Today's story from the Library began on
15th November, 1657 in the small rural Somerset town of
Shepton Mallet and ended a few short months later with the execution
of local resident Jane Brooks. Elderly and at least at times in
need, she and her sister were accused of doing great harm to a young
boy named Richard Jones.
Henry Jones arrived home
one day to find his son in great agony down his right side and unable
to speak. When he finally recovered his speech, he told his father
and cousin that an old woman had come to the door asking for bread;
when he gave it to her, (a point worth noting, as usually in such
accounts the injury is inflicted in return for a refusal of whatever
has been requested) she in turn gave him an apple. After stroking him
along his right side with her hand, she left, upon which he had
fallen into the state in which his father had found him.
Old women from the
village who might fit with Richard Jones' description, were rounded
up and brought to the house in a makeshift identity parade. Among
them were Jane Brooks and her elderly sisters. As they entered the
house, the boy was once again struck dumb, a sure sign to everyone
there assembled that these were indeed the guilty parties.
Upon seeing his son
returned to his former state, Henry Jones attacked Brooks, beating
her repeatedly until Richard recovered. What state Brooks was in at
this point is unknown, but given her age and documented fragile
state, it cannot have been a pretty sight.
The story continued when,
a week on, Richard Jones met Brooks' sister, Alice Coward. He again
fell ill, seemingly in consequence of the encounter. Over the next
few days Richard asserted that a hag visited him on several
occasions; on one such visit Gibson, the cousin who witnessed the
first case of the boy's illness, struck the apparition with a
knife. At this, so the account goes, Richard Jones cried out,“Oh
father, father, cousin Gibson has cut Jane Brooks' hand and it's all
bloody!”
The twist in the tale is
that upon being dispatched to Brooks' house, the constable discovered
the woman with an injured hand, supposedly hurt in the exact same way
that the apparition had been harmed by the knife wielding Gibson.
With this evidence
against her, Brooks and her sister were duly arrested and went before
the courts, evidence being given against them in front of the
Justices at Castle Cary in December 1657. There the scandal grew;
there were claims that Brooks and Coward offered Richard Jones money
in order to keep silent (about what in particular is not specified) and when the
money was produced and heated, the boy immediately returned to his
afflicted state, recovering only when the coins had cooled.
Matters finally came to a
head on 25th February 1658. The wife of Robert Iles
claimed that, upon visiting their house, Richard Jones was lifted
from the ground by an unseen force and transported a distance of
three hundred yards, including over a stone wall, before being set
down forcefully upon a doorstep. Either through the harshness or the
shock, Jones was rendered unconscious. When he came to, Jones claimed
that Brooks had grabbed his arm and lifted him through the air.
There were also other
accounts of strange happenings; in one instance the boy was not where
he had been left, discovered collapsed in another room with no idea
how he had got there. He was also once found hanging in the air, his
hands resting against the ceiling for quarter of an
hour. Richard Jones made no secret of his belief that Brooks had lifted him up and pinned him there. To further compound Brooks'
guilt, this feat was supposedly witnessed by no less than nine people.
Jane Brooks and her
sister were housed in Shepton Mallet's House of Correction. Jane was
finally condemned to death at the Chard Assizes and executed on 26th
March, 1658. Alice Coward died in prison, whereas Richard Jones made
a full recovery.
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