A-Z of the Accused: Alice Noakes

Name: Alice Nokes or Noakes

Location: Lambourne, Essex

Accusations: 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.

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. 

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. 

Outcome: Alice was indicted for murder by witchcraft and found guilty of bewitching Elizabeth Barfott to death. She was sentenced to hang.

A-Z of the Accused: Anne Maidenhead

Name: Anne Cade, alias Maidenhead

Location: Great Holland, Essex

Date: 1645

Accusations: 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.

 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. 

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.

Outcome: 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.

A-Z of the Accused: Rebecca Jones

Name: Rebecca Jones

Location: St.  Osyth, Essex

Date: 1645

Accusations: 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. 

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.

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.

Outcome: Rebecca was found guilty of causing the death of Thomas Bumpstead and sentenced to death. 

A-Z of the Accused: Agnes Duke

Name: Agnes Duke

Location: Hatfield Peverel, Essex

Date: 1566-1589

Accusations: Agnes' first official step on the wrong side of the law was not actually for witchcraft. 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. 

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, 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. 

Outcome: 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. 

Arson and Arguments: Cicely Sellis and the St. Osyth Witch Trials.

The St. Osyth witch trials of 1582 saw thirteen women tried for a variety of witchcraft-related crimes at the Chelmsford Assizes. One of those was Cicely Sellis from Little Clacton where she lived with her husband and children. Cicely entered the long and engrossing narrative of the St. Osyth trials on 1^st March, 1582, when Richard Ross, also of Little Clacton, Essex, informed Justice Brian Darcy of the following.

Six years ago, Cicely's husband, Henry Sellis, had worked for him in the fields many times without incident. On one occasion, however, two horses that had previously been well suddenly fell down and died while Henry was in charge of the plough. As if this were not strange enough, shortly before the incident, he had refused to sell Cicely the two bushes of malt that she required, due to the fact that she wanted to pay three shillings when Ross swore they were worth ten groats. Not to be deterred, Cicely had then gone to Ross' wife and asked to buy the malt from her in turn: again she had refused to pay the going price and the two women had fallen out.

Then there had been the incident with cattle belong to the Sellis family; Ross' wife had discovered the beasts on their land and had driven them off. Seeing this occur, Cicely had angrily remonstrated with Ross' wife, and, shortly after, some of the Ross cattle began to behave in a most strange fashion. Richard Ross was of the opinion that the cause of this was witchcraft, carried out by either Cicely or Henry Sellis.  

Finally, twelve months ago a barn full of corn belonging to Ross had mysteriously caught fire, but he couldn't, Ross said (it must be suspected with some regret) place the blame on the Sellis', other than to remark their youngest son had been heard to observe that it was a 'goodly store of corn' a while before the incident occurred.

On the same day as Ross was examined, the Sellis' nine year old son, Henry, was also questioned by the Justice. According to the boy, a spirit had come to his younger brother one night, taking hold of him by the left leg and toe and frightening him greatly, as indeed it might, being, according to the boy, the size of his sister and all in black. Their father had been most angry at their mother for this, demanding, 'Why, thou whore, cannot you keep your imps from my children?' Cicely had apparently duly called the creature away and it had left the terrified boy in peace. This was not the only time the 'imps' were present; Henry had seen his mother feeding them, and, the boy informed Darcy, they had names - one was called Hercules or John, and the other Mercury. Not only that, Henry had heard his mother tell his father that she had sent one of the spirits to Ross' maid, on the very day that she had been taken ill. 

Henry and Cicely themselves were also questioned that day. Henry denied everything said against both himself and his wife, apart from the death of Ross' horses when he had been working with them. Cicely likewise did not recall the chasing off of her cattle or arguing with Ross' wife over either cattle or malt. Both denied having anything to do with any spirits and vowed that the entire incident regarding their son and the spirit grabbing him in the night had not occured. 

On top of the questioning, Cicely was searched by three 'women of credit' chosen by Darcy for the purpose. On her body were found several 'suspicious' marks, very like those that had been 'sucked' by the supposed familiar spirits owned by Ursula Kemp who was the main suspect in the witch trials so far. 

Two days later on 3^rd March, John Sellis, their younger son who had been so terrified by the spirit, spoke to Darcy. He repeated virtually everything that his older brother had said, but with the additional information that an unidentified man had come to take the spirits away, and that said man had given his mother a penny before doing so.  

Others also spoke out against the Sellis family. On 15^th March Thomas Death related how two years previous his wife had fallen out with Cicely over the child of George Battell. The child had originally been given into Cicely's care to nurse, but – for reasons unstated in the evidence given – the child was then taken from Cicely and given instead to Thomas Death's wife. When Cicely next met Mrs Death she had given vent to her anger on the matter, declaring that she would 'lose more by the having of it than thou shalt have for the keeping of it.' Sure enough, within the month, his own child, aged four years old, suddenly fell down 'dead' in the yard, and, despite being revived for a short time, eventually died. Pigs of his had also behaved in a strange fashion, in a way that no one could satisfactorily explain.  

The Harvesters - Pieter Bruegel the Elder

Not only that, but his older daughter Marie had also suffered at the hands of Cicely Sellis. She was taken very ill, and her father was told that in two night's time those who had caused her bewitchment would appear and would make her well again. Upon returning home he was told by his wife that Marie had claimed Cicely Sellis and another woman had been in the room with her. Marie confirmed this to Darcy, along with giving more details of her strange illness.  

Joan Smith, the wife of Robert Smith told of how her young child, formerly healthy and in good spirits, had died shortly after Cicely had commented on it. Interestingly, she would not blame Cicely for what had occurred, only going as far as to say she prayed for God to forgive Cicely if she had been in any way involved.

There was less 'evidence' against Cicely than several of the others named and accused in the spiralling panic that had gripped St. Osyth, and the Sellis family had entered the narrative relatively late on in proceedings. That did not keep them from the courts however, and on 29^th March 1582, Cicely was indicted for arson along with Alice Manfield, who was also charged with bewitching several people to death.

'On 1 Sept. 1581 at Little Clacton they feloniously burnt a granary (100 marks) belonging to Richard Ross. On 4^th June at Great Clacton Sillis bewitched John son of Thomas Death so that he died the same day.'  

Although cleared of the arson charge, Cicely was found guilty on the charge of bewitchment remanded. Interestingly, at the Assizes of 2^nd August 1582 Henry Sellis was also indicted for the same arson charge, and this time it was stated that the couple and their son Robert had set fire to the barn. All three were cleared of the charge but this was little comfort to them however, as it appears Henry and Cicely Sellis died in prison early in 1583 before they could be released.  

References/Further Reading:

Cockburn, Calendar of Assize Records: Essex Indictments Elizabeth I, London, 1978

Gibson, Marion, Early Modern Witches, Routledge, 2000

Rosen, Barbara, Witchcraft in England, 1558-1618, University Massachusetts Press, 1992

W.W, A True and Just Record, of the Information, Examination and Confession of all the Witches, taken at S. Osyth in the county of Essex, London, 1582

Interesting Individuals: Agnes Waterhouse - The First Witch Hanged in England

With a glass of wine and the sound of bird song on a glorious summer evening, the world of 16^th Century Essex could not feel further away. Turning to the dusty tome before me however, the story of Agnes Waterhouse beckons; the sixty-four year old witch from Hatfield Peverel, the first woman to be executed for witchcraft in England.

The whole matter, put simply, revolved around a cat. Gifted to Agnes by Elizabeth Francis (a neighbour and, possibly, sister), the pet was a white cat called Satan or Sathan,that had belonged to the woman for the best part of fifteen years. Satan would, Elizabeth assured Agnes, do whatever she asked of it,in exchange for milk and a drop of blood. 

Eager to put the claim to the test, Agnes fed Satan as instructed, before ordering the cat to bring about the death of one of her own pigs. When this proved successful, it was said that she killed three of Father Kersey's hogs, drowned Widow Gooday's cow, and ruined the brewing and butter of other neighbours with whom she had disagreements. 

After a spate of such events, Agnes, her eighteen year old daughter Joan, and Elizabeth Francis were finally arrested in 1566. Agnes was put on trial, charged with causing illness to William Fynne, who had died in November of the previous year. She was also accused of using magic to kill livestock, cause illness, and bring about the death of her own husband.

More damning evidence came from a young girl named Agnes Brown. She swore that she had been visited by a demon in the guise of a large black dog, that, when questioned, indicated it had come from Agnes Waterhouse. This was corroborated by Agnes' daughter, Joan, who testified to the existence of the cat, Satan, and also the dog demon, whom she herself had sent to terrorise the neighbourhood girl.

Agnes also confessed to turning the cat into a toad. Her own poverty, was, she insisted, the motivating factor. The cat had slept on some wool, but, when forced to take the wool back due to her own need, she reasoned that a toad could more happily live happily in a pot without such comforts. 

Although the newly passed Witchcraft Act of 1562 was somewhat more lenient than it's predecessor, the Act Against Conjurations, Enchantments and Witchcrafts was firm on one point. If such actions resulted in the death of the victim, the accused was to be punished by death.  

According to witnesses, Agnes repented, adding to her previously confessed crimes that of sending Satan to harm the goods of a tailor named Wardol and the fact she had performed sorcery for the last twenty five years. She was hanged on 29^th July at Chelmsford.

Her daughter, Joan Waterhouse was set free. Elizabeth Francis was given a lighter sentence, (despite being charged first and also confessing to using the cat to cause harm) but was hanged after a second conviction thirteen years later. 

Another interesting feature of the case was the prominence of those attending: Queen Elizabeth's attorney and  the justice of the Queen's bench both attended Agnes' second examination.