tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23487747610867098512024-03-13T03:03:56.013-07:00The Witch, The Weird, and The WonderfulFrom Antiquity To The PresentWillowWinshamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10246542908881097397noreply@blogger.comBlogger108125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2348774761086709851.post-69938512928285726242022-02-07T08:32:00.001-08:002022-02-07T08:33:00.671-08:00A Belated Annoucement<p><i style="font-family: verdana;">The Witch, The Weird and The Wonderful</i><span style="font-family: verdana;"> has moved!</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">This blog will no longer be updated; instead, you can find new content plus all of the existing posts over at <a href="http://willow.winsham.com">willow.winsham.com</a></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Looking forward to seeing you there.</span></p>WillowWinshamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10246542908881097397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2348774761086709851.post-39718109433587500662020-06-30T05:50:00.001-07:002020-06-30T05:50:10.215-07:00Baptised by the Devil: The Confessions of Isobel Gowdie<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Isobel Gowdie, perhaps the most famous of accused Scottish witches, came to the attention of the authorites in 1662. It is uncertain just what led to her arrest, although it seems there were rumblings in the area of Auldearn, Nairnshire, for a while beforehand. What <i>is</i> known is that Isobel made a series of spectacular and detailed confessions, the fullest known set of confessions known to exist for the period. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">On 13 April, Isobel, before the ministers of Auldearn and Nairn, and a panel of twelve others, confessed that </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">15 years ago she had met with the Devil in the Auldearn Church, where she renounced her baptism and, with one hand on her head and the other on her foot, offered the Devil everything that lay in between. She was baptised after the Devil scratched her, using the blood to perform the parody of the traditional ceremony. Her new name, according to Isobel, was Janet. This was far from the only time she saw her diabolical master: on their next meeting, they had known each other carnally. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Over the next six weeks, Isobel confessed further. She and the group of thirteen witches she worked with had done much to bring terror to those who displeased them. Ruining crops and stealing milk from their neighbours cows were high on their list of activities, with one particular incident involving spreading a mixture made from nail clippings from the exhumed corpse of a dead infant, kale and grains on a man's muckheap - the intention being that his corn and lambs would be taken and come to the coven instead. They were able to stop a cow from producing milk by passing a plaited rope between the animal's legs: it would give no milk until the rope was cut. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Isobel and her fellow witches had also made attempts on the lives of the children of the local Laird, and also on the life of the Laird of Park himself. A figure was made from clay, resembling one of the Laird's sons; it was laid before the fire, with the intention of causing the child greater and greater suffering each time it was roasted. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Flight was another power Isobel posessed. With elf arrowheads obtained from the fairies, the witches lay in wait to shoot their enemies; Isobel confessed that she was responsible for at least four deaths in this fashion. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Peter Nicolai Arbo: The Wild Hunt of Odin, via wikimedia commons</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Like many witches, Isobel revealed that they were able to change their form with the following words:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>I shall go into a hare, with sorrow and such great care; and I shall go in the Devil's name, ay while I come home again.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">To change back into human form, they recited:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>Hare, hare, God send thee care. I am in a hare's likeness now, but I shall be in a woman's likeness even now.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Finally, Isobel confessed that she had paid a visit to the Downie Hills, home to the fairies, where she had the honour of meeting the King and Queen themselves. Unlike many who visited fairies however, despite eating a great deal of meat while there, she left without difficulty after being entertained most generously by her fairy hosts. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Although Isobel is generally believed to have been executed after a trial for witchcraft, </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">there is no actual record of Isobel's fate or the trial that is assumed to have taken place. Her confessions have often been said to have been the product of an unstable mind, but more nuanced modern interpretations suggest that, on the contrary, Isobel acted within the narrative and cultural framework in which she lived. </span></div>
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WillowWinshamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10246542908881097397noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2348774761086709851.post-32480257287336562192020-06-29T03:27:00.003-07:002020-06-29T03:27:47.706-07:00Greasing the Fat Sow and other Dorsetshire Sayings<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Taking a little dip today into the "Proverbs and Proverbial Sayings" section of <i>Dorsetshire Folklore</i> by John Symonds Udal. Here are a few of the best:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><b>A peck of worry won't pay a pound of debt.</b></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The age old advice that worrying gets you nowhere. True, but hard to live by! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><b>Better be at the end of a feast than at the beginning of a fray.</b></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Be happy with a little of something good, rather than risking everything by doing something dangerous or unsavoury. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><b>If you must grow cucumbers boil them and throw them on the dunghill.</b></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Cucumbers were, it seems, considered generally useless; I won't be following this one, we are a cucumber-loving household here!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><i>Don't be between two parishes at meal times.</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This would mean you didn't get to eat. Definitely one to avoid! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><i>They like all the water to run in their own ditch. </i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A warning against selfish people. </span></div>
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<b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>"Every one to his liking," as the old woman said when she kissed her cow.</i></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A Dorset-version of "there's no accounting for taste"!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><i>As much need as a toad has of a side-pocket.</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In other words, something thst is utterly unecessary.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><i>As busy as a cat in a tripe shop.</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Said of someone who is very busy, but without any noticable result. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><i>Greasing the fat sow.</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Giving gifts and money to the already rich. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><i>What are your favourite local sayings? Let me know in the comments, or on <a href="https://twitter.com/WillowWinsham" target="_blank">Twitter</a> </i></b></span></div>
WillowWinshamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10246542908881097397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2348774761086709851.post-32452999100385342020-03-18T08:35:00.000-07:002020-03-18T08:35:02.836-07:00Bizarre Beliefs: Animated Horse Hairs<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In a week where the phrase "you couldn't make it up" has been uttered more often than we could have ever imagined</span>, <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">it seems a fitting time to write up my recent reading on the improbable topic of "animated horse hairs." </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Yes, you read that right: there once existed a belief that horsehairs were capable of coming to life and moving of their own volition. When the horse drank from a body of water, hair would fall from its mane or tail, and, after entering the water, would, by some undiscovered force, become animated. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I admit I assumed this was a randomly regional belief until a bit of further research revealed that the belief in animated horsehairs was another one of those bizarre ideas that was actually widespread across the British Isles and some areas of the United States. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It seems that the belief dates back quite some way: Shakespeare references the idea in <i>Anthony and Cleopatra</i>. Agrippa's </span><i style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Three Books of Occult Philosophy </i><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">published in 1651 states that when a horsehair is placed in water, it becomes a "pernicious worm." Giambattista della Porta's </span><i style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Natural Magick </i><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">published a few years later recounted that not only had he had first hand experience of this transformation, but friends of his had likewise witnessed hair gaining life. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It was also one that was slow to die out. The belief was present in 18th century Derbyshire, as Edwin Trueman mentions it is in his <i>History of Ilkeston</i>. </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">According to Coleridge in the 18th century, boys in Cumberland and Westmoreland would also often experiment with this belief. They would place a horsehair in water, and, when it was removed some time later, they observed that it would twirl around their finger, compressing it. </span></div>
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<i style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">According to Notes on the Folklore of the Northern Counties of England and the Borders,</i><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> by William Henderson, a horsehair that was kept in water would eventually turn into an eel. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>The Frank C. Brown Collection of North Carolina Folklore Volume VII: Popular Beliefs and Superstitions from North Carolina, </i>published in 1913, records several variations. People believed that if</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> you hang up a horsehair, when it rains it will turn into a snake. </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">If a horsehair is put into water, after a period of time it will likewise turn into a snake. If stagnant water was used, after nine days the hair would turn into a black snake. A hair would also turn into a snake if put under running water and then held down with a stone. Putting a hair into a bottle of water and then burying it for six months would also have the same effect. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">This belief was associated with "vulgar" and "superstitious" people. Dobson's Encyclopedia of 1798 states that "Animated Horsehair" was:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>"A term used to express a sort of long and slender waterworm, of a blackish colour, and so much resembling a horse hair, that it is generally by the vulgar supposed to be the hair fallen from a horse's mane into the water as he drinks, and there animated by some strange power." </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The belief was prevalent and long-standing enough even in the 17th century that Martin </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Lister, in his </span><i style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Philosophical Transactions</i><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">, felt the need to soundly debunk the theory. The animated hairs were, in fact, a type of long, thin water worm, that eventually transformed into a form of beetle. Despite this fact, the idea that horse hairs could come to life clearly proved more interesting than the truth, and the belief continued for a good long time to come. </span></div>
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WillowWinshamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10246542908881097397noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2348774761086709851.post-69328517710947508082020-03-10T11:46:00.000-07:002020-03-10T11:49:07.279-07:00The Floating Loaf: Discovering the Drowned<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">While flicking through my old favourite local history tome, <i>The History of Ilkeston</i> by Edwin Trueman, I came across yet another fascinating snippet that had me intrigued enough to go looking for more. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>"A body was drowned in the canal near Ilkeston, the means taken to discover it was as follows: a loaf of bread, scooped out and filled with quicksilver, was put into the water and allowed to float down with the current. When it came to the place where the body was, it was expected to stop."</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The source quoted was <i>The Legendary Lore of the Holy Wells of England</i>, by Robert Charles Hope, published in 1893. A quick examination of this text however provided no further information on the case, and so I went further afield. I didn't find out anything more about the Ilkeston case (though watch this space!) but I did discover several interesting things about the practice.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It turns out the floating loaf, or St. Nicholas as it was sometimes called, was actually a common belief and practice in England in the 18th and 19th centuries, and potentially before. One of the earliest written references to this method of discovering a drowned corpse comes in <i>The Gentleman's Magazine</i> of April 1767. It involved the tragic occasion of a one year old child who had fallen into the river Kennet in Newbury, Berkshire. A two-penny loaf was split apart and some quicksilver - otherwise known as mercury - was placed inside. According to the report, when the loaf was sent into the water at the location where the child had fallen in, it made its way down the river when, suddenly, it turned and crossed the river before sinking. The location it sank in proved to reveal the body of the poor child.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Antiquarian Field Club, </i>under the heading Dorsetshire Birth, Death and Marriage Customs, refers to the pratice as a "charm or expedient", that was used in the area during the same century:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>"To find the dead body of a person who has been drowned and which has not been recovered from the water the following "charm" or expedient is sometimes adopted. A loaf of bread is procured and a small piece is cut out of the side, forming a cavity, into which a little quicksilver is poured. The piece is then replaced and secured firmly in its original position. The loaf thus prepared is thrown into the river at the spot where the person has fallen in and is expected to float down the stream until it comes to the place where the body has lodged, when it will begin to eddy round and round, thus indicating the sought for spot."</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>Notes and Queries </i>likewise mentions several cases across the 19th century, one from the Rev. C. H. Mayo of Long Burton. in 1872, A boy had fallen in the stream at Sherborne and drowned - this time however, the method of locating the body was not successful. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>Notes on the folk-lore of the Northern Counties of England and the borders, </i>mentions several cases in Durham. The author had personal experience when he was a boy of people trying to locate corpses in the River Wear in Durham. Friends of Christopher Lumley had tried to find his body with a floating loaf near Lanchester, Durham, and again in 1860 this method was used when a child fell into the Wear on 21st October of that year. The loaf was not successful however, though thankfully the child's body was later discovered. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Another intriguing method of locating a drowned body mentioned in this text was as follows:</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>"If a gun be fired over a dead body lying at the bittom of the sea or river, the concussion will break the gall bladder and cause the body to float."</i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">An eye witness to this had informed the author that it had taken place twice that he had seen, but there had been no success. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">American Notes and Queries</i><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">, July 1890, mentions that in "the last century" in England quicksilver in bread was used to locate a drowned body, and cites a case "vouched by credible witnesses" that the body of a boy had been successfully found in the Thames at Eton. The same source also states that in Ireland a wisp of straw attached to a strip of parchment was used to achieve the same aim, the parchment inscribed with cabalistic symbols. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In the October 1898 volume of </span><i style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Scottish Antiquary</i><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">, it mentions how the practice was still in use in some areas of England, with the added details that the loaf used should be stale and that, when in the location of the body, it would stop and then spin round in place. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">There are references to the practice too in literature, the most well-known being Mark Twain's <i>Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, </i>where it is used in Missouri, USA. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Locating a drowned corpse in such a fasion was therefore clearly popular in both belief and practice in England, America and Ireand throughout the 18th and 19th centuries. It seems that success was varied, but belief continued regardless to the end of the 19th century and perhaps beyond.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Have you come across a case of this being carried out, or a variation on the belief that a loaf of bread filled with quicksilver could find a drowned body? If you have, I would love to hear about it!</span></div>
WillowWinshamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10246542908881097397noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2348774761086709851.post-32679094549966534622020-01-06T10:06:00.000-08:002020-01-06T10:06:03.170-08:00A-Z of the Accused: Alice Noakes<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Name: </b>Alice Nokes or Noakes</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Location:</b> Lambourne, Essex</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Accusations: </b>When a servant of Thomas Spycer snatched and refused to return a glove from the pocket of Alice's twenty-eight year old daughter, Alice vowed revenge on the man. Although he insisted it was only a bit of fun, as she declared "I will bounce him well enough," the servant found himself suddenly unable to move his limbs, and, despite returning the glove, he was wheeled home in a wheelbarrow, remaining bedridden for just over a week.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Alice was also said to have accused her husband of sleeping with the wife of a man named Tailer or Taylor. Furthermore, she declared that the child of the woman would not live for long, a predicition that, unfortunately for Alice, came true. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">When spoken to in church by a local man about her behaviour and disagreement with Tailer's wife, Alice declared that she "cared for none of them all as long as Tom held on her side." It was taken that Alice was referring to her familiar demon, whom helped her with her terrible deeds. When a horse at plough belonging to the same man fell down dead after Alice felt slighted by his servant, fingers again pointed at Alice, despite the initial suspicion that the servant had whipped the horse too hard. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Outcome: </b>Alice was indicted for murder by witchcraft and found guilty of bewitching Elizabeth Barfott to death. She was sentenced to hang.</span></div>
WillowWinshamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10246542908881097397noreply@blogger.com18tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2348774761086709851.post-37263182497004374022019-11-05T05:26:00.001-08:002019-11-05T05:26:08.404-08:00A-Z of the Accused: Anne Maidenhead<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Name:</b> Anne Cade, alias Maidenhead</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Location:</b> Great Holland, Essex</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Date:</b> 1645</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Accusations:</b> According to her confession, around 1623, Anne had been initiated into witchcraft when she received four imps or familiars from her mother. Three of these were like mice, and called James, Prickeare and Robin. The fourth, in the form of a sparrow, was, fittingly, named Sparrow.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> At this time, Anne agreed to deny God and Christ to seal the deal. She then set out to torment those she disliked. One mouse was sent to Robert Freeman of Little Clapton – it nipped his knee and drove him lame, the man dying before six months had passed. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Anne sent Prickeare to kill John Rowlinson’s daughter in Little Clapton, and John Tillet. Sparrow got revenge when the wife of George Parks refused Anne milk; their child was dead soon after. Samuel Ray’s wife and child also died at Sparrow’s hand over refusal to settle a debt of two pence.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Outcome:</b> Anne was indicted for bewitching to death John Rowlinson’s daughter Susan, and Grace Ray at the Essex Summer Sessions held at Chelmsford on 17 July. Despite pleading not guilty, she was found guilty on the first count and hanged – sadly an unsurprising outcome during the period Matthew Hopkins and his associates were operating in the locality.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
WillowWinshamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10246542908881097397noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2348774761086709851.post-46962727103705225252019-09-01T03:29:00.002-07:002019-09-01T03:29:51.495-07:00A Case of Cornish Witchcraft: The Sufferings of John Tonken<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">According to the pamphlet,
</span><i style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">A True Account of a Strange and
Wonderful Relation of One John Tonken, of Penzance in Cornwall</i><span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">, a youth of
fifteen or sixteen years of age by the name of John Tonken or Tomkins found
himself “strangely taken with sudden fits” in May, 1686. As he lay suffering in
his bed, a woman appeared before him; this woman was:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">“in a blue jerkin and red petticoat, with yellow and green
patches, and told him, that he would not be well before he had brought up
nutshells, pins, and nails.”</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">John told several people of his vision, but no one but himself saw or heard the woman. It seemed however that
the strange woman’s predictions were to be true, as the youth’s fits increased
in intensity. Finally, to the amazement of those around him, John vomited up half a walnut shell and three pins.
As if this were not enough, a few days after this strange occurrence, John
again produced three walnut shells and several more pins in this fashion. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">According to John, he saw the woman several times in the days
that followed. Sometimes she was in human form, but at others she took the form
of a cat; her appearance caused the boy great torment, and he cried out and
covered his eyes so he would not have to see her. She was, said John, trying to
put things into his mouth, to choke him and poison him.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The things John brought forth became more and more amazing.
Upon the woman telling him he had straws in his belly, sure enough, for the
next two to three days he vomited straw at a variety of lengths, some as much
as a yard long with knots tied into it. Further pins were also brought forth, to the
total of sixteen or seventeen. When the woman said he would bring up nails,
John complained that his heel was being pricked; when the bedding was examined,
a nail was found in his heel and another in the bed. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">There were those who suspected deceit on the part of young
John, and his mouth was checked for objects hidden there. Nothing amiss was discovered however, and the strange vomiting continued. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Matters got worse, until, on 10 May when his most violent fit of all occurred, the woman informed
John that she would kill him. John told those who were with him of her threat, but added that he hoped God would not allow her to do so. while the woman continued to torment him with her presence, John vomited a very rusty pin, which was kept by witnesses as evidence. </span><span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">The last, and perhaps most
spectacular thing he brought forth was a </span><span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">piece of needle, </span><i style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">“half an inch broad, and an
inch and a half long, with two sharp points like pins, one at each end.”</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The woman proved elusive when it came to answering
questions. John begged to know when he would be well, offering her five
shillings or five pounds if she would answer, only for her to refuse. She
likewise refused to give her name when he asked, or where she lived, or
anything to identify her. The woman also evaded capture, escaping out of the window when John called for someone to help him. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Despite her threats, the end was in sight. The last time John witnessed the woman, she was not alone:
three women were there before him. When he cried out against her, she took her
leave, saying she would not trouble him again. Sure enough, John was much
improved and walking with crutches at the time the account was written. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Two women from Penzance, Joan Nowell or Nicholas, and Elizabeth, also known as Betty
Seeze, were arrested and taken to Lanceston Gaol, accused of bewitching the boy.
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The account was written by Mayor of Penzance, Peter Jenkins,
and Justice John Geose. Jane was found not guilty of the charges of witchcraft
against John, and it appears that Betty Seeze did not make it as far as trial,
the charges against her dropped or dismissed beforehand. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The voiding of pins and other strange objects was a staple of many witchcraft accounts, and would have been recognised by those witnessing John's alleged fits as a sign of bewitchment. F</span><span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">rom the infamous 16th century case against the Witches of Warboys to Anne Thorn's supposed torments by Jane Wenham in the early 18th, this tangible evidence was used as part of a case against those accused as witches. T</span><span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">he tormenting witch, invisible to any other than
the victim, the fits that came and went in varying intensity, the increase in
torments culminating with the threat to kill the victim, were all also well-known
staples of the bewitched/possession narrative. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">Luckily for Joan and Elizabeth, the last executions for witchcraft had already taken place in England in 1682 with the hanging of the Bideford Witches, and the majority of trials in the latter half of the 17th century ended in acquittal. There is no further evidence to answer whether John, like some who went before him, later admitted to fraudulent claims.</span></div>
<br />WillowWinshamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10246542908881097397noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2348774761086709851.post-4338601866345251522019-08-28T12:23:00.001-07:002019-08-28T12:23:25.352-07:00A-Z of the Accused: Elizabeth Lightbone<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Name:</b> Elizabeth Lightbone or Lightbound</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Location:</b> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Christleton, Cheshire</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Date:</b> 1613</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Accusations: </b><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Elizabeth,
wife of yeoman William Lightbone, was accused of several counts of witchcraft
against her Christleton neighbours. On 30 May, 1613, she was believed to have
bewitched Richard Rider so that he became lame until 20 September of that year. Prior to that, on 8 August, 1606, she had
bewitched Richard Burrowes, causing him to languish until December. Finally, Elizabeth
was accused of bewitching Mary Cotgreave on 20 May, 1611, causing her to become
lame, a condition that continued until the time of the indictments made
against Elizabeth at the Chester Quarter Sessions of 27 September, 1613.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Outcome: </b>Elizabeth pleaded pregnancy, and although she was
still in prison on 25 September, 1615, she was pardoned on 9 September of that
year and is presumed to have been released. Due to this, it is assumed that Elizabeth was
indeed with child, although evidence of the whereabouts of Elizabeth or her
child after her pardon is frustratingly lacking. </span></div>
<br />WillowWinshamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10246542908881097397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2348774761086709851.post-3936889189013764132019-08-02T05:58:00.001-07:002019-08-02T05:59:50.408-07:00Setting the Record Straight: The Ilkeston Witch<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I've written many, many words on Anne Wagg, the Derbyshire woman accused of witchcraft by her fellow residents of Ilkeston in 1650. She is, after all, both my "local" witch, and responsible for the journey that led me to write my first book on the subject of accused British witches. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">My initial research suggested strongly that Anne Wagg had met the - practically unheard of for English witches - fate of burning for her crimes. This fact was readily attested to by several Victorian annalists, such as John Charles Cox who declared that:</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>"... there is little doubt that Anne Wagg was burnt to death on evidence that now-a-days would not even convict a poacher."</i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">As I continued to look into events in 17th century Ilkeston, however, it became clear that there was much more to the story than Cox and local historian Edwin Trueman would have us believe.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgM9AQqA0uuaBzI13sCbu7XODuXmOZunw9oLwE_w4IFcPvtmfAf2OPzcVS7qyl6nXfRi6Q8-yJYQC1Nmet0xrE173VwQgEeLoRTC7tsKsUZ1JZ-IGN-wQ9rPAo-EgkNExFvgkXfSOcsIMo/s1600/Wagg_2112526_1.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgM9AQqA0uuaBzI13sCbu7XODuXmOZunw9oLwE_w4IFcPvtmfAf2OPzcVS7qyl6nXfRi6Q8-yJYQC1Nmet0xrE173VwQgEeLoRTC7tsKsUZ1JZ-IGN-wQ9rPAo-EgkNExFvgkXfSOcsIMo/s400/Wagg_2112526_1.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">In his History of Ilkeston, Edwin Trueman repeated the claim </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">that Anne Wagg was burnt for bewitching the people of Ilkeston.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In late April/early May 1650, Bridget, the wife of Ilkeston vicar William Fox, was taken ill. Anne Wagg was summoned to the suffering woman's side so that Bridget could scratch her - hard enough to draw blood - in order to break the hold of the "witch" over her. This was common practice in earlier cases of witchcraft accusations, and a belief that continued well into the 19th century, despite attempts to root out such "superstition" by those higher up the social and economic scale. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It was highly likely that this open display of support for the idea of Anne being a witch from one of Ilkeston's authority figures led to what happened next. </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">On 1 June, 1650, baker Francis Torrat made accusations against Anne to Gervase Bennett, Justice of the Peace for Derby. </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">According to Torrat, Anne was guilty of several counts of witchcraft, and was well known for tormenting those who displeased her. Three years previously, after exchanging "words" with Torrat and his wife, their maid servant Elizabeth had an encounter with Anne that led to her falling ill and being unable to move. That night, the maid had called out in great distress, but neither Torrat nor his wife were able to help her as they too were paralysed. It was only when a cat that had been sitting on the maid's bed leapt clear that they were free to help their distressed servant, the implication being that the cat was either the witch or a familiar doing her bidding. Local folklore belief was utilised to confirm the identity of the witch in question: when tongs were placed in the fire, it was believed that the witch would be unable to leave. This was performed and, as expected, Anne was held prisoner until the tongs were removed. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0sfSTJphXAjovOMrNev2Od1U1e0EBs48VKruO5ckr0mlMz0plE-jlwg_uX4_A_AHPe-z1zMG6lBySo4SDu_Vn_GqFbsDHzq3CM_lM8A6MEo-dE_Qtoggpg-hdoaC5_6IWyd3Bd_5fzl8/s1600/Wagg+Witches%2527Familiars1579+%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="600" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0sfSTJphXAjovOMrNev2Od1U1e0EBs48VKruO5ckr0mlMz0plE-jlwg_uX4_A_AHPe-z1zMG6lBySo4SDu_Vn_GqFbsDHzq3CM_lM8A6MEo-dE_Qtoggpg-hdoaC5_6IWyd3Bd_5fzl8/s400/Wagg+Witches%2527Familiars1579+%25281%2529.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">it is unclear whether the cat that tormented the Torrat's maid was </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">believed to be a familiar spirit for Anne or that it was Anne herself.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">(Image: Wellcome Collection, London)</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Other Ilkeston residents, following Torrat's example, spoke out against Anne on 26 June. </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Alice Day told how a few years ago Elizabeth Webster had accused Anne on her deathbed of bewitching her. Despite being urged to pardon Anne and thus pass with a clear conscience, Webster refused to do so. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Elizabeth Goddard, proving that local memories could last a long time, related that fifteen years ago she and Anne had quarrelled over some whey. Anne had wanted to buy some from her, but Elizabeth Goddard refused, on the grounds that it was to be sold to her sister. When the Goddard's child fell ill that same night, it was clear that Anne was to blame - especially when, after seeming to recover, the child died a fortnight later after Anne was denied butter from the Goddards. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Grieving Anne Ancoke blamed Anne for the death of her fifteen year old daughter only days before she gave her evidence. Taken suddenly ill, the girl said that she believed herself to be witch-ridden, and although Anne Wagg was summoned to her bedside so they could ask forgiveness of each other, it was too late to save her. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Alice Carpenter told the justice that Anne was a woman of "ill repute" and that this was well known throughout Ilkeston. due to this reputation, when her own child sickened and died in 1649, Alice was certain that Anne was to blame. From an examination of local records, it becomes clear that Anne and her husband George were not popular figures in Ilkeston. Anne spoke her mind too often, and George was too free with his fists; both prone to losing their temper, both with others and each other, if they had friends it was likely they were few and far between. George Wagg died in 1646, leaving the way clear for those who disliked his wife to make a move when the time proved right. A further source of Anne's bad reputation is also revealed by the parish registers: an illegitimate son, Thomas Wagg, "son and Anne, and Thomas Cant, the reputed father" was buried in 1657, while another potential child to Anne and Thomas was baptised in July of 1646, only five months after George Wagg's death. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Although there is ample evidence for why Anne was a prime witch suspect, quite where the idea that she met a fiery end came from is unclear. What is revealed by the Ilkeston parish registers however is that Anne did not come to the end that the Victorian reporters would have us believe. Anne </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">was buried in the local church yard in 1663, strongly suggesting that the accusations came to nothing and that the Ilkeston witch continued to live side by side with those who accused her for another thirteen years. Despite this, the assumption that she was executed continued well into the 20th century, perpetuated no doubt by the erroneous belief that witches were commonly burnt for their crimes. </span></div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCIPLAW0V4EC3M29bap-9IHNZoQIStFQCpBzFmvpEsn0bbnScFk6Mx7KqpMjx_t3Upx9fxnq0PXfZwuJ0hGEqYj-Be9Lpn9-qZoj2IL7HO2rw40UHeCokNvlWGqUEbMoj3jV0ZmqhRNps/s1600/WAGG_St_Mary%2527s_Church%252C_Ilkeston%252C_Derbyshire.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1274" data-original-width="1600" height="317" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCIPLAW0V4EC3M29bap-9IHNZoQIStFQCpBzFmvpEsn0bbnScFk6Mx7KqpMjx_t3Upx9fxnq0PXfZwuJ0hGEqYj-Be9Lpn9-qZoj2IL7HO2rw40UHeCokNvlWGqUEbMoj3jV0ZmqhRNps/s400/WAGG_St_Mary%2527s_Church%252C_Ilkeston%252C_Derbyshire.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">St. Mary's, Ilkeston, where Anne Wagg was buried in 1663</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">(Image: Russ Hamer, via Wikimedia Commons)</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Read more about Anne Wagg and other women accused of witchcraft in <a href="https://tinyurl.com/yyl9nxs7" target="_blank"><i>Accused: British Witches Throughout History</i></a> available from <i><a href="https://tinyurl.com/yyl9nxs7" target="_blank">Amazon</a></i> and <i><a href="https://tinyurl.com/y3352txf" target="_blank">Pen and Sword Books</a>. </i></b></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>WillowWinshamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10246542908881097397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2348774761086709851.post-29568203907449401632019-08-02T04:10:00.001-07:002019-08-02T06:00:11.380-07:00A-Z of the Accused: Elizabeth Kennet<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Name:</b> Elizabeth Kennit/Kennet, alias Smith</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Location:</b> Stepney, Middlesex</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Date:</b> 1659</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Accusations:</b> Elizabeth was accused of bewitching Sarah Rose on 1st April 1659. Sarah was “wasted, consumed, pained and lamed”, and was still in the same lamentable condition in June of that year when Elizabeth was before the courts. Interestingly, it appears that the widowed Elizabeth married Lawrence Kennet less than a month after the death of his first wife, Rhoda, which might have contributed towards the accusations against her. </span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Outcome:</b> Luckily for Elizabeth, perhaps largely due to the wane in witchcraft prosecutions, on 29 June 1659 she was found not guilty of the charges against her and presumably set free. A woman by that name was buried in Stepney 24th October, 1683.</span></div>
</div>
<div>
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WillowWinshamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10246542908881097397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2348774761086709851.post-77938286929008494252019-05-08T06:46:00.000-07:002019-08-02T06:00:29.724-07:00A-Z of the Accused: Rebecca Jones<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Name</b>: Rebecca Jones</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Location</b>: St. Osyth, Essex</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Date</b>: 1645</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Accusations</b>: In the midst of the fresh surge of witchcraft accusations during the Civil War period, Rebecca was accused of causing the deaths of Thomas Bumpstead and his wife Katherine through witchcraft. After her apprehension she confessed that nearly a quarter of a century beforehand, she had been in service to a man named John Bishop. A “handsome young man” knocked at the door, and, after asking how she was, he took a pin from her own sleeve pricked her left wrist twice. After this startling behaviour, the visitor wiped off the resultant drop of blood with his fingertip, before leaving. In hindsight, Rebecca believed this man to have been the Devil. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Three months later, a man with “great eyes” and dressed in a ragged suit gave her “three things like moles, having four feet apiece, but without tails, and of a black colour.” The man told her to nurse the creatures, saying that in return they would give her vengeance against her enemies, and that if she murdered a few, he would grant her forgiveness.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">After naming her new familiars Susan, Annie, and Margaret, Rebecca sent an imp to kill Thomas Bumpstead as payback for beating her son for eating honey from the Bumpstead house. She also confessed to sending another to kill his wife. The third imp was sent to torment Mistress Darcy’s child, but not with the intent of killing it.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Outcome:</b> Rebecca was found guilty of causing the death of Thomas Bumpstead and sentenced to death. </span><br />
<div>
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WillowWinshamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10246542908881097397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2348774761086709851.post-83304446700605047362018-08-08T13:29:00.000-07:002018-08-08T13:29:56.605-07:00The Witches of Warboys and the Death of Lady Cromwell<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The case
of the Warboys Witches is perhaps one of England's most well known
witch-trial cases. The details are related at length in the extensive
albeit descriptively-titled 1593 pamphlet:</span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>The
most strange and admirable discovery of the three Witches of Warboys,
arraigned, convicted and executed at the last Assizes at Huntingdon,
for the bewitching of the five daughters of Robert Throckmorton
Esquire and divers other persons, with sundry Devilish and grievous
torments: And also for the bewitching to death of the Lady Cromwell,
the like hath not been heard of in this age. </i>
</span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div>
<br />
<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">According
to the account, when one of the daughters of Robert Throckmorton fell
ill with strange fits, the family did not at first suspect witchcraft
to be behind her illness. As his other daughters also started to
share their sister's strange symptoms however, suspicion slowly but
surely grew, and the finger was pointed at local woman Alice Samuel,
fuelled by the girls themselves naming her as their tormentor, along
with, eventually, her husband John and daughter Agnes. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdIQMZ6ZqfISql_RkOXU9wKvgyDLb4wUmLiI_XbG1Hn_pkC9DbtZykSlFkXBH8ffyBf0_xTTq37zzJIlwv7kDU225wIUHnHzO5_GaBU6OQh4TpxDTewzUzAJ-3WDNac_wt-yZqM8vD5Ww/s1600/Manor_House_East.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="409" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdIQMZ6ZqfISql_RkOXU9wKvgyDLb4wUmLiI_XbG1Hn_pkC9DbtZykSlFkXBH8ffyBf0_xTTq37zzJIlwv7kDU225wIUHnHzO5_GaBU6OQh4TpxDTewzUzAJ-3WDNac_wt-yZqM8vD5Ww/s640/Manor_House_East.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">The Manor House at Warboys </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">(With kind permission of Philip Almond)</span></div>
</div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It was
mid-March 1590 when Lady Susan Cromwell nee Weeks, entered the story.
Second wife to Sir Henry Cromwell, (who was not only an influential
man in the area but also happened to be the landlord of the Samuel
family) Lady Cromwell and her daughter-in-law visited the beleaguered
Throckmorton household to offer their sympathies for the suffering of
the children.
</span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">According
to the pamphlet, Lady Cromwell:</span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"></span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>'...had
not long stayed in the house but the children which were there fell
into their fits. And were so grievously tormented for the time that
it pitied the good lady's hear to see them, insomuch that she could
not abstain from tears.'</i></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">
</span></blockquote>
<br />
<br />
<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It was
not long before she sent for Alice Samuel; being unable to refuse a
summons from the wife of the family landlord, Alice had no choice but
to attend, whatever her misgivings might have been. Much to her
horror, upon Alice's arrival the condition of the ill children
worsened, something that did not bode well for the Samuel family for:</span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>'Then the
Lady Cromwell took Mother Samuel aside, and charted her deeply with
this work, using also some hard speeches to her.'</i></span></blockquote>
<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div>
<br />
<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Being
thus accused of causing the suffering of the children, Alice was
understandably upset, denying the accusation and retorting that the
Throckmorton's accused her unjustly. It wasn't Master and Mistress
Throckmorton who accused her, Lady Cromwell reminded Alice firmly,
but the girls themselves who pointed the finger, the spirit that
spoke through the girls when they were in their fits vowing that
Alice was to blame for their pitiful condition. </span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Joan
Throckmorton, hearing Alice's denial, insisted that Alice was indeed
responsible despite her protestations to the contrary, and that there
was a spirit with her who was saying as much at that precise moment.
The girl professed extreme surprise to learn that no one else present
could hear the 'spirit' speak, as she herself could hear it loud and
clear. Throughout this, Alice Samuel continued to insist that she had
nothing to do with the strange illness that had invaded the
household, but Lady Cromwell, unconvinced, wished to question her
further in the presence of a visiting divine, Master Doctor Hall.
</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBpaZuRQvx22USlGE3PTtmp6FNEeVfZ3AGicCMWBc2f9Hbs1Qe0ZLLGQ-Kfx5aZvUuWO7dHQ24Oi3S-5crYLl89IBvhua1q072isKg124LwPwTQbqZEB7p1erPwjX9x-EGQlo-AIHAXF8/s1600/f05a650d63ce7afcaaf825edfa30.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBpaZuRQvx22USlGE3PTtmp6FNEeVfZ3AGicCMWBc2f9Hbs1Qe0ZLLGQ-Kfx5aZvUuWO7dHQ24Oi3S-5crYLl89IBvhua1q072isKg124LwPwTQbqZEB7p1erPwjX9x-EGQlo-AIHAXF8/s640/f05a650d63ce7afcaaf825edfa30.jpg" width="430" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Oliver Cromwell, Step-Grandson to Lady Susan </span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">(</span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 11px; text-align: left;">Wellcome Library, London)</span></div>
</div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
</div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Alice
made excuse after excuse however, and it was clear that she intended
to leave for her home without satisfying Lady Cromwell in her
questions. Thus frustrated, Lady Cromwell pulled off the kerchief
Alice wore over her head and cut off a lock of her hair. Not only
that, but she took the old woman's hair lace and gave both to the
mother of the children with the instruction to put both in the fire
to burn them in order to break Alice's power over the girls. At this
unexpected and unwarranted violation, Alice Samuel lost whatever
composure she had remaining, uttering the fateful and – some later
vowed, fatal – words:</span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">'Madam,
why do you use me thus? I never did you any harm as yet.'</span></i></blockquote>
<br />
<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">What
happened next goes unrecorded, but Lady Cromwell left the
Throckmorton household that night to return home. She did not sleep
well at all, and was 'very strangely tormented' by dreams of Alice
Samuel. Her agitated state woke her daughter-in-law who was sleeping
with her, and she woke Lady Cromwell in turn, at which the older
woman described how a cat, sent to her by Alice Samuel had tormented
her in her sleep, threatening to pick the skin and flesh from her
arms and body.
</span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div>
<br />
<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Lady
Cromwell was so disturbed by the dream that she did not sleep again
that night our of sheer terror. Not only that, we are told that 'not
long after' she fell ill with a strange sickness. </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It might
have been brushed off as coincidence, but the fits suffered by the
lady were said to be similar in nature to those experienced by the
Throckmorton girls. The only difference was that she was perfectly
aware of the fact the whole time, unlike the girls who were
periodically unaware of others in the room with them. Throughout,
Lady Cromwell never forgot the words uttered to her by Alice Samuel,
that she had not caused her any harm – as yet. Lady Cromwell passed
away on 11</span><sup style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">th</sup><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> July, 1592, a year and a quarter after her
ill-fated visit to Warboys. </span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It was
downhill for the Samuel family from then on. In preparation, Agnes
Samuel and Joan Throckmorton were lodged together in the Crown Inn in
Huntingdon. Upwards of 500 people were estimated to have visited the
pair, attempting and failing to bring Joan out of her fits. On the
day of the assizes themselves in April 1593, John Samuel was finally compelled to
utter words he had previously refused, admitting that he was a witch
and had been party to the death of the Lady Cromwell and commanding
Joan Throckmorton to come out of her fit. He was right to have been
apprehensive about repeating the words, as the girl appeared as if
cured the moment he uttered them. Alice Samuel had also been made to
repeat the same words before this point and the same cure was
witnessed. </span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">That
evening the judge himself along with several gentlemen and fellow
justices attended the pair and it was proved beyond doubt that the
only thing that ended Joan's fits was a charge recited by Agnes. </span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>'As
I am a witch and a worse witch than my mother, and did consent to the
death of the Lady Cromwell, so I charge the Devil to let Mistress
Joan Throckmorton come out of her fit at this present.'</i></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Tragically
for Agnes, the girl recovered in full view of those in attendance. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The
following day three indictments were made against the Samuels: the
first and most damning was that they were to blame for the death of
Lady Cromwell through bewitchment, while the other two dealt with the
bewitching of the Throckmorton girls and others in the Throckmorton
household. All three were criminal offences under the 1563
Witchcraft Act, but bewitching to death carried with it the death
penalty, a crime of which, after the matter was debated for five
hours, the Samuel family were found guilty. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">On the
day of their execution, Alice Samuel was asked as she stood on the
ladder in her final moments to confess again to the murder of Lady
Cromwell through witchcraft. She was guilty, she told the assembled
crowd, and, when asked why she had borne the lady so much animosity
Alice admitted it was because Lady Cromwell had cut some of her hair
and burned it along with her hair lace, and that her actions had been
carried out in the spirit of revenge. She also implicated her husband
in the murder, although right to the end she refused to involve her
daughter, trying to protect Agnes to the end. (John Samuel himself
never admitted to anything aside from the charge he was forced to recite and neither did Agnes, both going to the
noose maintaining their innocence.)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMByitzTulnNDbzrMFpX1rj7NtwUygZVbpEXqkXW8uHYE4VW6rw70ZOj49P3LWbEMJsoquN6s0qCLmjuf56PfMkdRijruh1YCxgU8T9Et4Fxje8-nEjMSOW5WlX5btq6SUeoIe7U-htFI/s1600/download+%25282%2529.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="271" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMByitzTulnNDbzrMFpX1rj7NtwUygZVbpEXqkXW8uHYE4VW6rw70ZOj49P3LWbEMJsoquN6s0qCLmjuf56PfMkdRijruh1YCxgU8T9Et4Fxje8-nEjMSOW5WlX5btq6SUeoIe7U-htFI/s400/download+%25282%2529.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Lady
Cromwell's widower, Sir Henry Cromwell, received the goods belonging
to the Samuel family, as his right as their landlord. There cannot
have been much due to their status, but there was enough money at
least to commission an annual sermon to be preached at Huntingdon
against the detestable sin of witchcraft. This was carried out until
1812; by that point however the focus had shifted to become instead
an indictment and warning against the believing in, rather than the carrying
out, of witchcraft. </span> </div>
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</blockquote>
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WillowWinshamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10246542908881097397noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2348774761086709851.post-88268342540913279802018-08-08T13:21:00.001-07:002018-08-08T13:25:57.045-07:00Thou Shalt Not Suffer A Witch To Live: A Tour of England's Witchcraft Legislation<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">From the
middle of the 16<sup>th</sup> century, to be found guilty of
witchcraft was officially a felony in England. Accordingly, if you
were unlucky enough to be found guilty of carrying out a range of
related practices, you could expect to find yourself facing
punishment, from a relatively lenient stint in the pillory to facing
the gallows.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">What
could lead to conviction? And what punishment could you expect at any
given point throughout the two centuries that followed? Here is a
handy run-down of witchcraft legislation in England. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgypsQhb17X_PLZFIK-l2jBjJrKYtc-aPoFbo0jzK5HN0PUCOJSUPNgRyO2nfDDMu99LgOpfy-mIGYMO81-fM-ruV6iHWzfYDAUDVimqD542K0vGbIJlbsHQZmu1jxnl7DSpoi2qe1fk2w/s1600/Witches_Being_Hanged.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="424" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgypsQhb17X_PLZFIK-l2jBjJrKYtc-aPoFbo0jzK5HN0PUCOJSUPNgRyO2nfDDMu99LgOpfy-mIGYMO81-fM-ruV6iHWzfYDAUDVimqD542K0vGbIJlbsHQZmu1jxnl7DSpoi2qe1fk2w/s640/Witches_Being_Hanged.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>1542
Witchcraft Act: An Act against Conjurations, Witchcrafts, Sorcery,
and Enchantments.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">This
short-lived piece of legislation appeared on the statute books in the
closing years of the reign of Henry VIII, stipulating that to be
found guilty of killing someone by witchcraft was punishable by
death. The guilty party would also forfeit their lands and goods, and
the option of benefit of clergy (the sparing of life if the
condemned could read a passage from the bible) and sanctuary were
also revoked.
</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div>
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</div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Death was likewise the punishment for the crimes of causing wasting or illness by
witchcraft (or even the intent to do so), wasting or destroying
another's goods (and again the mere intent to do so was considered as
bad as actually carrying out the act itself) attempting to locate
treasure, money or stolen goods, and also inciting someone to love
another against their will through magical means.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Image magic, i.e. creating an image of a person and causing harm to them through the pricking or otherwise tormenting of the image, was also included in the list of actions leglislated against in the act. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The digging
up of wayside crosses to find treasure that was suspected to be buried underneath was clearly a problem in Tudor England, and accusations and arrests for this offence were still taking place well into the first quarter of the 17th century</span>. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Interestingly, the actions mentioned in the Act were those more often associated with men than women, with the exception of love magic, suggesting that the stereotypical woman witch was not the true target of this piece of legislation. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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</div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The act
was repealed by Henry's son, Edward VI upon his accession to the
throne in 1547.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>:</i></span></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXTW0GgJt7OOVHSFD3hULCAGXl5khtuIH9X1B8Yhp25gpyYiLFkR-2br5XkKqJ5tkMHAPCqagUiyBBXmW2qN6ookjo8eOd8oHVCx2T_QXePDfG-HhO2Jde871pTmYnk97qfzBFHwKf6l0/s1600/645px-Woodhey_Cross.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="587" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXTW0GgJt7OOVHSFD3hULCAGXl5khtuIH9X1B8Yhp25gpyYiLFkR-2br5XkKqJ5tkMHAPCqagUiyBBXmW2qN6ookjo8eOd8oHVCx2T_QXePDfG-HhO2Jde871pTmYnk97qfzBFHwKf6l0/s640/645px-Woodhey_Cross.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">The remains of Woodhey Cross, Cheshire</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">(Image by Espresso Addict)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>1563
Witchcraft Act: An Act against Conjurations, Enchantments and
Witchcrafts</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Witchcraft didn't return to the English statute books until 1563, during the reign of Elizabeth I, and this Act marked the first concerted move against witchcraft and related actions. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Causing
death by witchcraft was still punishable by death and the removal of benefit of clergy and sanctuary still applied. (Where loss of goods
and lands were concerned however, dower portions and inheritance were now exempt from the general rule.) </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">A sliding scale of offences came into force with this act, as the wasting of another or causing lameness or likewise destruction of
goods was punishable on a first offence not by death, but by imprisonment for twelve
months.</span> <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The guilty party would also have to suffer a stint in the pillory four times during that year, along with publically confessing to their crime, but it was still, arguably, better than the previous blanket alternative. (Given the state of the prisons and the frequency of outbreaks of illness however, many unfortunately did not survive their incarceration.)</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> A second offence was treated less
leniently however, and to be found guilty a second time for the offence of causing wasting or destruction of person or goods resulted in death. A second offence of
<i>intending</i> to cause wasting and lameness or destroying goods was
punished by imprisonment for life, as was attempted treasure hunting
and provoking others to unlawful love. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i><b>Victims
of this Act include:</b></i></span></div>
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</div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Agnes
Waterhouse, the first to be executed for witchcraft in England, executed 1566</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Alice, Agnes and John Samuel, The Warboys Witches, executed 1593 </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkAZpUnxr5xi7vgJKj8Yk-ZSbnOgAE0RYCnti9BIyIao3pPyu7W0ohTCbieE2_fAHY09hNVpZmLFU_jLzSxPCWcf7U5wTBc-teHZc4HMMjERN1KoNrne2YiKsGSNz-UcpTshyphenhyphenlUaJqyF4/s1600/Daniel_Defoe_is_standing_in_the_pillory_while_soldiers_have_Wellcome_V0041680.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="528" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkAZpUnxr5xi7vgJKj8Yk-ZSbnOgAE0RYCnti9BIyIao3pPyu7W0ohTCbieE2_fAHY09hNVpZmLFU_jLzSxPCWcf7U5wTBc-teHZc4HMMjERN1KoNrne2YiKsGSNz-UcpTshyphenhyphenlUaJqyF4/s640/Daniel_Defoe_is_standing_in_the_pillory_while_soldiers_have_Wellcome_V0041680.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">(Image: Wellcome Collection)</span></div>
</div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">1604
Witchcraft Act: An Act against Conjuration, Witchcraft and dealing
with evil and wicked spirits.</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">This Act
was one of the earliest pieces of legislation to be passed in the
reign of James I – hardly surprising from a monarch with such a
personal interest in witches. (James published his anti-witchcraft
<i>Daemonologie </i>in 1597, and he
was believed to hold a personal vendetta against witches due to his
belief that the Berwick Witches had tried to kill him and his Queen.) </span>
</div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">As with
previous legislation, death was the punishment for bewitching someone
to death. Causing illness or destroying goods was again punishable by
death for a first offence rather than the two-tiered approach of the
1563 Act. For intending to cause illness or harm to goods, treasure
hunting or love magic, a first offence brought imprisonment for a
year and four stints in the pillory (for 6 hours at a time) and a
repeat offence of any of these acts however brought the death
sentence.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">A noteworthy departure made the calling </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">up of or communicating with
spirits or familiars punishable by death for the first time, rather than just causing death by such means. An additional crime listed in this Act was </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">the exhumation of corpses for
use in witchcraft</span>. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i><b>Victims of this Act include:</b></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Anne Whittle and Elizabeth, Alizon and James Device, among the infamous Pendle Witches - executed 1612</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Mary Lakeland, one of England's very few verifiable witch burnings, executed 1645</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0DmUX6rFmiBNDNhdON3aH7UEB8UUryXTj7DcP8Kh6T2iNlhYeenY2PRLA13NkPYizyN2tQy6sqvhMZ_x_1b3JYBSCPnOGS0ppGOhBH46xzPwX_LxtNGJctv5HqZHjFEIeSZX4v3ZA3-M/s1600/witch-feeding-her-familiars.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="420" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0DmUX6rFmiBNDNhdON3aH7UEB8UUryXTj7DcP8Kh6T2iNlhYeenY2PRLA13NkPYizyN2tQy6sqvhMZ_x_1b3JYBSCPnOGS0ppGOhBH46xzPwX_LxtNGJctv5HqZHjFEIeSZX4v3ZA3-M/s640/witch-feeding-her-familiars.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>1736
Witchcraft Act:</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Under
this act in the reign of George II witchcraft ceased to be a felony;
instead the belief in witchcraft became the crime and those who
accused others of being a witch could and did find themselves –
often bewildered to be doing so – before the courts at the
instigation of those they had accused. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Despite
the passing of the Act, belief in witchcraft and related
superstitions was slow to decline, and particularly in areas such as
Devon and Dorset, suspected witches continued to be attacked and
accused outside of the court room well into the 19<sup>th</sup>
century and beyond.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div>
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</div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The Act itself was used well into the 20<sup>th</sup> century, most famously in the
case of the prosecution and imprisonment of spiritualist medium Helen
Duncan in 1944. The Act was not repealed until 1951, when it was
replaced by <i>The Fraudulent Mediums Act. </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i><b>People convicted under this Act include:</b></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Helen Duncan, the last person to be imprisoned under the Act, imprisoned January 1944</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Jane Rebecca Yorke, for pretending in the existence of spirits of the dead, (last person convicted under the Act)</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> bound over and fined £5, July 1944</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUG775eDsTuMSzV-T5GxTTekGUxNSjZK6dYlTXYm1EL20teB9SX40OvuYWavvkjhTWieuXYvZuWcPx6fa4cOP0eiIDEIpsdx-W0AKRaIQV7jUwfb-Bga7sAfBQL_nZY5qbMusEE1y-Sy4/s1600/Helen_Duncan_with_roll_of_cheesecloth.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUG775eDsTuMSzV-T5GxTTekGUxNSjZK6dYlTXYm1EL20teB9SX40OvuYWavvkjhTWieuXYvZuWcPx6fa4cOP0eiIDEIpsdx-W0AKRaIQV7jUwfb-Bga7sAfBQL_nZY5qbMusEE1y-Sy4/s640/Helen_Duncan_with_roll_of_cheesecloth.png" width="410" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Helen Duncan displaying the 'ectoplasm' for which she was </span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">so </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">famously known.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">(Image: Wikimedia Commons)</span></span></div>
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WillowWinshamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10246542908881097397noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2348774761086709851.post-58584456782224036042018-07-19T05:05:00.000-07:002018-07-19T05:05:05.749-07:00The Heart of the Matter: Two Cases of Devonshire Witchcraft<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Belief in witches and their ability to cause harm to others was prevelant throughout the 16th and 17th centuries. One popular way to counter the bewitchment and to break the bold of the witch over an individual or his family and livestock was to remove the heart of a dead and bewitched animal. This would then be stuck with pins and/or then burned. The continuation of such beliefs after official persecutions and prosecutions for the crime of witchcraft is particularly evident in the South West of England, as these two newspaper reports from Devon testify. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The first took place in Drewsteignton, Devon, and was reported in January, 1861. According to the Devices and Wiltshire Gazette, two horses belonging to "a certain farmer" residing on the western side of the parish had died. Although the writer attributes this to old age, the farmer, his workman, William, and their neighbours, believed the deaths to have been caused by witchcraft. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">After consultation with a "White Witch", the bodies of the dead animals were dug up and the heart of each removed. The hearts were then "stuck all over with pins and blackthorn and wrapped in brown paper." At nightfall, the organs were burned in a huge fire built nearby, with a quart of coal used to ensure maximum heat. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The second incident took place a few years later in 1869, this time in Dittisham. When a publican lost several pigs in quick succession with no obvious cause, he was persuaded that witchcraft was behind the death of his animals. Following the advice of a friend, he had the heart of one of the dead pigs removed, and stuck pins all over it. The Heart was then placed in front of the fire until it "charred to a cinder."</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmZfb_PjrnhreyfomEXyPMKa5iuVHJJG_zZM_xilcgnhWj_3lVE8rDw6svJdI1KpXZM88QKctmrBtd01Y3Qo_VHv7WAulCvyLPxzUhk0hQUvglm95m7m9crgtk2qlyBxnGVRCpCtafLPw/s1600/05300.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="335" data-original-width="256" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmZfb_PjrnhreyfomEXyPMKa5iuVHJJG_zZM_xilcgnhWj_3lVE8rDw6svJdI1KpXZM88QKctmrBtd01Y3Qo_VHv7WAulCvyLPxzUhk0hQUvglm95m7m9crgtk2qlyBxnGVRCpCtafLPw/s400/05300.jpg" width="305" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Image from 'The Evil Eye' by Frederick Thomas Elworthy (1895)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">sacred-texts.com</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Newspaper credits: www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk</span></div>
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WillowWinshamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10246542908881097397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2348774761086709851.post-62469057171937443452018-05-27T12:04:00.001-07:002018-05-27T12:04:20.278-07:00A-Z of the Accused: Isobel Roby<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Name: Isobel Roby</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Location: Lancashire</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Date: 1612</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Accusations: One of the less well-known of the "Pendle Witches", Isobel Roby was unusual in that she was not actually indicted for a specific act of witchcraft against a named victim. Several people however spoke against her, including Peter Chaddock of Windle, Jane Wilkinson, Margaret Lyon, and Margaret Parre, who between them stated that a man had fallen ill after falling out with Isobel, and that a woman who had refused her milk had experienced an unexplained pinch to her thigh. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Outcome: Despite the scarcity of evidence or word against her and a plea of 'not guilty', Isobel was found guilty of witchcraft and sentenced to death with the rest of the Pendle victims. She was hanged on 20th August, 1612.</span></div>
WillowWinshamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10246542908881097397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2348774761086709851.post-8779191357183166572018-04-09T02:03:00.000-07:002018-04-09T02:03:47.996-07:00The Missing Mercer's Wife: The Mysterious Disappearance of Katherine Atkins <div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Tales of
strange disappearances and people being transported from one place to
another through mystical means are not uncommon in English myth and
folklore. What is perhaps more surprising is to find them contained
in accounts that purport to be a more 'accurate' telling of
historical events.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Such an
example is the 1652 pamphlet detailing the trial for witchcraft of
several people from Cranbrook, Kent. Tacked onto the end of (and
seemingly utterly unconnected to) the telling of the unhappy end of
those accused, is<i> 'A true Relation of one Mrs Atkins, a Mercer's
Wife in Warwick, who was strangely carried away from her house in
July last.'</i> If this were not enough to grab the attention of the
reader, it transpired that the missing woman had not been seen since.
</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL7v9dXhGAfdiYTZ2EXdRzb33eXT10VeTT2pLDgnFGe6qX06mdBImXCkWHerIN09-dlIVOohe8Qf6P6tpATGus6a9zOpMNPxdOJNe8-AbJwsMiOdZwz8nSMA3tydcV34fFLNRPv3B4s5k/s1600/MrsAtkins_Timber_frames_all_in_a_row_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1221821.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="428" data-original-width="640" height="428" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL7v9dXhGAfdiYTZ2EXdRzb33eXT10VeTT2pLDgnFGe6qX06mdBImXCkWHerIN09-dlIVOohe8Qf6P6tpATGus6a9zOpMNPxdOJNe8-AbJwsMiOdZwz8nSMA3tydcV34fFLNRPv3B4s5k/s640/MrsAtkins_Timber_frames_all_in_a_row_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1221821.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">(Creative Commons, Colin Craig)</span></div>
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</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It all
started on the night of Saturday 24 July, 1652. Mrs Katherine Atkins
had been standing at her door, when a 'certain unknown woman'
approached and asked for two pence. Mrs Atkins however, pleading a
lack of money herself, refused. Not to be put off, the woman then
asked for the pin that Mrs Atkins had on her sleeve. This was duly
removed and given to the woman, who seemed most grateful for the
gift. Touched by her display of thanks, Mrs Atkins invited her to
stay a while, offering to prepare some food, or, if she preferred,
the gift of some thread or something else from the shop. The woman
however took offence at this and she answered:</span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">'she
would have nothing else, and bid a pox on her victuals, and swore (by
God) saying 'You shall be an hundred miles off within this week, when
you shall want two-pence as much as I.'</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">With this
ominous pronouncement, the woman went away, still grumbling to
herself and leaving Katherine Atkins suitably shaken.
</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Come
morning, her mind was still unsettled when she thought of what had
occurred, and Mrs Atkins sought the advice of several friends for
what to do. No one seemed to be able to offer a solution however or
much in the way of reassurance, and on 29 July the tormented woman
confided in a family member that she was very worried indeed about
what the visitor had foretold. There was a glimmer of hope however;
the time that the woman had pronounced her fate was to occur was
almost passed: it might therefore not transpire as had been predicted
after all.
</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">This
tentative optimism turned out to be premature: on Thursday night that
week between eight and nine, Mrs Atkins visited her husband's shop.
The unfortunate woman was last seen in the entrance way, before
vanishing immediately before the very eyes of witnesses. No one knew
where Mrs Atkins had gone or how she had been whisked away, and her
whereabouts were unknown at the time of the pamphlet being printed.
The tale ends with the entreaty that:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>'The
desire of her husband and friends is of all the inhabitants of this
Nation, that if they hear of any such party in such a lost condition
as is before expressed; that there may be speedy notice given thereof
to her Husband in Warwick, and that all convenient provisions both of
horse and money may be made for the conveying of her to the place
aforesaid.' </i>
</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">As well
as exhorting anyone who located the missing woman to aid her return
to her home and family, the author goes on to ask most earnestly that
ministers everywhere across the country, and in London in particular,
could offer their prayers to God to help Mrs Atkin's return.
</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">A
fantastical story indeed. While the events themselves are
questionable to say the least, the Atkins family of Warwick did in
fact exist. Thomas Adkins or Atkins was baptised at St Mary's,
Warwick, in 1612 to John and Elizabeth Adkins, and he had at least
one brother, John, baptised 1615. There is no record of Thomas'
marriage, but the parish registers contain baptism records for
several children to Thomas and Katherine Adkins, including Alicia
Adkins baptised 1634 and Anna Adkins baptised 1639. Further evidence
regarding the couple can be found in the Hearth Tax index for Warwick
which includes a Thomas Adkins living in Market Place, Warwick, and the records confirm that he was also known as Atkins.
</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNec_kktIi6pNiCFUeBeOGTIieZ9pu6MzxcUNtcSPoD4H0FHqH5TUPqqZ_UItb4z3NhenrQsxaQx1cB4P56MXXuUXXwvn2-Z8L6_0EnBXMYaCxi_qzJ_9c71VDA0BiGDlNWxL3LA1JlhI/s1600/MrsAtkins_800px-Warwick_ChurchofStMary01.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="533" data-original-width="800" height="425" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNec_kktIi6pNiCFUeBeOGTIieZ9pu6MzxcUNtcSPoD4H0FHqH5TUPqqZ_UItb4z3NhenrQsxaQx1cB4P56MXXuUXXwvn2-Z8L6_0EnBXMYaCxi_qzJ_9c71VDA0BiGDlNWxL3LA1JlhI/s640/MrsAtkins_800px-Warwick_ChurchofStMary01.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Warwick St Mary, as it is today.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">(Creative Commons, Chris Nyborg)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">How
Katherine returned to her home in Warwick or how long she was missing
for is unknown, but it appears the situation had a favourable
outcome. Several more children were baptised to the couple in the
years that followed her supposed disappearance, and Katherine herself
was buried in Warwick St Mary's 25<sup>th</sup> January 1669. The
truth behind her absence and the identity of the mysterious woman who
cursed her remains a mystery, although it is unlikely that either
were quickly forgotten by Katherine and Thomas Atkins.
</span></div>
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WillowWinshamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10246542908881097397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2348774761086709851.post-16004218289961937002018-04-09T02:02:00.000-07:002018-04-09T02:02:43.926-07:00A-Z of the Accused: Agnes Hurst<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Name:
</b>Agnes Hurst</span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Location:
</b>Westhoughton, Lancashire</span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Date:
</b>1665</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Accusations:
</b>Jane Gregory testified that her
husband Thomas had been taken ill after an encounter with Agnes
Hurst, a woman reputed to have been a witch for the last twenty
years. He had helped in transporting the old woman in a chair with a
group of others, and she had taken him by the hand. This seemingly
innocent gesture was, in hindsight, taken as malevolent in nature, as
the following day Thomas Gregory was certain he thought he saw
someone on the chimney of his house, only to find no one there when
he reached home. This was the prelude to his symptoms, as upon
entering the house he was taken ill, feeling as if he were being
'pricked' with an awl. Convinced that Agnes and her daughter Margaret
had bewitched him, Thomas went to their house to accuse the women; he
and Agnes exchanged heated words, during which Agnes said she hoped
to see the end of him. Several other members of the Gregory family
supported Jane and Thomas' story.
</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Outcome:
</b>Although nothing came of the
matter at the time, Agnes and Margaret were indicted three years
later for the murder by witchcraft of Thomas Gregory, who according
to the burial register for Westhoughton died in 1667. The pair were
cleared of the crime however, with Agnes living on until 1670 and her
daughter until 1684.
</span></div>
WillowWinshamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10246542908881097397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2348774761086709851.post-89936090719127871962018-03-05T02:09:00.000-08:002018-03-05T02:09:34.964-08:00A-Z of the Accused: Alice Gooderidge<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Name:</b>
Alice Gooderidge</span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Date:</b>
1596</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Location:</b>
Stapenhill, Burton-Upon-Trent, Staffordshire</span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Accusations: </b>In February 1596,<b> </b>Alice was accused of bewitching young Thomas Darling after meeting the boy when he got lost in the woods while hunting with his uncle. Shortly afterwards, Thomas suffered from vomiting and
hallucinations; when the doctor called to attend him could do nothing
to ease his condition, it was noted that the boy became worse when
praying or reading the bible, and witchcraft was diagnosed. When
Thomas told of his meeting with the old woman, (and her anger when he
happened to break wind in front of her) the finger of blame was soon
pointed at sixty-year old Alice Gooderidge, although some also
believed her mother, Elizabeth Wright, was actually the woman in
question. Upon examination, Alice initially admitted she had been in
the wood, but not to seeing Thomas there. Upon being unable to say
the Lord's Prayer properly however, the local Justice was called, and
Alice and her mother were apprehended by the constable, leading to Alice
finally admitting to having met Thomas Darling. Further evidence was
forthcoming: a hole was discovered on Alice's belly, the site, it was
said, where she had desperately tried to remove the evidence of the
witch's mark that would incriminate her, and although she said the
injury was caused by a fall from a ladder, this explanation was not
believed. Alice was imprisoned and Thomas Darling continued to
suffer: the boy was plagued by hallucinations, fits and, incredibly,
was said to have been threatened by a spectral bear.
</span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Outcome:</b>
After undergoing inducement to confess, including having the shoes on
her feet heated to unbearable temperatures before the fire, Alice
finally broke. On 2 and 3 May she confessed that she had bewitched
Thomas, and sent the Devil after him in the form of a red and white
coloured dog named Minny. She was also charged with bewitching a cow
belonging to a man named Michael. Thomas Darling was exorcised by the
soon to be infamous exorcist John Darrell, after which the boy
recovered from his bewitchment. Alice was not so fortunate; it is
believed that she was sentenced to a year in gaol, and although
there is no further record of her, it is believed she died during her
imprisonment. Tragically, three years later, Thomas Darling confessed
that he had fabricated the entire story and his subsequent illness.
Darrell, after playing a prominent role in several high-profile
possession cases, was like-wise discredited as a fraud.
</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
WillowWinshamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10246542908881097397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2348774761086709851.post-91040254273153874172018-02-28T05:10:00.000-08:002018-02-28T05:10:30.772-08:00A-Z of the Accused: Margaret Flower<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Name:</b>
Margaret Flower
</span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Date:</b>
1619
</span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Location:
</b>Bottesford, Vale of Belvoir,
Leicestershire</span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Accusations:
</b>After Margaret was dismissed
from service at Belvoir Castle by the wife of the Earl of Rutland,
she was accused along with her mother Joan and sister Philippa of
bewitching two of the Earl's sons to death in revenge. The magic was
worked against them in turn using a glove belonging to each boy,
items Margaret was responsible for procuring. An unsuccessful attempt
was likewise made on the life of Katherine, the Earl's daughter, and
it was believed that the Flower women had also made sure the Earl and
his wife would have no further children.
</span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div>
<br />
<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Outcome:
</b>The three women were arrested, and after her mother died on the way to Lincoln, Margaret and her
sister made the rest of the journey to Lincoln Castle where they were
imprisoned and tried. <b> </b>Margaret
related how spirits and devils had appeared to her in her gaol cell;
it was only then that she realised her own guilt in the matter and
had not before that point thought herself a witch. No doubt terrified
and confused, the two sisters incriminated themselves and each other,
and Margaret and Philippa were found guilty and hanged. </span>
</div>
WillowWinshamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10246542908881097397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2348774761086709851.post-74041224596733439022018-01-31T12:25:00.000-08:002018-01-31T12:25:35.670-08:00A-Z of the Accused: Margaret Ellnore<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Name:
</b>Margaret Ellnore</span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Date:
</b>1694</span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Location:
</b>Ipswich</span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Accusations:</b> Francis Hutchinson recorded in his <i>Historical Essay Concerning Witchcraft</i> that when a man named Rudge refused to let Margaret Ellnore a house, his
wife fell ill soon afterwards and Margaret was blamed. The woman
remained unwell for three years, only improving during the periods
when Margaret was arrested and chained up; as soon as Margaret was
released, Mistress Rudge once again fell ill. Further accusations
were made against her by others, who said they had fallen ill after
likewise quarelling with Margaret. To make matters worse, it was said
that Margaret's Grandmother and aunt had previously been hanged for
witches, (the grandmother having passed her own imps on to her
children) something that made her guilt all the more believable as
witchcraft was known to run in families.
</span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div>
<br />
<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Outcome:
</b>One of the later witchcraft
trials to take place in England, Margaret Ellnore had the good luck
to be tried by Sir John Holt, a judge who was responsible for
acquitting several accused witches during his career and had a
reputation for leniency where this particular crime was concerned.
Margaret was accordingly found innocent of the crimes of which she was accused. It seems that Holt's leniency only bought Margaret a few more years; a burial record for Maragret Elmore in Ipswich suggests she died in 1697.</span></div>
WillowWinshamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10246542908881097397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2348774761086709851.post-78159238859802681772018-01-22T01:55:00.000-08:002018-01-22T01:55:34.304-08:00A-Z of the Accused: Agnes Duke<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Name:</b>
Agnes Duke</span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Location:</b>
Hatfield Peverel, Essex</span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Date:</b>
1566-1589</span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Accusations:</b>
Agnes' first official step on the wrong side of the law was not actually for witchcraft.</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> At the Brentwood Assizes
on 14 March 1566, she was indicted along with William Spayne on the
charge of burglary; on 15 December the previous year, the pair had
stolen goods from the house of Richard Harris in Agnes' native
Hatfield Peverel in Essex. Agnes was found guilty, but was remanded,
possibly because she pleaded pregnancy. Her accomplice wasn't as
fortunate; Spayne is recorded as having died in prison, a common
occurrence given the unsanitary conditions prisoners were frequently held
in. </span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Agnes was still in prison in March 1567, but was apparently
released some time after that, as the next mention of her is not
until the Chelmsford Assizes of 1584 when she was again before the
courts, this time indicted for murder by witchcraft. It was said that
on 7 February 1584 she bewitched John Byrde, who died 25 that same
month. Agnes was found not guilty and, </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">again, released. Finally on 13
March 1589 Agnes was again up for charges of witchcraft at
Chelmsford, this time working with John Heare to bewitch Joan Hawkins
in November 1588, their victim languishing until 10 March the following year.
Agnes was again, surprisingly, found not guilty. </span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div>
<br />
<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Outcome:
</b>Despite being cleared and escaping the noose, Agnes was still listed as a gaol prisoner at the
February Chelmsford sessions in 1590. The end result for Agnes is
ultimately unknown as mention of her dries up in the Assize records
for the period; one might hope she was released, although death in prison was, potentially, more likely. </span></div>
WillowWinshamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10246542908881097397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2348774761086709851.post-36246845837736995392018-01-14T00:34:00.002-08:002018-01-14T00:34:33.352-08:00A-Z of the Accused: Joan Cason<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Name:</b>
Joan Cason
</span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Location:</b>
Faversham, Kent</span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Date:</b>
1586</span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Accusations:</b>
When Sarah Cooke's young daughter fell ill, a traveller told her that
the girl had been bewitched. To cure her, the worried mother
was advised to procure a roof tile from the house of the woman she
suspected was responsible: Joan Cason. Sarah was to place the tile in the fire, </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">where
it would 'sparkle and fly round the cradle' if the child was indeed
bewitched. Sarah Cooke duly carried out the ritual using a tile from the roof of Joan's house, and the result proved positive. To further compound her guilt in the eyes of her neighbours, </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Joan herself came to the Cooke's
house not long afterwards to see how the child did, with disasterous consequences: four hours
after looking Joan in the face, young Jane Cooke was dead. Although
Joan denied any culpability it did her little good; seven people
vouched for the fact that several years ago a rat-like spirit used to
visit Joan's house to aid her in her mischief. Despite Joan insisting
that those who spoke against her did so out of malice, she was
arrested and charged.</span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div>
<br />
<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Outcome: </b>Joan was indicted on the charge of invoking spirits and also of
bewitching young Jane Cooke to death. She was acquitted of the murder
charge however and only charged with the conjuring of spirits, after she admitted that the rat-like creature had indeed been a frequent visitor to her own house and others in Faversham. This 'leniency' was due, according to the account in Holinshed, to the jury being reluctant to convict Joan of a crime
punishable by death. It seems, however, that their consideration was
actually Joan's downfall; a lawyer who was present quibbled the matter of conjuring spirits, and</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> Joan was hanged anyway three days later.</span></div>
WillowWinshamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10246542908881097397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2348774761086709851.post-63860149236024755852018-01-07T11:04:00.000-08:002018-01-07T11:04:59.600-08:00A-Z of the Accused: Jane Brooks<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Name:</b>
Jane Brooks</span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Location:
</b>Shepton Mallet, Somerset</span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Date:</b>
1657/8</span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Accusations:</b>
The elderly Jane, along with her sister, was accused of tormenting young Richard Jones. Jane had begged bread from him, and in return
had given the boy an apple; after taking a bite from it he had
suffered a fit and could not move or speak. Jane and her sister were said to then have continued to torment the boy, visiting him in spectral form; on one momentous occasion the apparition was stabbed</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> in the
hand by one of Richard's relations, only for the same
injury to be discovered on Jane herself shortly afterwards. </span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The boy
continued to suffer strange fits and was seen to be in great agony, and matters continuing to escalate, despite rumours that the sisters had offered Richard money to drop the case against them. Most memorably, it</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> was claimed
by witnesses that on 25 February 1658 Richard Jones was lifted into
the air by an invisible force and transported for three hundred
yards – a journey that included clearing a stone wall – after
which he was thrown to the ground with such force that he lost
consciousness. Jones claimed upon waking that Jane had been
responsible and had lifted him into the air – no mean feat for an
elderly and frail woman. On another occasion, Richard was
discovered floating up by the ceiling of his house, remaining there for
quarter of an hour much to the amazement of the several witnesses who saw him.</span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Outcome:</b>
Jane and her sister were sent to the Shepton Mallet House of
Correction before being tried at the Chard Assizes in March, 1658. The pair were sent to gaol on 10<sup>th</sup> March, from which point Richard Jones ceased to suffer further fits. This did not save Jane however, and she</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> was executed on 26</span><sup style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">th</sup><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">
of March, while her sister died in prison.</span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
WillowWinshamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10246542908881097397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2348774761086709851.post-21777202615824294862018-01-03T13:08:00.000-08:002018-01-03T13:08:12.838-08:00New Year's Witchcraft<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Wishing everyone a very happy start to 2018, and hoping that the festive period was a positive one, however you chose to spend it! I'm back blogging with tales of witches and everything weird and wonderful, and what better way to start than with some new year's accusations of witchcraft? </span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Agnes and her husband John Godfrey were married 25th January, 1578 at St. Andrew's, Enfield, and had at least six children in the years that followed. There is no evidence one way or another as to how their marriage fared, but relations within the local community were certainly less than harmonious as Agnes was accused of bewitching Thomas Phillippes, a one-year old infant, on 1st January, 1596/7, and another child, William Harvey, on 1st January 1597/98. Both died. In November 1609, Agnes was indicted for both crimes. She was also charged with </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">bewitching a 'steer'
(castrated cow), a pig, a 'little pig' and a mare belonging to local
gentleman William Durrant,</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> bewitching Frances Baker and causing her illness and
wasting, and causing the death of Jasper Tappes. </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Agnes pleaded 'not guilty' to all charges, but was found guilty of killing William Durrant's animals and also murdering Thomas Phillippes in 1596/7. </span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The sentence passed against Agnes is unknown, but she clearly escaped the noose as she was indicted again several years later in 1621 on more charges of witchcraft. The previous enmity between Agnes and William Durrant had not been resolved, as this time she was</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> accused of harming the man himself, causing his body to be wasted. Agnes was also accused of using witchcraft to murder William and Robert Coxe and Henry Butterfield in the years since her previous indictments.</span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Agnes pleaded 'not guilty' again and was this time acquitted on all counts. This was hopefully the end of at least official accusations for witchcraft for Agnes, as she does not appear in the court records again for any reason. </span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">(As I can't let these things lie, I am currently pursuing research to find out how long Agnes lived after her acquittal. Watch this space!)</span></div>
WillowWinshamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10246542908881097397noreply@blogger.com0