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diff --git a/43651-0.txt b/43651-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3eecce3 --- /dev/null +++ b/43651-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4746 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 43651 *** + +Note: Images of the original pages are available through + Internet Archive. See + http://archive.org/details/irishwitchcraftd00seymrich + + +Transcriber's note: + + Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_). + + + + + +IRISH WITCHCRAFT AND DEMONOLOGY + +by + +ST. JOHN D. SEYMOUR, B.D. + +Author of "The Diocese of Emly," etc. + + + + + + + +Dublin +Hodges, Figgis & Co. Ltd. +104 Grafton Street +London +Humphrey Milford +Amen Corner, E.C. +1913 + + + + +CONTENTS + + + PAGE + + CHAPTER I + + SOME REMARKS ON WITCHCRAFT IN IRELAND 1 + + CHAPTER II + + A.D. 1324 + + DAME ALICE KYTELER, THE SORCERESS OF KILKENNY 25 + + CHAPTER III + + A.D. 1223-1583 + + THE KYTELER CASE AND ITS SURROUNDINGS OF SORCERY AND + HERESY--MICHAEL SCOT--THE FOURTH EARL OF DESMOND--JAMES I + AND THE IRISH PROPHETESS--A SORCERY ACCUSATION OF 1447-- + WITCHCRAFT TRIALS IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY--STATUTES + DEALING WITH THE SUBJECT--EYE-BITERS--THE ENCHANTED EARL + OF DESMOND 46 + + CHAPTER IV + + A.D. 1606-1656 + + A CLERICAL WIZARD--WITCHCRAFT CURED BY A RELIC--RAISING + THE DEVIL IN IRELAND--HOW HE WAS CHEATED BY A DOCTOR OF + DIVINITY--STEWART AND THE FAIRIES--REV. ROBERT BLAIR AND + THE MAN POSSESSED WITH A DEVIL--STRANGE OCCURRENCES NEAR + LIMERICK--APPARITIONS OF MURDERED PEOPLE AT PORTADOWN-- + CHARMED LIVES--VISIONS AND PORTENTS--PETITION OF A + BEWITCHED ANTRIM MAN IN ENGLAND--ARCHBISHOP USSHER'S + PROPHECIES--MR. BROWNE AND THE LOCKED CHEST 77 + + CHAPTER V + + A.D. 1661 + + FLORENCE NEWTON, THE WITCH OF YOUGHAL 105 + + CHAPTER VI + + A.D. 1662-1686 + + THE DEVIL AT DAMERVILLE--AND AT BALLINAGARDE--TAVERNER + AND HADDOCK'S GHOST--HUNTER AND THE GHOSTLY OLD WOMAN--A + WITCH RESCUED BY THE DEVIL--DR. WILLIAMS AND THE HAUNTED + HOUSE IN DUBLIN--APPARITIONS SEEN IN THE AIR IN CO. + TIPPERARY--A CLERGYMAN AND HIS WIFE BEWITCHED TO DEATH-- + BEWITCHING OF MR. MOOR--THE FAIRY-POSSESSED BUTLER--A + GHOST INSTIGATES A PROSECUTION--SUPPOSED WITCHCRAFT IN + CO. CORK--THE DEVIL AMONG THE QUAKERS 132 + + CHAPTER VII + + A.D. 1688 + + AN IRISH-AMERICAN WITCH 176 + + CHAPTER VIII + + A.D. 1689-1720 + + PORTENT ON ENTRY OF JAMES II--WITCHCRAFT IN CO. ANTRIM-- + TRADITIONAL VERSION OF SAME--EVENTS PRECEDING THE + ISLAND-MAGEE WITCH-TRIAL--THE TRIAL ITSELF--DR. FRANCIS + HUTCHINSON 194 + + CHAPTER IX + + A.D. 1807 TO PRESENT DAY + + MARY BUTTERS, THE CARNMONEY WITCH--BALLAD ON HER--THE + HAND OF GLORY--A JOURNEY THROUGH THE AIR--A "WITCH" IN + 1911--SOME MODERN ILLUSTRATIONS OF CATTLE- AND + MILK-MAGIC--TRANSFERENCE OF DISEASE BY A _cailleach_-- + BURYING THE SHEAF--J.P.'S COMMISSION--CONCLUSION 224 + + + + +IRISH WITCHCRAFT AND DEMONOLOGY + + + + +CHAPTER I + + SOME REMARKS ON WITCHCRAFT IN IRELAND + + +It is said, though we cannot vouch for the accuracy of the statement, that +in a certain book on the natural history of Ireland there occurs a +remarkable and oft-quoted chapter on Snakes--the said chapter consisting +of the words, "There are no snakes in Ireland." In the opinion of most +people at the present day a book on Witchcraft in Ireland would be of +equal length and similarly worded, except for the inclusion of the Kyteler +case in the town of Kilkenny in the first half of the fourteenth century. +For, with the exception of that classic incident, modern writers seem to +hold that the witch-cult never found a home in Ireland as it did +elsewhere. For example, the article on "Witchcraft" in the latest edition +of the _Encyclopædia Britannica_ mentions England and Scotland, then +passes on to the Continent, and altogether ignores this country; and this +is, in general, the attitude adopted by writers on the subject. In view of +this it seems very strange that no one has attempted to show why the Green +Isle was so especially favoured above the rest of the civilised world, or +how it was that it alone escaped the contracting of a disease that not for +years but for centuries had infected Europe to the core. As it happens +they may spare themselves the labour of seeking for an explanation of +Ireland's exemption, for we hope to show that the belief in witchcraft +reached the country, and took a fairly firm hold there, though by no means +to the extent that it did in Scotland and England. The subject has never +been treated of fully before, though isolated notices may be found here +and there; this book, however imperfect it may be, can fairly claim to be +the first attempt to collect the scattered stories and records of +witchcraft in Ireland from many out-of-the-way sources, and to present +them when collected in a concise and palatable form. Although the volume +may furnish little or nothing new to the history or psychology of +witchcraft in general, yet it may also claim to be an unwritten chapter in +Irish history, and to show that in this respect a considerable portion of +our country fell into line with the rest of Europe. + +At the outset the plan and scope of this book must be made clear. It will +be noticed that the belief in fairies and suchlike beings is hardly +touched upon at all, except in those instances where fairy lore and +witchcraft become inextricably blended. + +The reason for this method of treatment is not hard to find. From the +Anglo-Norman invasion down the country has been divided into two opposing +elements, the Celtic and the English. It is true that on many occasions +these coalesced in peace and war, in religion and politics, but as a rule +they were distinct, and this became even more marked after the spread of +the Reformation. It was therefore in the Anglo-Norman (and subsequently in +the Protestant) portion of the country that we find the development of +witchcraft along similar lines to those in England or the Continent, and +it is with this that we are dealing in this book; the Celtic element had +its own superstitious beliefs, but these never developed in this +direction. In England and Scotland during the mediæval and later periods +of its existence witchcraft was an offence against the laws of God and +man; in Celtic Ireland dealings with the unseen were not regarded with +such abhorrence, and indeed had the sanction of custom and antiquity. In +England after the Reformation we seldom find members of the Roman Catholic +Church taking any prominent part in witch cases, and this is equally true +of Ireland from the same date. Witchcraft seems to have been confined to +the Protestant party, as far as we can judge from the material at our +disposal, while it is probable that the existence of the penal laws +(active or quiescent) would deter the Roman Catholics from coming into any +prominence in a matter which would be likely to attract public attention +to itself in such a marked degree. A certain amount of capital has been +made by some partisan writers out of this, but to imagine that the +ordinary Roman Catholic of, let us say, the seventeenth century, was one +whit less credulous or superstitious than Protestant peers, bishops, or +judges, would indeed be to form a conception directly at variance with +experience and common sense. Both parties had their beliefs, but they +followed different channels, and affected public life in different ways. + +Another point with reference to the plan of this work as indicated by the +title needs a few words of explanation. It will be seen by the reader that +the volume does not deal solely with the question of witchcraft, though +that we have endeavoured to bring into prominence as much as possible, but +that tales of the supernatural, of the appearance of ghosts, and of the +Devil, are also included, especially in chapters IV and VI. If we have +erred in inserting these, we have at least erred in the respectable +company of Sir Walter Scott, C. K. Sharpe, and other writers of note. We +have included them, partly because they afford interesting reading, and +are culled from sources with which the average reader is unacquainted, +but principally because they reflect as in a mirror the temper of the age, +and show the degree to which every class of Society was permeated with the +belief in the grosser forms of the supernatural, and the blind readiness +with which it accepted what would at the present day be tossed aside as +unworthy of even a cursory examination. This is forcibly brought out in +the instance of a lawsuit being undertaken at the instigation of a +ghost--a quaint item of legal lore. The judge who adjudicated, or the jury +and lawyers who took their respective parts in such a case, would with +equal readiness have tried and found guilty a person on the charge of +witchcraft; and probably did so far oftener than we are aware of. + +The question will naturally be asked by the reader--what reason can be +offered for Ireland's comparative freedom from the scourge, when the whole +of Europe was so sorely lashed for centuries? It is difficult fully to +account for it, but the consideration of the following points affords a +partial explanation. + +In the first place Ireland's aloofness may be alleged as a reason. The +"Emerald Gem of the Western World" lies far away on the verge of Ocean, +remote from those influences which so profoundly affected popular thought +in other countries. It is a truism to say that it has been separated from +England and the Continent by more than geographical features, or that in +many respects, in its ecclesiastical organisation, its literature, and so +on, it has developed along semi-independent lines. And so, on account of +this remoteness, it would seem to have been prevented from acquiring and +assimilating the varying and complex features which went to make up the +witchcraft conception. Or, to put it in other words, mediæval witchcraft +was a byproduct of the civilisation of the Roman Empire. Ireland's +civilisation developed along other and more barbaric lines, and so had no +opportunity of assimilating the particular phases of that belief which +obtained elsewhere in Europe. + +Consequently, when the Anglo-Normans came over, they found that the native +Celts had no predisposition towards accepting the view of the witch as an +emissary of Satan and an enemy of the Church, though they fully believed +in supernatural influences of both good and evil, and credited their Bards +and Druids with the possession of powers beyond the ordinary. Had this +country never suffered a cross-channel invasion, had she been left to work +out her destiny unaided and uninfluenced by her neighbours, it is quite +conceivable that at some period in her history she would have imbibed the +witchcraft spirit, and, with the genius characteristic of her, would have +blended it with her own older beliefs, and so would have ultimately +evolved a form of that creed which would have differed in many points from +what was held elsewhere. As it happens, the English and their successors +had the monopoly, and retained it in their own hands; thus the +Anglo-Norman invaders may be given the credit of having been the principal +means of preventing the growth and spread of witchcraft in Celtic Ireland. + +Another point arises in connection with the advance of the Reformation in +Ireland. Unfortunately the persecution of witches did not cease in the +countries where that movement made headway--far from it; on the contrary +it was kept up with unabated vigour. Infallibility was transferred from +the Church to the Bible; the Roman Catholic persecuted the witch because +Supreme Pontiffs had stigmatised her as a heretic and an associate of +Satan, while the Protestant acted similarly because Holy Writ contained +the grim command "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live." Thus persecution +flourished equally in Protestant and Roman Catholic kingdoms. But in +Ireland the conditions were different. We find there a Roman Catholic +majority, not racially predisposed towards such a belief, debarred by +their religious and political opinions from taking their full share in +public affairs, and opposed in every way to the Protestant minority. The +consequent turmoil and clash of war gave no opportunity for the witchcraft +idea to come to maturity and cast its seeds broadcast; it was trampled +into the earth by the feet of the combatants, and, though the minority +believed firmly in witchcraft and kindred subjects, it had not sufficient +strength to make the belief general throughout the country. + +A third reason that may be brought forward to account for the comparative +immunity of Ireland was the total absence of literature on the subject. +The diffusion of books and pamphlets throughout a country or district is +one of the recognised ways of propagating any particular creed; the +friends and opponents of Christianity have equally recognised the truth of +this, and have always utilised it to the fullest extent. Now in England +from the sixteenth century we find an enormous literary output relative to +witchcraft, the majority of the works being in support of that belief. +Many of these were small pamphlets, which served as the "yellow press" of +the day; they were well calculated to arouse the superstitious feelings of +their readers, as they were written from a sensational standpoint--indeed +it seems very probable that the compilers, in their desire to produce a +startling catch-penny which would be sure to have a wide circulation, +occasionally drew upon their imaginations for their facts. The evil that +was wrought by such amongst an ignorant and superstitious people can well +be imagined; unbelievers would be converted, while the credulous would be +rendered more secure in their credulity. + +At a later date, when men had become practical enough to question the +reality of such things, a literary war took place, and in this "battle of +the books" we find such well-known names as Richard Baxter, John Locke, +Meric Casaubon, Joseph Glanvil, and Francis Hutchinson, ranged on one side +or the other. Thus the ordinary Englishman would have no reasonable +grounds for being ignorant of the power of witches, or of the various +opinions held relative to them. In Ireland, on the other hand (with the +solitary exception of a pamphlet of 1699, which may or may not have been +locally printed), there is not the slightest trace of any witchcraft +literature being published in the country until we reach the opening years +of the nineteenth century. All our information therefore with respect to +Ireland comes from incidental notices in books and from sources across the +water. We might with reason expect that the important trial of Florence +Newton at Youghal in 1661, concerning the historical reality of which +there can be no possible doubt, would be immortalised by Irish writers +and publishers, but as a matter of fact it is only preserved for us in two +London printed books. There is no confusion between cause and effect; +books on witchcraft would, naturally, be the result of witch-trials, but +in their turn they would be the means of spreading the idea and of +introducing it to the notice of people who otherwise might never have +shown the least interest in the matter. Thus the absence of this form of +literature in Ireland seriously hindered the advance of the belief in (and +consequent practice of) witchcraft. + +When did witchcraft make its appearance in Ireland, and what was its +progress therein? It seems probable that this belief, together with +certain aspects of fairy lore hitherto unknown to the Irish, and ideas +relative to milk and butter magic, may in the main be counted as results +of the Anglo-Norman invasion, though it is possible that an earlier +instalment of these came in with the Scandinavians. With our present +knowledge we cannot trace its active existence in Ireland further back +than the Kyteler case of 1324; and this, though it was almost certainly +the first occasion on which the evil made itself apparent to the general +public, yet seems to have been only the culmination of events that had +been quietly and unobtrusively happening for some little time previously. +The language used by the Parliament with reference to the case of 1447 +would lead us to infer that nothing remarkable or worthy of note in the +way of witchcraft or sorcery had occurred in the country during the +intervening century and a quarter. For another hundred years nothing is +recorded, while the second half of the sixteenth century furnishes us with +two cases and a suggestion of several others. + +It is stated by some writers (on the authority, we believe, of an early +editor of _Hudibras_) that during the rule of the Commonwealth Parliament +_thirty thousand_ witches were put to death in England. Others, possessing +a little common sense, place the number at three thousand, but even this +is far too high. Yet it seems to be beyond all doubt that more witches +were sent to the gallows at that particular period than at any other in +English history. Ireland seems to have escaped scot-free--at least we +have not been able to find any instances recorded of witch trials at that +time. Probably the terribly disturbed state of the country, the tremendous +upheaval of the Cromwellian confiscations, and the various difficulties +and dangers experienced by the new settlers would largely account for this +immunity. + +Dr. Notestein[1] shows that the tales of apparitions and devils, of +knockings and strange noises, with which English popular literature of the +period is filled, are indications of a very overwrought public mind; of +similar stories in Ireland, also indicative of a similar state of tension, +some examples are given in chapter IV. Though the first half of the +seventeenth century is so barren with respect to _witchcraft_, yet it +should be noticed that during that period we come across frequent notices +of ghosts, apparitions, devils, &c., which forces us to the conclusion +that the increase of the belief in such subjects at that time was almost +entirely due to the advent of the Cromwellian settlers and the Scotch +colonists in Ulster; indeed the beliefs of the latter made the Northern +Province a miniature Scotland in this respect. We cannot blame them for +this; could anything else be expected from men who, clergy and laity +alike, were saturated with the superstitions that were then so prominent +in the two countries from which their ranks had been recruited? + +Thus the seventeenth century was the period _par excellence_ of +witchcraft, demonology, and the supernatural in Ireland. The most +remarkable witch case of that time, the trial of Florence Newton in 1661, +to which allusion has already been made, seems to have been largely +influenced by what occurred in England, while the various methods +suggested or employed as a test of that old woman's culpability are quite +in accordance with the procedure adopted a few years previously by the +English witch-finder general, the infamous Matthew Hopkins. After 1711 the +period of decadence is reached, while between that date and 1808 nothing +has been found, though it may be safely inferred that that blank was +filled by incidents similar to the case of Mary Butters and others, as +described in the final chapter; and possibly too, as in England, by +savage outbursts on the part of the ignorant and credulous multitude. + +Witchcraft never flourished to any great extent in Ireland, nor did +anything ever occur which was worthy of the name of persecution--except +perhaps as a sequel to the Kyteler case, and the details of which we fear +will never be recovered. The first part of this statement must be taken +generally and not pressed too closely, as it is based almost entirely on +negative evidence, _i.e._ the absence of information on the subject. +England has a lengthy list of books and pamphlets, while Scotland's share +in the business may be learnt from the fine series of criminal trials +edited by Pitcairn in the Miscellanies of the Abbotsford Club, not to +speak of other works; notwithstanding these, many cases in both England +and Scotland must have been unrecorded. Ireland can produce nothing like +this, for, as we have already shown, all _printed_ notices of Irish +witchcraft, with one possible exception, are recorded in books published +outside the country. Nevertheless, if all likely sources, both in MS. and +print, could be searched, it is highly probable that a much fuller volume +than the present one could be written on the subject. The Elizabethan Act +was passed on account of cases (recorded and unrecorded) that had arisen +in the country; while, human nature being what it is, it seems likely that +the very passing of that Statute by the Irish Parliament was in itself a +sufficient incentive to the witches to practise their art. No belief +really gains ground until it is forbidden; then the martyrs play their +part, and there is a consequent increase in the number of the followers. + +The Act of 1634 shows the opinion that was entertained in the highest +circles relative to the baneful influence of witches and the menace their +presence was to the safety of the community at large; in this no doubt the +effect of the "evil eye," or of the satirical verses of Bards, would be +equally classed with witchcraft proper. + +From various hints and incidental notices, such as in the account of the +bewitching of Sir George Pollock, or in Law's statement relative to the +case of Mr. Moor, as well as from a consideration of the prevalence of the +belief amongst all classes of society, it may be inferred that far more +cases of witchcraft occurred in Ireland during the sixteenth and +seventeenth centuries than one imagines, though in comparison with other +countries their numbers would be but small. Future students of old +documents may be able to bear out this statement, and to supply +information at present unavailable. + +To deal with the subject of witchcraft in general, with its psychology or +with the many strange items which it included, would be out of place in a +work exclusively devoted to one particular country, nor indeed could it be +adequately dealt with in the space at our disposal; it is necessary, +however, to say a few words on the matter in order to show by comparison +how much pain and unhappiness the people of Ireland escaped through the +non-prevalence of this terrible cult amongst them. + +In the first place, to judge from the few witch-trials recorded, it may be +claimed that torture as a means of extracting evidence was never used upon +witches in Ireland (excepting the treatment of Petronilla of Meath by +Bishop de Ledrede, which seems to have been carried out in what may be +termed a purely unofficial manner). It would be interesting indeed to work +through the extant Records for the purpose of seeing how often torture was +judicially used on criminals in Ireland, and probably the student who +undertakes the investigation will find that this terrible and illogical +method of extracting the truth (!) was very seldom utilised. Nor is it at +all clear that torture was employed in England in similar trials. Dr. +Notestein[2] thinks that there are some traces of it, which cannot however +be certainly proved, except in one particular instance towards the end of +the reign of James I, though this was for the exceptional crime of +practising sorcery (and therefore high treason) against that too credulous +king. Was its use ever legalised by Act of Parliament in either country? + +In Scotland, on the other hand, it was employed with terrible frequency; +there was hardly a trial for witchcraft or sorcery but some of the +unfortunates incriminated were subjected to this terrible ordeal. Even as +late as 1690 torture was judicially applied to extract evidence, for in +that year a Jacobite gentleman was questioned by the boots. But Scotland, +even at its worst, fades into insignificance before certain parts of the +Continent, where torture was used to an extent and degree that can only be +termed hellish; the appalling ingenuity displayed in the various methods +of applying the "question extraordinary" seems the work of demons rather +than of Christians, and makes one blush for humanity. The _repetition_ of +torture was forbidden, indeed, but the infamous Inquisitor, James +Sprenger, imagined a subtle distinction by which each fresh application +was a _continuation_ and not a repetition of the first; one sorceress in +Germany suffered this continuation no less than _fifty-six_ times. + +Nor was the punishment of death by fire for witchcraft or sorcery employed +to any extent in Ireland. We have one undoubted instance, and a general +hint of some others as a sequel to this. How the two witches were put to +death in 1578 we are not told, but probably it was by hanging. Subsequent +to the passing of the Act of 1586 the method of execution would have been +that for felony. On the Continent the stake was in continual request. In +1514 three hundred persons were burnt alive for this crime at Como. +Between 1615 and 1635 more than six thousand sorcerers were burnt in the +diocese of Strasburg, while, if we can credit the figures of Bartholomew +de Spina, in Lombardy a thousand sorcerers a year were put to death _for +the space of twenty-five years_.[3] The total number of persons executed +in various ways for this crime has, according to the _Encyclopædia +Britannica_, been variously estimated at from one hundred thousand to +several millions; if the latter figure be too high undoubtedly the former +is far too low. + +In the persecution of those who practised magical arts no rank or class in +society was spared; the noble equally with the peasant was liable to +torture and death. This was especially true of the earlier stages of the +movement when _sorcery_ rather than _witchcraft_ was the crime committed. +For there is a general distinction between the two, though in many +instances they are confounded. Sorcery was, so to speak, more of an +aristocratic pursuit; the sorcerer was the master of the Devil (until his +allotted time expired), and compelled him to do his bidding: the witch +generally belonged to the lower classes, embodied in her art many +practices which lay on the borderland between good and evil, and was +rather the slave of Satan, who almost invariably proved to be a most +faithless and unreliable employer. For an illustration from this country +of the broad distinction between the two the reader may compare Dame Alice +Kyteler with Florence Newton. Anybody might become a victim of the witch +epidemic; noblemen, scholars, monks, nuns, titled ladies, bishops, +clergy--none were immune from accusation and condemnation. Nay, even a +saint once fell under suspicion; in 1595 S. Francis de Sales was accused +of having been present at a sorcerers' sabbath, and narrowly escaped being +burnt by the populace.[4] Much more might be written in the same strain, +but sufficient illustrations have been brought forward to show the reader +that in its comparative immunity from witchcraft and its terrible +consequences Ireland, generally deemed so unhappy, may be counted the most +fortunate country in Europe. + +In conclusion, we have not considered it necessary to append a +bibliography. The books that have been consulted and which have contained +no information relative to Ireland are, unfortunately, all too numerous, +while those that have proved of use are fully referred to in the text or +footnotes of the present volume. We should like however to acknowledge our +indebtedness to such general works on the subject as Sir Walter Scott's +_Demonology and Witchcraft_, C. K. Sharpe's _History of Witchcraft in +Scotland_, John Ashton's _The Devil in Britain and America_, and Professor +Wallace Notestein's _History of Witchcraft in England, 1558-1718_ +(Washington, 1911); the last three contain most useful bibliographical +notices. Much valuable information with respect to the traditional +versions of certain incidents which occurred in Ulster has been gleaned +from Classon Porter's pamphlet, _Witches, Warlocks, and Ghosts_ +(reprinted from _The Northern Whig_ of 1885). For a good bird's-eye view +of witchcraft on the Continent from the earliest times we can recommend J. +Français' _L'église et la Sorcellerie_ (Paris: Nourry, 1910). + + + + +CHAPTER II + +A.D. 1324 + + DAME ALICE KYTELER, THE SORCERESS OF KILKENNY + + +The history of the proceedings against Dame Alice Kyteler and her +confederates on account of their dealings in unhallowed arts is to be +found in a MS. in the British Museum, and has been edited amongst the +publications of the Camden Society by Thomas Wright, who considers it to +be a contemporary narrative. Good modern accounts of it are given in the +same learned antiquary's "Narratives of Witchcraft and Sorcery" in +_Transactions of the Ossory Archæological Society_, vol. i., and in the +Rev. Dr. Carrigan's _History of the Diocese of Ossory_, vol. i. + +Dame Alice Kyteler (such apparently being her maiden name), the _facile +princeps_ of Irish witches, was a member of a good Anglo-Norman family +that had been settled in the city of Kilkenny for many years. The +coffin-shaped tombstone of one of her ancestors, Jose de Keteller, who +died in 128--, is preserved at S. Mary's church; the inscription is in +Norman-French and the lettering is Lombardic. The lady in question must +have been far removed from the popular conception of a witch as an old +woman of striking ugliness, or else her powers of attraction were very +remarkable, for she had succeeded in leading four husbands to the altar. +She had been married, first, to William Outlawe of Kilkenny, banker; +secondly, to Adam le Blund of Callan; thirdly, to Richard de Valle--all of +whom she was supposed to have got rid of by poison; and fourthly, to Sir +John le Poer, whom it was said she deprived of his natural senses by +philtres and incantations. + +The Bishop of Ossory at this period was Richard de Ledrede, a Franciscan +friar, and an Englishman by birth. He soon learnt that things were not as +they should be, for when making a visitation of his diocese early in 1324 +he found by an Inquisition, in which were five knights and numerous +nobles, that there was in the city a band of heretical sorcerers, at the +head of whom was Dame Alice. The following charges were laid against them. + +1. They had denied the faith of Christ absolutely for a year or a month, +according as the object they desired to gain through sorcery was of +greater or less importance. During all that period they believed in none +of the doctrines of the Church; they did not adore the Body of Christ, nor +enter a sacred building to hear mass, nor make use of consecrated bread or +holy water. + +2. They offered in sacrifice to demons living animals, which they +dismembered, and then distributed at cross-roads to a certain evil spirit +of low rank, named the Son of Art. + +3. They sought by their sorcery advice and responses from demons. + +4. In their nightly meetings they blasphemously imitated the power of the +Church by fulminating sentence of excommunication, with lighted candles, +even against their own husbands, from the sole of their foot to the crown +of their head, naming each part expressly, and then concluded by +extinguishing the candles and by crying _Fi! Fi! Fi! Amen_. + +5. In order to arouse feelings of love or hatred, or to inflict death or +disease on the bodies of the faithful, they made use of powders, unguents, +ointments, and candles of fat, which were compounded as follows. They took +the entrails of cocks sacrificed to demons, certain horrible worms, +various unspecified herbs, dead men's nails, the hair, brains, and shreds +of the cerements of boys who were buried unbaptized, with other +abominations, all of which they cooked, with various incantations, over a +fire of oak-logs in a vessel made out of the skull of a decapitated thief. + +6. The children of Dame Alice's four husbands accused her before the +Bishop of having killed their fathers by sorcery, and of having brought on +them such stolidity of their senses that they bequeathed all their wealth +to her and her favourite son, William Outlawe, to the impoverishment of +the other children. They also stated that her present husband, Sir John le +Poer, had been reduced to such a condition by sorcery and the use of +powders that he had become terribly emaciated, his nails had dropped off, +and there was no hair left on his body. No doubt he would have died had he +not been warned by a maid-servant of what was happening, in consequence of +which he had forcibly possessed himself of his wife's keys, and had opened +some chests in which he found a sackful of horrible and detestable things +which he transmitted to the bishop by the hands of two priests. + +7. The said dame had a certain demon, an incubus, named Son of Art, or +Robin son of Art, who had carnal knowledge of her, and from whom she +admitted that she had received all her wealth. This incubus made its +appearance under various forms, sometimes as a cat, or as a hairy black +dog, or in the likeness of a negro (Æthiops), accompanied by two others +who were larger and taller than he, and of whom one carried an iron rod. + +According to another source the sacrifice to the evil spirit is said to +have consisted of nine red cocks, and nine peacocks' eyes. Dame Alice was +also accused of having "swept the streets of Kilkenny betweene compleine +and twilight, raking all the filth towards the doores of hir sonne +William Outlawe, murmuring secretly with hir selfe these words: + + "To the house of William my sonne + Hie all the wealth of Kilkennie towne." + +On ascertaining the above the Bishop wrote to the Chancellor of Ireland, +Roger Outlawe, who was also Prior of the Preceptory of Kilmainham, for the +arrest of these persons. Upon this William Outlawe formed a strong party +to oppose the Bishop's demands, amongst which were the Chancellor, his +near relative, and Sir Arnold le Poer, the Seneschal of Kilkenny, who was +probably akin to Dame Alice's fourth husband. The Chancellor in reply +wrote to the Bishop stating that a warrant for arrest could not be +obtained until a public process of excommunication had been in force for +forty days, while Sir Arnold also wrote requesting him to withdraw the +case, or else to ignore it. Finding such obstacles placed in his way the +Bishop took the matter into his own hands, and cited the Dame, who was +then in her son's house in Kilkenny, to appear before him. As might be +expected, she ignored the citation, and fled immediately. + +Foiled in this, he cited her son William for heresy. Upon this Sir Arnold +came with William to the Priory of Kells, where De Ledrede was holding a +visitation, and besought him not to proceed further in the matter. Finding +entreaty useless he had recourse to threats, which he speedily put into +execution. As the Bishop was going forth on the following day to continue +his visitation he was met on the confines of the town of Kells by Stephen +le Poer, bailiff of the cantred of Overk, and a posse of armed men, by +whom he was arrested under orders from Sir Arnold, and lodged the same day +in Kilkenny jail. This naturally caused tremendous excitement in the city. +The place became _ipso facto_ subject to an interdict; the Bishop desired +the Sacrament, and it was brought to him in solemn procession by the Dean +and Chapter. All the clergy, both secular and religious, flocked from +every side to the prison to offer their consolation to the captive, and +their feelings were roused to the highest pitch by the preaching of a +Dominican, who took as his text, _Blessed are they which are persecuted_, +&c. Seeing this, William Outlawe nervously informed Sir Arnold of it, who +thereupon decided to keep the Bishop in closer restraint, but subsequently +changed his mind, and allowed him to have companions with him day and +night, and also granted free admission to all his friends and servants. + +After De Ledrede had been detained in prison for seventeen days, and Sir +Arnold having thereby attained his end, viz. that the day on which William +Outlawe was cited to appear should in the meantime pass by, he sent by the +hands of his uncle the Bishop of Leighlin (Miler le Poer), and the sheriff +of Kilkenny a mandate to the constable of the prison to liberate the +Bishop. The latter refused to sneak out like a released felon, but assumed +his pontificals, and, accompanied by all the clergy and a throng of +people, made his way solemnly to S. Canice's Cathedral, where he gave +thanks to God. With a pertinacity we cannot but admire he again cited +William Outlawe by public proclamation to appear before him, but before +the day arrived the Bishop was himself cited to answer in Dublin for +having placed an interdict on his diocese. He excused himself from +attending on the plea that the road thither passed through the lands of +Sir Arnold, and that in consequence his life would be in danger. + +De Ledrede had been arrested by Le Poer's orders in Lent, in the year +1324. On Monday following the octave of Easter the Seneschal held his +court in Kilkenny, to which entrance was denied the Bishop; but the +latter, fully robed, and carrying the Sacrament in a golden vase, made his +way into the court-room, and "ascending the tribunal, and reverently +elevating the Body of Christ, sought from the Seneschal, Justiciary, and +Bailiffs that a hearing should be granted to him." The scene between the +two was extraordinary; it is too lengthy to insert, and does not bear to +be condensed--suffice it to say that the Seneschal alluded to the Bishop +as "that vile, rustic, interloping monk (trutannus), with his dirt +(hordys) which he is carrying in his hands," and refused to hear his +arguments, or to afford him any assistance. + +Though we have lost sight for a while of Dame Alice, yet she seems to +have been eagerly watching the trend of events, for now we find her having +the Bishop summoned to Dublin to answer for having excommunicated her, +uncited, unadmonished, and unconvicted of the crime of sorcery. He +attended accordingly, and found the King's and the Archbishop's courts +against him to a man, but the upshot of the matter was that the Bishop won +the day; Sir Arnold was humbled, and sought his pardon for the wrongs he +had done him. This was granted, and in the presence of the council and the +assembled prelates they mutually gave each other the kiss of peace. + +Affairs having come to such a satisfactory conclusion the Bishop had +leisure to turn his attention to the business that had unavoidably been +laid aside for some little time. He directed letters patent, praying the +Chancellor to seize the said Alice Kyteler, and also directed the +Vicar-General of the Archbishop of Dublin to cite her to respond on a +certain day in Kilkenny before the Bishop. But the bird escaped again out +of the hand of the fowler. Dame Alice fled a second time, on this +occasion from Dublin, where she had been living, and (it is said) made +her way to England, where she spent the remainder of her days unmolested. +Several of her confederates were subsequently arrested, some of them being +apparently in a very humble condition of life, and were committed to +prison. Their names were: Robert of Bristol, a clerk, John Galrussyn, +Ellen Galrussyn, Syssok Galrussyn, William Payn de Boly, Petronilla of +Meath, her daughter Sarah,[5] Alice the wife of Henry Faber, Annota Lange, +and Eva de Brownestown. When the Bishop arrived in Kilkenny from Dublin he +went direct to the prison, and interviewed the unfortunates mentioned +above. They all immediately confessed to the charges laid against them, +and even went to the length of admitting other crimes of which no mention +had been made; but, according to them, Dame Alice was the mother and +mistress of them all. Upon this the Bishop wrote letters on the 6th of +June to the Chancellor, and to the Treasurer, Walter de Islep, requesting +them to order the Sheriff to attach the bodies of these people and put +them in safe keeping. But a warrant was refused, owing to the fact that +William Outlawe was a relation of the one and a close friend of the other; +so at length the Bishop obtained it through the Justiciary, who also +consented to deal with the case when he came to Kilkenny. + +Before his arrival the Bishop summoned William Outlawe to answer in S. +Mary's Church. The latter appeared before him, accompanied by a band of +men armed to the teeth; but in no way overawed by this show of force, De +Ledrede formally accused him of heresy, of favouring, receiving, and +defending heretics, as well as of usury, perjury, adultery, clericide, and +excommunications--in all thirty-four items were brought forward against +him, and he was permitted to respond on the arrival of the Justiciary. +When the latter reached Kilkenny, accompanied by the Chancellor, the +Treasurer, and the King's Council, the Bishop in their presence recited +the charges against Dame Alice, and with the common consent of the lawyers +present declared her to be a sorceress, magician, and heretic, and +demanded that she should be handed over to the secular arm and have her +goods and chattels confiscated as well. Judging from Friar Clyn's note +this took place on the 2nd of July. On the same day the Bishop caused a +great fire to be lit in the middle of the town in which he burnt the +sackful of magical stock-in-trade, consisting of powders, ointments, human +nails, hair, herbs, worms, and other abominations, which the reader will +remember he had received from Sir John le Poer at an early stage in the +proceedings. + +Further trouble arose with William Outlawe, who was backed by the +Chancellor and Treasurer, but the Bishop finally succeeded in beating him, +and compelled him to submit on his bended knees. By way of penance he was +ordered to hear at least three masses every day for the space of a year, +to feed a certain number of poor people, and to cover with lead the +chancel of S. Canice's Cathedral from the belfry eastward, as well as the +Chapel of the Blessed Virgin. He thankfully agreed to do this, but +subsequently refused to fulfil his obligations, and was thereupon cast +into prison. + +What was the fate of Dame Alice's accomplices, whose names we have given +above, is not specifically recorded, except in one particular instance. +One of them, Petronilla of Meath, was made the scapegoat for her mistress. +The Bishop had her flogged six times, and under the repeated application +of this form of torture she made the required confession of magical +practices. She admitted the denial of her faith and the sacrificing to +Robert, son of Art, and as well that she had caused certain women of her +acquaintance to appear as if they had goats' horns. She also confessed +that at the suggestion of Dame Alice she had frequently consulted demons +and received responses from them, and that she had acted as a "medium" +(mediatrix) between her and the said Robert. She declared that although +she herself was mistress of the Black Art, yet she was as nothing in +comparison with the Dame from whom she had learnt all her knowledge, and +that there was no one in the world more skilful than she. She also stated +that William Outlawe deserved death as much as she, for he was privy to +their sorceries, and for a year and a day had worn the devil's girdle[6] +round his body. When rifling Dame Alice's house there was found "a wafer +of sacramental bread, having the devil's name stamped thereon instead of +Jesus Christ, and a pipe of ointment wherewith she greased a staffe, upon +which she ambled and galloped through thicke and thin, when and in what +manner she listed." Petronilla was accordingly condemned to be burnt +alive, and the execution of this sentence took place with all due +solemnity in Kilkenny on 3rd November 1324, which according to Clyn fell +on a Sunday. This was the first instance of the punishment of death by +fire being inflicted in Ireland for heresy. + +Whether or not Petronilla's fellow-prisoners were punished is not clear, +but the words of the anonymous narrator show us that the burning of that +unfortunate wretch was rather the beginning than the end of +persecution--that in fact numerous other suspected persons were followed +up, some of whom shared her terrible fate, while to others milder forms +of punishment were meted out, no doubt in proportion to their guilt. He +says: "With regard to the other heretics and sorcerers who belonged to the +pestilential society of Robin, son of Art, the order of law being +preserved, some of them were publicly burnt to death; others, confessing +their crimes in the presence of all the people, in an upper garment, are +marked back and front with a cross after they had abjured their heresy, as +is the custom; others were solemnly whipped through the town and the +market-place; others were banished from the city and diocese; others who +evaded the jurisdiction of the Church were excommunicated; while others +again fled in fear and were never heard of after. And thus, by the +authority of Holy Mother Church, and by the special grace of God, that +most foul brood was scattered and destroyed." + +Sir Arnold le Poer, who had taken such a prominent part in the affair, was +next attacked. The Bishop accused him of heresy, had him excommunicated, +and committed prisoner to Dublin Castle. His innocency was believed in by +most people, and Roger Outlawe, Prior of Kilmainham, who also figures in +our story, and who was appointed Justiciary of Ireland in 1328, showed him +some kindness, and treated him with humanity. This so enraged the Bishop +that he actually accused the Justiciary of heresy. A select committee of +clerics vindicated the orthodoxy of the latter, upon which he prepared a +sumptuous banquet for his defenders. Le Poer died in prison the same year, +1331, before the matter was finally settled, and as he was under ban of +excommunication his body lay unburied for a long period. + +But ultimately the tables were turned with a vengeance. De Ledrede was +himself accused of heresy by his Metropolitan, Alexander de Bicknor, upon +which he appealed to the Holy See, and set out in person for Avignon. He +endured a long exile from his diocese, suffered much hardship, and had his +temporalities seized by the Crown as well. In 1339 he recovered the royal +favour, but ten years later further accusations were brought to the king +against him, in consequence of which the temporalities were a second time +taken up, and other severe measures were threatened. However, by 1356 the +storm had blown over; he terminated a lengthy and disturbed episcopate in +1360, and was buried in the chancel of S. Canice's on the north side of +the high altar. A recumbent effigy under an ogee-headed canopy is supposed +to mark the last resting-place of this turbulent prelate. + +In the foregoing pages we have only given the barest outline of the story, +except that the portions relative to the practice of sorcery have been +fully dealt with as pertinent to the purpose of this book, as well as on +account of the importance of the case in the annals of Irish witchcraft. +The story of Dame Alice Kyteler and Bishop de Ledrede occupies forty pages +of the Camden Society's publications, while additional illustrative matter +can be obtained from external sources; indeed, if all the scattered +material were gathered together and carefully sifted it would be +sufficient to make a short but interesting biography of that prelate, and +would throw considerable light on the relations between Church and State +in Ireland in the fourteenth century. With regard to the tale it is +difficult to know what view should be taken of it. Possibly Dame Alice +and her associates actually tried to practise magical arts, and if so, +considering the period at which it occurred, we certainly cannot blame the +Bishop for taking the steps he did. On the other hand, to judge from the +analogy of Continental witchcraft, it is to be feared that De Ledrede was +to some extent swayed by such baser motives as greed of gain and desire +for revenge. He also seems to have been tyrannical, overbearing, and +dictatorial; according to him the attitude adopted by the Church should +never be questioned by the State, but this view was not shared by his +opponents. Though our sympathies do not lie altogether with him, yet to +give him his due it must be said that he was as ready to be persecuted as +to persecute; he did not hesitate to face an opposition which consisted of +some of the highest in the land, nor did fear of attack or imprisonment +(which he actually suffered) avail to turn him aside from following the +course he had mapped out for himself. + +It should be noticed that the appointment of De Ledrede to the See of +Ossory almost synchronised with the elevation of John XXII to the Papacy. +The attitude of that Pope towards magical arts was no uncertain one. He +believed himself to be surrounded by enemies who were ever making attempts +on his life by modelling images of him in wax, to be subsequently thrust +through with pins and melted, no doubt; or by sending him a devil enclosed +in a ring, or in various other ways. Consequently in several Bulls he +anathematised sorcerers, denounced their ill-deeds, excited the +inquisitors against them, and so gave ecclesiastical authorisation to the +reality of the belief in magical forces. Indeed, the general expressions +used in the Bull _Super illius specula_ might be applied to the actions of +Dame Alice and her party. He says of certain persons that "they sacrifice +to demons and adore them, making or causing to be made images, rings, &c., +with which they draw the evil spirits by their magical art, obtain +responses from them, and demand their help in performing their evil +designs."[7] + +Heresy and sorcery were now identified, and the punishment for the former +was the same as that for the latter, viz. burning at the stake and +confiscation of property. The attitude of this Pontiff evidently found a +sympathiser in Bishop de Ledrede, who deemed it necessary to follow the +example set by the Head of the Church, with what results we have already +shown: thus we find in Ireland a ripple of the wave that swept over Europe +at this period. + +It is very probable, too, that there were many underlying local causes of +which we can know little or nothing; the discontent and anger of the +disinherited children at the loss of the wealth of which Dame Alice had +bereft them by her exercise of "undue influence" over her husbands, family +quarrels, private hatreds, and possibly national jealousy helped to bring +about one of the strangest series of events in the chequered history of +Ireland. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +A.D. 1223-1583 + + THE KYTELER CASE AND ITS SURROUNDINGS OF SORCERY AND HERESY--MICHAEL + SCOT--THE FOURTH EARL OF DESMOND--JAMES I AND THE IRISH PROPHETESS--A + SORCERY ACCUSATION OF 1447--WITCHCRAFT TRIALS IN THE SIXTEENTH + CENTURY--STATUTES DEALING WITH THE SUBJECT--EYE-BITERS--THE ENCHANTED + EARL OF DESMOND + + +In one respect the case of Dame Alice Kyteler stands alone in the history +of magical dealings in Ireland prior to the seventeenth century. We have +of the entire proceedings an invaluable and contemporary account, or at +latest one compiled within a very few years after the death of Petronilla +of Meath; while the excitement produced by the affair is shown by the more +or less lengthy allusions to it in early writings, such as _The Book of +Howth_ (Carew MSS.), the Annals by Friar Clyn, the Chartularies of S. +Mary's Abbey (vol. ii.), &c. It is also rendered more valuable by the fact +that those who are best qualified to give their opinion on the matter +have assured the writer that to the best of their belief no entries with +respect to trials for sorcery or witchcraft can be found in the various +old Rolls preserved in the Dublin Record Office. + +But when the story is considered with reference to the following facts it +takes on a different signification. On the 29th of September 1317 (Wright +says 1320), Bishop de Ledrede held his first Synod, at which several +canons were passed, one of which seems in some degree introductory to the +events detailed in the preceding chapter. In it he speaks of "a certain +new and pestilential sect in our parts, differing from all the faithful in +the world, filled with a devilish spirit, more inhuman than heathens or +Jews, who pursue the priests and bishops of the Most High God equally in +life and death, by spoiling and rending the patrimony of Christ in the +diocese of Ossory, and who utter grievous threats against the bishops and +their ministers exercising ecclesiastical jurisdiction, and (by various +means) attempt to hinder the correction of sins and the salvation of +souls, in contempt of God and the Church."[8] From this it would seem +that heresy and unorthodoxy had already made its appearance in the +diocese. In 1324 the Kyteler case occurred, one of the participants being +burnt at the stake, while other incriminated persons were subsequently +followed up, some of whom shared the fate of Petronilla. In 1327 Adam +_Dubh_, of the Leinster tribe of O'Toole, was burnt alive on College Green +for denying the doctrines of the Incarnation and the Holy Trinity, as well +as for rejecting the authority of the Holy See.[9] In 1335 Pope Benedict +XII wrote a letter to King Edward III, in which occurs the following +passage: "It has come to our knowledge that while our venerable brother, +Richard, Bishop of Ossory, was visiting his diocese, there appeared in the +midst of his catholic people men who were heretics together with their +abettors, some of whom asserted that Jesus Christ was a mere man and a +sinner, and was justly crucified for His own sins; others after having +done homage and offered sacrifice to demons, thought otherwise of the +sacrament of the Body of Christ than the Catholic Church teaches, saying +that the same venerable sacrament is by no means to be worshipped; and +also asserting that they are not bound to obey or believe the decrees, +decretals, and apostolic mandates; in the meantime, consulting demons +according to the rites of those sects among the Gentiles and Pagans, they +despise the sacraments of the Catholic Church, and draw the faithful of +Christ after them by their superstitions." As no Inquisitors of heresy +have been appointed in Ireland, he begs the King to give prompt assistance +to the Bishop and other Prelates in their efforts to punish the aforesaid +heretics.[10] If the above refer to the Kyteler case it came rather late +in the day; but it is quite possible, in view of the closing words of the +anonymous narrator, that it has reference rather to the following up of +the dame's associates, a process that must have involved a good deal of +time and trouble, and in which no doubt many unhappy creatures were +implicated. Again, in 1353, two men were tried at Bunratty in co. Clare by +Roger Cradok, Bishop of Waterford, for holding heretical opinions (or for +offering contumely to the Blessed Virgin), and were sentenced to be +burnt.[11] The above are almost the only (if not the only) instances known +of the punishment of death by fire being inflicted in Ireland for heresy. + +From a consideration of the facts here enumerated it would seem as if a +considerable portion of Ireland had been invaded by a wave of heresy in +the first half of the fourteenth century, and that this manifested itself +under a twofold form--first, in a denial of the cardinal doctrines of the +Church and a consequent revolt against her jurisdiction; and secondly, in +the use of magical arts, incantations, charms, familiar spirits, _et hoc +genus omne_. In this movement the Kyteler case was only an episode, though +obviously the most prominent one; while its importance was considerably +enhanced, if not exaggerated out of all due proportion, by the aggressive +attitude adopted by Bishop de Ledrede against the lady and her companions, +as well as by his struggles with Outlawe and Le Poer, and their powerful +backers, the Chancellor and Treasurer of Ireland. The anonymous writer, +who was plainly a cleric, and a partisan of the Bishop's, seems to have +compiled his narration not so much on account of the incident of sorcery +as to show the courage and perseverance of De Ledrede, and as well to make +manifest the fact that the Church should dictate to the State, not the +State to the Church. It appears quite possible, too, that other separate +cases of sorcery occurred in Ireland at this period, though they had no +historian to immortalise them, and no doubt in any event would have faded +into insignificance in comparison with the doings of Dame Kyteler and her +"infernal crew." + +From this on we shall endeavour to deal with the subject as far as +possible in chronological order. It is perhaps not generally known that at +one time an Irish See narrowly escaped (to its misfortune, be it said) +having a magician as its Chief Shepherd. In 1223 the Archbishopric of +Cashel became vacant, upon which the Capitular Body elected as their +Archbishop the then Bishop of Cork, to whom the temporalities were +restored in the following year. But some little time prior to this the +Pope had set aside the election and "provided" a nominee of his own, one +Master M. Scot, to fill the vacancy: he however declined the proffered +dignity on the ground that he was ignorant of the Irish language. This +papal candidate was none other than the famous Michael Scot, reputed a +wizard of such potency that-- + + "When in Salamanca's cave + Him listed his magic wand to wave + The bells would ring in Notre Dame." + +Scot had studied successively at Oxford and Paris (where he acquired the +title of "mathematicus"); he then passed to Bologna, thence to Palermo, +and subsequently continued his studies at Toledo. His refusal of the See +of Cashel was an intellectual loss to the Irish Church, for he was so +widely renowned for his varied and extensive learning that he was credited +with supernatural powers; a number of legends grew up around his name +which hid his real merit, and transformed the man of science into a +magician. In the Border country traditions of his magical power are +common. Boccaccio alludes to "a great master in necromancy, called Michael +Scot," while Dante places him in the eighth circle of Hell. + + "The next, who is so slender in the flanks, + Was Michael Scot, who of a verity + Of magical illusions knew the game."[12] + +Another man to whom magical powers were attributed solely on account of +his learning was Gerald, the fourth Earl of Desmond,[13] styled the Poet, +who died rather mysteriously in 1398. The Four Masters in their Annals +describe him as "a nobleman of wonderful bounty, mirth, cheerfulness of +conversation, charitable in his deeds, easy of access, a witty and +ingenious composer of Irish poetry, a learned and profound chronicler." No +legends are extant of his magical deeds. + +King James I of Scotland, whose severities against his nobles had aroused +their bitter resentment, was barbarously assassinated at Perth in 1437 by +some of their supporters, who were aided and abetted by the aged Duke of +Atholl. From a contemporary account of this we learn that the monarch's +fate was predicted to him by an Irish prophetess or witch; had he given +ear to her message he might have escaped with his life. We modernise the +somewhat difficult spelling, but retain the quaint language of the +original. "The king, suddenly advised, made a solemn feast of the +Christmas at Perth, which is clept Saint John's Town, which is from +Edinburgh on the other side of the Scottish sea, the which is vulgarly +clept the water of Lethe. In the midst of the way there arose a woman of +Ireland, that clept herself as a soothsayer. The which anon as she saw the +king she cried with loud voice, saying thus: 'My lord king, and you pass +this water you shall never turn again alive.' The king hearing this was +astonied of her words; for but a little before he had read in a prophecy +that in the self same year the king of Scots should be slain: and +therewithal the king, as he rode, cleped to him one of his knights, and +gave him in commandment to turn again to speak with that woman, and ask +of her what she would, and what thing she meant with her loud crying. And +she began, and told him as ye have heard of the King of Scots if he passed +that water. As now the king asked her, how she knew that. And she said, +that Huthart told her so. 'Sire,' quoth he, 'men may "calant" ye take no +heed of yon woman's words, for she is but a drunken fool, and wot not what +she saith'; and so with his folk passed the water clept the Scottish sea, +towards Saint John's town." The narrator states some dreams ominous of +James's murder, and afterwards proceeds thus: "Both afore supper, and long +after into quarter of the night, in the which the Earl of Atholl +(Athetelles) and Robert Steward were about the king, where they were +occupied at the playing of the chess, at the tables, in reading of +romances, in singing and piping, in harping, and in other honest solaces +of great pleasance and disport. Therewith came the said woman of Ireland, +that clept herself a divineress, and entered the king's court, till that +she came straight to the king's chamber-door, where she stood, and abode +because that it was shut. And fast she knocked, till at the last the usher +opened the door, marvelling of that woman's being there that time of +night, and asking her what she would. 'Let me in, sir,' quoth she, 'for I +have somewhat to say, and to tell unto the king; for I am the same woman +that not long ago desired to have spoken with him at the Leith, when he +should pass the Scottish sea.' The usher went in and told him of this +woman. 'Yea,' quoth the king, 'let her come tomorrow'; because that he was +occupied with such disports at that time him let not to hear her as then. +The usher came again to the chamber-door to the said woman, and there he +told her that the king was busy in playing, and bid her come soon again +upon the morrow. 'Well,' said the woman, 'it shall repent you all that ye +will not let me speak now with the king.' Thereat the usher laughed, and +held her but a fool, charging her to go her way, and therewithal she went +thence." Her informant "Huthart" was evidently a familiar spirit who was +in attendance on her.[14] + +Considering the barrenness of Irish records on the subject of sorcery and +witchcraft it affords us no small satisfaction to find the following +statement in the Statute Rolls of the Parliament[15] for the year 1447. It +consists of a most indignantly-worded remonstrance from the Lords and +Commons, which was drawn forth by the fact that some highly-placed +personage had been accused of practising sorcery with the intent to do +grievous harm to his enemy. When making it the remonstrants appear to have +forgotten, or perhaps, like Members of Parliament in other ages, found it +convenient to forget for the nonce the Kyteler incident of the previous +century. Of the particular case here alluded to unfortunately no details +are given, nor is any clue for obtaining them afforded us. The +remonstrance runs as follows: "Also at the prayer of John, Archbishop of +Armagh (and others). That whereas by the subtle malice and malicious suits +of certain persons slandering a man of rank this land was entirely +slandered, and still is in such slanderous matters as never were known in +this land before, as in ruining or destroying any man by sorcery or +necromancy, the which they think and believe impossible to be performed in +art--It is ordained and agreed by authority of this present parliament, +with the entire assent of the lords spiritual and temporal and commons of +said parliament, that our lord the king be certified of the truth in this +matter, in avoidance of the slander of this land in common, asserting that +no such art was attempted at any time in this land, known or rumoured +among the people, nor any opinion had or entertained of the same by the +lay men in this land until now." It seems likely that the accusation was +prompted by personal enmity, and was groundless in fact; but the annals of +witchcraft show that such an indictment could prove a most terrible weapon +in the hands of unscrupulous persons. With respect to the above we learn +that Ireland was coming into line with England, for in the latter country +during the fifteenth century charges of sorcery were frequently raised +against persons of eminence by their political adversaries. One of the +most celebrated cases of the kind occurred only six years prior to the +above, in 1441, that of the Duchess of Gloucester in the reign of Henry +VI. + +Nothing further on the subject is recorded until the year 1544, under +which date we find the following entry in the table of the red council +book of Ireland: + + "A letter to Charles FitzArthur for sendinge a witch to the Lord + Deputie to be examined." + +This note is a most tantalising one. The red council book has been lost, +but a succinct "table" of its contents, from which the above has been +extracted, and which was apparently compiled by Sir William Usher, has +been preserved in Add. MSS. 1792, and published in Hist. MSS. Comm. 15th +Report, appendix, part 3, but an examination of the original MS. reveals +nothing in addition to the above passage; so, until the lost book is +discovered, we must remain in ignorance with respect to the doings of this +particular witch. + +The next notice of witchcraft in Ireland occurs in the year 1578, when a +witch-trial took place at Kilkenny, though here again, unfortunately, no +details have been preserved. In the November of that year sessions were +held there by the Lord Justice Drury and Sir Henry Fitton, who, in their +letter to the Privy Council on the 20th of the same month, inform that +Body that upon arriving at the town "the jail being full we caused +sessions immediately to be held. Thirty-six persons were executed, amongst +whom were some good ones, _a blackamoor and two witches_ by natural law, +for that we find no law to try them by in this realm."[16] It is easy to +see why the witches were put to death, but the reason for the negro's +execution is not so obvious. It can hardly have been for the colour of his +skin, although no doubt a black man was as much a _rara avis_ in the town +of Kilkenny as a black swan. Had the words been written at the time the +unfortunate negro might well have exclaimed, though in vain, to his +judges: + + "Mislike me not for my complexion-- + The shadowed livery of the burning sun." + +Or could it have been that he was the unhappy victim of a false etymology! +For in old writers the word "necromancy" is spelt "nigromancy," as if +divination was practised through the medium of _negroes_ instead of _dead +persons_; indeed in an old vocabulary of 1475 "Nigromantia" is defined as +"divinatio facta _per nigros_." He may therefore have been suspected of +complicity with the two witches. + +As yet the "natural law" held sway in Ireland, but very soon this country +was to be fully equipped with a Statute all to itself. Two Statutes +against witchcraft had already been passed in England, one in 1541, which +was repealed six years later, and a second in 1562. Partly no doubt on +account of the Kilkenny case of 1578, and partly to place Ireland on the +same footing as England, a Statute was passed by the Irish Parliament in +1586. Shorn of much legal verbiage the principal points of it may be +gathered from the following extracts: + + "Where at this present there is no ordinarie ne condigne punishment + provided against the practices of the wicked offences of + conjurations, and of invocations of evill spirites, and of sorceries, + enchauntments, charms, and witchcrafts, whereby manie fantasticall and + devilish persons have devised and practised invocations and + conjurations of evill and wicked spirites, and have used and practised + witchcrafts, enchauntments, charms, and sorceries, to the destruction + of the persons and goods of their neighbours, and other subjects of + this realm, and for other lewde and evill intents and purposes, + contrary to the laws of Almighty God, to the peril of their owne + soules, and to the great infamie and disquietnesse of this realm. For + reformation thereof, be it enacted by the Queen's Majestie, with the + assent of the lords spirituall and temporall and the commons in this + present Parliament assembled. + + "1. That if any person or persons after the end of three months next, + and immediately after the end of the last session of this present + parliament, shall use, practise, or exercise any witchcraft, + enchauntment, charme, or sorcery, whereby any person shall happen to + be killed or destroied, that then as well any such offender or + offenders in invocations and conjurations, as is aforesaid, their + aydors or councelors ... being of the said offences lawfully convicted + and attainted, shall suffer paines of death as a felon or felons, and + shall lose the privilege and benefit of clergie and sanctuarie; saving + to the widow of such person her title of dower, and also the heires + and successors of such a person all rights, titles, &c., as though no + such attaynder had been made. + + "2. If any persons (after the above period) shall use, practise, or + exercise any witchcraft, enchauntment, charme, or sorcery, whereby any + person or persons shall happen to be wasted, consumed, or lamed, in + his or their bodie or member, or whereby any goods or cattels of any + such person shall be destroyed, wasted, or impaired, then every such + offender shall for the first offence suffer imprisonment by the space + of one yeare without bayle or maineprise, and once in every quarter of + the said yeare, shall in some market towne, upon the market day, or at + such time as any faire shall be kept there, stand openlie in the + pillorie for the space of sixe houres, and shall there openly confesse + his or theire errour and offence, and for the second offence shall + suffer death as a felon, saving, &c. (as in clause 1). + + "3. Provided always, that if the offender in any of the cases + aforesaid, for which the paines of death shall ensue, shall happen to + be a peer of this realm: then his triall therein to be had by his + peers, as is used in cases of felony and treason, and not otherwise. + + "4. And further, to the intent that all manner of practice, use, or + exercise of witchcraft, enchauntment, charme, or sorcery, should be + from henceforth utterly avoide, abolished, and taken away; be it + enacted by the authority of this present Parliament that if any person + or persons ... shall take upon them by witchcraft, &c., to tell or + declare in what place any treasure of gold or silver shall or might be + found or had in the earth or other secret places, or where goods or + things lost or stollen should be found or become, or shall use or + practice any sorcery, &c., to the intent to provoke any person to + unlawful love (for the first offence to be punished as in clause 2), + but if convicted a second time shall forfeit unto the Queen's Majesty + all his goods and chattels, and suffer imprisonment during life." + +On the whole, considering the temper of the time, this Statute was +exceedingly mild. It made no provision whatsoever for the use of torture +to extract evidence, nor indeed did it offer any particular encouragement +to the witch hunter, while the manner of inflicting the death penalty was +precisely that for felony, viz. hanging, drawing, and quartering for men, +and burning (preceded by strangulation) for women--sufficiently +unpleasant, no doubt, but far more merciful than burning alive at the +stake. + +In some way Ireland was fortunate enough to escape the notice of that keen +witch hunter, King James I and VI; had it been otherwise we have little +doubt but that this country would have contributed its share to the list +of victims in that monarch's reign. The above was therefore the only +Statute against witchcraft passed by the Irish Parliament; it is said that +it was never repealed, and so no doubt is in force at the present day. +Another Act of the Parliament of Ireland, passed in 1634, and designed to +facilitate the administration of justice, makes mention of witchcraft, and +it is there held to be one of the recognised methods by which one man +could take the life of another. + + "Forasmuch as the most necessary office and duty of law is to preserve + and save the life of man, and condignly to punish such persons that + unlawfully or wilfully murder, slay, or destroy men ... and where it + often happeneth that a man is feloniously strucken in one county, and + dieth in another county, in which case it hath not been found by the + laws of this realm that any sufficient indictment thereof can be taken + in any of the said two counties.... For redress and punishment of such + offences ... be it enacted ... that where any person shall be + traiterously or feloniously stricken, poysoned, or _bewitched_ in one + county (and die in another, or out of the kingdom, &c.), that an + indictment thereof found by jurors in the county where the death shall + happen, shall be as good and effectual in the law as if, &c. &c." + +Before passing from the subject we may note a curious allusion to a +mythical Act of Parliament which was intended to put a stop to a certain +lucrative form of witchcraft. It is gravely stated by the writer of a +little book entitled _Beware the Cat_[17] (and by Giraldus Cambrensis +before him), that Irish witches could turn wisps of hay, straw, &c. into +red-coloured pigs, which they dishonestly sold in the market, but which +resumed their proper shape when crossing running water. To prevent this it +is stated that the Irish Parliament passed an Act forbidding the purchase +of red swine. We regret to say, however, that no such interesting Act is +to be found in the Statute books. + +The belief in the power of witches to inflict harm on the cattle of those +whom they hated, of which we have given some modern illustrations in the +concluding chapter, was to be found in Elizabethan times in this country. +Indeed if we are to put credence in the following passage from Reginald +Scot, quoted by Thomas Ady in his _Perfect Discovery of Witches_ (London, +1661), a certain amount of witch persecution arose with reference to this +point, possibly as a natural outcome of the Statute of 1586. "Master Scot +in his _Discovery_ telleth us, that our English people in Ireland, whose +posterity were lately barbarously cut off, were much given to this +Idolatry [belief in witches] in the Queen's time [Elizabeth], insomuch +that there being a Disease amongst their Cattel that grew blinde, being a +common Disease in that Country, they did commonly execute people for it, +calling them _eye-biting_ Witches." + +From incidental notices in writers of the latter half of the sixteenth +century it would seem at first sight as if witchcraft, as we are treating +of it in this work, was very prevalent in Ireland at this period. Barnabe +Rich says in his description of Ireland: "The Irish are wonderfully +addicted to give credence to the prognostications of Soothsayers and +Witches." Stanihurst writes that in his time (1547-1618) there were many +sorcerers amongst the Irish. A note in Dr. Hanmer's Collection speaks of +"Tyrone his witch the which he hanged."[18] But these statements seem +rather to have reference to the point of view from which the English +writers regarded the native bards, as well as the "wise women" who +foretold the future; probably "Tyrone" put his "witch" to death, not +through abhorrence of her unhallowed doings, but in a fit of passion +because her interpretation of coming events, by which he may have allowed +himself to be guided, turned out wrongly. + +We have already alluded to Gerald, the fourth Earl of Desmond. His +namesake, the sixteenth holder of the title, commonly known as the "Great +Earl," who was betrayed and killed in 1583, has passed from the region of +history to that of mythology, as he is credited with being the husband +(or son) of a goddess. Not many miles from the city of Limerick is a +lonely, picturesque lake, Lough Gur, which was included in his extensive +possessions, and at the bottom of which he is supposed to lie enchanted. +According to the legend[19] he was a very potent magician, and usually +resided in a castle which was built on a small island in that lake. To +this he brought his bride, a young and beautiful girl, whom he loved with +a too fond love, for she succeeded in prevailing upon him to gratify her +selfish desires, with fatal results. One day she presented herself in the +chamber in which her husband exercised his forbidden art, and begged him +to show her the wonders of his evil science. With the greatest reluctance +he consented, but warned her that she must prepare herself to witness a +series of most frightful phenomena, which, once commenced, could neither +be abridged nor mitigated, while if she spoke a single word during the +proceedings the castle and all it contained would sink to the bottom of +the lake. Urged on by curiosity she gave the required promise, and he +commenced. Muttering a spell as he stood before her, feathers sprouted +thickly over him, his face became contracted and hooked, a corpse-like +smell filled the air, and winnowing the air with beats of its heavy wings +a gigantic vulture rose in his stead, and swept round and round the room +as if on the point of pouncing upon her. The lady controlled herself +through this trial, and another began. + +The bird alighted near the door, and in less than a minute changed, she +saw not how, into a horribly deformed and dwarfish hag, who, with yellow +skin hanging about her face, and cavernous eyes, swung herself on crutches +towards the lady, her mouth foaming with fury, and her grimaces and +contortions becoming more and more hideous every moment, till she rolled +with a fearful yell on the floor in a horrible convulsion at the lady's +feet, and then changed into a huge serpent, which came sweeping and +arching towards her with crest erect and quivering tongue. Suddenly, as +it seemed on the point of darting at her, she saw her husband in its +stead, standing pale before her, and with his finger on his lips enforcing +the continued necessity of silence. He then placed himself at full length +on the floor and began to stretch himself out, longer and longer, until +his head nearly reached to one end of the vast room and his feet to the +other. This utterly unnerved her. She gave a wild scream of horror, +whereupon the castle and all in it sank to the bottom of the lake. + +Once in seven years the great Earl rises, and rides by night on his white +horse round Lough Gur. The steed is shod with silver shoes, and when these +are worn out the spell that holds the Earl will be broken, and he will +regain possession of his vast estates and semi-regal power. In the opening +years of the nineteenth century there was living a man named Teigue +O'Neill, who claimed to have seen him on the occasion of one of his +septennial appearances under the following curious conditions. O'Neill was +a blacksmith, and his forge stood on the brow of a hill overlooking the +lake, on a lonely part of the road to Cahirconlish. One night, when there +was a bright moon, he was working very late and quite alone. In one of the +pauses of his work he heard the ring of many hoofs ascending the steep +road that passed his forge, and, standing in his doorway, he saw a +gentleman on a white horse, who was dressed in a fashion the like of which +he had never seen before. This man was accompanied by a mounted retinue, +in similar dress. They seemed to be riding up the hill at a gallop, but +the pace slackened as they drew near, and the rider of the white horse, +who seemed from his haughty air to be a man of rank, drew bridle, and came +to a halt before the smith's door. He did not speak, and all his train +were silent, but he beckoned to the smith, and pointed down at one of the +horse's hoofs. Teigue stooped and raised it, and held it just long enough +to see that it was shod with a silver shoe, which in one place was worn as +thin as a shilling. Instantly his situation was made apparent to him by +this sign, and he recoiled with a terrified prayer. The lordly rider, +with a look of pain and fury, struck at him suddenly with something that +whistled in the air like a whip; an icy streak seemed to traverse his +body, and at the same time he saw the whole cavalcade break into a gallop, +and disappear down the hill. It is generally supposed that for the purpose +of putting an end to his period of enchantment the Earl endeavours to lead +someone on to first break the silence and speak to him; but what, in the +event of his succeeding, would be the result, or would befall the person +thus ensnared, no one knows. + +In a letter[20] written in the year 1640, the Earl assumes a different +appearance. We learn from it that as a countryman was on his way to the +ancient and celebrated fair of Knockaney, situated a few miles from Lough +Gur, he met "a gentleman standing in the waye, demanding if he would sell +his horse. He answered, yea, for £5. The gentleman would give him but £4, +10_s._, saying he would not get so much at the ffaire. The fellow went to +the ffaire, could not get so much money, and found the gentleman on his +return in the same place, who proffered the same money. The fellow +accepting of it, the other bid him come in and receive his money. He +carried him into a fine spacious castle, payed him his money every penny, +and showed him the fairest black horse that ever was seene, and told him +that that horse was the Earl of Desmond, and that he had three shoes +alreadye, when he hath the fourthe shoe, which should be very shortlie, +then should the Earl be as he was before, thus guarded with many armed men +conveying him out of the gates. The fellow came home, but never was any +castle in that place either before or since." The local variant of the +legend states that the seller of the horse was a Clare man, and that he +went home after having been paid in gold the full amount of a satisfactory +bargain, but on the following morning found to his great mortification, +that instead of the gold coins he had only a pocketful of ivy leaves. +Readers of Victor Hugo's _Notre Dame_ will recall the incident of the +_écu_ that (apparently) was transformed by magic into a withered leaf. +Similar tales of horse-dealing with mysterious strangers are told in +Scotland in connection with the celebrated Thomas the Rhymer, of +Erceldoune. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +A.D. 1606-1656 + + A CLERICAL WIZARD--WITCHCRAFT CURED BY A RELIC--RAISING THE DEVIL IN + IRELAND--HOW HE WAS CHEATED BY A DOCTOR OF DIVINITY--STEWART AND THE + FAIRIES--REV. ROBERT BLAIR AND THE MAN POSSESSED WITH A DEVIL--STRANGE + OCCURRENCES NEAR LIMERICK--APPARITIONS OF MURDERED PEOPLE AT + PORTADOWN--CHARMED LIVES--VISIONS AND PORTENTS--PETITION OF A + BEWITCHED ANTRIM MAN IN ENGLAND--ARCHBISHOP USHER'S PROPHECIES--MR. + BROWNE AND THE LOCKED CHEST + + +An interesting trial of a clergyman for the practice of unhallowed arts +took place early in 1606--interesting and valuable, if for no other reason +than that it is the first instance of such a case being discovered in the +Rolls at the Record Office (not counting those of the Parliament of 1447), +though we hope that it will not prove to be a unique entry, but rather the +earnest of others. Shorn of legal redundancies it runs as follows: +"Inquiry taken before our lord the King at the King's Court the Saturday +next after the three weeks of Easter in the 6th year of James I by the +oath of upright and lawful men of the County of Louth. Who say, that John +Aston, late of Mellifont, Co. Louth, clerk, not having the fear of God +before his eyes, but being wholly seduced by the devil, on December 1st at +Mellifont aforesaid, and on divers other days and places, wickedly and +feloniously used, practised, and exercised divers invocations and +conjurings of wicked and lying spirits with the intent and purpose that he +might find and recover a certain silver cup formerly taken away at +Mellifont aforesaid, and also that he might understand where and in what +region the most wicked traitor Hugh, Earl of Tyrone, then was, and what he +was contriving against the said lord the King and the State of this +kingdom of Ireland, and also that he might find out and obtain divers +treasures of gold and silver concealed in the earth at Mellifont aforesaid +and at Cashel in the county of the Cross of Tipperary, feloniously and +against the peace of the said lord the King. It is to be known that the +aforesaid John was taken, and being a prisoner in the Castle of the City +of Dublin by warrant of the lord King was sent into England, therefore +further proceedings shall cease."[21] His ultimate fate is not known; nor +is it easy to see why punishment was not meted out to him in Ireland, as +he had directly contravened section 4 of the Elizabethan Act. Possibly the +case was unique, and so King James may have been anxious to examine in +person such an interesting specimen. If so, heaven help the poor parson in +the grip of such a witch hunter. + +In the year 1609 there comes from the County of Tipperary a strange story +of magical spells being counteracted by the application of a holy relic; +this is preserved for us in that valuable monastic record, the +_Triumphalia S. Crucis_. At Holy Cross Abbey, near Thurles, there was +preserved for many years with the greatest veneration a supposed fragment +of the True Cross, which attracted vast numbers of people, and by which it +was said many wonderful miracles were worked. Amongst those that came +thither in that year was "Anastasia Sobechan, an inhabitant of the +district of Callan (co. Kilkenny), tortured by magical spells (veneficis +incantationibus collisa), who at the Abbey, in presence of the Rev. Lord +Abbot Bernard [Foulow], placed a girdle round her body that had touched +the holy relic. Suddenly she vomited small pieces of cloth and wood, and +for a whole month she spat out from her body such things. The said woman +told this miracle to the Rev. Lord Abbot while she was healed by the +virtue of the holy Cross. This he took care to set down in writing." + +That most diligent gleaner of things strange and uncommon, Mr. Robert Law, +to whom we are deeply indebted for much of the matter in this volume, +informs us in his _Memorialls_ that in the first half of the seventeenth +century there was to be found in Ireland a celebrated Doctor of Divinity, +in Holy Orders of the Episcopal Church, who possessed extreme adroitness +in raising the Devil--a process that some would have us believe to be +commonly practised in Ireland at the present day by persons who have no +pretensions to a knowledge of the Black Art! Mr. Law also gives the _modus +operandi_ at full length. A servant-girl in the employment of +Major-General Montgomerie at Irvine in Scotland was accused of having +stolen some silverwork. "The lass being innocent takes it ill, and tells +them, If she should raise the Devil she should know who took these +things." Thereupon, in order to summon that Personage she went into a +cellar, "takes the Bible with her, and draws a circle about her, and turns +a riddle on end from south to north, or from the right to the left hand +[_i.e._ contrary to the path of the sun in the heavens], having in her +right hand nine feathers which she pulled out of the tail of a black cock, +and having read the 51st [Psalm?] forwards, she reads backwards chapter +ix., verse 19, of the Book of Revelation." Upon this the Devil appeared to +her, and told her who was the guilty person. She then cast three of the +feathers at him, and bade him return to the place from whence he came. +This process she repeated three times, until she had gained all the +information she desired; she then went upstairs and told her mistress, +with the result that the goods were ultimately recovered. But escaping +Scylla she fell into Charybdis; her uncanny practices came to the ears of +the authorities, and she was apprehended. When in prison she confessed +that she had learnt this particular branch of the Black Art in the house +of Dr. Colville in Ireland, who habitually practised it. + +That instructor of youth in such un-christian practices, the Rev. +Alexander Colville, D.D., was ordained in 1622 and subsequently held the +vicarage of Carnmoney, the prebend of Carncastle, and the Precentorship of +Connor. He was possessed of considerable wealth, with which he purchased +the Galgorm estate, on which he resided; this subsequently passed into the +Mountcashel family through the marriage of his great granddaughter with +Stephen Moore, first Baron Kilworth and Viscount Mountcashel. Where Dr. +Colville got the money to purchase so large an estate no one could +imagine, and Classon Porter in his useful pamphlet relates for us the +manner in which popular rumour solved the problem. It was said that he had +sold himself to the Devil, and that he had purchased the estate with the +money his body and soul had realised. Scandal even went further still, +and gave the exact terms which Dr. Colville had made with the Evil One. +These were, that the Devil was at once to give the Doctor his hat full of +gold, and that the latter was in return, at a distant but specified day, +to deliver himself body and soul to the Devil. The appointed place of +meeting was a lime-kiln; the Devil may have thought that this was a +delicate compliment to him on account of the peculiarly _homelike_ +atmosphere of the spot, but the Doctor had different ideas. The Devil +produced the gold, whereupon Dr. Colville produced a hat _with a wide slit +in the crown_, which he boldly held over the empty kiln-pit, with the +result that by the time the terms of the bargain were literally complied +with, a very considerable amount of gold lay at the Doctor's disposal, +which he prudently used to advance his worldly welfare. + +So far, so good. But there are two sides to every question. Years rolled +by, bringing ever nearer and nearer the time at which the account had to +be settled, and at length the fatal day dawned. The Devil arrived to +claim his victim, and found him sitting in his house reading his Bible by +the light of a candle, whereupon he directed him to come along with him. +The Doctor begged that he might not be taken away until the candle, by +which he was reading, was burned out. To this the Devil assented, +whereupon Dr. Colville promptly extinguished the candle, and putting it +between the leaves of the Bible locked it up in the chest where he kept +his gold. The candle was thus deposited in a place of safety where there +was no danger of any person coming across it, and thus of being the +innocent cause of the Doctor's destruction. It is even said that he gave +orders that the candle should be put into his coffin and buried with him. +So, we may presume, Dr. Colville evaded the payment of his debt. Our +readers may perchance wonder why such stories as the above should have +become connected with the reverend gentleman, and an explanation is not +hard to be found. Dr. Colville was a well-known divine, possessed of great +wealth (inherited lawfully, we may presume), and enjoyed considerable +influence in the country-side. At this time Ulster was overrun by +triumphant Presbyterianism, which the Doctor, as a firm upholder of +Episcopacy, opposed with all his might, and thereupon was spoken of with +great acerbity by his opponents. It is not too uncharitable, therefore, to +assume that these stories originated with some member of that body, who +may well have believed that such had actually happened. + +For the next instance of witchcraft and the supernatural in connection +with Ireland we are compelled to go beyond the confines of our country. +Though in this the connection with the Green Isle is slight, yet it is of +interest as affording an example of that blending of fairy lore with +sorcery which is not an uncommon feature of Scottish witchcraft-trials. In +the year 1613 a woman named Margaret Barclay, of Irvine in Scotland, was +accused of having caused her brother-in-law's ship to be cast away by +magical spells. A certain strolling vagabond and juggler, John Stewart, +was apprehended as her accomplice; he admitted (probably under torture) +that Margaret had applied to him to teach her some magic arts in order +that "she might get gear, kye's milk, love of man, her heart's desire on +such persons as had done her wrong." Though he does not appear to have +granted her request, yet he gave detailed information as to the manner in +which he had gained the supernatural power and knowledge with which he was +credited. "It being demanded of him by what means he professed himself to +have knowledge of things to come, the said John confessed that the space +of twenty-six years ago, he being travelling on All-Hallow Even night +between the towns of Monygoif and Clary, in Galway, he met with the King +of the Fairies and his company, and that the King gave him a stroke with a +white rod over the forehead, which took from him the power of speech and +the use of one eye, which he wanted for the space of three years. He +declared that the use of speech and eyesight was restored to him by the +King of Fairies and his company on a Hallowe'en night at the town of +Dublin." At his subsequent meetings with the fairy band he was taught all +his knowledge. The spot on which he was struck remained impervious to pain +although a pin was thrust into it. The unfortunate wretch was cast into +prison, and there committed suicide by hanging himself from the "cruik" of +the door with his garter or bonnet-string, and so "ended his life +miserably with the help of the devil his master."[22] + +A tale slightly resembling portion of the above comes from the north of +Ireland a few years later. "It's storied, and the story is true," says +Robert Law in his _Memorialls_,[23] "of a godly man in Ireland, who lying +one day in the fields sleeping, he was struck with dumbness and deafness. +The same man, during this condition he was in, could tell things, and had +the knowledge of things in a strange way, which he had not before; and +did, indeed, by signs make things known to others which they knew not. +Afterwards he at length, prayer being made for him by others, came to the +use of his tongue and ears; but when that knowledge of things he had in +his deaf and dumb condition ceased, and when he was asked how he had the +knowledge of these things he made signs of, he answered he had that +knowledge when dumb, but how and after what manner he knew not, only he +had the impression thereof in his spirit. This story was related by a +godly minister, Mr. Robert Blair, to Mr. John Baird, who knew the truth of +it." + +The Rev. Robert Blair, M.A., was a celebrated man, if for no other reason +than on account of his disputes with Dr. Echlin, Bishop of Down, or for +his description of Oliver Cromwell as a _greeting_ (_i.e._ weeping) devil. +On the invitation of Lord Claneboy he arrived in Ireland in 1623, and in +the same year was settled as (Presbyterian) parish minister at Bangor in +Co. Down, with the consent of patron and people; he remained there until +1631, when he was suspended by Dr. Echlin, and was deposed and +excommunicated in November, 1634. He has left a few writings behind him, +and was grandfather of the poet Robert Blair, author of _The Grave_.[24] + +During the years of his ministry at Bangor the following incident occurred +to him, which he of course attributes to demonic possession, though +homicidal mania resulting from intemperate habits would be nearer the +truth. One day a rich man, the constable of the parish, called upon him in +company with one of his tenants concerning the baptizing of the latter's +child. "When I had spoken what I thought necessary, and was ready to turn +into my house, the constable dismissing the other told me he had something +to say to me in private. I looking upon him saw his eyes like the eyes of +a cat in the night, did presently conceive that he had a mischief in his +heart, yet I resolved not to refuse what he desired, but I keeped a +watchful eye upon him, and stayed at some distance; and being near to the +door of the church I went in, and invited him to follow me. As soon as he +entered within the doors he fell atrembling, and I, awondering. His +trembling continuing and growing without any speech, I approached to him, +and invited him to a seat, wherein he could hardly sit. The great +trembling was like to throw him out of the seat. I laid my arm about him, +and asked him what ailed him? But for a time he could speak none. At last +his shaking ceased, and he began to speak, telling me, that for a long +time the Devil had appeared to him; first at Glasgow he bought a horse +from him, receiving a sixpence in earnest, and that in the end he offered +to him a great purse full of sylver to be his, making no mention of the +horse; he said that he blessed himself, and so the buyer with the sylver +and gold that was poured out upon the table vanished. But some days +thereafter he appeared to him at his own house, naming him by his name, +and said to him, Ye are mine, for I _arled_ you with a sixpence, which yet +ye have. Then said he, I asked his name, and he answered, they call me +_Nickel Downus_ (I suppose that he repeated evil, that he should have said +_Nihil Damus_). Being thus molested with these and many other apparitions +of the Devil, he left Scotland; but being come to Ireland he did often +likewise appear to him, and now of late he still commands me to kill and +slay; and oftentimes, says he, my whinger hath been drawn and kept under +my cloak to obey his commands, but still something holds my hand that I +cannot strike. But then I asked him whom he was bidden kill? He answered, +any that comes in my way; but + + 'The better they be + The better service to me, + Or else I shall kill thee.' + +When he uttered these words he fell again atrembling, and was stopped in +his speaking, looking lamentably at me, designing me to be the person he +aimed at; then he fell a crying and lamenting. I showed him the +horribleness of his ignorance and drunkenness; he made many promises of +reformation, which were not well keep'd; for within a fortnight he went to +an alehouse to crave the price of his malt, and sitting there long at +drink, as he was going homeward the Devil appeared to him, and challenged +him for opening to me what had passed betwixt them secretly, and followed +him to the house, pulling his cap off his head and his band from about his +neck, saying to him, 'On Hallow-night I shall have thee, soul and body, in +despite of the minister and of all that he will do for thee.'" + +In his choice of a date his Satanic Majesty showed his respect for +popular superstitions. This attack of delirium tremens (though Mr. Blair +would not have so explained it) had a most salutary effect; the constable +was in such an abject state of terror lest the Devil should carry him off +that he begged Mr. Blair to sit up with him all Hallow-night, which he +did, spending the time very profitably in prayer and exhortation, which +encouraged the man to defy Satan and all his works. The upshot of the +matter was, that he became very charitable to the poor, and seems to have +entirely renounced his intemperate habits.[25] + +Rejecting the supernatural element in the above as being merely the fruits +of a diseased mind, there is no reason to doubt the truth of the story. +Mr. Blair also met with some strange cases of religious hysteria, which +became manifest in outbursts of weeping and bodily convulsions, but which +he attributed to the Devil's "playing the ape, and counterfeiting the +works of the Lord." He states that one Sunday, in the midst of public +worship, "one of my charge, being a dull and ignorant person, made a +noise and stretching of her body. Incontinent I was assisted to rebuke +that lying spirit that disturbed the worship of God, charging the same not +to disturb the congregation; and through God's mercy we met with no more +of that work." Thus modestly our writer sets down what happened in his +_Autobiography_; but the account of the incident spread far and wide, and +at length came to the ears of Archbishop Usher, who, on his next meeting +with Mr. Blair, warmly congratulated him on the successful exorcism he had +practised.[26] + +If the period treated of in this chapter, viz. from the commencement of +the seventeenth century to the Restoration of Charles II, be barren of +witchcraft proper, it must at least be admitted that it is prodigal in +regard to the marvellous under various shapes and forms, from which the +hysterical state of the public mind can be fairly accurately gauged. The +rebellion of 1641, and the Cromwellian confiscations, that troubled period +when the country was torn by dissention, and ravaged by fire, sword, and +pestilence, was aptly ushered in by a series of supernatural events which +occurred in the county of Limerick. A letter dated the 13th August 1640, +states that "for news we have the strangest that ever was heard of, there +inchantments in the Lord of Castleconnell's Castle four miles from +Lymerick, several sorts of noyse, sometymes of drums and trumpets, +sometimes of other curious musique with heavenly voyces, then fearful +screeches, and such outcries that the neighbours near cannot sleepe. +Priests have adventured to be there, but have been cruelly beaten for +their paynes, and carryed away they knew not how, some two miles and some +four miles. Moreover were seen in the like manner, after they appear to +the view of the neighbours, infinite number of armed men on foote as well +as on horseback.... One thing more [_i.e._ something supernatural] by Mrs. +Mary Burke with twelve servants lyes in the house, and never one hurt, +onley they must dance with them every night; they say, Mrs. Mary come +away, telling her she must be wyfe to the inchanted Earl of Desmond.... +Uppon a Mannour of my Lord Bishoppe of Lymerick, Loughill, hath been seen +upon the hill by most of the inhabitants aboundance of armed men marching, +and these seene many tymes--and when they come up to them they do not +appeare. These things are very strange, if the cleargie and gentrie say +true."[27] + +During the rebellion an appalling massacre of Protestants took place at +Portadown, when about a hundred persons, men, women, and children, were +forced over the bridge into the river, and so drowned; the few that could +swim, and so managed to reach the shore, were either knocked on the head +by the insurgents when they landed, or else were shot. It is not a matter +of surprise that this terrible incident gave rise to legends and stories +in which anything strange or out of the common was magnified out of all +proportion. According to one deponent there appeared one evening in the +river "a vision or spirit assuming the shape of a woman, waist high, +upright in the water, naked with [_illegible_] in her hand, her hair +dishevelled, her eyes seeming to twinkle in her head, and her skin as +white as snow; which spirit seeming to stand upright in the water often +repeated the word _Revenge! Revenge! Revenge!_" Also Robert Maxwell, +Archdeacon of Down, swore that the rebels declared to him, (and some +deponents made similar statements) "that most of those that were thrown +from that bridge were daily and nightly seen to walk upon the River, +sometimes singing Psalms, sometimes brandishing of Swords, sometimes +screeching in a most hideous and fearful manner." Both these occurrences +are capable of a rational explanation. The supposed spectre was probably a +poor, bereaved woman, demented by grief and terror, who stole out of her +hiding-place at night to bewail the murder of her friends, while the weird +cries arose from the half-starved dogs of the country-side, together with +the wolves which abounded in Ireland at that period, quarrelling and +fighting over the corpses. Granting the above, and bearing in mind the +credulity of all classes of Society, it is not difficult to see how the +tales originated; but to say that, because such obviously impossible +statements occur in certain depositions, the latter are therefore +worthless as a whole, is to wilfully misunderstand the popular mind of the +seventeenth century. + +We have the following on the testimony of the Rev. George Creighton, +minister of Virginia, co. Cavan. He tells us that "divers women brought to +his House a young woman, almost naked, to whom a Rogue came upon the way, +these women being present, and required her to give him her mony, or else +he would kill her, and so drew his sword; her answer was, You cannot kill +me unless God give you leave, and His will be done. Thereupon the Rogue +thrust three times at her naked body with his drawn sword, and never +pierced her skin; whereat he being, as it seems, much confounded, went +away and left her." A like story comes from the other side: "At the taking +of the Newry a rebel being appointed to be shot upon the bridge, and +stripped stark-naked, notwithstanding the musketeer stood within two +yards of him, and shot him in the middle of the back, yet the bullet +entered not, nor did him any more hurt than leave a little black spot +behind it. This many hundreds were eye-witnesses of. Divers of the like +have I confidently been assured of, who have been provided of diabolical +charms."[28] Similar tales of persons bearing charmed lives could no doubt +be culled from the records of every war that has been fought on this +planet of ours since History began. + +The ease with which the accidental or unusual was transformed into the +miraculous at this period is shown by the following. A Dr. Tate and his +wife and children were flying to Dublin from the insurgents. On their way +they were wandering over commons covered with snow, without any food. The +wife was carrying a sucking child, John, and having no milk to give it she +was about to lay it down in despair, when suddenly "on the Brow of a Bank +she found a Suck-bottle with sweet milk in it, no Footsteps appearing in +the snow of any that should bring it thither, and far from any +Habitation; which preserved the child's life, who after became a Blessing +to the Church." The Dr. Tate mentioned above was evidently the Rev. +Faithful Tate, D.D., father of Nahum Tate of "Tate and Brady" fame.[29] + +On the night of Sunday, the 8th of May 1642, a terrific storm of hail and +rain came upon the English soldiers, which of course they attributed to +other than the correct source. "All the tents were in a thrice blown over. +It was not possible for any match to keep fire, or any sojor to handle his +musket or yet to stand. Yea, severalls of them dyed that night of meere +cold. Our sojors, and some of our officers too (who suppose that no thing +which is more than ordinarie can be the product of nature), attributed +this hurrikan to _the divilish skill of some Irish witches_."[30] +Apparently the English were not as wise in their generation as the +inhabitants of Constance in Switzerland were on the occasion of a similar +ebullition of the elements. The latter went out, found a witch, +_persuaded_ her to confess herself the guilty author of the storm, and +then burnt her--by which time, no doubt, the wind had subsided! + +Much in the same strain might be added, but, lest we should weary our +readers, we shall content ourselves with giving two more marvellous +relations from this particular period so full of the marvellous. O'Daly in +his _History of the Geraldines_ relates that during the siege of Limerick +three portents appeared. The first was a luminous globe, brighter than the +moon and little inferior to the sun, which for two leagues and a half shed +a vertical light on the city, and then faded into darkness over the +enemy's camp; the second was the apparition of the Virgin, accompanied by +several of the Saints; and the third was a _lusus naturæ_ of the +Siamese-twins type: all three of which O'Daly interprets to his own +satisfaction. The first of these was some form of the northern lights, and +is also recorded in the diary of certain Puritan officers. That learned, +but somewhat too credulous English antiquary, John Aubrey, relates in his +_Miscellanies_ that before the last battle between the contending parties +"a woman of uncommon Statue all in white appearing to the Bishop [Heber +McMahon, whom Aubrey terms _Veneras_] admonished him not to cross the +River first to assault the Enemy, but suffer them to do it, whereby he +should obtain the Victory. That if the _Irish_ took the water first to +move towards the _English_ they should be put to a total Rout, which came +to pass. _Ocahan_ and Sir _Henry O'Neal_, who were both killed there, saw +severally the same apparition, and dissuaded the Bishop from giving the +first onset, but could not prevail upon him." + +An instance of an Irishman suffering from the effects of witchcraft +outside Ireland is afforded us in a pathetic petition sent up to the +English Parliament between the years 1649 and 1653.[31] The petitioner, +John Campbell, stated that twelve years since he lost his sight in co. +Antrim, where he was born, by which he was reduced to such extremity that +he was forced to come over to England to seek some means of livelihood +for himself in craving the charity of well-disposed people, but contrary +to his expectation he has been often troubled there with dreams and +fearful visions in his sleep, and has been twice bewitched, insomuch that +he can find no quietness or rest here, and so prays for a pass to return +to Ireland. + +The saintly James Usher, Archbishop of Armagh, was a Prelate who, if he +had happened to live at an earlier period would certainly have been +numbered amongst those whose wide and profound learning won for themselves +the title of magician--as it was, he was popularly credited with +prophetical powers. Most of the prophecies attributed to him may be found +in a little pamphlet of eight pages, entitled "Strange and Remarkable +Prophecies and Predictions of the Holy, Learned, and Excellent James +Usher, &c.... Written by the person who heard it from this Excellent +person's own Mouth," and apparently published in 1656. According to it, he +foretold the rebellion of 1641 in a sermon on Ezekiel iv. 6, preached in +Dublin in 1601. "And of this Sermon the Bishop reserved the Notes, and +put a note thereof in the Margent of his Bible, and for twenty years +before he still lived in the expectation of the fulfilling thereof, and +the nearer the time was the more confident he was that it was nearer +accomplishment, though there was no visible appearance of any such thing." +He also foretold the death of Charles I, and his own coming poverty and +loss of property, which last he actually experienced for many years before +his death. The Rev. William Turner in his _Compleat History of Remarkable +Providences_ (London, 1697) gives a premonition of approaching death that +the Archbishop received. A lady who was dead appeared to him in his sleep, +and invited him to sup with her the next night. He accepted the +invitation, and died the following afternoon, 21st March 1656. + +This chapter may be brought to a conclusion by the following story from +Glanvill's _Relations_.[32] One Mr. John Browne of Durley in Ireland was +made by his neighbour, John Mallett of Enmore, trustee for his children +in minority. In 1654 Mr. Browne lay a-dying: at the foot of his bed stood +a great iron chest fitted with three locks, in which were the trustees' +papers. Some of his people and friends were sitting by him, when to their +horror they suddenly saw the locked chest begin to open, lock by lock, +without the aid of any visible hand, until at length the lid stood +upright. The dying man, who had not spoken for twenty-four hours, sat up +in the bed, looked at the chest, and said: _You say true, you say true, +you are in the right_ (a favourite expression of his), _I'll be with you +by and by_, and then lay down again, and never spoke after. The chest +slowly locked itself in exactly the same manner as it had opened, and +shortly after this Mr. Browne died. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +A.D. 1661 + + FLORENCE NEWTON, THE WITCH OF YOUGHAL + + +With the Restoration of King Charles II witchcraft did not cease; on the +other hand it went on with unimpaired vigour, and several important cases +were brought to trial in England. In one instance, at least, it made its +appearance in Ireland, this time far south, at Youghal. The extraordinary +tale of Florence Newton and her doings, which is related below, forms the +seventh Relation in Glanvill's _Sadducismus Triumphatus_ (London, 1726); +it may also be found, together with some English cases of notoriety, in +Francis Bragge's _Witchcraft further displayed_ (London, 1712). It is from +the first of these sources that we have taken it, and reproduce it here +verbatim, except that some redundant matter has been omitted, _i.e._ where +one witness relates facts(!) which have already been brought forward as +evidence in the examination of a previous witness, and which therefore do +not add to our knowledge, though no doubt they materially contributed to +strengthen the case against the unfortunate old woman. Hayman in his +_Guide to Youghal_ attributes the whole affair to the credulity of the +Puritan settlers, who were firm believers in such things. In this he is +correct no doubt, but it should be borne in mind by the reader that such a +belief was not confined to the new-comers at Youghal, but was common +property throughout England and Ireland. + +The tale shows that there was a little covey of suspected witches in +Youghal at that date, as well as some skilful amateur witch-finders +(Messrs. Perry, Greatrakes, and Blackwall). From the readiness with which +the Mayor proposed to try the "water-experiment" one is led to suspect +that such a process as swimming a witch was not altogether unknown in +Youghal. For the benefit of the uninitiated we may briefly describe the +actual process, which, as we shall see, the Mayor contemplated, but did +not actually carry out. The suspected witch is taken, her right thumb tied +to her left great toe, and _vice versâ_. She is then thrown into the +water: if she _sinks_ (and drowns, by any chance!) her innocence is +conclusively established; if, on the other hand, she _floats_, her +witchcraft is proven, for water, as being the element in Baptism, refuses +to receive such a sinner in its bosom. + + "Florence Newton was committed to Youghal prison by the Mayor of the + town, 24th March 1661, for bewitching Mary Longdon, who gave evidence + against her at the Cork Assizes (11th September), as follows: + + "Mary Longdon being sworn, and bidden to look upon the prisoner, her + countenance chang'd pale, and she was very fearful to look towards + her, but at last she did, and being asked whether she knew her, she + said she did, and wish'd she never had. Being asked how long she had + known her, she said for three or four years. And that at Christmas the + said Florence came to the Deponent, at the house of John Pyne in + Youghal, where the Deponent was a servant, and asked her to give her a + piece of Beef out of the Powdering Tub; and the Defendant answering + her that she would not give away her Master's Beef, the said Florence + seemed to be very angry, and said, _Thou had'st as good give it me_, + and went away grumbling. + + "That about a week after the Defendant going to the water with a Pail + of Cloth on her head she met the said Florence Newton, who came full + in her Face, and threw the Pail off her head, and violently kiss'd + her, and said, _Mary, I pray thee let thee and I be Friends; for I + bear thee no ill will, and I pray thee do thou bear me none_. And that + she the Defendant afterwards went home, and that within a few Days + after she saw a Woman with a Vail over her Face stand by her bedside, + and one standing by her like a little old Man in Silk Cloaths, and + that this Man whom she took to be a Spirit drew the Vail off the + Woman's Face, and then she knew it to be Goody Newton: and that the + Spirit spoke to the Defendant and would have her promise him to follow + his advice and she would have all things after her own Heart, to + which she says she answered that she would have nothing to say to him, + for her trust was in the Lord. + + "That within a month after the said Florence had kiss'd her, she this + Defendant fell very ill of Fits or Trances, which would take her on a + sudden, in that violence that three or four men could not hold her; + and in her Fits she would be taken with Vomiting, and would vomit up + Needles, Pins, Horsenails, Stubbs, Wooll, and Straw, and that very + often. And being asked whether she perceived at these times what she + vomited? She replied, she did; for then she was not in so great + distraction as in other parts of her Fits she was. And that before the + first beginning of her Fits several (and very many) small stones would + fall upon her as she went up and down, and would follow her from place + to place, and from one Room to another, and would hit her on the head, + shoulders, and arms, and fall to the ground and vanish away. And that + she and several others would see them both fall upon her and on the + ground, but could never take them, save only some few which she and + her Master caught in their hands. Amongst which one that had a hole in + it she tied (as she was advised) with a leather thong to her Purse, + but it was vanish'd immediately, though the latter continu'd tied in a + fast knot. + + "That in her Fits she often saw Florence Newton, and cried out against + her for tormenting of her, for she says, that she would several times + Stick Pins into her Arms, and some of them so fast, that a Man must + pluck three or four times to get out the Pins, and they were stuck + between the skin and the flesh. That sometimes she would be remov'd + out of the bed into another Room, sometimes she would be carried to + the top of the House, and laid on a board between two Sollar Beams, + sometimes put into a Chest, sometimes under a parcel of Wooll, + sometimes between two Feather-Beds on which she used to lie, and + sometimes between the Bed and the Mat in her Master's Chamber, in the + Daytime. And being asked how she knew that she was thus carried about + and disposed of, seeing in her Fits she was in a violent distraction? + She answered, she never knew where she was, till they of the Family + and the Neighbours with them, would be taking her out of the places + whither she was so carried and removed. And being asked the reason and + wherefore she cried out so much against the said Florence Newton in + her Fits? She answered, because she saw her, and felt her torturing + her. + + "And being asked how she could think it was Florence Newton that did + her this prejudice? She said, first, because she threatened her, then + because after she had kiss'd her she fell into these Fits, and that + she saw and felt her tormenting. And lastly, that when the people of + the Family, by advice of the Neighbours and consent of the Mayor, had + sent for Florence Newton to come to the Defendant, she was always + worse when she was brought to her, and her Fits more violent than at + another time. And that after the said Florence was committed at + Youghal the Defendant was not troubled, but was very well till a + little while after the said Florence was removed to Cork, and then the + Defendant was as ill as ever before. And then the Mayor of Youghal, + one Mr. Mayre, sent to know whether the said Florence was bolted (as + the Defendant was told), and finding she was not, the order was given + to put her Bolts on her; which being done, the Deponent saith she was + well again, and so hath continued ever since, and being asked whether + she had such like Fits before the said Florence gave her the kiss, she + saith she never had any, but believed that with the kiss she bewitch'd + her, and rather because she had heard from Nicholas Pyne and others + that Florence had confessed so much. + + "This Mary Longdon having closed her evidence, Florence Newton peeped + at her as it were betwixt the heads of the bystanders that interposed + between her and the said Mary, and lifting up both her hands together, + as they were manacled, cast them in a violent angry motion (as was + observed by W. Aston) towards the said Mary, as if she intended to + strike at her if she could have reached her, and said, _Now she is + down_. Upon which the Maid fell suddenly down to the ground like a + stone, and fell into a most violent Fit, that all the people that + could come to lay hands on her could scarce hold her, she biting her + own arms and shreeking out in a most hideous manner, to the amazement + of all the Beholders. And continuing so for about a quarter of an hour + (the said Florence Newton sitting by herself all that while pinching + her own hands and arms, as was sworn by some that observed her), the + Maid was ordered to be carried out of Court, and taken into a House. + Whence several Persons after that brought word, that the Maid was in a + Vomiting Fit, and they brought in several crook'd Pins, and Straws, + and Wooll, in white Foam like Spittle, in great proportion. Whereupon + the Court having taken notice that the Maid said she had been very + well when the said Florence was in Bolts, and ill again when out of + them, till they were again put on her, demanded of the Jaylor if she + were in Bolts or no, to which he said she was not, only manacled. Upon + which order was given to put on her Bolts, and upon putting them on + she cried out that she was killed, she was undone, she was spoiled, + why do you torment me thus? and so continued complaining grievously + for half a quarter of an hour. And then came in a messenger from the + Maid, and informed the Court the Maid was well. At which Florence + immediately and cholerickly uttered these words, _She is not well + yet!_ And being demanded, how she knew this, she denied she said so, + though many in Court heard her say the words, and she said, if she + did, she knew not what she said, being old and disquieted, and + distracted with her sufferings. But the Maid being reasonably well + come to herself, was, before the Court knew anything of it, sent out + of Town to Youghall, and so was no further examined. + + "The Fit of the Maid being urged by the Court with all the + circumstance of it upon Florence Newton, to have been a continuance of + her devilish practice, she denied it, and likewise the motion of her + hands, and the saying, _Now she is down_, though the Court saw the + first, and the words were sworn to by one Roger Moor. And Thomas + Harrison swore that he had observed the said Florence peep at her, and + use that motion with her hands, and saw the Maid fall immediately + upon that motion, and heard the words, _Now she is down_, uttered. + + "Nicholas Stout was next produced by Mr. Attorney-General, who being + sworn and examined, saith, That he had often tried her, having heard + say that Witches could not say the Lord's Prayer, whether she could or + no, and she could not. Whereupon she said she could say it, and had + often said it, and the Court being desired by her to hear her say it, + gave her leave; and four times together after these words, _Give us + this day our daily bread_, she continually said, _As we forgive them_, + leaving out altogether the words, _And forgive us our trespasses_, + upon which the Court appointed one near her to teach her the words she + left out. But she either could not, or would not, say them, using only + these or the like words when these were repeated, _Ay, ay, trespasses, + that's the word_. And being often pressed to utter the words as they + were repeated to her, she did not. And being asked the reason, she + said she was old and had a bad memory; and being asked how her memory + served her so well for other parts of the Prayer, and only failed her + for that, she said she knew not, neither could she help it. + + "John Pyne being likewise sworn and examined, saith, That about + January last [1661] the said Mary Longdon, being his Servant, was much + troubled with small stones that were thrown at her [&c., as in the + Deponent's statement, other items of which he also corroborated]. That + sometimes the Maid would be reading in a Bible, and on a sudden he + hath seen the Bible struck out of her Hand into the middle of the + Room, and she immediately cast into a violent Fit. That in the Fits he + hath seen two Bibles laid on her Breast, and in the twinkling of an + eye they would be cast betwixt the two Beds the Maid lay upon, + sometimes thrown into the middle of the Room, and that Nicholas Pyne + held the Bible in the Maid's hand so fast, that it being suddenly + snatch'd away, two of the leaves were torn. + + "Nicholas Pyne being sworn, saith, That the second night after that + the Witch had been in Prison, being the 24th [26?] of March last, he + and Joseph Thompson, Roger Hawkins, and some others went to speak + with her concerning the Maid, and told her that it was the general + opinion of the Town that she had bewitched her, and desired her to + deal freely with them, whether she had bewitched her or no. She said + she had not _bewitched_ her, but it may be she had _overlooked_ her, + and that there was a great difference between bewitching and + overlooking, and that she could not have done her any harm if she had + not touch'd her, and that therefore she had kiss'd her. And she said + that what mischief she thought of at that time she kiss'd her, that + would fall upon her, and that she could not but confess she had + wronged the Maid, and thereupon fell down upon her knees, and prayed + God to forgive her for wronging the poor Wench. They wish'd that she + might not be wholly destroyed by her; to which she said, it must be + another that would help her, and not they that did the harm. And then + she said, that there were others, as Goody Halfpenny and Goody Dod, in + Town, that could do these things as well as she, and that it might be + one of these that had done the Maid wrong. + + "He further saith, That towards Evening the Door of the Prison shook, + and she arose up hastily and said, _What makest thow here this time a + night?_ And there was a very great noise, as if some body with Bolts + and Chains had been running up and down the Room, and they asked her + what it was she spoke to, and what it was that made the noise; and she + said she saw nothing, neither did she speak, and if she did, it was + she knew not what. But the next day she confess'd it was a Spirit, and + her Familiar, in the shape of a Greyhound. + + "He further saith, That he and Mr. Edward Perry and others for Trial + of her took a Tile off the Prison, went to the place where the Witch + lay, and carried it to the House where the Maid lived, and put it in + the fire until it was red-hot, and then dripped some of the Maid's + water upon it, and the Witch was then grievously tormented, and when + the water consumed she was well again. + + "Edward Perry being likewise sworn, deposeth, That he, Mr. Greatrix, + and Mr. Blackwall went to the Maid, and Mr. Greatrix and he had read + of a way to discover a Witch, which he would practise. And so they + sent for the Witch, and set her on a Stool, and a Shoemaker with a + strong Awl endeavoured to stick it into the Stool, but could not till + the third time. And then they bade her come off the Stool, but she + said she was very weary and could not stir. Then two of them pulled + her off, and the Man went to pull out his Awl, and it dropped into his + hand with half an Inch broke off the blade of it, and they all looked + to have found where it had been stuck, but could find no place where + any entry had been made by it. Then they took another Awl, and put it + into the Maid's hand, and one of them took the Maid's hand, and ran + violently at the Witch's hand with it, but could not enter it, though + the Awl was so bent that none of them could put it straight again. + Then Mr. Blackwall took a Launce, and launc'd one of her hands an Inch + and a half long, and a quarter of an Inch deep, but it bled not at + all. Then he launc'd the other hand, and then they bled. + + "He further saith, That after she was in Prison he went with Roger + Hawkins and others to discourse with the Witch about the Maid, and + they asked what it was she spoke to the day before, and after some + denial she said it was a Greyhound which was her Familiar, and went + out at the Window; and then she said, _If I have done the Maid hurt I + am sorry for it_. And being asked whether she had done her any hurt + she said she never did _bewitch_ her, but confess'd she had + _overlooked_ her, at that time she kiss'd her, but that she could not + now help her, for none could help her that did the mishap, but others. + Further the Deponent saith, That meeting after the Assizes at Cashel + with one William Lap [who suggested the test of the tile, &c.]. + + "Mr. Wood, a Minister, being likewise sworn and examined, deposeth, + That having heard of the stones dropped and thrown at the Maid, and of + her Fits, and meeting with the Maid's Brother, he went along with him + to the Maid, and found her in her Fit, crying out against Gammer + Newton, that she prick'd and hurt her. And when she came to herself he + asked her what had troubled her; and she said Gammer Newton. And the + Deponent saith, Why, she was not there. _Yes_, said she, _I saw her by + my bedside_. The Deponent then asked her the original of all, which + she related from the time of her begging the Beef, and after kissing, + and so to that time. That then they caused the Maid to be got up, and + sent for Florence Newton, but she refused to come, pretending she was + sick, though it indeed appeared she was well. Then the Mayor of + Youghall came in, and spoke with the Maid, and then sent again and + caused Florence Newton to be brought in, and immediately the Maid fell + into her Fit far more violent, and three times as long as at any other + time, and all the time the Witch was in the Chamber the Maid cried out + continually of her being hurt here and there, but never named the + Witch: but as soon as she was removed, then she cried out against her + by the name of Gammer Newton, and this for several times. And still + when the Witch was out of the Chamber the Maid would desire to go to + Prayers, and he found good affections of her in time of Prayer, but + when the Witch was brought in again, though never so privately, + although she could not possibly, as the Deponent conceives, see her, + she would be immediately senseless, and like to be strangled, and so + would continue till the Witch was taken out, and then though never so + privately carried away she would come again to her senses. That + afterwards Mr. Greatrix, Mr. Blackwall, and some others, who would + need satisfy themselves in the influence of the Witch's presence, + tried it and found it several times. + + "Richard Mayre, Mayor of Youghall, sworn, saith, That about the 24th + of March last he sent for Florence Newton and examined her about the + Maid, and she at first denied it, and accused Goodwife Halfpenny and + Goodwife Dod, but at length when he had caused a Boat to be provided, + and thought to have tried the Water-Experiment on all three, Florence + Newton confessed to overlooking. Then he likewise examined the other + two Women, but they utterly denied it, and were content to abide any + trial; whereupon he caused Dod, Halfpenny, and Newton to be carried to + the Maid; and he told her that these two Women, or one of them, were + said by Gammer Newton to have done her hurt, but she said, _No, no, + they are honest Women, but it is Gammer Newton that hurts me, and I + believe she is not far off_. [She was then brought in privately, with + the usual result.] He further deposeth that there were three Aldermen + in Youghall, whose children she had kiss'd, as he had heard them + affirm, and all the children died presently after. + + "Joseph Thompson being likewise sworn, saith [the same as Nicholas + Pyne relative to the Greyhound-Familiar.] + + "Hitherto we have heard the most considerable Evidence touching + Florence Newton's witchcraft upon Mary Longdon, for which she was + committed to Youghall Prison, 24th March 1661. But April following she + bewitched one David Jones to death by kissing his hand through the + Grate of the Prison, for which she was indicted at Cork Assizes, and + the evidence is as follows: + + "Elenor Jones, Relict of the said David Jones, being sworn and + examined in open Court what she knew concerning any practice of + Witchcraft by the said Florence Newton upon the said David Jones her + Husband, gave in Evidence, That in April last the said David, having + been out all Night, came home early in the Morning, and said to her, + _Where dost thou think I have been all Night?_ To which she answered + she knew not; whereupon he replied, _I and Frank Beseley have been + standing Centinel over the Witch all night_. To which the said Elenor + said, _Why, what hurt is that?_ _Hurt?_ quoth he. _Marry I doubt it's + never a jot the better for me; for she hath kiss'd my Hand, and I have + a great pain in that arm, and I verily believe she hath bewitch'd me, + if ever she bewitch'd any Man._ To which she answered, _The Lord + forbid!_ That all that Night, and continually from that time, he was + restless and ill, complaining exceedingly of a great pain in his arm + for seven days together, and at the seven days' end he complained that + the pain was come from his Arm to his Heart, and then kept his bed + Night and Day, grievously afflicted, and crying out against Florence + Newton, and about fourteen days after he died. + + "Francis Beseley being sworn and examined, saith, That about the time + aforementioned meeting with the said David Jones, and discoursing with + him of the several reports then stirring concerning the said Florence + Newton, that she had several Familiars resorting to her in sundry + shapes, the said David Jones told him he had a great mind to watch her + one Night to see whether he could observe any Cats or other Creatures + resort to her through the Grate, as 'twas suspected they did, and + desired the said Francis to go with him, which he did. And that when + they came thither David Jones came to Florence, and told her that he + heard she could not say the Lord's Prayer; to which she answered, She + could. He then desir'd her to say it, but she excused herself by the + decay of Memory through old Age. Then David Jones began to teach her, + but she could not or would not say it, though often taught it. Upon + which the said Jones and Beseley being withdrawn a little from her, + and discoursing of her not being able to learn this Prayer, she called + out to David Jones, and said, _David, David, come hither, I can say + the Lord's Prayer now_. Upon which David went towards her, and the + said Deponent would have pluckt him back, and persuaded him not to + have gone to her, but he would not be persuaded, but went to the Grate + to her, and she began to say the Lord's Prayer, but could not say + _Forgive us our trespasses_, so that David again taught her, which she + seem'd to take very thankfully, and told him she had a great mind to + have kiss'd him, but that the Grate hindered her, but desired she + might kiss his Hand; whereupon he gave her his Hand through the Grate, + and she kiss'd it; and towards break of Day they went away and parted, + and soon after the Deponent heard that David Jones was ill. Whereupon + he went to visit him, [and was told by him that the Hag] had him by + the Hand, and was pulling off his Arm. And he said, _Do you not see + the old hag How she pulls me? Well, I lay my Death on her, she has + bewitch'd me._ About fourteen days languishing he died." + +This concludes the account of Florence Newton's trial, as given by +Glanvill; the source from which it was taken will be alluded to shortly. +It would seem that the witch was indicted upon two separate charges, viz. +with bewitching the servant-girl, Mary Longdon, and with causing the death +of David Jones. The case must have created considerable commotion in +Youghal, and was considered so important that the Attorney-General went +down to prosecute, but unfortunately there is no record of the verdict. If +found guilty (and we can have little doubt but that she was), she would +have been sentenced to death in pursuance of the Elizabethan Statute, +section 1. + +Many of the actors in the affair were persons of local prominence, and can +be identified. The "Mr. Greatrix" was Valentine Greatrakes, the famous +healer or "stroker," who also makes his appearance in the tale of the +haunted butler (see p. 164). He was born in 1629, and died in 1683. He +joined the Parliamentary Army, and when it was disbanded in 1656, became a +country magistrate. At the Restoration he was deprived of his offices, and +then gave himself up to a life of contemplation. In 1662 the idea seized +him that he had the power of healing the king's-evil. He kept the matter +quiet for some time, but at last communicated it to his wife, who jokingly +bade him try his power on a boy in the neighbourhood. Accordingly he laid +his hands on the affected parts with prayer, and within a month the boy +was healed. Gradually his fame spread, until patients came to him from +various parts of England as well as Ireland. In 1665 he received an +invitation from Lord Conway to come to Ragley to cure his wife of +perpetual headaches. He stayed at Ragley about three weeks, and while +there he entertained his hosts with the story of Florence Newton and her +doings; although he did not succeed in curing Lady Conway, yet many +persons in the neighbourhood benefited by his treatment. The form of words +he always used was: "God Almighty heal thee for His mercy's sake"; and if +the patient professed to receive any benefit he bade them give God the +praise. He took no fees, and rejected cases which were manifestly +incurable. In modern times the cures have been reasonably attributed to +animal magnetism. He was buried beside his father at Affane, co. +Waterford.[33] Some of his contemporaries had a very poor opinion of him; +Increase Mather, writing in 1684, alludes contemptuously to "the late +miracle-monger or Mirabilian stroaker in Ireland, Valentine Greatrix," +whom he accuses of attempting to cure an ague by the use of that +"hobgoblin word, _Abrodacara_." + +John Pyne, the employer of the bewitched servant-girl, served as Bailiff +of Youghal along with Edward Perry in 1664, the latter becoming Mayor in +1674; both struck tradesmen's tokens of the usual type. Richard Myres was +Bailiff of Youghal in 1642, and Mayor in 1647 and 1660. The Rev. James +Wood was appointed "minister of the gospel" at Youghal, by the +Commonwealth Government, at a salary of £120 per annum; in 1654 his +stipend was raised to £140, and in the following year he got a further +increase of £40. He was sworn in a freeman at large in 1656, and appears +to have been presented by the Grand Jury in 1683 as a religious +vagrant.[34] + +Furthermore, it seems possible to recover the name of the Judge who tried +the case at the Cork Assizes. Glanvill says that he took the Relation from +"a copy of an Authentick Record, as I conceive, every half-sheet having W. +Aston writ in the Margin, and then again W. Aston at the end of all, who +in all likelihood must be some publick Notary or Record-Keeper." This man, +who is also mentioned in the narrative, is to be identified with Judge Sir +William Aston, who after the establishment of the Commonwealth came to +Ireland, and was there practising as a barrister at the time of the +Restoration, having previously served in the royalist army. On 3rd +November 1660 he was appointed senior puisne Judge of the Chief Place, and +died in 1671.[35] The story accordingly is based on the notes taken by the +Judge before whom the case was brought, and is therefore of considerable +value, in that it affords us a picture, drawn by an eye-witness in full +possession of all the facts, of a witch-trial in Ireland in the middle of +the seventeenth century. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +A.D. 1662-1686 + + THE DEVIL AT DAMERVILLE--AND AT BALLINAGARDE--TAVERNER AND HADDOCK'S + GHOST--HUNTER AND THE GHOSTLY OLD WOMAN--A WITCH RESCUED BY THE + DEVIL--DR. WILLIAMS AND THE HAUNTED HOUSE IN DUBLIN--APPARITIONS SEEN + IN THE AIR IN CO. TIPPERARY--A CLERGYMAN AND HIS WIFE BEWITCHED TO + DEATH--BEWITCHING OF MR. MOOR--THE FAIRY-POSSESSED BUTLER--A GHOST + INSTIGATES A PROSECUTION--SUPPOSED WITCHCRAFT IN CO. CORK--THE DEVIL + AMONG THE QUAKERS. + + +From the earliest times the Devil has made his mark, historically and +geographically, in Ireland; the nomenclature of many places indicates that +they are his exclusive property, while the antiquarian cannot be +sufficiently thankful to him for depositing the Rock of Cashel where he +did. But here we must deal with a later period of his activity. A quaint +tale comes to us from co. Tipperary of a man bargaining with his Majesty +for the price of his soul, in which as usual the Devil is worsted by a +simple trick, and gets nothing for his trouble. Near Shronell in that +county are still to be seen the ruins of Damerville Court, formerly the +residence of the Damer family, and from which locality they took the title +of Barons Milton of Shronell. The first of the family to settle in +Ireland, Joseph Damer, had been formerly in the service of the Parliament, +but not deeming it safe to remain in England after the Restoration, came +over to this country and, taking advantage of the cheapness of land at +that time, purchased large estates. It was evidently of this member of the +family that the following tale is told. He possessed great wealth, and +'twas darkly hinted that this had come to him from no lawful source, that +in fact he had made a bargain with the Devil to sell his soul to him for a +top-boot full of gold. His Satanic Majesty greedily accepted the offer, +and on the day appointed for the ratification of the bargain arrived with +a sufficiency of bullion from the Bank of Styx--or whatever may be the +name of the establishment below! He was ushered into a room, in the middle +of which stood the empty top-boot; into this he poured the gold, but to +his surprise it remained as empty as before. He hastened away for more +gold, with the same result. Repeated journeys to and fro for fresh +supplies still left the boot as empty as when he began, until at length in +sheer disgust he took his final departure, leaving Damer in possession of +the gold, and as well (for a few brief years, at all events) of that +spiritual commodity he had valued at so little. In process of time the +secret leaked out. The wily Damer had taken the sole off the boot, and had +then securely fastened the latter over a hole in the floor. In the storey +underneath was a series of large, empty cellars, in which he had stationed +men armed with shovels, who were under instructions to remove each +succeeding shower of gold, and so make room for more. + +Another story[36] comes from Ballinagarde in co. Limerick, the residence +of the Croker family, though it is probably later in point of time; in it +the Devil appears in a different rôle. Once upon a time Mr. Croker of +Ballinagarde was out hunting, but as the country was very difficult few +were able to keep up with the hounds. The chase lasted all day, and late +in the evening Croker and a handsome dark stranger, mounted on a +magnificent black horse, were alone at the death. Croker, delighted at his +companion's prowess, asked him home, and the usual festivities were kept +up fast and furious till far into the night. The stranger was shown to a +bedroom, and as the servant was pulling off his boots he saw that he had a +cloven hoof. In the morning he acquainted his master with the fact, and +both went to see the stranger. The latter had disappeared, and so had his +horse, but the bedroom carpet was seared by a red-hot hoof, while four +hoof-marks were imprinted on the floor of the horse's stall. What incident +gave rise to the story we cannot tell, but there was a saying among the +peasantry that such-and-such a thing occurred "as sure as the Devil was in +Ballinagarde"; while he is said to have appeared there again recently. + +A most remarkable instance of legal proceedings being instituted at the +instigation of a ghost comes from the co. Down in the year 1662.[37] +About Michaelmas one Francis Taverner, servant to Lord Chichester, was +riding home on horseback late one night from Hillborough, and on nearing +Drumbridge his horse suddenly stood still, and he, not suspecting anything +out of the common, but merely supposing him to have the staggers, got down +to bleed him in the mouth, and then remounted. As he was proceeding two +horsemen seemed to pass him, though he heard no sound of horses' hoofs. +Presently there appeared a third at his elbow, apparently clad in a long +white coat, having the appearance of one James Haddock, an inhabitant of +Malone who had died about five years previously. When the startled +Taverner asked him in God's name who he was, he told him that he was James +Haddock, and recalled himself to his mind by relating a trifling incident +that had occurred in Taverner's father's house a short while before +Haddock's death. Taverner asked him why he spoke with him; he told him, +because he was a man of more resolution than other men, and requested him +to ride along with him in order that he might acquaint him with the +business he desired him to perform. Taverner refused, and, as they were at +a cross-road, went his own way. Immediately after parting with the spectre +there arose a mighty wind, "and withal he heard very hideous Screeches and +Noises, to his great amazement. At last he heard the cocks crow, to his +great comfort; he alighted off his horse, and falling to prayer desired +God's assistance, and so got safe home." + +The following night the ghost appeared again to him as he sat by the fire, +and thereupon declared to him the reason for its appearance, and the +errand upon which it wished to send him. It bade him go to Eleanor Walsh, +its widow, who was now married to one Davis, and say to her that it was +the will of her late husband that their son David should be righted in the +matter of a lease which the father had bequeathed to him, but of which the +step-father had unjustly deprived him. Taverner refused to do so, partly +because he did not desire to gain the ill-will of his neighbours, and +partly because he feared being taken for one demented; but the ghost so +thoroughly frightened him by appearing to him every night for a month, +that in the end he promised to fulfil its wishes. He went to Malone, found +a woman named Eleanor Walsh, who proved to be the wrong person, but who +told him she had a namesake living hard by, upon which Taverner took no +further trouble in the matter, and returned without delivering his +message. + +The same night he was awakened by something pressing upon him, and saw +again the ghost of Haddock in a white coat, which asked him if he had +delivered the message, to which Taverner mendaciously replied that he had +been to Malone and had seen Eleanor Walsh. Upon which the ghost looked +with a more friendly air upon him, bidding him not to be afraid, and then +vanished in a flash of brightness. But having learnt the truth of the +matter in some mysterious way, it again appeared, this time in a great +fury, and threatened to tear him to pieces if he did not do as it +desired. Utterly unnerved by these unearthly visits, Taverner left his +house in the mountains and went into the town of Belfast, where he sat up +all night in the house of a shoemaker named Peirce, where were also two or +three of Lord Chichester's servants. "About midnight, as they were all by +the fireside, they beheld Taverner's countenance change and a trembling to +fall upon him; who presently espied the Apparition in a Room opposite him, +and took up the Candle and went to it, and resolutely ask'd it in the name +of God wherefore it haunted him? It replied, Because he had not delivered +the message; and withal repeated the threat of tearing him in pieces if he +did not do so speedily: and so, changing itself into many prodigious +Shapes, it vanished in white like a Ghost." + +In a very dejected frame of mind Taverner related the incident to some of +Lord Chichester's family, and the chaplain, Mr. James South, advised him +to go and deliver the message to the widow, which he accordingly did, and +thereupon experienced great quietness of mind. Two nights later the +apparition again appeared, and on learning what had been done, charged him +to bear the same message to the executors. Taverner not unnaturally asked +if Davis, the step-father, would attempt to do him any harm, to which the +spirit gave a very doubtful response, but at length reassured him by +threatening Davis if he should attempt anything to his injury, and then +vanished away in white. + +The following day Taverner was summoned before the Court of the celebrated +Jeremy Taylor, Bishop of Down, who carefully examined him about the +matter, and advised him the next time the spirit appeared to ask it the +following questions: Whence are you? Are you a good or a bad spirit? Where +is your abode? What station do you hold? How are you regimented in the +other world? What is the reason that you appear for the relief of your son +in so small a matter, when so many widows and orphans are oppressed, and +none from thence of their relations appear as you do to right them? + +That night Taverner went to Lord Conway's house. Feeling the coming +presence of the apparition, and being unwilling to create any disturbance +within doors, he and his brother went out into the courtyard, where they +saw the spirit coming over the wall. He told it what he had done, and it +promised not to trouble him any more, but threatened the executors if they +did not see the boy righted. "Here his brother put him in mind to ask the +Spirit what the Bishop bid him, which he did presently. But it gave him no +answer, but crawled on its hands and feet over the wall again, and so +vanished in white with a most melodious harmony." The boy's friends then +brought an action (apparently in the Bishop's Court) against the executors +and trustees; one of the latter, John Costlet, who was also the boy's +uncle, tried the effect of bluff, but the threat of what the apparition +could and might do to him scared him into a promise of justice. About five +years later, when the story was forgotten, Costlet began to threaten the +boy with an action, but, coming home drunk one night, he fell off his +horse and was killed. In the above there is no mention of the fate of +Davis. + +Whatever explanation we may choose to give of the _supernatural_ element +in the above, there seems to be no doubt that such an incident occurred, +and that the story is, in the main, true to fact, as it was taken by +Glanvill from a letter of Mr. Thomas Alcock's, the secretary to Bishop +Taylor's Court, who must therefore have heard the entire story from +Taverner's own lips. The incident is vividly remembered in local +tradition, from which many picturesque details are added, especially with +reference to the trial, the subsequent righting of young David Haddock, +and the ultimate punishment of Davis, on which points Glanvill is rather +unsatisfactory. According to this source,[38] Taverner (or Tavney, as the +name is locally pronounced) _felt something get up behind him_ as he was +riding home, and from the eerie feeling that came over him, as well as +from the mouldy smell of the grave that assailed his nostrils, he +perceived that his companion was not of this world. Finally the ghost +urged Taverner to bring the case into Court, and it came up for trial at +Carrickfergus. The Counsel for the opposite side browbeat Taverner for +inventing such an absurd and malicious story about his neighbour Davis, +and ended by tauntingly desiring him to call his witness. The usher of the +Court, with a sceptical sneer, called upon James Haddock, and at the third +repetition of the name a clap of thunder shook the Court; a hand was seen +on the witness-table, and a voice was heard saying, "Is this enough?" +Which very properly convinced the jury. Davis slunk away, and on his +homeward road fell from his horse and broke his neck. Instead of +propounding Bishop Taylor's shorter catechism, Taverner merely asked the +ghost, "Are you happy in your present state?" "If," it replied in a voice +of anger, "you were not the man you are, I would tear you in pieces for +asking such a question"; and then went off in a flash of fire!!--which, we +fear, afforded but too satisfactory an answer to his question. + +In the following year, 1663, a quaintly humorous story[39] of a most +persistent and troublesome ghostly visitant comes from the same part of +the world, though in this particular instance its efforts to right the +wrong did not produce a lawsuit: the narrator was Mr. Alcock, who appears +in the preceding story. One David Hunter, who was neat-herd to the Bishop +of Down (Jeremy Taylor) at his house near Portmore, saw one night, as he +was carrying a log of wood into the dairy, an old woman whom he did not +recognise, but apparently some subtle intuition told him that she was not +of mortal mould, for incontinent he flung away the log, and ran terrified +into his house. She appeared again to him the next night, and from that on +nearly every night for the next nine months. "Whenever she came he must go +with her through the Woods at a good round rate; and the poor fellow +look'd as if he was bewitch'd and travell'd off his legs." Even if he were +in bed he had to rise and follow her wherever she went, and because his +wife could not restrain him she would rise and follow him till daybreak, +although no apparition was visible to her. The only member of the family +that took the matter philosophically was Hunter's little dog, and he +became so accustomed to the ghost that he would inevitably bring up the +rear of the strange procession--if it be true that the lower classes +dispensed with the use of night-garments when in bed, the sight must truly +have been a most remarkable one. + +All this time the ghost afforded no indication as to the nature and object +of her frequent appearances. "But one day the said David going over a +Hedge into the Highway, she came just against him, and he cry'd out, 'Lord +bless me, I would I were dead; shall I never be delivered from this +misery?' At which, 'And the Lord bless me too,' says she. 'It was very +happy you spoke first, for till then I had no power to speak, though I +have followed you so long. My name,' says she, 'is Margaret ----. I lived +here before the War, and had one son by my Husband; when he died I married +a soldier, by whom I had several children which the former Son maintained, +else we must all have starved. He lives beyond the Ban-water; pray go to +him and bid him dig under such a hearth, and there he shall find 28_s._ +Let him pay what I owe in such a place, and the rest to the charge +unpay'd at my Funeral, and go to my Son that lives here, which I had by my +latter Husband, and tell him that he lives a very wicked and dissolute +life, and is very unnatural and ungrateful to his Brother that nurtured +him, and if he does not mend his life God will destroy him.'" + +David Hunter told her he never knew her. "No," says she, "I died seven +years before you came into this Country"; but she promised that, if he +would carry her message, she would never hurt him. But he deferred doing +what the apparition bade him, with the result that she appeared the night +after, as he lay in bed, and struck him on the shoulder very hard; at +which he cried out, and reminded her that she had promised to do him no +hurt. She replied that was if he did her message; if not, she would kill +him. He told her he could not go now, because the waters were out. She +said that she was content that he should wait until they were abated; but +charged him afterwards not to fail her. Ultimately he did her errand, and +afterwards she appeared and thanked him. "For now," said she, "I shall be +at rest, and therefore I pray you lift me up from the ground, and I will +trouble you no more." So Hunter lifted her up, and declared afterwards +that she felt just like a bag of feathers in his arms; so she vanished, +and he heard most delicate music as she went off over his head. + +An important witch-case occurred in Scotland in 1678, the account of which +is of interest to us as it incidentally makes mention of the fact that one +of the guilty persons had been previously tried and condemned in Ireland +for the crime of witchcraft. Four women and one man were strangled and +burnt at Paisley for having attempted to kill by magic Sir George Maxwell +of Pollock. They had formed a wax image of him, into which the Devil +himself had stuck the necessary pins; it was then turned on a spit before +the fire, the entire band repeating in unison the name of him whose death +they desired to compass. Amongst the women was "one Bessie Weir, who was +hanged up the last of the four (_one that had been taken before in +Ireland and was condemned to the fyre for malifice before_; and when the +hangman there was about to cast her over the gallows, the devill takes her +away from them out of their sight; her _dittay_ [indictment] was sent over +here to Scotland), who at this tyme, when she was cast off the gallows, +there appears a raven, and approaches the hangman within an ell of him, +and flyes away again. All the people observed it, and cried out at the +sight of it." + +A clergyman, the Rev. Daniel Williams (evidently the man who was pastor of +Wood Street, Dublin, and subsequently founded Dr. Williams's Library in +London), relates the manner in which he freed a girl from strange and +unpleasant noises which disturbed her; the incident might have developed +into something analogous to the Drummer of Tedworth in England, but on the +whole works out rather tamely. He tells us that about the year 1678 the +niece of Alderman Arundel of Dublin was troubled by noises in her uncle's +house, "as by violent Sthroaks on the Wainscots and Chests, in what +Chambers she frequented." In the hope that they would cease she removed to +a house near Smithfield, but the disturbances pursued her thither, and +were no longer heard in her former dwelling. She thereupon betook herself +to a little house in Patrick Street, near the gate, but to no purpose. The +noises lasted in all for about three months, and were generally at their +worst about two o'clock in the morning. Certain ministers spent several +nights in prayer with her, heard the strange sounds, but did not succeed +in causing their cessation. Finally the narrator, Williams, was called in, +and came upon a night agreed to the house, where several persons had +assembled. He says: "I preached from Hebrews ii. 18, and contrived to be +at Prayer at that Time when the Noise used to be greatest. When I was at +Prayer the Woman, kneeling by me, catched violently at my Arm, and +afterwards told us that she saw a terrible Sight--but it pleased God there +was no noise at all. And from that Time God graciously freed her from all +that Disturbance."[41] + +Many strange stories of apparitions seen in the air come from all parts of +the world, and are recorded by writers both ancient and modern, but there +are certainly few of them that can equal the account of that weird series +of incidents that was seen in the sky by a goodly crowd of ladies and +gentlemen in co. Tipperary on 2nd March 1678.[42] "At Poinstown in the +county of Tepperary were seen divers strange and prodigious apparitions. +On Sunday in the evening several gentlemen and others, after named, walked +forth in the fields, and the Sun going down, and appearing somewhat bigger +than usual, they discoursed about it, directing their eyes towards the +place where the Sun set; when one of the company observed in the air, near +the place where the Sun went down, an Arm of a blackish blue colour, with +a ruddy complection'd Hand at one end, and at the other end a cross piece +with a ring fasten'd to the middle of it, like one end of an anchor, which +stood still for a while, and then made northwards, and so disappeared. +Next, there appeared at a great distance in the air, from the same part +of the sky, something like a Ship coming towards them; and it came so near +that they could distinctly perceive the masts, sails, tacklings, and men; +she then seem'd to tack about, and sail'd with the stern foremost, +northwards, upon a dark smooth sea, which stretched itself from south-west +to north-west. Having seem'd thus to sail some few minutes she sunk by +degrees into the sea, her stern first; and as she sunk they perceived her +men plainly running up the tacklings in the forepart of the Ship, as it +were to save themselves from drowning. Then appeared a Fort, with somewhat +like a Castle on the top of it; out of the sides of which, by reason of +some clouds of smoak and a flash of fire suddenly issuing out, they +concluded some shot to be made. The Fort then was immediately divided in +two parts, which were in an instant transformed into two exact Ships, like +the other they had seen, with their heads towards each other. That towards +the south seem'd to chase the other with its stem [stern?] foremost, +northwards, till it sunk with its stem first, as the first Ship had done; +the other Ship sail'd some time after, and then sunk with its head first. +It was observ'd that men were running upon the decks of these two Ships, +but they did not see them climb up, as in the last Ship, excepting one +man, whom they saw distinctly to get up with much haste upon the very top +of the Bowsprit of the second Ship as they were sinking. They supposed the +two last Ships were engaged, and fighting, for they saw the likeness of +bullets rouling upon the sea, while they were both visible. Then there +appear'd a Chariot, drawn with two horses, which turn'd as the Ships had +done, northward, and immediately after it came a strange frightful +creature, which they concluded to be some kind of serpent, having a head +like a snake, and a knotted bunch or bulk at the other end, something +resembling a snail's house. This monster came swiftly behind the chariot +and gave it a sudden violent blow, then out of the chariot leaped a Bull +and a Dog, which follow'd him [the bull], and seem'd to bait him. These +also went northwards, as the former had done, the Bull first, holding his +head downwards, then the Dog, and then the Chariot, till all sunk down one +after another about the same place, and just in the same manner as the +former. These meteors being vanished, there were several appearances like +ships and other things. The whole time of the vision lasted near an hour, +and it was a very clear and calm evening, no cloud seen, no mist, nor any +wind stirring. All the phenomena came out of the West or Southwest, and +all moved Northwards; they all sunk out of sight much about the same +place. Of the whole company there was not any one but saw all these +things, as above-written, whose names follow: + + "Mr. Allye, a minister, living near the place. + Lieutenant Dunsterville, and his son. + Mr. Grace, his son-in-law. + Lieutenant Dwine. + Mr. Dwine, his brother. + Mr. Christopher Hewelson. + Mr. Richard Foster. + Mr. Adam Hewelson. + Mr. Bates, a schoolmaster. + Mr. Larkin. + Mrs. Dunsterville. + Her daughter-in-law. + Her maiden daughter. + Mr. Dwine's daughter. + Mrs. Grace, her daughter." + +The first of the sixteen persons who subscribed to the truth of the above +was the Rev. Peter Alley, who had been appointed curate of Killenaule +Union (Dio. Cashel) in 1672, but was promoted to livings in the same +diocese in the autumn of the year the apparitions appeared.[43] There is a +townland named Poyntstown in the parish of Buolick and barony of +Slievardagh, and another of the same name in the adjoining parish of +Fennor. It must have been at one or other of these places that the sights +were witnessed, as both parishes are only a few miles distant from +Killenaule. Somewhat similar tales, although not so full of marvellous +detail, are reported at different periods from the west of Ireland. Such +indeed seem to have been the origin of the belief in that mysterious +island O'Brasil, lying far out in the western ocean. About the year 1665, +a Quaker pretended that he had a revelation from Heaven that he was the +man ordained to discover it, and accordingly fitted out a ship for the +purpose. In 1674, Captain John Nisbet, formerly of co. Fermanagh, actually +landed there! At this period it was located off Ulster.[44] + +Between the clergy and the witches a continuous state of warfare existed; +the former, both Protestant and Roman Catholic, ever assumed the +offensive, and were most diligent in their attempts to eradicate such a +damnable heresy from the world--indeed with regret it must be confessed +that their activity in this respect was frequently the means of stirring +up the quiescent Secular Arm, thereby setting on foot bloody persecutions, +in the course of which many innocent creatures were tortured and put to a +cruel death. Consequently, human nature being what it is, it is not a +matter of surprise to learn that witches occasionally appear as the +aggressors, and cause the clergy as much uneasiness of mind and body as +they possibly could. In or about the year 1670 an Irish clergyman, the +Rev. James Shaw, Presbyterian minister of Carnmoney, "was much troubled +with witches, one of them appearing in his chamber and showing her face +behind his cloke hanging on the clock-pin, and then stepping to the door, +disappeared. He was troubled with cats coming into his chamber and bed; he +sickens and dyes; his wyfe being dead before him, and, as was supposed, +witched." Some equally unpleasant experiences befel his servant. "Before +his death his man going out to the stable one night, sees as if it had +been a great heap of hay rolling towards him, and then appeared in the +shape and likeness of a bair [bear]. He charges it to appear in human +shape, which it did. Then he asked, for what cause it troubled him? It bid +him come to such a place and it should tell him, which he ingaged to do, +yet ere he did it, acquainted his master with it; his master forbids him +to keep sic a tryst; he obeyed his master, and went not. That night he +should have kept, there is a stone cast at him from the roof of the +house, and only touches him, but does not hurt him; whereupon he conceives +that had been done to him by the devill, because he kept not tryst; +wherefore he resolutely goes forth that night to the place appointed, +being a rash bold fellow, and the divill appears in human shape, with his +heid running down with blood. He asks him again, why he troubles him? The +devill replyes, that he was the spirit of a murdered man who lay under his +bed, and buried in the ground, and who was murdered by such a man living +in sic a place twenty years ago. The man comes home, searches the place, +but finds nothing of bones or anything lyke a grave, and causes send to +such a place to search for such a man, but no such a one could be found, +and shortly after this man dyes." To which story Mr. Robert Law[45] sagely +adds the warning: "It's not good to come in communing terms with Satan, +there is a snare in the end of it, but to resyst him by prayer and faith +and to turn a deaf ear to his temptations." + +Whatever explanation we may choose to give of the matter, there is no +doubt but at the time the influence of witchcraft was firmly believed in, +and the deaths of Mr. Shaw and his wife attributed to supernatural and +diabolical sources. The Rev. Patrick Adair, a distinguished contemporary +and co-religionist of Mr. Shaw, alludes to the incident as follows in his +_True Narrative_: "There had been great ground of jealousy that she [Mrs. +Shaw] in her child-bed had been wronged by sorcery of some witches in the +parish. After her death, a considerable time, some spirit or spirits +troubled the house by casting stones down at the chimney, appearing to the +servants, and especially having got one of them, a young man, to keep +appointed times and places, wherein it appeared in divers shapes, and +spake audibly to him. The people of the parish watched the house while Mr. +Shaw at this time lay sick in his bed, and indeed he did not wholly +recover, but within a while died, it was thought not without the art of +sorcery." + +Classon Porter in his pamphlet gives an interesting account of the +affair, especially of the trend of events between the deaths of the +husband and wife respectively; according to this source the servant-boy +was an accomplice of the Evil One, not a foolish victim. Mrs. Shaw was +dead, and Mr. Shaw lay ill, and so was unable to go to the next monthly +meeting of his brethren in the ministry to consult them about these +strange occurrences. However, he sent his servant, who was supposed to be +implicated in these transactions, with a request that his brethren would +examine him about the matter, and deal with him as they thought best. The +boy was accordingly questioned on the subject, and having confessed that +he had conversed and conferred with the evil spirit, and even assisted it +in its diabolical operations, he was commanded for the future to have no +dealings of any kind with that spirit. The boy promised obedience, and was +dismissed. But the affair made a great commotion in the parish, so great +that the brethren not only ordered the Communion (which was then +approaching) to be delayed in Carnmoney "until the confusion should fall a +little," but appointed two of their number to hold a special fast in the +congregation of Carnmoney, "in consideration of the trouble which had come +upon the minister's house by a spirit that appeared to some of the family, +and the distemper of the minister's own body, with other confusions that +had followed this movement in the parish." The ministers appointed to this +duty were, Kennedy of Templepatrick, and Patton of Ballyclare, who +reported to the next meeting that they had kept the fast at Carnmoney, but +with what result is not stated. Mr. Shaw died about two months later. + +Most wonderful and unpleasant were the bodily contortions that an Irish +gentleman suffered, as the result of not having employed a woman who to +the useful trade of _sage-femme_ added the mischievous one of witch--it is +quite conceivable that a country midwife, with some little knowledge of +medicine and the use of simples, would be classed in popular opinion +amongst those who had power above the average. "In Ireland there was one +Thomas Moor, who had his wife brought to bed of a child, and not having +made use of her former midwife, who was _malæ famæ_, she was witched by +her so that she dies. The poor man resenting it, she was heard to say that +that was nothing to that which should follow. She witches him also, so +that a certain tyme of the day, towards night, the Devil did always +trouble him, once every day for the space of 10 or 12 yeirs, by possessing +his body, and causing it to swell highly, and tearing him so that he +foamed, and his face turned about to his neck, having a most fearfull +disfigured visage. At which tyme he was held by strong men, out of whose +grips when he gott, he would have rushed his head against the wall in +hazard of braining himself, and would have leaped up and down fearfully, +tumbling now and then on the ground, and cryed out fearfully with a wyld +skirle and noise, and this he did ordinarily for the space of ane hour; +when the fitt was over he was settled as before; and without the fitt he +was in his right mynd, and did know when it came on him, and gave notice +of it, so that those appoynted for keeping of him prepared for it. He was, +by appointment of the ministers, sent from parish to parish for the ease +of his keepers. At length, people being wearied with waiting on him, they +devysed a way for ease, which was to put him in a great chyer [chair] +fitted for receiving of his body, and so ordered it that it clasped round +about so that he could not get out, and then by a pillue [pulley] drew him +up off the ground; and when the fitt came on (of whilk he still gave +warning) put him in it and drew him up, so that his swinging to and froo +did not hurt him, but was keept till the fitt went over save fra danger, +and then lett down till that tyme of the next day, when the fitt recurred. +Many came to see him in his fitts, but the sight was so astonishing that +few desired to come again. He was a man of a good report, yet we may see +givin up to Satan's molestations by the wise and soveraigne God. Complains +were givin in against her [the midwife] for her malefices to the magistrat +there, but in England and Ireland they used not to judge and condemn +witches upon presumptions, but are very sparing as to that. He was alive +in the year 1679." The concluding words of the story would lead us to +infer that trials for witchcraft had taken place in Ireland, of which Law +had heard, and from the report of which he formed his opinion relative to +the certain amount of common-sense displayed by the magistrates in that +country, in contradistinction to Scotland, where the very slightest +evidence sufficed to bring persons to torture and death. + +In the following tale[46] the ghostly portion is rather dwarfed by the +strong fairy element which appears in it, and, as we have already shown, +many witchcraft cases in Scotland were closely interwoven with the older +belief in the "good people"; Lord Orrery, when giving the account to +Baxter, considered it to be "the effect of Witchcraft or Devils." The +reader is free to take what view he likes of the matter! The Lord Orrery +mentioned therein is probably Roger, the second Earl, whom Lodge in his +_Peerage_ describes as being "of a serious and contemplative disposition, +which led him to seek retirement." If this identification be correct the +following event must have occurred between 1679 and 1682, during which +years the Earl held the title. + +The butler of a gentleman living near the Earl was sent to buy a pack of +cards. As he was crossing a field he was surprised to see a company of +people sitting down at a table loaded with all manner of good things, of +which they invited him to partake, and no doubt he would have accepted had +not someone whispered in his ear, "Do nothing this company invites you +to," upon which he refused. After this they first fell to dancing, and +playing on musical instruments, then to work, in both of which occupations +they desired the butler to join, but to no purpose. + +The night following the friendly spirit came to his bedside and warned him +not to stir out of doors the next day, for if he did so the mysterious +company would obtain possession of him. He remained indoors the greater +part of that day, but towards evening he crossed the threshold, and hardly +had he done so when a rope was cast about his waist, and he was forcibly +dragged away with great swiftness. A horseman coming towards him espied +both the man and the two ends of the rope, but could see nothing pulling. +By catching hold of one end he succeeded in stopping the man's headlong +course, though as a punishment for so doing he received a smart blow on +his arm from the other. + +This came to the ears of the Earl of Orrery, who requested the butler's +master to send him to his house, which the latter did. There were then +staying with the Earl several persons of quality, two Bishops, and the +celebrated Healer, Valentine Greatrakes. Here the malice of the spirits or +fairies manifested itself in a different manner. The unfortunate man was +suddenly perceived to rise from the ground, and the united efforts of +Greatrakes and another were unable to check his upward motion--in fact all +that the spectators could do was to keep running under him to protect him +from being hurt if the invisible power should suddenly relax its hold. At +length he fell, but was caught by them before he reached the ground, and +so received no harm. + +That night the spectre, which had twice proved so friendly, appeared at +his bedside with a wooden platter full of some grey liquid, which it bade +him drink, as he had brought it to him to cure him of two sorts of fits he +was subject to. He refused to drink it, and it would appear from another +part of the narration that his refusal was based on the advice of the two +Bishops, whom he had consulted in the matter. At this the spirit was very +angry, but told him he had a kindness for him, and that if he drank the +juice of plantain-roots he would be cured of one sort of fit, but that he +should suffer the other one till his death. On asking his visitant who he +was, he replied that he was the ghost of a man who had been dead seven +years, and who in the days of his flesh had led a loose life, and was +therefore condemned to be borne about in a restless condition with the +strange company until the Day of Judgment. He added that "if the butler +had acknowledged God in all His ways he had not suffered such things by +their means," and reminded him that he had not said his prayers the day +before he met the company in the field; and thereupon vanished. Had this +story rested alone on the evidence of the butler the "two sorts of fits" +would have been more than sufficient to account for it, but what are we to +say to the fact that all the main points of the narrative were borne out +by the Earl, while Mr. Greatrakes (according to Dr. More, the author of +_Collections of Philosophical Writings_) declared that he was actually an +eye-witness of the man's being carried in the air above their heads. + +At the instigation of a ghost a lawsuit took place at Downpatrick in 1685. +The account of this was given to Baxter[47] by Thomas Emlin, "a worthy +preacher in Dublin," as well as by Claudius Gilbert, one of the principal +parties therein concerned: the latter's son and namesake proved a liberal +benefactor to the Library of Trinity College--some of his books have been +consulted for the present work. It appears that for some time past there +had been a dispute about the tithes of Drumbeg, a little parish about four +miles outside Belfast, between Mr. Gilbert, who was vicar of that town, +and the Archdeacon of Down, Lemuel Matthews, whom Cotton in his _Fasti_ +describes as "a man of considerable talents and legal knowledge, but of a +violent overbearing temper, and a litigous disposition." The parishioners +of Drumbeg favoured Gilbert, and generally paid the tithes to him as being +the incumbent in possession; but the Archdeacon claimed to be the lawful +recipient, in support of which claim he produced a warrant. In the +execution of this by his servants at the house of Charles Lostin, one of +the parishioners, they offered some violence to his wife Margaret, who +refused them entrance, and who died about a month later (1st Nov. 1685) of +the injuries she had received at their hands. Being a woman in a bad state +of health little notice was taken of her death, until about a month after +she appeared to one Thomas Donelson, who had been a spectator of the +violence done her, and "affrighted him into a Prosecution of Robert +Eccleson, the Criminal. She appeared divers times, but chiefly upon one +Lord's Day-Evening, when she fetch'd him with a strange force out of his +House into the Yard and Fields adjacent. Before her last coming (for she +did so three times that Day) several Neighbours were called in, to whom he +gave notice that she was again coming; and beckon'd him to come out; upon +which they went to shut the Door, but he forbad it, saying that she looked +with a terrible Aspect upon him, when they offered it. But his Friends +laid hold on him and embraced him, that he might not go out again; +notwithstanding which (a plain evidence of some invisible Power), he was +drawn out of their Hands in a surprizing manner, and carried about into +the Field and Yard, as before, she charging him to prosecute Justice: +which Voice, as also Donelson's reply, the people heard, though they saw +no shape. There are many Witnesses of this yet alive, particularly Sarah +(Losnam), the Wife of Charles Lostin, Son to the deceased Woman, and one +William Holyday and his Wife." This last appearance took place in +Holyday's house; there were also present several young persons, as well as +Charles and Helen Lostin, children of the deceased, most of whom appeared +as witnesses at the trial. + +Upon this Donelson deposed all he knew of the matter to Mr. Randal Brice, +a neighbouring Justice of the Peace; the latter brought the affair before +the notice of Sir William Franklin in Belfast Castle. The depositions were +subsequently carried to Dublin, and the case was tried at Downpatrick +Assizes by Judge John Lindon in 1685.[48] On behalf of the plaintiff, +Charles Lostin, Counseller James Macartney acted--if he be the Judge who +subsequently makes his appearance in a most important witch-trial at +Carrickfergus, he certainly was as excellent an advocate as any plaintiff +in a case of witchcraft could possibly desire, as he was strongly +prejudiced in favour of the truth of all such matters. "The several +Witnesses were heard and sworn, and their Examinations were entred in the +Record of that Assizes, to the Amazement and Satisfaction of all that +Country and of the Judges, whom I have heard speak of it at that time with +much Wonder; insomuch that the said Eccleson hardly escaped with his +life, but was Burnt in the Hand." + +A case of supposed witchcraft occurred in Cork in 1685-6, the account of +which is contained in a letter from Christopher Crofts to Sir John +Perceval (the third Baronet, and father of the first Earl of Egmont) +written on the fifteenth of March in that year. Though the narrator +professes his disbelief in such superstitions, yet there seems to have +been an unconscious feeling in his mind that his strict administration of +the law was the means of bringing the affliction on his child. He says: +"My poor boy Jack to all appearances lay dying; he had a convulsion for +eight or nine hours. His mother and several others are of opinion he is +bewitched, and by the old woman, the mother of Nell Welsh, who is reputed +a bad woman; and the child was playing by her that day she was upon her +examination, and was taken ill presently after she was committed to +Bridewell. But I have not faith to believe it was anything but the hand of +God. I have committed the girl to Bridewell, where she shall stay some +time."[49] + +At one period in their history that peculiar people, known amongst +themselves as the Society of Friends, and by their opponents as Quakers, +appear to have been most troublesome, and to have caused a good deal of +annoyance to other religious bodies. Not unnaturally their enemies +credited any wild tales which were related about them to their detriment, +especially when they had reference to their doctrine of the influence of +the Spirit. Dr. More, in his continuation to Glanvill's book, has in the +sixth Relation an account of a man, near Cambridge in England, who was +possessed by an evil spirit which led him to do the most extraordinary +things in its attempt to convert him to Quakerism. In the _Life of Mr. +Alexander Peden, late Minister of the Gospel at New Glenluce in Galloway_, +who died in 1686, there is an account of a Quakers' meeting in this +country at which the Devil appeared in most blasphemous parody of the Holy +Ghost. As Mr. Peden was travelling one time by himself in Ireland "the +night came on, and a dark mist, which obliged him to go into a house +belonging to a Quaker. Mr. Peden said, 'I must beg the favour of the roof +of your house all night.' The Quaker said, 'Thou art a stranger, thou art +very welcome and shalt be kindly entertained, but I cannot wait upon thee, +for I am going to the meeting.' Mr. Peden said, 'I will go along with +you.' The Quaker said, 'Thou may, if thou please, but thou must not +trouble us.' He said, 'I will be civil.' When they came to the meeting, as +their ordinary is, they sat for some time silent, some with their faces to +the wall, and others covered. There being a void in the loft above them +there came down the appearance of a raven, and sat upon one man's head, +who started up immediately, and spoke with such vehemence that the froth +flew from his mouth; it went to a second, and he did the same; and to a +third, who did as the former two. Mr. Peden sitting near to his landlord +said, 'Do you not see that? Ye will not deny it afterwards?' When they +dismissed, going home Mr. Peden said to him, 'I always thought there was +devilry among you, but never thought that he did appear visibly among you +till now that I have seen it.' The poor man fell a-weeping, and said, 'I +perceive that God hath sent you to my house, and put it into your heart to +go along with me, and permitted the Devil to appear visibly among us this +night. I never saw the like before. Let me have the help of your prayers.' +After this he became a singular Christian." + +Mr. Peden was also somewhat of a prophet, and his speciality appears to +have been the prognostication of unpleasant events, at all events to +persons in Ireland. Two instances will suffice. When in a gentleman's +house in co. Antrim he foretold that a maid-servant was _enceinte_, that +she would murder the child, and would be punished. "Which accordingly came +to pass, and she was burnt at Craig Fergus." On another occasion two +messengers were sent to inform the Lord-Lieutenant that the Presbyterian +ministers in Ireland should affirm that they had nothing to do with the +rebellion at Bothwell Bridge. Mr. Peden said they were on the Devil's +errand, but God would arrest them by the gate. Accordingly one was +stricken with sickness, while the other fell from his horse and broke his +leg. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +A.D. 1688 + + AN IRISH-AMERICAN WITCH + + +It is often said that Irishmen succeed best out of Ireland; those +qualities they possess, which fail to ripen and come to maturity in the +lethargic atmosphere of the Green Isle, where nothing matters very much +provided public opinion is not run counter to, become factors of history +under the sunshine and storm of countries where more ample scope is given +for the full development of pugnacity, industry, or state-craft. At any +rate, from the days of Duns Scotus and St. Columbanus down to the present, +Irishmen have filled, and still fill, positions of the highest importance +in every part of the globe as friends of kings, leaders of armies, or +preachers of the Truth--of such every Irishman, be his creed or politics +what they may, is justly proud. To the lengthy and varied list of honours +and offices may be added (in one instance at least) the item of +witchcraft. Had the unhappy creature, whose tale is related below, +remained in her native land, she would most probably have ended her days +in happy oblivion as a poor old woman, in no way distinguishable from +hundreds of others in like position; as it was, she attained unenviable +notoriety as a powerful witch, and was almost certainly the means of +starting the outbreak at Salem. Incidentally the story is of interest as +showing that at this time there were some Irish-speaking people in Boston. + +Shortly after the date of its colonisation the State of Massachusetts +became remarkable for its cases of witchcraft; several persons were tried, +and some were hanged, for this crime. But at the time about which we are +writing there was in Boston a distinguished family of puritanical +ministers named Mather. The father, Increase Mather, is to be identified +with the person of that name who was Commonwealth "minister of the Gospel" +at Magherafelt in Ireland in 1656; his more famous son, Cotton, was a +most firm believer in all the possibilities of witchcraft, and it is to +his pen that we owe the following. He first gave an account of it to the +world in his _Memorable Providences relating to Witchcraft_, published at +Boston in 1689, the year after its occurrence; and subsequently reproduced +it, though in a more condensed form, in his better-known _Magnalia +Christi_ (London, 1702). It is from this latter source that we have taken +it, and the principal passages which are omitted in it, but occur in the +_Memorable Providences_, are here inserted either within square brackets +in the text, or as footnotes. We may now let the reverend gentleman tell +his tale in his own quaint and rotund phraseology. + + "Four children of John Goodwin in Boston which had enjoyed a Religious + Education, and answer'd it with a towardly Ingenuity; Children indeed + of an exemplary Temper and Carriage, and an Example to all about them + for Piety, Honesty, and Industry. These were in the year 1688 arrested + by a stupendous Witchcraft. The Eldest of the children, a Daughter of + about Thirteen years old, saw fit to examine their Laundress, the + Daughter of a Scandalous Irish Woman in the Neighbourhood, whose name + was Glover [whose miserable husband before he died had sometimes + complained of her, that she was undoubtedly a witch, and that wherever + his head was laid, she would quickly arrive unto the punishments due + to such a one], about some Linnen that was missing, and the Woman + bestowing very bad language on the Child, in the Daughter's Defence, + the Child was immediately taken with odd Fits, that carried in them + something Diabolical. It was not long before one of her Sisters, with + two of her Brothers, were horribly taken with the like Fits, which the + most Experienc'd Physicians [particularly our worthy and prudent + friend Dr. Thomas Oakes] pronounced Extraordinary and preternatural; + and one thing the more confirmed them in this Opinion was, that all + the Children were tormented still just the same part of their Bodies, + at the same time, though their Pains flew like swift lightning from + one part to another, and they were kept so far asunder that they + neither saw nor heard each other's Complaints. At nine or ten a-clock + at Night they still had a Release from their miseries, and slept all + Night pretty comfortably. But when the Day came they were most + miserably handled. Sometimes they were Deaf, sometimes Dumb, and + sometimes Blind, and often all this at once. Their tongues would be + drawn down their throats, and then pull'd out upon their Chins, to a + prodigious Length. Their Mouths were forc'd open to such a Wideness, + that their Jaws were out of Joint; and anon clap together again, with + a Force like a Spring-lock: and the like would happen to their + Shoulder-blades, their Elbows and Hand-wrists, and several of their + Joints.... Their Necks would be broken, so that their Neck-bone would + seem dissolv'd unto them that felt after it, and yet on the sudden it + would become again so stiff, that there was no stirring of their + Heads; yea, their Heads would be twisted almost round. And if the main + Force of their Friends at any time obstructed a dangerous Motion + which they seemed upon, they would roar exceedingly. + + "But the Magistrates being awakened by the Noise of these Grievous and + Horrid Occurrences, examin'd the Person who was under the suspicion of + having employ'd these Troublesome Dæmons, and she gave such a Wretched + Account of herself that she was committed unto the Gaoler's Custody. + [Goodwin had no proof that could have done her any hurt; but the hag + had not power to deny her interest in the enchantment of the children; + and when she was asked, Whether she believed there was a God? her + answer was too blasphemous and horrible for any pen of mine to + mention. Upon the commitment of this extraordinary woman all the + children had some present ease, until one related to her, accidentally + meeting one or two of them, entertain'd them with her blessing, that + is railing, upon which three of them fell ill again.] + + "It was not long before this Woman was brought upon her Trial; but + then [thro' the efficacy of a charm, I suppose, used upon her by one + or some of her crue] the Court could have no Answers from her but in + the Irish, which was her Native Language, although she understood + English very well, and had accustom'd her whole Family to none but + English in her former Conversation. [It was long before she could with + any direct answers plead unto her Indictment, and when she did plead] + it was with owning and bragging rather than denial of her Guilt. And + the Interpreters, by whom the Communication between the Bench and the + Barr was managed, were made sensible that a Spell had been laid by + another Witch on this, to prevent her telling Tales, by confining her + to a language which 'twas hoped nobody would understand. The Woman's + House being searched, several Images, or Poppets, or Babies, made of + Raggs and stuffed with Goat's Hair, were found; when these were + produced the vile Woman confess'd, that her way to torment the Objects + of her Malice was by wetting of her Finger with her Spittle, and + stroaking of these little Images. The abus'd Children were then + produced in Court, and the Woman still kept stooping and shrinking, as + one that was almost prest to death with a mighty Weight upon her. But + one of the Images being brought to her, she odly and swiftly started + up, and snatch'd it into her Hand. But she had no sooner snatch'd it + than one of the Children fell into sad Fits before the whole Assembly. + The Judges had their just Apprehensions at this, and carefully causing + a repetition of the Experiment, they still found the same Event of it, + tho' the Children saw not when the Hand of the Witch was laid upon the + Images. They ask'd her, _Whether she had any to stand by her?_ She + reply'd, _She had_; and looking very fixtly into the air, she added, + _No, he's gone!_ and then acknowledged she had One, who was her + Prince, with whom she mention'd I know not what Communion. For which + cause the Night after she was heard expostulating with a Devil for his + thus deserting her, telling him, that because he had served her so + basely and falsely she had confessed all. + + "However to make all clear the Court appointed five or six Physicians + to examine her very strictly, whether she were no way craz'd in her + Intellectuals. Divers Hours did they spend with her, and in all that + while no Discourse came from her but what was agreeable; particularly + when they ask'd her what she thought would become of her Soul, she + reply'd, _You ask me a very solemn Question, and I cannot tell what to + say to it_. She profest herself a Roman Catholick, and could recite + her Paternoster in Latin very readily, but there was one Clause or two + always too hard for her, whereof she said, _She could not repeat it, + if she might have all the world_.[50] In the Upshot the Doctors + returned her Compos Mentis, and Sentence of Death was past upon her. + + "Divers Days past between her being arraign'd and condemn'd; and in + this time one Hughes testify'd, that her Neighbour (called Howen), who + was cruelly bewitch'd unto Death about six years before, laid her + Death to the charge of this Woman [she had seen Glover sometimes come + down her chimney], and bid her, the said Hughes, to remember this; + for within six years there would be occasion to mention it. [This + Hughes now preparing her testimony, immediately one of her children, a + fine boy well grown towards youth] was presently taken ill in the same + woful manner that Goodwin's were; and particularly the Boy in the + Night cry'd out, that a Black Person with a Blue Cap in the Room + tortur'd him, and that they try'd with their Hand in the Bed for to + pull out his Bowels. The Mother of the Boy went unto Glover on the day + following, and asked her, _Why she tortured her poor Lad at such a + rate?_ Glover answered, _Because of the Wrong she had receiv'd from + her_; and boasted _That she had come at him as a Black Person with a + Blue Cap, and with her Hand in the Bed would have pulled his Bowels + out, but could not_. Hughes denied that she had wronged her; and + Glover then desiring to see the Boy, wished him well; upon which he + had no more of his Indisposition. + + "After the Condemnation of the Woman, I did my self give divers Visits + to her, wherein she told me, that she did use to be at Meetings, where + her Prince with Four more were present. She told me who the Four + were, and plainly said, _That her Prince was the Devil_. [She + entertained me with nothing but Irish, which language I had not + learning enough to understand without an interpreter.] When I told her + that, and how her Prince had deserted her, she reply'd [I think in + English, and with passion too], _If it be so, I am sorry for that_. + And when she declined answering some things that I ask'd her, she told + me, _She could give me a full answer, but her Spirits would not give + her leave: nor could she consent_, she said, _without this leave that + I should pray for her_. [However against her will I pray'd with her, + which if it were a fault it was in excess of pity. When I had done she + thanked me with many good words, but I was no sooner out of her sight + than she took a stone, a long and slender stone, and with her finger + and spittle fell to tormenting it; though whom or what she meant I had + the mercy never to understand.] At her Execution she said the + afflicted Children should not be relieved by her Death, for others + besides she had a hand in their Affliction." + +Mrs. Glover was hanged, but in accordance with her dying words the young +Goodwins experienced no relief from their torments, or, as Cotton Mather +characteristically puts it, "the Three Children continued in their +Furnace, as before; and it grew rather seven times hotter than before," +and as this was brought about by our Irish witch it may not be out of +place to give some extracts relative to the extraordinary adventures that +befel them. "In their Fits they cried out of _They_ and _Them_ as the +Authors of all their Miseries; but who that _They_ and _Them_ were, they +were not able to declare. Yet at last one of the Children was able to +discern their Shapes, and utter their names. A Blow at the Place where +they saw the Spectre was always felt by the Boy himself in that part of +his Body that answer'd what might be stricken at. And this tho' his Back +were turned, and the thing so done, that there could be no Collusion in +it. But a Blow at the Spectre always helped him too, for he would have a +respite from his Ails a considerable while, and the Spectre would be gone. +Yea, 'twas very credibly affirmed, that a dangerous Woman or two in the +Town received Wounds by the Blows thus given to their spectres.... +Sometimes they would be very mad, and then they would climb over high +Fences, yea, they would fly like Geese, and be carry'd with an incredible +Swiftness through the Air, having but just their Toes now and then upon +the Ground (sometimes not once in Twenty Foot), and their Arms wav'd like +the Wings of a Bird.... If they were bidden to do a _needless_ thing (as +to rub a _clean_ Table) they were able to do it unmolested; but if to do +any _useful_ thing (as to rub a _dirty_ Table), they would presently, with +many Torments, be made incapable." + +Finally Cotton Mather took the eldest of the three children, a girl, to +his own house, partly out of compassion for her parents, but chiefly, as +he tells us, "that I might be a critical Eye-witness of things that would +enable me to confute the Sadducism of this Debauched Age"--and certainly +her antics should have provided him with a quiverful of arguments against +the "Sadducees." "In her Fits she would cough up a Ball as big as a small +Egg into the side of her Windpipe that would near choak her, till by +Stroaking and by Drinking it was again carry'd down. When I pray'd in the +Room her Hands were with a _strong_, though not _even_, Force clapt upon +her Ears. And when her Hands were by our Force pull'd away, she cry'd out, +_They make such a noise, I cannot hear a word_. She complained that +Glover's chain was upon her Leg; and assaying to go, her Gate was exactly +such as the chain'd Witch had before she dy'd. [Sometimes she imagined she +was mounted on horseback], and setting herself in a riding Posture, she +would in her Chair be agitated, as one sometimes Ambling, sometimes +Trotting, and sometimes Galloping very furiously. In these Motions we +could not perceive that she was mov'd by the Stress of her Feet upon the +Ground, for often she touched it not. When she had rode a Minute or two, +she would seem to be at a Rendezvous with Them that were her Company, and +there she would maintain a Discourse with them, asking them many Questions +concerning her self. At length she pretended that her Horse could ride up +the Stairs; and unto admiration she rode (that is, was toss'd as one that +rode) up the Stair." + +Subsequently, when the clergy of Boston and Charleston had kept a day of +prayer with fasting, the children improved until they became perfectly +well. But in an unlucky moment Mr. Mather determined to entertain his +congregation with a sermon on these _Memorable Providences_, and the study +of this again affected the girl. Formerly, in the worst of her attacks, +she had been most dutiful and respectful to Cotton Mather, "but now her +whole Carriage to me was with a Sauciness which I am not us'd anywhere to +be treated withal. She would knock at my Study door, affirming _that some +one below would be glad to see me_, tho' there was none that ask'd for me. +And when I chid her for telling what was false, her Answer was _that Mrs. +Mather is always glad to see you_! Once when lying in a fit, as he that +was praying was alluding to the Words of the Canaanitess, and saying, +_Lord, have mercy on a Daughter vext with a Devil_, there came a big, but +low, voice from her, in which the Spectators did not see her Mouth to +move, _There's two or three of us_." + +Finally after three days of fasting and prayer the children were +completely cured, but the storm thus raised was not easily allayed. The +old woman seems, like many another of her years and sex, to have been of a +choleric and crotchety disposition, while it is also quite within the +bounds of possibility that she had become so infected with the popular +superstition (and who could blame her!) that she actually believed herself +to be capable of harming people by merely stroking dolls or stones with +her finger. That not uncommon form of mental torture employed, namely, the +making her repeat the Lord's Prayer, all the time watching carefully for +_lapsus linguæ_, and thence drawing deductions as to her being in league +with the Devil, was particularly absurd in the case of such a person as +Mrs. Glover, whose memory was confused by age. At any rate there are +probably very few of us at the present day who would care to be forced to +say in public either that Prayer or the Apostles' Creed if we knew that +our lives depended on absolute verbal accuracy, and that the slightest +slip might mean death. It is possible, too, that some of the fits of +Goodwin's children were due to conscious imposture; and certain it is, +from a study of the whole case, that the deep-rooted belief of the +self-opinionated Cotton Mather in the truth of such things, as well as the +flattering his vanity received, contributed very largely to the success of +the whole incident. Cotton Mather's account of the case was very highly +praised by Mr. Baxter in his _Certainty of the World of Spirits_, and this +so delighted Mr. Mather that he distributed the latter work throughout New +England as being one that should convince the most obdurate "Sadducee." +The result of this was speedily seen. Three years after the Boston +incident a similar outbreak occurred amongst some young persons in the +house of the Rev. Samuel Parris at Salem, then a small village about +nineteen miles north-east of Boston. The contagion spread with appalling +rapidity; numerous persons were brought to trial, of whom, in the space of +sixteen months, nineteen (_twenty-five_ according to Ashton)[51] were +hanged, one of them being a clergyman, the Rev. George Burroughs, about +one hundred and fifty were put in prison, and more than two hundred +accused of witchcraft. Finally the Government put a stop to the trials, +and released the accused in April 1693; Mr. Parris, in whose house the +affair commenced, was dismissed from his cure, as being the "Beginner and +Procurer of the sorest Afflictions," but, directly and indirectly, Mrs. +Glover may be considered the first cause, for if the case of Goodwin's +children had not occurred at Boston it is more than probable the village +of Salem would never have been plagued as it was. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +A.D. 1689-1720 + + PORTENT ON ENTRY OF JAMES II--WITCHCRAFT IN CO. ANTRIM--TRADITIONAL + VERSION OF SAME--EVENTS PRECEDING THE ISLAND-MAGEE WITCH-TRIAL.--THE + TRIAL ITSELF--DR. FRANCIS HUTCHINSON. + + +The account of the following portent is given us in Aubrey's +_Miscellanies_. "When King James II first entered Dublin after his Arrival +from France, 1689, one of the Gentlemen that bore the Mace before him, +stumbled without any rub in his way, or other visible occasion. The Mace +fell out of his hands, and the little Cross upon the Crown thereof stuck +fast between two Stones in the Street. This is well known all over +Ireland, and did much trouble King James himself with many of his chief +Attendants"; but no doubt greatly raised the hopes of his enemies. + +A few years later a witch-story comes from the north of Ireland, and is +related by George Sinclair in his _Satan's Invisible World displayed_ (in +later editions, not in the first). This book, by the way, seems to have +been extremely popular, as it was reprinted several times, even as late as +1871. "At Antrim in Ireland a little girl of nineteen (nine?) years of +age, inferior to none in the place for beauty, education, and birth, +innocently put a leaf of sorrel which she had got from a witch into her +mouth, after she had given the begging witch bread and beer at the door; +it was scarce swallowed by her, but she began to be tortured in the +bowels, to tremble all over, and even was convulsive, and in fine to swoon +away as dead. The doctor used remedies on the 9th of May 1698, at which +time it happened, but to no purpose, the child continued in a most +terrible paroxysm; whereupon they sent for the minister, who scarce had +laid his hand upon her when she was turned by the demon in the most +dreadful shapes. She began first to rowl herself about, then to vomit +needles, pins, hairs, feathers, bottoms of thread, pieces of glass, +window-nails, nails drawn out of a cart or coach-wheel, an iron knife +about a span long, eggs, and fish-shells; and when the witch came near +the place, or looked to the house, though at the distance of two hundred +paces from where the child was, she was in worse torment, insomuch that no +life was expected from the child till the witch was removed to some +greater distance. The witch was apprehended, condemned, strangled, and +burnt, and was desired to undo the incantation immediately before +strangling; but said she could not, by reason others had done against her +likewise. But the wretch confessed the same, with many more. The child was +about the middle of September thereafter carried to a gentleman's house, +where there were many other things scarce credible, but that several +ministers and the gentleman have attested the same. The relation is to be +seen in a pamphlet printed 1699, and entitled _The Bewitching of a Child +in Ireland_." + +Baxter in his _Certainty of the World of Spirits_ quotes what at first +sight appears to be the same case, but places it at Utrecht, and dates it +1625. But it is quite possible for a similar incident to have occurred on +the Continent as well as in Ireland; many cases of witchcraft happening +at widely different places and dates have points of close resemblance. +Sinclair's story appears to be based on an actual trial for witchcraft in +co. Antrim, the more so as he has drawn his information from a pamphlet on +the subject which was printed the year after its occurrence. The mention +of this latter is particularly interesting; it was probably locally +printed, but there appears to be no means of tracing it, and indeed it +must have been thumbed out of existence many years ago. The above story, +marvellous though it may seem, is capable of explanation. The oxalic acid +in sorrel is an irritant poison, causing retching and violent pains. But +when once the suspicion of _witchcraft_ arose the ejection of such an +extraordinary collection of miscellaneous articles followed quite as a +matter of course--it would, so to speak, have been altogether against the +rules of the game for the girl to have got rid of anything else at that +particular date. + +Classon Porter gives what he considers to be the traditional version of +the above. According to it the supposed witch was a poor old woman, who +was driven mad by the cruel and barbarous treatment which she received +from many of her neighbours on the ground of her being a witch. To escape +this treatment she sought refuge in a cave, which was in a field attached +to the old (not the present) meeting-house in Antrim. Her living in such a +place being thought a confirmation of what was alleged against her, she +was thereupon stabbed to death, and her body cut in pieces, which were +then scattered over the places where she was supposed to have exercised +her evil influence. For some years after this terrible tragedy her ghost, +in the form of a goat, was believed to haunt the session-house of the old +meeting-house near which she had met her cruel fate; it was popularly +known as MacGregor's ghost, this having been the name of the man who was +sexton of the meeting-house when these things took place, and who probably +had been concerned in the murder. So far Classon Porter. But we very much +doubt if the above has really any connection with the Antrim witch-case +of 1698. It seems more probable that it occurred at a later date, possibly +after the Island-Magee trial, and thus would be an instance of one of +those outbursts of cruelty on the part of a mob rendered ferocious by +ignorance and superstition, of which examples are to be found in England +during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. + +On one occasion an Irish witch or wise woman was the means of having a +Scotch girl delated by the Kirk for using charms at Hallow-Eve apparently +for the purpose of discovering who her future husband should be. She +confessed that "at the instigation of an old woman from Ireland she +brought in a pint of water from a well which brides and burials pass over, +and dipt her shirt into it, and hung it before the fire; that she either +dreamed, or else there came something and turned about the chair on which +her shirt was, but she could not well see what it was." Her sentence was a +rebuke before the congregation; considering the state of Scotland at that +period it must be admitted she escaped very well.[52] + +We now come to the last instance of witches being tried and convicted in +Ireland as offenders against the laws of the realm--the celebrated +Island-Magee case. There is a very scarce published account of this, said +to have been compiled by an eye-witness, and entitled: "A Narrative of the +sufferings of a young girl called Mary Dunbar, who was strangely molested +by spirits and witches, at Mr. James Haltridge's house, parish of Island +Magee, near Carrigfergus, in the County of Antrim, and Province of Ulster, +in Ireland, and in some other places to which she was removed during her +disorder; as also of the aforesaid Mr. Haltridge's house being haunted by +spirits in the latter end of 1710 and beginning of 1711." This continued +for many years in manuscript, but in 1822 it was printed as a pamphlet at +Belfast, under the editorship of M'Skimin, author of the _History of +Carrigfergus_. This pamphlet we have not seen; but full particulars of the +entire case can be obtained by combining the following sources of +information, viz. Wright's _Narratives of Sorcery and Witchcraft_; the +_Dublin University Magazine_, vol. lxxxii.; a letter by Dr. Tisdall, the +Vicar of Belfast, in the _Hibernian Magazine_ for January 1775; Classon +Porter's pamphlet; M'Skimin's _History of Carrigfergus_ (ed. M'Crum, +1909); while the depositions that were taken are published in Young's +_Historical Notices of Old Belfast_, pp. 161-4. + +The actual trial of the witches was preceded by a series of most +extraordinary incidents. In September 1710, Mrs. Anne Haltridge, widow of +the Rev. John Haltridge, late Presbyterian minister at Island Magee, while +staying in the house of her son, James Haltridge of the same place, +suffered great annoyance every night from some invisible object, which +threw stones and turf at her bed, the force of the blow often causing the +curtains to open, and even drawing them from one end of the bed to the +other. About the same time, also, the pillows were taken from under her +head, and the clothes pulled off; and though a strict search was made, +nothing could be discovered. Continuing to be annoyed in this way she +removed to another room, being afraid to remain in her own any longer. + +Then about the 11th of December, as she was sitting in the twilight at the +kitchen fire, a little boy came in and sat down beside her. He appeared to +be about eleven or twelve years old, with short black hair, having an old +black bonnet on his head, a half-worn blanket about him trailing on the +floor, and a torn vest under it, and kept his face covered with the +blanket held before it. Mrs. Haltridge asked him several questions: Where +he came from? Where he was going? Was he cold or hungry? and so on; but +instead of answering her he got up and danced very nimbly round the +kitchen, and then ran out of the house and disappeared in the cow-shed. +The servants ran after him, but he was nowhere to be seen; when they +returned to the house, however, there he was beside them. They tried to +catch him, but every time they attempted it he ran off and could not be +found. At last one of the servants, seeing the master's dog coming in, +cried out that her master was returning home, and that he would soon +catch the troublesome creature, upon which he immediately vanished, nor +were they troubled with him again till February 1711. + +On the 11th of that month, which happened to be a Sunday, old Mrs. +Haltridge was reading Dr. Wedderburn's _Sermons on the Covenant_, when, +laying the book aside for a little while, nobody being in the room all the +time, it was suddenly taken away. She looked for it everywhere, but could +not find it. On the following day the apparition already referred to came +to the house, and breaking a pane of glass in one of the windows, thrust +in his hand with the missing volume in it. He began to talk with one of +the servants, Margaret Spear, and told her that he had taken the book when +everybody was down in the kitchen, and that her mistress would never get +it again. The girl asked him if he could read it, to which he replied that +he could, adding that the Devil had taught him. Upon hearing this +extraordinary confession she exclaimed, "The Lord bless me from thee! Thou +hast got ill lear (learning)." He told her she might bless herself as +often as she liked, but that it could not save her; whereupon he produced +a sword, and threatened to kill everybody in the house. This frightened +her so much that she ran into the parlour and fastened the door, but the +apparition laughed at her, and declared that he could come in by the +smallest hole in the house like a cat or mouse, as the Devil could make +him anything he pleased. He then took up a large stone, and hurled it +through the parlour window, which, upon trial, could not be put out at the +same place. A little after the servant and child looked out, and saw the +apparition catching the turkey-cock, which he threw over his shoulder, +holding him by the tail; and the bird making a great sputter with his +feet, the stolen book was spurred out of the loop in the blanket where the +boy had put it. He then leaped over a wall with the turkey-cock on his +back. Presently the girl saw him endeavouring to draw his sword to kill +the bird, but it escaped. Missing the book out of his blanket he ran +nimbly up and down in search of it, and then with a club came and broke +the glass of the parlour window. The girl again peeped out through the +kitchen window, and saw him digging with his sword. She summoned up +courage to ask him what he was doing, and he answered, "Making a grave for +a corpse which will come out of this house very soon." He refused, +however, to say who it would be, but having delivered himself of this +enlivening piece of information, flew over the hedge as if he had been a +bird. + +For a day or two following nothing happened, but on the morning of the +15th the clothes were mysteriously taken off Mrs. Haltridge's bed, and +laid in a bundle behind it. Being put back by some of the family they were +again removed, and this time folded up and placed under a large table +which happened to be in the room. Again they were laid in order on the +bed, and again they were taken off, and this third time made up in the +shape of a corpse, or something that very closely resembled it. When this +strange news spread through the neighbourhood many persons came to the +house, and, after a thorough investigation lest there might be a trick in +the matter, were obliged to acknowledge that there was some invisible +agent at work. Mr. Robert Sinclair, the Presbyterian minister of the +place, with John Man and Reynold Leaths, two of his Elders, stayed the +whole of that day and the following night with the distressed family, +spending much of the time in prayer. At night Mrs. Haltridge went to bed +as usual in the haunted room, but got very little rest, and at about +twelve o'clock she cried out suddenly as if in great pain. Upon Mr. +Sinclair asking her what was the matter, she said she felt as if a knife +had been stuck into her back. Next morning she quitted the haunted room +and went to another; but the violent pain never left her back, and at the +end of the week, on the 22nd of February, she died. During her illness the +clothes were frequently taken off the bed which she occupied, and made up +like a corpse, and even when a table and chairs were laid upon them to +keep them on, they were mysteriously removed without any noise, and made +up as before; but this never happened when anyone was in the room. The +evening before she died they were taken off as usual; but this time, +instead of being made up in the customary way, they were folded with great +care, and laid in a chest upstairs, where they were only found after a +great deal of searching. + +We now reach the account of the witchcraft proper, and the consequent +trial. In or about the 27th of February 1711, a girl about eighteen years +of age, Miss Mary Dunbar, whom Dr. Tisdall describes as "having an open +and innocent countenance, and being a very intelligent young person," came +to stay with Mrs. Haltridge, junior, to keep her company after her +mother-in-law's death. A rumour was afloat that the latter had been +bewitched into her grave, and this could not fail to have its effect on +Miss Dunbar. Accordingly on the night of her arrival her troubles began. +When she retired to her bedroom, accompanied by another girl, they were +surprised to find that a new mantle and some other wearing apparel had +been taken out of a trunk and scattered through the house. Going to look +for the missing articles, they found lying on the parlour floor an apron +which two days before had been locked up in another apartment. This apron, +when they found it, was rolled up tight, and tied fast with a string of +its own material, which had upon it five strange knots[53] (Tisdall[54] +says _nine_). These she proceeded to unloose, and having done so, she +found a flannel cap, which had belonged to old Mrs. Haltridge, wrapped up +in the middle of the apron. When she saw this she was frightened, and +threw both cap and apron to young Mrs. Haltridge, who also was alarmed, +thinking that the mysterious knots boded evil to some inmate of the house. +That evening Miss Dunbar was seized with a most violent fit, and, +recovering, cried out that a knife was run through her thigh, and that she +was most grievously afflicted by three women, whom she described +particularly, but did not then give any account of their names. About +midnight she was seized with a second fit; when she saw in her vision +seven or eight women who conversed together, and in their conversation +called each other by their names. When she came out of her fit she gave +their names as Janet Liston, Elizabeth Cellor, Kate M'Calmont, Janet +Carson, Janet Mean, Latimer, and one whom they termed Mrs. Ann. She gave +so minute a description of them that several of them were guessed at, and +sent from different parts of the district to the "Afflicted," as Dr. +Tisdall terms her, whom she distinguished from many other women that were +brought with them. "She was constantly more afflicted as they approached +the house; particularly there was one Latimer, who had been sent from +Carrigfergus privately by Mr. Adair, the dissenting teacher; who, when she +came to the house where the Afflicted was, viz. in Island Magee, none of +them suspected her, but the Afflicted fell into a fit as she came near the +house, and recovering when the woman was in the chamber the first words +she said were, _O Latimer, Latimer_ (which was her name), and her +description agreed most exactly to the person. After this manner were all +the rest discovered; and at one time she singled out one of her tormentors +amongst thirty whom they brought in to see if they could deceive her +either in the name or description of the accused person. All this was +sworn to by persons that were present, as having heard it from the +Afflicted as she recovered from her several fits." + +Between the 3rd and the 24th of March depositions relative to various +aspects of the case were sworn to by several people, and the Mayor of +Carrigfergus issued a warrant for the arrest of all suspected persons. +Seven women were arrested; their names were: + + Janet Mean, of Braid Island. + Jane Latimer, of Irish quarter, Carrigfergus. + Margaret Mitchell, of Kilroot. + Catherine M'Calmont, of Island Magee. + Janet Liston, _alias_ Sellar, of same. + Elizabeth Sellar, of same. + Janet Carson, of same. + +Her worst tormentors seem to have been taken into custody at an early +stage in the proceedings, for Miss Dunbar stated in her deposition, made +on the 12th of March, that since their arrest she received no annoyance, +except from "Mrs. Ann, and another woman blind of an eye, who told her +when Mr. Robb, the curate, was going to pray with and for her, that she +should be little the better for his prayers, for they would hinder her +from hearing them, which they accordingly did." In one of her attacks Miss +Dunbar was informed by this "Mrs. Ann" that she should never be discovered +by her name, as the rest had been, but she seems to have overlooked the +fact that her victim was quite capable of giving an accurate _description_ +of her, which she accordingly did, and thus was the means of bringing +about the apprehension of one Margaret Mitchell, upon which she became +free from all annoyance, except that she felt something strange in her +stomach which she would be glad to get rid of--and did, as we shall see +presently. + +With regard to the woman blind in one eye, we learn from another deponent +that three women thus disfigured were brought to her, but she declared +that they never troubled her. "One Jane Miller, of Carrigfergus, blind of +an eye, being sent for, as soon as she drew near the house the said Mary, +who did not know of her coming, became very much afraid, faintish, and +sweat, and as soon as she came into the room the said Mary fell into such +a violent fit of pains that three men were scarce able to hold her, and +cryed out, 'For Christ's sake, take the Devil out of the room.' And being +asked, said the third woman, for she was the woman that did torment her." +Yet Jane Miller does not seem to have been arrested. + +In one of the earliest of the depositions, that sworn by James Hill on the +5th of March, we find an extraordinary incident recorded, which seems to +show that at least one of the accused was a victim of religious mania. He +states that on the 1st of March, "he being in the house of William Sellar +of Island Magee, one Mary Twmain (_sic!_) came to the said house and +called out Janet Liston to speak to her, and that after the said Janet +came in again she fell a-trembling, and told this Deponent that the said +Mary had been desiring her to go to Mr. Haltridge's to see Mary Dunbar, +but she declared she would not go for all Island Magee, except Mr. +Sinclair would come for her, and said: If the plague of God was on her +(Mary Dunbar), the plague of God be on them altogether; the Devil be with +them if he was among them. If God had taken her health from her, God give +her health: if the Devil had taken it from her, the Devil give it her. And +then added: O misbelieving ones, eating and drinking damnation to +themselves, crucifying Christ afresh, and taking all out of the hands of +the Devil!" + +Finally the accused were brought up for trial at Carrigfergus before +Judges Upton and Macartney[55] on 31st March 1711. Amongst the witnesses +examined were Mr. Skeffington, curate of Larne; Mr. Ogilvie, Presbyterian +minister of Larne; Mr. Adair, Presbyterian minister of Carrigfergus; Mr. +Cobham, Presbyterian minister of Broad Island; Mr. Edmonstone, of Red +Hall, and others. The proceedings commenced at six o'clock in the morning, +and lasted until two in the afternoon. An abstract of the evidence was +made by Dr. Tisdall, who was present in Court during the trial, and from +whose letter we extract the following passages--many of the foregoing +facts(!) being also adduced. + +"It was sworn to by most of the evidences that in some of her fits three +strong men were scarce able to hold her down, that she would mutter to +herself, and speak some words distinctly, and tell everything she had said +in her conversation with the witches, and how she came to say such things, +which she spoke when in her fits." + +"In her fits she often had her tongue thrust into her windpipe in such a +manner that she was like to choak, and the root seemed pulled up into her +mouth. Upon her recovery she complained extremely of one Mean, who had +twisted her tongue; and told the Court that she had tore her throat, and +tortured her violently by reason of her crooked fingers and swelled +knuckles. The woman was called to the Bar upon this evidence, and ordered +to show her hand; it was really amazing to see the exact agreement betwixt +the description of the Afflicted and the hand of the supposed tormentor; +all the joints were distorted and the tendons shrivelled up, as she had +described." + +"One of the men who had held her in a fit swore she had nothing visible on +her arms when he took hold of them, and that all in the room saw some +worsted yarn tied round her wrist, which was put on invisibly; there were +upon this string seven double knots and one single one. In another fit she +cried out that she was grievously tormented with a pain about her knee; +upon which the women in the room looked at her knee, and found a fillet +tied fast about it; her mother swore to the fillet, that it was the same +she had given her that morning, and had seen it about her head; this had +also seven double knots and one single one." + +"Her mother was advised by a Roman Catholic priest to use a counter-charm, +which was to write some words out of the first chapter of St. John's +Gospel in a paper, and to tie the paper with an incle three times round +her neck, knotted each time. This charm the girl herself declined; but the +mother, in one of the times of her being afflicted, used it. She was in a +violent fit upon the bed held down by a man, and, recovering a little, +complained grievously of a pain in her back and about her middle; +immediately the company discovered the said incle tied round her middle +with seven double knots and one single one: this was sworn to by several. +The man who held the Afflicted was asked by the Judge if it were possible +she could reach the incle about her neck while he held her; he said it was +not, by the virtue of his oath, he having her hands fast down." + +"The Afflicted, during one of her fits, was observed by several persons to +slide off the bed in an unaccountable manner, and to be laid gently on +the ground as if supported and drawn invisibly. Upon her recovery she told +them the several persons who had drawn her in that manner, with the +intention, as they told her, of bearing her out of the window; but that +she reflecting at that time, and calling upon God in her mind, they let +her drop on the floor." + +"The Afflicted, recovering from a fit, told the persons present that her +tormentors had declared that she should not have power to go over the +threshold of the chamber-door; the evidence declared that they had several +times attempted to lead her out of the door, and that she was as often +thrown into fits as they had brought her to the said threshold; that to +pursue the experiment further they had the said threshold taken up, upon +which they were immediately struck with so strong a smell of brimstone +that they were scarce able to bear it; that the stench spread through the +whole house, and afflicted several to that degree that they fell sick in +their stomachs, and were much disordered." The above were the principal +facts sworn to in the Court, to which most of the witnesses gave their +joint testimony. + +"There was a great quantity of things produced in Court, and sworn to be +what she vomited out of her throat. I had them all in my hand, and found +there was a great quantity of feathers, cotton, yarn, pins, and two large +waistcoat buttons, at least as much as would fill my hand. They gave +evidence to the Court they had seen those very things coming out of her +mouth, and had received them into their hands as she threw them up." + +Her tormentors had told Miss Dunbar that she should have no power to give +evidence against them in Court. "She was accordingly that day before the +trial struck dumb, and so continued in Court during the whole trial, but +had no violent fit. I saw her in Court cast her eyes about in a wild +distracted manner, and it was then thought she was recovering from her fit +[of dumbness], and it was hoped she would give her own evidence. I +observed, as they were raising her up, she sank into the arms of a person +who held her, closed her eyes, and seemed perfectly senseless and +motionless. I went to see her after the trial; she told me she knew not +where she was when in Court; that she had been afflicted all that time by +three persons, of whom she gave a particular description both of their +proportion, habits, hair, features, and complexion, and said she had never +seen them till the day before the trial." + +The prisoners had no lawyer to defend them, while it is hardly necessary +to say that no medical evidence as to the state of health of Miss Dunbar +was heard. When the witnesses had been examined the accused were ordered +to make their defence. They all positively denied the charge of +witchcraft; one with the worst looks, who was therefore the greatest +suspect, called God to witness that she was wronged. Their characters were +inquired into, and some were reported unfavourably of, which seemed to be +rather due to their ill appearance than to any facts proved against them. +"It was made appear on oath that most of them had received the Communion, +some of them very lately, that several of them had been laborious, +industrious people, and had frequently been known to pray with their +families, both publickly and privately; most of them could say the Lord's +Prayer, which it is generally said they learnt in prison, they being every +one Presbyterians." + +"Judge Upton summed up the whole evidence with great exactness and +perspicuity, notwithstanding the confused manner in which it was offered. +He seemed entirely of opinion that the jury could not bring them in guilty +upon the sole testimony of the afflicted person's visionary images. He +said he could not doubt but that the whole matter was preternatural and +diabolical, but he conceived that, had the persons accused been really +witches and in compact with the Devil, it could hardly be presumed that +they should be such constant attenders upon Divine Service, both in public +and private." + +Unfortunately his Brother on the Bench was not so open-minded. Judge +Macartney, who is almost certainly the Counsel for the plaintiff in the +Lostin case, differed altogether from him, and thought that the jury might +well bring them in guilty. The twelve good men and true lost no time in +doing so, and, in accordance with the Statute, the prisoners were +sentenced to a year's imprisonment, and to stand in the pillory four times +during that period. It is said that when placed in this relic of barbarism +the unfortunate wretches were pelted by the mob with eggs and +cabbage-stalks to such an extent that one of them had an eye knocked out. +And thus ended the last trial for witchcraft in Ireland. + +It is significant that witch-trials stopped in all three countries within +a decade of each other. The last condemnation in England occurred in 1712, +when a woman in Hertfordshire, Jane Wenham, was found guilty by a jury, +but was reprieved at the representation of the Judge; another trial +occurred in 1717, but the accused were acquitted. In Scotland the +Sheriff-depute of Sutherland passed sentence of death on a woman (though +apparently illegally) in 1722, who was consequently strangled and burnt. +Ashton indeed states (p. 192) that the last execution in Ireland occurred +at Glarus, when a servant was burnt as a witch in 1786. This would be +extremely interesting, were it not for the fact that it is utterly +incorrect. It is clear from what J. Français says that this happened at +Glaris _in Switzerland_, and was the last instance of judicial +condemnation and execution in Europe. We have drawn attention to this lest +it should mislead others, as it did us. + +Before concluding this chapter it will not be out of place to mention the +fact that one of the most strenuous writers against witchcraft +subsequently ornamented the Irish Episcopal Bench. This was Dr. Francis +Hutchinson, who wrote the "Historical Essay concerning Witchcraft" in the +form of a dialogue between a clergyman (the author), a Scotch advocate, +and an English juror. The first edition was published in 1718, and was +followed by a second in 1720, in which year he was promoted to the See of +Down and Connor. As to the value of his book, and the important position +it occupied in the literary history of witchcraft in England, we cannot do +better than quote Dr. Notestein's laudatory criticism. He says: +"Hutchinson's book must rank with Reginald Scot's _Discoverie_ as one of +the great classics of English witch-literature. So nearly was his point of +view that of our own day that it would be idle to rehearse his arguments. +A man with warm sympathies for the oppressed, he had been led probably by +the case of Jane Wenham, with whom he had talked, to make a personal +investigation of all cases that came at all within the ken of those +living. Whoever shall write the final story of English witchcraft will +find himself still dependent upon this eighteenth-century historian. His +work was the last chapter in the witch controversy. There was nothing more +to say." + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +A.D. 1807 TO PRESENT DAY + + MARY BUTTERS, THE CARNMONEY WITCH--BALLAD ON HER--THE HAND OF GLORY--A + JOURNEY THROUGH THE AIR--A "WITCH" IN 1911--SOME MODERN ILLUSTRATIONS + OF CATTLE- AND MILK-MAGIC--TRANSFERENCE OF DISEASE BY A + _CAILLEACH_--BURYING THE SHEAF--J.P.'S COMMISSION--CONCLUSION + + +Old beliefs die hard, especially when their speedy demise is a +consummation devoutly to be wished; if the Island-Magee case was the last +instance of judicial condemnation of witchcraft as an offence against the +laws of the realm it was very far indeed from being the last occasion on +which a witch and her doings formed the centre of attraction in an Irish +law-court. Almost a century after the Island-Magee incident the town of +Carrigfergus again became the scene of action, when the celebrated +"Carnmoney witch," Mary Butters, was put forward for trial at the Spring +Assizes in March 1808. It is an instance of black magic versus white (if +we may dignify the affair with the title of _magic_!), though it should be +borne in mind that in the persecution of witches many women were put to +death on the latter charge, albeit they were really benefactors of the +human race; the more so as their skill in simples and knowledge of the +medicinal virtue of herbs must have added in no small degree to the +resources of our present pharmacopoeia. The following account of this is +taken from the _Belfast News-Letter_ for 21st August 1807, as well as from +some notes by M'Skimin in Young's _Historical Notices of Old Belfast_. + +One Tuesday night (evidently in August 1807) an extraordinary affair took +place in the house of a tailor named Alexander Montgomery, who lived hard +by Carnmoney Meeting-House. The tailor had a cow which continued to give +milk as usual, but of late no butter could be produced from it. An opinion +was unfortunately instilled into the mind of Montgomery's wife, that +whenever such a thing occurred, it was occasioned by the cow having been +bewitched. Her belief in this was strengthened by the fact that every old +woman in the parish was able to relate some story illustrative of what +_she_ had seen or heard of in times gone by with respect to the same. At +length the family were informed of a woman named Mary Butters, who resided +at Carrigfergus. They went to her, and brought her to the house for the +purpose of curing the cow. About ten o'clock that night war was declared +against the unknown magicians. Mary Butters ordered old Montgomery and a +young man named Carnaghan to go out to the cow-house, turn their +waistcoats inside out, and in that dress to stand by the head of the cow +until she sent for them, while the wife, the son, and an old woman named +Margaret Lee remained in the house with her. + +Montgomery and his ally kept their lonely vigil until daybreak, when, +becoming alarmed at receiving no summons, they left their post and knocked +at the door, but obtained no response. They then looked through the +kitchen window, and to their horror saw the four inmates stretched on the +floor as dead. They immediately burst in the door, and found that the +wife and son were actually dead, and the sorceress and Margaret Lee nearly +so. The latter soon afterwards expired; Mary Butters was thrown out on a +dung-heap, and a restorative administered to her in the shape of a few +hearty kicks, which had the desired effect. The house had a sulphureous +smell, and on the fire was a large pot in which were milk, needles, pins, +and crooked nails. At the inquest held at Carnmoney on the 19th of August, +the jurors stated that the three victims had come by their deaths from +suffocation, owing to Mary Butters having made use of some noxious +ingredients, after the manner of a charm, to recover a sick cow. She was +brought up at the Assizes, but was discharged by proclamation. Her version +of the story was, that a black man had appeared in the house armed with a +huge club, with which he killed the three persons and stunned herself. + +Lamentable though the whole affair was, as well for the gross superstition +displayed by the participants as for its tragical ending, yet it seems to +have aroused no other feelings amongst the inhabitants of Carnmoney and +Carrigfergus than those of risibility and derision. A clever racy ballad +was made upon it by a resident in the district, which, as it is probably +the only poem on the subject of witchcraft in Ireland, we print here in +its entirety from the _Ulster Journal of Archæology_ for 1908, though we +have not had the courage to attempt a glossary to the "braid Scots." It +adds some picturesque details to the more prosaic account of the +_News-Letter_. + + "In Carrick town a wife did dwell + Who does pretend to conjure witches. + Auld Barbara Goats, or Lucky Bell, + Ye'll no lang to come through her clutches. + A waeful trick this wife did play + On simple Sawney, our poor tailor. + She's mittimiss'd the other day + To lie in limbo with the jailor. + This simple Sawney had a cow, + Was aye as sleekit as an otter; + It happened for a month or two + Aye when they churn'd they got nae butter. + Rown-tree tied in the cow's tail, + And vervain glean'd about the ditches; + These freets and charms did not prevail, + They could not banish the auld witches. + The neighbour wives a' gathered in + In number near about a dozen; + Elspie Dough, and Mary Linn, + An' Kate M'Cart, the tailor's cousin. + Aye they churn'd and aye they swat, + Their aprons loos'd, and coost their mutches; + But yet nae butter they could get, + They blessed the cow but curst the witches. + Had Sawney summoned all his wits + And sent awa for Huie Mertin, + He could have gall'd the witches' guts, + An' cur't the kye to Nannie Barton.[56] + But he may shew the farmer's wab, + An' lang wade through Carnmoney gutters; + Alas! it was a sore mis-jab + When he employ'd auld Mary Butters. + The sorcerest open'd the scene + With magic words of her invention, + To make the foolish people keen + Who did not know her base intention, + She drew a circle round the churn, + And washed the staff in south-run water,[57] + And swore the witches she would burn, + But she would have the tailor's butter. + When sable Night her curtain spread + Then she got on a flaming fire; + The tailor stood at the cow's head + With his turn'd waistcoat[58] in the byre. + The chimney covered with a scraw + An' every crevice where it smoak'd, + But long before the cock did craw + The people in the house were choak'd. + The muckle pot hung on all night, + As Mary Butters had been brewing + In hopes to fetch some witch or wight, + Whas entrails by her art were stewing. + In this her magic a' did fail; + Nae witch nor wizard was detected. + Now Mary Butters lies in jail + For the base part that she has acted. + The tailor lost his son and wife, + For Mary Butters did them smother; + But as he hates a single life + In four weeks' time he got another. + He is a crouse auld canty chiel, + An' cares nae what the witches mutter; + He'll never mair employ the Deil, + Nor his auld agent Mary Butters. + At day the tailor left his post + Though he had seen no apparition, + Nae wizard grim, nae witch, nor ghost, + Though still he had a stray suspicion + That some auld wizard wrinkled wife + Had cast her cantrips o'er poor brawney + Cause she and he did live in strife, + An' whar's the man can blame poor Sawney. + Wae sucks for our young lasses now, + For who can read their mystic matters, + Or tell if their sweethearts be true, + The folks a' run to Mary Butters. + To tell what thief a horse did steal, + In this she was a mere pretender, + An' has nae art to raise the Deil + Like that auld wife, the Witch of Endor. + If Mary Butters be a witch + Why but the people all should know it, + An' if she can the muses touch + I'm sure she'll soon descry the poet. + Her ain familiar aff she'll sen' + Or paughlet wi' a tu' commission + To pour her vengeance on the man + That tantalizes her condition." + +There also exists a shorter version of the ballad, which seems to be a +rather clumsy adaptation of what we have given above; in it the witch is +incorrectly termed _Butlers_. That the heroine did not evolve the +procedure she had adopted out of her own fervent imagination, but that she +followed a method generally recognised and practised in the country-side +is shown by a case that occurred at Newtownards in January 1871.[59] A +farm-hand had brought an action against his employer for wages alleged to +be due to him. It transpired in the course of the evidence that on one +occasion he had been set to banish witches that were troubling the cows. +His method of working illustrates the Carnmoney case. All left the house +except the plaintiff, who locked himself in, closed the windows, stopped +all keyholes and apertures, and put sods on top of the chimneys. He then +placed a large pot of sweet milk on the fire, into which he threw three +rows of pins that had never been used, and three packages of needles; all +were allowed to boil together for half an hour, and, as there was no +outlet for the smoke, the plaintiff narrowly escaped being suffocated. + +It is strange to find use made in Ireland of that potent magical +instrument, the Hand of Glory, and that too in the nineteenth century. On +the night of the 3rd of January 1831, some Irish thieves attempted to +commit a robbery on the estate of Mr. Naper, of Loughcrew, co. Meath. They +entered the house, armed with a dead man's hand with a lighted candle in +it, believing in the superstitious notion that if such a hand be procured, +and a candle placed within its grasp, the latter cannot be seen by anyone +except him by whom it is used; also that if the candle and hand be +introduced into a house it will prevent those who may be asleep from +awaking. The inhabitants, however, were alarmed, and the robbers fled, +leaving the hand behind them.[60] No doubt the absolute failure of this +gruesome dark lantern on this occasion was due to the fact that neither +candle nor candlestick had been properly prepared! The orthodox recipe for +its preparation and consequent effectual working may be found in full in +Mr. Baring Gould's essay on Schamir in his _Curious Myths of the Middle +Ages_. + +The following tale comes from an article in the _Dublin University +Magazine_, vol. lxiv.; it has rather a Cross-Channel appearance, but may +have been picked up locally in Ireland. A man named Shamus Rua (Red James) +was awakened one night by a noise in the kitchen. He stole down, and found +his old housekeeper, Madge, with half a dozen of her kidney, sitting by +the fire drinking his whisky. When the bottle was finished one of them +cried, "It's time to be off," and at the same moment she put on a peculiar +red cap, and added:-- + + "By yarrow and rue, + And my red cap, too, + Hie over to England!" + +And seizing a twig she soared up the chimney, whither she was followed by +all save Madge. As the latter was making her preparations Shamus rushed +into the kitchen, snatched the cap from her, and placing himself astride +of her twig uttered the magic formula. He speedily found himself high in +the air over the Irish Sea, and swooping through the empyrean at a rate +unequalled by the fastest aeroplane. They rapidly neared the Welsh coast, +and espied a castle afar off, towards the door of which they rushed with +frightful velocity; Shamus closed his eyes and awaited the shock, but +found to his delight that he had slipped through the keyhole without hurt. +The party made their way to the cellar, where they caroused heartily, but +the wine proved too heady, and somehow Shamus was captured and dragged +before the lord of the castle, who sentenced him to be hanged. On his way +to the gallows an old woman in the crowd called out in Irish "Ah, Shamus +_alanna_! Is it going to die you are in a strange place without your +little red cap?" He craved, and obtained, permission to put it on. On +reaching the place of execution he was allowed to address the spectators, +and did so in the usual ready-made speech, beginning, + + "Good people all, a warning take by me." + +But when he reached the last line, + + "My parents reared me tenderly" + +instead of stopping he unexpectedly added, + + "By yarrow and rue," &c., + +with the result that he shot up through the air, to the great dismay of +all beholders. Our readers will at once recall Grandpapa's Tale of the +Witches' Frolic in the _Ingoldsby Legends_. Similar tales appear in +Scotland, for which see Sharpe, pp. 56, 207; the same writer (p. 212) +makes mention of a red cap being worn by a witch. + +After the opening years of the eighteenth century, when once it had ceased +to attract the unwelcome attentions of judge, jury, and executioner, +witchcraft degenerated rapidly. It is said by some writers that a belief +in the old-fashioned witch of history may still be found in the remoter +parts of rural England; the same can hardly be said of Ireland, this +being due to the fact that witchcraft was never, at its best (or worst) +period, very prevalent in this country. But its place is taken by an +ineradicable belief in _pishogues_, or in the semi-magical powers of the +bone-setter, or the stopping of bleeding wounds by an incantation, or the +healing of diseases in human beings or animals by processes unknown to the +medical profession, or in many other quaint tenets which lie on the +borderland between folklore and witchcraft, and at best only represent the +complete degeneracy and decay of the latter. Yet these practices sometimes +come, for one reason or another, within the wide reach of the arm of the +law, though it is perhaps unnecessary to state that they are not treated +as infringements of the Elizabethan Statute. For example, some years ago a +case was tried at New Pallas in co. Limerick, where a woman believed that +another desired to steal her butter by _pishogues_, flew in a passion, +assaulted her and threw her down, breaking her arm in the fall.[61] That +appalling tragedy, the "witch-burning" case that occurred near Clonmel in +1895, is altogether misnamed. The woman was burnt, not because she was a +witch, but in the belief that the real wife had been taken away and a +fairy changeling substituted in her place; when the latter was subjected +to the fire it would disappear, and the wife would be restored. Thus the +underlying motive was kindness, but oh, how terribly mistaken! Lefanu in +his _Seventy Years of Irish Life_ relates a similar incident, but one +which fortunately ended humorously rather than tragically: while Crofton +Croker mentions instances of wives being taken by the fairies, and +restored to their husbands after the lapse of years. + +Even as late as the summer of 1911 the word "witch" was heard in an Irish +law-court, when an unhappy poor woman was tried for killing another, an +old-age pensioner, in a fit of insanity.[62] One of the witnesses deposed +that he met the accused on the road on the morning of the murder. She had +a statue in her hand, and repeated three times: "I have the old witch +killed: I got power from the Blessed Virgin to kill her. She came to me +at 3 o'clock yesterday, and told me to kill her, or I would be plagued +with rats and mice." She made much the same statement to another witness, +and added: "We will be all happy now. I have the devils hunted away. They +went across the hill at 3 o'clock yesterday." The evidence having +concluded, the accused made a statement which was reduced to writing: "On +the day of the thunder and lightning and big rain there did a rat come +into my house, and since then I was annoyed and upset in my mind.... A +lady came to me when I was lying in bed at night, she was dressed in +white, with a wreath on her head, and said that I was in danger. I thought +that she was referring to the rat coming into the house.... The lady who +appeared to me said, If you receive this old woman's pension-book without +taking off her clothes and cleaning them, and putting out her bed and +cleaning up the house, you will receive dirt for ever, and rats and mice." + +Imagine the above occurring in 1611 instead of 1911! The ravings of the +poor demented creature would be accepted as gospel-truth; the rat would +be the familiar sent by the witch to torment her, the witnesses would have +many more facts to add to their evidence, the credulous people would +rejoice that the country-side had been freed from such a malignant witch +(though they might regret that she had been given her _congé_ so easily), +while the annals of Irish witchcraft would be the richer by nearly as +extraordinary a case as that of Florence Newton, and one which would have +lost nothing in the telling or the printing. Shorn of their pomp and +circumstance, no doubt many witch-stories would be found to be very +similar in origin to the above. + +As is only to be expected in a country where the majority of the +inhabitants are engaged in agricultural pursuits, most of the tales of +strange doings are in connection with cattle. At Dungannon Quarter +Sessions in June 1890, before Sir Francis Brady, one farmer sued another +for breach of warranty in a cow.[63] It was suggested that the animal was +"blinked," or in other words was under the influence of the "evil eye," or +had a _pishogue_ put upon it. The defendant had agreed to send for the +curative charm to a wise woman in the mountains. The _modus operandi_ was +then proceeded with. Three locks of hair were pulled from the cow's +forehead, three from her back, three from her tail, and one from under her +nostrils. The directions continued as follows: The operators were to write +the names of eight persons in the neighbourhood whom they might suspect of +having done the harm (each name three times), and the one of these eight +who was considered to be the most likely to have "blinked" the cow was to +be pointed out. When this had been done there was to be a bundle of thatch +pulled from the roof of the suspected person. The owner of the cow was +then to cut a sod, and take a coal out of the fire on a shovel on which to +burn the hair, the thatch, and the paper on which the names had been +written. The sod was then to be put to the cow's mouth, and if she licked +it she would live. + +His Honour to defendant: "And did she lick it?" + +Defendant: "Aye, lick it; she would have ate it." (Roars of laughter.) It +then transpired that the burning of the thatch had been omitted, and this +necessitated another journey to the wise woman. + +We may also expect to find traces of strange doings with respect to the +produce of cows, viz. milk and butter. Various tales are related to the +following effect. A herdsman having wounded a hare, which he has +discovered sucking one of the cows under his charge, tracks it to a +solitary cabin, where he finds an old woman, smeared with blood and +gasping for breath, extended almost lifeless on the floor. Similar stories +are to be found in England, and helped to make up the witch-element there, +though it may be noted that as early as the twelfth century we are +informed by Giraldus Cambrensis that certain old hags in Ireland had the +power of turning themselves into hares and in that shape sucking cows. The +preservation of hares for coursing, which is being taken up in parts of +this country, will probably deal the death-blow to this particular +superstition. With regard to the stealing of butter many tales are told, +of which the following may be taken as an illustration. A priest was +walking in his field early one summer's morning when he came upon an old +woman gathering the dew from the long grass, and saying, "Come all to me!" +The priest absent-mindedly muttered, "And half to me!" Next morning he +discovered in his dairy three times as much butter as he ought to have, +while his neighbours complained that they had none at all. On searching +the old beldame's house three large tubs of freshly-churned butter were +discovered, which, as her entire flocks and herds consisted of a solitary +he-goat, left little doubt of her evil-doing![64] + +The witch of history is now a thing of the past. No longer does she career +on a broomstick to the nocturnal Sabbath, no longer does she sell her soul +to the Devil and receive from him in return many signal tokens of his +favour, amongst which was generally the gift of a familiar spirit to do +her behests. No longer does the judge sentence, no longer does the savage +rabble howl execrations at the old witch come to her doom. The witch of +history is gone, and can never be rehabilitated--would that superstition +had died with her. For in Ireland, as probably in every part of the +civilised world, many things are believed in and practised which seem +repugnant to religion and common-sense. Scattered throughout the length +and breadth of the land there are to be found persons whom the +country-folk credit with the power of performing various extraordinary +actions. _From what source_ they derive this power is not at all +clear--probably neither they themselves nor their devotees have ever set +themselves the task of unravelling that psychological problem. Such +persons would be extremely insulted if they were termed wizards or +witches, and indeed they only represent white witchcraft in a degenerate +and colourless stage. Their entire time is not occupied with such work, +nor, in the majority of cases, do they take payment for their services; +they are ready to practise their art when occasion arises, but apart from +such moments they pursue the ordinary avocations of rural life. The gift +has come to them either as an accident of birth, or else the especial +recipe or charm has descended from father to son, or has been bequeathed +to them by the former owner; as a rule such is used for the benefit of +their friends. + +An acquaintance told the writer some marvellous tales of a man who had the +power of stopping bleeding, though the ailing person might be many miles +off at the time; he promised to leave the full _modus operandi_ to the +writer's informant, but the latter was unable to go and see him during his +last moments, and so lost the charm, and as well deprived the writer of +the pleasure of satisfying himself as to the efficacy of its working--for +in the interests of Science he was fully prepared to cut his finger +(slightly) and let the blood flow! + +The same informant told the writer of a most respectable woman who had the +power of healing sores. Her method is as follows. She thrusts two +sally-twigs in the fire until they become red-hot. She then takes one, and +makes circles round the sore (without touching the flesh), all the while +repeating a charm, of which the informant, who underwent the process, +could not catch the words. When the twig becomes cool, she thrusts it back +into the fire, takes out the other, and does as above. The whole process +is repeated about ten or twelve times, but not more than two twigs are +made use of. She also puts her patients on a certain diet, and this, +together with the general air of mystery, no doubt helps to produce the +desired results. + +Instances also occur in Ireland of persons employing unhallowed means for +the purpose of bringing sickness and even death on some one who has fallen +foul of them, or else they act on behalf of those whose willingness is +circumscribed by their powerlessness. From the Aran Islands a story comes +of the power of an old woman to transfer disease from the afflicted +individual to another, with the result that the first recovered, while the +newly-stricken person died; the passage reads more like the doings of +savages in Polynesia or Central Africa than of Christians in Ireland. In +1892 a man stated that a friend of his was sick of an incurable disease, +and having been given over by the doctor, sought, after a struggle with +his conscience, the services of a _cailleach_ who had the power to +transfer mortal sickness from the patient to some healthy object who would +sicken and die as an unconscious substitute. When fully empowered by her +patient, whose honest intention to profit by the unholy remedy was +indispensable to its successful working, the _cailleach_ would go out into +some field close by a public road, and setting herself on her knees she +would pluck an herb from the ground, looking out on the road as she did +so. The first passer-by her baleful glance lighted upon would take the +sick man's disease and die of it in twenty-four hours, the patient mending +as the victim sickened and died.[65] + +A most extraordinary account of the Black Art, as instanced in the custom +known as "burying the sheaf" comes from co. Louth. The narrator states +that details are difficult to obtain, at which we are not surprised, but +from what he has published the custom appears to be not only exceedingly +malignant, but horribly blasphemous. The person working the charm first +goes to the chapel, and says certain words with his (or her) back to the +altar; then he takes a sheaf of wheat, which he fashions like the human +body, sticking pins in the joints of the stems, and (according to one +account) shaping a heart of plaited straw. This sheaf he buries, in the +name of the Devil, near the house of his enemy, who he believes will +gradually pine away as the sheaf decays, dying when it finally decomposes. +If the operator of the charm wishes his enemy to die quickly he buries the +sheaf in wet ground where it will soon decay; but if on the other hand he +desires his victim to linger in pain he chooses a dry spot where +decomposition will be slow. Our informant states that a case in which one +woman tried to kill another by this means was brought to light in the +police court at Ardee a couple of years before he wrote the above account +(_i.e._ before 1895).[66] + +Though the Statutes against witchcraft in England and Scotland were +repealed (the latter very much against the will of the clergy), it is said +that that passed by the Irish Parliament was not similarly treated, and +consequently is, theoretically, still in force. Be that as it may, it will +probably be news to our readers to learn that witchcraft is still +officially recognised in Ireland as an offence against the law. In the +Commission of the Peace the newly-appointed magistrate is empowered to +take cognisance of, amongst other crimes, "Witchcraft, Inchantment, +Sorcery, Magic Arts," a curious relic of bygone times to find in the +twentieth century, though it is more than unlikely that any Bench in +Ireland will ever have to adjudicate in such a case. + +In the foregoing pages we have endeavoured to trace the progress of +witchcraft in Ireland from its first appearance to the present day, and as +well have introduced some subjects which bear indirectly on the question. +From the all too few examples to be obtained we have noted its gradual +rise to the zenith (which is represented by the period 1661-1690), and +from thence its downward progress to the strange beliefs of the day, +which in some respects are the degenerate descendants of the +witchcraft-conception, in others represent ideas older than civilisation. +We may pay the tribute of a tearful smile to the ashes of witchcraft, and +express our opinion of the present-day beliefs of the simple country-folk +by a pitying smile, feeling all the time how much more enlightened we are +than those who believed, or still believe, in such absurdities! But the +mind of man is built in water-tight compartments. What better embodies the +spirit of the young twentieth century than a powerful motor car, fully +equipped with the most up-to-date appliances for increasing speed or +lessening vibration; in its tuneful hum as it travels at forty-five miles +an hour without an effort, we hear the triumph-song of mind over matter. +The owner certainly does not believe in witchcraft or _pishogues_ (or +perhaps in anything save himself!), yet he fastens on the radiator a +"Teddy Bear" or some such thing by way of a mascot. Ask him why he does +it--he cannot tell, except that others do the same, while all the time at +the back of his mind there exists almost unconsciously the belief that +such a thing will help to keep him from the troubles and annoyances that +beset the path of the motorist. The connection between cause and effect is +unknown to him; he cannot tell you why a Teddy Bear will keep the engine +from overheating or prevent punctures--and in this respect he is for the +moment on exactly the same intellectual level as, let us say, his +brother-man of New Zealand, who carries a baked yam with him at night to +scare away ghosts. + +The truth of the matter is that we all have a vein of superstition in us, +which makes its appearance at some period in our lives under one form or +another. A. will laugh to scorn B.'s belief in witches or ghosts, while he +himself would not undertake a piece of business on a Friday for all the +wealth of Croesus; while C., who laughs at both, will offer his hand to +the palmist in full assurance of faith. Each of us dwells in his own +particular glass house, and so cannot afford to hurl missiles at his +neighbours; milk-magic or motor-mascots, pishogues or palmistry, the +method of manifestation is of little account in comparison with the +underlying superstition. The latter is an unfortunate trait that has been +handed down to us from the infancy of the race; we have managed to get rid +of such physical features as tails or third eyes, whose day of usefulness +has passed; we no longer masticate our meat raw, or chip the rugged flint +into the semblance of a knife, but we still acknowledge our descent by +giving expression to the strange beliefs that lie in some remote +lumber-room at the back of the brain. + +But it may be objected that belief in witches, ghosts, fairies, charms, +evil-eye, &c. &c., need not be put down as unreasoning superstition, pure +and simple, that in fact the trend of modern thought is to show us that +there are more things in heaven and earth than were formerly dreamt of. +We grant that man is a very complex machine, a microcosm peopled with +possibilities of which we can understand but little. We know that mind +acts on mind to an extraordinary degree, and that the imagination can +affect the body to an extent not yet fully realised, and indeed has often +carried men far beyond the bounds of common-sense; and so we consider +that many of the elements of the above beliefs can in a general way +be explained along these lines. Nevertheless that does not do away +with the element of superstition and, we may add, oftentimes of +deliberately-planned evil that underlies. There is no need to resurrect +the old dilemma, whether God or the Devil was the principal agent +concerned; we have no desire to preach to our readers, but we feel that +every thinking man will be fully prepared to admit that such beliefs +and practices are inimical to the development of true spiritual life, +in that they tend to obscure the ever-present Deity and bring into +prominence primitive feelings and emotions which are better left to fall +into a state of atrophy. In addition they cripple the growth of national +life, as they make the individual the fearful slave of the unknown, and +consequently prevent the development of an independent spirit in him +without which a nation is only such in name. The dead past utters +warnings to the heirs of all the ages. It tells us already we have +partially entered into a glorious heritage, which may perhaps be as +nothing in respect of what will ultimately fall to the lot of the human +race, and it bids us give our upward-soaring spirits freedom, and not +fetter them with the gross beliefs of yore that should long ere this +have been relegated to limbo. + + + + +INDEX + + + Acts of Parliament, 57, 61, 66, 67 + + Antrim man bewitched in England, 101 + + Apparitions, at Castleconnell, 94; + at Loughill, 95; + at Portadown, 95; + in co. Tipperary, 150; + to insurgents, 101 + + + Bed-clothes pulled off, 201, 205-6; + made up like a corpse, 205-6 + + Blackamoor executed, 60 + + Blair, Rev. Robert, 88 ff. + + Burning alive, 39, 40, 48, 50 + + "Burying the sheaf," 246 + + Butter stolen, 236, 242 + + Butters, Mary, 224 ff. + + + Carnmoney, 156, 159, 160, 225, 227 + + Carrigfergus, 143, 174, 213, 224 + + Cattle bewitched, 68, 225, 240; + cured by charms, 227, 232, 240 + + Charmed lives, 97 + + Charms, ingredients used in making of, 28, 29, 37, 227, 232 + + Chest opens mysteriously, 104 + + Child bewitched in co. Antrim, 195; + in co. Cork, 171 + + Clergy incriminated, 35, 78 + + Colville, Rev. Alex., 82 ff. + + + De Ledrede, Bishop, 26 ff., 47, 48 + + Demons, sacrifice to, 27, 29, 48 + + Desmond, fourth Earl of, 53; + sixteenth Earl of, 69 ff., 95; + rides round Lough Gur, 72; + appears as a black horse, 75 + + Devil, the, method of raising, 81; + cheated in bargains, 84, 133; + incites to homicide, 90; + appears as a huntsman, 135; + as a raven, 173; + in various shapes, 156 + + Dunbar, Miss Mary, 207 ff. + + + Evil spirit appears as a boy, 202 ff. + + Exorcism practised in Ulster, 93 + + Eye-biters, 68 + + + Fairies, 3, 237; + annoy a butler, 163 ff; + king of, 86 + + Familiar spirit, a: Huthart, 55-6; + Robin, son of Art, 27, 29, 38, 40; + appears to a witch, 183; + appears as an old man, 108; + appears as a greyhound, 118, 120 + + Fits, people seized with strange, 161, 179, 187 ff., 195, 208, 209, + 214 ff. + + + Greatrakes, Valentine, 118, 122, 127, 165, 167 + + Ghost, a, 136 ff., 144 ff., 164, 168; + hand of in a law-court, 143; + vanishes to sound of music, 141, 147; + brings medicine, 165; + appears as a goat, 198 + + Girdle, devil's, 39 + + Glover, Mrs., 179 ff. + + + Haltridge family, 201 ff. + + Hand of Glory, 232 + + Haunted house in Dublin, 148 + + Healing powers, 244 + + Heresy, 47, 48, 50 + + Hutchinson, Francis, 11, 222 + + + Images of rags, 182 + + Irish language spoken in Boston, 182, 186 + + Irish prophetess in Scotland, 54 + + Island Magee, 201 ff. + + + J.P.'s Commission, clause in, 248 + + Judges: Sir Wm. Aston, 112, 130; + Sir F. Brady, 239; + John Lindon, 170; + Jas. Macartney, 170, 213, 220; + Anthony Upton, 213, 220 + + + Kiss, bewitched by a, 108, 111, 117, 123, 126 + + Knots mysteriously tied, 208, 215, 216 + + Kyteler, Dame Alice, 25 ff.; + her husbands, 26; + her confederates, 35 + + + Literature, absence of, in Ireland, 10, 11 + + Longdon, Mary, 107 ff. + + Lord's Prayer, used as a test, 115, 125, 184; + said by supposed witches, 220 + + + Mather, Rev. Cotton, 178 ff.; + Rev. Increase, 129, 177 + + Midwife bewitches people, 160 + + Money turns to leaves, 75 + + + Newton, Florence, 105 ff. + + Nobleman accused of sorcery, 57 + + + Orrery, Lord, 163 + + Over-looking, 117, 120 + + + Petronilla of Meath, 18, 35, 38, 39 + + Pillory, the, 64, 221 + + Pins stuck in a girl's arm, 110; + in a straw body, 247 + + Pishogues, 236, 240 + + Pope John XXII, 44 + + Portents at Limerick, 100; + on entry of James II, 194 + + Presbyterian clergyman bewitched, 156 + + Prophecies of Mr. Peden, 174 + + + Quakers, the, 155, 172 + + + Red cap worn, 233 + + Red pigs, their sale forbidden, 67 + + Relic cures spells, 80 + + Riding on a staff, 39, 234 + + + Scot, Michael, 52 + + Scotch girl delated, 199 + + Scotland, 19, 54, 81, 85, 90, 147 + + Sorcery and witchcraft, difference, 21 + + Sorrel-leaf causes witchcraft, 195 + + Stones thrown, 109, 157, 158, 201, 204 + + Storm attributed to witches, 99 + + Strange knowledge of deaf and dumb man, 87 + + Stroking of images, 182; + of a stone, 186 + + Swimming a witch suggested, 122; + the process, 107 + + + Tate, Rev. Dr., 98 + + Taverner, Francis, 136 ff. + + Taylor, Bishop Jeremy, 140, 144 + + Torture, not judicially used, 18; + rough-and-ready application of, 38; + employed on Continent, 20 + + Transference of disease, 245 + + Treasure-seeking at Cashel and Mellifont, 78; + made penal, 64 + + + Ulster colonists, their influence, 14 + + Usher, Archbishop, 93, 102 + + + Vomiting of strange substances, 80, 109, 113, 195, 218 + + + Wafer with devil's name, 39 + + Williams, Rev. Daniel, 148 + + Witch examined, 59; + curious tests of guilt of, 118, 119, 121; + tries to disembowel a boy, 185; + rescued by the Devil, 148; + murdered by a mob, 198; + supposed, murdered by a lunatic, 237 + + Witch-burning (so called) near Clonmel, 237 + + Witchcraft still a legal offence, 248 + + Witches executed, 60, 68, 69, 148, 186, 196; + placed in pillory, 221; + appear as cats, 156; + suck cows under form of hares, 241 + + + Youghal, suspected witches at, 117, 122 + + + Printed by BALLANTYNE, HANSON & CO. + at Paul's Work, Edinburgh + + + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] In his _History of Witchcraft in England_. + +[2] Notestein, _op. cit._ + +[3] Français, _L'église et la Sorcellerie_. + +[4] Français, _op. cit._ + +[5] Elsewhere given as Basilia. + +[6] Magical girdles were used for various purposes. Bosc in his +_Glossaire_ will have them to be the origin of the magnetic belts, &c. +that are so freely advertised at the present day. + +[7] Français, _op. cit._ + +[8] Carrigan, _History of the Diocese of Ossory_, i. p. 48. + +[9] Stokes, _Ireland and the Anglo-Norman Church_, p. 374. + +[10] Theiner, _Vet. Mon._, p. 269. + +[11] Westropp, _Wars of Turlough_ (Proc. R.I.A.), p. 161; Seymour, +_Pre-Ref. Archbishops of Cashel_, 47. + +[12] _Dict. Nat. Biog._, Seymour, _op. cit._, p. 18. + +[13] O'Daly, _History of the Geraldines_. + +[14] Sharpe, _History of Witchcraft in Scotland_, p. 30. + +[15] Ed. H. F. Berry, D.Litt. + +[16] Carrigan, _op. cit._, iii. p. 18. + +[17] Quoted in _Journal of Royal Society of Antiquaries_, 3rd series, vol. +i. Français mentions a Swiss sorcerer, somewhat of a wag, who used to play +the same trick on people. + +[18] _Ulster Journal of Archæology_, vol. iv. (for 1858). + +[19] _All the Year Round_ (for April 1870). + +[20] Lenihan, _History of Limerick_, p. 147. + +[21] Enrolment of Pleas, 6 James I, memb. 2 (Queen's Bench). + +[22] Scott, _Demonology and Witchcraft_, Letter V. + +[23] Ed. C. K. Sharpe (Edinburgh, 1818). + +[24] Witherow, _Memorials of Presbyterianism in Ireland_. + +[25] Quot. in Law's _Memorialls_. + +[26] Witherow, _op. cit._, pp. 15-16. + +[27] Lenihan, _History of Limerick_, p. 147. + +[28] Hickson, _Ireland in the Seventeenth Century_, vol. i.; Fitzpatrick, +_Bloody Bridge_, p. 125; Temple's _History of the Rebellion_. + +[29] Baxter, _Certainty of the World of Spirits_ (London, 1691); Clark, _A +Mirrour or Looking-Glass for Saints and Sinners_ (London, 1657-71). + +[30] Fitzpatrick, _op. cit._, p. 127. + +[31] Hist. MSS. Comm. Report 13 (Duke of Portland MSS.). + +[32] No. 25 in _Sadducismus Triumphatus_ (London, 1726). + +[33] _Dict. Nat. Biog._ + +[34] _Cork Hist. and Arch. Journal_, vol. x. (2nd series). + +[35] _Ibid._, vol. vii. (2nd series). + +[36] Furnished to the writer by T. J. Westropp, Esq., M.A. + +[37] Glanvill, _Sadducismus Triumphatus_, Rel. 26. + +[38] _Ulster Journal of Archæology_, vol. iii. (for 1855). + +[39] Glanvill, _op. cit._, Rel. 27. + +[40] Law's _Memorialls_. + +[41] Baxter, _Certainty of the World of Spirits_. + +[42] William Turner, _Compleat History of Most Remarkable Providences_ +(London, 1697). + +[43] Seymour, _Succession of Clergy in Cashel and Emly_. + +[44] O'Donoghue, _Brendaniana_, p. 301. See Joyce, _Wonders of Ireland_, +p. 30, for an apparition of a ship in the air in Celtic times. See also +Westropp, _Brasil_ (Proc. R.I.A.); that writer actually sketched an +illusionary island in 1872. + +[45] _Memorialls._ + +[46] Glanvill, _op. cit._, Rel. 18; Baxter, _op. cit._ + +[47] _Op. cit._; W.P., _History of Witches and Wizards_ (London, 1700?). + +[48] John Lindon (or Lyndon) became junior puisne Judge of the Chief Place +in 1682, was knighted in 1692, and died in 1697 (_Cork Hist. and Arch. +Journal_, vol. vii., 2nd series). + +[49] Egmont MSS. (Hist. MSS. Comm.), ii. 181. + +[50] "An experiment was made, whether she could recite the Lord's Prayer: +and it was found that though clause after clause was most carefully +repeated unto her, yet when she said it after them that prompted her, she +could not possibly avoid making nonsense of it, with some ridiculous +depravations. This experiment I had the curiosity to see made upon two +more, and it had the same effect." + +[51] _The Devil in Britain and America_, chap. xxiv. + +[52] C. K. Sharpe, _op. cit._ + +[53] A man in the Orkneys was ruined by nine knots tied in a blue thread +(Dalyell's _Darker Superstitions of Scotland_). + +[54] The Rev. Dr. Tisdall, who has given such a full account of the trial, +was Vicar of Belfast. For his attitude towards the Presbyterians, see +Witherow's _Memorials of Presbyterianism in Ireland_, pp. 118, 159. Yet +his narrative of the trial is not biassed, for all his statements can be +borne out by other evidence. + +[55] James Macartney became second puisne Justice of the King's Bench in +1701, puisne Justice of Common Pleas (vice A. Upton) in 1714, and retired +in 1726. Anthony Upton became puisne Justice of Common Pleas, was +succeeded as above, and committed suicide in 1718. Both were natives of +co. Antrim. + +[56] In the shorter version of the poem this line runs-- + + "He cured the kye for Nanny Barton," + +which makes better sense. Huie Mertin was evidently a rival of Mary +Butters. + +[57] South-running water possessed great healing qualities. See Dalyell, +_Darker Superstitions of Scotland_, and C. K. Sharpe, _op. cit._, p. 94. + +[58] When a child the writer often heard that if a man were led astray at +night by Jacky-the-Lantern (or John Barleycorn, or any other potent +sprite!), the best way to get home safely was to turn one's coat inside +out and wear it in that condition. + +[59] _Notes and Queries_, 4th series, vol. vii. + +[60] Henderson, _Folklore of Northern Counties of England_, (Folklore +Society). + +[61] _Journal of Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland_, xxii. (consec. +ser.), p. 291. + +[62] _Irish Times_ for 14th June; _Independent_ for 1st July. + +[63] _Journal of Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland_, xxi. (consec. +ser.), pp. 406-7. + +[64] _Folklore._ + +[65] _Journal of Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland_, xxv. (consec. +ser.), p. 84. + +[66] _Folklore_, vi. 302. + + + + + * * * * * * + + + + +Transcriber's note: + +Footnote 40 appears on page 156 of the text, but there is no corresponding +marker on the page. + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 43651 *** |