in the day time, there dined in this Examinates
+said mothers house, at Malking-Tower, a number of persons, whereof
+three were men, with this Examinate, and the rest women; and that they
+met there for three causes following (as this Examinates said mother
+told this Examinate) The first was, for the naming of the Spirit,
+which _Alizon Deuice_, now prisoner at Lancaster, had: But did not
+name him, because shee was not there.[G4_a_] The second was, for the
+deliuerie of his said Grandmother, olde _Dembdike_; this Examinates
+said sister _Allizon_; the said _Anne Chattox_, and her daughter
+_Redferne_; killing the Gaoler at Lancaster; and before the next
+Assises to blow vp the Castle there: and to that end the aforesaid
+prisoners might by that time make an escape, and get away. All which
+this Examinate then heard them conferre of.
+
+And he also sayth, That the names of the said Witches as were on
+Good-Friday at this Examinates said Grandmothers house, and now this
+Examinates owne mothers, for so many of them as hee did know, were
+these, _viz._ The wife of _Hugh Hargreiues_ of Burley; the wife of
+_Christopher Bulcock_, of the Mosse end, and _Iohn_ her sonne; the
+mother of _Myles Nutter_; _Elizabeth_, the wife of _Christopher
+Hargreiues_, of Thurniholme; _Christopher Howgate_, and _Elizabeth_,
+his wife; _Alice Graye_ of Coulne, and one _Mould-heeles_ wife, of the
+same: and this Examinate, and his Mother. And this Examinate further
+sayth, That all the Witches went out of the said House in their owne
+shapes and likenesses. And they all, by that they were forth of the
+dores, gotten on Horsebacke, like vnto Foales, some of one colour,
+some of another; and _Prestons_ wife was the last: and when shee got
+on Horsebacke, they all presently vanished out of this Examinates
+sight. And before their said parting away, they all appointed to meete
+at the said _Prestons_ wiues [Sidenote: _Executed at Yorke the last
+Assises._] house that day twelue-moneths; at which time the said
+_Prestons_ wife promised to make them a great Feast. And if they had
+occasion to meete in the meane time, then should warning be giuen,
+that they all should meete vpon _Romleyes_ Moore.[G4_b_]
+
+And there they parted, with resolution to execute their deuillish and
+bloudie practises, for the deliuerance of their friends, vntill they
+came to meete here, where their power and strength was gone. And now
+finding her Meanes was gone, shee cried out for Mercie. Whereupon shee
+being taken away, the next in order was her sonne _Iames Deuice_, whom
+shee and her Mother, old _Dembdike_, brought to act his part in this
+wofull Tragedie.
+
+
+[Illustration: decoration]
+
+THE ARRAIGNMENT
+_and Triall of_ IAMES DEVICE,
+_Sonne of_ ELIZABETH DEVICE, _of the Forrest of
+Pendle, within the Countie of Lancaster aforesaid, Laborer,
+for Witchcraft; Vpon Tuesday the eighteenth of August,
+at the Assises and generall Gaole-Deliuerie holden at
+Lancaster_
+
+Before
+
+_Sir_ EDWARD BROMLEY _Knight, one of his Maiesties
+Iustices of Assise at Lancaster._
+
+_James Deuice._
+
+This wicked and miserable Wretch, whether by practise, or meanes,
+to bring himselfe to some vntimely death, and thereby to auoide his
+Tryall by his Countrey, and iust iudgement of the Law; or ashamed to
+bee openly charged with so many deuillish practises, and so much
+innocent bloud as hee had spilt; or by reason of his Imprisonment so
+long time before his Tryall (which was with more fauour,
+commiseration, and reliefe then hee deserued) I know not: But being
+brought forth to the Barre, to receiue his Triall before this worthie
+Iudge, and so Honourable and Worshipfull an Assembly of Iustices for
+this seruice, was so insensible, weake, and vnable in all thinges, as
+he could neither speake, heare, or stand, but was holden vp[H2_a_1]
+when hee was brought to the place of his Arraignement, to receiue his
+triall.
+
+This _Iames Deuice_ of the Forrest of Pendle, being brought to the
+Barre, was there according to the forme, order, and course, Indicted
+and Arraigned; for that hee Felloniously had practised, vsed, and
+exercised diuers wicked and deuillish Arts, called _Witch-crafts_,
+_Inchauntments_, _Charmes_, and _Sorceries_, in, and vpon one _Anne
+Towneley_, wife of _Henrie Towneley_ of the Carre,[H2_a_2] in the
+Countie of Lancaster Gentleman, and her by force of the same,
+felloniously had killed. _Contra pacem, &c._
+
+The said _Iames Deuice_ was the second time Indicted and Arraigned in
+the same manner and forme, for the death of _Iohn Duckworth_, by
+witch-craft. _Contra pacem, &c._
+
+To these two seuerall Indictments vpon his Arraignment, he pleaded not
+guiltie, and for the triall of his life put himselfe vpon God and his
+Countrie.
+
+So as now the Gentlemen of the Iurie of life and death stand charged
+to finde, whether he be guiltie of these, or either of them.
+
+Whereupon Master _Nowel_ humbly prayed Master _Towneley_ might be
+called,[H2_a_3] who attended to prosecute and giue euidence against
+him for the King's Majestie, and that the particular Examinations
+taken before him and others, might be openly published & read in
+Court,[H2_a_4] in the hearing of the Prisoner.
+
+But because it were infinite to bring him to his particular Triall for
+euery offence, which hee hath committed in his time, and euery
+practice wherein he hath had his hand: I shall proceede in order with
+the Euidence remayning vpon Record against him, amongst the Records of
+the Crowne; both how, and in what sort hee came to be a witch: and
+shew you what apparant proofe there is to charge him with the death of
+these two seuerall persons, for the which hee now standeth vpon his
+triall for al the rest of his deuillish practises, incantantions,
+murders, charmes, sorceries, meetings to consult with Witches, to
+execute mischiefe (take them as they are against him vpon Record:)
+Enough, I doubt not. For these with the course of his life will serue
+his turne to deliuer you from the danger of him that neuer tooke
+felicitie in any things, but in reuenge, bloud, & mischiefe with
+crying out vnto God for vengeance; which hath now at the length
+brought him to the place where hee standes to receiue his Triall with
+more honor, fauour, and respect, then such a Monster in Nature doth
+deserue; And I doubt not, but in due time by the Iustice of the Law,
+to an vntimely and shamefull death.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_The Examination of_ IAMES DEVICE,
+_sonne of_ ELIZABETH DEVICE, _of the Forrest of
+Pendle, in the Countie of Lancaster, Labourer. Taken the
+seuen and twentieth day of Aprill, Annoq; Reg. Regis_
+IACOBI, _Angliae, &c._ x^o. _& Scotiae Quadragesimo quinto._
+
+Before
+
+ROGER NOWEL, _and_ NICHOLAS BANNESTER,
+_Esquires: two of his Maiesties Iustices of Peace
+within the said Countie._
+
+He saith, that vpon Sheare Thursday[H3_a_] was two yeares, his
+Grand-Mother _Elizabeth Sothernes_, alias _Dembdike_, did bid him this
+Examinate goe to the Church to receiue the Communion (the next day
+after being Good Friday) and then not to eate the Bread the Minister
+gaue him, but to bring it and deliuer it to such a thing as should
+meet him in his way homewards: Notwithstanding her perswasions, this
+Examinate did eate the Bread: and so in his comming homeward some
+fortie roodes off the said Church, there met him a thing in the shape
+of a Hare, who spoke vnto this Examinate, and asked him whether hee
+had brought the Bread that his Grand-mother had bidden him, or no?
+whereupon this Examinate answered, hee had not: and thereupon the said
+thing threatned to pull this Examinate in peeces, and so this
+Examinate thereupon marked himselfe to God, and so the said thing
+vanished out of this Examinates sight. And within some foure daies
+after that, there appeared in this Examinates sight, hard by the new
+Church in Pendle, a thing like vnto a browne _Dogge_, who asked this
+Examinate to giue him his Soule, and he should be reuenged of any whom
+hee would: whereunto this Examinate answered, that his Soule was not
+his to giue, but was his _Sauiour Iesus Christs_, but as much as was
+in him this Examinate to giue, he was contented he should haue it.
+
+And within two or three daies after, this Examinate went to the
+Carre-Hall, and vpon some speeches betwixt Mistris _Towneley_ and this
+Examinate; Shee charging this Examinate and his said mother, to haue
+stolne some Turues of hers, badde him packe the doores: and withall as
+he went forth of the doore, the said Mistris _Towneley_ gaue him a
+knock betweene the shoulders: and about a day or two after that, there
+appeared vnto this Examinate in his way, a thing like vnto a black
+dog, who put this Examinate in minde of the said Mistris _Towneleyes_
+falling out with him this Examinate; who bad this Examinate make a
+Picture of Clay, like vnto the said Mistris _Towneley_: and that this
+Examinate with the helpe of his Spirit (who then euer after bidde this
+Examinate to call it _Dandy_) would kill or destroy the said Mistris
+_Towneley_: and so the said dogge vanished out of this Examinates
+sight. And the next morning after, this Examinate tooke Clay, and made
+a Picture of the said Mistris _Towneley_, and dried it the same night
+by the fire: and within a day after, hee, this Examinate began to
+crumble the said Picture, euery day some, for the space of a weeke:
+and within two daies after all was crumbled away; the said Mistris
+_Towneley_ died.
+
+And hee further saith, That in Lent last one _Iohn Duckworth_ of the
+Lawnde, promised this Examinate an old shirt: and within a fortnight
+after, this Examinate went to the said _Duckworthes_ house, and
+demanded the said old shirt: but the said _Duckworth_ denied him
+thereof. And going out of the said house, the said Spirit _Dandy_
+appeared vnto this Examinate, and said, Thou didst touch the said
+_Duckworth_; whereunto this Examinate answered, he did not touch him:
+yes (said the Spirit againe) thou didst touch him, and therfore I haue
+power of him: whereupon this Examinate ioyned with the said Spirit,
+and then wished the said Spirit to kill the said _Duckworth_: and
+within one weeke, then next after, _Duckworth_ died.
+
+This voluntary Confession and Examination of his owne, containing in
+it selfe matter sufficient in Law to charge him, and to proue his
+offences, contained in the two seuerall Indictments, was sufficient to
+satisfie the Gentlemen of the Iurie of Life and Death, that he is
+guiltie of them, and either of them: yet my Lord _Bromley_ commanded,
+for their better satisfaction, that the Witnesses present in Court
+against any of the Prisoners, should be examined openly, _viua voce_,
+that the Prisoner might both heare and answere to euery particular
+point of their Euidence; notwithstanding any of their Examinations
+taken before any of his Maiesties Iustices of Peace within the said
+Countie.
+
+Herein do but obserue the wonderfull work of God; to raise vp a young
+Infant, the very sister of the Prisoner, _Iennet Deuice_, to discouer,
+iustifie and proue these things against him, at the time of his
+Arraignement and Triall, as hereafter followeth. _viz._
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_The Examination and Euidence of_ IENNET
+DEVICE _daughter of_ ELIZABETH DEVICE,
+_late wife of_ IOHN DEVICE _of the Forrest of Pendle,
+in the Countie of Lancaster._
+
+Against
+
+IAMES DEVICE, _Prisoner at the Barre, vpon his Arraignement
+and Triall._ viz.
+
+Being examined in open Court, she saith, That her brother _Iames
+Device_, the Prisoner at the Barre, hath beene a Witch for the space
+of three yeares: about the beginning of which time, there appeared
+vnto him, in this Examinates mothers house, a Black-Dogge, which
+[Sidenote: _Dandy._] her said brother called _Dandy_. And further,
+this Examinate confesseth, & saith: That her said brother about a
+twelue month since, in the presence of this Examinate, and in the
+house aforesaid, called for the said _Dandy_, who thereupon appeared:
+asking this Examinates brother what he would haue him to doe. This
+Examinates brother then said, he would haue him to helpe him to kill
+old Mistris _Towneley_ of the Carre: whereunto the said _Dandy_
+answered, and said, That her said brother should haue his best helpe
+for the doing of the same; and that her said brother, and the said
+_Dandy_, did both in this Examinates hearing, say, they would make
+away the said Mistris _Towneley_. And about a weeke after, this
+Examinate comming to the Carre-Hall, saw the said Mistris _Towneley_
+in the Kitchin there, nothing well: whereupon it came into this
+Examinates minde, that her said brother, by the help of _Dandy_, had
+brought the said Mistris _Towneley_ into the state she then was in.
+
+Which Examinat, although she were but very yong, yet it was wonderfull
+to the Court, in so great a Presence and Audience, with what modestie,
+gouernement, and vnderstanding, shee deliuered this Euidence against
+the Prisoner at the Barre, being her owne naturall brother, which he
+himselfe could not deny, but there acknowledged in euery particular to
+be iust and true.
+
+But behold a little further, for here this bloudy Monster did not stay
+his hands: for besides his wicked and diuellish Spels, practises,
+meetings to consult of murder and mischiefe, which (by Gods grace)
+hereafter shall follow in order against him; there is yet more bloud
+to be laid vnto his charge. For although he were but yong, and in the
+beginning of his Time, yet was he carefull to obserue his Instructions
+from _Old Demdike_ his Grand-mother, and _Elizabeth Deuice_ his
+mother, in so much that no time should passe since his first entrance
+into that damnable Arte and exercise of Witchcrafts, Inchantments,
+Charmes and Sorceries, without mischiefe or murder. Neither should any
+man vpon the least occasion of offence giuen vnto him, escape his
+hands, without some danger. For these particulars were no sooner giuen
+in Euidence against him, when he was againe Indicted and Arraigned for
+the murder of these two. _viz._
+
+_Iames Deuice_ of the Forrest of Pendle aforesaid, in the Countie of
+Lancaster, Labourer, the third time Indicted and Arraigned for the
+death of _Iohn Hargraues_ of Gould-shey-booth, in the Countie of
+Lancaster, by Witchcraft, as aforesaid. _Contra &c._
+
+To this Inditement vpon his Arraignement he pleaded thereunto not
+guiltie: and for his Triall put himselfe vpon God and his Countrey,
+&c.
+
+_Iames Deuice_ of the Forrest of Pendle aforesaid, in the County of
+Lancaster, Labourer, the fourth time Indicted and Arraigned for the
+death of _Blaze Hargreues_ of Higham, in the Countie of Lancaster, by
+Witchcraft, as aforesaid. _Contra Pacem_, &c.
+
+To this Indictment vpon his Arraignement, he pleaded thereunto not
+guiltie; and for the Triall of his life, put himselfe vpon God and the
+Countrey. &c.
+
+Hereupon _Iennet Deuice_ produced, sworne and examined, as a witnesse
+on his Maiesties behalfe, against the said _Iames Deuice_, was
+examined in open Court, as followeth. _viz._
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_The Examination and Euidence of_ IENNET
+DEVICE _aforesaid._
+
+Against
+
+IAMES DEVICE, _her brother, Prisoner at the Barre,
+vpon his Arraignement and Triall._ viz.
+
+Being sworne and examined in open Court, she saith, That her
+brother _Iames Deuice_ hath beene a Witch for the space of three
+yeares: about the beginning of which time, there appeared vnto him, in
+this Examinates mothers house, a Blacke-Dogge, which her said brother
+called _Dandy_, which _Dandy_ did aske her said brother what he would
+haue him to doe, whereunto he answered, hee would haue him to kill
+_Iohn Hargreiues_, of Gold-shey-booth: whereunto _Dandy_ answered that
+he would doe it: since which time the said _Iohn_ is dead.
+
+And at another time this Examinate confesseth and saith, That her said
+brother did call the said _Dandy_: who thereupon appeared in the said
+house, asking this Examinates brother what hee would haue him to doe:
+whereupon this Examinates said brother said, he would haue him to kill
+_Blaze Hargreiues_ of Higham: whereupon _Dandy_ answered, hee should
+haue his best helpe, and so vanished away: and shee saith, that since
+that time the said _Hargreiues_ is dead; but how long after, this
+Examinate doth not now remember.
+
+All which things, when he heard his sister vpon her Oath affirme,
+knowing them in his conscience to bee iust and true, slenderly denyed
+them, and thereupon insisted.
+
+To this Examination were diuerse witnesses examined in open Court
+_viua voce_, concerning the death of the parties, in such manner and
+forme, and at such time as the said _Iennet Deuice_ in her Euidence
+hath formerly declared to the Court.
+
+     Which is all, and I doubt not but matter sufficient in Law
+     to charge him with, for the death of these parties.
+
+For the proofe of his Practises, Charmes, Meetings at Malking-Tower,
+to consult with Witches to execute mischiefe, Master _Nowel_ humbly
+prayed, his owne Examination, taken and certified, might openly be
+read; and the rest in order, as they remaine vpon Record amongst the
+Records of the Crowne at Lancaster: as hereafter followeth, _viz._
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_The Examination of_ IAMES DEVICE,
+_Sonne of_ ELIZABETH DEVICE, _of the Forrest
+of Pendle: Taken the seuen and twentieth day of
+Aprill aforesaid_,
+
+Before
+
+ROGER NOWEL _and_ NICHOLAS BANESTER
+_Esquires, two of his Maiesties Iustices of Peace within
+the said Countie_, viz.
+
+And being examined, he further saith, That vpon Sheare-Thursday
+last, in the euening, he this Examinate stole a Wether from _Iohn
+Robinson_ of Barley, and brought it to his Grand-mothers house, old
+_Dembdike_, and there killed it: and that vpon the day following,
+being Good-Friday, about twelue of the clocke in the day time, there
+dined in this Examinates mothers house a number of persons, whereof
+three were men, with this Examinate, and the rest women; and that they
+met there for three Causes following, as this Examinates said Mother
+told this Examinate.
+
+1 The first was, for the naming of the Spirit which _Alizon Deuice_,
+now prisoner at Lancaster, had, but did not name him, because she was
+not there.
+
+2 The second Cause was, for the deliuerie of his said Grand-mother;
+this Examinates said sister _Alizon_; the said _Anne Chattox_, and her
+daughter _Redferne_; killing the Gaoler at Lancaster; and before the
+next Assises to blow vp the Castle there, to the end the aforesaid
+persons might by that meanes make an escape & get away; all which this
+Examinate then heard them conferre of.
+
+3 And the third Cause was, for that there was a woman dwelling in
+Gisborne Parish, who came into this Examinates said Grandmothers
+house, who there came and craued assistance of the rest of them that
+were then there, for the killing of Master _Lister_ of Westby, because
+(as shee then said) he had borne malice vnto her, and had thought to
+haue put her away at the last Assises at Yorke, but could not: and
+this Examinate heard the said woman say, That her power was not strong
+ynough to doe it her selfe, being now lesse then before time it had
+beene.
+
+And also, that the said _Iennet Preston_ had a Spirit with her like
+vnto a white Foale, with a blacke spot in the forhead.
+
+And he also saith, That the names of the said Witches as were on
+Good-Friday at this Examinates said Grand-mothers house, & now this
+Examinates owne mothers, for so many of them as he did know, were
+these, _viz._ the wife of _Hugh Hargreiues_ of Barley; the wife of
+_Christopher Bulcock_ of the Mosse end, and _Iohn_ her sonne; the
+mother of _Myles Nutter_; _Elizabeth_, the wife of _Christopher
+Hargreiues_, of Thurniholme; _Christopher Howgate_, and _Elizabeth_,
+his wife; _Alice Graye_ of Coulne, and one _Mould-heeles_ wife, of the
+same: and this Examinate, and his Mother. And this Examinate further
+saith, That all the said Witches went out of the said House in their
+owne shapes and likenesses. And they all, by that they were forth of
+the dores, were gotten on Horsebacke, like vnto Foales, some of one
+colour, some of another; and _Prestons_ wife was the last: and when
+shee got on Horsebacke, they all presently vanished out of this
+Examinates sight. And before their said parting away, they all
+appointed to meete at the said _Prestons_ wiues house that day
+twelue-moneths; at which time the said _Prestons_ wife promised to
+make them a great Feast. And if they had occasion to meete in the
+meane time, then should warning be giuen, that they all should meete
+vpon _Romleyes_ Moore.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_The Examination and Euidence of_ IENNET
+DEVICE.
+
+Against
+
+IAMES DEVICE _her said Brother, Prisoner at the
+Barre, vpon his Arraignement and Triall: Taken before_
+ROGER NOWEL, _and_ NICHOLAS BANNESTER
+_Esquires: two of his Maiesties Iustices of Peace
+within the said Countie._ viz.
+
+Shee saith, that vpon Good-Friday last there was about twentie
+persons, whereof only two were men, to this Examinates remembrance, at
+her said Grand-mothers house, called _Malking-Tower_ aforesaid, about
+twelue of the clock: all which persons this Examinates said Mother
+told her were Witches, and that they came to giue a name to _Alizon
+Deuice_ Spirit or Familiar, Sister to this Examinate, and now
+Prisoner, in the Castle of Lancaster: And also this Examinate saith,
+that the persons aforesaid had to their Dinners, Beefe, Bacon, and
+rosted Mutton, which Mutton, as this Examinates said brother said, was
+of a Weather of _Robinsons_ of Barley: which Weather was brought in
+the night before into this Examinates mothers house, by the said
+_Iames Deuice_ this Examinates said brother, and in this Examinates
+sight killed, and eaten, as aforesaid: And shee further saith, that
+shee knoweth the names of sixe of the said Witches, _viz._ the wife of
+the said _Hugh Hargreiues_, vnder Pendle: _Christopher Howget_, of
+Pendle, Vncle to this Examinate: and _Dick Miles_ wife, of the
+Rough-Lee: _Christopher Iacks_, of Thorny-holme, and his Wife: and the
+names of the residue shee this Examinate doth not know, sauing that
+this Examinates Mother and Brother were both there.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_The Examination of_ ELIZABETH
+DEVICE, _Mother of the said_ IAMES DEVICE, _of
+the Forrest of Pendle, taken the seuen and twentieth day of
+Aprill aforesaid._
+
+Before
+
+ROGER NOWEL, _and_ NICHOLAS BANNESTER
+_Esquires; as aforesaid._ viz.
+
+Being examined, the said _Elizabeth_ saith and confesseth, that
+vpon Good-Friday last there dined at this Examinates house, those
+which she hath said to be Witches, and doth verily thinke them to bee
+Witches, and their names are those, whom _Iames Deuice_ hath formerly
+spoken of to be there.
+
+And shee also confesseth in all things touching the Christning of her
+Spirit, and the killing of Master _Lister_ of Westby, as the said
+_Iames Deuice_ confesseth. But denieth that any talke was amongst
+th[=e] the said Witches, to her now remembrance, at the said meeting
+together, touching the killing of the Gaoler at Lancaster; blowing vp
+of the Castle, thereby to deliuer old _Dembdike_ her Mother; _Alizon
+Deuice_ her Daughter, and other Prisoners, committed to the said
+Castle for Witchcraft.
+
+     After all these things opened, and deliuered in euidence
+     against him; Master _Couil_, who hath the custodie of the
+     Gaole at Lancaster, hauing taken great paines with him
+     during the time of his imprisonment, to procure him to
+     discouer his practizes, and such other Witches as he knew to
+     bee dangerous: Humbly prayed the fauour of the Court that
+     his voluntarie confession to M. _Anderton_, M. _Sands_ the
+     Major of Lancaster, M. _Couel_, and others, might openly bee
+     published and declared in Court.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_The voluntarie confession and declaration
+of_ IAMES DEVICE, _Prisoner in the Castle at Lancaster._
+
+Before
+
+WILLIAM SANDS, _Maior of Lancaster_, IAMES
+ANDERTON, _Esquire, one of his Maiesties Iustices of
+Peace within the Countie of Lancaster: And_ THOMAS
+COVEL, _Gentleman, one of his Maiesties Coroners in the
+same Countie._ viz.
+
+_Iames Deuice_, Prisoner in the Castle at Lancaster, saith, That
+his said Spirit _Dandie_, being very earnest with him to giue him his
+soule, He answered, he would giue him that part thereof that was his
+owne to giue: and thereupon the said Spirit said, hee was aboue CHRIST
+IESVS, and therefore hee must absolutely giue him his Soule: and that
+done, hee would giue him power to reuenge himselfe against any whom he
+disliked.
+
+And he further saith, that the said Spirit did appeare vnto him after
+sundrie times, in the likenesse of a Dogge, and at euery time most
+earnestly perswaded him to giue him his Soule absolutely: who answered
+as before, that he would giue him his owne part and no further. And
+hee saith, that at the last time that the said Spirit was with him,
+which was the Tuesday next before his apprehension; when as hee could
+not preuaile with him to haue his Soule absolutely granted vnto him,
+as aforesaid; the said Spirit departed from him, then giuing a most
+fearefull crie and yell, and withall caused a great flash of fire to
+shew about him: which said Spirit did neuer after trouble this
+Examinate.
+
+     _William Sands_,
+     _James Anderton._
+     _Tho. Couel, Coroner._
+
+The said _Iennet Deuice_, his Sister, in the very end of her
+Examination against the said _Iames Deuice_, confesseth and saith,
+that her Mother taught her two Prayers: the one to get drinke, which
+was this. _viz._
+
+     _Crucifixus hoc signum vitam
+     Eternam._ Amen.
+
+And shee further saith, That her Brother _Iames Deuice_, the Prisoner
+at the Barre, hath confessed to her this Examinate, that he by this
+Prayer hath gotten drinke: and that within an houre after the saying
+the said Prayer, drinke hath come into the house after a very strange
+manner. And the other Prayer, the said _Iames Deuice_ affirmed, would
+cure one bewitched, which shee recited as followeth. _viz._
+
+    _A Charme._[K_b_1]
+
+    _Vpon Good-Friday, I will fast while I may
+    Vntill I heare them knell
+    Our Lords owne Bell,
+    Lord in his messe
+    With his twelue Apostles good,
+    What hath he in his hand
+    Ligh in leath wand:[K_b_2]
+    What hath he in his other hand?
+    Heauens doore key,
+    Open, open Heauen doore keyes,
+    Steck, steck hell doore.
+    Let Crizum child
+    Goe to it Mother mild,[K_b_3]
+    What is yonder that casts a light so farrandly,[K_b_4]
+    Mine owne deare Sonne that's naild to the Tree.
+    He is naild sore by the heart and hand,
+    And holy harne Panne,
+    Well is that man
+    That Fryday spell can,
+    His Childe to learne;
+    A Crosse of Blew, and another of Red,
+    As good Lord was to the Roode._
+    Gabriel _laid him downe to sleepe
+    Vpon the ground of holy weepe:[K2_a_1]
+    Good Lord came walking by,
+    Sleep'st thou, wak'st thou_ Gabriel,
+    _No Lord I am sted with sticke and stake,
+    That I can neither sleepe nor wake:
+    Rise vp_ Gabriel _and goe with me,
+    The stick nor the stake shall neuer deere thee.[K2_a_2]
+    Sweete Iesus our Lord, Amen._
+                                   _Iames Deuice._
+
+What can be said more of this painfull Steward, that was so carefull
+to prouide Mutton against this Feast and solemne meeting at
+_Malking-Tower_, of this hellish and diuellish band of Witches, (the
+like whereof hath not been heard of) then hath beene openly published
+and declared against him at the Barre, vpon his Arraignement and
+Triall: wherein it pleased God to raise vp Witnesses beyond
+expectation to conuince him; besides his owne particular Examinations,
+which being shewed and read vnto him; he acknowledged to be iust and
+true. And what I promised to set forth against him, in the beginning
+of his Arraignment and Triall, I doubt not but therein I haue
+satisfied your expectation at large, wherein I haue beene very sparing
+to charge him with any thing, but with sufficient matter of Record and
+Euidence, able to satisfie the consciences of the Gentlemen of the
+Iury of Life and Death; to whose good consideration I leaue him, with
+the perpetuall Badge and Brand of as dangerous and malicious a Witch,
+as euer liued in these parts of Lancashire, of his time: and spotted
+with as much Innocent bloud, as euer any Witch of his yeares.
+
+After all these proceedings, by direction of his Lordship, were their
+seuerall Examinations, subscribed by euery one of them in particular,
+shewed vnto them at the time of their Triall, & acknowledged by th[=e]
+to be true, deliuered to the gentlemen of the Iury of Life & Death,
+for the better satisfaction of their consciences: after due
+consideration of which said seuerall examinations, confessions, and
+voluntary declarations, as well of themselues as of their children,
+friends and confederates, The Gentlemen deliuered vp their Verdict
+against the Prisoners, as followeth. _viz._
+
+
+_The Verdict of Life and Death._
+
+Who found _Anne Whittle_, alias _Chattox_, _Elizabeth Deuice_, and
+_Iames Deuice_, guiltie of the seuerall murthers by Witchcraft,
+contained in the Indictments against them, and euery of them.
+
+
+[Illustration: decoration]
+
+THE WITCHES OF
+SALMESBVRY.[K3_a_]
+
+_The Arraignement and Triall of_ IENNET
+BIERLEY ELLEN BIERLEY, _and_ IANE
+SOVTHWORTH _of Salmesbury, in the County of
+Lancaster; for Witchcraft vpon the bodie of_ GRACE
+SOWERBVTS, _vpon Wednesday the nineteenth of
+August: At the Assises and generall Gaole-deliuery,
+holden at Lancaster._
+
+Before
+
+_Sir_ EDWARD BROMLEY _Knight, one of his Maiesties
+Iustices of Assize at Lancaster: as hereafter followeth._
+viz.
+
+     _Iennet Bierley._
+     _Ellen Bierley._
+     _Iane Southworth._
+
+Thus haue we for a time left the Graund Witches of the Forrest of
+Pendle, to the good consideration of a verie sufficient Iury of worthy
+Gentlemen of their Co[=u]trey. We are now come to the famous Witches
+of Salmesbury, as the Countrey called them, who by such a subtill
+practise and conspiracie of a Seminarie Priest,[K3_b_1] or, as the
+best in this Honorable Assembly thinke, a Iesuite, whereof this
+Countie of Lancaster hath good store,[K3_b_2] who by reason of the
+generall entertainement they find, and great maintenance they haue,
+resort hither, being farre from the Eye of Iustice, and therefore,
+_Procul a fulmine_; are now brought to the Barre, to receiue their
+Triall, and such a young witnesse prepared and instructed to giue
+Euidence against them, that it must be the Act of GOD that must be the
+means to discouer their Practises and Murthers, and by an infant: but
+how and in what sort Almightie GOD deliuered them from the stroake of
+Death, when the Axe was layd to the Tree, and made frustrate the
+practise of this bloudie Butcher, it shall appeare vnto you vpon their
+Arraignement and Triall, whereunto they are now come.
+
+Master _Thomas Couel_, who hath the charge of the prisoners in the
+Castle at Lancaster, was commaunded to bring forth the said
+
+     _Jennet Bierley_,
+     _Ellen Bierley_,
+     _Jane Southworth_,
+
+to the Barre to receiue their Triall.
+
+
+Indictment.
+
+The said _Iennet Bierley_, _Ellen Bierley_, and _Iane Southworth_
+of Salmesbury, in the Countie of Lancaster, being indicted, for that
+they and euery of them felloniously had practised, exercised, and vsed
+diuerse deuillish and wicked Arts, called _Witchcrafts_,
+_Inchauntments_, _Charmes_, and _Sorceries_, in and vpon one _Grace
+Sowerbuts_: so that by meanes thereof her bodie wasted and consumed,
+_Contra formam Statuti &c. Et Contra Pacem dicti Domini Regis Coronam
+& dignitatem &c._
+
+To this Indictment vpon their Arraignement, they pleaded
+_Not-Guiltie_; and for the Triall of their liues put themselues vpon
+GOD and their Countrey.
+
+Whereupon Master Sheriffe of the Countie of Lancaster, by direction of
+the Court, made returne of a very sufficient Iurie to passe betweene
+the Kings Maiestie and them, vpon their liues and deaths, with such
+others as follow in order.
+
+The Prisoners being now at the Barre vpon their Triall, _Grace
+Sowerbutts_, the daughter of _Thomas Sowerbutts_, about the age of
+foureteene yeares, was produced to giue Euidence for the Kings
+Maiestie against them: who standing vp, she was commaunded to point
+out the Prisoners, which shee did, and said as followeth, _viz_
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_The Examination and Euidence of_
+GRACE SOWERBVTTS, _daughter of_ THOMAS
+SOWERBVTTS, _of Salmesbury, in the Countie of
+Lancaster Husband-man, vpon her Oath_,
+
+Against
+
+IENNET BIERLEY, ELLEN BIERLEY, _and_
+IANE SOVTHWORTH, _prisoners at the Barre, vpon
+their Arraignement and Triall_, viz.
+
+The said _Grace Sowerbutts_ vpon her oath saith, That for the space
+of some yeares now last past shee hath beene haunted and vexed with
+some women, who haue vsed to come to her: which women, shee sayth,
+were _Iennet Bierley_, this Informers Grand-mother; _Ellen Bierley_,
+wife to _Henry Bierley_; _Iane Southworth_, late the wife of _Iohn
+Southworth_, and one _Old Doewife_, all of Salmesburie aforesaid. And
+shee saith, That now lately those foure women did violently draw her
+by the haire of the head, and layd her on the toppe of a Hay-mowe, in
+the said _Henry Bierleyes_ Barne. And shee saith further, That not
+long after the said _Iennet Bierley_ did meete this Examinate neere
+vnto the place where shee dwellleth, and first appeared in her owne
+likenesse, and after that in the likenesse of a blacke Dogge, and as
+this Examinate did goe ouer a Style, shee picked her off:[K4_b_]
+howbeit shee saith shee had no hurt then, but rose againe, and went to
+her Aunts in Osbaldeston, and returned backe againe to her Fathers
+house the same night, being fetched home by her father. And she saith,
+That in her way home-wards shee did then tell her Father, how shee
+had beene dealt withall both then and at sundry times before that; and
+before that time she neuer told any bodie thereof: and being examined
+why she did not, she sayth, she could not speake thereof, though she
+desired so to doe. And she further sayth, That vpon Saterday, being
+the fourth of this instant Aprill, shee this Examinate going towards
+Salmesbury bote, to meete her mother, comming from Preston, shee saw
+the said _Iennet Bierley_, who met this Examinate at a place called
+the Two Brigges, first in her owne shape, and afterwardes in the
+likenesse of a blacke Dogge, with two legges, which Dogge went close
+by the left side of this Examinate, till they came to a Pitte of
+Water, and then the said Dogge spake, and persuaded this Examinate to
+drowne her selfe there, saying, it was a faire and an easie death:
+Whereupon this Examinate thought there came one to her in a white
+sheete, and carried her away from the said Pitte, vpon the comming
+whereof the said blacke Dogge departed away; and shortly after the
+said white thing departed also: And after this Examinate had gone
+further on her way, about the length of two or three Fields, the said
+blacke Dogge did meete her againe, and going on her left side, as
+aforesaid, did carrie her into a Barne of one _Hugh Walshmans_,[L_a_]
+neere there by, and layed her vpon the Barne-floore, and couered this
+Examinate with Straw on her bodie, and Haye on her head, and the Dogge
+it selfe lay on the toppe of the said Straw, but how long the said
+Dogge lay there, this Examinate cannot tell, nor how long her selfe
+lay there: for shee sayth, That vpon her lying downe there, as
+aforesaid, her Speech and Senses were taken from her: and the first
+time shee knew where shee was, shee was layed vpon a bedde in the said
+_Walshmans_ house, which (as shee hath since beene told) was vpon the
+Monday at night following: and shee was also told, That shee was found
+and taken from the place where shee first lay, by some of her friends,
+and carried into the said _Walshmans_ house, within a few houres after
+shee was layed in the Barne, as aforesaid. And shee further sayth,
+That vpon the day following, being Tuesday, neere night of the same
+day, shee this Examinate was fetched by her Father and Mother from the
+said _Walshmans_ house to her Fathers house. And shee saith, That at
+the place before specified, called the Two Brigges, the said _Iennet
+Bierley_ and _Ellen Bierley_ did appeare vnto her in their owne
+shapes: whereupon this Examinate fell downe, and after that was not
+able to speake, or goe, till the Friday following: during which time,
+as she lay in her Fathers house, the said _Iennet Bierley_ and _Ellen
+Bierley_ did once appeare vnto her in their owne shapes, but they did
+nothing vnto her then, neither did shee euer see them since. And shee
+further sayth, That a good while before all this, this Examinate did
+goe with the said _Iennet Bierley_, her Grand-mother, and the said
+_Ellen Bierley_ her Aunt, at the bidding of her said Grand-mother, to
+the house of one _Thomas Walshman_, in Salmesbury aforesaid. And
+comming thither in the night, when all the house-hold was a-bed, the
+doores being shut, the said _Iennet Bierley_ did open them, but this
+Examinate knoweth not how: and beeing come into the said house, this
+Examinate and the said _Ellen Bierley_ stayed there, and the said
+_Iennet Bierley_ went into the Chamber where the said _Walshman_ and
+his wife lay, & from thence brought a little child,[L2_a_1] which this
+Examinate thinketh was in bed with it Father and Mother: and after the
+said _Iennet Bierley_ had set her downe by the fire, with the said
+child, shee did thrust a naile into the nauell of the said child: and
+afterwards did take a pen and put it in at the said place, and did
+suck there a good space, and afterwards laid the child in bed againe:
+and then the said _Iennet_ and the said _Ellen_ returned to their owne
+houses, and this Examinate with them. And shee thinketh that neither
+the said _Thomas Walshman_, nor his wife knew that the said child was
+taken out of the bed from them. And shee saith also, that the said
+child did not crie when it was hurt, as aforesaid: But shee saith,
+that shee thinketh that the said child did thenceforth languish, and
+not long after dyed. And after the death of the said child; the next
+night after the buriall thereof, the said _Iennet Bierley_ & _Ellen
+Bierley_, taking this Examinate with them, went to Salmesburie Church,
+and there did take vp the said child, and the said _Iennet_ did carrie
+it out of the Church-yard in her armes, and then did put it in her lap
+and carryed it home to her owne house, and hauing it there did boile
+some therof in a Pot, and some did broile on the coales, of both which
+the said _Iennet_ & _Ellen_ did eate, and would haue had this
+Examinate and one _Grace Bierley_, Daughter of the said _Ellen_, to
+haue eaten with them, but they refused so to doe: And afterwards the
+said _Iennet_ & _Ellen_ did seethe the bones of the said child in a
+pot, & with the Fat that came out of the said bones, they said they
+would annoint themselues,[L2_a_2] that thereby they might sometimes
+change themselues into other shapes. And after all this being done,
+they said they would lay the bones againe in the graue the next night
+following, but whether they did so or not, this Examinate knoweth not:
+Neither doth shee know how they got it out of the graue at the first
+taking of it vp. And being further sworne and examined, she deposeth &
+saith, that about halfe a yeare agoe, the said _Iennet Bierley_,
+_Ellen Bierley_, _Iane Southworth_, and this Examinate (who went by
+the appointment of the said _Iennet_ her Grand mother) did meete at a
+place called Red banck, vpon the North side of the water of Ribble,
+euery Thursday and Sonday at night by the space of a fortnight, and at
+the water side there came vnto them, as they went thether, foure black
+things, going vpright, and yet not like men in the face: which foure
+did carrie the said three women and this Examinate ouer the Water, and
+when they came to the said Red Banck they found some thing there which
+they did eate. But this Examinate saith, shee neuer saw such meate;
+and therefore shee durst not eate thereof, although her said Grand
+mother did bidde her eate. And after they had eaten, the said three
+Women and this Examinate danced, euery one of them with one of the
+blacke things aforesaid, and after their dancing the said black things
+did pull downe the said three Women, and did abuse their bodies, as
+this Examinate thinketh, for shee saith, that the black thing that was
+with her, did abuse her bodie.
+
+The said Examinate further saith vpon her Oth, That about ten dayes
+after her Examination taken at Blackborne, shee this Examinate being
+then come to her Fathers house againe, after shee had beene certaine
+dayes at her Vnckles house in Houghton: _Iane Southworth_ widow, did
+meet this Examinate at her Fathers house dore and did carrie her into
+the loft,[L3_a_] and there did lay her vppon the floore, where shee
+was shortly found by her Father and brought downe, and laid in a bed,
+as afterwards shee was told: for shee saith, that from the first
+meeting of the said _Iane Southworth_, shee this Examinate had her
+speech and senses taken from her. But the next day shee saith, shee
+came somewhat to her selfe, and then the said Widow _Southworth_ came
+againe to this Examinate to her bed-side, and tooke her out of bed,
+and said to this Examinate, that shee did her no harme the other time,
+in respect of that shee now would after doe to her, and thereupon put
+her vpon a hey-stack, standing some three or foure yards high from the
+earth, where shee was found after great search made, by a neighbours
+Wife neare dwelling, and then laid in her bedde againe, where she
+remained speechlesse and senselesse as before, by the space of two or
+three daies: And being recouered, within a weeke after shee saith,
+that the said _Iane Southworth_ did come againe to this Examinate at
+her fathers house and did take her away, and laid her in a ditch neare
+to the house vpon her face, and left her there, where shee was found
+shortly after, and laid vpon a bedde, but had not her senses againe of
+a day & a night, or thereabouts. And shee further saith, That vpon
+Tuesday last before the taking of this her Examination, the said _Iane
+Southworth_ came to this Examinates Fathers house, and finding this
+Examinate without the doore, tooke her and carried her into the Barne,
+and thrust her head amongst a companie of boords that were there
+standing, where shee was shortly after found and laid in a bedde, and
+remained in her old fit till the Thursday at night following.
+
+And being further examined touching her being at Red-bancke, shee
+saith, That the three women, by her before named, were carried backe
+againe ouer Ribble, by the same blacke things that carried them
+thither; and saith that at their said meeting in the Red-bancke, there
+did come also diuers other women, and did meete them there, some old,
+some yong, which this Examinate thinketh did dwell vpon the North-side
+of Ribble, because she saw them not come ouer the Water: but this
+Examinate knew none of them, neither did she see them eat or dance, or
+doe anything else that the rest did, sauing that they were there and
+looked on.
+
+These particular points of Euidence being thus vrged against the
+Prisoners: the father of this _Grace Sowerbutts_ prayed that _Thomas
+Walshman_, whose childe they are charged to murther, might be examined
+as a witnes vpon his oath, for the Kings Maiestie, against the
+Prisoners at the Barre: who vpon this strange deuised accusation,
+deliuered by this impudent wench, were in opinion of many of that
+great Audience guilty of this bloudie murther, and more worthy to die
+then any of these Witches.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_The Examination and Euidence of_
+THOMAS WALSHMAN, _of Salmesbury, in the
+Countie of Lancaster, Yeoman._
+
+Against
+
+IENNET BIERLEY, ELLEN BIERLEY, _and_
+IANE SOVTHWORTH, _Prisoners at the Barre, vpon
+their Arraignement and Triall, as followeth._ viz.
+
+The said Examinate, _Thomas Walshman_, vpon his oath saith, That hee
+had a childe died about Lent was twelue-month, who had beene sicke by
+the space of a fortnight or three weekes, and was afterwards buried in
+Salmesburie Church: which childe when it died was about a yeare old;
+But how it came to the death of it, this Examinate knoweth not. And he
+further saith, that about the fifteenth of Aprill last, or
+thereabouts, the said _Grace Sowerbutts_ was found in this Examinates
+fathers Barne, laid vnder a little hay and straw, and from thence was
+carried into this Examinates house, and there laid till the Monday at
+night following: during which time shee did not speak, but lay as if
+she had beene dead.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_The Examination of_ IOHN SINGLETON:
+_Taken at Salmesbury, in the Countie of Lancaster,
+the seuenth day of August_: Anno Reg. Regis IACOBI
+Angliae, Franciae, & Hiberniae, Fidei Defensor. &c.
+Decimo & Scotiae, xlvj.
+
+Before
+
+ROBERT HOVLDEN,[L4_b_1] _Esquire, one of his Maiesties
+Iustices of Peace in the County of Lancaster._
+
+Against
+
+IENNET BIERLEY, ELLEN BIERLEY, _and_
+IANE SOVTHWORTH, _which hereafter followeth._
+
+The said Examinate vpon his oath saith, That hee hath often heard
+his old Master, Sir _Iohn Southworth_[L4_b_2] Knight, now deceased,
+say, touching the late wife of _Iohn Southworth_, now in the Gaole,
+for suspition of Witchcraft: That the said wife was as he thought an
+euill woman, and a Witch: and he said that he was sorry for her
+husband, that was his kinsman, for he thought she would kill him. And
+this Examinate further saith, That the said Sir _Iohn Southworth_ in
+his comming or going betweene his owne house at Salmesbury, and the
+Towne of Preston, did for the most part forbeare to passe by the
+house, where the said wife dwelled, though it was his nearest and best
+way; and rode another way, only for feare of the said wife, as this
+Examinate verily thinketh.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_The Examination of_ WILLIAM
+ALKER _of Salmesbury, in the Countie of Lancaster,
+Yeoman: Taken the fifteenth day of Aprill_, Anno Reg.
+Regis IACOBI, Angliae, Franciae, & Hiberniae, Decimo
+& Scotiae, quadragesimo quinto.
+
+Before
+
+ROBERT HOVLDEN, _one of his Maiesties Iustices
+of Peace in the County of Lancaster: Against_ IENNET
+BIERLEY, ELLEN BIERLEY, _and_ IANE BIERLEY,
+_which hereafter followeth._ viz.
+
+The said Examinate vpon his oath saith, That hee hath seene the
+said Sir _Iohn Southworth_ shunne to meet the said wife of _Iohn
+Southworth_, now Prisoner in the Gaole, when he came neere where she
+was. And hath heard the said Sir _Iohn Southworth_ say, that he liked
+her not, and that he doubted she would bewitch him.
+
+Here was likewise _Thomas Sowerbutts_, father of _Grace Sowerbutts_,
+examined vpon his oath, and many other witnesses to little purpose:
+who being examined by the Court, could depose little against them: But
+the finding of the wench vpon the hay in her counterfeit fits:
+wherfore I leaue to trouble you with the particular declaration of
+their Euidence against the Prisoners, In respect there was not any one
+witnes able to charge them with one direct matter of Witchcraft; nor
+proue any thing for the murther of the childe.
+
+Herein, before we come to the particular declaration of that wicked
+and damnable practise of this Iesuite or Seminary, I shall commend
+vnto your examination and iudgement some points of her Euidence,
+wherein you shal see what impossibilities are in this accusati[=o]
+brought to this perfection, by the great care and paines of this
+officious Doctor, Master _Thompson_ or _Southworth_, who commonly
+worketh vpon the Feminine disposition, being more Passiue then Actiue.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_The particular points of the Euidence_[M1_b_] _of_ GRACE SOWERBUTTS,
+_viz._
+
+Euidence.
+
+     _That for the space of some yeares she hath been haunted
+     and vexed with some women, who haue vsed to come to her._
+
+The Iesuite forgot to instruct his Scholler how long it is since she
+was tormented: it seemes it is long since he read the old Badge of a
+Lyer, _Oportet mendacem esse memorem_. He knowes not how long it is
+since they came to church, after which time they began to practise
+Witchcraft. It is a likely thing the Torment and Panges of Witchcraft
+can be forgotten; and therefore no time can be set downe.
+
+     _Shee saith that now lately these foure women did violently
+     draw her by the haire of the head, and lay her on the top of
+     a Hay-mow._
+
+Heere they vse great violence to her, whome in another place they make
+choise to be of their counsell, to go with them to the house of
+_Walshman_ to murther the childe. This courtesie deserues no discouery
+of so foule a Fact.
+
+     _Not long after, the said_ Iennet Bierley _did meet this
+     Examinate neere vnto the place where she dwelled, and first
+     appeared in her owne likenesse, and after that in the
+     likenesse of a blacke Dogge._
+
+_Vno & eodem tempore_, shee transformed her selfe into a Dogge. I
+would know by what meanes any Priest can maintaine this point of
+Euidence.
+
+     _And as shee went ouer a Style, shee picked her ouer, but
+     had no hurt._
+
+This is as likely to be true as the rest, to throw a child downe from
+the toppe of a House, and neuer hurt her great toe.
+
+     _She rose againe; had no hurt, went to her Aunt, and
+     returned backe againe to her Fathers house, being fetched
+     home._
+
+I pray you obserue these contrarieties, in order as they are placed,
+to accuse the Prisoners.
+
+     _Saterday the fourth of this instant Aprill._
+
+Which was about the very day the Witches of the Forrest of Pendle were
+sent to Lancaster. Now was the time for the Seminarie to instruct,
+accuse, and call into question these poore women: for the wrinkles of
+an old wiues face is good euidence to the Iurie against a Witch.[M2_a_]
+And how often will the common people say (_Her eyes are sunke in her
+head_, GOD _blesse vs from her._) But old _Chattox_ had
+_Fancie_,[M2_b_] besides her withered face, to accuse her.
+
+     _This Examinate did goe with the said_ Iennet Bierley _her
+     Grand-mother, and_ Ellen Bierley _her Aunt, to the house of_
+     Walshman, _in the night-time, to murther a Child in strange
+     manner._
+
+This of all the rest is impossible, to make her of their counsell, to
+doe murther, whome so cruelly and barbarously they pursue from day to
+day, and torment her. The Witches of the Forrest of Pendle were neuer
+so cruell nor barbarous.
+
+     _And shee also saith, the Child cried not when it was hurt._
+
+All this time the Child was asleepe, or the Child was of an
+extraordinarie patience, _o inauditum facinus_!
+
+     _After they had eaten, the said three women and this
+     Examinate daunced euery one of them with one of the Blacke
+     things: and after, the Blacke things abused the said women._
+
+Here is good Euidence to take away their liues. This is more proper
+for the Legend of Lyes, then the Euidence of a witnesse vpon Oath,
+before a reuerend and learned Iudge, able to conceiue this Villanie,
+and finde out the practise. Here is the Religious act of a Priest, but
+behold the euent of it.
+
+     _She describes the foure Blacke things to goe vpright, but
+     not like Men in the face._
+
+The Seminarie mistakes the face for the feete: For _Chattox_ and all
+her fellow Witches agree, the Deuill is clouen-footed: but _Fancie_
+had a very good face, and was a very proper Man.
+
+     _About tenne dayes after her Examination taken at
+     Black-borne, then she was tormented._
+
+Still he pursues his Proiect: for hearing his Scholler had done well,
+he laboured she might doe more in this nature. But notwithstanding,
+many things are layd to be in the times when they were Papists: yet
+the Priest neuer tooke paines to discouer them, nor instruct his
+Scholler, vntill they came to Church. Then all this was the Act of
+GOD, to raise a child to open all things, and then to difcouer his
+plotted Tragedie. Yet in this great discouerie, the Seminarie forgot
+to deuise a Spirit for them.
+
+And for _Thomas Walshman_, vpon his Oath he sayth, That his Childe had
+beene sicke by the space of a fortnight, or three weekes, before it
+died. And _Grace Sowerbutts_ saith, they tooke it out of the bedde,
+strucke a nayle into the Nauell, sucked bloud, layd it downe againe;
+and after, tooke it out of the Graue, with all the rest, as you haue
+heard. How these two agree, you may, vpon view of their Euidence, the
+better conceiue, and be able to judge.
+
+How well this proiect, to take away the liues of three innocent poore
+creatures by practise and villanie; to induce a young Scholler to
+commit periurie, to accuse her owne Grand-mother, Aunt, &c. agrees
+either with the Title of a Iesuite, or the dutie of a Religious
+Priest, who should rather professe Sinceritie and Innocencie, then
+practise Trecherie: But this was lawfull; for they are Heretikes
+accursed, to leaue the companie of Priests; to frequent Churches,
+heare the word of GOD preached, and professe Religion sincerely.
+
+But by the course of Times and Accidents, wise men obserue, that very
+seldome hath any mischieuous attempt beene vnder-taken without the
+direction or assistance of a Iesuit, or Seminarie Priest.
+
+Who did not condemne these Women vpon this euidence, and hold them
+guiltie of this so foule and horrible murder? But Almightie God, who
+in his prouidence had prouided meanes for their deliuerance, although
+the Priest by the help of the Deuill, had prouided false witnesses to
+accuse them; yet GOD had prepared and placed in the Seate of Iustice,
+an vpright Iudge to sit in Iudgement vpon their liues, who after he
+had heard all the euidence at large against the Prisoners for the
+Kings Majestie, demanded of them what answere they could make. They
+humbly vpon their knees with weeping teares, desired him for Gods
+cause to examine _Grace Sowerbuts_, who set her on, or by whose meanes
+this accusation came against them.
+
+Immediately the countenance of this _Grace Sowerbuts_ changed: The
+witnesses being behinde, began to quarrell and accuse one an other. In
+the end his Lordship examined the Girle, who could not for her life
+make any direct answere, but strangely amazed, told him, shee was put
+to a Master to learne, but he told her nothing of this.
+
+But here as his Lordships care and paines was great to discouer the
+practises of these odious Witches of the Forrest of Pendle, and other
+places, now vpon their triall before him: So was he desirous to
+discouer this damnable practise, to accuse these poore Women, and
+bring their liues in danger, and thereby to deliuer the innocent.
+
+And as he openly deliuered it vpon the Bench, in the hearing of this
+great Audience: That if a Priest or Iesuit had a hand in one end of
+it, there would appeare to bee knauerie, and practise in the other end
+of it. And that it might the better appeare to the whole World,
+examined _Thomas Sowerbuts_, what Master taught his daughter: in
+generall termes, he denyed all.
+
+The Wench had nothing to say, but her Master told her nothing of this.
+In the end, some that were present told his Lordship the truth, and
+the Prisoners informed him how shee went to learne with one _Thompson_
+a Seminarie Priest, who had instructed and taught her this accusation
+against them, because they were once obstinate Papists, and now came
+to Church. Here is the discouerie of this Priest, and of his whole
+practise. Still this fire encreased more and more, and one witnesse
+accusing an other, all things were laid open at large.
+
+In the end his Lordship tooke away the Girle from her Father, and
+committed her to M. _Leigh_, a very religious Preacher,[M4_a_] and M.
+_Chisnal_, two Iustices of the Peace, to be carefully examined. Who
+tooke great paines to examine her of euery particular point: In the
+end they came into the Court, and there deliuered this Examination as
+followeth.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_The Examination of_ GRACE SOWERBVTS,
+_of Salmesburie, in the Countie of Lancaster, Spinster:
+Taken vpon Wednesday the 19. of August 1612.
+Annoq; Reg. Regis_, IACOBI _Angliae, Franciae, & Hiberniae,
+Fidei Defensoris, &c. decimo & Scotiae_, xlvi.
+
+Before
+
+WILLIAM LEIGH, _and_ EDWARD CHISNAL,
+_Esquires; two of his Maiesties Iustices of Peace in the same
+Countie: At the Assizes and generall Gaole deliuerie, holden
+at Lancaster._
+
+By
+
+_Direction of Sir_ EDWARD BROMLEY _Knight, one
+of his Maiesties Iustices of Assize at Lancaster._
+
+Being demanded whether the accusation shee laid vppon her
+Grand-mother, _Iennet Bierley_, _Ellen Bierley_, and _Iane
+Southworth_, of Witchcraft, _viz._ of the killing of the child of
+_Thomas Walshman_, with a naile in the Nauell, the boyling, eating,
+and oyling, thereby to transforme themselues into diuers shapes, was
+true; Shee doth vtterly denie the same; or that euer shee saw any such
+practises done by them.
+
+Shee further saith, that one Master _Thompson_, which she taketh to be
+Master _Christopher Southworth_, to whom shee was sent to learne her
+prayers, did perswade, counsell, and aduise her, to deale as formerly
+hath beene said against her said Grand-mother, Aunt, and _Southworths_
+wife.
+
+And further shee confesseth and saith, that shee neuer did know, or
+saw any Deuils, nor any other Visions, as formerly by her hath beene
+alleaged and informed.
+
+Also shee confesseth and saith, That shee was not throwne or cast vpon
+the Henne-ruffe, and Hay-mow in the Barne, but that shee went vp vpon
+the Mow her selfe by the wall side.
+
+Being further demanded whether shee euer was at the Church, shee
+saith, shee was not, but promised her after to goe to the Church, and
+that very willingly.
+
+     _Signum_ [Symbol: Maltese cross] Grace Sowerbuts.
+
+     _William Leigh._
+
+     _Edward Chisnal._
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_The Examination of_ IENNET BIERLEY,
+ELLEN BIERLEY, _and_ IANE SOVTHWORTH,
+_of Salmesburie, in the Countie of Lancaster,
+Taken vpon Wednesday the nineteenth of August_ 1612.
+_Annoq; Reg. Regis_, IACOBI _Angliae, Franciae, & Hiberniae,
+Fidei Defensoris, &c. decimo & Scotiae_, xlvi.
+
+Before
+
+WILLIAM LEIGH, _and_ EDWARD CHISNAL,
+_Esquires; two of his Maiesties Iustices of Peace in the same
+Countie: At the Assizes and generall Gaole deliuerie, holden
+at Lancaster._
+
+By
+
+_Direction of Sir_ EDWARD BROMLEY _Knight, one
+of his Maiesties Iustices of Assize at Lancaster._
+
+_Iennet Bierley_ being demanded what shee knoweth, or hath heard,
+how _Grace Sowerbuts_ was brought to _Christopher Southworth_, Priest;
+shee answereth, that shee was brought to M. _Singletons_ house by her
+owne Mother, where the said Priest was, and that shee further heard
+her said Mother say, after her Daughter had been in her fit, that shee
+should be brought vnto her Master, meaning the said Priest.
+
+And shee further saith, that shee thinketh it was by and through the
+Counsell of the said M. _Thomson_, alias _Southworth_, Priest, That
+_Grace Sowerbuts_ her Grand-child accused her of Witchcraft, and of
+such practises as shee is accused of: and thinketh further, the cause
+why the said _Thompson_, alias _Southworth_ Priest, should practise
+with the Wench to doe it was, for that shee went to the Church.
+
+_Iane Southworth_ saith shee saw Master _Thompson_, alias
+_Southworth_, the Priest, a month or sixe weekes before she was
+committed to the Gaole; and had conference with him in a place called
+Barne-hey-lane, where and when shee challenged him for slandering her
+to bee a Witch: whereunto he answered, that what he had heard thereof,
+he heard from her mother and her Aunt: yet she, this Examinate,
+thinketh in her heart it was by his procurement, and is moued so to
+thinke, for that shee would not be disswaded from the Church.
+
+_Ellen Bierley_ saith, Shee saw Master _Thompson_, alias _Southworth_,
+sixe or eight weeks before she was committed, and thinketh the said
+Priest was the practiser with _Grace Sowerbutts_, to accuse her of
+Witchcraft, and knoweth no cause why he should so doe, but because she
+goeth to the Church.
+
+     _Signum_, [Symbol: Maltese cross] Iennet Bierley.
+
+     _Signum_, L Iane Southworth.
+
+     _Signum_, [Symbol: Greek Phi] Ellen Bierley.
+
+     _William Leigh._
+
+     _Edward Chisnall._
+
+These Examinations being taken, they were brought into the Court, and
+there openly in the presence of this great Audience published, and
+declared to the Iurie of Life and Death; and thereupon the Gentlemen
+of their Iury required to consider of them. For although they stood
+vpon their Triall, for matter of Fact of Witchcraft, Murther, and much
+more of the like nature: yet in respect all their Accusations did
+appeare to bee practise: they were now to consider of them, and to
+acquit them. Thus were these poore Innocent creatures, by the great
+care and paines of this honorable Iudge, deliuered from the danger of
+this conspiracie; this bloudie practise of the Priest laid open: of
+whose fact I may lawfully say; _Etiam si ego tacuero clamabunt
+lapides_.
+
+These are but ordinary with Priests and Iesuites: no respect of Bloud,
+kindred, or friendship, can moue them to forbeare their Conspiracies:
+for when he had laboured treacherously to seduce and conuert them, and
+yet could doe no good; then deuised he this meanes.
+
+_God of his great mercie deliuer vs all from them and their damnable
+conspiracies: and when any of his Maiesties subiects, so free and
+innocent as these, shall come in question, grant them as honorable a
+Triall, as Reuerend and worthy a Iudge to sit in Iudgement vpon them;
+and in the end as speedie a deliuerance. And for that which I haue
+heard of them; seene with my eyes, and taken paines to Reade of them:
+My humble prayer shall be to God Almightie._ Vt Conuertantur ne
+pereant. Aut confundantur ne noceant.
+
+To conclude, because the discourse of these three women of Salmesbury
+hath beene long and troublesome to you; it is heere placed amongst
+the Witches, by special order and commandement, to set forth to the
+World the practise and conspiracie of this bloudy Butcher. And because
+I haue presented to your view a Kalender in the Frontispice of this
+Booke, of twentie notorious Witches: I shall shew you their
+deliuerance in order, as they came to their Arraignement and Triall
+euery day, and as the Gentlemen of euery Iury for life and death stood
+charged with them.
+
+
+[Illustration: decoration]
+
+THE ARRAIGNMENT
+_and Triall of_ ANNE REDFERNE,[N3_b_]
+_Daughter of_ ANNE WHITTLE, _alias_ CHATTOX,
+_of the Forrest of Pendle, in the Countie of Lancaster, for
+Witchcraft; vpon Wednesday the nineteenth of August,
+at the Assises and Generall Gaole-deliuerie, holden at
+Lancaster_,
+
+Before
+
+_Sir_ EDWARD BROMLEY _Knight, one of his Maiesties
+Iustices of Assise at Lancaster._
+
+_Anne Redferne._
+
+Svch is the horror of Murther, and the crying sinne of Bloud, that
+it will neuer bee satisfied but with Bloud. So fell it out with this
+miserable creature, _Anne Redferne_, the daughter of _Anne Whittle_,
+alias _Chattox_: who, as shee was her Mother, and brought her into the
+World, so was she the meanes to bring her into this danger, and in the
+end to her Execution, for much Bloud spilt, and many other mischiefes
+done.
+
+For vpon Tuesday night (although you heare little of her at the
+Arraignement and Triall of old _Chattox_, her Mother) yet was shee
+arraigned for the murther of _Robert Nutter_, and others: and by the
+fauour and mercifull consideration of the Iurie, the Euidence being
+not very pregnant against her, she was acquited, and found Not
+guiltie.
+
+Such was her condition and course of life, as had she liued, she would
+haue beene very dangerous: for in making pictures of Clay, she was
+more cunning then any: But the innocent bloud yet vnsatisfied, and
+crying out vnto GOD for satisfaction and reuenge; the crie of his
+people (to deliuer them from the danger of such horrible and bloudie
+executioners, and from her wicked and damnable practises) hath now
+againe brought her to a second Triall, where you shall heare what wee
+haue vpon Record against her.
+
+This _Anne Redferne_, prisoner in the Castle at Lancaster, being
+brought to the Barre, before the great Seat of Iustice, was there,
+according to the former order and course, indicted and arraigned, for
+that she felloniously had practised, exercised, and vsed her deuillish
+and wicked Arts, called _Witchcrafts_, _Inchauntments_, _Charmes_, and
+_Sorceries_, in and vpon one _Christopher Nutter_, and him the said
+_Christopher Nutter_, by force of the same Witchcrafts, felloniously
+did kill and murther, _Contra formam Statuti &c. Et Contra Pacem &c._
+
+Vpon her Arraignement to this Indictment, she pleaded _Not-Guiltie_;
+and for the triall of her life put her selfe vpon GOD and the
+Countrey.
+
+So as now the Gentlemen of the Iurie of Life and Death stand charged
+with her as with others.
+
+     _The Euidence against_ Anne Redferne, _Prisoner at the
+     Barre._
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_The Examination of_ ELIZABETH
+SOTHERNES, alias OLD DEMBDIKE, _taken at the
+Fence, in the Forrest of Pendle, in the Countie of Lancaster,
+the second day of Aprill_, Anno Reg. Regis IACOBI,
+Angliae, &c. decimo, & Scotiae xlv.
+
+Against
+
+ANNE REDFERNE (_the daughter of_ ANNE WHITTLE,
+alias CHATTOX) _Prisoner at the Barre:_
+
+Before
+
+ROGER NOWEL _of Reade, Esquire, one of his Maiesties
+Iustices of Peace within the said Countie._
+
+This Examinate saith, That about halfe a yeare before _Robert
+Nutter_ died, as this Examinate thinketh, this Examinate went to the
+house of _Thomas Redferne_, which was about Midsummer, as shee this
+Examinate now remembreth it: and there, within three yards of the East
+end of the said house, shee saw the said _Anne Whittle_ and _Anne
+Redferne_, wife of the said _Thomas Redferne_, and daughter of the
+said _Anne Whittle_, the one on the one side of a Ditch, and the other
+on the other side, and two pictures of Clay or Marle lying by them,
+and the third picture the said _Anne Whittle_ was making. And the said
+_Anne Redferne_, her said daughter, wrought her Clay or Marle to make
+the third picture withall. And this Examinate passing by them, a
+Spirit, called _Tibbe_, in the shape of a blacke Cat, appeared vnto
+her this Examinate and said, Turne backe againe, and doe as they doe.
+To whom this Examinate said, What are they doing? Whereunto the said
+Spirit said, They are making three pictures: whereupon shee asked,
+whose pictures they were? whereunto the said Spirit said, They are the
+pictures of _Christopher Nutter_, _Robert Nutter_, and _Mary_, wife of
+the said _Robert Nutter_. But this Examinate denying to goe backe to
+helpe them to make the pictures aforesaid, the said Spirit seeming to
+be angrie therefore, shot or pushed this Examinate into the Ditch; and
+so shedde the milke which this Examinate had in a Kanne, or Kitt; and
+so thereupon the Spirit at that time vanished out of this Examinates
+sight. But presently after that, the said Spirit appeared vnto this
+Examinate again in the shape of a Hare, and so went with her about a
+quarter of a myle, but said nothing vnto her this Examinate, nor shee
+to it.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_The Examination of_ MARGARET
+CROOKE
+
+Against
+
+_the said_ ANNE REDFERNE: _Taken the day and
+yeare aforesaid_,
+
+Before
+
+ROGER NOWEL _aforesaid, Esquire, one of his Maiesties
+Iustices of the Peace in the Countie of Lancaster._
+
+This Examinate, sworne & examined vpon her oath, sayth, That about
+eighteene or nineteene yeares agoe, this Examinates brother, called
+_Robert Nutter_, about Whitsontide the same yeare, meeting with the
+said _Anne Redferne_, vpon some speeches betweene them they fell out,
+as this Examinats said brother told this Examinat: and within some
+weeke, or fort-night, then next after, this Examinats said brother
+fell sicke, and so languished vntill about Candlemas then next after,
+and then died. In which time of his sicknesse, he did a hundred times
+at the least say, That the said _Anne Redferne_ and her associates had
+bewitched him to death. And this Examinate further saith, That this
+Examinates Father, called _Christopher Nutter_, about Maudlintide next
+after following fell sicke, and so languished, vntill Michaelmas then
+next after, and then died: during which time of his sicknesse, hee did
+sundry times say, That hee was bewitched; but named no bodie that
+should doe the same.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_The Examination of_ IOHN NVTTER,
+_of Higham Booth, in the Forrest of Pendle, in the
+Countie of Lancaster, yeoman_,
+
+Against
+
+_the said_ ANNE REDFERNE: _Taken the day and yeare
+aforesaid_,
+
+Before
+
+ROGER NOWEL _Esquire, one of his Maiesties Iustices
+of Peace in the Countie of Lancaster._
+
+This Examinate, sworne and examined vpon his oath, sayth, That in
+or about Christmas, some eighteene or nineteene yeares agoe, this
+Examinat comming from Burnley with _Christopher Nutter_ and _Robert
+Nutter_, this Examinates Father and Brother, this Examinate heard his
+said Brother then say vnto his said Father these words, or to this
+effect. _Father, I am sure I am bewitched by the_ Chattox, Anne
+Chattox, _and_ Anne Redferne _her daughter, I pray you cause them to
+bee layed in Lancaster Castle:_ Whereunto this Examinates Father
+answered, Thou art a foolish Ladde, it is not so, it is thy
+miscarriage. Then this Examinates Brother weeping, said; nay, I am
+sure that I am bewitched by them, and if euer I come againe (for hee
+was readie to goe to Sir _Richard Shuttleworths_, then his Master) I
+will procure them to bee laid where they shall be glad to bite Lice in
+two with their teeth.
+
+Hereupon _Anne Whittle_, alias _Chattox_, her Mother, was brought
+forth to bee examined, who confessed the making of the pictures of
+Clay, and in the end cried out very heartily to God to forgiue her
+sinnes, and vpon her knees intreated for this _Redferne_, her
+daughter.
+
+Here was likewise many witnesses examined vpon oth _Viua voce_, who
+charged her with many strange practises, and declared the death of the
+parties, all in such sort, and about the time in the Examinations
+formerly mentioned.
+
+All men that knew her affirmed, shee was more dangerous then her
+Mother, for shee made all or most of the Pictures of Clay, that were
+made or found at any time.
+
+Wherefore I leaue her to make good vse of the little time she hath to
+repent in: but no meanes could moue her to repentance, for as shee
+liued, so shee dyed.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_The Examination of_ IAMES DEVICE,
+_taken the day and yeare afore-said._
+
+Before
+
+ROGER NOWEL, _and_ NICHOLAS BANNESTER,
+_Esquires: two of his Maiesties Iustices of Peace
+within the said Countie of Lancaster._ viz.
+
+The said Examinate vpon his oath saith, That about two yeares agoe,
+hee this Examinate saw three Pictures of Clay, of halfe a yard long,
+at the end of _Redfernes_ house, which _Redferne_ had one of the
+Pictures in his hand, _Marie_ his daughter had another in her hand,
+and the said _Redfernes_ wife, [Sidenote: _Anne Redferne the Witch._]
+now prisoner at Lancaster, had an other Picture in her hand, which
+Picture she the said _Redfernes_ wife, was then crumbling, but whose
+Pictures they were, this Examinate cannot tell. And at his returning
+backe againe, some ten Roods off them there appeared vnto him this
+Examinate a thing like a Hare, which spit fire at him this Examinate.
+
+
+[Illustration: decoration]
+
+THE ARRAIGNMENT
+_and Triall of_ ALICE NUTTER,
+_of the Forrest of Pendle, in the Countie of Lancaster, for
+Witch-craft; upon Wednesday the nineteenth of August,
+at the Assizes and generall Gaole deliuerie, holden at
+Lancaster._
+
+Before
+
+_Sir_ EDWARD BROMLEY _Knight, one of his
+Maiesties Iustices of Assize at Lancaster._
+
+_Alice Nutter._[O3_a_]
+
+The two degrees of persons which chiefly practise Witch-craft, are
+such, as are in great miserie and pouertie, for such the Deuill
+allures to follow him, by promising great riches, and worldly
+commoditie; Others, though rich, yet burne in a desperate desire of
+Reuenge; Hee allures them by promises, to get their turne satisfied to
+their hearts contentment, as in the whole proceedings against old
+_Chattox_: the examinations of old _Dembdike_; and her children, there
+was not one of them, but have declared the like, when the Deuill first
+assaulted them.
+
+But to attempt this woman in that sort, the Diuel had small meanes:
+For it is certaine she was a rich woman; had a great estate, and
+children of good hope: in the common opinion of the world, of good
+temper, free from enuy or malice; yet whether by the meanes of the
+rest of the Witches, or some vnfortunate occasion, shee was drawne to
+fall to this wicked course of life, I know not: but hither shee is now
+come to receiue her Triall, both for Murder, and many other vilde and
+damnable practises.
+
+Great was the care and paines of his Lordship, to make triall of the
+Innocencie of this woman, as shall appeare vnto you vpon the
+Examination of _Iennet Deuice_, in open Court, at the time of her
+Arraignement and Triall; by an extraordinary meanes of Triall, to
+marke her out from the rest.
+
+It is very certaine she was of the Grand-counsell at Malking-Tower
+vpon Good-Friday, and was there present, which was a very great
+argument to condemne her.
+
+This _Alice Nutter_, Prisoner in the Castle at Lancaster: Being
+brought to the Barre before the Great Seat of Iustice; was there
+according to the former order and course Indicted and Arraigned, for
+that she felloniously had practised, exercised, and vsed her diuellish
+and wicked Arts, called _Witchcrafts_, _Inchantments_, _Charmes_ and
+_Sorceries_, in and vpon _Henry Mitton_: and him the said _Henry
+Mitton_, by force of the same Witchcrafts, felloniously did kill and
+murther. _Contra formam Statuti_, &c. _Et Contra Pacem_, &c.
+
+Vpon her Arraignement, to this Indictment shee pleaded not guiltie;
+and for the triall of her life, put her selfe vpon God and the
+Countrey.
+
+So as now the Gentlemen of the Iury of life and death stand charged
+with her, as with others.
+
+     _The Euidence against_ Alice Nutter _Prisoner
+     at the Barre._
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_The Examination of_ IAMES DEVICE
+_sonne of_ ELIZABETH DEVICE: _Taken the seuen
+and twentieth day of Aprill_: Anno Reg. Regis IACOBI
+Angliae, Franciae, & Hiberniae, Fidei Defensor. &c.
+Decimo & Scotiae, xlvj.
+
+Before
+
+ROGER NOWEL _and_ NICHOLAS BANESTER, _two of his Maiesties Iustices of
+Peace in the Countie of Lancaster. Against Alice Nutter._
+
+The said Examinate saith vpon his oath, That hee heard his
+Grand-mother say, about a yeare ago, that his mother, called
+_Elizabeth Deuice_, and his Grand-mother, and the wife of _Richard
+Nutter_, [Sidenote: _Alice Nutter_ the Prisoner.] of the Rough-Lee
+aforesaid, had killed one _Henry Mitton_, of the Rough-Lee aforesaid,
+by Witchcraft. The reason wherefore he was so killed, was for that
+this Examinats said Grand-mother had asked the said _Mitton_ a penny:
+and hee denying her thereof; thereupon shee procured his death as
+aforesaid.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_The Examination of_ ELIZABETH
+DEVICE, _mother of the said_ IAMES DEVICE.
+
+Against
+
+ALICE NVTTER, _wife of_ RICHARD NVTTER,
+_Prisoner at the Barre, vpon her Arraignement and
+Triall._
+
+Before
+
+ROGER NOWEL _and_ NICHOLAS BANESTER,
+_Esquires, the day and yeare aforesaid._
+
+This Examinate vpon her oath confesseth, and saith, That she, with
+the wife of _Richard Nutter_, called _Alice Nutter_, Prisoner at the
+Barre; and this Examinates said mother, _Elizabeth Sotherne_, alias
+_Old Demdike_; ioyned altogether, and bewitched the said _Henry
+Mitton_ to death.
+
+This Examinate further saith, That vpon Good-friday last, there dined
+at this examinats house two women of Burneley Parish, whose names the
+said _Richard Nutters_ wife, _Alice Nutter_, now Prisoner at the
+Barre, doth know.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_The Examination of_ IAMES DEVICE
+_aforesaid._
+
+Against
+
+_The said_ ALICE NVTTER, _the daye and yeare aforesaid._
+
+The said Examinate vpon his oath saith, That vpon Good-Friday about
+twelue of the clocke in the day time, there dined in this Examinats
+said mothers house, a number of persons, whereof three were men, with
+this Examinate, and the rest women: and that they mette there for
+these three causes following, as this Examinats said mother told this
+Examinate.
+
+The first was for the naming of the Spirit, which _Alizon Deuice_, now
+Prisoner at Lancaster, had, but did not name him, because she was not
+there.
+
+The second cause was, for the deliuerie of his said Grand-mother; this
+Examinates said sister, _Alizon_; the said _Anne Chattox_, and her
+daughter _Redferne_; killing the Gaoler at Lancaster, and before the
+next Assizes to blow vp the Castle there; to the end that the foresaid
+Prisoners might by that meanes make an escape, and get away: all which
+this Examinate then heard them conferre of.
+
+And he also saith, The names of such Witches as were on Good-Friday at
+this Examinats said Grand-mothers house, and now this Examinates owne
+mothers, for so many of them as he doth know, were amongst others,
+_Alice Nutter_, mother of _Myles Nutter_, now Prisoner at the Barre.
+And this Examinate further saith, That all the said Witches went out
+of the said house in their owne shapes and likenesses; and they all,
+by that time they were forth of the doores, were gotten on
+horse-backe, like vnto Foales, some of one colour, and some of
+another; and _Prestons_ wife was the last: and when shee got on
+horse-back, they all presently vanished out of this Examinates sight:
+and before their said parting away, they all appointed to meete at the
+said _Prestons_ wifes house that day twelue month, at which time the
+said _Prestons_ wife promised to make them a great feast: and if they
+had occasion to meete in the meane time, then should warning be giuen
+to meet up[=o] Romleys Moore.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_The Examination and Euidence of_
+IENNET DEVICE, _daughter of_ ELIZABETH
+DEVICE.
+
+Against
+
+ALICE NVTTER, _Prisoner at the Barre._
+
+The said Examinate saith, That on Good-Friday last, there was about
+20. persons, whereof only two were men (to this Examinates
+remembrance) at her said Grand-mothers house at Malking-Tower, about
+twelue of the clock; all which persons, this Examinats said mother
+tould her, were Witches. And she further saith, she knoweth the names
+of six of them, _viz._ the wife of _Hugh Hargreiues_ vnder Pendle,
+_Christopher Howgate_ of Pendle, Vncle to this Examinat and
+_Elizabeth_ his wife; and _Dick Myles_ wife of the Rough-Lee,
+_Christopher Iacks_ of Thorniholme, and his wife; and the names of the
+residue, she this Examinate doth not know.
+
+After these Examinations were openly read, his Lordship being very
+suspitious of the accusation of this yong wench _Iennet Deuice_,
+commanded one to take her away into the vpper Hall, intending in the
+meane time to make Triall of her Euidence, and the Accusation
+especially against this woman, who is charged to haue beene at
+Malking-Tower, at this great meeting. Master _Couel_ was commanded to
+set all his prisoners by themselues, and betwixt euery Witch another
+Prisoner, and some other strange women amongst them, so as no man
+could iudge the one from the other: and these being set in order
+before the Court from the prisoners, then was the Wench _Iennet
+Deuice_ commaunded to be brought into the Court: and being set before
+my Lord, he tooke great paines to examine her of euery particular
+Point, What women were at Malking-Tower vpon Good-Friday? How she knew
+them? What were the names of any of them? And how she knew them to be
+such as she named?
+
+In the end being examined by my Lord,[P2_a_1] Whether she knew them
+that were there by their faces, if she saw them? she told my Lord she
+should: whereupon in the presence of this great Audience, in open
+Court, she went and tooke _Alice Nutter_, this prisoner, by the hand,
+and accused her to be one: and told her in what place shee sat at the
+Feast at Malking-Tower, at the great assembly of the Witches, and who
+sat next her: what conference they had, and all the rest of their
+proceedings at large, without any manner of contrarietie.
+
+Being demaunded further by his Lordship, Whether she knew _Iohan a
+Style_?[P2_a_2] she alledged, she knew no such wom[=a] to be there,
+neither did she euer heare her name.
+
+This could be no forged or false Accusation, but the very Act of GOD
+to discouer her.
+
+Thus was no meanes left to doe her all indifferent fauour, but it was
+vsed to saue her life; and to this shee could giue no answere.
+
+But nothing would serue: for old _Dembdike_, old _Chattox_, and
+others, had charged her with innocent bloud, which cries out for
+Reuenge, and will be satisfied. And therefore Almightie GOD, in his
+Iustice, hath cut her off.
+
+And here I leaue her, vntill shee come to her Execution, where you
+shall heare shee died very impenitent; insomuch as her owne children
+were neuer able to moue her to confesse any particular offence, or
+declare any thing, euen in _Articulo Mortis_: which was a very
+fearefull thing to all that were present, who knew shee was guiltie.
+
+
+[Illustration: decoration]
+
+THE ARRAIGNMENT
+_and Triall of_ KATHERINE HEWIT,
+_Wife of_ IOHN HEWIT, _alias_ MOVLD-HEELES,[P3_a_]
+_of Coulne, in the Countie of Lancaster Clothier, for
+Witchcraft; vpon Wednesday the nineteenth of August,
+at the Assises and Generall Gaole-deliuerie, holden at
+Lancaster_,
+
+Before
+
+_Sir_ EDWARD BROMLEY _Knight, one of his Maiesties
+Iustices of Assise at Lancaster._
+
+_Katherine Hewit._
+
+Who but Witches can be proofes, and so witnesses of the doings of
+Witches? since all their Meetings, Conspiracies, Practises, and
+Murthers, are the workes of Darkenesse: But to discouer this wicked
+_Furie_, GOD hath not only raised meanes beyond expectation, by the
+voluntarie Confession and Accusation of all that are gone before, to
+accuse this Witch (being Witches, and thereby witnesses of her doings)
+but after they were committed, by meanes of a Child, to discouer her
+to be one, and a Principall in that wicked assembly at Malking-Tower,
+to deuise such a damnable course for the deliuerance of their friends
+at Lancaster, as to kill the Gaoler, and blow vp the Castle, wherein
+the Deuill did but labour to assemble them together, and so being
+knowne to send them all one way: And herein I shall commend vnto your
+good consideration the wonderfull meanes to condemne these parties,
+that liued in the world, free from suspition of any such offences, as
+are proued against them: And thereby the more dangerous, that in the
+successe we may lawfully say, the very Finger of God did point th[=e]
+out. And she that neuer saw them, but in that meeting, did accuse
+them, and by their faces discouer them.
+
+This _Katherine Hewyt_, Prisoner in the Castle at Lancaster, being
+brought to the Barre before the great Seate of Iustice, was there
+according to the former order and course Indicted and Arraigned, for
+that she felloniously had practized, exercised, and vsed her Deuillish
+and wicked Arts, called _Witch-crafts_, _Inchantments_, _Charmes_, and
+_Sorceries_, in, and vpon _Anne Foulds_; and the same _Anne Foulds_,
+by force of the same witch-craft, felloniously did kill and murder.
+_Contra formam Statuti, &c. Et contra Pacem dicti Domini Regis, &c._
+
+Vpon her Arraignement to this Indictment, shee pleaded not guiltie;
+And for the triall of her life put her selfe vpon God and her
+Countrie.
+
+So as now the Gentlemen of the Iurie of life and death, stand charged
+with her as with others.
+
+     _The Euidence against_ Katherine Hewyt,
+     _Prisoner at the Barre._
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_The Examination of_ IAMES DEVICE,
+_Sonne of_ ELIZABETH DEVICE, _taken the seuen and
+twentieth day of Aprill_, Anno Reg. Regis IACOBI, Angliae,
+Franciae, & Hiberniae, decimo, et Scotiae quadragesimo
+quarto.
+
+Before
+
+ROGER NOWEL, _and_ NICHOLAS BANNESTER,
+_Esquires; two of his Maiesties Iustices of Peace,
+in the Countie of Lancaster._
+
+Against
+
+KATHERINE HEWYT, _alias_ MOVLD-HEELES
+_of Colne._ viz.
+
+This Examinate saith, that vpon Good-Friday last, about twelue of
+the Clock in the day time, there dined at this Examinates Mothers
+house a number of persons: And hee also saith, that they were Witches;
+and that the names of the said Witches, that were there, for so many
+of them as he did know, were amongst others _Katherine Hewyt_, wife of
+_Iohn Hewyt_, alias _Mould-heeles_, of Colne, in the Countie of
+Lancaster Clothier; And that the said Witch, called _Katherine Hewyt_,
+alias _Mould-heeles_, and one _Alice Gray_, did confesse amongst the
+said Witches at their meeting at _Malkin-Tower_ aforesaid, that they
+had killed _Foulds_ wifes child, called _Anne Foulds_, of
+Colne:[P4_a_1] And also said, that they had then in hanck a
+child[P4_a_2] of _Michael Hartleys_ of Colne.
+
+And this Examinate further saith, that all the said Witches went out
+of the said house in their own shapes and likenesses, and by that time
+they were gotten forth of the doores, they were gotten on Horse-back
+like vnto foales, some of one colour, some of an other, and the said
+_Prestons_ wife was the last: And when she got on Horse-back, they all
+presently vanished out of this Examinates sight. And before their said
+parting away they all appointed to meete at the said _Prestons_ wifes
+house that day twelue Moneths: at which time the said _Prestons_ wife
+promised to make them a great feast, and if they had occasion to meete
+in the meane time, then should warning be giuen that they all should
+meet vpon Romlesmoore.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_The Examination and Euidence of_ ELIZABETH
+DEVICE, _Mother of the said_ IAMES
+DEVICE.
+
+Against
+
+KATHERINE HEWYT, _alias_ MOVLD-HEELES,
+_Prisoner at the Barre vpon her Arraignement and Triall,
+taken the day and yeare aforesaid._ viz.
+
+This Examinate vpon her oath confesseth, that vpon Good-Friday last
+there dyned at this Examinates house, which she hath said are Witches,
+and verily thinketh to bee Witches, such as the said _Iames Deuice_
+hath formerly spoken of: amongst which was _Katherine Hewyt_, alias
+_Mould-heeles_, now Prisoner at the Barre: and shee also saith, that
+at their meeting on Good-Friday at _Malkin-Tower_ aforesaid, the said
+_Katherine Hewyt_, alias _Mould-heeles_, and _Anne Gray_, did
+confesse, they had killed a child of _Foulds_ of Colne, called _Anne
+Foulds_, and had gotten hold of another.
+
+And shee further saith, the said _Katherine Hewyt_ with all the rest,
+there gaue her consent with the said _Prestons_ wife for the murder of
+Master _Lister_.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_The Examination and Euidence of_
+IENNET DEVICE,
+
+Against
+
+KATHERINE HEWYT, _alias_ MOVLD-HEELES,
+_Prisoner at the Barre._
+
+The said Examinate saith, That vpon Good-Friday last, there was
+about twentie persons, whereof two were men to this Examinates
+remembrance, at her said Grand-mothers house, called _Malkin-Tower_
+aforesaid, about twelue of the clock: All which persons this
+Examinates said mother told her were Witches, and that shee knoweth
+the names of sixe of the said Witches.
+
+Then was the said _Iennet Deuice_ commanded by his Lordship, to finde
+and point out the said _Katherine Hewyt_, alias _Mould-heeles_,
+amongst all the rest of the said Women, whereupon shee went and tooke
+the said _Katherine Hewyt_ by the hand: Accused her to bee one, and
+told her in what place shee sate at the feast at _Malkin-Tower_, at
+the great Assembly of the Witches, and who sate next her; what
+conference they had, and all the rest of their proceedings at large,
+without any manner of contrarietie: Being demanded further by his
+Lordship, whether _Ioane a Downe_ were at that Feast, and meeting, or
+no? shee alleaged shee knew no such woman to be there, neither did
+shee euer heare her name.
+
+If this were not an Honorable meanes to trie the accusation against
+them, let all the World vpon due examination giue iudgement of it. And
+here I leaue her the last of this companie, to the Verdict of the
+Gentlemen of the Iurie of life and death, as hereafter shall appeare.
+
+Heere the Iurie of Life and Death, hauing spent the most part of the
+day, in due consideration of their offences, Returned into the Court
+to deliuer vp their Verdict against them, as followeth.
+
+_The Verdict of Life and
+Death._
+
+Who vpon their Oathes found _Iennet Bierley_, _Ellen Bierley_, and
+_Iane Southworth_, not guiltie of the offence of Witch-craft,
+conteyned in the Indictment against them.
+
+_Anne Redferne_, guiltie of the fellonie & murder, conteyned in the
+Indictment against her.
+
+_Alice Nutter_, guiltie of the fellonie and murder conteyned in the
+Indictment against her.
+
+And
+
+_Katherine Hewyt_, guiltie of the fellonie & murder conteyned in the
+Indictment against her.
+
+Whereupon Master _Couell_ was commanded by the Court to take away the
+Prisoners Conuicted, and to bring forth _Iohn Bulcocke_, _Iane
+Bulcocke_ his mother,[Q2_a_] and _Alizon Deuice_, Prisoners in the
+Castle at Lancaster, to receiue their Trialls.
+
+Who were brought to their Arraignement and Triall as hereafter
+followeth.
+
+
+[Illustration: decoration]
+
+THE ARRAIGNMENT
+_and Triall of_ IOHN BVLCOCK,
+_and_ IANE BVLCOCK _his mother, wife of_ CHRISTOPHER
+BVLCOCK, _of the Mosse-end, in the Countie
+of Lancaster, for Witch-craft: vpon Wednesday in the
+after-noone, the nineteenth of August, 1612. At the Assizes
+and generall Gaole deliuery, holden at Lancaster._
+
+Before
+
+_Sir_ EDWARD BROMLEY, _Knight, one of his Maiesties
+Iustices of Assizes at Lancaster._
+
+_John Bulcock_,
+and
+_Jane Bulcock_ his mother.
+
+If there were nothing to charge these Prisoners withall, whom now
+you may behold vpon their Arraignement and Triall but their poasting
+in haste to the great Assembly at Malking-Tower, there to aduise and
+consult amongst the Witches, what were to bee done to set at liberty
+the Witches in the Castle at Lancaster: Ioyne with _Iennet Preston_
+for the murder of Master _Lister_; and such like wicked & diuellish
+practises: It were sufficient to accuse them for Witches, & to bring
+their liues to a lawfull Triall. But amongst all the Witches in this
+company, there is not a more fearefull and diuellish Act committed,
+and voluntarily confessed by any of them, comparable to this, vnder
+the degree of Murder: which impudently now (at the Barre hauing
+formerly confessed;)[Q3_a_1] they forsweare, swearing they were neuer
+at the great assembly at Malking Tower; although the very Witches that
+were present in that action with them, iustifie, maintaine, and sweare
+the same to be true against them: Crying out in very violent &
+outragious manner, euen to the gallowes,[Q3_a_2] where they died
+impenitent for any thing we know, because they died silent in the
+particulars. These of all others were the most desperate wretches
+(void of all feare or grace) in all this Packe; Their offences not
+much inferiour to Murther: for which you shall heare what matter of
+Record wee haue against them; and whether they be worthie to continue,
+we leaue it to the good consideration of the Iury.
+
+The said _Iohn Bulcock_, and _Iane Bulcock_ his mother, Prisoners in
+the Castle at Lancaster, being brought to the Barre before the great
+Seat of Iustice: were there according to the former order and course
+Indicted and Arraigned, for that they felloniously had practised,
+exercised and vfed their diuellish & wicked Arts, called
+_Witchcrafts_, _Inchantments_, _Charmes_ and _Sorceries_, in and vpon
+the body of _Iennet Deane_: so as the body of the said _Iennet Deane_,
+by force of the said Witchcrafts, wasted and consumed; and after she,
+the said _Iennet_, became madde. _Contra formam Statuti_, &c. _Et
+Contra pacem_, &c.
+
+Vpon their Arraignement, to this Indictment they pleaded not guiltie;
+and for the triall of their liues put themselues vpon God and their
+Countrey.
+
+So as now the Gentlemen of the Iurie of Life and Death stand charged
+with them as with others.
+
+     _The Euidence against_ Iohn Bulcock, _and_ Jane
+     Bulcock _his mother, Prisoners at the Barre._
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_The Examination of_ IAMES DEVICE
+_taken the seuen and twentieth day of Aprill aforesaid._
+
+Before
+
+ROGER NOWEL _and_ NICHOLAS BANESTER,
+_Esquires, two of his Maiesties Iustices of Peace in
+the Countie of Lancaster._
+
+Against
+
+IOHN BVLCOCK _and_ IANE BVLCOCK _his mother._
+
+This Examinate saith, That vpon Good-Friday, about twelue of the
+clocke in the day time, there dined in this Examinates said Mothers
+house a number of persons, whereof three were men with this Examinate,
+and the rest women, and that they met there for these three causes
+following, as this Examinates said mother told this Examinate. The
+first was, for the naming of the Spirit which _Allison Deuice_, now
+prisoner at Lancaster had, but did not name him, because shee was not
+there. The second cause was, for the deliuerie of his said
+Grand-mother; this Examinates said sister _Allison_; the said _Anne
+Chattox_, and her daughter _Redferne_, killing the Gaoler at
+Lancaster, and before the next Assises to blow vp the Castle there, to
+that end the aforesaid prisoners might by that meanes make an escape,
+and get away: All which this Examinate then heard them conferre of.
+
+And he also sayth, That the names of such said Witches as were on
+Good-Friday at this Examinates said Grand-mothers house, and now this
+Examinates owne mothers, for so many of them as hee did know, were
+these, _viz._ _Iane Bulcock_, wife of _Christopher Bulcock_, of the
+Mosse end, and _Iohn_ her sonne amongst others, &c.
+
+And this Examinate further saith, That all the said Witches went out
+of the said house in their own shapes and likenesses: and they all, by
+that they were forth of the dores, were gotten on horse-backe, like
+vnto Foales, some of one colour, and some of another, and _Prestons_
+wife was the last: and when shee got on horse-backe, they all
+presently vanished out of this Examinates sight.
+
+And further he saith, That the said _Iohn Bulcock_ and _Iane_ his said
+Mother, did confesse vpon Good-Friday last at the said Malking-Tower,
+in the hearing of this Examinate, That they had bewitched, at the
+new-field Edge in Yorkeshire, a woman called _Iennet_, wife of _Iohn
+Deyne_, besides, her reason; and the said Womans name so bewitched, he
+did not heare them speake of. And this Examinate further saith, That
+at the said Feast at Malking-Tower this Examinate heard them all giue
+their consents to put the said Master _Thomas Lister_ of Westby[Q4_a_]
+to death. And after Master _Lister_ should be made away by
+Witch-craft, then all the said Witches gaue their consents to ioyne
+all together, to hanck Master _Leonard Lister_, when he should come
+to dwell at the Cow-gill, and so put him to death.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_The Examination of_ ELIZABETH
+DEVICE, _Taken the day and yeare aforesaid_,
+
+Before
+
+ROGER NOWEL _and_ NICHOLAS BANESTER,
+_Esquires, two of his Maiesties Iustices of Peace in
+the Countie of Lancaster._
+
+Against
+
+IOHN BVLCOCK, _and_ IANE BVLCOCK, _his
+mother._
+
+This Examinate saith vpon her oath, That she doth verily thinke,
+that the said _Bulcockes_ wife doth know of some Witches to bee about
+Padyham and Burnley.[Q4_b_]
+
+And shee further saith, That at the said meeting at Malking-Tower, as
+aforesaid, _Katherine Hewyt_ and _Iohn Bulcock_, with all the rest
+then there, gaue their consents, with the said _Prestons_ wife, for
+the killing of the said Master _Lister_.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_The Examination and Euidence of_
+IENNET DEVICE
+
+Against
+
+IOHN BVLCOCKE _and_ IANE _his mother, prisoners
+at the Barre._
+
+The said Examinate saith, That vpon Good-Friday last there was
+about twentie persons, whereof two were men, to this Examinates
+remembrance, at her said Grand-mothers house, called Malking-Tower
+aforesaid: all which persons, this Examinates said mother told her
+were Witches, and that she knoweth the names of sixe of the said
+Witches.
+
+Then was the said _Iennet Deuice_ commaunded by his Lordship to finde
+and point out the said _Iohn Bulcock_ and _Iane Bulcock_ amongst all
+the rest; whereupon shee went and tooke _Iane Bulcock_ by the hand,
+accused her to be one, and told her in what place shee sat at the
+Feast at Malking-Tower, at the great Assembly of the Witches; and who
+sat next her: and accused the said _Iohn Bulcock_ to turne the Spitt
+there;[R_a_] what conference they had, and all the rest of their
+proceedings at large, without any manner of contrarietie.
+
+Shee further told his Lordship, there was a woman that came out of
+Craven to that Great Feast at Malking-Tower, but shee could not finde
+her out amongst all those women.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Pp The names of the Witches at the
+_Great Assembly and Feast at_
+Malking-Tower, _viz._ vpon Good-Friday
+last, 1612.[R1_b_]
+
+_Elizabeth Deuice._
+
+_Alice Nutter._
+
+_Katherine Hewit_, alias
+  _Mould-heeles._
+
+_John Bulcock._
+
+_Jane Bulcock._
+
+_Alice Graie._
+
+_Jennet Hargraues._
+
+_Elizabeth Hargraues._
+
+_Christopher Howgate._
+  Sonne to old _Dembdike_.
+
+_Christopher Hargraues._
+
+_Grace Hay_, of Padiham.
+
+_Anne Crunckshey_, of Marchden.
+
+_Elizabeth Howgate._
+
+_Jennet Preston_, Executed at Yorke
+for the Murder of Master _Lister_,
+
+With many more, which being bound ouer to appeare at the last Assizes,
+are since that time fled to saue themselues.
+
+
+[Illustration: decoration]
+
+THE ARRAIGNMENT
+_and Triall of_ ALIZON DEVICE,
+_Daughter of_ ELIZABETH DEVICE, _within the Forrest
+of Pendle, in the Countie of Lancaster aforesaid, for
+Witch-craft._
+
+_Alizon Deuice._
+
+Behold, aboue all the rest, this lamentable spectacle of a poore
+distressed Pedler, how miserably hee was tormented, and what
+punishment hee endured for a small offence, by the wicked and damnable
+practise of this odious Witch, first instructed therein by old
+_Dembdike_ her Grand-mother, of whose life and death with her good
+conditions, I haue written at large before in the beginning of this
+worke, out of her owne Examinations and other Records, now remayning
+with the Clarke of the Crowne at Lancaster: And by her Mother brought
+vp in this detestable course of life; wherein I pray you obserue but
+the manner and course of it in order, euen to the last period at her
+Execution, for this horrible fact, able to terrifie and astonish any
+man liuing.
+
+This _Alizon Deuice_, Prisoner in the Castle of Lancaster, being
+brought to the Barre before the great Seat of Iustice, was there
+according to the former order and course indicted and arraigned, for
+that shee felloniously had practised, exercised, and vsed her
+Deuillish and wicked Arts, called _Witch-crafts_, _Inchantments_,
+_Charmes_, and _Sorceries_, in, and vpon one _Iohn Law_, a
+Petti-chapman, and him had lamed; so that his bodie wasted and
+consumed, &c. _Contra formam Statuti, &c. Et contra pacem dicti Domini
+Regis, Coronam & Dignitatem, &c._
+
+Vpon the Arraignement, The poore Pedler, by name _Iohn Law_, being in
+the Castle about the Moot-hall, attending to be called, not well able
+to goe or stand, being led thether by his poore sonne _Abraham Law_:
+My Lord _Gerrard_[R3_a_] moued the Court to call the poore Pedler, who
+was there readie, and had attended all the Assizes, to giue euidence
+for the Kings Majestie against the said _Alizon Deuice_, Prisoner at
+the Barre, euen now vpon her Triall. The Prisoner being at the Barre,
+& now beholding the Pedler, deformed by her Witch-craft, and
+transformed beyond the course of Nature, appeared to giue euidence
+against her; hauing not yet pleaded to her Indictment, saw it was in
+vaine to denie it, or stand vpon her justification: Shee humbly vpon
+her knees at the Barre with weeping teares, prayed the Court to heare
+her.
+
+Whereupon my Lord _Bromley_ commanded shee should bee brought out from
+the Prisoners neare vnto the Court, and there on her knees, shee
+humbly asked forgiuenesse for her offence: And being required to make
+an open declaration or confession of her offence: Shee confessed as
+followeth. _viz._
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_The Confession of_ ALIZON DEVICE,
+_Prisoner at the Barre: published and declared at time
+of her Arraignement and Triall in open Court._
+
+She saith, That about two yeares agone, her Grand-mother, called
+_Elizabeth Sothernes_, alias _Dembdike_, did (sundry times in going or
+walking together, as they went begging) perswade and aduise this
+Examinate to let a Diuell or a Familiar appeare to her, and that shee,
+this Examinate would let him suck at some part of her; and she might
+haue and doe what shee would. And so not long after these perswasions,
+this Examinate being walking towards the Rough-Lee, in a Close of one
+_Iohn Robinsons_, there appeared vnto her a thing like vnto a Blacke
+Dogge: speaking vnto her, this Examinate, and desiring her to giue him
+her Soule, and he would giue her power to doe any thing shee would:
+whereupon this Examinate being therewithall inticed, and setting her
+downe; the said Blacke-Dogge did with his mouth (as this Examinate
+then thought) sucke at her breast, a little below her Paps, which
+place did remain blew halfe a yeare next after: which said
+Blacke-Dogge did not appeare to this Examinate, vntill the eighteenth
+day of March last: at which time this Examinate met with a Pedler on
+the high-way, called Colne-field, neere vnto Colne: and this Examinate
+demanded of the said Pedler to buy some pinnes of him; but the said
+Pedler sturdily answered this Examinate that he would not loose his
+Packe; and so this Examinate parting with him: presently there
+appeared to this Examinate the Blacke-Dogge, which appeared vnto her
+as before: which Black Dogge spake vnto this Examinate in English,
+saying; What wouldst thou haue me to do vnto yonder man? to whom this
+Examinate said, What canst thou do at him? and the Dogge answered
+againe, I can lame him: whereupon this Examinat answered, and said to
+the said Black Dogge, Lame him: and before the Pedler was gone fortie
+Roddes further, he fell downe Lame: and this Examinate then went after
+the said Pedler; and in a house about the distance aforesaid, he was
+lying Lame: and so this Examinate went begging in Trawden Forrest that
+day, and came home at night: and about fiue daies next after, the said
+Black-Dogge did appeare to this Examinate, as she was going a begging,
+in a Cloase neere the New-Church in Pendle, and spake againe to her,
+saying; Stay and speake with me; but this Examinate would not:
+Sithence which time this Examinat neuer saw him.
+
+     _Which agreeth_ verbatim _with her owne Examination taken
+     at_ Reade, _in the Countie of Lancaster, the thirtieth day
+     of March, before Master_ Nowel, _when she was apprehended
+     and taken._
+
+My Lord _Bromley_, and all the whole Court not a little wondering,
+as they had good cause, at this liberall and voluntarie confession of
+the Witch; which is not ordinary with people of their condition and
+qualitie: and beholding also the poore distressed Pedler, standing by,
+commanded him vpon his oath to declare the manner how, and in what
+sort he was handled; how he came to be lame, and so to be deformed;
+who deposed vpon his oath, as followeth.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_The Euidence of_ IOHN LAW,
+_Pettie Chapman, vpon his Oath:_
+
+Against
+
+ALIZON DEVICE, _Prisoner at the Barre._
+
+He deposeth and saith, That about the eighteenth of March last
+past, hee being a Pedler, went with his Packe of wares at his backe
+thorow Colne-field: where vnluckily he met with _Alizon Deuice_, now
+Prisoner at the Barre, who was very earnest with him for pinnes, but
+he would giue her none: whereupon she seemed to be very angry; and
+when hee was past her, hee fell downe lame in great extremitie; and
+afterwards by meanes got into an Ale-house in Colne, neere vnto the
+place where hee was first bewitched: and as hee lay there in great
+paine, not able to stirre either hand or foote; he saw a great
+Black-Dogge stand by him, with very fearefull firie eyes, great teeth,
+and a terrible countenance, looking him in the face; whereat he was
+very sore afraid: and immediately after came in the said _Alizon
+Deuice_, who staid not long there, but looked on him, and went away.
+
+After which time hee was tormented both day and night with the said
+_Alizon Deuice_; and so continued lame, not able to trauell or take
+paines euer since that time: which with weeping teares in great
+passion turned to the Prisoner; in the hearing of all the Court hee
+said to her, _This thou knowest to be too true_: and thereupon she
+humblie acknowledged the same, and cried out to God to forgiue her;
+and vpon her knees with weeping teares, humbly prayed him to forgiue
+her that wicked offence; which he very freely and voluntarily did.
+
+Hereupon Master _Nowel_ standing vp, humbly prayed the fauour of the
+Court, in respect this Fact of Witchcraft was more eminent and
+apparant than the rest, that for the better satisfaction of the
+Audience, the Examination of _Abraham Law_ might be read in Court.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_The Examination of_ ABRAHAM
+LAW, _of Hallifax, in the Countie of Yorke, Cloth-dier,
+taken vpon oath the thirtieth day of March, 1612._
+
+Before
+
+ROGER NOWEL, _Esquire, aforesaid._
+
+Being sworne and examined, saith, That vpon Saturday last saue one,
+being the one and twentieth day of this instant March, he, this
+Examinate was sent for, by a letter that came from his father, that he
+should come to his father, _Iohn Law_, who then lay in Colne
+speechlesse, and had the left-side lamed all saue his eye: and when
+this Examinate came to his father, his said father had something
+recouered his speech, and did complaine that hee was pricked with
+Kniues, Elsons and Sickles,[S_a_] and that the same hurt was done vnto
+him at Colne-field, presently after that _Alizon Deuice_ had offered
+to buy some pinnes of him, and she had no money to pay for them
+withall; but as this Examinates father told this Examinate, he gaue
+her some pinnes. And this Examinate further saith, That he heard his
+said father say, that the hurt he had in his lamenesse was done vnto
+him by the said _Alizon Deuice_, by Witchcraft. And this Examinate
+further saith, that hee heard his said Father further say, that the
+said _Alizon Deuice_ did lie vpon him and trouble him. And this
+Examinate seeing his said Father so tormented with the said _Alizon_
+and with one other olde woman, whome this Examinates Father did not
+know as it seemed: This Examinate made search after the said _Alizon_,
+and hauing found her, brought her to his said Father yesterday being
+the nine and twenteth of this instant March: whose said Father in the
+hearing of this Examinate and diuers others did charge the said
+_Alizon_ to haue bewitched him, which the said _Alizon_
+confessing[S_b_] did aske this Examinates said Father forgiuenesse
+vpon her knees for the same; whereupon this Examinates Father
+accordingly did forgiue her. Which Examination in open Court vpon his
+oath hee iustified to be true.
+
+Whereupon it was there affirmed to the Court that this _Iohn Law_ the
+Pedler, before his vnfortunate meeting with this Witch, was a verie
+able sufficient stout man of Bodie, and a goodly man of Stature. But
+by this Deuillish art of _Witch-craft_ his head is drawne awrie, his
+Eyes and face deformed, His speech not well to bee vnderstood; his
+Thighes and Legges starcke lame: his Armes lame especially the left
+side, his handes lame and turned out of their course, his Bodie able
+to indure no trauell: and thus remaineth at this present time.
+
+The Prisoner being examined by the Court whether shee could helpe the
+poore Pedler to his former strength and health, she answered she could
+not, and so did many of the rest of the Witches: But shee, with
+others, affirmed, That if old _Dembdike_ had liued, shee could and
+would haue helped him out of that great miserie, which so long he hath
+endured for so small an offence, as you haue heard.
+
+These things being thus openly published against her, and she knowing
+her selfe to be guiltie of euery particular, humbly acknowledged the
+Indictment against her to be true, and that she was guiltie of the
+offence therein contained, and that she had iustly deserued death for
+that and many other such like: whereupon she was carried away, vntill
+she should come to the Barre to receiue her judgement of death.
+
+Oh, who was present at this lamentable spectacle, that was not moued
+with pitie to behold it!
+
+Hereupon my Lord _Gerard_, Sir _Richard Houghton_, and others, who
+much pitied the poore Pedler, At the entreatie of my Lord _Bromley_
+the Iudge, promised some present course should be taken for his
+reliefe and maintenance; being now discharged and sent away.
+
+But here I may not let her passe; for that I find some thing more vpon
+Record to charge her withall: for although she were but a young Witch,
+of a yeares standing, and thereunto induced by _Dembdike_ her
+Grand-mother, as you haue formerly heard, yet she was spotted with
+innocent bloud among the rest: for in one part of the Examination of
+_Iames Deuice_, her brother, he deposeth as followeth, _viz._
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_The Examination of_ IAMES DEVICE,
+_brother to the said_ ALIZON DEVICE: _Taken
+vpon Oath_
+
+Before
+
+ROGER NOWEL _Esquire, aforesaid, the thirtieth day
+of March, 1612._
+
+_Iames Deuice_, of the Forrest of Pendle, in the Countie of
+Lancaster, Labourer, sworne and examined, sayth, That about _Saint
+Peters_ day last one _Henry Bulcock_ came to the house of _Elizabeth
+Sothernes_, alias _Dembdike_, Grand-mother to this Examinate, and
+said, That the said _Alizon Deuice_ had bewitched a Child of his, and
+desired her, that shee would goe with him to his house: which
+accordingly shee did: and thereupon shee the said _Alizon_ fell downe
+on her knees, and asked the said _Bulcock_ forgiuenesse; and confessed
+to him, that she had bewitched the said Child, as this Examinate heard
+his said sister confesse vnto him this Examinate.
+
+And although shee were neuer indicted for this offence, yet being
+matter vpon Record, I thought it conuenient to joyne it vnto her
+former Fact.
+
+Here the Iurie of Life and Death hauing spent the most part of the
+day in due consideration of their offences, returned into the Court to
+deliuer up their Verdict against them, as followeth.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_The Verdict of Life
+and Death._
+
+Who vpon their Oathes found _Iohn Bulcock_ and _Iane Bulcock_ his
+mother, not guiltie of the Felonie by Witch-craft, contained in the
+Indictment against them.
+
+_Alizon Deuice_ conuicted vpon her owne Confession.
+
+Whereupon Master _Couel_ was commaunded by the Court to take away the
+Prisoners conuicted, and to bring forth _Margaret Pearson_,[S3_b_] and
+_Isabell Robey_, Prisoners in the Castle at Lancaster, to receiue
+their Triall.
+
+Who were brought to their Arraignement and Trialls, as hereafter
+followeth, _viz._
+
+
+[Illustration: decoration]
+
+THE ARRAIGNMENT
+_and Triall of_ MARGARET PEARSON
+_of Paddiham, in the Countie of Lancaster, for
+Witchcraft; the nineteenth of August, 1612. at the
+Assises and Generall Gaole-deliuerie, holden at Lancaster_,
+
+Before
+
+_Sir_ EDWARD BROMLEY _Knight, one of his Maiesties
+Iustices of Assise at Lancaster._
+
+_Margaret Pearson._
+
+Thus farre haue I proceeded in hope your patience will endure the
+end of this discourse, which craues time, and were better not begunne
+at all, then not perfected.
+
+This _Margaret Pearson_ was the wife of _Edward Pearson_ of Paddiham,
+in the Countie of Lancaster; little inferiour in her wicked and
+malicious course of life to any that hath gone before her: A very
+dangerous Witch of long continuance, generally suspected and feared in
+all parts of the Countrie, and of all good people neare her, and not
+without great cause: For whosoeuer gaue her any iust occasion of
+offence, shee tormented with great miserie, or cut off their
+children, goods, or friends.
+
+This wicked and vngodly Witch reuenged her furie vpon goods, so that
+euery one neare her sustained great losse. I place her in the end of
+these notorious Witches, by reason her iudgement is of an other
+Nature, according to her offence; yet had not the fauour and mercie of
+the Iurie beene more than her desert, you had found her next to old
+_Dembdike_; for this is the third time shee is come to receiue her
+Triall; one time for murder by Witch-craft; an other time for
+bewitching a Neighbour; now for goods.
+
+     How long shee hath been a Witch, the Deuill and shee knows
+     best.
+
+The Accusations, Depositions, and particular Examinations vpon Record
+against her are infinite, and were able to fill a large Volume; But
+since shee is now only to receiue her Triall for this last offence. I
+shall proceede against her in order, and set forth what matter we haue
+vpon Record, to charge her withall.
+
+This _Margaret Pearson_, Prisoner in the Castle at Lancaster: Being
+brought to the Barre before the great Seat of Iustice; was there
+according to the course and order of the Law Indicted and Arraigned,
+for that shee had practised, exercised, and vsed her diuellish and
+wicked Arts, called _Witchcrafts_, _Inchantments_, _Charmes_ and
+_Sorceries_, and one Mare of the goods and Chattels of one _Dodgeson_
+of Padiham, in the Countie of Lancaster, wickedly, maliciously, and
+voluntarily did kill. _Contra formam Statuti, &c. Et Contra pacem
+dicti Domini Regis. &c._
+
+Vpon her Arraignement to this Indictment, shee pleaded not guiltie;
+And for the triall of her offence put her selfe vpon God and her
+Countrie.
+
+So as now the Gentlemen of the Iurie of her offence and death, stand
+charged with her as with others.
+
+     _The Euidence against_ Margaret Pearson,
+     _Prisoner at the Barre._
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_The Examination and Euidence of_
+ANNE WHITTLE, _alias_ CHATTOX.
+
+Against
+
+MARGARET PEARSON, _Prisoner at the Barre._
+
+The said _Anne Chattox_ being examined saith, That the wife of one
+_Pearson_ of Paddiham, is a very euill Woman, and confessed to this
+Examinate, that shee is a Witch, and hath a Spirit which came to her
+the first time in likenesse of a Man, and clouen footed, and that shee
+the said _Pearsons_ wife hath done very much harme to one _Dodgesons_
+goods, who came in at a loope-hole into the said _Dodgesons_ Stable,
+and shee and her Spirit together did sit vpon his Horse or Mare,
+vntill the said Horse or Mare died. And likewise, that shee the said
+_Pearsons_ wife did confesse vnto her this Examinate, that shee
+bewitched vnto death one _Childers_ wife, and her Daughter, and that
+shee the said _Pearsons_ wife is as ill as shee.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_The Examination of_ IENNET BOOTH,
+_of Paddiham, in the Countie of Lancaster, the ninth day
+of August 1612._
+
+Before
+
+NICHOLAS BANNESTER, _Esquire; one of his
+Maiesties Iustices of Peace in the Countie of Lancaster._
+
+_Iennet_, the wife of _Iames Booth_, of Paddiham, vpon her oath
+saith, That the Friday next after, the said _Pearsons_ wife, was
+committed to the Gaole at Lancaster, this Examinate was carding in the
+said _Pearsons_ house, hauing a little child with her, and willed the
+said _Margerie_ to giue her a little Milke, to make her said child a
+little meat, who fetcht this Examinate some, and put it in a pan; this
+examinat meaning to set it on the fire, found the said fire very ill,
+and taking vp a stick that lay by her, and brake it in three or foure
+peeces, and laid vpon the coales to kindle the same, then set the pan
+and milke on the fire: and when the milke was boild to this Examinates
+content, she tooke the pan wherein the milke was, off the said fire,
+and with all, vnder the bottome of the same, there came a Toade, or a
+thing very like a Toade, and to this Examinates thinking came out of
+the fire, together with the said Pan, and vnder the bottome of the
+same, and that the said _Margerie_ did carrie the said Toade out of
+the said house in a paire of tonges;[T_a_] But what shee the said
+_Margerie_ did therewith, this Examinate knoweth not.
+
+After this were diuers witnesses examined against her in open Court,
+_viua voce_, to proue the death of the Mare, and diuers other vild
+and odious practises by her committed, who vpon their Examinations
+made it so apparant to the Iurie as there was no question; But because
+the fact is of no great importance, in respect her life is not in
+question by this Indictment, and the Depositions and examinations are
+many, I leaue to trouble you with any more of them, for being found
+guiltie of this offence, the penaltie of the Law is as much as her
+good Neighbours doe require, which is to be deliuered from the
+companie of such a dangerous, wicked, and malicious Witch.
+
+
+[Illustration: decoration]
+
+THE ARRAIGNMENT
+_and Triall of_ ISABEL ROBEY
+_in the Countie of Lancaster, for Witch-craft: vpon Wednesday
+the nineteenth of August, 1612. At the Assizes and generall
+Goale-deliuery, holden at Lancaster._
+
+Before
+
+_Sir_ EDWARD BROMLEY, _Knight, one of his Maiesties
+Iustices of Assizes at Lancaster._
+
+_Isabel Robey._[T2_a_1]
+
+Thus at one time may you behold Witches of all sorts from many
+places in this Countie of Lancaster which now may lawfully bee said to
+abound asmuch in Witches of diuers kindes as Seminaries, Iesuites, and
+Papists.[T2_a_2] Here then is the last that came to act her part in
+this lamentable and wofull Tragedie, wherein his Maiestie hath lost so
+many Subjects, Mothers their Children, Fathers their Friends, and
+Kinsfolkes[T2_a_3] the like whereof hath not beene set forth in any
+age. What hath the Kings Maiestie written and published in his
+_Daemonologie_, by way of premonition and preuention, which hath not
+here by the first or last beene executed, put in practise or
+discouered? What Witches haue euer vpon their Arraignement and Trial
+made such open liberall and voluntarie declarations of their liues,
+and such confessions of their offences: The manner of their attempts
+and their bloudie practises, their meetings, consultations and what
+not? Therefore I shall now conclude with this _Isabel Robey_ who is
+now come to her triall.
+
+This _Isabel Robey_ Prisoner in the Castle at Lancaster being brought
+to the Barre before the great Seat of Iustice was there according to
+the former order and course Indicted and Arraigned, for that shee
+Felloniously had practised, exercised and vsed her Deuilish and wicked
+Artes called _Witchcrafts_, _Inchantments_, _Charmes and Sorceries_.
+
+Vpon her Arraignment to this Indictment she pleaded not guiltie, and
+for the triall of her life, put her selfe vpon God and her Countrie.
+
+So as now the Gentlemen of the Iurie of life and death stand charged
+with her as with others.
+
+     _The Euidence against_ Isabel Robey
+     _Prisoner at the Barre._
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_The Examination of_ PETER CHADDOCK
+_of Windle, in the Countie of Lancaster: Taken at
+Windle aforesaid, the 12. day of Iuly 1612._ Anno Reg.
+Regis IACOBI, Angliae, &c. decimo, & Scotiae xlv.
+
+Before
+
+_Sir_ THOMAS GERRARD _Knight, and Barronet. One
+of his Maiesties Iustices of the Peace within the said
+Countie._
+
+The said Examinate vpon his Oath saith, That before his Marriage
+hee heard say that the said _Isabel Robey_ was not pleased that hee
+should marrie his now wife: whereupon this Examinate called the said
+_Isabel_ Witch, and said that hee did not care for her. Then within
+two dayes next after this Examinate was sore pained in his bones: And
+this Examinate hauing occasion to meete Master _Iohn Hawarden_ at
+Peaseley Crosse, wished one _Thomas Lyon_ to goe thither with him,
+which they both did so; but as they came home-wards, they both were in
+euill case. But within a short time after, this Examinate and the said
+_Thomas Lyon_ were both very well amended.
+
+And this Examinate further saith, that about foure yeares last past,
+his now wife was angrie with the said _Isabel_, shee then being in his
+house, and his said Wife thereupon went out of the house, and
+presently after that the said _Isabel_ went likewise out of the house
+not well pleased, as this Examinate then did thinke, and presently
+after vpon the same day, this Examinate with his said wife working in
+the Hay, a paine and a starknesse fell into the necke of this Examinat
+which grieued him very sore; wherup[=o] this Examinat sent to one
+_Iames_ a Glouer, which then dwelt in Windle, and desired him to pray
+for him, and within foure or fiue dayes next after this Examinate did
+mend very well. Neuerthelesse this Examinate during the same time was
+very sore pained, and so thirstie withall, and hot within his body,
+that hee would haue giuen any thing hee had, to haue slaked his
+thirst, hauing drinke enough in the house, and yet could not drinke
+vntill the time that the said _Iames_ the Glouer came to him, and this
+Examinate then said before the said Glouer, I would to God that I
+could drinke, where upon the said Glouer said to this Examinate, take
+that drinke, and in the name of the _Father_, the _Sonne_, and the
+_Holy Ghost_, drinke it, saying; The Deuill and Witches are not able
+to preuaile against GOD and his Word, whereupon this Examinate then
+tooke the glasse of drinke, and did drinke it all, and afterwards
+mended very well, and so did continue in good health, vntill our Ladie
+day in Lent was twelue moneth or thereabouts, since which time this
+Examinate saith, that hee hath beene sore pained with great warch in
+his bones,[T3_b_] and all his limmes, and so yet continueth, and this
+Examinate further saith, that his said warch and paine came to him
+rather by meanes of the said _Isabel Robey_, then otherwise, as he
+verily thinketh.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_The Examination of_ IANE WILKINSON,
+_Wife of_ FRANCIS WILKINSON, _of Windle aforesaid:
+Taken before the said Sir_ THOMAS GERRARD,
+_Knight and Barronet, the day and place aforesaid.
+Against the said_ ISABEL ROBEY.
+
+The said Examinate vpon her oath saith, that vpon a time the said
+_Isabel Robey_ asked her milke, and shee denied to giue her any: And
+afterwards shee met the said _Isabel_, whereupon this Examinate waxed
+afraid of her, and was then presently sick, and so pained that shee
+could not stand, and the next day after this Examinate going to
+Warrington, was suddenly pinched on her Thigh as shee thought, with
+foure fingers & a Thumbe twice together, and thereupon was sicke, in
+so much as shee could not get home but on horse-backe, yet soone after
+shee did mend.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_The Examination of_ MARGARET
+LYON _wife of_ THOMAS LYON _the yonger, of
+Windle aforesaid: Taken before the said Sir_ THOMAS
+GERRARD, _Knight and Barronet, the day and place aforesaid.
+Against the said_ ISABEL ROBEY.
+
+The said _Margaret Lyon_ vpon her Oath saith, that vpon a time
+_Isabel Robey_ came into her house and said that _Peter Chaddock_
+should neuer mend vntill he had asked her forgiuenesse; and that shee
+knew hee would neuer doe: whereupon this Examinate said, how doe you
+know that, for he is a true Christian, and hee would aske all the
+world forgiuenesse? then the said _Isabel_ said, that is all one, for
+hee will neuer aske me forgiuenesse, therefore hee shall neuer mend;
+And this Examinate further saith, that shee being in the house of the
+said _Peter Chaddock_, the wife of the said _Peter_, who is
+God-Daughter of the said _Isabel_, and hath in times past vsed her
+companie much, did affirme, that the said _Peter_ was now satisfied,
+that the said _Isabel Robey_ was no Witch, by sending to one
+_Halseworths_, which they call a wiseman,[T4_b_1] and the wife of the
+said _Peter_ then said, to abide vpon it,[T4_b_2] I thinke that my
+Husband will neuer mend vntill hee haue asked her forgiuenesse, choose
+him whether hee will bee angrie or pleased, for this is my opinion: to
+which he answered, when he did need to aske her forgiuenesse, he
+would, but hee thought hee did not need, for any thing hee knew: and
+yet this Examinate further saith, That the said _Peter Chaddock_ had
+very often told her, that he was very afraid that the said _Isabel_
+had done him much hurt; and that he being fearefull to meete her, he
+hath turned backe at such time as he did meet her alone, which the
+said _Isabel_ hath since then affirmed to be true, saying, that hee
+the said _Peter_ did turne againe when he met her in the Lane.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_The Examination of_ MARGARET
+PARRE _wife of_ HVGH PARRE _of Windle aforesaid,
+Taken before the said Sir_ THOMAS GERARD
+_Knight and Baronet, the day and place aforesaid. Against
+the said_ ISABEL ROBEY.
+
+The said Examinate vpon her oath saith, that vpon a time, the said
+_Isabel Robey_ came to her house, and this Examinate asked her how
+_Peter Chaddock_ did, And the said _Isabel_ answered shee knew not,
+for shee went not to see, and then this Examinate asked her how _Iane
+Wilkinson_ did, for that she had beene lately sicke and suspected to
+haue beene bewitched: then the said _Isabel_ said twice together, I
+haue bewitched her too: and then this Examinate said that shee trusted
+shee could blesse her selfe from all Witches and defied them; and then
+the said _Isabel_ said twice together, would you defie me? &
+afterwards the said _Isabel_ went away not well pleased.
+
+Here the Gentlemen of the last Iurie of Life and Death hauing taken
+great paines, the time being farre spent, and the number of the
+Prisoners great, returned into the Court to deliuer vp their Verdict
+against them as followeth. _viz._
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_The Verdict of Life and
+Death._
+
+Who vpon their Oathes found the said _Isabel Robey_ guiltie of the
+Fellonie by Witch-craft, contained in the Indictment against her. And
+_Margaret Pearson_ guiltie of the offence by Witch-craft, contained in
+the Indictment against her.
+
+Whereupon Master _Couell_ was commaunded by the Court in the
+afternoone to bring forth all the Prisoners that stood Conuicted, to
+receiue their Iudgment of Life and Death.
+
+For his Lordship now intended to proceed to a finall dispatch of the
+Pleas of the Crowne. And heere endeth the Arraignement and Triall of
+the Witches at Lancaster.
+
+Thus at the length haue we brought to perfection this intended
+Discouery of Witches, with the Arraignement and Triall of euery one of
+them in order, by the helpe of Almightie God, and this Reuerend Iudge;
+the Lanterne from whom I haue received light to direct me in this
+course to the end. And as in the beginning, I presented vnto their
+view a Kalender containing the names of all the witches: So now I
+shall present vnto you in the conclusion and end, such as stand
+conuicted, and come to the Barre to receiue the iudgement of the Law
+for their offences, and the proceedings of the Court against such as
+were acquitted, and found not guiltie: with the religious Exhortation
+of this Honorable Iudge, as eminent in gifts and graces, as in place
+and preeminence, which I may lawfully affirme without base flattery
+(the canker of all honest and worthie minds) drew the eyes and
+reuerend respect of all that great Audience present, to heare their
+Iudgement, and the end of these proceedings.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_The Prisoners being brought to the Barre._
+
+The Court commanded three solemne Proclamations for silence, vntill
+Iudgement for Life and Death were giuen.
+
+Whereupon I presented to his Lordship the names of the Prisoners in
+order, which were now to receiue their Iudgement.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Pp The names of the Prisoners at the
+_Barre to receiue their Judgement_
+of Life and Death.
+
+_Anne Whittle_, alias
+_Chattox._
+
+_Elizabeth Deuice._
+
+_James Deuice._
+
+_Anne Redferne._
+
+_Alice Nutter._
+
+_Katherine Hewet_,
+
+_John Bulcock._
+
+_Jane Bulcock._
+
+_Alizon Deuice._
+
+_Isabel Robey._
+
+
+[Illustration: decoration]
+
+THE IVDGEMENT
+OF THE RIGHT HONORABLE
+Sir EDWARD BROMLEY, Knight, one
+_of his Maiesties Iustices of Assize at Lancaster
+vpon the Witches conuicted_,
+as followeth.
+
+_There is no man aliue more vnwilling to pronounce this wofull and
+heauy Iudgement against you, then my selfe: and if it were possible, I
+would to God this cup might passe from me. But since it is otherwise
+prouided, that after all proceedings of the Law, there must be a
+Iudgement; and the Execution of that Iudgement must succeed and follow
+in due time: I pray you haue patience to receiue that which the Law
+doth lay vpon you. You of all people haue the least cause to
+complaine: since in the Triall of your liues there hath beene great
+care and paines taken, and much time spent: and very few or none of
+you, but stand conuicted vpon your owne voluntarie confessions and
+Examinations_, Ex ore proprio. _Few Witnesses examined against you,
+but such as were present, and parties in your Assemblies. Nay I may
+further affirme, What persons of your nature and condition, euer were
+Arraigned and Tried with more solemnitie, had more libertie giuen to
+pleade or answere to euerie particular point of Euidence against you?
+In conclusion such hath beene the generall care of all, that had to
+deale with you, that you haue neither cause to be offended in the
+proceedings of the Iustices, that first tooke paines in these
+businesses, nor with the Court that hath had great care to giue
+nothing in euidence against you, but matter of fact; Sufficient matter
+vpon Record, and not to induce or leade the Iurie to finde any one of
+you guiltie vpon matter of suspition or presumption, nor with the
+witnesses who haue beene tried, as it were in the fire: Nay, you
+cannot denie but must confesse what extraordinarie meanes hath beene
+vsed to make triall of their euidence, and to discouer the least
+intended practice in any one of them, to touch your liues vniustly._
+
+_As you stand simply (your offences and bloudie practises not
+considered) your fall would rather moue compassion, then exasperate
+any man. For whom would not the ruine of so many poore creatures at
+one time, touch, as in apparance simple, and of little vnderstanding?_
+
+_But the bloud of those innocent children, and others his Maiesties
+Subiects, whom cruelly and barbarously you haue murdered, and cut off,
+with all the rest of your offences, hath cryed out vnto the Lord
+against you, and sollicited for satisfaction and reuenge, and that
+hath brought this heauie iudgement vpon you at this time._
+
+_It is therefore now time no longer wilfully to striue, both against
+the prouidence of God, and the Iustice of the Land: the more you
+labour to acquit your selues, the more euident and apparant you make
+your offences to the World. And vnpossible it is that they shall
+either prosper or continue in this World, or receiue reward in the
+next, that are stained with so much innocent bloud._
+
+_The worst then I wish to you, standing at the Barre conuicted, to
+receiue your Iudgement, is, Remorse, and true Repentance, for the
+safegard of your Soules, and after, an humble, penitent, and heartie
+acknowledgement of your grieuous sinnes and offences committed both
+against_ GOD _and Man._
+
+_First, yeeld humble and heartie thankes to Almightie_ GOD _for taking
+hold of you in your beginning, and making stay of your intended
+bloudie practises (although_ GOD _knowes there is too much done
+alreadie) which would in time have cast so great a weight of Iudgement
+vpon your Soules._
+
+_Then praise_ GOD _that it pleased him not to surprize or strike you
+suddenly, euen in the execution of your bloudie Murthers, and in the
+middest of your wicked practises, but hath giuen you time, and takes
+you away by a iudiciall course and triall of the Law._
+
+_Last of all, craue pardon of the World, and especially of all such as
+you haue iustly offended, either by tormenting themselues, children,
+or friends, murder of their kinsfolks, or losse of any their goods._
+
+_And for leauing to future times the president of so many barbarous
+and bloudie murders, with such meetings, practises, consultations, and
+meanes to execute reuenge, being the greatest part of your comfort in
+all your actions, which may instruct others to hold the like course,
+or fall in the like sort:_
+
+_It only remaines I pronounce the Iudgement of the Court against you
+by the Kings authoritie, which is;_ You shall all goe from hence to
+the Castle, from whence you came; from thence you shall bee carried to
+the place of Execution for this Countie: where your bodies shall bee
+hanged vntill you be dead; AND GOD HAVE MERCIE VPON YOVR SOVLES; For
+your comfort in this world I shall commend a learned and worthie
+Preacher to instruct you, and prepare you, for an other World: All I
+can doe for you is to pray for your Repentance in this World, for the
+satisfaction of many; And forgiuenesse in the next world, for sauing
+of your Soules. And God graunt you may make good vse of the time you
+haue in this world, to his glorie and your owne comfort.
+
+
+_Margaret Pearson._
+
+The Iudgement of the Court against you, is, You shall stand vpon
+the Pillarie in open Market, at _Clitheroe_, _Paddiham_, _Whalley_,
+and _Lancaster_, foure Market dayes, with a Paper vpon your head, in
+great Letters, declaring your offence, and there you shall confesse
+your offence, and after to remaine in Prison for one yeare without
+Baile, and after to be bound with good Sureties, to be of the good
+behauiour.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_To the Prisoners found not guiltie_
+by the IVRIES.
+
+_Elizabeth Astley._
+_John Ramsden._
+_Alice Gray._
+_Isabel Sidegraues._
+_Lawrence Hay._[X_a_]
+
+_To you that are found not guiltie, and are by the Law to bee
+acquited, presume no further of your Innocencie then you haue just
+cause: for although it pleased God out of his Mercie, to spare you at
+this time, yet without question there are amongst you, that are as
+deepe in this Action, as any of them that are condemned to die for
+their offences: The time is now for you to forsake the Deuill:
+Remember how, and in what sort hee hath dealt with all of you: make
+good vse of this great mercie and fauour: and pray unto God you fall
+not againe: For great is your happinesse to haue time in this World,
+to prepare your selues against the day when you shall appeare before
+the Great Iudge of all._
+
+_Notwithstanding, the iudgement of the Court, is_, You shall all enter
+Recognizances with good sufficient Suerties, to appeare at the next
+Assizes at Lancaster, and in the meane time to be of the good
+behauiour. All I can say to you:
+
+_Jennet Bierley_,
+
+_Ellen Bierley_,
+
+_Jane Southworth_, is, That GOD hath deliuered you beyond expectation,
+I pray GOD you may vse this mercie and fauour well; and take heed you
+fall not hereafter: And so the Court doth order you shall be
+deliuered.
+
+What more can bee written or published of the proceedings of this
+honourable Court: but to conclude with the Execution of the
+Witches,[X_b_] who were executed the next day following at the common
+place of Execution, neare vnto Lancaster. Yet in the end giue mee
+leaue to intreate some fauour that haue beene afraid to speake vntill
+my worke were finished. If I haue omitted any thing materiall, or
+published any thing imperfect, excuse me for that I haue done: It was
+a worke imposed vpon me by the Iudges, in respect I was so wel
+instructed in euery particular. In hast I haue vndertaken to finish it
+in a busie Tearme amongst my other imploiments.
+
+My charge was to publish the proceedings of Iustice, and matter of
+Fact, wherein I wanted libertie to write what I would, and am limited
+to set forth nothing against them, but matter vpon Record, euen in
+their owne Countrie tearmes, which may seeme strange. And this I hope
+will giue good satisfaction to such as vnderstand how to iudge of a
+businesse of this nature. Such as haue no other imploiment but to
+question other mens Actions, I leaue them to censure what they please,
+It is no part of my profession to publish any thing in print, neither
+can I paint in extraordinarie tearmes.[X2_a_] But if this discouerie
+may serue for your instruction, I shall thinke my selfe very happie in
+this Seruice, and so leaue it to your generall censure.
+
+    _Da veniam Ignoto non displicuisse meretur,
+            Festinat studys qui placuisse tibi._
+
+[Illustration: decoration]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_THE_
+ARRAIGNEMENT
+AND TRIALL OF
+IENNET PRESTON, OF
+GISBORNE IN CRAVEN,
+in the Countie of Yorke.
+
+At the Assises and Generall Gaole-_Deliuerie_
+_holden at the Castle of Yorke_
+in the Countie of Yorke, the xxvij. day of
+Iuly last past, _Anno Regni Regis_ IACOBI
+_Angliae, &c. Decimo, & Scotiae
+quadragesimo quinto._
+
+Before
+
+_Sir_ IAMES ALTHAM _Knight, one_
+of the Barons of his Maiesties Court of Exchequer;
+and Sir EDWARD BROMLEY Knight, another of
+_the Barons of his Maiesties Court of Exchequer;_
+his Maiesties Iustices of Assise, Oyer and Terminer,
+_and generall Gaole-Deliuerie, in the Circuit
+of the North-parts._
+
+[Illustration: decoration]
+
+LONDON.
+
+Printed by W. STANSBY for IOHN BARNES, and
+are to be sold at his Shoppe neere Holborne
+Conduit. 1612.
+
+
+[Illustration: decoration]
+
+THE ARRAIGNMENT
+_and Triall of_ IENNET PRESTON
+_of Gisborne in Crauen, in the Countie of Yorke, at
+the Assises and generall Gaole-deliuerie, holden at the
+Castle of Yorke, in the Countie of Yorke, the seuen and
+twentieth day of Iuly last past._ Anno Regni Regis Iacobi
+Angliae &c. Decimo & Scotiae xlvj.
+
+_Jennet Preston._
+
+Many haue vndertaken to write great discourses of Witches and many
+more dispute and speake of them. And it were not much if as many wrote
+of them as could write at al, to set forth to the world the particular
+Rites and Secrets of their vnlawfull Artes, with their infinite and
+wonderfull practises which many men little feare till they seaze vpon
+them. As by this late wonderfull discouerie of Witches in the Countie
+of Lancaster may appeare, wherein I find such apparant matter to
+satisfie the World, how dangerous and malitious a Witch this _Iennet
+Preston_ was, How vnfit to liue, hauing once so great mercie extended
+to her: And againe to reuiue her practises, and returne to her former
+course of life; that I thinke it necessarie not to let the memorie of
+her life and death die with her; But to place her next to her fellowes
+and to set forth the Arraignement Triall and Conviction of her, with
+her offences for which she was condemned and executed.
+
+And although shee died for her offence before the rest, I yet can
+afford her no better place then in the end of this Booke in respect
+the proceedings was in an other Countie;
+
+You that were husband to this _Iennet Preston_; her friends and
+kinsfolkes, who haue not beene sparing to deuise so scandalous a
+slander out of the malice of your hearts, as that shee was maliciously
+prosecuted by Master _Lister_ and others; Her life vniustly taken away
+by practise; and that (euen at the Gallowes where shee died impenitent
+and void of all feare or grace) she died an Innocent woman, because
+she would confesse nothing: You I say may not hold it strange, though
+at this time, being not only moued in conscience, but directed, for
+example sake, with that which I haue to report of her, I suffer you
+not to wander any further, but with this short discourse oppose your
+idle conceipts able to seduce others: And by Charmes of Imputations
+and slander, laid vpon the Iustice of the Land, to cleare her that was
+iustly condemned and executed for her offence; That this _Iennet
+Preston_ was for many yeares well thought of and esteemed by Master
+_Lister_ who afterwards died for it Had free accesse to his house,
+kind respect and entertainment; nothing denied her she stood in need
+of. Which of you that dwelleth neare them in Crauen but can and will
+witnesse it? which might haue incouraged a Woman of any good condition
+to haue runne a better course.
+
+The fauour and goodnesse of this Gentleman Master _Lister_ now liuing,
+at his first entrance after the death of his Father extended towards
+her, and the reliefe she had at all times, with many other fauours
+that succeeded from time to time, are so palpable and euident to all
+men as no man can denie them. These were sufficient motiues to haue
+perswaded her from the murder of so good a friend.
+
+But such was her execrable Ingratitude, as euen this grace and
+goodnesse was the cause of his miserable and vntimely death. And euen
+in the beginning of his greatest fauours extended to her, began shee
+to worke this mischiefe, according to the course of all Witches.
+
+This _Iennet Preston_, whose Arraignment and Triall, with the
+particular Euidence against her I am now to set forth vnto you, one
+that liued at Gisborne in Crauen, in the Countie of Yorke, neare
+Master _Lister_ of Westbie, against whom she practised much mischiefe;
+for hauing cut off _Thomas Lister_ Esquire, father to this gentleman
+now liuing,[Y_a_1] shee reuenged her selfe vpon his sonne: who in
+short time receiued great losse in his goods and cattell by her
+meanes.
+
+These things in time did beget suspition, and at the Assizes and
+Generall Gaole deliuerie holden at the Castle of Yorke in Lent last
+past, before my Lord _Bromley_, shee was Indicted and Arraigned for
+the murder of a Child of one _Dodg-sonnes_,[Y_a_2] but by the fauour
+and mercifull consideration of the Iurie thereof acquited.
+
+But this fauour and mercie was no sooner extended towardes her, and
+shee set at libertie, But shee began to practise the utter ruine and
+ouerthrow of the name and bloud of this Gentleman.
+
+And the better to execute her mischiefe and wicked intent, within
+foure dayes after her deliuerance out of the Castle at Yorke, went to
+the great Assembly of Witches at _Malking-Tower_ vpon Good-friday
+last: to praye aide and helpe, for the murder of Master _Lister_, in
+respect he had prosecuted against her at the same Assizes.
+
+Which it pleased God in his mercie to discouer, and in the end,
+howsoeuer he had blinded her, as he did the King of AEgypt and his
+Instruments, for the brighter euidence of his own powerfull glory: Yet
+by a Iudiciall course and triall of the Law, cut her off, and so
+deliuered his people from the danger of her Deuilish and wicked
+practises: which you shall heare against her, at her Arraignement and
+Triall, which I shall now set forth to you in order as it was
+performed, with the wonderfull signes and tokens of GOD, to satisfie
+the Iurie to finde her guiltie of this bloudie murther, committed
+foure yeares since.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Indictment.
+
+This _Iennet Preston_ being Prisoner in the Castle at Yorke, and
+indicted, for that shee felloniously had practised, vsed, and
+exercised diuerse wicked and deuillish Arts, called Witchcrafts,
+Inchauntments, Charmes, and Sorceries, in and vpon one _Thomas Lister_
+of Westby in Crauen, in the Countie of Yorke Esquire, and by force of
+the same Witchcraft felloniously the said _Thomas Lister_ had killed,
+_Contra Pacem &c._ beeing at the Barre, was arraigned.
+
+To this Indictment vpon her Arraignement, shee pleaded not guiltie,
+and for the Triall of her life put her selfe vpon GOD and her
+Countrey.
+
+Whereupon my Lord _Altham_ commaunded Master Sheriffe of the Countie
+of Yorke, in open Court to returne a Iurie of sufficient Gentlemen of
+vnderstanding, to passe betweene our Soueraigne Lord the Kings
+Majestie and her, and others the Prisoners, vpon their liues and
+deaths; who were afterwards sworne, according to the forme and order
+of the Court, the prisoner being admitted to her lawfull challenge.
+
+Which being done, and the Prisoner at the Barre to receiue her Tryall,
+Master _Heyber_,[Y2_a_] one of his Maiesties Iustices of Peace in the
+same County, hauing taken great paines in the proceedings against her;
+and being best instructed of any man of all the particular points of
+Euidence against her, humbly prayed, the witnesses hereafter following
+might be examined against her, and the seuerall Examinations, taken
+before Master _Nowel_, and certified, might openly bee published
+against her; which hereafter follow in order, _viz._
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_The Euidence for the Kings Maiestie_
+
+Against
+
+IENNET PRESTON, _Prisoner at the Barre._
+
+Hereupon were diuerse Examinations taken and read openly against
+her, to induce and satisfie the Gentlemen of the Iurie of Life and
+Death, to finde she was a Witch; and many other circumstances for the
+death of M. _Lister_. In the end _Anne Robinson_ and others were both
+examined, who vpon their Oathes declared against her, That M. _Lister_
+lying in great extremitie, vpon his death bedde, cried out vnto them
+that stood about him; that _Iennet Preston_ was in the house, looke
+where shee is, take hold of her: for Gods sake shut the doores, and
+take her, shee cannot escape away. Looke about for her, and lay hold
+on her, for shee is in the house: and so cryed very often in his great
+paines, to them that came to visit him during his sicknesse.
+
+
+_Anne Robinson_,
+
+and
+
+_Thomas Lister_,
+
+Being examined further, they both gaue this in euidence against her,
+That when Master _Lister_ lay vpon his death-bedde, hee cryed out in
+great extremitie; _Iennet Preston_ lyes heauie vpon me, _Prestons_
+wife lies heauie vpon me; helpe me, helpe me: and so departed, crying
+out against her.
+
+These, with many other witnesses, were further examined, and deposed,
+That _Iennet Preston_, the Prisoner at the Barre, being brought to M.
+_Lister_ after hee was dead, & layd out to be wound vp in his
+winding-sheet, the said _Iennet Preston_ comming to touch the dead
+corpes, they bled fresh bloud presently,[Y3_a_] in the presence of all
+that were there present: Which hath euer beene held a great argument
+to induce a Iurie to hold him guiltie that shall be accused of
+Murther, and hath seldome, or neuer, fayled in the Tryall.
+
+But these were not alone: for this wicked and bloud-thirstie Witch was
+no sooner deliuered at the Assises holden at Yorke in Lent last past,
+being indicted, arraigned, and by the fauor and mercie of the Iurie
+found not guiltie, for the murther of a Child by Witch-craft: but vpon
+the Friday following, beeing Good-Friday, shee rode in hast to the
+great meeting at Malking-Tower, and there prayed aide for the murther
+of M. _Thomas Lister:_ as at large shall appeare, by the seuerall
+Examinations hereafter following; sent to these Assises from Master
+_Nowel_ and other his Maiesties Iustices of Peace in the Countie of
+Lancaster, to be giuen in euidence against her, vpon her Triall,
+_viz._
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_The Examination and Euidence of_
+IAMES DEVICE, _of the Forrest of Pendle, in the Countie
+of Lancaster, Labourer, taken at the house of_ IAMES
+WILSEY, _of the Forrest of Pendle in the Countie of
+Lancaster, the seuen and twentieth day of Aprill_, Anno
+Reg. Regis IACOBI Angliae, &c. Decimo ac Scotiae
+quadragesimo quinto.
+
+Before
+
+ROGER NOWEL _and_ NICHOLAS BANESTER,
+_Esquires, two of his Maiesties Iustices of the Peace
+within the Countie of Lancaster_, viz.
+
+This Examinate saith, That vpon Good-Friday last about twelue of
+the clocke in the day-time, there dined in this Examinates said
+mothers house a number of persons, whereof three were men, with this
+Examinate, and the rest women: and that they met there for these three
+causes following (as this Examinates said mother told this Examinate):
+First was for the naming of the Spirit, which _Alizon Deuice_, now
+Prisoner at Lancaster, had, but did not name him, because shee was not
+there. The second cause was for the deliuery of his said Grand-mother,
+this Examinates said sister _Alizon_, the said _Anne Chattox_, and her
+daughter _Redferne_: Killing the Gaoler at Lancaster; and before the
+next Assizes to blow vp the Castle there; to that end the aforesaid
+Prisoners might by that meanes make an escape and get away. All which
+this Examinate then heard them conferre of. And the third cause was,
+for that there was a woman dwelling in Gilburne Parish, who came into
+this Examinates said Grand-mothers house, who there came, and craued
+assistance of the rest of them that were then there, for the killing
+of Master _Lister_ of Westby: because, as she then said, he had borne
+malice vnto her, and had thought to haue put her away at the last
+Assizes at Yorke; but could not. And then this Examinat heard the said
+woman say, that her power was not strong enough to doe it her selfe,
+being now lesse then before time it had beene.
+
+And he also further saith, that the said _Prestons_ wife had a Spirit
+with her like unto a white Foale, with a blacke-spot in the forehead.
+And further, this Examinat saith, That since the said meeting, as
+aforesaid, this Examinate hath beene brought to the wife of one
+_Preston_ in Gisburne Parish aforesaid, by _Henry Hargreiues_ of
+Goldshey, to see whether shee was the woman that came amongst the said
+Witches, on the said last Good-Friday, to craue their aide and
+assistance for the killing of the said Master _Lister_: and hauing had
+full view of her; hee this Examinate confesseth, That shee was the
+selfe-same woman which came amongst the said Witches on the said last
+Good-Friday, for their aide for the killing of the said Master
+_Lister_; and that brought the Spirit with her, in the shape of a
+White Foale, as aforesaid.
+
+And this Examinate further saith, That all the said Witches went out
+of the said house in their owne shapes and likenesses, and they all,
+by that they were forth of the doores, were gotten on horse-backe like
+vnto Foales, some of one colour, some of another, and _Prestons_ wife
+was the last; and when she got on horse-backe, they all presently
+vanished out of this Examinats sight: and before their said parting
+away, they all appointed to meete at the said _Prestons_ wifes house
+that day twelue-month; at which time the said _Prestons_ wife
+promised to make them a great feast; and if they had occasion to meet
+in the meane time, then should warning bee giuen that they all should
+meete vpon Romles-Moore. And this Examinate further saith, That at the
+said feast at Malking-Tower, this Examinat heard them all giue their
+consents to put the said Master _Thomas Lister_ of Westby to death:
+and after Master _Lister_ should be made away by Witchcraft, then al
+the said Witches gaue their consents to ioyne altogether to hancke
+Master _Leonard Lister_,[Z_a_] when he should come to dwell at the
+Sowgill, and so put him to death.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_The Examination of_ HENRIE HARGREIVES
+_of Goldshey-booth, in the Forrest of
+Pendle, in the Countie of Lancaster Yeoman, taken the
+fifth day of May_, Anno Reg. Regis IACOBI Angliae,
+&c. Decimo, ac Scociae quadragesimo quinto.
+
+Before
+
+ROGER NOWEL, NICHOLAS BANNESTER,
+_and_ ROBERT HOLDEN, _Esquires; three of his
+Maiesties Iustices of Peace within the said Countie._
+
+This Examinat vpon his oath saith, That _Anne Whittle_, alias
+_Chattox_, confessed vnto him, that she knoweth one _Prestons_ wife
+neere Gisburne, and that the said _Prestons_ wife should haue beene at
+the said feast, vpon the said Good-Friday, and that shee was an ill
+woman, and had done Master _Lister_ of Westby great hurt.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_The Examination of_ ELIZABETH
+DEVICE, _mother of_ IAMES DEVICE, _taken before_
+ROGER NOWEL _and_ NICHOLAS BANESTER,
+_Esquires, the day and yeare aforesaid_, viz.
+
+The said _Elizabeth Deuice_ vpon her Examination confesseth, That
+vpon Good-Friday last, there dined at this Examinats house, which she
+hath said are Witches, and doth verily thinke them to be Witches; and
+their names are those whom _Iames Deuice_ hath formerly spoken of to
+be there.
+
+She also confesseth in all things touching the killing of Master
+_Lister_ of Westby, as the said _Iames Deuice_ hath before confessed.
+
+And the said _Elizabeth Deuice_ also further saith, That at the said
+meeting at Malking-Tower, as aforesaid, the said _Katherine Hewyt_ and
+_Iohn Bulcock_, with all the rest then there, gaue their consents,
+with the said _Prestons_ wife, for the killing of the said Master
+_Lister_. And for the killing of the said Master _Leonard Lister_, she
+this Examinate saith in all things, as the said _Iames Deuice_ hath
+before confessed in his Examination.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_The Examination of_ IENNET DEVICE,
+_daughter of_ ELIZABETH _late wife of_ IOHN
+DEVICE, _of the Forrest of Pendle, in the Countie of Lancaster,
+about the age of nine yeares or thereabouts, taken
+the day and yeare aboue-said:_
+
+Before
+
+ROGER NOWEL _and_ NICHOLAS BANESTER,
+_Esquires, two of his Maiesties Iustices of Peace in
+the Countie of Lancaster._
+
+The said Examinate vpon her Examination saith, that vpon Good-friday
+last there was about twenty persons, whereof only two were men, to
+this Examinats remembrance, at her said Grand-mothers house, called
+Malking-Tower aforesaid, about twelue of the clocke: all which
+persons, this Examinates said mother told her were Witches, and that
+she knoweth the names of diuers of the said Witches.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+After all these Examinations, Confessions, and Euidence, deliuered
+in open Court against her, His Lordship commanded the Iurie to obserue
+the particular circumstances;[Z2_a_] first, Master _Lister_ in his
+great extremitie, to complaine hee saw her, and requested them that
+were by him to lay hold on her.
+
+After he cried out shee lay heauie vpon him, euen at the time of his
+death.
+
+But the Conclusion is of more consequence then all the rest, that
+_Iennet Preston_ being brought to the dead corps, they bled freshly.
+And after her deliuerance in Lent, it is proued shee rode vpon a white
+Foale, and was present in the great assembly at _Malkin Tower_ with
+the Witches, to intreat and pray for aide of them, to kill Master
+_Lister_, now liuing, for that he had prosequuted against her.
+
+And against these people you may not expect such direct euidence,
+since all their workes are the workes of darkenesse, no witnesses are
+present to accuse them, therefore I pray God direct your consciences.
+
+After the Gentlemen of the Iurie of Life and Death had spent the most
+part of the day, in consideration of the euidence against her, they
+returned into the Court and deliuered vp their Verdict of Life and
+Death.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_The Verdict of Life and Death._
+
+Who found _Iennet Preston_ guiltie of the fellonie and murder by
+Witch-craft of _Thomas Lister_, Esquire; conteyned in the Indictment
+against her, &c.
+
+Afterwards, according to the course and order of the Lawes, his
+Lordship pronounced Iudgement against her to bee hanged for her
+offence. And so the Court arose.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Here was the wonderfull discouerie of this _Iennet Preston_, who
+for so many yeares had liued at Gisborne in Crauen, neare Master
+_Lister_: one thing more I shall adde to all these particular
+Examinations, and euidence of witnesses, which I saw, and was present
+in the Court at Lancaster, when it was done at the Assizes holden in
+August following.
+
+My Lord _Bromley_ being very suspicious of the accusation of _Iennet
+Deuice_, the little Wench, commanded her to looke vpon the Prisoners
+that were present, and declare which of them were present at _Malkin
+Tower_, at the great assembly of Witches vpon Good-Friday last: shee
+looked vpon and tooke many by the handes, and accused them to be
+there, and when shee had accused all that were there present, shee
+told his Lordship there was a Woman that came out of Crauen that was
+amongst the Witches at that Feast, but shee saw her not amongst the
+Prisoners at the Barre.
+
+What a singular note was this of a Child, amongst many to misse her,
+that before that time was hanged for her offence, which shee would
+neuer confesse or declare at her death? here was present old _Preston_
+her husband, who then cried out and went away: being fully satisfied
+his wife had Iustice, and was worthie of death.
+
+To conclude then this present discourse, I heartilie desire you, my
+louing Friends and Countrie-men, for whose particular instructions
+this is added to the former of the wonderfull discouerie of Witches in
+the Countie of Lancaster: And for whose particular satisfaction this
+is published; Awake in time, and suffer not your selues to be thus
+assaulted.
+
+Consider how barbarously this Gentleman hath been dealt withall; and
+especially you that hereafter shall passe vpon any Iuries of Life and
+Death, let not your conniuence, or rather foolish pittie, spare such
+as these, to exequute farther mischiefe.
+
+Remember that shee was no sooner set at libertie, but shee plotted the
+ruine and ouerthrow of this Gentleman, and his whole Familie.
+
+Expect not, as this reuerend and learned Iudge saith, such apparent
+proofe against them, as against others, since all their workes, are
+the workes of darkenesse: and vnlesse it please Almightie God to raise
+witnesses to accuse them, who is able to condemne them?
+
+Forget not the bloud that cries out vnto God for reuenge, bring it not
+vpon your owne heads.
+
+Neither doe I vrge this any farther, then with this, that I would
+alwaies intreat you to remember, that it is as great a crime (as
+_Salomon_ sayth, _Prov._ 17.) to condemne the innocent, as to let the
+guiltie escape free.
+
+Looke not vpon things strangely alledged, but iudiciously consider
+what is justly proued against them.
+
+And that as well all you that were witnesses, present at the
+Arraignement and Triall of her, as all other strangers, to whome this
+Discourse shall come, may take example by this Gentlemen to prosecute
+these hellish Furies to their end:[Z3_b_1] labor to root them out of
+the Commonwealth, for the common good of your Countrey. The greatest
+mercie extended to them, is soone forgotten.
+
+GOD graunt vs the long and prosperous cotinuance of these Honorable
+and Reuerend Iudges, vnder whose Gouernment we liue in these North
+parts: for we may say, that GOD Almightie hath singled them out, and
+set him on his Seat, for the defence of Iustice.
+
+And for this great deliuerance, let vs all pray to GOD Almightie, that
+the memorie of these worthie Iudges may bee blessed to all
+Posterities.[Z3_b_2]
+
+
+_FINIS._
+
+
+
+
+NOTES.
+
+
+[The references are to the alphabetical letters or signatures at the
+bottom of each page: _a_ is intended for the first and _b_ the second
+page, marked with such letter or signature.]
+
+[Transcriber's Note: In the original text, a single note reference
+sometimes applies to more than one note. For clarity's sake, in this
+e-text a number has been added to the end of such references to
+distinguish among the notes.]
+
+
+DEDICATION. "_The Right Honorable Thomas Lord Knyvet._"] Sir Thomas
+Knivet, or Knyvet, Gentleman of the Privy Chamber to James the First,
+was afterwards created Baron of Escricke, in the county of York. He it
+was who was intrusted to search the vaults under the Parliament House,
+and who discovered the thirty-six barrels of gunpowder, and
+apprehended Guido Fawkes, who declared to him, that if he had happened
+to be within the house when he took him, as he was immediately before,
+he would not have failed to blow him up, house and all. (Howell's
+_State Trials_, vol. ii., p. 202.) His courage and conduct on this
+occasion seem to have recommended him to the especial favour of James.
+Dying without issue, the title of Lord Howard of Escrick was conferred
+on Sir Edward Howard, son of Thomas Howard, Earl of Suffolk, who had
+married the eldest daughter and co-heir of Sir H. Knivet; and, having
+been enjoyed successively by his two sons, ended in his grandson
+Charles, in the beginning of the last century. It must be admitted
+that the writer has chosen his patron very felicitously. Who so fit to
+have the book dedicated to him as one who had acted so conspicuous a
+part on the memorable occasion at Westminster? The blowing up of
+Lancaster Castle and good Mr. Covel, by the conclave of witches at
+Malkin's Tower, was no discreditable imitation of the grand
+metropolitan drama on provincial boards.
+
+A 2. FIRST IMPRIMATUR. "_Ja. Altham, Edw. Bromley._"] These two judges
+were Barons of the Court of Exchequer, but neither of them seems to
+have left a name extraordinarily distinguished for legal learning.
+Altham was one of the assistants named in the commission for the trial
+of the Countess of Somerset for the murder of Sir Thomas Overbury in
+1616. Bromley appears, from incidental notices contained in the diary
+of Nicholas Assheton, (see Whitaker's _Whalley_, third edition, page
+300,) and other sources, to have frequently taken the northern
+circuit. He was not of the family of Lord Chancellor Bromley, but of
+another stock.
+
+A 3. SECOND IMPRIMATUR: "_Edward Bromley. I took upon mee to reuise
+and correct it._"] This revision by the judge who presided at the
+trial gives a singular and unique value and authority to the work. We
+have no other report of any witch trial which has an equal stamp of
+authenticity. How many of the rhetorical flourishes interspersed in
+the book are the property of Thomas Potts, Esquier, and how many are
+the interpolation of the "excellent care" of the worthy Baron, it is
+scarcely worth while to investigate. Certainly never were judge and
+clerk more admirably paired. The _Shallow_ on the bench was well
+reflected in the _Master Slender_ below.
+
+B _a_. "_The number of them being knowen to exceed all others at any
+time heretofore at one time to be indicted, arraigned, and receiue
+their tryall._"] Probably this was the case, at least in England; but
+a greater number had been convicted before, even in this country, at
+one time, than were found guilty on this occasion, as it appears from
+Scot, (_Discovery of Witchcraft_, page 543, edition 1584,) that
+seventeen or eighteen witches were condemned at once, at St. Osith, in
+Essex, in 1576, of whom an account was written by Brian Darcy, with
+the names and colours of their spirits.
+
+B _b_. "_She was a very old woman, about the age of fourescore._"] Dr.
+Henry More would have styled old Demdike "An eximious example of
+Moses, his Mecassephah, the word which he uses in that law,--Thou
+shalt not suffer a witch to live." Margaret Agar and Julian Cox, (see
+Glanvill's _Collection of Relations_, p. 135, edition 1682,) on whom
+he dwells with such delighted interest, were very inferior subjects to
+what, in his hands, Elizabeth Sothernes would have made. They had
+neither of them the finishing attribute of blindness, so fearful in a
+witch, to complete the sketch; nor such a fine foreground for the
+painting as the forest of Pendle presented; nor the advantage, for
+grouping, of a family of descendants in which witchcraft might be
+transmitted to the third generation.
+
+B 2 _a_. "_Roger Nowell, Esquire._"] This busy and mischievous
+personage who resided at Read Hall, in the immediate neighbourhood of
+Pendle, was sheriff of Lancashire in 1610. He married Katherine,
+daughter of John Murton, of Murton, and was buried at Whalley, January
+31st, 1623. He was of the same family as Alexander Nowell, the Dean of
+St. Paul's, and Lawrence Nowell, the restorer of Saxon literature in
+England; and tarnished a name which they had rendered memorable, by
+becoming, apparently, an eager and willing instrument in that wicked
+persecution which resulted in the present trial. His ill-directed
+activity seems to have fanned the dormant embers into a blaze, and to
+have given aim and consistency to the whole scheme of oppression. From
+this man was descended, in the female line, one whose merits might
+atone for a whole generation of Roger Nowells, the truly noble-minded
+and evangelical Reginald Heber.
+
+B 2 _b_ 1. "_Gouldshey_,"] so commonly pronounced, but more properly
+Goldshaw, or Goldshaw Booth.
+
+B 2 _b_ 2. "_The spirit answered, his name was Tibb._"] Bernard, who
+is learned in the nomenclature of familiar spirits, gives, in his
+_Guide to Grand Jurymen_, 1630, 12mo, the following list of the names
+of the more celebrated familiars of English witches. "Such as I have
+read of are these: Mephistophiles, Lucifer, Little Lord, Fimodes,
+David, Jude, Little Robin, Smacke, Litefoote, Nonsuch, Lunch,
+Makeshift, Swash, Pluck, Blue, Catch, White, Callico, Hardname, Tibb,
+Hiff, Ball, Puss, Rutterkin, Dicke, Prettie, Grissil, and Jacke." In
+the confession of Isabel Gowdie, a famous Scotch witch, (in
+_Pitcairne's Trials_, vol. iii. page 614,) we have the following
+catalogue of attendant spirits, rather, it must be confessed, a
+formidable band. "The names of our Divellis, that waited upon us, ar
+thes: first, Robert the Jakis; Sanderis, the Read Roaver; Thomas the
+Fearie; Swain, the Roaring Lion; Thieffe of Hell; Wait upon Hirself;
+Mak Hectour; Robert the Rule; Hendrie Laing; and Rorie. We would ken
+them all, on by on, from utheris. Some of theim apeirit in sadd dunn,
+som in grasse-grein, som in sea-grein, and some in yallow." Archbishop
+Harsnet, in his admirable _Declaration of Popish Impostures, under the
+pretence of casting out Devils_, 1605, 4to, a work unsurpassed for
+rich humour and caustic wit, clothed in good old idiomatic English,
+has a chapter "on the strange names of these devils," in which he
+observes, (p. 46,) "It is not amiss that you be acquainted with these
+extravagant names of devils, least meeting them otherwise by chance
+you mistake them for the names of tapsters, or juglers." Certainly,
+some of the names he marshalls in array smell strongly of the tavern.
+These are some of them: Pippin, Philpot, Modu, Soforce, Hilco,
+Smolkin, Hillio, Hiaclito, Lustie Huffe-cap, Killico, Hob, Frateretto,
+Fliberdigibbet, Hoberdidance, Tocobatto, and Lustie Jollie Jenkin.
+
+B 2 _b_ 3. "_About Day-light Gate._"] Day-light Gate, i.e. Evening,
+the down gate of daylight. See _Promptuarium Parvulorum_, (edited by
+Way for the Camden Society,) page 188, "Gate down, or downe gate of
+the Sunne or any other planet."--Occasus. Palgrave gives, "At the
+sonne gate downe; sur le soleil couchant."
+
+B 3 _a_ 1. "_The said Deuill did get blood vnder her left arme._"] It
+would seem (see Elizabeth Device's Examination afterwards) as if some
+preliminary search were made, in the case of this poor old woman, for
+the marks which were supposed to come by the sucking or drawing of the
+Spirit or Familiar. Most probably her confession was the result of
+this and other means of annoyance and torture employed in the usual
+unscrupulous manner, upon a blind woman of eighty. Of those marks
+supposed to be produced by the sucking of the Spirit or Familiar, the
+most curious and scientific (if the word may be applied to such a
+subject) account will be found in a very scarce tract, which seems to
+have been unknown to the writers on witchcraft. Its title is "A
+Confirmation and Discovery of Witchcraft, containing these several
+particulars; That there are Witches called bad Witches, and Witches
+untruly called good or white Witches, and what manner of people they
+be, and how they may be knowne, with many particulars thereunto
+tending. Together with the Confessions of many of those executed since
+May, 1645, in the several Counties hereafter mentioned. As also some
+objections Answered. By John Stearne, now of Lawshall, neere Burie
+Saint Edmunds in Suffolke, sometimes of Manningtree in Essex. Prov.
+xvii. 15, He that justifieth the wicked, and he that condemneth the
+just, even they both are an abomination to the Lord. Deut. xiii. 14,
+Thou shall therefore enquire, and make search, and aske diligently
+whether it be truth and the thing certaine. London, Printed by William
+Wilson, dwelling in Little Saint Bartholomews, neere Smithfield, 1648,
+pages 61, besides preface." Stearne, in whom Remigius and De Lancre
+would have recognized a congenial soul, had a sort of joint commission
+with Hopkins, as Witch-finder, and tells us (see address to Reader)
+that he had been in part an agent in finding out or discovering about
+200 witches in Essex, Suffolk, Northamptonshire, Huntingtonshire,
+Bedfordshire, Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, and the Isle of Ely. He deals
+with the subject undoubtedly like a man whose extensive experience and
+practice had enabled him to reduce the matter to a complete system.
+(See his account of their marks, pp. 43 to 50.) He might, like John
+Kincaid in Tranent, (see Pitcairne's _Criminal Trials_, vol. iii. p.
+599,) have assumed the right of Common Pricker, i.e. Searcher for the
+devil's marks, and had his own tests, which were infallible. He
+complains, good man, "that in many places I never received penny as
+yet, nor any am like, notwithstanding I have hands for satisfaction,
+except I should sue; [he should have sued by all means, we might then
+have had his bill of particulars, which would have been curious;] but
+many rather fall upon me for what hath been received, but I hope such
+suits will be disannulled, and that where I have been out of moneys
+for Towns in charges and otherwise such course will be taken that I
+may be satisfied and paid with reason." He was doubtless well
+deserving of a recompense, and his neighbours were much to blame if he
+did not receive a full and ample one. Of the latter end of his
+coadjutor, Hopkins, whom Sir Walter Scott (see Somers's Tracts, vol.
+iii. p. 97, edit. 1810,) and several other writers represent as
+ultimately executed himself for witchcraft, he gives a very different,
+and no doubt more correct account; which, singularly enough, has
+hitherto remained entirely unnoticed. "He died peaceably at
+Manningtree, after a long sicknesse of a consumption, as many of his
+generation had done before him, without any trouble of conscience for
+what he had done, as was falsely reported of him. He was the son of a
+godly minister, and therefore, without doubt, within the Covenant."
+Were not the interests of truth too sacred to be compromised, it might
+seem almost a pity to demolish that merited and delightful retribution
+which Butler's lines have immortalized.
+
+B 3 _a_ 2. "_I will burne the one of you and hang the other._"] The
+following extracts from that fine old play, "The Witch of Edmonton,"
+bear a strong resemblance to the scene described in the text. Mother
+Sawyer, in whom the milk of human kindness is turned to gall by
+destitution, imbittered by relentless outrage and insult, and who,
+driven out of the pale of human fellowship, is thrown upon strange and
+fearful allies, would almost appear to be the counterpart of Mother
+Demdike. The weird sisters of our transcendant bard are wild and
+wonderful creations, but have no close relationship to the plain old
+traditional witch of our ancestors, which is nowhere represented by
+our dramatic writers with faithfulness and truth except in the Witch
+of Edmonton:--
+
+_Enter_ ELIZABETH SAWYER, _gathering sticks._
+
+_Saw._ And why on me? why should the envious world
+Throw all their scandalous malice upon me?
+'Cause I am poor, deform'd, and ignorant,
+And like a bow buckled and bent together,
+By some more strong in mischiefs than myself,
+Must I for that be made a common sink,
+For all the filth and rubbish of men's tongues
+To fall and run into? Some call me Witch,
+And being ignorant of myself, they go
+About to teach me how to be one; urging,
+That my bad tongue (by their bad usage made so)
+Forespeaks their cattle, doth bewitch their corn,
+Themselves, their servants, and their babes at nurse.
+This they enforce upon me; and in part
+Make me to credit it; and here comes one
+Of my chief adversaries.
+
+_Enter_ Old BANKS.
+
+_Banks._ Out, out upon thee, witch!
+
+_Saw._ Dost call me witch?
+
+_Banks._ I do, witch, I do; and worse I would, knew I a name more
+hateful. What makest thou upon my ground?
+
+_Saw._ Gather a few rotten sticks to warm me.
+
+_Banks._ Down with them when I bid thee, quickly; I'll make thy bones
+rattle in thy skin else.
+
+_Saw._ You won't, churl, cut-throat, miser!--there they be; [_Throws
+them down._] would they stuck across thy throat, thy bowels, thy maw,
+thy midriff.
+
+_Banks._ Say'st thou me so, hag? Out of my ground! [_Beats her._
+
+_Saw._ Dost strike me, slave, curmudgeon! Now thy bones aches, thy
+joints cramps, and convulsions stretch and crack thy sinews!
+
+_Banks._ Cursing, thou hag! take that, and that. [_Beats her, and
+exit._
+
+_Saw._ Strike, do!--and wither'd may that hand and arm
+Whose blows have lamed me, drop from the rotten trunk!
+Abuse me! beat me! call me hag and witch!
+What is the name? where, and by what art learn'd,
+What spells, what charms or invocations?
+May the thing call'd Familiar be purchased?
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Saw._ Still vex'd! still tortured! that curmudgeon Banks
+Is ground of all my scandal; I am shunn'd
+And hated like a sickness; made a scorn
+To all degrees and sexes. I have heard old beldams
+Talk of familiars in the shape of mice,
+Rats, ferrets, weasels, and I wot not what,
+That have appear'd, and suck'd, some say, their blood;
+But by what means they came acquainted with them,
+I am now ignorant. Would some power, good or bad,
+Instruct me which way I might be revenged
+Upon this churl, I'd go out of myself,
+And give this fury leave to dwell within
+This ruin'd cottage, ready to fall with age!
+Abjure all goodness, be at hate with prayer,
+And study curses, imprecations,
+Blasphemous speeches, oaths, detested oaths,
+Or anything that's ill; so I might work
+Revenge upon this miser, this black cur,
+That barks and bites, and sucks the very blood
+Of me, and of my credit. 'Tis all one,
+To be a witch, as to be counted one:
+Vengeance, shame, ruin light upon that canker!
+
+_Enter a_ Black Dog.
+
+_Dog._ Ho! have I found thee cursing? now thou art
+Mine own.
+
+_Saw._ Thine! what art thou?
+
+_Dog._ He thou hast so often
+Importuned to appear to thee, the devil.
+
+_Saw._ Bless me! the devil!
+
+_Dog._ Come, do not fear; I love thee much too well
+To hurt or fright thee; if I seem terrible,
+It is to such as hate me. I have found
+Thy love unfeign'd; have seen and pitied
+Thy open wrongs, and come, out of my love,
+To give thee just revenge against thy foes.
+
+_Saw._ May I believe thee?
+
+_Dog._ To confirm't, command me
+Do any mischief unto man or beast.
+And I'll effect it, on condition
+That, uncompell'd, thou make a deed of gift
+Of soul and body to me.
+
+_Saw._ Out, alas!
+My soul and body?
+
+_Dog._ And that instantly,
+And seal it with thy blood: if thou deniest,
+I'll tear thy body in a thousand pieces.
+
+_Saw._ I know not where to seek relief: but shall I,
+After such covenants seal'd, see full revenge
+On all that wrong me?
+
+_Dog._ Ha, ha! silly woman!
+The devil is no liar to such as he loves--
+Didst ever know or hear the devil a liar
+To such as he affects?
+
+_Saw._ Then I am thine; at least so much of me
+As I can call mine own--
+
+_Dog._ Equivocations?
+Art mine or no? speak, or I'll tear--
+
+_Saw._ All thine.
+
+_Dog._ Seal't with thy blood.
+
+[_She pricks her arm, which he sucks.--Thunder and lightning._
+
+See! now I dare call thee mine!
+For proof, command me: instantly I'll run
+To any mischief; goodness can I none.
+
+_Saw._ And I desire as little. There's an old churl,
+One Banks--
+
+_Dog._ That wrong'd thee: he lamed thee, call'd thee witch.
+
+_Saw._ The same; first upon him I'd be revenged.
+
+_Dog._ Thou shalt; do but name how?
+
+_Saw._ Go, touch his life.
+
+_Dog._ I cannot.
+
+_Saw._ Hast thou not vow'd? Go, kill the slave!
+
+_Dog._ I will not.
+
+_Saw._ I'll cancel then my gift.
+
+_Dog._ Ha, ha!
+
+_Saw._ Dost laugh!
+Why wilt not kill him?
+
+_Dog._ Fool, because I cannot.
+Though we have power, know, it is circumscribed,
+And tied in limits: though he be curst to thee,
+Yet of himself, he is loving to the world,
+And charitable to the poor; now men, that,
+As he, love goodness, though in smallest measure,
+Live without compass of our reach: his cattle
+And corn I'll kill and mildew; but his life
+(Until I take him, as I late found thee,
+Cursing and swearing) I have no power to touch.
+
+_Saw._ Work on his corn and cattle then.
+
+_Dog._ I shall.
+The WITCH OF EDMONTON shall see his fall.
+
+_Ford's Plays_, edit. 1839, p. 190.
+
+B 3 _a_. "_Alizon Device._"] Device is merely the common name Davies
+spelled as pronounced in the neighbourhood of Pendle.
+
+B 3 _b_. "_Is to make a picture of clay._"]
+
+_Hecate._ What death is't you desire for Almachildes?
+
+_Duchess._ A sudden and a subtle.
+
+_Hecate._ Then I've fitted you.
+Here be the gifts of both; sudden and subtle:
+His picture made in wax and gently molten
+By a blue fire kindled with dead men's eyes
+Will waste him by degrees.
+
+_Duchess._ In what time, prithee?
+
+_Hecate._ Perhaps in a moon's progress.
+
+_Middleton's Witch_, edit. 1778, p. 100.
+
+None of the offices in the Witches rubric had higher classical warrant
+than this method, a favourite one, it appears, of Mother Demdike, but
+in which Anne Redfern had the greatest skill of any of these Pendle
+witches, of victimizing by moulding and afterwards pricking or burning
+figures of clay representing the individual whose life was aimed at.
+Horace, Lib. i. Sat. 8, mentions both waxen and woollen images--
+
+     Lanea et effigies erat altera cerea, &c.
+
+And it appears from Tacitus, that the death of Germanicus was supposed
+to have been sought by similar practices. By such a Simulachrum, or
+image, the person was supposed to be devoted to the infernal deities.
+According to the Platonists, the effect produced arose from the
+operation of the sympathy and synergy of the Spiritus Mundanus, (which
+Plotinus calls [Greek: ton megan goeta] [Transcriber's Note: typo "t"
+for "ton" in original Greek], the grand magician,) such as they resolve
+the effect of the weaponsalve and other magnetic cures into. The
+following is the Note in Brand on this part of witchcraft:--
+
+     King James, in his "Daemonology," book ii., chap. 5, tells
+     us, that "the Devil teacheth how to make pictures of wax or
+     clay, that, by roasting thereof, the persons that they bear
+     the name of may be continually melted or dried away by
+     continual sickness."
+
+     See Servius on the 8th Eclogue of Virgil; Theocritus, Idyll,
+     ii., 22; Hudibras, part II., canto ii., l. 351.
+
+     Ovid says:
+
+     "Devovet absentes, simulachraque cerea figit
+     Et miserum tenues in jecur urget acus."
+                    _Heroid._ Ep. vi., l. 91.
+
+     See also "Grafton's Chronicle," p. 587, where it is laid to
+     the charge (among others) of Roger Bolinbrook, a cunning
+     necromancer, and Margery Jordane, the cunning Witch of Eye,
+     that they, at the request of Eleanor, Duchess of Gloucester,
+     had devised an image of wax, representing the king, (Henry
+     the Sixth,) which by their sorcery a little and a little
+     consumed; intending thereby in conclusion to waste and
+     destroy the king's person. Shakspeare mentions this, Henry
+     VI., P. II., act i., sc. 4.
+
+     It appears, from Strype's "Annals of the Reformation,", vol.
+     i., p. 8, under anno 1558, that Bishop Jewel, preaching
+     before the queen, said, "It may please your grace to
+     understand that witches and sorcerers within these few last
+     years are marvellously increased within your grace's realm.
+     Your grace's subjects pine away, even unto the death; their
+     colour fadeth, their flesh rotteth, their speech is
+     benumbed, their senses are bereft. I pray God they never
+     practise _further than upon the subject_." "This," Strype
+     adds, "I make no doubt was the occasion of bringing in a
+     bill, the next parliament, for making enchantments and
+     witchcraft felony." One of the bishop's strong expressions
+     is, "_These eyes have seen_ most evident and manifest marks
+     of their wickedness."
+
+     It appears from the same work, vol. iv., p. 6, sub anno
+     1589, that "one Mrs. Dier had practised conjuration against
+     the queen, to work some mischief to her majesty; for which
+     she was brought into question: and accordingly her words and
+     doings were sent to Popham, the queen's attorney, and
+     Egerton, her solicitor, by Walsingham, the secretary, and
+     Sir Thomas Heneage, her vice-chamberlain, for their
+     judgment, whose opinion was that Mrs. Dier was not within
+     the compass of the statute touching witchcraft, for that she
+     did no act, and spake certain lewd speeches tending to that
+     purpose, but neither set figure nor made pictures." _Ibid._,
+     vol. ii., p. 545, sub anno 1578, Strype says: "Whether it
+     were the effect of magic, or proceeded from some natural
+     cause, but the queen was in some part of this year under
+     excessive anguish _by pains of her teeth_, insomuch that she
+     took no rest for divers nights, and endured very great
+     torment night and day."
+
+     Andrews, in his "Continuation of Henry's History of Great
+     Britain," 4to, p. 93, tells us, speaking of Ferdinand, Earl
+     of Derby, who in the reign of Queen Elizabeth died by
+     poison, "The credulity of the age attributed his death to
+     witchcraft. The disease was odd, and operated as a perpetual
+     emetic; and a _waxen image, with hair like that of the
+     unfortunate earl_, found in his chamber, reduced every
+     suspicion to certainty."
+
+     "The wife of Marshal d'Ancre was apprehended, imprisoned,
+     and beheaded for a witch, upon a surmise that she had
+     inchanted the queen to dote upon her husband; and they say
+     the young king's picture was found in her closet, in virgin
+     wax, with one leg melted away. When asked by her judges what
+     spells she had made use of to gain so powerful an ascendancy
+     over the queen, she replied, 'that ascendancy only which
+     strong minds ever gain over weak ones.'" Seward's "Anecdotes
+     of some Distinguished Persons," &c., vol. ii., p. 215.
+
+     Blagrave, in his "Astrological Practice of Physick," p. 89,
+     observes that "the way which the witches usually take for to
+     afflict man or beast in this kind is, as I conceive, done by
+     image or model, made in the likeness of that man or beast
+     they intend to work mischief upon, and by the subtlety of
+     the devil made at such hours and times when it shall work
+     most powerfully upon them, by thorn, pin, or needle, pricked
+     into that limb or member of the body afflicted."
+
+     This is farther illustrated by a passage in one of Daniel's
+     Sonnets:
+
+     "The slie inchanter, when to work his will
+     And secret wrong on some forspoken wight,
+     Frames waxe, in forme to represent aright
+     The poore unwitting wretch he meanes to kill,
+     And prickes the image, framed by magick's skill,
+     Whereby to vex the partie day and night."
+         _Son. 10; from Poems and Sonnets annexed to "Astrophil
+              and Stella_," 4to, 1591.
+
+     Again, in "Diaria, or the Excellent Conceitful Sonnets of
+     H.C.," (Henry Constable,) 1594:
+
+     "Witches, which some murther do intend,
+     Doe make a picture, and doe shoote at it;
+     And in that part where they the picture hit,
+     The parties self doth languish to his end."
+                                  _Decad. II., Son. ii._
+
+     Coles, in his "Art of Simpling," &c., p. 66, says that
+     witches "take likewise the roots of mandrake, according to
+     some, or, as I rather suppose, the _roots of briony_, which
+     simple folke take for the true mandrake, and make thereof an
+     ugly image, by which they represent the person on whom they
+     intend to exercise their witchcraft." He tells us, _ibid._,
+     p. 26, "Some plants have roots with a number of threads,
+     like beards, as mandrakes, whereof witches and impostors
+     make an ugly image, giving it the form of the face at the
+     top of the root, and leave those strings to make a broad
+     beard down to the feet."--_Brand's Antiquities_, vol. iii.
+     p. 9.
+
+Ben Johnson has not forgotten this superstition in his learned and
+fanciful _Masque of Queens_, in which so much of the lore of
+witchcraft is embodied. There are few finer things in English poetry
+than his 3rd Charm:--
+
+    The owl is abroad, the bat, and the toad,
+      And so is the cat-a-mountain,
+    The ant and the mole sit both in a hole,
+      And the frog peeps out o' the fountain;
+    The dogs they do bay, and the timbrels play,
+      The spindle is now a turning;
+    The moon it is red, and the stars are fled,
+      But all the sky is a burning:
+    The ditch is made, and our nails the spade,
+      _With pictures full, of wax and of wool;
+    Their livers I stick, with needles quick;_
+      There lacks but the blood, to make up the flood.
+      Quickly, dame, then bring your part in,
+      Spur, spur upon little Martin,
+      Merrily, merrily, make him sail,
+      A worm in his mouth, and a thorn in his tail,
+      Fire above, and fire below,
+      With a whip in your hand, to make him go.
+             _Ben Johnson's Works, by Gifford_, vol. vii. p. 121.
+
+Meric Casaubon, who is always an amusing writer, and whose works,
+notwithstanding his appetite for the wonderful, do not merit the total
+oblivion into which they have fallen, is very angry with Jerome
+Cardan, an author not generally given to scepticism, for the
+hesitation he displays on the subject of these waxen images:--
+
+     I know some who question not the power of devils or witches;
+     yet in this particular are not satisfied how such a thing
+     can be. For there is no relation or sympathy in nature,
+     (saith one, who hath written not many years ago,) between a
+     man and his effigies, that upon the pricking of the one the
+     other should grow sick. It is upon another occasion that he
+     speaks it; but his exception reacheth this example equally.
+     A wonder to me he should so argue, who in many things hath
+     very well confuted the incredulity of others, though in some
+     things too credulous himself. If we must believe nothing but
+     what we can reduce to natural, or, to speak more properly,
+     (for I myself believe the devil doth very little, but by
+     nature, though to us unknown,) manifest causes, he doth
+     overthrow his own grounds, and leaves us but very little of
+     magical operations to believe. But of all men, Cardan had
+     least reason to except against this kind of magick as
+     ridiculous or incredible, who himself is so full of
+     incredible stories in that kind, upon his own credit alone,
+     that they had need to be of very easie belief that believe
+     him, especially when they know (whereof more afterwards)
+     what manner of man he was. But I dare say, that from Plato's
+     time, who, among other appurtenances of magic, doth mention
+     these, [Greek: kerina mimemata] [Transcriber's Note: typo
+     "mimkmata" for "mimemata" in original Greek] that is, as
+     Ovid doth call them, _Simulachra cerea_, or as Horace,
+     _cereas imagines_, (who also in another place more
+     particularly describes them,) there is not any particular
+     rite belonging to that art more fully attested by histories
+     of all ages than this is. Besides, who doth not know that
+     it is the devil's fashion (we shall meet with it afterwards
+     again) to amuse his servants and vassals with many rites and
+     ceremonies, which have certainly no ground in nature, no
+     relation or sympathy to the thing, as for other reasons, so
+     to make them believe, they have a great hand in the
+     production of such and such effects; when, God knows, many
+     times all that they do, though taught and instructed by him,
+     is nothing at all to the purpose, and he, in very deed, is
+     the only agent, by means which he doth give them no account
+     of. Bodinus, in his preface to his "Daemonology," relateth,
+     that three waxen images, whereof one of Queen Elizabeth's,
+     of glorious memory, and two other, _Reginae proximorum_, of
+     two courtiers, of greatest authority under the queen, were
+     found in the house of a priest at Islington, a magician, or
+     so reputed, to take away their lives. This he doth repeat
+     again in his second book, chap. 8, but more particularly
+     that it was in the year of the Lord 1578, and that Legatus
+     Angliae and many Frenchmen did divulge it so; but withal, in
+     both places he doth add, that the business was then under
+     trial, and not yet perfectly known. I do not trust my
+     memory: I know my age and my infirmities. Cambden, I am
+     sure, I have read; and read again; but neither in him, nor
+     in Bishop Carleton's "Thankful Remembrancer," do I remember
+     any such thing. Others may, perchance. Yet, in the year
+     1576, I read in both of some pictures, representing some
+     that would have kill'd that glorious queen with a motto,
+     _Quorsum haec, alio properantibus!_ which pictures were made
+     by some of the conspiracy for their incouragement; but
+     intercepted, and showed, they say, to the queen. Did the
+     time agree, it is possible these pictures might be the
+     ground of those mistaken, if mistaken, waxen images, which I
+     desire to be taught by others who can give a better
+     account.--_Casaubon's (M.) Treatise, proving Spirits,
+     Witches, and Supernatural Operations_, 1672. 12mo., p. 92.
+
+In Scotland this practice was in high favour with witches, both in
+ancient and modern times. The lamentable story of poor King Duff, as
+related by Hector Boethius, a story which has blanched the cheek and
+spoiled the rest of many a youthful reader, is too well known to need
+extracting. Even so late as 1676, Sir George Maxwell, of Pollock, (See
+Scott's _Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft_, p. 323,) apparently a
+man of melancholy and valetudinarian habits, believed himself
+bewitched to death by six witches, one man and five women, who were
+leagued for the purpose of tormenting a clay image in his likeness.
+Five of the accused were executed, and the sixth only escaped on
+account of extreme youth.
+
+Isabel Gowdie, the famous Scotch witch before referred to, in her
+confessions gives a very particular account of the mode in which these
+images were manufactured. It is curious, and worth quoting:--
+
+     _Johne Taylor_ and _Janet Breadhead_, his wyff, in
+     Bellnakeith, _Bessie Wilsone_, in Aulderne, and _Margret
+     Wilsone_, spows to _Donald Callam_ in Aulderne, and I, maid
+     an pictur of clay, to distroy _the Laird of Parkis_
+     meall[62] children. _Johne Taylor_ browght hom the clay, in
+     his plaid newk;[63] his wyff brak it verie small, lyk
+     meall,[64] and sifted it with a siew,[65] and powred in
+     water among it, in _the Divellis_ nam, and vrought it werie
+     sore, lyk rye-bowt;[66] and maid of it a pictur of _the
+     Lairdis_ sones. It haid all the pairtis and merkis of a
+     child, such as heid, eyes, nose, handis, foot, mowth, and
+     little lippes. It wanted no mark of a child; and the handis
+     of it folded down by its sydes. It was lyk a pow,[67] or a
+     flain gryce.[68] We laid the face of it to the fyre, till it
+     strakned;[69] and a cleir fyre round abowt it, till it ves
+     read lyk a cole.[70] After that, we wold rest it now and
+     then; each other day[71] ther wold be an piece of it weill
+     rosten. _The Laird of Parkis_ heall maill children by it ar
+     to suffer, if it be not gotten and brokin, als weill as thes
+     that ar borne and dead alreadie. It ves still putt in and
+     taken out of the fyre, in _the Divellis_ name. It wes hung
+     wp wpon an knag. It is yet in _Johne Taylor's_ hows, and it
+     hes a cradle of clay abowt it. Onlie _Johne Taylor_ and his
+     wyff, _Janet Breadhead_, _Bessie_ and _Margret Wilsones_ in
+     Aulderne, and _Margret Brodie_, thair, and I, were onlie at
+     the making of it. All the multitud of our number of WITCHES,
+     of all the COEVENS, kent[72] all of it, at owr nixt meitting
+     after it was maid.
+
+     The wordis which we spak, quhan we maid the pictur, for
+     distroyeing of _the Laird of Parkis_ meall-children, wer
+     thus:
+
+     'IN THE DIVELLIS nam, we powr in this water
+         among this mowld (meall,)[73]
+     For lang duyning and ill heall;
+     We putt it into the fyre,
+     That it mey be brunt both stik and stowre.
+     It salbe brunt, with owr will,
+     As any stikle[74] wpon a kill.'
+
+     THE DIVELL taught ws the wordis; and quhan ve haid learned
+     them, we all fell downe wpon owr bare kneyis, and owr hair
+     abowt owr eyes, and owr handis lifted wp, looking steadfast
+     wpon THE DIVELL, still saying the wordis thryse ower, till
+     it wes maid. And then, in THE DIVELLIS nam, we did put it
+     in, in the midst of the fyre. Efter it had skrukned[75] a
+     little before the fyre, and quhan it ves read lyk a coale,
+     we took it owt in THE DIVELLIS nam. Till it be broken, it
+     will be the deathe of all the meall children that _the Laird
+     of Park_ will ewer get. Cast it ower an Kirk, it will not
+     brak quhill[76] it be broken with an aix, or som such lyk
+     thing, be a man's handis. If it be not broken, it will last
+     an hundreth yeir. It hes ane cradle about it of clay, to
+     preserue it from skaith;[77] and it wes rosten each vther
+     day, at the fyr; som tymes on pairt of it, som tymes an
+     vther pairt of it; it vold be a litle wat with water, and
+     then rosten. The bairn vold be brunt and rosten, ewin as it
+     ves by ws.--_Pitcairne's Criminal Trials_, Vol. iii. pp. 605
+     and 612.
+
+[Footnote 62: Male.]
+
+[Footnote 63: In the nook, or corner, of his plaid.]
+
+[Footnote 64: Pounded, or powdered it, like meal.]
+
+[Footnote 65: To make the plaster fine, and free from earthy
+particles.]
+
+[Footnote 66: Probably a sort of stir-about, or hasty-pudding, made of
+rye-flour.]
+
+[Footnote 67: In another deposition it is thus expressed, 'lyk a _pow
+or feadge_.' A _feadge_ was a sort of _scone_, or roll, of a pretty
+large size. Perhaps this term signifies, as large as the quantity of
+dough or paste necessary for making this kind of bread.]
+
+[Footnote 68: A flayed sucking pig, after being scalded and scraped.]
+
+[Footnote 69: Shrivelled with the heat.]
+
+[Footnote 70: Red like a coal.]
+
+[Footnote 71: Each alternate day.]
+
+[Footnote 72: Knew.]
+
+[Footnote 73: It is written _meall_ in the other Confession; and the
+metre (such as it is) requires this liberty. _Mowld_ signifies 'earth'
+or 'dust.']
+
+[Footnote 74: Stubble.]
+
+[Footnote 75: Parched; shrivelled.]
+
+[Footnote 76: Until.]
+
+[Footnote 77: Harm; injury.]
+
+B 4 _b_ 1. "_And sayd that she should haue gould, siluer, and worldly
+wealth at her will._"] These familiars, to use Warburton's expression,
+always promised with the lavishness of a young courtier, and performed
+with the indifference of an old one. Nothing seems to puzzle Dr. Dee
+more, in the long and confidential intercourse he carried on so many
+years with his spirits, than to account for the great scarcity of
+specie they seemed to be afflicted with, and the unsatisfactory and
+unfurnished state of their exchequer. Bills, to be sure, they gave at
+long dates; but these constantly required renewing, and were never
+honoured at last. Any application for present relief, in good current
+coin of the realm, was invariably followed by what Meric Casaubon very
+significantly calls "sermonlike stuff." The learned professor in
+witchery, John Stearne, seems to fix six shillings as the maximum of
+money payment at one time which in all his experience he had detected
+between witches and their familiars. He was examining Joan Ruccalver,
+of Powstead, in Suffolk, who had been promised by her spirit that she
+should never want meat, drink, clothes, or money. "Then I asked her
+whether they brought her any money or no; and she said sometimes four
+shillings at a time, and sometimes six shillings at a time; but that
+is but seldom, _for I never knew any that had any money before_,
+except of Clarke's wife, of Manningtree, who confessed the same, and
+showed some, which, she said, her impe brought her, which was proper
+money." Confirmation, page 27. Judging from the anxiety which this
+worthy displays to be "satisfied and paid with reason" for his
+itinerant labours, such a scanty and penurious supply would soon have
+disgusted him, if he had been witch, instead of witch-finder.
+
+B 4 _b_ 2. "_She had bewitched to death Richard Ashton, sonne of
+Richard Ashton, of Downeham, Esquire._"] Richard Assheton, (as the
+name is more properly spelled,) thus done to death by witchcraft, was
+the son of Richard Assheton, of Downham, an old manor house, the scite
+of which is now supplied by a modern structure, which Dr. Whitaker
+thinks, in point of situation, has no equal in the parish of Whalley.
+Richard, the son, married Isabel, daughter and heiress of Mr. Hancock,
+of Pendleton Hall, and died without offspring. The family estate
+accordingly descended to the younger brother, Nicholas Assheton, whose
+diary for part of the year 1617 and part of the year following is
+given, page 303 of Whitaker's _History of Whalley_, edition 1818, and
+is a most valuable record of the habits, pursuits, and course of life
+of a Lancashire country gentleman of that period. It well deserves
+detaching in a separate publication, and illustrating with a more
+expanded commentary.
+
+C _b_. "_Piggin full._"] Piggin is properly a sort of bowl, or pail,
+with one of the staves much longer than the rest, made for a handle,
+to lade water by, and used especially in brewhouses to measure out the
+liquor with.
+
+C 2 _a_. "_Nicholas Banister._"] Dr. Whitaker, in the pedigree of the
+Banisters, of Altham, (genealogy was, it is well known, one of the
+vulnerable parts of this Achilles of topography,) erroneously states
+this Nicholas Banister to have been buried at Altham, December 7,
+1611. It appears, however, from a deed, an inspection of which I owe
+to the kindness of my friend, Dr. Fleming, that his will was dated the
+15th August, 1612. In all probability he did not die for some years
+after that date. He married, first, Elizabeth, daughter and heiress of
+Richard Elston, of Brockall, Esq.; and, second, Catherine, daughter of
+Edmund Ashton, of Chaderton, Esq. The manor house of Altham, for more
+than five centuries the residence of this ancient family, stands, to
+use Dr. Whitaker's words, upon a gentle elevation on the western side
+of the river Calder, commanding a low and fertile domain. It has been
+surrounded, according to the prudence or jealousy of the feudal times,
+with a very deep quadrangular moat, which must have included all the
+apparatus of the farm.
+
+C 3 _a_. "_At Malking Tower, in the forrest of Pendle._"] Malkin Tower
+was the habitation of Mother Demdike, the situation of which is
+preserved, for the structure no longer exists, by local tradition.
+Malkin is the Scotch or north country word for hare, as this animal
+was one into which witches were supposed to be fond of transforming
+themselves. Malkin Tower is, in fact, the Witches' Tower. The term is
+used in the following passage in Morison's _Poems_, p. 7, which bears
+upon the above explanation:--
+
+    "Or tell the pranks o' winter's nights,
+    How Satan blazes uncouth lights;
+    Or how he does a core convene
+    Upon a witch-frequented green,
+    Wi' spells and cauntrips hellish rantin',
+    Like mawkins thro' the fields they're janting."
+
+C 4 _b_. "_We want old Demdike, who dyed in the castle before she came
+to her tryall._"] Worn out most probably with her imprisonment, she
+having been committed in April, and the cruelties she had undergone,
+both before and after her commitment. Master Nowell and Master Potts
+both _wanted_ her, we may readily conceive, to fill up the miserable
+pageant; but she was gone where the wicked cease from troubling, and
+the weary are at rest. With the exception of Alice Nutter, in whom
+interest is excited from very different grounds, Mother Demdike
+attracts attention in a higher degree than any other of these Pendle
+witches. She was, beyond dispute, the Erictho of Pendle. Mother
+Chattox was but second in rank. There is something fearfully intense
+in the expression of the former,--blind, on the last verge of the
+extreme limit of human existence, and mother of a line of
+witches,--"that she would pray for the said Baldwin, both still and
+loud." She is introduced in Shadwell's play, the _Lancashire Witches_,
+1682, as a _persona dramatis_, along with Mother Dickinson and Mother
+Hargrave, two of the witches convicted in 1633, but without any regard
+to the characteristic circumstances under which she appears in the
+present narrative. The following invocation, which is put into her
+mouth, is rather a favourable specimen of that play, certainly not one
+of the worst of Shadwell's, in which there are many vigorous strokes,
+with an alloy of coarseness not unusual in his works, and some
+powerful conceptions of character:
+
+    Come, sisters, come, why do you stay?
+    Our business will not brook delay;
+    The owl is flown from the hollow oak,
+    From lakes and bogs the toads do croak;
+    The foxes bark, the screech-owl screams,
+    Wolves howl, bats fly, and the faint beams
+    Of glow-worms light grows bright a-pace;
+    The stars are fled, the moon hides her face.
+    The spindle now is turning round,
+    Mandrakes are groaning under ground:
+    I'th' hole i'th' ditch (our nails have made)
+    Now all our images are laid,
+    Of wax and wooll, which we must prick,
+    With needles urging to the quick.
+    Into the hole I'le poure a flood
+    Of black lambs bloud, to make all good.
+    The lamb with nails and teeth wee'l tear.
+    Come, where's the sacrifice? appear.
+
+           *       *       *       *       *
+
+    Oyntment for flying here I have,
+    Of childrens fat, stoln from the grave:
+    The juice of smallage, and night-shade,
+    Of poplar leaves, and aconite, made
+    With these.
+    The aromatic reed I boyl,
+    With water-parsnip and cinquefoil;
+    With store of soot, and add to that
+    The reeking blood of many a bat.
+             _Lancashire Witches_, pp. 10, 41.
+
+One of the peculiarities of Shadwell's play is the introduction of the
+Lancashire dialect, which he makes his clown Clod speak. The subjoined
+extract may perhaps amuse my readers. Collier would have enjoyed it:
+
+     _Clod._ An yeow been a mon Ay'st talk wy ye a bit, yeow mun
+     tack a care o your sells, the plecs haunted with Buggarts,
+     and Witches, one of 'em took my Condle and Lanthorn out of
+     my hont, and flew along wy it; and another Set me o top o'th
+     tree, where I feel dawn now, Ay ha well neegh brocken my
+     theegh.
+
+     _Doubt._ The fellows mad, I neither understand his words,
+     nor his Sence, prethee how far is it to Whalley?
+
+     _Clod._ Why yeow are quite besaid th' road mon, yeow
+     Shoulden a gon dawn th' bonk by _Thomas_ o _Georges_, and
+     then ee'n at yate, and turn'd dawn th' Lone, and left the
+     Steepo o'th reeght hont.
+
+     _Bell._ Prithee don't tell us what we should have done, but
+     how far is it to Whalley?
+
+     _Clod._ Why marry four mail and a bit.
+
+     _Doubt._ Wee'l give thee an Angel and show us the way
+     thither.
+
+     _Clod._ Marry thats Whaint. I canno see my hont, haw con Ay
+     show yeow to Whalley to neeght.
+
+     _Bell._ Canst thou show us to any house where we may have
+     Shelter and Lodging to night? we are Gentlemen and
+     strangers, and will pay you well for't.
+
+     _Clod._ Ay byr Lady con I, th' best ludging and diet too in
+     aw Lancashire. Yonder at th' hough where yeow seen th'
+     leeghts there.
+
+     _Doubt._ Whose house is that?
+
+     _Clod._ Why what a pox, where han yeow lived? why yeow are
+     Strongers indeed! why, 'tis Sir _Yedard Harfourts_, he Keeps
+     oppen hawse to all Gentry, yeou'st be welcome to him by day
+     and by neeght he's Lord of aw here abauts.
+
+     _Bell._ My Mistresses Father, Luck if it be thy will, have
+     at my _Isabella_, Canst thou guide us thither?
+
+     _Clod._ Ay, Ay, there's a pawer of Company there naw, Sir
+     _Jeffery Shaklehead_, and the Knight his Son, and Doughter.
+
+     _Doubt._ Lucky above my wishes, O my dear _Theodosia_, how
+     my heart leaps at her! prethee guide us thither, wee'l pay
+     thee well.
+
+     _Clod._ Come on, I am e'n breed aut o my sences, I was ne'er
+     so freeghtened sin I was born, give me your
+     hont.--_Lancashire Witches_, p. 14.
+
+D _b_. "_Ann Whittle, alias Chattox._"] Chattox, from her continually
+chattering.
+
+D 2 _a_ 1. "_Her lippes euer chattering and walking._"] Walking,
+_i.e._, working. Old Chattox might have sat to Archbishop Harsnet for
+her portrait. What can exceed the force and graphic truth, the
+searching wit and sarcasm, of the picture he sketches in 1605?
+
+     Out of these is shaped vs the true _Idoea_ of a Witch, an
+     old weather-beaten Croane, hauing her chinne, & her knees
+     meeting for age, walking like a bow leaning on a shaft,
+     hollow eyed, vntoothed, furrowed on her face, hauing her
+     lips trembling with the palsie, going mumbling in the
+     streetes, one that hath forgott[=e] her _pater noster_, and
+     hath yet a shrewd tongue in her head, to call a drab, a
+     drab. If shee haue learned of an olde wife in a chimnies
+     end: _Pax, max, fax_, for a spel: or can say Sir _Iohn of
+     Grantams_ curse, for the Millers Eeles, that were stolne:
+     All you that haue stolne the Millers Eeles, _Laudate dominum
+     de coelis_: And all they that haue consented thereto,
+     _benedicamus domino_: Why then ho, beware, looke about you
+     my neighbours; if any of you haue a sheepe sicke of the
+     giddies, or an hogge of the mumps, or an horse of the
+     staggers, or a knauish boy of the schoole, or an idle girle
+     of the wheele, or a young drab of the sullens, and hath not
+     fat enough for her porredge, nor her father, and mother,
+     butter enough for their bread; and she haue a little helpe
+     of the _Mother_, _Epilepsie_, or _Cramp_, to teach her role
+     her eyes, wrie her mouth, gnash her teeth, startle with her
+     body, holde her armes and hands stiffe, make anticke faces,
+     grine, mow, and mop like an Ape, tumble like a Hedge-hogge,
+     and can mutter out two or three words of gibridg, as _obus,
+     bobus_: and then with-all old mother _Nobs_ hath called her
+     by chaunce, idle young huswife, or bid the deuill scratch
+     her, then no doubt but mother _Nobs_ is the Witch: the young
+     girle is Owle-blasted, and possessed: and it goes hard but
+     ye shall haue some idle adle, giddie, lymphaticall,
+     illuminate dotrel, who being out of credite, learning,
+     sobriety, honesty, and wit, will take this holy aduantage,
+     to raise the ruines of his desperate decayed name, and for
+     his better glory wil be-pray the iugling drab, and cast out
+     _Mopp_ the deuil.
+
+     They that haue their braines baited, and their fancies
+     distempered with the imaginations, and apprehensions of
+     Witches, Coniurers, and Fayries, and all that Lymphatical
+     _Chimaera_: I finde to be marshalled in one of these fiue
+     rankes, children, fooles, women, cowards, sick, or blacke,
+     melancholicke, discomposed wits. The Scythians being a
+     warlike Nation (as _Plutarch_ reports) neuer saw any
+     visions.--_Harsnet's Declaration_, p. 136.
+
+D 2 _a_ 2. "_From these two sprung all the rest in order._"] The
+descent from these two rival witch stocks, between which a deadly feud
+and animosity prevailed, which led to the destruction of both
+families, is shewn as follows:
+
+         Elizabeth Sothernes,
+         alias Old Demdike,
+         died in prison in 1612,
+         about 80 years old.
+       1        |                   2
+       ------------------------------
+       |                            |
+Christopher = Eliz.   Elizabeth, executed = John Device, or
+Howgate. Both of      at Lancaster,       | Davies, supposed
+them were reputed     1612.               | to have been bewitched
+to be at the witches                      | to death,
+meeting on Good                           | by Widow Chattox,
+Friday, 1612, but                         | because he had not
+were not indicted.                        | paid her his yearly
+Perhaps they were                         | aghen dole of meal.
+the "one Holgate                          |
+and his wife" mentioned                   |
+amongst the                               |
+witches in 1633.                          |
+          1                    2          |                 3
+          ---------------------------------------------------
+          |                    |                            |
+     James Device, or      Alizon, executed        Jennet, 9 years old
+     Davies, executed at   at Lancaster in 1612.   in 1612, and an evidence
+     Lancaster in 1612.                            in the present
+                                                   trial. Condemned
+                                                   herself, along with
+                                                   16 other persons,
+                                                   for witchcraft, in
+                                                   1633, when she appears
+                                                   to have been
+                                                   unmarried, but not
+                                                   executed.
+
+Anne Whittle, alias
+Chattox, executed
+at Lancaster, 1612,
+about 80 years old.
+       |
+Anne, executed = Thomas Redferne.
+in 1612.       |
+               |
+             Mary.
+
+D 3 _a_. "_Commaunded this examinate to call him by the name of
+Fancie._"] The fittest name for a familiar she could possibly have
+chosen. Sir Walter Scott (_Letters on Demonology_, p. 242)
+unaccountably speaks of Fancie as a female devil. Master Potts would
+have told him, (see M 2 _b_,) "that Fancie had a very good face, and
+was a very proper man."
+
+D 3 _b_ 1. "_The wife of Richard Baldwin, of Pendle._"] Richard
+Baldwin was the miller who accosted Old Dembdike so unceremoniously.
+
+D 3 _b_ 2. "_Robert Nutter._"] The family of the Nutters, of Pendle,
+bore a great share in the proceedings referred to in this trial. It
+seems to have been a family of note amongst the inferior gentry or
+yeomanry of the forest. A Nutter held courts for many years about this
+period, as deputy steward at Clitheroe. (See Whitaker's _Whalley_, p.
+307.) Three of the name are stated in the evidence to have been killed
+by witchcraft, Christopher Nutter, Robert Nutter, and Anne, the
+daughter of Anthony Nutter; and one of the unfortunate persons
+convicted is Alice Nutter. The branch to which Robert belonged is
+shewn in the following table:
+
+Robert Nutter, the elder, = Elizabeth, who is reputed
+of Pendle, called old     | to have employed Anne
+Robert Nutter.            | Chattox, Loomeshaw's
+                          | wife, and Jane Boothman
+                          | to bewitch to death young
+                          | Robert Nutter, that other
+                          | relations might inherit.
+                          |
+                    Christopher, reputed
+                    to have died of witchcraft
+                    about 18 years before.
+                          |
+    1                     |           2                  3
+    ------------------------------------------------------
+    |                                 |                  |
+Robert, of Greenhead, = Mary   John, of Higham       Margaret = Crooke
+in Pendle, a retainer          Booth.                    |
+of Sir Richard                 |                         |
+Shuttleworth,                  ---------------------------
+reputed to have been           gave evidence at the trial.
+bewitched to death
+18 or 19 years
+before the trial
+took place.
+
+D 4 _a_. "_One Mr. Baldwyn (the late Schoole-maister at Coulne) did by
+his learning, stay the sayd Loomeshaws wife, and therefore had a Capon
+from Redfearne._"] I regret that I can give no account of this learned
+Theban, who appears to have stayed the plague, and who taught at the
+school at which Archbishop Tillotson was afterwards educated. He well
+deserved his capon. Had he continued at Colne up to the time of this
+trial, he might perhaps, on the same easy terms, have kept the powers
+of darkness in check, and prevented some imputed crimes which cost ten
+unfortunates their lives.
+
+E _b_ 1. "_Iames Robinson._"] Baines, in his _History of Lancashire_,
+vol. i. p. 605, speaks of Edmund Robinson, the father of the boy on
+whose evidence the witches were convicted in 1633, as if he had been a
+witness at the present trial; which is probably a mistake for this
+James Robinson, as no Edmund Robinson appears amongst the witnessses
+whose depositions are given.
+
+E _b_ 2. "_Anne Whittle alias Chattox was hired by this examinates
+wife to card wooll._"] She seems to have been by occupation a carder
+of wool, and to have filled up the intervals, when she had no
+employment, by mendicancy.
+
+E 2 _a_. "_Sir Richard Shuttleworth._"} Of the family of the
+Shuttleworths of Gawthorp, "where they resided" Whitaker observes, "in
+the condition of inferior gentry till the lucrative profession of the
+law raised them, in the reign of Elizabeth, to the rank of knighthood
+and an estate proportioned to its demands." Sir Richard was
+Sergeant-at-law, and Chief Justice of Chester, 31st Elizabeth, and
+died without issue about 1600.
+
+E 2 _b_. "_A Charme._"] Evidently in so corrupted a state as to bid
+defiance to any attempt at elucidation.
+
+E 3 _a_ 1. "_Perceiuing Anthonie Nutter of Pendle to fauour Elizabeth
+Sothernes alias Dembdike._"] The Sothernes and Davies's and the
+Whittles and Redfernes were the Montagus and Capulets of Pendle. The
+poor cottager whose drink was forsepoken or bewitched, or whose cow
+went mad, and who in his attempt to propitiate one of the rival powers
+offended the other, would naturally exclaim from the innermost
+recesses of his heart, "A plague on both your houses."
+
+E 3 _a_ 2. "_Gaping as though he would haue wearied this Examinate._"]
+Wearied for worried.
+
+E 3 _b_. "_Examination of Iames Device._"] This is a very curious
+examination. The production of the four teeth and figure of clay dug
+up at the west-end of Malkin Tower would look like a "damning witness"
+to the two horror-struck justices and the assembled concourse at Read,
+who did not perhaps consider how easily such evidences may be
+furnished, and how readily they who hide may find. The incident
+deposed to at the burial at the New Church in Pendle is a wild and
+striking one.
+
+E 4 _a_. "_About eleuen yeares agoe, this Examinate and her mother had
+their firehouse broken._"] The inference intended is, that Whittle's
+family committed the robbery from Old Demdike's house. This was, in
+all probability, the origin of their feuds. The abstraction of the
+coif and band, tempting articles to the young daughter of Old Chattox,
+not destitute, if we may judge from one occurrence deposed to, of
+personal attractions, may be said to have convulsed Lancashire from
+the Leven to the Mersey,--to have caused a sensation, the shock of
+which, after more than two centuries, has scarcely yet subsided, and
+to have actually given a new name to the fair sex.
+
+E 4 _b_ 1. "_One Aghen-dole of meale._"] This Aghen-dole, a word
+still, I believe, in use for a particular measure of any article, was,
+I presume, a kind of witches' black mail. My friend, the Rev. Canon
+Parkinson, informs me that Aghen-dole, sometimes pronounced
+Acken-dole, signifies an half-measure of anything, from
+half-hand-dole. Mr. Halliwell has omitted it in his Glossary, now in
+progress.
+
+E 4 _b_ 2. "_Iohn Moore of Higham, Gentleman._"] Sir Jonas Moore, of
+whom an account is contained in Whitaker's _Whalley_, p. 479, and whom
+he characterizes as a sanguine projector, was born in Pendle Forest,
+and was probably of this family.
+
+E 4 _b_ 3. "_She would meet with the said Iohn Moore, or his._"] i.e.
+She would be equal with him.
+
+F _a_ 1. "_Charne._"] i.e. Charm.
+
+F _a_ 2. "_With weeping teares she humbly acknowledged them to be
+true._"] She seems to have confessed in the hope of saving her
+daughter, Anne Redfern. But from such a judge as Sir Edward Bromley,
+mercy was as little to be expected as common sense from his "faithful
+chronicler," Thomas Potts.
+
+F 2 _b_. "_Sparing no man with fearefull execrable curses and
+banning._"] Nothing seems to shock the nerves of these witch
+historiographers so much as the utter want of decorum and propriety
+exhibited by these unhappy creatures in giving vent to these indignant
+outbreaks, which a sense of the wicked injustice of their fate, and
+seeing their own offspring brought up in evidence against them,
+through the most detestable acts, and by the basest subornation, would
+naturally extort from minds even of iron mould. If ever Lear's or
+Timon's power of malediction could be justifiably called into
+exercise, it would be against such a tribunal and such witnesses as
+they had generally to encounter.
+
+F 4 _a_. "_That at the third time her Spirit._"] Something seems to be
+wanting here, as she does not state what occurred at the two previous
+interviews. The learned judge may have exercised a sound discretion in
+this omission, as the particulars might be of a nature unfit for
+publication. The present tract is, undoubtedly, remarkably free from
+those disgusting details of which similar reports are generally full
+to overflowing.
+
+F 4 _b_. "_The said Iennet Deuice, being a yong Maide, about the age
+of nine yeares._"] This child must have been admirably trained, (some
+Master Thomson might have been near at hand to instruct her,) or must
+have had great natural capacity for deception. She made an excellent
+witness on this occasion. What became of her after the wholesale
+extinction of her family, to which she was so mainly instrumental, is
+not now known. In all likelihood she dragged on a miserable existence,
+a forlorn outcast, pointed at by the hand of scorn, or avoided with
+looks of horror in the wilds of Pendle. As if some retributive
+punishment awaited her, she is reported to have been the Jennet Davies
+who was condemned in 1633, on the evidence of Edmund Robinson the
+younger, with Mother Dickenson and others, but not executed. Her
+confession, if she made one at the second trial, might not have been
+unsimilar to that of Alexander Sussums, of Melford in Suffolk, who,
+Hearne tells us, confessed "that he had things which did draw those
+marks I found upon him, but said he could not help it, for that all
+his kinred were naught. Then I asked him how it was possible they
+could suck without his consent. He said he did consent to that. Then I
+asked him again why he should do it when as God was so merciful
+towards him, as I then told him of, being a man whom I had been
+formerly acquainted withal, as having lived in town. He answered
+again, he could not help it, for that all his generation was naught;
+and so told me _his mother and aunt were hanged, his grandmother burnt
+for witchcraft, and ten others of them questioned and hanged_. This
+man is yet living, notwithstanding he confessed the sucking of such
+things above sixteen years together."--_Confirmation_, p. 36.
+
+G 3 _a_. "_Anne Crouckshey._"] Anne Cronkshaw.
+
+G 3 _b_ 1. "_Vpon Good Friday last there was about twentie persons._"]
+This meeting, if not a witches' Sabbath, was a close approximation to
+one. On the subject of the Sabbath, or periodical meeting of witches,
+De Lancre is the leading authority. He who is curious cannot do better
+than consult this great hierophant, (his work is entitled Tableau de
+l'Inconstance des mauvais Anges et Demons. Paris, 1613, 4to.) whose
+knowledge and experience well qualified him to have been constituted
+the Itinerant Master of Ceremonies, an officer who, he assures us,
+was never wanting on such occasions. In that singular book, _The
+History of Monsieur Oufle_, p. 288, (English Translation, 1711, 8vo.)
+are collected from various sources all the ceremonies and
+circumstances attending the holding the Sabbath. It appears that
+non-attendance invariably incurred a penalty, which is computed upon
+the average at the eighth part of a crown, or in French currency at
+ten sous--that, though the contrary has been maintained by many grave
+authors, egress and ingress by the chimney (De Lancre had depositions
+without number, he tells us, _vide_ p. 114, on this important head,)
+was not a matter of solemn obligation, but was an open question--that
+no grass ever grows upon the place where the Sabbath is kept; which is
+accounted for by the circumstance of its being trodden by so many of
+those whose feet are constitutionally hot, and therefore being burnt
+up and consequently very barren--that two devils of note preside on
+the occasion, the great negro, who is called Master Leonard, and a
+little devil, whom Master Leonard sometimes substitutes in his place
+as temporary vice-president; his name is Master John Mullin. (De
+Lancre, p. 126.) With regard to a very important point, the bill of
+fare, great difference of opinion exists: some maintaining that every
+delicacy of the season, to use the newspaper phrase, is provided;
+others stoutly asserting that nothing is served up but toads, the
+flesh of hanged criminals, dead carcases fresh buried taken out of
+Churchyards, flesh of unbaptized infants, or beasts which died of
+themselves--that they never eat with salt, and that their bread is of
+black millet. (De Lancre, pp. 104, 105.) In this diversity of opinion
+I can only suggest, that difference of climate, habit, and fashion,
+might possibly have its weight, and render a very different larder
+necessary for the witches of Pendle and those of Gascony or Lorrain.
+The fare of the former on this occasion appears to have been of a very
+substantial and satisfactory kind, "beef, bacon, and roasted mutton:"
+the old saying so often quoted by the discontented masters of
+households applying emphatically in this case:--
+
+     "God sends us good meat, but the devil sends cooks."
+
+We find in the present report no mention made of the
+
+     "Dance and provencal song"
+
+which formed one great accompaniment of the orgies of the southern
+witches. Bodin's authority is express, that each, the oldest not
+excused, was expected to perform a coranto, and great attention was
+paid to the regularity of the steps. We owe to him the discovery,
+which is not recorded in any annals of dancing I have met with, that
+the lavolta, a dance not dissimilar, according to his description, to
+the polka of the present day, was brought out of Italy into France by
+the witches at their festive meetings. Of the language spoken at these
+meetings, De Lancre favours us with a specimen, valuable, like the
+Punic fragment in the Poenolus, for its being the only one of the
+kind. _In nomine patrica araguenco petrica agora, agora, Valentia
+jouando goure gaiti goustia._ As it passes my skill, I can only
+commend it to the especial notice of Mr. Borrow against his next
+journey into Spain. What was spoken at Malkin Tower was, doubtless, a
+dialect not yet obsolete, and which Tummus and Meary would have had no
+difficulty in comprehending. On the subject of these witches'
+Sabbaths, Dr. Ferriar remarks, in his curious and agreeable _Essay on
+Popular Illusions_, (see _Memoirs of the Manchester Literary and
+Philosophical Society_, vol. iii., p. 68,) a sketch which it is much
+to be regretted that he did not subsequently expand and revise, and
+publish in a separate form:--
+
+     The solemn meetings of witches are supposed to be put beyond
+     all doubt by the numerous confessions of criminals, who have
+     described their ceremonies, named the times and places of
+     meeting, and the persons present, and who have agreed in
+     their relations, though separately delivered.[78] But I
+     would observe, first, that the circumstances told of those
+     festivals are ridiculous and incredible in themselves; for
+     they are represented as gloomy and horrible, yet with a
+     mixture of childish and extravagant fancies, more likely to
+     disgust and alienate than to conciliate the minds of the
+     guests. They have every appearance of uneasy dreams;
+     sometimes the devil and his subjects _say mass_, sometimes
+     he _preaches_ to them, more commonly he was seen in the form
+     of a black goat, surrounded by imps in a thousand frightful
+     shapes; but none of these forms are _new_, they all resemble
+     known quadrupeds or reptiles. Secondly, I observe, that
+     there is direct proof furnished even by demonologists, that
+     all these supposed journies and entertainments are nothing
+     more than dreams. Persons accused of witchcraft have been
+     repeatedly watched, about the time which they had fixed for
+     the meeting; they have been seen to anoint themselves with
+     soporific compositions, after which they fell into profound
+     sleep, and on awaking, several hours afterwards, they have
+     related their journey through the air, their amusement at
+     the festival, and have named the persons whom they saw
+     there. In the instance told by Hoffman, the dreamer was
+     chained to the floor. Common sense would rest satisfied
+     here, but the enthusiasm of demonology has invented more
+     than one theory to get rid of these untoward facts. Dr.
+     Henry More, as was formerly mentioned, believed that the
+     astral spirit only was carried away: other demonologists
+     imagined that the witch was really removed to the place of
+     meeting, but that a cacodemon was left in her room, as an
+     [Greek: eidolon], to delude the spectators. Thirdly, some
+     stories of the festivals are evidently tricks. Such is that
+     related by Bodinus, with much gravity: a man is found in a
+     gentleman's cellar, and apprehended as a thief; he declares
+     his wife had brought him thither to a witch-meeting, and on
+     his pronouncing the name of God, she and all her companions
+     had vanished, and left him inclosed. His wife is immediately
+     seized, on this righteous evidence, and hanged, with several
+     other persons, named as present at the meeting.
+
+[Footnote 78: There is a grave relation, in Delrio, of a witch being
+shot flying, by a Spanish centinel, at the bridge of Nieulet, near
+Calais, after that place was taken by the Spaniards. The soldier saw a
+black cloud advancing rapidly, from which voices issued: when it came
+near, he fired into it; immediately a witch dropped. This is
+_undoubted proof_ of the meetings!--_Disq. Mag._, p. 708.]
+
+G 3 _b_ 2. "_Christopher Iackes, of Thorny-holme, and his wife._"]
+This would appear to be Christopher Hargreaves, called here
+Christopher Jackes, for o' or of Jack, according to the Lancashire
+mode of forming patronymics.
+
+G 4 _a_. "_The first was, for the naming of the Spirit, which Alizon
+Deuice, now Prisoner at Lancaster, had: But did not name him, because
+shee was not there._"] Gaule says, speaking of the ceremonies at the
+witches' solemn meetings: "If the witch be outwardly Christian,
+baptism must be renounced, and the party must be rebaptized in the
+Devil's name, and a new name is also imposed by him; and here must be
+godfathers too, for the Devil takes them not to be so adult as to
+promise and vow for themselves." (_Cases of Conscience touching
+Witches_, page 59. 1646, 12mo.) But Gaule does not mention any naming
+or baptism of spirits and familiars on such occasions.
+
+G 4 _b_. "_Romleyes Moore._"] Romilly's or Rumbles Moor, a wild and
+mountainous range in Craven, not unaptly selected for a meeting on a
+special emergency of a conclave of witches.
+
+H 2 _a_ 1. "_Was so insensible, weake, and vnable in all thinges, as
+he could neither speake, heare, or stand, but was holden vp._"]
+Pitiable, truly, was the situation of this unhappy wretch. Brought out
+from the restraint of a long imprisonment, before and during which he
+had, as we may conjecture, been subjected to every inhumanity, in a
+state more dead than alive, into a court which must have looked like
+one living mass, with every eye lit up with horror, and curses, not
+loud but deep, muttered with harmonious concord from the mouths of
+every spectator.
+
+H 2 _a_ 2. "_Anne Towneley, wife of Henrie Townely, of the Carre._"]
+Would this be Anne, the daughter and co-heiress of Thomas Catterall,
+of Catterall and Little Mitton, Esq., who married Henry Townley, the
+son of Lawrence Townley? (See Whitaker's _Whalley_, p. 396.) The
+Townleys of Barnside and Carr were a branch of the Townleys, of
+Townley. Barnside, or Barnsete, is an ancient mansion in the township
+of Colne, which, Whitaker observes, was abandoned by the family, for
+the warmer situation of Carr, about the middle of the last century.
+
+H 2 _a_ 3. "_Master Nowel humbly prayed Master Towneley might be
+called._"] It is to be regretted we have no copy of the _viva voce_
+examination of Mr. Townley, the husband of the lady whose life was
+said to have been taken away by witchcraft. The examinations given in
+this tract are altogether those of persons in a humble rank of life.
+The contrast between their evidence and that of an individual
+occupying the position of the descendant of one of the oldest families
+in the neighbourhood, with considerable landed possessions, might have
+been amusing and instructive.
+
+H 2 _a_ 4. "_Master Nowell humbly prayed, that the particular
+examinations taken before him and others might be openly published and
+read in court._"] This kind of evidence, the witnesses being in court,
+and capable of being examined, would not be received at the present
+day. At that time a greater laxity prevailed.
+
+H 3 _a_. "_Sheare Thursday._"] The Thursday before Easter, and so
+called, for that, in the old Fathers' days, the people would that day,
+"shave their hedes, and clypp their berdes, and pool their heedes, and
+so make them honest against Easter Day."--_Brand's Popular
+Antiquities_, vol. i., p. 83, edition 1841.
+
+K _b_ 1. "_A Charme._"] Sinclair, in his _Satan's Invisible World
+Discovered_, informs us, that "At night, in the time of popery, when
+folks went to bed, they believed the repetition of this following
+prayer was effectual to preserve them from danger, and the house too.
+
+    "Who sains the house the night,
+    They that sains it ilka night.
+    Saint Bryde and her brate,
+    Saint Colme and his hat,
+    Saint Michael and his spear,
+    Keep this house from the weir;
+    From running thief,
+    And burning thief;
+    And from and ill Rea,
+    That be the gate can gae;
+    And from an ill weight,
+    That be the gate can light
+    Nine reeds about the house;
+    Keep it all the night,
+    What is that, what I see
+    So red, so bright, beyond the sea?
+    'Tis he was pierc'd through the hands,
+    Through the feet, through the throat,
+    Through the tongue;
+    Through the liver and the lung.
+    Well is them that well may
+    Fast on Good-friday."
+
+which lines are not unlike some of those in the present "charme,"
+which, evidently much corrupted by recitation, is a very singular and
+interesting string of fragments handed down from times long anterior
+to the Reformation, when they had been employed as armour of proof by
+the credulous vulgar against the Robin Goodfellows, urchins, elves,
+hags, and fairies of earlier superstition. I regret that I cannot
+throw more light upon it. The concluding lines are not deficient in
+poetical spirit.
+
+K _b_ 2. "_Ligh in leath wand._"] Leath is no doubt lithe, flexible.
+What "ligh in" is intended for, unless it be lykinge, which the
+_Promptorium Parvulorum_ (_vide_ part i. p. 304) explains by lusty, or
+craske, _Delicativus_, crassus, I am unable to conjecture. It is
+clear, that the wand in one hand is to steck, _i.e._ stake, or fasten,
+the latch of hell door, while the key in his other hand is to open
+heaven's lock.
+
+K _b_ 3. "_Let Crizum child goe to it Mother mild._"] The chrisom,
+according to the usual explanation, was a white cloth placed upon the
+head of an infant at baptism, when the chrism, or sacred oil of the
+Romish Church, was used in that sacrament. If the child died within a
+month of its birth, that cloth was used as a shroud; and children so
+dying were called chrisoms in the old bills of mortality.
+
+K _b_ 4. "_A light so farrandly._"] Farrandly, or farrantly, a word
+still in use in Lancashire, and which is equivalent to fair, likely,
+or handsome. (See _Lancashire Dialect and Glossary_.) "Harne panne,"
+_i.e._, cranium.--_Promptorium Parvulorum_, p. 237.
+
+K 2 _a_ 1. "_Vpon the ground of holy weepe._"] I know not how to
+explain this, unless it mean the ground of holy weeping, _i.e._, the
+Garden of Gethsemane.
+
+K 2 _a_ 2. "_Shall neuer deere thee._"] The word to dere, or hurt,
+says Mr. Way, _Promptorium Parvulorum_, p. 119, is commonly used by
+Chaucer and most other writers until the sixteenth century:
+
+    "Fyr he schal hym nevyr dere."
+                     _Coeur de Lion_, 1638.
+
+Fabyan observes, under the year 1194, "So fast besyed this good Kyng
+Richarde to vex and dere the infydelys of Sury." Palsgrave gives, "To
+dere or hurte a noye nuire, I wyll never dere you by my good wyll."
+Ang. Sax., [Anglo-Saxon: derian] _nocere_, [Anglo-Saxon: derung]
+_laesio_.
+
+K 3 _a_. "_The Witches of Salmesbvry._"] Or, more properly,
+Samlesbury. This wicked attempt on the part of this priest, or Jesuit,
+Thompson, _alias_ Southworth, to murder the three persons whose trial
+is next reported, by suborning a child of the family to accuse them of
+what, in the excited state of the public mind at the time, was almost
+certain to consign them to a public execution, has few parallels in
+the annals of atrocity. The plot was defeated, and the lives of the
+persons accused, Jennet Bierley, Ellen Bierley, and Jane Southworth,
+saved, by no sagacity of the judge or wisdom of the jury, but by the
+effect of one simple question, wrung from the intended victims on the
+verge of anticipated condemnation, and which, natural as it might
+appear, was one the felicity of which Garrow or Erskine might have
+envied. It demolished, like Ithuriel's spear, the whole fabric of
+imposture, and laid it open even to the comprehension of Sir Edward
+Bromley and Master Thomas Potts. This was a case which well deserved
+Archbishop Harsnet for its historian. His vein of irony, which Swift
+or Echard never surpassed, and the scorching invective of which he was
+so consummate a master, would have been well employed in handing down
+to posterity a scene of villainy to which the frauds of Somers and the
+stratagems of Weston were mere child's play. We might then have had,
+from the most enlightened man of his age, a commentary on the statute
+1st James First, which would have neutralized its mischief, and spared
+a hecatomb of victims. His resistless ridicule would, perhaps, have
+accomplished at once what was slowly and with difficulty brought about
+by the arguments of Scot and Webster, the establishment of the Royal
+Society, and a century's growth of intelligence and knowledge.
+
+K 3 _b_ 1. "_A Seminarie Priest._"] Of this Thompson, _alias_
+Southworth, I find no account in Dodd's _Catholic Church History_. A
+John Southworth is noticed, vol. iii. p. 303, who is described as of
+an ancient family in Lancashire, and who was executed at Tyburn, June
+28th, 1655. His dying speech is to be found in the same volume, p.
+360. The interval of time, as well as the difference of surname,
+excludes the presumption of his being identical with the person
+referred to in the text, the hero of this extraordinary conspiracy,
+and who was probably of the family of Sir John Southworth, after
+mentioned.
+
+K 3 _b_ 2. "_A Iesuite, whereof this Countie of Lancaster hath good
+store._"] Lancashire was, about this period, the great hot-bed of
+Popish recusants. From the very curious list of recusants given
+(Baines's _Lancashire_, vol. i. p. 541,) it would seem that Samlesbury
+was one of their strongholds:--
+
+     James Cowper a seminarie prieste receipted releived and
+     mainteined att the lodge of Sir John Southworthe in
+     Samlesburie Parke by Mr. Tho: Southworthe, one of the
+     younger sonnes of the said Sir John. And att the howse of
+     John Warde dwellinge in Samlesburie Park syde. And the said
+     Prieste sayeth Masse att the said lodge and att the said
+     Wards howse. Whether resorte, Mr. Sowthworthe, Mres. An
+     Sowthworthe, John Walmesley servante to Sir John
+     Southworthe, Tho. Southworthe dwellinge in the Parke, John
+     Gerrerde, servante to Sir John Southworthe, John Singleton,
+     John Wrighte, James Sherples iunior, John Warde of
+     Samlesburie, John Warde of Medler thelder, Henrie Potter of
+     Medler, John Gouldon of Winwicke, Thomas Gouldon of the
+     same, Roberte Anderton of Samlesburie and John Sherples of
+     Stanleyhurst in Samlesburie.--_Baines's Lancashire_, vol. i.
+     p. 543.
+
+     Att the lodge in Samlesburie Parke there be masses daylie
+     and Seminaries dyuerse Resorte thither as James Cowpe,
+     Harrisson Bell and such like, The like vnlawfull meetings
+     are made daylie att the howse of John Warde by the Parke
+     syde of Samlesburie all wiche matters, masses, resorte to
+     Masses, receipting of Seminaries wilbe Justifyed by Mr. Adam
+     Sowtheworthe Thomas Sherples and John Osbaldston.--_Ibid._,
+     p. 544.
+
+K 4 _b_. "_Picked her off._"] Threw her off.
+
+L _a_. "_Hugh Walshmans._"] The wife of Hugh Walshman, of Samlesbury,
+is mentioned in the list of recusants; Baines, vol. i. p. 544.
+
+L 2 _a_ 1. "_Brought a little child._"] The evidence against the
+Pendle witches exhibits meagreness and poverty of imagination compared
+with the accumulated horrors with which the Jesuit, fresh, it may be,
+from Bodin and Delrio, made his "fire burn and cauldron bubble." With
+respect to this old story of the magical use made of the corpses of
+infants, Ben Jonson, in a note on
+
+    "I had a dagger: what did I with that?
+    Killed an infant to have his fat;"
+
+tells us with great gravity:
+
+     Their killing of infants is common, both for confection of
+     their ointment (whereto one ingredient is the fat boiled, as
+     I have shewed before out of Paracelsus and Porta) as also
+     out of a lust to do murder. _Sprenger in Mal. Malefic._
+     reports that a witch, a midwife in the diocese of Basil,
+     confessed to have killed above forty infants (ever as they
+     were new born, with pricking them in the brain with a
+     needle) which she had offered to the devil. See the story of
+     the three witches in _Rem. Daemonola lib. cap._ 3, about the
+     end of the chapter. And M. Phillippo Ludwigus Elich _Quaest._
+     8. And that it is no new rite, read the practice of Canidia,
+     _Epod. Horat. lib. ode_ 5, and Lucan, _lib._ 6, whose
+     admirable verses I can never be weary to  transcribe:--
+
+     Nec cessant a caede manus, si sanguine vivo
+     Est opus, erumpat jugulo qui primus aperto.
+     Nec refugit caedes, vivum si sacra cruorem
+     Extaque funereae poscunt trepidantia mensae.
+     Vulnere si ventris, non qua natura vocabat,
+     Extrahitur partus calidus ponendus in aris;
+     Et quoties saevis opus est, et fortibus umbris
+     Ipsa facit maneis. Hominum mors omnis in usu est.
+
+     _Ben Johnson's Works, by Gifford_, vol. vii. p. 130.
+
+L 2 _a_ 2. "_They said they would annoint themselues._"] Ben Jonson
+informs us:
+
+     When they are to be transported from place to place, they
+     use to anoint themselves, and sometimes the things they ride
+     on. Beside Apul. testimony, see these later, _Remig.
+     Daemonolatriae lib._ 1. _cap._ 14. _Delrio, Disquis. Mag. l._
+     2. _quaest._ 16. _Bodin Daemonoman. lib._ 2 _c._ 14. _Barthol.
+     de Spina. quaest. de Strigib. Phillippo Ludwigus Elich.
+     quaest._ 10. _Paracelsus in magn. et occul. Philosophia_,
+     teacheth the confection. _Unguentum ex carne recens natorum
+     infantium, in pulmenti, forma coctum, et cum herbis
+     somniferis, quales sunt Papaver, Solanum, Cicuta_, &c. And
+     _Giov. Bapti. Porta, lib._ 2. _Mag. Natur. cap._ 16.--_Ben
+     Jonson's Works by Gifford_, vol. vii. p. 119.
+
+L 3 _a_. "_Did carrie her into the loft._"] There is something in this
+strange tissue of incoherencies, for knavery has little variety, which
+forcibly reminds us of the inventions of Elizabeth Canning, who ought
+to have lived in the days when witchcraft was part of the popular
+creed. What an admirable witch poor old Mary Squires would have made,
+and how brilliantly would her persecutor have shone in the days of the
+Baxters and Glanvilles, who acquitted herself so creditably in those
+of the Fieldings and the Hills.
+
+L 4 _b_ 1. "_Robert Hovlden, Esquire._"] This individual would be of
+the ancient family of Holden, of Holden, the last male heir of which
+died without issue, 1792. (See Whitaker's _Whalley_, 418.)
+
+L 4 _b_ 2. "_Sir John Southworth._"] In this family the manor of
+Samlesbury remained for three hundred and fifty years. This was,
+probably, the John (for the pedigree contained in Whitaker's
+_Whalley_, p. 430, does not give the clearest light on the subject)
+who married Jane, daughter of Sir Richard Sherburne, of Stonyhurst,
+and who took a great lead amongst the Catholics of Lancashire. What
+was the degree of relationship between Sir John and the husband of the
+accused, Jane Southworth, there is nothing in the descent to show.
+Family bickering might have a share, as well as superstition, in the
+opinion he entertained, "that she was an evil woman." Of the old hall
+at Samlesbury, the residence of the Southworths, a most interesting
+account will be found in Whitaker's _Whalley_, p. 431. He considers
+the centre of very high antiquity, probably not later than Edward III;
+and observes, "There is about the house a profusion and bulk of oak
+that must almost have laid prostrate a forest to erect it."
+
+M 1 _b_. "_The particular points of the Evidence._"] What a waste of
+ingenuity Master Potts displays in this recapitulation, where he is
+merely slaying the slain, and where his wisdom was not needed. Had he
+applied it to the service of the Pendle witches, he would have found
+still grosser contrarieties, and as great absurdity. But in that case,
+there was no horror of Popery to sharpen his faculties, or Jesuit in
+the background to call his humanity into play.
+
+M 2 _a_. "_The wrinkles of an old wiues face is good euidence to the
+Iurie against a Witch._"] _Si sic omnia!_ For once the worthy clerk in
+court has a lucid interval, and speaks the language of common sense.
+
+M 2 _b_. "_But old Chattox had Fancie._"] A great truth, though Master
+Potts might not be aware of the extent of it.
+
+M 4 _a_. "_M. Leigh, a very religious Preacher._"] Parson of Standish,
+a man memorable in his day. He published several pieces, amongst
+others the two following: 1. "The Drumme of Devotion," by W. Leigh, of
+Standish, 1613.--2. "News of a Prodigious Monster in Aldington, in the
+Parish of Standish, in Lancashire," 1613, 4to, which show him to have
+been an adept in the science of title-making. He was one of the tutors
+of Prince Henry, and was great-grandfather of Dr. Leigh, author of the
+_History of Lancashire_.
+
+N 3 _b_. "_The Arraignment and Triall of Anne Redferne._"] This poor
+woman seems to have been regularly hunted to death by her prosecutors,
+who pursued her with all the dogged pertinacity of blood-hounds.
+Neither the imploring appeal for mercy, in her case, from her wretched
+mother, who did not ask for any in her own, nor the want of even the
+shadow of a ground for the charge, had the slightest effect upon the
+besotted prejudices of the judge and jury. Acquitted on one
+indictment, she is now put on her trial on another; the imputed crime
+being her having caused the death of a person, who did not even accuse
+her of being accessory to it, nearly eighteen years before, by
+witchcraft; the only evidence, true or false, being, that she had been
+seen, about the same period, making figures of clay or marl. Her real
+offence, it may well be conjectured, was her having rejected the
+improper advances of the ill-conditioned young man whose death she was
+first indicted for procuring, and to which circumstance the rancour of
+his relations, the prosecutors, may evidently be traced. It is
+gratifying to know that she had firmness of mind to persist in the
+declaration of her innocence to the last.
+
+O 3 _a_. "_Alice Nutter._"] We now come to a person of a different
+description from any of those who have preceded as parties accused,
+and on whose fate some extraordinary mystery seems to hang. Alice
+Nutter was not, like the others, a miserable mendicant, but was a lady
+of large possessions, of a respectable family, and with children whose
+position appears to have been such as, it might have been expected,
+would have afforded her the means of escaping the fate which overtook
+her humbler companions.
+
+    "I knew her a good woman and well bred,
+    Of an unquestion'd carriage, well reputed
+    Amongst her neighbours, reckoned with the best."
+                               _Heywood's Lancashire Witches._
+
+She is described as the wife of Richard Nutter of the Rough Lee, and
+mother of Miles Nutter, who were in all likelihood nearly related to
+the other Nutters whose descent has been given. The tradition is, that
+she was closely connected by relationship or marriage with Eleanor
+Nutter, the daughter of Ellis Nutter of Pendle Forest, the grandmother
+of Archbishop Tillotson. That she was the victim of a foul and
+atrocious conspiracy, in which the movers were some of her own family,
+there seems no reason to doubt. The anxiety of her children to induce
+her to confess may possibly have originated in no impure or sinister
+motive, but it is difficult altogether to dismiss from the mind the
+suspicion that her wealth was her great misfortune; and that to secure
+it within their grasp her own household were passive, if not active,
+agents in her destruction. Any thing more childish or absurd than the
+evidence against her--as, for instance, that she joyned in killing
+Henry Mitton because he refused a penny to Old Demdike--it would not
+be easy, even from the records of witch trials, to produce. As regards
+Alice Nutter, Potts is singularly meagre, and it is to be lamented
+that the deficiency of information cannot at present be supplied.
+Almost the only fact he furnishes us with is, that she died
+maintaining her innocence. It would have been most interesting to have
+had the means of ascertaining how she conducted herself at her trial
+and after her condemnation; and how she met the iniquitous injustice
+of her fate, sharpened, as it must have been, by the additional
+bitterness of the insults and execrations of the blind and infuriated
+populace at her execution. It is far from improbable that some of the
+correspondence now deposited in the family archives in the county
+hitherto unpublished may ultimately furnish these particulars.
+
+Alice Nutter was doubtless the original of the story of which Heywood
+availed himself in _The Late Lancashire Witches_, 1634, 4to, which is
+frequently noticed by the writers of the 17th century--that the wife
+of a Lancashire country gentleman had been detected in practising
+witchcraft and unlawful arts, and condemned and executed. In that play
+there can be little hesitation in ascribing to Heywood the scenes in
+which Mr. Generous and his wife are the interlocutors, and to Broome,
+Heywood's coadjutor, the subordinate and farcical portions. It is a
+very unequal performance, but not destitute of those fine touches,
+which Heywood is never without, in the characters of English country
+gentlemen and the pathos of domestic tragedy. The following scene,
+which I am tempted to extract, though very inferior to the noble ones
+in his _Woman Killed by Kindness_, between Mr. and Mrs. Frankford,
+which it somewhat resembles in character, is not unworthy of this
+great and truly national dramatic writer:--
+
+MR. GENEROUS. WIFE. ROBIN, _a groom._
+
+_Gen._ My blood is turn'd to ice, and all my vitals
+Have ceas'd their working. Dull stupidity
+Surpriseth me at once, and hath arrested
+That vigorous agitation, which till now
+Exprest a life within me. I, methinks,
+Am a meer marble statue, and no man.
+Unweave my age, O time, to my first thread;
+Let me lose fifty years, in ignorance spent;
+That, being made an infant once again,
+I may begin to know. What, or where am I,
+To be thus lost in wonder?
+
+_Wife._ Sir.
+
+_Gen._ Amazement still pursues me, how am I chang'd,
+Or brought ere I can understand myself
+Into this new world!
+
+_Rob._ You will believe no witches?
+
+_Gen._ This makes me believe all, aye, anything;
+And that myself am nothing. Prithee, Robin,
+Lay me to myself open; what art thou,
+Or this new transform'd creature?
+
+_Rob._ I am Robin;
+And this your wife, my mistress.
+
+_Gen._ Tell me, the earth
+Shall leave its seat, and mount to kiss the moon;
+Or that the moon, enamour'd of the earth,
+Shall leave her sphere, to stoop to us thus low.
+What, what's this in my hand, that at an instant
+Can from a four-legg'd creature make a thing
+So like a wife!
+
+_Rob._ A bridle; a jugling bridle, Sir.
+
+_Gen._ A bridle! Hence, enchantment.
+A viper were more safe within my hand,
+Than this charm'd engine.--
+A witch! my wife a witch!
+The more I strive to unwind
+Myself from this meander, I the more
+Therein am intricated. Prithee, woman,
+Art thou a witch?
+
+_Wife._ It cannot be denied,
+I am such a curst creature.
+
+_Gen._ Keep aloof:
+And do not come too near me. O my trust;
+Have I, since first I understood myself,
+Been of my soul so chary, still to study
+What best was for its health, to renounce all
+The works of that black fiend with my best force;
+And hath that serpent twined me so about,
+That I must lie so often and so long
+With a devil in my bosom?
+
+_Wife._ Pardon, Sir. [_She looks down._]
+
+_Gen._ Pardon! can such a thing as that be hoped?
+Lift up thine eyes, lost woman, to yon hills;
+It must be thence expected: look not down
+Unto that horrid dwelling, which thou hast sought
+At such dear rate to purchase. Prithee, tell me,
+(For now I can believe) art thou a witch?
+
+_Wife._ I am.
+
+_Gen._ With that word I am thunderstruck,
+And know not what to answer; yet resolve me.
+Hast thou made any contract with that fiend,
+The enemy of mankind?
+
+_Wife._ O I have.
+
+_Gen._ What? and how far?
+
+_Wife._ I have promis'd him my soul.
+
+_Gen._ Ten thousand times better thy body had
+Been promis'd to the stake; aye, and mine too,
+To have suffer'd with thee in a hedge of flames,
+Than such a compact ever had been made. Oh--
+Resolve me, how far doth that contract stretch?
+
+_Wife._ What interest in this Soul myself could claim,
+I freely gave him; but his part that made it
+I still reserve, not being mine to give.
+
+_Gen._ O cunning devil: foolish woman, know,
+Where he can claim but the least little part,
+He will usurp the whole. Thou'rt a lost woman.
+
+_Wife._ I hope, not so.
+
+_Gen._ Why, hast thou any hope?
+
+_Wife._ Yes, sir, I have.
+
+_Gen._ Make it appear to me.
+
+_Wife._ I hope I never bargain'd for that fire,
+Further than penitent tears have power to quench.
+
+_Gen._ I would see some of them.
+
+_Wife._ You behold them now
+(If you look on me with charitable eyes)
+Tinctur'd in blood, blood issuing from the heart.
+Sir, I am sorry; when I look towards heaven,
+I beg a gracious pardon; when on you,
+Methinks your native goodness should not be
+Less pitiful than they; 'gainst both I have err'd;
+From both I beg atonement.
+
+_Gen._ May I presume 't?
+
+_Wife._ I kneel to both your mercies.
+
+_Gen._ Knowest thou what
+A witch is?
+
+_Wife._ Alas, none better;
+Or after mature recollection can be
+More sad to think on 't.
+
+_Gen._ Tell me, are those tears
+As full of true hearted penitence,
+As mine of sorrow to behold what state,
+What desperate state, thou'rt fain in?
+
+_Wife._ Sir, they are.
+
+_Gen._ Rise; and, as I do you, so heaven pardon me;
+We all offend, but from such falling off
+Defend us! Well, I do remember, wife,
+When I first took thee, 'twas _for good and bad_:
+O change thy bad to good, that I may keep thee
+(As then we past our faiths) 'till Death us sever.
+O woman, thou hast need to weep thyself
+Into a fountain, such a penitent spring
+As may have power to quench invisible flames;
+In which my eyes shall aid: too little, all.
+                               _Late Lancashire Witches, Act 4._
+
+P 2 _a_ 1. "_Being examined by my Lord._"] She had evidently learned
+her lesson well; but this was, with all submission to his Lordship, if
+adopted as a test, a mighty poor one. Jennet Device must have known
+well the persons of the parties she accused, and who were now upon
+their trial, as they were all her near neighbours.
+
+P 2 _a_ 2. "_Whether she knew Iohan a Style?_"] His Lordship's
+introduction of this apocryphal legal personage on such an occasion is
+very amusing. Had he studied Littleton and Perkins a little less, and
+given some attention to the Lancashire dialect, and some also to the
+study of that great book, in which even a judge may find valuable
+matter, the book of human nature, he might have been more successfull
+in his examination. Jack's o' Dick's o' Harry's would have been more
+likely to have been recognised as a veritable person of this world by
+Jennet Device, than such a name as Johan a Style; which, though very
+familiar at Westminster, would scarcely have its prototype at Pendle.
+But Jennet Device, young as she was, in natural shrewdness was far
+more than a match for his lordship.
+
+P 3 _a_. "_Katherine Hewit, alias Movld-heeles._"] Of this person, who
+comes next in the list of witches, our information is very scanty. She
+was not of Pendle, but of Colne; and as her husband is described as a
+"clothier," may be presumed to have been in rather better
+circumstances than Elizabeth Southernes or Anne Whittle's families.
+She made no confession.
+
+P 4 _a_ 1. "_Anne Foulds of Colne. Michael Hartleys of Colne._"] Folds
+and Hartley are still the names of families at and in the
+neighbourhood of Colne.
+
+P 4 _a_ 2. "_Had then in hanck a child._"] The meaning of this term is
+clear, the origin rather dubious. It may come from the Scotch word,
+_to hanck_, i.e. to have in holdfast or secure, vide Jamieson's Scotch
+Dictionary, tit. hanck, or from handkill, to murder, vide Jamieson,
+under that word; or lastly, may be metaphorically used, from hanck,
+also signifying a skein of yarn or worsted which is tied or trussed
+up.
+
+Q 2 _a_. "_Iohn Bulcocke, Iane Bulcocke his mother._"] The condition
+of these persons is not stated. It may be conjectured that they were
+of the lowest class.
+
+Q 3 _a_ 1. "_At the Barre hauing formerly confessed._"] Why is not
+their confession given?
+
+Q 3 _a_ 2. "_Crying out in very violent and outrageous manner, even to
+the gallowes._"] The latter end of these unfortunate people was
+perhaps similar to that of Isobel Crawford, executed in Scotland the
+year after for witchcraft, who, on being sentenced, openly denied all
+her former confessions, and died without any sign of repentance,
+offering repeated interruption to the minister in his prayer, and
+refusing to pardon the executioner.
+
+Q 4 _a_. "_Master Thomas Lister of Westby._"] See note on p. Y _a_.
+
+Q 4 _b_. "_The said Bulcockes wife doth know of some Witches to bee
+about Padyham and Burnley._"] Precious evidence this to put the lives
+of two poor creatures into jeopardy.
+
+R _a_. "_Accused the said Iohn Bulcock to turne the Spitt there._"]
+What a fact this would have been for De Lancre. With all his accurate
+statistics on the subject of the witches' Sabbath, he was not aware
+that a turnspit was a necessary officer on such occasions, as well as
+a master of ceremonies. This artful and well instructed jade, Jennet
+Device, must have borne especial malice against John Bulcock.
+
+R 1 _b_. "_The names of the Witches at the Great Assembly and Feast at
+Malking-Tower, viz. vpon Good-Friday last, 1612._"] In this list of
+fourteen individuals, Master Potts has omitted "the painful steward so
+careful to provide mutton," James Device, who made up the number to
+fifteen. Of these persons seven were not indicted: Jennet Hargraves,
+the wife of Hugh Hargraves, of Barley under Pendle; Elizabeth
+Hargraves, the wife of Christopher Hargraves; Christopher Howgate, the
+son of Old Demdike; Christopher Hargraves, who is described as of
+Thurniholme, or Thornholme, and as Christopher o' Jacks, and was
+husband of Elizabeth Hargraves; Grace Hay, of Padiham; Anne Crunkshey,
+of Marchden, or more properly, Cronkshaw of Marsden; and Elizabeth
+Howgate, the wife of Christopher Howgate. The two Howgates were, it
+may be, the "one Holgate and his wife," mentioned in Robinson's
+deposition in 1633. Alice Graie, or Gray, included in the list, was
+indicted, though no copy of the indictment is afforded by Potts, and,
+singular as it may seem, acquitted. Richard Miles' wife, of the Rough
+Lee, stated to have been present in some of the depositions, (G 3
+_b_,) was, beyond doubt, Alice Nutter, so called as the wife of
+Richard and mother of Miles Nutter.
+
+It may afford matter for speculation, whether any real meeting took
+place of any of the persons above enumerated, which gave occasion for
+the monstrous versions of the witnesses at this trial. It is far from
+unlikely, that on the apprehension and commitment of Old Demdike, Old
+Chattox, Alizon Device, and Anne Redfern to Lancaster, a meeting would
+take place of their near relations, and others who might attend from
+curiosity, or from its being rumoured that they were themselves
+implicated by the confessions of those apprehended, and who by such
+attendance sealed their dooms. In all similar fabrications there is
+generally some slight foundation of fact, some scintilla of homely
+truth, from which, like the inverted apex of a pyramid, the
+disproportioned fabric expands. It is possible that, from the simple
+occurrence of an unusual attendance at Malking Tower on Good Friday,
+not unnatural under the circumstances, some of the witnesses, ignorant
+and easily persuaded, might be afterwards led to believe in the
+existence of those monstrous superadditions with which the convention
+was afterwards clothed. However this may be, there must have been at
+hand for working up the materials into a plausible form, some drill
+sergeant of evidence behind the curtain, who had his own interest to
+serve or revenge to gratify. The two particulars in the narrative that
+one feels least disposed to question, are, that James Device stole a
+wether from John Robinson of Barley, to provide a family dinner on
+Good Friday, and that when the meat was roasted John Bulcock performed
+the humble, but very necessary, duty of turning the spit.
+
+R 3 _a_. "_My Lord Gerrard._"] Thomas Gerard, son and heir of Sir
+Gilbert Gerard, Master of the Robes 23d Elizabeth, was raised to the
+peerage by the title of Lord Gerard of Gerard's Bromley, in
+Staffordshire, 1603. He died 1618.
+
+S _a_. "_Kniues, Elsons, and Sickles._" In the _Promptorium
+Parvulorum_, p. 138, to Elsyn (elsyng^k) Sibula, Mr. Way appends this
+note: "This word occurs in the Gloss on Gautier de Bibelesworth,
+Arund. MS. 220, where a buckled girdle is described:--
+
+    "Een isy doyt le hardiloun ([thorn character]e tunnge)
+    Passer par tru de subiloun (a bore of an alsene.)
+
+"An elsyne,--acus, subula. Cath. Ang. Sibula, an elsyn, an alle or a
+bodkyn. ORTUS. In the inventory of the goods of a merchant at
+Newcastle, A.D. 1571, occur, 'vj. doss' elsen heftes, 12_d_; 1 clowte
+and 1/2 a C elsen blades, viij_s_. viij_d_; xiij. clowtes of talier,
+needles, &c.' Wills and Inventories published by the Surtees Society,
+l. 361. The term is derived from the French _alene_; elson for
+cordwayners, alesne. Palsg. In Yorkshire and some other parts of
+England an awl is still called an elsen."
+
+S _b_. "_Which the said Alizon confessing._"] In the case of this
+paralytic pedlar, John Law, his mishap could scarcely be called such,
+as it would for the remainder of his life, be an all-sufficient
+stock-in-trade for him, and popular wonder and sympathy, without the
+judge's interposition, would provide for his relief and maintenance.
+The near apparent connection and correspondence of the _damnum
+minatum_ and _damnum secutum_, in this instance, imposed upon this
+unfortunate woman, as it had done upon many others, and gave to her
+confession an earnestness which would appear to the unenlightened
+spectator to spring only from reality and truth.
+
+S 3 _b_. "_Margaret Pearson._"] This Padiham witch fared better than
+her neighbours, being sentenced only to the pillory. Nothing affords a
+stronger proof of the vindictive pertinacity with which these
+prosecutions were carried on than the fact of this old and helpless
+creature being put on her trial three several times upon such evidence
+as follows. Chattox, like many other persons in her situation, was
+disposed to have as many companions in punishment, crime or no crime,
+as she could compass, and denounced her accordingly: "The said
+Pearson's wife is as ill as shee."
+
+T _a_. "_The said Margerie did carrie the said Toade out of the said
+house in a paire of tonges._"] This toad was disposed of more easily
+than that of Julian Cox, as to which see Glanvil's _Collection of
+Relations_, p. 192:--
+
+     Another witness swore, that as he passed by Cox her door,
+     she was taking a pipe of tobacco upon the threshold of her
+     door, and invited him to come in and take a pipe, which he
+     did. And as he was talking Julian said to him, Neighbour,
+     look what a pretty thing there is. He look't down, and there
+     was a monstrous great toad betwixt his leggs, staring him in
+     the face. He endeavoured to kill it by spurning it, but
+     could not hit it. Whereupon Julian bad him forbear, and it
+     would do him no hurt. But he threw down his pipe and went
+     home, (which was about two miles off of Julian Cox her
+     house,) and told his family what had happened, and that he
+     believed it was one of Julian Cox her devils. After, he was
+     taking a pipe of tobacco at home, and the same toad appeared
+     betwixt his leggs. He took the toad out to kill it, and to
+     his thinking cut it in several pieces, but returning to his
+     pipe, the toad still appeared. He endeavoured to burn it,
+     but could not. At length he took a switch and beat it. The
+     toad ran several times about the room to avoid him he still
+     pursuing it with correction. At length the toad cryed and
+     vanish't, and he was never after troubled with it.
+
+Dr. More's comment on the circumstance is written with all the
+seriousness so important a part of a witch's supellex deserves. He
+commences defending the huntsman, who swore that he hunted a hare, and
+when he came to take it up, he found it to be Julian Cox:
+
+     Those half-witted people thought he swore false, I suppose
+     because they imagined that what he told implied that Julian
+     Cox was turned into an hare. Which she was not, nor did his
+     report imply any such real metamorphosis of her body, but
+     that these ludicrous daemons exhibited to the sight of this
+     huntsman and his doggs the shape of an Hare, one of them
+     turning himself into such a form, and others hurrying on the
+     body of Julian near the same place, and at the same
+     swiftness, but interposing betwixt that hare-like spectre
+     and her body, modifying the air so that the scene there, to
+     the beholders sight, was as if nothing but air were there,
+     and a shew of earth perpetually suited to that where the
+     hare passed. As I have heard of some painters that have
+     drawn the sky in an huge large landskip, so lively that the
+     birds have flown against it, thinking it free air, and so
+     have fallen down. And if painters and juglers by the tricks
+     of legerdemain can do such strange feats to the deceiving of
+     the sight, it is no wonder that these airy invisible spirits
+     as far surpass them in all such praestigious doings as the
+     air surpasses the earth for subtilty.
+
+     And the like praestigiae may be in the toad. It might be a
+     real toad (though actuated and guided by a daemon) which was
+     cut in pieces, and that also which was whipt about, and at
+     last snatcht out of sight (as if it had vanished) by these
+     aerial hocus-pocus's. And if some juglers have tricks to
+     take hot coals into their mouth without hurt, certainly it
+     is not surprising that some small attempt did not suffice to
+     burn that toad. That such a toad, sent by a witch and
+     crawling up the body of the man of the house as he sate by
+     the fire's side, was overmastered by him and his wife
+     together, and burnt in the fire; I have heard credibly
+     reported by one of the Isle of Ely. _Of these daemoniack
+     vermin, I have heard other stories also, as of a rat that
+     followed a man some score of miles trudging through thick
+     and thin along with him._ So little difficulty is there in
+     that of the toad.--_Glanvil's Collection of Relations_, p.
+     200.
+
+T 2 _a_ 1. "_Isabel Robey._" This person was of Windle, in the parish
+of Prescot, a considerable distance from Pendle. The Gerards were
+lords of the manor of Windle. Sir Thomas Gerard, before whom the
+examinations were taken, was created baronet, 22nd May, 9th James I.;
+and thrice married. From him the present Sir John Gerard, of New Hall,
+near Warrington, is descended. Sir Thomas was determined that the
+hundred of West Derby should have its witch as well as the other parts
+of the county. A more melancholy tissue of absurd and incoherent
+accusations than those against this last of the prisoners convicted on
+this occasion, it would not be easy to find; who was hanged, for all
+that appears, because one person was suddenly "pinched on her thigh,
+as she thought, with four fingers and a thumb," and because another
+was "sore pained with a great warch in his bones."
+
+T 2 _a_ 2. "_This Countie of Lancaster, which now may lawfully bee
+said to abound asmuch in Witches of diuers kindes as Seminaries,
+Iesuites, and Papists._"] Truly, the county palatine was in sad case,
+according to Master Potts's account. If the crop of each of these was
+over abundant, it was from no fault of the learned judges, who, in
+their commissions of _Oyer and Terminer_, subjected it pretty
+liberally to the pruning-hook of the executioner.
+
+T 2 _a_ 3. "_This lamentable and wofull Tragedie, wherein his Maiestie
+hath lost so many Subjects, Mothers their Children, Fathers their
+Friends and Kinsfolk._" The Lancashire bill of mortality, under the
+head witchcraft, so far as it can be collected from this tract, will
+run thus:--
+
+ 1. Robert Nutter, of Greenhead, in Pendle.
+ 2. Richard Assheton, son of Richard Assheton, of Downham, Esquire.
+ 3. Child of Richard Baldwin, of Wheethead, within the forest of Pendle.
+ 4. John Device, or Davies, of Pendle.
+ 5. Anne Nutter, daughter of Anthony Nutter, of Pendle.
+ 6. Child of John Moore, of Higham.
+ 7. Hugh Moore, of Pendle.
+ 8. John Robinson, _alias_ Swyer.
+ 9. James Robinson.
+10. Henry Mytton, of the Rough Lee.
+11. Anne Townley, wife of Henry Townley, of the Carr, gentleman.
+12. John Duckworth.
+13. John Hargraves, of Goldshaw Booth.
+14. Blaze Hargraves, of Higham.
+15. Christopher Nutter.
+16. Anne Folds, of Colne.
+
+Sixteen persons reported dead of this common epidemic, besides a
+countless number with pains and "starkness in their limbs," and "a
+great warch in their bones!" No wonder that Doctors Bromley and Potts
+thought active treatment necessary, with a decided preference for
+hemp, as the leading specific.
+
+T 3 _b_. "_With great warch in his bones._"] Warch is a word well
+known and still used in this sense, _i.e._, pain, in Lancashire.
+
+T 4 _b_ 1. "_The said Peter was now satisfied that the said Isabel
+Robey was no Witch, by sending to one Halseworths, which they call a
+wiseman._"] I honour the memory of this Halsworth, or Houldsworth, as
+I suppose it should be spelled, for he was indeed a wise man in days
+when wisdom was an extremely scarce commodity.
+
+T 4 _b_ 2. "_To abide vpon it._"] _i.e._, my abiding opinion is.
+
+X _a_. "_Elizabeth Astley, John Ramsden, Alice Gray, Isabel
+Sidegraues, Lawrence Hay._"] The specific charges against these
+persons, with the exception of Alice Gray, do not appear, nor is it
+said where their places of residence were. Alice Gray was reputed to
+have been at the meeting of witches at Malkin's Tower, and to her the
+judge refers, perhaps, in particular, when he says, "Without question,
+there are amongst you that are as deepe in this action as any of them
+that are condemned to die for their offences."
+
+X _b_. "_The Execution of the Witches._"] We could have dispensed with
+many of the flowers of rhetoric with which the pages of this discovery
+are strewed, if Master Potts would have favoured us with a plain,
+unvarnished account of what occurred at this execution. It is here, in
+the most interesting point of all, that his narrative, in other
+respects so full and abundant, stops short, and seems curtailed of its
+just proportions. The "learned and worthy preacher," to whom the
+prisoners were commended by the judge, was probably Mr. William Leigh,
+of Standish, before mentioned. Amongst his papers or correspondence,
+if they should happen to have been preserved, some account may
+eventually be found of the sad closing scene of these melancholy
+victims of superstition.
+
+X 2 _a_. "_Neither can I paint in extraordinarie tearmes._"] The
+worthy clerk is too modest. He is a great painter, the Tintoretto of
+witchcraft.
+
+Y _a_ 1. "_Hauing cut off Thomas Lister, Esquire, father to this
+gentleman now liuing._"] Thomas Lister, of Westby, ancestor of the
+Listers, Lords Ribblesdale, married Jane, daughter of John Greenacres,
+Esquire, of Worston, county of Lancaster, and was buried at Gisburn,
+February 8th, 1607. His son, Thomas Lister, referred to as the
+"gentleman now living," married Jane, daughter of Thomas Heber, Esq.,
+of Marton, after mentioned, and was buried at Gisburn, July 10th,
+1619.
+
+Y _a_ 2. "_Was Indicted and Arraigned for the murder of a Child of one
+Dodg-sonnes._"] One acquittal was no protection to these unhappy
+creatures. It caused only additional exasperation, and, sooner or
+later, they were brought within what Donne calls "the hungry statutes'
+gaping jaws." Whether superstition or malice prompted this
+prosecution, on the part of Mr. Lister, it is difficult to say. Some
+grudge he entertained, or cause of offence he had taken up against
+this Jennet Preston, might be her death warrant in those days, when it
+was penal for a woman to be old, helpless, ugly, and poor. She was not
+so fortunate as the females tried at York, nine years afterwards, for
+bewitching the children of Edward Fairfax, of Fuyston, in the forest
+of Knaresborough, to whom we owe the only English translation of Tasso
+worthy of the name. These females, six in number, were indicted at two
+successive assizes, and every effort was made by the
+
+    "Prevailing poet! whose undoubting mind
+    Believed the magic wonders which he sung,"
+
+to procure their conviction. Never was a more unequal contest. On the
+one side was a relentless antagonist, armed with wealth, influence,
+learning, and accomplishments, and whose family connections gave him
+an unlimited power in the county; and on the other, six helpless
+persons, whose sex, age, and poverty were almost sufficient for their
+condemnation, without any evidence at all. Yet, owing to the
+magnanimous firmness of the judge, whose name, deserving of immortal
+honour, I regret has not been preserved, these efforts were
+frustrated, and the women accused delivered from the gulph which
+yawned before them. The disappointment he experienced in this
+instance, in being defrauded, as he thought, of a conviction for
+which he had strained every nerve and sinew, and in not being allowed
+to render the forest of Knaresborough as famous as that of Pendle,
+cast a gloom of despondency over the remaining days of this admirable
+poet, who has left a narration of the whole transaction, of most
+singular interest and curiosity, yet unpublished. The MSS. now in my
+possession, and which came from Mr. Bright's collection, consists of
+seventy-eight closely-written folio pages. It is entitled "A Discourse
+of Witchcraft, as it was enacted in the family of Mr. Edward Fairfax,
+of Fuystone, coun. Ebor, 1621." From page 78 to 144 are a series of
+ninety-three most extraordinary and spirited sketches, made with the
+pen, of the witches, devils, monsters, and apparitions referred to in
+the narrative.
+
+Y 2 _a_. "_Master Heyber._"] This was Thomas Hayber, or Heber, of
+Marton, in Craven, Esquire, who was buried at Marton, 7th February,
+1633. He was the ancestor of Bishop Reginald Heber and the late
+Richard Heber, Esq.
+
+Y 3 _a_. "_The said Iennet Preston comming to touch the dead corpes,
+they bled fresh bloud presently._"] On the popular superstition of
+touching the corpse of a murdered person, as an ordeal or test for the
+discovery of the innocence or guilt of suspected murderers, the reader
+cannot better be referred than to the very learned and elaborate essay
+in Pitcairne's _Criminal Trials_, vol. iii. p. 182-189. Amongst the
+authors there quoted, Webster is omitted, who, (see _Displaying of
+supposed Witchcraft_, p. 304,) discusses the point at considerable
+length, and with an earnest and implicit faith singularly at variance
+with his enlightened scepticism in other matters. But there were
+regions of superstition in which even this Sampson of logic became
+imbecile and powerless. The rationale of the bleeding of a murdered
+corpse at the touch of the murderer is given by Sir Kenelm Digby with
+his usual force and spirit:
+
+     To this cause, peradventure, may be reduced the strange
+     effect which is frequently seen in England, when, _at the
+     approach of the Murderer, the slain body suddenly bleedeth
+     afresh_. For certainly the Souls of them that are
+     treacherously murdered by surprise, use to leaue their
+     bodies with extreme unwillingness, and with vehement
+     indignation against them that force them to so unprovided
+     and abhorred a passage! That Soul, then, to wreak its evil
+     talent against the hated Murderer, and to draw a just and
+     desired revenge upon his head, would do all it can to
+     manifest the author of the fact! To _speak_ it cannot--for
+     in itself it wanteth the organs of voice; and those it is
+     parted from are now grown too heavy, and are too benummed,
+     for to give motion unto: Yet some change it desireth to
+     make in the body, which it hath so vehement inclination to;
+     and therefore is the aptest for it to work upon. It must
+     then endeavour to cause a motion in the subtilest and most
+     fluid parts (and consequently the most moveable ones) of it.
+     This can be nothing but THE BLOOD, which then being
+     violently moved, _must needs gush out at those places where
+     it findeth issue_!
+
+In the two following Scotch cases of witchcraft, this test was
+resorted to. The first was that of
+
+     MARIOUN PEEBLES,[79] _alias_ Pardone, spouse to SWENE, in
+     Hildiswick, who was, on March 22, 1644, sentenced to be
+     strangled at a stake, and burnt to ashes, at _the Hill of
+     Berrie_, for WITCHCRAFT and MURDER. Marion and her husband
+     having 'ane deadlie and venefical malice in her heart'
+     against Edward Halero in Overure, and being determined 'to
+     destroy and put him down,' being 'transformed in the lyknes
+     of ane pellack-quhaill, (the Devill changing her spirit,
+     quhilk fled in the same quhaill,') and the said Edward and
+     other four individuals being in a fishing-boat, coming from
+     the Sea, at the North-banks of Hildiswick, 'on ane fair
+     morning, did cum under the said boat, and overturnit her
+     with ease, and drowned and devoired thame in the sey, right
+     at the shore, when there wis na danger wtherwayis.' The
+     bodies of Halero and another of these hapless fishermen
+     having been found, Marion and Swene 'wir sent for, and
+     brought to see thame, and to lay thair hands on thame, ...
+     dayis after said death and away-casting, quhaire thair bluid
+     was evanished and desolved, from every natural cours or
+     caus, shine, and run; the said umquhill Edward _bled at the
+     collir-bain or craig-bane_, and the said ...,[80] _in the
+     hand and fingers, gushing out bluid thairat_, to the great
+     admiration of the beholders--and revelation of the judgement
+     of the Almytie! And by which lyk occasionis and miraculous
+     works of God, made manifest in Murders and the Murderers;
+     whereby, be many frequent occasiones brought to light, and
+     the Murderers, be the said proof brought to judgment,
+     conuict and condemned, not only in this Kingdom, also this
+     countrie, but lykwayis in maist forrin Christiane Kingdomis;
+     and be so manie frequent precedentis and practising of and
+     tuitching Murderis and Murdereris, notourlie known: So, the
+     forsaid Murder and Witchcraft of the saidis persons, with
+     the rest of their companions, through your said Husband's
+     deed, art, part, rad,[81] and counsall, is manifest and
+     cleir to all, not onlie through and by the foirsaid
+     precedentis of your malice, wicked and malishes[82]
+     practises, by Witchcraft, Confessionis, and Declarationis of
+     the said umquill Janet Fraser, Witch, revealed to her, as
+     said is, and quha wis desyrit by him to concur and assist
+     with you to the doing thereof; but lykways _be the
+     declaration and revelation of the justice and judgementis of
+     God, through the said issuing of bluid from the bodies_!'
+     &c.
+
+     A similar and very remarkable instance is related in the
+     following Triall: In the Dittay of CHRISTIAN WILSON, alias
+     _the Lanthorne_,[83] accused of Murder, Witchcraft, &c.,
+     (which is founded upon the examinations of James Wilson,
+     Abraham Macmillan, William Crichton, and Fyfe and George
+     Erskine, &c. led before Sir William Murray of Newtoun, and
+     other Commissioners, at Dalkeith, Jun. 14, 1661,) it is
+     stated, that 'Ther being enimitie betuixt the said
+     Christiane and Alexander Wilsone, her brother, and shoe
+     having often tymes threatned him, at length, about 7 or 8
+     monthes since, altho' the said Alexander was sene that day
+     of his death, at three houres afternoone, in good health,
+     walking about his bussnesse and office; yitt, at fyve howres
+     in that same night, he was fownd dead, lying in his owne
+     howse, naked as he was borne, with his face torne and rent,
+     without any appearance of a spot of blood either wpon his
+     bodie or neigh to it. And altho' many of the neiboures in
+     the toune (Dalkeith) come into his howse to see the dead
+     corpe, yitt shoe newar offered to come, howbeit her dwelling
+     was nixt adjacent thairto; nor had shoe so much as any
+     seiming greiff for his death. Bot the Minister and
+     Bailliffes of the towne, taking great suspitione of her, in
+     respect of her cairiage comand it that shoe showld be
+     browght in; bot when shoe come, shoe come trembling all the
+     way to the howse--bot _shoe refuised to come nigh_ THE CORPS
+     _or to_ TUITCH _it_ saying, that shoe "nevir tuitched a dead
+     corpe in her lyfe!" Bot being arnestly desyred by the
+     Minister, Bailliffes, and hir brother's friends who was
+     killed, that shoe wold "bot _tuitch the corpes softlie_,"
+     shoe granted to doe it--but before shoe did it, the Sone
+     being shyning in at the howse, shoe exprest her selfe thus,
+     humbly desyring, that "as the Lord made the Sone to shyne
+     and give light into that howse, that also _he wald give
+     light to discovering of that Murder_!" And with these words,
+     shoe TUITCHEING _the wound of the dead man, verie saftlie_,
+     it being whyte and cleane, without any spot of blod or the
+     lyke!--yitt IMEDIATLY, _whill her fingers was wpon it_, THE
+     BLOOD RUSHED OWT OF IT, to the great admiratioune[84] of all
+     the behoulders, who tooke it for _discoverie of the Murder_,
+     according to her owne prayers.--For ther was ane great lumpe
+     of flesh taken out of his cheik, so smowthlie, as no rasor
+     in the world cowld have made so ticht ane incisioune, wpon
+     flesh, or cheis--and ther wes no blood at all in the
+     wownd--nor did it at all blead, altho' that many persones
+     befor had tuitched it, whill[85] shoe did tuitche it! And
+     the howse being searched all over, for the shirt of the dead
+     man, yitt it cowld not be found; and altho' the howse was
+     full of people all that night, ever vatching the corpes;[86]
+     neither did any of them tuitch him that night--which is
+     probable[87]--yitt, in the morneing, his shirt was fownd
+     tyed fast abowt his neck, as a brechame,[88] non knowing how
+     this come to pass! And this Cristian did immediatlie
+     transport all her owne goods owt of her own howse into her
+     dowghter's, purposing to flie away--bot was therwpon
+     apprehendit and imprisoned.'--_Pitcairn's Criminal Trials_,
+     vol. iii. p. 194.
+
+[Footnote 79: See Dr. Hibbert's "History of Orkney," &c., to which
+this remarkable Trial is appended.]
+
+[Footnote 80: The name left blank.]
+
+[Footnote 81: Rede; advice.]
+
+[Footnote 82: Malicious.]
+
+[Footnote 83: The name given at her baptism by the Devil. From
+"Collection of Original Documents," belonging to the Society of
+Antiquaries of Scotland, MS. As a specimen of the other charges, take
+the following: "Williame Richardsone, in Dalkeith, haiving felled ane
+hen of the said Cristianes with ane stone, and wpone her sight thereof
+did imediatly threatne him, and with ane frowneing countenance told
+him, that he 'should newer cast ane vther stone!' And imediatly the
+said Williame fell into ane franicie and madnes, and tooke his bed,
+and newer rose agane, but died within a few dayes: And in the tyme of
+his sicknes, he always cryed owt, that the said Cristiane was present
+befor him, in the likeness of ane grey catt! And some tyme eftir his
+death, James Richardsone, nephew to the said Williame, being a boy
+playing in the said Cristiane her yaird, and be calling her Lantherne,
+shoe threatned, that, if he held not his peace, shoe sowld cause him
+to die the death his nephew (uncle) died of!' Whairby it would appeare
+that shoe tooke wpon hir his nepheas (uncle's) death."]
+
+[Footnote 84: Wonder; amazement.]
+
+[Footnote 85: Until. That is, many previous trials had been made of
+other persons suspected, or of those who were near neighbours, perhaps
+living at enmity with the deceased, who had voluntarily offered
+themselves to this solemn ordeal, or had been called upon thus
+publicly to attest their innocence of his blood.]
+
+[Footnote 86: Holding the lyke-wake.]
+
+[Footnote 87: Can be proved, by testimony or probation.]
+
+[Footnote 88: The large collar which goes about a draught-horse's
+neck.]
+
+Z _a_. "_Master Leonard Lister._"] This Leonard Lister was the brother
+of Master Thomas Lister, for whose murder Jennet Preston was indicted;
+and married Ann, daughter of ---- Loftus, of Coverham Abbey, county of
+York.
+
+Z 2 _a_. "_His Lordship commanded the Iurie to obserue the particular
+circumstances._"] The judge in this case was Altham, who seems even to
+have been more superstitious, bigotted, and narrow-minded than his
+brother in commission, Bromley. Fenner, who tried the witches of
+Warbois, and Archer, before whom the trial of Julian Cox took place,
+are the only judges I can meet with, quite on a level with this
+learned baron in grovelling absurdity, upon whom "Jennet Preston would
+lay heavy at the time of his death," whether she had so lain upon Mr.
+Thomas Lister or not, if bigotry, habit, and custom did not render him
+seared and callous to conscience and pity.
+
+Z 3 _b_ 1. "_Take example by this Gentlemen to prosecute these hellish
+Furies to their end._"] It is marvellous that Potts does not, like
+Delrio, recommend the rack to be applied to witches "in moderation,
+and according to the regulations of Pope Pius the Third, and so as not
+to cripple the criminal for life." Not that this learned Jesuit is
+much averse to simple dislocations occasioned by the rack. These, he
+thinks, cannot be avoided in the press of business. He is rather
+opposed, though in this he speaks doubtfully and with submission to
+authority, to those tortures which fracture the bones or lacerate the
+tendons. Verily, the Catholic and the Protestant author might have
+shaken hands; they were, beyond dispute, _poene Gemelli_.
+
+Z 3 _b_ 2. "_Posterities._"] Master Potts, of the particulars of whose
+life nothing is known, made, as far as can be discovered, no further
+attempt to acquire fame in the character of an author. No subject so
+interesting probably again occurred, as that which had diversified his
+legal pursuits "in his lodgings in Chancery-lane," from the pleasing
+recollections associated with his Summer Circuit of 1612. He was not,
+however, the only person of the name of Pott, or Potts, who
+distinguished himself in the field of Witchcraft. The author of the
+following tract, in my possession, might have garnished it with
+various flowers from the work now reprinted, if he had been aware of
+such a repository: "Pott (Joh. Henr.) De nefando Lamiarum cum Diabolo
+coitu." 4to. Lond. 1689. The other celebrated cases of supposed
+witchcraft occurring in the county of Lancaster, besides those
+connected with the foregoing republication, are, the extraordinary one
+of Ferdinand, Earl of Derby, who died at Latham in 1594, for which the
+reader is referred to Camden's _Annals of Elizabeth_, years 1593,
+1594; Kennet, 2. 574, 580; or Pennant's _Tour from Downing to Alston
+Moor_, p. 29;--the case of Edmund Hartley, hanged at Lancaster in
+1597, for bewitching some members of the family of Mr. Starkie, of
+Cleworth, which will be fully considered in the proposed republication
+of the Chetham Society, which gives the history of that event;--and
+lastly, that of a person of the name of Utley, (Whitaker, p. 528;
+Baines, vol. i. p. 604,) who was hanged at Lancaster about 1630, for
+having bewitched to death Richard, the son of Ralph Assheton, Esq.,
+Lord of Middleton, of whose trial, unfortunately, no report is in
+existence. Webster also mentions two supposed witches as having been
+put to death at Lancaster, within eighteen years before his
+_Displaying of supposed Witchcraft_ was published; and which
+occurrence, not referred to by any other historian, must therefore
+have taken place about the year 1654.
+
+
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+
+LIST OF MEMBERS
+
+FOR THE YEAR 1844.
+
+Ackers, James, M.P., Heath House, Ludlow
+Addey, H.M., Liverpool
+Ainsworth, Ralph F., M.D., Manchester
+Ainsworth, Rev. Thomas, M.A., Hartford Hall, Cheshire
+Ainsworth, W.H., Kensal Manor House, Harrow-road, London
+Alexander, Edward N., F.S.A., Halifax
+Allen, Rev. John Taylor, M.A., Stradbrooke Vicarage, Suffolk
+Ambery, Charles, Manchester
+Armstrong, Thomas, Higher Broughton, Manchester
+Ashton, John, Warrington
+Atherton, Miss, Kersal Cell, near Manchester
+Atherton, James, Swinton House, near Manchester
+Atkinson, F.R., Pendleton, near Manchester
+Atkinson, William, Weaste, near Manchester
+
+Balcarres, The Earl of, Haigh Hall, near Wigan
+Baldwin, Rev. John, M.A., Dalton, near Ulverstone
+Bannerman, Alexander, Didsbury, near Manchester
+Bannerman, Henry, Burnage, near Manchester
+Bannerman, John, Swinton, near Manchester
+Bardsley, Samuel Argent, M.D., Green Heys, near Manchester
+Barker, John, Manchester
+Barker, Thomas, Oldham
+Barratt, James, Jun., Manchester
+Barrow, Miss, Green Bank, near Manchester
+Barrow, Rev. Andrew, President of Stonyhurst College, near Blackburn
+Barrow, Peter, Manchester
+Bartlemore, William, Castleton Hall, Rochdale
+Barton, John, Manchester
+Barton, R.W., Springwood, near Manchester
+Barton, Samuel, Didsbury, Manchester
+Barton, Thomas, Manchester
+Bayne, Rev. Thos. Vere, M.A., Broughton, Manchester
+Beamont, William, Warrington
+Beard, Rev. John R., D.D., Stony Knolls, near Manchester
+Beardoe, James, Manchester
+Beever, James F., Manchester
+Bellairs, Rev. H.W., M.A., London
+Bentley, Rev. T.R., M.A., Manchester
+Birley, Hugh Hornby, Broom House, near Manchester
+Birley, Hugh, Didsbury, near Manchester
+Birley, Richard, Manchester
+Birley, Thos. H., Manchester
+Bohn, Henry G., London
+Booth, Benjamin W., Manchester
+Booth, John, Barton-upon-Irwell
+Booth, William, Manchester
+Boothman, Thomas, Ardwick, near Manchester
+Botfield, Beriah, M.P., Norton Hall, Northamptonshire
+Bower, George, London
+Brackenbury, Ralph, Manchester
+Bradbury, Charles, Salford
+Bradshaw, John, Weaste House, near Manchester
+Brooke, Edward, Manchester
+Brooks, Samuel, Manchester
+Broome, William, Manchester
+Brown, Robert, Preston
+Buckley, Edmund, M.P., Ardwick, near Manchester
+Buckley, Rev. Thomas, M.A., Old Trafford, near Manchester
+Buckley, Nathaniel, F.L.S., Rochdale
+Burlington, The Earl of, Holkar Hall
+
+Calvert, Robert, Salford
+Cardwell, Rev. Edward, D.D., Principal of St. Alban's Hall and Camden
+  Professor, Oxford
+Cardwell, Edward, M.P., M.A., Regent's Park, London
+Chadwick, Elias, M.A., Swinton Hall, near Manchester
+Chesshyre, Mrs., Pendleton, near Manchester
+Chester, The Bishop of
+Chichester, The Bishop of
+Chippindall, John, Chetham Hill, near Manchester
+Clare, Peter, F.R.A.S., Manchester
+Clarke, George, Crumpsall, near Manchester
+Clayton, Japheth, Pendleton, near Manchester
+Clifton, Rev. R.C., M.A., Canon of Manchester
+Consterdine, James, Manchester
+Cook, Thomas, Gorse Field, Pendleton, near Manchester
+Cooper, William, Manchester
+Corser, George, Whitchurch, Shropshire
+Corser, Rev. Thomas, M.A., Stand, near Manchester
+Cottam, S.E., F.R.A.S., Manchester
+Coulthart, John Ross, Ashton-under-Lyne
+Crook, Thomas A., Rochdale
+Cross, William Assheton, Redscar, near Preston
+Crossley, George, Manchester
+Crossley, James, Manchester
+Crossley, John, M.A., Scaitcliffe House, Todmorden
+Currer, Miss Richardson, Eshton Hall, near Skipton
+
+Daniel, George, Manchester
+Darbishire, Samuel D., Manchester
+Darwell, James, Manchester
+Darwell, Thomas, Manchester
+Davies, John, M.W.S., Manchester
+Dawes, Matthew, F.G.S., Westbrooke, near Bolton
+Dearden, James, The Orchard, Rochdale
+Dearden, Thomas Ferrand, Rochdale
+Delamere, The Lord, Vale Royal, near Northwich
+Derby, The Earl of, Knowsley
+Dilke, C.W., London
+Dinham, Thomas, Manchester
+Driver, Richard, Manchester
+Dugard, Rev. George, M.A., Birch, near Manchester
+Dyson, T.J., Tower, London
+
+Earle, Richard, Edenhurst, near Prescott
+Eccles, William, Wigan
+Egerton, The Lord Francis, M.P., Worsley Hall
+Egerton, Sir Philip de Malpas Grey, Bart., M.P., Oulton Park,
+  Tarporley
+Egerton, Wilbraham, Tatton Park
+Ely, The Bishop of
+Eyton, J.W.K., F.S.A. L. & E., Elgin Villa, Leamington
+
+Faulkner, George, Manchester
+Feilden, Joseph, Witton, near Blackburn
+Fenton, James, Jun., Lymm Hall, Cheshire
+Fernley, John, Manchester
+Ffarrington, J. Nowell, Worden, near Chorley
+Ffrance, Thomas Robert Wilson, Rawcliffe Hall, Garstang
+Fleming, Thomas, Pendleton, near Manchester
+Fleming, William, M.D., Ditto
+Fletcher, John, Haulgh, near Bolton
+Fletcher, Samuel, Broomfield, near Manchester
+Fletcher, Samuel, Ardwick, near Manchester
+Flintoff, Thomas, Manchester
+Ford, Henry, Manchester
+Fraser, James W., Manchester
+Frere, W.E., Rottingdean, Sussex
+
+Gardner, Thomas, Worcester College, Oxford
+Garner, J.G., Manchester
+Garnett, William James, Quernmore Park, Lancaster
+Germon, Rev. Nicholas, M.A., High Master, Free Grammar School,
+  Manchester
+Gibb, William, Manchester
+Gladstone, Robertson, Liverpool
+Gladstone, Robert, Withington, near Manchester
+Gordon, Hunter, Manchester
+Gould, John, Manchester
+Grant, Daniel, Manchester
+Grave, Joseph, Manchester
+Gray, Benjamin, B.A., Trinity Coll. Cambridge
+Gray, James, Manchester
+Greaves, John, Irlam Hall, near Manchester
+Greenall, G., Walton Hall, near Warrington
+Grey, The Hon. William Booth
+Grosvenor, The Earl
+Grundy, George, Chetham Fold, near Manchester
+
+Hadfield, George, Manchester
+Hailstone, Edward, F.S.A., Horton Hall, Bradford, Yorkshire
+Hardman, Henry, Bury, Lancashire
+Hardy, William, Manchester
+Hargreaves, George J., Hulme, Manchester
+Harland, John, Manchester
+Harrison, William, Brearey, Isle of Man
+Harter, James Collier, Broughton Hall, near Manchester
+Harter, William, Hope Hall, near Manchester
+Hately, Isaiah, Manchester
+Hatton, James, Richmond House, near Manchester
+Hawkins, Edward, F.R.S., F.S.A., F.L.S., British Museum, London
+Heelis, Stephen, Manchester
+Henshaw, William, Manchester
+Herbert, Hon. and Very Rev. Wm., Dean of Manchester
+Heron, Rev. George, M.A., Carrington, Cheshire
+Heywood, Sir Benjamin, Bart., Claremont, near Manchester
+Heywood, James, F.R.S., F.G.S., Acresfield, near Manchester
+Heywood, John Pemberton, near Liverpool
+Heywood, Thomas, F.S.A., Hope End, Ledbury, Herefordshire
+Heywood, Thomas, Pendleton, near Manchester
+Heyworth, Lawrence, Oakwood, near Stockport
+Hibbert, Mrs., Salford
+Hickson, Charles, Manchester
+Hinde, Rev. Thomas, M.A., Winwick, Warrington
+Hoare, G.M., The Lodge, Morden, Surrey
+Hoare, P.R., Kelsey Park, Beckenham, Kent
+Holden, Thomas, Summerfield, Bolton
+Holden, Thomas, Rochdale
+Holme, Edward, M.D., Manchester
+Hughes, William, Old Trafford, near Manchester
+Hulme, Davenport, M.D., Manchester
+Hulme, Hamlet, Medlock Vale, Manchester
+Hulton, Rev. A.H., M.A., Ashton-under-Lyne
+Hulton, Rev. C.G., M.A., Chetham College, Manchester
+Hulton, H.T., Manchester
+Hulton, W.A., Preston
+Hunter, Rev. Joseph, F.S.A., London
+
+Jackson, H.B., Manchester
+Jackson, Joseph, Ardwick, near Manchester
+Jacson, Charles R., Barton Lodge, Preston
+James, Rev. J.G., M.A., Habergham Eaves, near Burnley
+James, Paul Moon, Summerville, near Manchester
+Jemmett, William Thomas, Manchester
+Johnson, W.R., Manchester
+Johnson, Rev. W.W., M.A., Manchester
+Jones, Jos., Jun., Hathershaw, Oldham
+Jones, W., Manchester
+Jordan, Joseph, Manchester
+Kay, James, Turton Tower, Bolton
+Kay, Samuel, Manchester
+Kelsall, Strettle, Manchester
+Kendrick, James, M.D., F.L.S., Warrington
+Kennedy, John, Ardwick House, near Manchester
+Ker, George Portland, Salford
+Kershaw, James, Green Heys, near Manchester
+Kidd, Rev. W.J., M.A., Didsbury, near Manchester
+
+Langton, William, Manchester
+Larden, Rev. G.E., M.A., Brotherton Vicarage, Yorkshire
+Leeming, W.B., Salford
+Legh, G. Cornwall, M.P., F.G.S., High Legh, Cheshire
+Legh, Rev. Peter, M.A., Newton in Makerfield
+Leigh, Rev. Edward Trafford, M.A., Cheadle, Cheshire
+Leigh, Henry, Moorfield Cottage, Worsley
+Leresche, J.H., Manchester
+Lloyd, William Horton, F.S.A., L.S., Park-square, London
+Lloyd, Edward Jeremiah, Oldfield House, Altringham
+Lomas, Edward, Manchester
+Lomax, Robert, Harwood, near Bolton
+Love, Benjamin, Manchester
+Lowndes, William, Egremont, Liverpool
+Loyd, Edward, Green Hill, Manchester
+Lycett, W.E., Manchester
+Lyon, Edmund, M.D., Manchester
+Lyon, Thomas, Appleton Hall, Warrington
+
+McClure, William, Peel Cottage, Eccles
+McFarlane, John, Manchester
+McKenzie, John Whitefoord, Edinburgh
+McVicar, John, Manchester
+Mann, Robert, Manchester
+Marc, E.R. Le, School Lodge, Cheshire
+Markland, J.H., F.R.S., F.S.A., Bath
+Markland, Thomas, Mab Field, near Manchester
+Marsden, G.E., Manchester
+Marsden, William, Manchester
+Marsh, John Fitchett, Warrington
+Marshall, Miss, Ardwick, near Manchester
+Marshall, William, Penwortham Hall, Preston
+Marshall, Frederick Earnshaw, Ditto
+Marshall, John, Ditto
+Mason, Thomas, Copt Hewick, near Ripon
+Master, Rev. Robert M., M.A., Burnley
+Maude, Daniel, M.A., Salford
+Millar, Thomas, Green Heys, near Manchester
+Molyneux, Edward, Chetham Hill, Manchester
+Monk, John, Manchester
+Moore, John, F.L.S., Cornbrook, near Manchester
+Mosley, Sir Oswald, Bart., Rolleston Hall, Staffordshire
+Murray, James, Manchester
+
+Nield, William, Mayfield, Manchester
+Nelson, George, Manchester
+Neville, James, Beardwood, near Blackburn
+Newall, Mrs. Robert, Littleborough, near Rochdale
+Newall, W.N., Wellington Lodge, Littleborough
+Newbery, Henry, Manchester
+Nicholson, William, Thelwall Hall, Warrington
+Norris, Edward, Manchester
+Norwich, The Bishop of
+
+Ormerod, George, D.C.L., F.R.S., F.S.A., F.G.S., Sedbury Park,
+  Gloucestershire
+Ormerod, George Wareing, M.A., F.G.S., Manchester
+Ormerod, Henry Mere, Manchester
+Owen, John, Manchester
+
+Parkinson, Rev. Richard, B.D., Canon of Manchester
+Patten, J. Wilson, M.P., Bank Hall, Warrington
+Pedley, Rev. J.T., M.A., Peakirk-cum-Glinton, Market Deeping
+Peel, Sir Robert, Bart., M.P., Drayton Manor
+Peel, George, Brookfield, Cheadle
+Peel, Joseph, Singleton Brook, near Manchester
+Peet, Thomas, Manchester
+Pegge, John, Newton Heath, near Manchester
+Percival, Stanley, Liverpool
+Philips, Mark, M.P., The Park, Manchester
+Philippi, Frederick Theod., Belfield Hall, near Rochdale
+Phillips, Shakspeare, Barlow Hall, near Manchester
+Phillipps, Sir Thomas, Bart., Middle Hill, Worcestershire
+Piccope, Rev. John, M.A., Farndon, Cheshire
+Pickford, Thomas, Mayfield, Manchester
+Pickford, Thomas E., Manchester
+Pierpoint, Benjamin, Warrington
+Pilkington, George, Manchester
+Pilling, Charles R., Caius College, Cambridge
+Plant, George, Manchester
+Pooley, Edward, Manchester
+Pooley, John, Hulme, near Manchester
+Porrett, Robert, Tower, London
+Prescott, J.C., Summerville, near Manchester
+Price, John Thomas, Manchester
+
+Radford, Thomas, M.D., Higher Broughton, near Manchester
+Raffles, Rev. Thomas, D.D., LL.D., Liverpool
+Raikes, Rev. Henry, M.A., Hon. Can., and Chancellor of Chester
+Raines, Rev. F.R., M.A., F.S.A., Milnrow Parsonage, Rochdale
+Reiss, Leopold, High Field, near Manchester
+Rickards, Charles H., Manchester
+Ridgway, Mrs., Ridgemont, near Bolton
+Ridgway, John Withenshaw, Manchester
+Robson, John, Warrington
+Roberts, W.J., Liverpool
+Roby, John, M.R.S.L., Rochdale
+Royds, Albert Hudson, Rochdale
+
+Samuels, John, Manchester
+Sattersfield, Joshua, Manchester
+Scholes, Thomas Seddon, High Bank, near Manchester
+Schuster, Leo, Weaste, near Manchester
+Sharp, John, Lancaster
+Sharp, Robert C., Bramall Hall, Cheshire
+Sharp, Thomas B., Manchester
+Sharp, William, Lancaster
+Sharp, William, London
+Simms, Charles S., Manchester
+Simms, George, Manchester
+Skaife, John, Blackburn
+Skelmersdale, The Lord, Lathom House
+Smith, Rev. Jeremiah, D.D., Leamington
+Smith, Junius, Strangeways Hall, Manchester
+Smith, J.R., Old Compton-street, London
+Sowler, R.S., Manchester
+Sowler, Thomas, Manchester
+Spear, John, Manchester
+Standish, W.J., Duxbury Hall, Chorley
+Stanley, The Lord, Knowsley
+Sudlow, John, Jun., Manchester
+Swain, Charles, M.R.S.L., Cheetwood Priory, near Manchester
+Swanwick, Josh. W., Hollins Vale, Bury, Lancashire
+
+Tabley, The Lord De, Tabley, Cheshire
+Tattershall, Rev. Thomas, D.D., Liverpool
+Tatton, Thos., Withenshaw, Cheshire
+Tayler, Rev. John James, B.A., Manchester
+Taylor, Thomas Frederick, Wigan
+Teale, Josh., Salford
+Thomson, James, Manchester
+Thorley, George, Manchester
+Thorpe, Robert, Manchester
+Tobin, Rev. John, M.A., Liscard, Cheshire
+Townend, John, Polygon, Manchester
+Townend, Thomas, Polygon, Manchester
+Turnbull, W.B., D.D., Edinburgh
+Turner, Samuel, F.R.S, F.S.A., F.G.S., Liverpool
+Turner, Thomas, Manchester
+
+Vitre, Edward Denis De, M.D., Lancaster
+
+Walker, John, Weaste, near Manchester
+Walker, Samuel, Prospect Hill, Pendleton
+Wanklyn, J.B., Salford
+Wanklyn, James H., Crumpsall House, near Manchester
+Warburton, R.E.E., Arley Hall, near Northwich
+Ware, Samuel Hibbert, M.D., F.R.S.E., Edinburgh
+Wareing, Ralph, Manchester
+Westhead, Joshua P., Manchester
+Whitehead, James, Manchester
+Whitelegg, Rev. William, M.A., Hulme, near Manchester
+Whitmore, Edward, Jun., Manchester
+Whitmore, Henry, Manchester
+Wilson, William James, Manchester
+Wilton, The Earl of, Heaton House
+Winter, Gilbert, Stocks, near Manchester
+Worthington, Edward, Manchester
+Wray, Rev. Cecil Daniel, M.A., Canon of Manchester
+Wright, Rev. Henry, M.A., Mottram, St. Andrew's, near Macclesfield
+Wroe, Thomas, Manchester
+
+Yates, Joseph B., West Dingle, Liverpool
+Yates, Richard, Manchester
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+WORKS PUBLISHED BY THE CHETHAM SOCIETY FOR THE YEAR 1843.
+
+Brereton's Travels.
+
+The Lancashire Civil War Tracts.
+
+Chester's Triumph in Honor of her Prince.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+WORKS IN THE PRESS.
+
+Pott's Discovery of Witches in the County of Lancaster, from the
+edition of 1613.
+
+The Life of the Rev. Adam Martindale, Vicar of Rostherne, in Cheshire,
+from the MS. in the British Museum. (4239 Ascough's Catalogue.)
+
+Dee's Compendious Rehearsal, and other Autobiographical Tracts, not
+included in the recent Publication of the Camden Society edited by Mr.
+Halliwell, with his Collected correspondence.
+
+Iter Lancastrense, by Dr. Richard James; an English Poem, written in
+1636, containing a Metrical Account of some of the Principal Families
+and Mansions in Lancashire; from the unpublished MS. in the Bodleian
+Library, Oxford.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+WORKS SUGGESTED FOR PUBLICATION.
+
+Selections from the Unpublished Correspondence of the Rev. John
+Whittaker, Author of the History of Manchester, and other Works.
+
+More's (George) Discourse concerning the Possession and Dispossession
+of Seven Persons in one Family in Lancashire, from a Manuscript
+formerly belonging to Thoresby, and which gives a much fuller Account
+of that Transaction than the Printed Tract of 1600; with a
+Bibliographical and Critical Review of the Tracts in the Darrel
+Controversy.
+
+A Selection of the most Curious Papers and Tracts relating to the
+Pretender's Stay in Manchester in 1745, in Print and Manuscript.
+
+Proceedings of the Presbyterian Classis of Manchester and the
+Neighbourhood, from 1646 to 1660, from an Unpublished Manuscript.
+
+Catalogue of the Alchemical Library of John Webster, of Clitheroe,
+from a Manuscript in the Rev. T. Corser's possession; with a fuller
+Life of him, and List of his Works, than has yet appeared.
+
+Correspondence between Samuel Hartlib (the Friend of Milton), and Dr.
+Worthington, of Jesus College, Cambridge (a native of Manchester),
+from 1655 to 1661, on various Literary Subjects.
+
+"Antiquities concerning Cheshire," by Randall Minshull, written A.D.
+1591, from a MS. in the Gough Collection.
+
+Register of the Lancaster Priory, from a MS. (No. 3764) in the
+Harleian Collection.
+
+Selections from the Visitations of Lancashire in 1533, 1567, and 1613,
+in the Herald's College, British Museum, Bodleian, and Caius College
+Libraries.
+
+Selections from Dodsworth's MSS. in the Bodleian Library, Randal
+Holmes's Collections for Lancashire and Cheshire (MSS. Harleian), and
+Warburton's Collections for Cheshire (MSS. Lansdown).
+
+Annales Cestrienses, or Chronicle of St. Werburgh, from the MS. in the
+British Museum.
+
+A Reprint of Henry Bradshaw's Life and History of St. Werburgh, from
+the very rare 4to of 1521, printed by Pynson.
+
+The Letters and Correspondence of Sir William Brereton, from the
+original MSS., in 5 vols. folio, in the British Museum.
+
+A Poem, by Laurence Bostock, on the subject of the Saxon and Norman
+Earls of Chester.
+
+Bishop Gastrell's Notitia Cestriensis, on the subject of the
+Ecclesiastical Antiquities of the Diocese of Chester, from the
+original MS.
+
+History of the Earldom of Chester, collected by Archbishop Parker,
+entitled De Successione Comitum Cestriae a Hugone Lupo ad Johannem
+Scoticum, from the original MS. in Ben'et College Library, Cambridge.
+
+Volume of Funeral Certificates of Lancashire and Cheshire.
+
+Volume of Early Lancashire and Cheshire Wills.
+
+A Selection of Papers relating to the Rebellion of 1715, including
+Clarke's Journal of the March of the Rebels from Carlisle to Preston.
+
+A Memoir of the Chetham Family, from original documents.
+
+The Diary of the Rev. Henry Newcome, M.A., from the original MS. in
+the possession of his descendant, the Rev. Thomas Newcome, M.A.,
+Rector of Shenley, Herts.
+
+Lucianus Monacus de laude Cestrie, a Latin MS. of the 13th century,
+descriptive of the walls, gates, &c., of the City of Chester, formerly
+belonging to Thomas Allen, DD., and now in the Bodleian Library,
+Oxford.
+
+Richard Robinson's Golden Mirrour, Bk. lett. 4to. Lond., 1580.
+Containing Poems on the Etymology of the names of several Cheshire
+Families; from the exceedingly rare copy formerly in the collection of
+Richard Heber, Esq., (see Cat. pt. iv. 2413,) and now in the British
+Museum.
+
+A volume of the early Ballad Poetry of Lancashire.
+
+The Coucher Book of Whalley Abbey.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DISCOVERY OF WITCHES***
+
+
+******* This file should be named 18253.txt or 18253.zip *******
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