Discovery of Witches Part 5

"_Edmund Robinson_ of _Pendle_, father of ye sd _Edmunde Robinson_, the aforesaid informer, upon oath saith, that upon _All Saints' Day_, he sent his sone, the aforesed informer, to fetch home two kyne to seale, and saith yt hee thought his sone stayed longer than he should have done, went to seeke him, and in seekinge him, heard him cry very pittifully, and found him soe afraid and distracted, yt hee neither knew his father, nor did know where he was, and so continued very neare a quarter of an hower before he came to himselfe,[58] and he tould this informer, his father, all the particular pa.s.sages yt are before declared in the said _Edmund Robinson_, his sone's information."

[Footnote 58: The learned "pract.i.tioner in physick," Mr. William Drage, in his "Treatise of Diseases from Witchcraft," published Lond.

1668, 4to. p. 22, recommends "birch" in such cases, "as a specifical medicine, antipathetical to demons." One can only lament that this valuable remedy was not vigorously applied in the present instance, as well as in most others in which these juvenile sufferers appear. I doubt whether, in the whole Materia Medica, a more powerful _Lamia-fuge_ could have been discovered, or one which would have been more universally successful, if applied perseveringly, whenever the suspicious symptoms recurred. The following is, however, Drage's great panacea in these cases, a mode of treatment which must have been vastly popular, judging from its extensive adoption in all parts of the country: "_Punish the witch, threaten to hang her if she helps not the sick, scratch her and fetch blood. When she is cast into prison the sick are some time delivered, some time he or she (they are most females, most old women, and most poor,) must transfer the disease to other persons, sometimes to a dog, or horse, or cow, &c. Threaten her and beat her to remove it._"--Drage, p. 23.]

The name of Margaret Johnson does not appear in Edmund Robinson's examination. Whether accused or not, the opportunity was too alluring to be lost by a personage full of matter, being like old Mause Headrigg, "as a bottle that lacketh vent," and too desirous of notoriety, to let slip such an occasion. She made, on the 2nd of March following, before the same justices who had taken Robinson's examination, the following confession, which must have been considered a most instructive one by those who were in search of some short _vade mec.u.m_ of the statistics of witchcraft in Pendle:--

"THE CONFESSION OF MARGARET JOHNSON.

"That betwixt seaven and eight yeares since, shee beeinge in her owne house in _Marsden_, in a greate pa.s.sion of anger and discontent, and withall pressed with some want, there appeared unto her a spirit or devill in ye proportion or similitude of a man, apparrelled in a suite of blacke, tyed about with silk points, who offered yt if shee would give him her soule hee would supply all her wants, and bringe to her whatsoever shee did neede. And at her appointment would in revenge either kill or hurt whom or what shee desyred, weare it man or beast.

And saith, yt after a solicitation or two shee contracted and covenanted with ye said devill for her soule. And yt ye said devill or spirit badde her call him by the name of _Mamilian_. And when shee would have him to doe any thinge for her, call in _Mamilian_, and hee would bee ready to doe her will. And saith, yt in all her talke or conference shee calleth her said devill, _Mamil_ my G.o.d. Shee further saith, yt ye said _Mamilian_, her devill, (by her consent) did abuse and defile her body by comittinge wicked uncleannesse together. And saith, yt shee was not at the greate meetings at _h.o.a.restones_, at the forest of _Pendle_, upon All-Saints Day, where ----. But saith yt shee was at a second meetinge ye Sunday next after All-Saints Day, at the place aforesaid; where there was at yt tyme between 30 and 40 witches, who did all ride to the said meetinge, and the end of theire said meeting was to consult for the killinge and hurtinge of men and beasts. And yt besides theire particular familiars or spirits, there was one greate or grand devill or spirit more eminent than the rest.

And if any desyre to have a greate and more wonderfull devill, whereby they may have more power to hurt, they may have one such. And sayth, yt such witches as have sharp bones given them by the devill to p.r.i.c.ke them, have no pappes or dugges whereon theire devill may sucke, but theire devill receiveth bloud from the place, p.r.i.c.ked with the bone.

And they are more grand witches than any yt have marks. Shee allsoe saith, yt if a witch have but one marke, shee hath but one spirit, if two then two spirits, if three yet but two spirits. And saith, yt theire spirits usually have knowledge of theire bodies. And being desyred to name such as shee knewe to be witches, shee named, &c.[59]

And if they would torment a man, they bid theire spirit goe and tormt.

him in any particular place. And yt Good-Friday is one constant day for a yearely generall meetinge of witches. And yt on Good-Friday last, they had a meetinge neare _Pendle_ water syde. Shee alsoe saith, that men witches usually have women spirits, and women witches men spirits. And theire devill or spirit gives them notice of theire meetinge, and tells them the place where it must bee. And saith, if they desyre to be in any place upon a sodaine, theire devill or spirit will upon a rodde, dogge, or any thinge els, presently convey them thither: yea, into any roome of a man's house. But shee saith it is not the substance of theire bodies, but theire spirit a.s.sumeth such form and shape as goe into such roomes. Shee alsoe saith, yt ye devill (after he begins to sucke) will make a pappe or dugge in a short tyme, and the matter which hee sucks is blood. And saith yt theire devills can cause foule weather and storms, and soe did at theire meetings.

Shee alsoe saith yt when her devill did come to sucke her pappe, hee usually came to her in ye liknes of a cat, sometymes of one colour and sometymes of an other. And yt since this trouble befell her, her spirit hath left her, and shee never sawe him since."

[Footnote 59: The omission here is thus supplied in Baines's Transcript; but the actual names are scarcely to be recognised, from the clerical errors of the copy:--

"One Pickerne and his wife both of Wyndwall, Rawson of Clore and his wife Duffice wife of Clore by the water side Cartmell the wife of Clore And Jane of the hedgend in Maresden."]

On the evidence contained in these examinations several persons were committed for trial at Lancaster, and seventeen, on being tried at the ensuing a.s.sizes, were found guilty by the jury. The judge before whom the trial took place was, however, more sagacious and enlightened than his predecessors, Bromley and Altham. He respited the execution of the prisoners; and on the case being reported to the king in council, the Bishop of Chester, Dr. Bridgman, was required to investigate the circ.u.mstances. The inquiry was inst.i.tuted at Chester, and four of the convicted witches, namely, Margaret Johnson, Frances d.i.c.konson, Mary Spencer, and the wife of one of the Hargreaves's, were sent to London, and examined, first by the king's physicians and surgeons, and afterwards by Charles the first in person.

"A stranger scene" to quote Dr. Whitaker's concluding paragraph "can scarcely be conceived; and it is not easy to imagine whether the untaught manners, rude dialect, and uncouth appearance of these poor foresters, would more astonish the king; or his dignity of person and manners, together with the splendid scene with which they were surrounded, would overwhelm them. The end, however, of the business was, that strong presumptions appeared of the boy having been suborned to accuse them falsely, and they were accordingly dismissed. The boy afterwards confessed that he was suborned."[60]

[Footnote 60: Webster gives the sequel of this curious case of imposture:--"Four of them, to wit Margaret Johnson, Francis Dicconson, Mary Spenser, and Hargraves Wife, were sent for up to London, and were viewed and examined by his Majesties Physicians and Chirurgeons, and after by his Majesty and the Council, and no cause of guilt appearing but great presumptions of the boys being suborned to accuse them falsely. Therefore it was resolved to separate the boy from his Father, they having both followed the women up to London, they were both taken and put into several prisons asunder. Whereupon shortly after the Boy confessed that he was taught and suborned to devise, and feign those things against them, and had persevered in that wickedness by the counsel of his Father, and some others, whom envy, revenge and hope of gain had prompted on to that devillish design and villany; and he also confessed, that upon that day when he said that they met at the aforesaid house or barn, he was that very day a mile off, getting Plums in his Neighbours Orchard. And that this is a most certain truth, there are many persons yet living, of sufficient reputation and integrity, that can avouch and testifie the same; and besides, what I write is the most of it true, upon my own knowledge, and the whole I have had from his own mouth."--_Displaying of Witchcraft_, p. 277.]

In Dr. Whitaker's astonishment that Margaret Johnson should make the confession she appears to have done, in a clear case of imposture, few of his readers will be disposed to partic.i.p.ate, who are at all conversant with the trials of reputed witches in this country.

Confessions were so common on those occasions, that there is, I believe, not a single instance of any great number of persons being convicted of witchcraft at one time, some of whom did not make a confession of guilt. Nor is there anything extraordinary in that circ.u.mstance, when it is remembered that many of them sincerely believed in the existence of the powers attributed to them; and others, aged and of weak understanding, were, in a measure, coerced by the strong persuasion of their guilt, which all around them manifested, into an acquiescence in the truth of the accusation. In many cases the confessions were made in the hope, and no doubt with the promise, seldom performed, that a respite from punishment would be eventually granted. In other instances, there is as little doubt, that they were the final results of irritation, agony, and despair.[61] The confessions are generally composed of "such stuff as dreams are made of," and what they report to have occurred, might either proceed, when there was no intention to fabricate, from intertwining the fantastic threads which sometimes stream upon the waking senses from the land of shadows, or be caused by those ocular hallucinations of which medical science has supplied full and satisfactory solution. There is no argument which so long maintained its ground in support of witchcraft as that which was founded on the confessions referred to. It was the last plank clung to by many a witch-believing lawyer and divine. And yet there is none which will less bear critical scrutiny and examination, or the fallacy of which can more easily be shown, if any particular reported confession is taken as a test and subjected to a searching a.n.a.lysis and inquiry.

[Footnote 61: The confession in the "Amber Witch" is a true picture, drawn from the life. What is there, indeed, unlike truth in that wonderful fiction?]

It is said that we owe to the grave and saturnine Monarch, who extended his pardon to the seventeen convicted in 1633, that happy generalisation of the term, which appropriates honourably to the s.e.x in Lancas.h.i.+re the designation denoting the fancied crime of a few miserable victims of superst.i.tion. That gentle s.e.x will never repudiate a t.i.tle bestowed by one, little given to the playful sports of fancy, whose sorrows and unhappy fate have never wanted their commiseration, and who distinguished himself on this memorable occasion, at a period when

"'twas the time's plague That madmen led the blind,"

--in days when philosophy stumbled and murder arrayed itself in the robes of justice--by an enlightened exercise of the kingly prerogative of mercy. Proceeding from such a fountain of honour, and purified by such an appropriation, the t.i.tle of witch has long lost its original opprobrium in the County Palatine, and survives only to call forth the gayest and most delightful a.s.sociations. In process of time even the term _witchfinder_ may lose the stains which have adhered to it from the atrocities of Hopkins, and may be adopted by general usage, as a sort of companion phrase, to signify the fortunate individual, who, by an union with a Lancas.h.i.+re witch, has just a.s.serted his indefeasible t.i.tle to be considered as the happiest of men.

J.C.

THE WONDERFVLL DISCOVERIE OF WITCHES, &c.

THE WONDERFVLL DISCOVERIE OF WITCHES IN THE COVNTIE OF LANCASTER.

With the Arraignement and Triall of Nineteene notorious WITCHES, at the a.s.sizes and generall Gaole deliuerie, holden at the Castle of LANCASTER, _vpon Munday, the seuenteenth_ _of August last_, 1612.

Before Sir IAMES ALTHAM, and Sir EDWARD BROMLEY, Knights; BARONS of his Maiesties Court of EXCHEQVER: And Iustices _of a.s.size_, Oyer _and_ Terminor, _and generall_ Gaole deliuerie in the circuit of the _North Parts._

Together with the Arraignement and Triall of IENNET PRESTON, _at the a.s.sizes holden at the Castle of Yorke_, _the seuen and twentieth day of Iulie last past_, with her Execution for the murther of Master LISTER _by Witchcraft._

Published and set forth by commandement of his Maiesties Iustices of a.s.size in the North Parts.

_By_ THOMAS POTTS _Esquier._

LONDON, Printed by _W. Stansby_ for _John Barnes_, dwelling neare Holborne Conduit. 1613.

[Ill.u.s.tration: decoration]

TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE, _THOMAS_, LORD KNYVET, BARON OF ESCRICK[A1]

in the Countie of Yorke, my very honorable _good Lord and Master._

AND TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE _AND VERTVOVS LADIE, THE_ _Ladie_ ELIZABETH KNYVET _his Wife, my_ honorable good Ladie and MISTRIS.

RIGHT HONORABLE,

_Let it stand (I beseech you) with your fauours whom profession of the same true Religion towards G.o.d, and so great loue hath vnited together in one, Jointly to accept the Protection and Patronage of these my labours, which not their owne worth hath encouraged, but your Worthinesse hath enforced me to consecrate vnto your Honours._

_To you (Right Honourable my very good Lord) of Right doe they belong: for to whom shall I rather present their first fruits of my learning then to your Lords.h.i.+p: who nourished then both mee and them, when there was scarce any being to mee or them? And whose iust and vpright carriage of causes, whose zeale to Justice and Honourable curtesie to all men, have purchased you a Reuerend and worthie Respect of all men in all partes of this Kingdome, where you are knowne. And to your good Ladis.h.i.+p they doe of great right belong likewise; Whose Religion, Iustice, and Honourable admittance of my Vnworthie Seruice to your Ladis.h.i.+p do challenge at my handes the vttermost of what euer I may bee able to performe._

_Here is nothing of my own act worthie to bee commended to your Honours, it is the worke, of those Reuerend Magistrates, His Maiesties Iustices of a.s.sizes in the North partes, and no more then a Particular Declaration of the proceedings of Iustice in those partes. Here shall you behold the Iustice of this Land, truely administred_, PROEMIUM & POENAM, _Mercie and Iudgement, freely and indifferently bestowed and inflicted; And aboue all thinges to bee remembred, the excellent care of these Iudges in the Triall of offendors._

_It hath pleased them out of their respect to mee to impose this worke vpon mee, and according to my vnderstanding, I haue taken paines to finish, and now confirmed by their Iudgement to publish the same, for the benefit of my Countrie. That the example of these conuicted vpon their owne Examinations, Confessions, and Euidence at the Barre, may worke good in others, Rather by with-holding them from, then imboldening them to, the Atchieuing such desperate actes as these or the like._

_These are some part of the fruits of my time spent in the Seruice of my Countrie, Since by your Graue and Reuerend Counsell (my Good Lord) I reduced my wauering and wandring thoughts to a more quiet harbour of repose._

_If it please your Honours to giue them your Honourable respect, the world may iudge them the more worthie of acceptance, to whose various censures they are now exposed._

_G.o.d of Heauen whose eies are on them that feare him, to bee their Protector and guide, behold your Honours with the eye of fauor, be euermore your strong hold, and your great reward, and blesse you with blessings in this life, Externall and Internall, Temporall and Spirituall, and with Eternall happines in the World to come: to which I commend your Honours; And rest both now and euer, From my Lodging in Chancerie Lane, the sixteenth of Nouember 1612._

Your Honours

humbly deuoted

Seruant,

_Thomas Potts._