The St.
Osyth witch trials of 1582 saw thirteen women tried for a variety of
witchcraft-related crimes at the Chelmsford Assizes. One of those was
Cicely Sellis from Little Clacton where she lived with her husband
and children. Cicely entered the long and engrossing narrative of the
St. Osyth trials on 1st March, 1582, when Richard Ross,
also of Little Clacton, Essex, informed Justice Brian Darcy of the
following.
Six years
ago, Cicely's husband, Henry Sellis, had worked for him in the fields
many times without incident. On one occasion, however, two horses
that had previously been well suddenly fell down and died while Henry
was in charge of the plough. As if this were not strange enough,
shortly before the incident, he had refused to sell Cicely the two
bushes of malt that she required, due to the fact that she wanted to
pay three shillings when Ross swore they were worth ten groats. Not
to be deterred, Cicely had then gone to Ross' wife and asked to buy
the malt from her in turn: again she had refused to pay the going
price and the two women had fallen out.
Then
there had been the incident with cattle belong to the Sellis family;
Ross' wife had discovered the beasts on their land and had driven
them off. Seeing this occur, Cicely had angrily remonstrated with
Ross' wife, and, shortly after, some of the Ross cattle began to
behave in a most strange fashion. Richard Ross was of the opinion
that the cause of this was witchcraft, carried out by either Cicely
or Henry Sellis.
Finally, twelve months
ago a barn full of corn belonging to Ross had mysteriously caught
fire, but he couldn't, Ross said (it must be suspected with some regret) place the blame on the Sellis', other than to remark their youngest son had been heard to observe that it was a 'goodly
store of corn' a while before the incident occurred.
On the same
day as Ross was examined, the Sellis' nine year old son, Henry, was also questioned by the
Justice. According to the boy, a spirit had come to his younger brother one
night, taking hold of him by the left leg and toe and frightening him
greatly, as indeed it might, being, according to the boy, the size of
his sister and all in black. Their father had been most angry at their mother for this, demanding, 'Why, thou whore, cannot you keep your
imps from my children?' Cicely had apparently duly called the creature away and it had
left the terrified boy in peace. This was not the only time the
'imps' were present; Henry had seen his mother feeding them, and, the boy informed Darcy, they had names - one was called Hercules or John, and the other Mercury. Not only that, Henry had
heard his mother tell his father that she had sent one of the spirits to
Ross' maid, on the very day that she had been taken ill.
Henry and
Cicely themselves were also questioned that day. Henry denied
everything said against both himself and his wife, apart from the
death of Ross' horses when he had been working with them. Cicely
likewise did not recall the chasing off of her cattle or arguing with
Ross' wife over either cattle or malt. Both denied having anything to do
with any spirits and vowed that the entire incident regarding their son and the
spirit grabbing him in the night had not occured.
On top of the questioning, Cicely
was searched by three 'women of credit' chosen by Darcy for the purpose. On her body were found several 'suspicious' marks, very
like those that had been 'sucked' by the supposed familiar spirits
owned by Ursula Kemp who was the main suspect in the witch trials so far.
Two days later on 3rd
March, John Sellis, their younger son who had been so terrified by the
spirit, spoke to Darcy. He repeated virtually everything that his older brother had said,
but with the additional information that an unidentified man had come to take the
spirits away, and that said man had given his mother a penny before doing
so.
Others
also spoke out against the Sellis family. On 15th March
Thomas Death related how two years previous his wife had fallen out
with Cicely over the child of George Battell. The child had
originally been given into Cicely's care to nurse, but – for
reasons unstated in the evidence given – the child was then taken
from Cicely and given instead to Thomas Death's wife. When Cicely
next met Mrs Death she had given vent to her anger on the matter,
declaring that she would 'lose more by the having of it than thou
shalt have for the keeping of it.' Sure enough, within the month, his
own child, aged four years old, suddenly fell down 'dead' in the
yard, and, despite being revived for a short time, eventually died.
Pigs of his had also behaved in a strange fashion, in a way that no
one could satisfactorily explain.
The Harvesters - Pieter Bruegel the Elder
Not only
that, but his older daughter Marie had also suffered at the hands of
Cicely Sellis. She was taken very ill, and her father was told that
in two night's time those who had caused her bewitchment would appear
and would make her well again. Upon returning home he was told by his
wife that Marie had claimed Cicely Sellis and another woman had been in
the room with her. Marie confirmed this to Darcy, along with giving more details of her strange illness.
Joan
Smith, the wife of Robert Smith told of how her young child, formerly
healthy and in good spirits, had died shortly after Cicely had
commented on it. Interestingly, she would not blame Cicely for what had occurred, only going as far as to say she prayed for God to forgive Cicely if she had been in any
way involved.
There was
less 'evidence' against Cicely than several of the others named and
accused in the spiralling panic that had gripped St. Osyth, and the Sellis family had entered the narrative relatively late on in proceedings. That did not keep them from the courts however,
and on 29th March 1582, Cicely was indicted for arson along
with Alice Manfield, who was also charged with bewitching several
people to death.
'On 1 Sept. 1581 at Little Clacton they feloniously burnt a granary (100 marks) belonging to Richard Ross. On 4th June at Great Clacton Sillis bewitched John son of Thomas Death so that he died the same day.'
Although
cleared of the arson charge, Cicely was found guilty on the charge of bewitchment remanded. Interestingly, at the Assizes of 2nd
August 1582 Henry Sellis was also indicted for the same arson charge,
and this time it was stated that the couple and their son Robert had
set fire to the barn. All three were cleared of the charge but this
was little comfort to them however, as it appears Henry and Cicely
Sellis died in prison early in 1583 before they could be released.
References/Further Reading:
Cockburn, Calendar of Assize Records: Essex Indictments Elizabeth I, London, 1978
Gibson, Marion, Early Modern Witches, Routledge, 2000
Rosen, Barbara, Witchcraft in England, 1558-1618, University Massachusetts Press, 1992
W.W, A True and Just Record, of the Information, Examination and Confession of all the Witches, taken at S. Osyth in the county of Essex, London, 1582
