Although the passing of
the Witchcraft Act did not bring belief in witchcraft to an end overnight, it did mean that those accused and hounded by neighbours
could now in turn bring their own grievances before the courts. A fascinating
example of this process can be glimpsed in 1867 in the
Somerset village of Wedmore, when Elizabeth Williams summoned Ann Davis for cutting her arm with a knife.
Williams told the court
that on the 22nd June, she was passing Davis' house, when
the other woman offered to sell her a flower. Whether Williams
entered the cottage or not is unrecorded, but as the conversation
progressed, Davis suddenly flew at Williams with a knife and cut her
in three places on the arm.
Davis' justification,
when questioned by the court, was that Williams was always “hagging
her to death.” When probed further, she asserted that Williams was
a witch and had, furthermore, caused her much harm. Not only had she
killed her donkey and her cat, but she had also caused Davis herself
to be thrown from a cart. She had even, Davis asserted, appeared at
her bedside – when she had tried to grab the other woman however,
Williams had, to evade capture, turned into a cat. It seems that
Davis' husband, Jonathan, also shared his wife's opinions on
Elizabeth Williams.
Ann Davis' defence of her
actions contains many easily recognised elements from countless
witchcraft accusations from the preceding two centuries. The
appearance of a witch in the bedroom of a victim was a well-known way
in which a witch could make herself a nuisance, with the ability of
the accused to turn into an animal to elude capture also well
documented. Injury to animals, both domestic and livestock, were
common in such cases, often as a final addition to a long list of
grievances such as those presented by Davis. Davis also duly
admitted that she had scratched Williams, asserting the long-held
belief that drawing blood would break the witch's power over her
victim.
Did Davis truly believe
her assertions? Or was it simply a convenient and familiar way of
dealing with an ongoing feud or discord within the community?
Elizabeth Williams is listed as a widow in the 1871 census, and
although her husband Edmund is present in 1861, it is possible that
he died prior to the incident with Davis. It may indeed have been that this removal of someone to intervene on Williams' behalf led to Davis
feeling bold enough to act on feelings that had been building for
some time.
Ann and Jonathan Davis
were approaching sixty at the time of the case, while Elizabeth Davis
was anything between fifty-five and seventy depending which census
information is used. There is the
possibility that Williams was actually Davis' sister-in-law; an
Elizabeth Davis married Edmund Williams in 1848 with the same birth
year as a Betty Davis who was Jonathan Davis' sister. If this were
the case, then it adds another layer of intrigue to the story, a
family feud perhaps sparking the animosity that led to Davis making
such accusations and resulting in her scratching the other woman.
Wedmore Parish Church, where Elizabeth and
Edmund Williams were married in 1848
Whether she truly
believed Williams to be a witch or not, it was the victim who gained
the sympathy of the courts in this case, and it is interesting to
observe that the judge was utterly unsympathetic to Davis' views,
remarking that Davis was best suited to the local asylum for
harbouring and spreading such dangerous ideas. In the end however, no
doubt in part to save the parish any further expense, Davis was bound
over to keep the peace for three months instead.
The story was reported in
newspapers across the county throughout July and August, making news
in Manchester, Oxford, Hampshire and Liverpool before the Autumn. It appears that the Davis family moved house in the wake of the incident to another area of Wedmore, perhaps in order to limit any further contact with the woman they believed had bewitched them.
A sad postscript
to the case comes in a newspaper article of 18th February,
1876. It describes how a “pauper lunatic” named Elizabeth Williams
of Wedmore had swallowed thirteen screws and was for a good while in danger of her life. This desperate act unintentionally parodies the common complaint by witchcraft victims of being made to vomit screws, pins and needles by their tormentor, reinforcing how, in the case of Elizabeth Williams, the "witch" had become the afflicted.
It is unclear when Elizabeth died, but it is likely that she may never have left the asylum that the judge recommended for her former accuser.
It is unclear when Elizabeth died, but it is likely that she may never have left the asylum that the judge recommended for her former accuser.
The Former Wells Lunatic Asylum where Elizabeth Williams was transferred in 1876.
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