The Devil in Britain and America

In ‘The Witches of Huntingdon, their Examinations and Confessions,’ etc., London, 1646, we have eight cases of witchcraft which were tried at different times early in 1646. Among these eight, two were men; but there is no record of the fate of any of them. They are the same old story, the one with the most originality being that of Jane Willis, of Keiston, in the county of Huntingdon.

‘This Examinate saith, as she was making of her bedde in her Chamber, there appeared in the shape of a man in blacke cloaths, and blackish cloaths about six weeks past, and bid her good morrow, and shee asked what his name was, and he said his name was Blackeman, and asked her if she were poore, and she said I:47 then he told her he would send one Grissell and Greedigut to her, that shall do anything for her: Shee looking upon him, saw hee had ugly feete, and then she was very fearfull of him, for that sometimes he would seem to be tall, and sometimes lesse, and suddenly vanished away.

‘And being demanded whether he lay with her, shee said hee would have lain with her, but shee would not suffer him: and after Blackeman was departed from her, within three or 4 dayes, Grissell and Greedigut came to her, in the shape of dogges, with great brisles of hogges haire upon their backs, and said to her they were come from Blackeman to do what she would command them, and did aske her if shee did want any thing, and they would fetch it: and shee said she lacked nothing. Then they prayed her to give them some victuals, and she said she was poore and had none to give them; and so they departed: Yet she confessed that Blackeman, Grissel and Greedigut divers times came to her afterwards, and brought her two or three shillings at a time, and more saith not.’

Another type of witchcraft is to be found in ‘Wonderfull News from the North; or, a true relation of the sad and grievous torments inflicted upon the Bodies of three Children of Mr. George Muschamp, late of the County of Northumberland, by Witchcraft,’ etc. London, 1650. It begins thus:

‘First in harvest, some two Months before Michaelmas, about four or five of the Clock in the afternoone, Mistris Margaret Muschamp suddainly fell into a great Trance; her Mother being frighted, called Company, and with much adoe recovered her; as soone as the childe looked up, cryed out, deare Mother, weepe not for me; for I have seene a happy Sight, and heard a blessed sound, for the Lord hath loved my poore Soule, that he hath caused his blessed Trumpet to sound in my eares, and hath sent two blessed Angels to receive my sinfull soule. O weepe not for me, but rejoyce, that the Lord should have such respect to so sinfull a wretch as I am, as to send his heavenly Angels to receive my sinfull soule: with many other divine expressions.’

After this she continued pretty well till Candlemas Eve, when she was taken very bad indeed, losing the use of her limbs and speech, ‘and such torments, that no eyes could looke on her without compassion.’ For 16 weeks she refused all food, saying ‘that God fed her with Angel’s food: for truely all the 16 weekes fast she did not appeare to diminish her fatness or favour anything at all.

‘On Whitsun Eve in the morning, she had eight hours bitter torment. In the afternoone, her mother being abroad, left her Husband’s Brother’s Daughter, Mrs. Elizabeth Muschamp with her, who made signes to her to carry her into the Garden, in her mother’s absence; her Cozen, casting a mantle about her, gave her her desire, and sate in the Garden with her on her knee; who, in the bringing down, had so little strength in her neck, that her head hung wagging downe; but was not set a quarter of an houre, till showing some signes to her Cozen, bolted off her knee, ran thrice about the Garden, expressing a shrill voyce, but did not speake presently: she that was brought down in this sad condition came up stairs on her owne legs.’

However, this improvement did not last long; she had more illnesses, and in one of them she made signs that she wished to write; so ‘they layd paper on her brest, and put a pen with inke in her hand, and she, not moving her eyes, writ, Jo. Hu. Do. Swo. have been the death of one deare friend, consume another, and torment mee.’ The wiseacres puzzled over this, and at last came to the conclusion that Mistress Dorothy Swinnow, then wife to Col. Swinnow, who subsequently died, had bewitched her. At another time this Margaret Muschamp wrote the same words with the addition, ‘two drops of his or her bloud would save my life; if I have it not, I am undone; for seven yeares to be tormented before death come.’

On this they sent to one John Hutton, a reputed wizard, who told them that it was Mistress Swinnow who was the culprit, and he gave them two drops of his own blood, which he wiped off his arm, with the paper on which the girl had written. Returning home, they applied this remedy, in some way unstated, and ‘On Munday night she fell into a heavenly rapture, rejoycing that ever she was borne, for these two drops of blood had saved her life.’ The girl was afterwards very ill, and Dorothy Swinnow, now a widow, was arrested, and committed to prison, where the narrative leaves off, with the addition of the confession of one Margaret White, who ‘Confesseth and saith, That she hath beene the Divells servant these five yeares past, and that the Divell came to her in the likenes of a man in blew cloaths, in her owne house, and griped her fast by the hand, and told her she should never want, and gave her a nip on the shoulder, and another on her back; and confesseth her Familiar came to her in the likenesse of a black Gray-hound. She also Confesseth upon Oath that Mrs. Swinnow and her sister Jane, and herselfe were in the Divels company in her sister Jane’s house, where they did eate and drinke together, and made merry.

‘And Mrs. Swinnow, and her the sayd Margaret’s sister, with her selfe, came purposely to the house of Mr. Edward Moore of Spittle, to take away the life of Margaret Muschamp and Mary, and they were the cause of the Children’s tormenting, and that they were three several times to have taken away their lives, and especially upon St. John’s day at night gone twelve moneths: and sayth that God was above the Divell, for they could not get their desires perfected; and saith that Mrs. Swinnow would have consumed the childe that Mrs. Moore had last in her wombe, but the Lord would not permit her; and that after the childe was borne, Mrs. Swinnow was the occasion of its death; and that she and her sister were also the occasion, and had a hand in the death of the sayd child; and further confesseth that she and her sayd sister were the death of Thomas Yong of Chatton (by reason) a kill full of Oates watched against her sister’s minde; And further saith that the Divell called her sister Jane (Besse); She confesseth that her sister Jane had much troubled Richard Stanley of Chatton, and that she was the occasion of his sore leg.’

In ‘A Prodigious and Tragicall History of the Arraignment, Tryall, Confession and Condemnation of six Witches at Maidstone in Kent, at the Assizes there held in July, Fryday 30, this present year 1652,’ a new feature is introduced.

‘The said Anne Ashby further confessed, that the Divell had given them a piece of flesh, which whensoever they should touch, they should thereby effect their desires.

‘That this flesh lay hid amongst grasse, in a certain place which she named, where, upon search, it was found accordingly.

‘The flesh was of a sinnewy substance, and scorched, and was seen and felt by this Observator, and reserved for publique view at the sign of the Swan in Maidstone.’

They were duly hanged, but ‘Some there were that wished rather they might be burnt to Ashes; alledging, that it was a received opinion amongst many, that the body of a witch being burnt, her bloud is prevented thereby from becomming hereditary to her Progeny in the same evill, which by hanging is not.’

However, in the case of four witches tried at Worcester on March 4, 1647,48 they ‘received Sentance to be Burnt at the Stak all Four together.

‘When being come to the Place of Execution, they made a strange and lamentable Yeling and Howling, after which they Confessed the Crimes for which they Suffered, and also declared how they had kill’d abundance of Cattle for several years past, and that it was extream Pride, Malice, and Revenge, that caused them to enter into such a curssed and Hellish League with the Devil, who told them to the last, that he would secure them from Public Punishment, but now, too late, they found him a Lyer, as he was from the beginning of the World. Cock and Landish seemed penitent, desiring all young Women to take Warning by their Devilish Lives, and Shameful Deaths, assuring the Spectators, that as Satan in the first Infancy of the World, prevail’d on the Woman to bring his Hellish attempts to pass, so he still strives with that Sex, as the weaker Vessels, to Work their Distructions; they both said the Lord’s Prayer very distinctly, but Rebecca West and Rose Hallybread dyed very Stuburn and Refractory, without any remorss, or seeming Terror of Conscience for their abominable Witch-craft.’

‘A RELATION OF A LANCASHIRE WITCH, TRYED AT WORCESTER, IN THE YEAR 1649.49

‘At Droitwich in the County of Worcester, a poor Woman’s Boy in the Month of May, looking for his Mother’s Cow, espied some Bushes in a Brake to shake; and, supposing the Cow to be Brousing there, went to the Place, where he found no Cow, but an Old Woman, who, upon his approach, said Boh to him: whereupon he presently lost his speech, and could only make a Noise, but could not speak any thing articulately, so as could be understood. In this condition he came home to his Mother, made a great Noise, but no body could understand what ailed him, or what he meant. A while after, he ran out, and, at Sir Edward Barret’s door, found, about One a Clock, amongst other poor People, the same old Woman supping up a Mess of hot Pottage, and ran furiously upon her, and threw her Pottage in her Face, and offered some other Violence to her. Whereupon the Neighbours wondering at the condition of the Boy, and his rage against the old Woman, and suspecting that she had done him some hurt, Apprehended her, and she was committed to the Prison, which they call the Checker. At Night the Boy’s Mother Lodged him in a Garret over her own Lodging; and, in the Morning, hearing a great Bussle over her, ran up, and found the Boy gotten out of his Bed, with the Leg of a Form in his hand, striking furiously at something in the Window; but saw nothing there that he should strike at. The Boy presently put on his Cloaths, and ran downe into the Street towards the Prison; and, as he was going, endeavouring to speak, found his Speech restored.

‘When he came to the Prison, he asked for the old Woman, and told the Gaoler how she had served him, and how his Speech came to him again in the Way. The Gaoler, in the mean time, suspecting that she had Bewitched the Boy, would not let her have either Meat or Drink, unless she would first say the Lord’s Prayer, and bid God bless the Boy: which, at last, her Hunger forced her to do; and it appeared to be at the same instant, as near as can be guessed, that the Boy had his Speech restored to him. The Boy asked the Gaoler, why he did not keep her faster, but let her come out, and trouble him? The Gaoler answered, he had kept her very safe. The Boy replied No, he had not; for she came and sat in his Chamber Window, and grinned at him; and that, thereupon, he took up a Form Leg, and therewith gave her two good bangs upon the Back, as she would have scutled from him, before she could get away. Whereupon the Gaoler caused some Women to search her, who found the Marks of two such Strokes upon her, as the Boy said he had given her. All this was Sworn upon her Tryal by the Boy, his Mother, the Gaoler, and the Women. Upon Examination she was found to be a Lancashire Woman; who, upon the Scarcity in those Parts, after the Defeat of Duke Hamilton, wandred abroad to get Victuals.’

‘ANOTHER RELATION OF A TEUKSBURY WITCH, TRYED AT GLOUCESTER ABOUT THE SAME TIME

‘At Teuksbury, about the same time, a Man, who had a Sow and Pigs, observing his Sow to have great store of Milk, and yet the Pigs to be almost Famished, and consulting with his Neighbours about it, they all concluded that she must needs be Sucked by something else, and so the Pigs be robbed of their milk. Whereupon he resolved to watch till he found out the Matter: and, having placed himself conveniently for that purpose, at last he saw a black Four footed Creature, like a Pole Cat, come and beat away the pigs, and having a pitchfork in his Hand, he ran the Prongs into the Thigh of it, and ran it to the ground. Yet it struggled so as to get off from him at last. There were some Neighbours not far off, but they saw no such creature, but saw a Wench go away, and that Blood fell from her as she went: whereupon they searched her, and found her so Wounded, as the Man said he had wounded the thing which he found Sucking: And, thereupon, she was Apprehended and Tryed at Gloucester Assizes, where this Matter was given in Evidence against her.’

CHAPTER XVIII

A Case of Vomiting Stones, etc., at Evesham – Anne Bodenham – Julian Cox – Elizabeth Styles – Rose Cullender and Amy Duny

Baxter, in his ‘Certainty of the Worlds of Spirits,’ etc. (London, 1691), gives what he considers an indisputably authentic case of witchcraft, as follows:

‘But the certaintest and fullest Instance of Witchcraft that ever I knew, I shall here give you in the words of others: Only adding that about twenty years ago, at the time it was doing, my worthy and dear Friend, Mr. George Hopkins, the then Faithful Minister of the Gospel at Evesham, told it me himself, and told me of their Care and Watchfulness, to see that there were no Fraud committed in it. And the Witch was hanged at Worcester, and the Woman herself is yet living in Evesham, and the thing never there doubted of: But, having occasion lately to instance the fact against some Unbelievers, I sent to Evesham, to a Godly, Credible Friend to send me word, whether any doubt had, in these years past, risen concerning it, and to send me some of the Flint Stones which were voided by the Girl; who sent me word, that there were no doubt of the thing, and procured the now Minister of the Place to write me the Narrative which I here subjoin. And he sent me One stone, about the breadth of a small Groat, and the thickness of a Half-crown, which, he said, was all that is there kept of them, taken by the Major’s Wife her self, and kept by her, and, therefore, I must send it back again: Many had sent for the Stones, and so many troubled the House about them, that they threw away, or buried the rest: And Mr. Boyle told me that the Earl of South Hampton, Lord Treasurer, for his Satisfaction, had got a great number of them. I carried this about me, a quarter of a year, and then sent it home. But that which I chiefly inform the Reader of, is, that the thing was so long in doing, and so Famous, and so many Pious, Understanding Persons minded it, that suspition of Fraud was by their Diligence avoided.

‘The Narrative as lately sent me from most Credible Persons in Evesham, is as followeth:

‘About the Month of April 1652 Mary, the daughter of Edward Ellins, of the Burrough of Evesham, in the County of Worcester, Gardner, then about nine or ten years old, went in the fields on a Saturday, with some other Children, to gather Cowslips, and, finding in a Ditch by the way-side, at the said Town’s end, one Catherine Huxley, a single Woman, aged then about forty years, the Children called her Witch, and took up stones to throw at her, the said Mary also called her Witch, and took up a stone, but was so affrighted that she could not throw it at her; then they all run away from her, and the said Mary being hindmost, this Huxley said to her (Ellins you Shall have enough stones in you.) Whereupon Mary fell that day very ill, and continued so weak and Languishing that her Friends feared she would not recover; but, about a Month after, she began to void stones by the urinary passages, and some little urine came away from her; also, when she voided any stone, the stone she voided was heard by those that were by her, to drop into the Pot or Basin; and she had most grievous pains in her Back and Reins, like the pricking of Pins. The number of the stones she voided was about eighty, some plain pebbles, some plain flints, some very small, and some about an ounce weight. This she did for some space, (a month or two, or there abouts) until, upon some strong suspitions of Witchcraft, the forenamed Huxley was Apprehended, Examined and Searched, (at whose Bed’s Head there was found several Stones such as the said Mary Voided) and was sent to Worcester, where, at the Summer Assizes in the said year 1652 (then at hand) she was, at the Prosecution of the Friends of the said Mary, Condemned and Executed: upon whose Apprehension and Commitment, Mary ceased to void any more stones; but, for a while, voided much blackish and muddy Sand, and also, in short time, perfectly recovered, and is yet living in the Town, in good and honest Repute, and hath been many years Marryed, and hath had seven Children; but never voided any stones since, nor been troubled with the pain fore mentioned. Abundance of people yet living, know the Substance of this to be true, and her Mother in Law (since dead) kept the stones till she was tired with the frequent Resort of people to see them, and the said Mary, and to hear the Relation of the matter, and beg the stones; (for though many offered Money for them, yet she always refused it, nor did they ever take any, but it cost them much upon the Girl, and the Prosecution of the said Huxley) and then she buried them in her Garden. Edward Ellins, the Father of the said Mary, is also yet living, and a Man of honest Repute, and utterly free (as is also the said Mary, and all the rest of her Friends) from the least Suspition of any Fraud or Cheat in the whole business: This was known to hundreds of People in the said Town, and parts Adjacent, and many of them, yet living, are ready to attest to the truth of it.’

In the case of Anne Bodenham,50 which is too long and intricate to give even a résumé of, we have some entirely new features, partaking more of the magician than the witch. She lived at Fisherton-Auger, Wilts, was a married woman, and at the time of her malpractices kept a small elementary school. She was considered a ‘cunning,’ or ‘wise,’ woman, and was resorted to by the people round about, for consultation as to the recovery of lost or stolen property, and, according to this pamphlet, her doings were marvellous. The first case records a woman going to consult her as to the loss of some gold money.

‘The Witch put on her Spectacles, and, demanding seven shillings of the Maid, which she received, she opened three Books, in which there seemed to be severall pictures, and amongst the rest, the picture of the Devill, to the Maid’s appearance, with his Cloven feet and Claws; after the Witch had looked over the book, she brought a round green glass, which glass she layd down on one of the books, upon some picture therein, and rubbed the glass, and then took up the book with the glass upon it, and held it up against the Sun, and bid the Maid come and see who they were that she could shew in that glass, and the Maid, looking in the glass, saw the shape of many persons, and what they were doing of in her Master’s house, in particular, shewed Mistriss Elizabeth Rosewel standing in her Mistriss Chamber, looking out of the Window with her hands in her sleeves, and another walking alone in her Master’s Garden, one other standing in a room within the kitchen, one other standing in a matted room of her Masters, against the window, with her Apron in her hand, and shewed others drinking, with glasses of Beer in their hands. After the Witches shewing this to the Maid, she then bad her go home; which, when she came home, she asked the people (she so saw in the Witches glass) what they had been doing while she had been wanting, and by their answers to her, she found that they had been doing what she saw they were in the glass: and the Maid relating this to Elizabeth Rousewel, she replyed, that Mistriss Boddenham (meaning the said Witch) was either a Witch, or a woman of God.’

She was also able to raise devils, and had several at her command, Beelzebub, Tormentor, Satan, and Lucifer, and one scene with them is thus described: ‘And, presently, the back Door of the house flying open, there came five spirits, as the Maid supposed, in the likeness of ragged Boys, some bigger than others, and ran about the house, where she had drawn the Staff, and the Witch threw down upon the ground Crumbs of Bread, which the Spirits picked up, and leapt over the Pan of Coals oftentimes, which she set in the middest of the circle, and a Dog and a Cat of the Witches danced with them; and, after some time, the Witch looked again in her book, and threw some great white seeds on the ground, which the said Spirits picked up, and so, in a short time, the wind was layd, and the Witch, going forth at her back Door, the Spirits vanished.’

But she also dabbled in poisoning: ‘And in a short time after, Mistress Rosewel sent her again to the Witch, to know of her when the day should be, that Mistris Goddard should be poysoned, and delivered her eight shillings to give the Witch; so the Maid went again to the Witch accordingly, and gave her the eight shillings, and the Witch replyed she could not tell her then, but gave the Maid one shilling, and bid her go to an Apothecary, and buy some white Arsenick, and bring it to her to prevent it, which the Maid did, and carried it to the Witch, who said to her she would take it and burn it, to prevent the poysoning, but she burnt it not, as the Maid could see, at all…

‘The next day following, the Maid was sent again to the Witch, to get some example shewen upon the Gentlewoman that should procure the poyson, upon which the Maid went again to the Witch, and told her for what she was sent. Then the Witch made a Circle, as formerly, and set her pan of Coles, as formerly, and burnt something that stank extremely, and took her book and Glass, as before is related, and said Beelzebub, Tormentor, Lucifer, and Satan, appear! And then appeared five Spirits as she conceived, in the shapes of little ragged Boyes, which the Witch commanded to appear, and go along with the Maid to a meadow at Wilton, which the Witch shewed in the Glass, and there to gather Vervine and Dill, and, forthwith, the ragged Boys ran away before the Maid, and she followed them to the said meadow; and, when they came thither the ragged Boys looked about for the Herbs, and removed the Snow in two or three places, before they could find any; and, at last, they found some, and brought it away with them, and then the Maid and the Boys returned back to the Witch, and found her in the Circle paring her Nayls, and then she took the said Herbs, and dryed the same, and made powder of some, and dried the leaves of other, and threw Bread to the Boys, and they eat and danced as formerly; and then the Witch, reading in a book, they vanished away. And the Witch gave the Maid in one paper the powder, in another the leaves, and in the third, the paring of the Nayls; all which the Maid was to give to her Mistress. The powder was to put in the young Gentlewomens Mistriss Sarah and Mistriss Ann Goddard’s drink or broth, to rot their Guts in their Bellies; the leaves to rub about the rims of the Pot, to make their Teeth fall out of their Heads; and the parings of the Nayls to make them mad and drunk. And the Witch likewise told the Maid, that she must tell her Mistriss, and the rest, that, when they did give it to them, they must cross their Breasts, and then say, In the name of our Lord Jesu Christ, grant that this may be, and that they must say the Creed backward and forward.’