Discovery of Witches Part 26

Elizabeth Sothernes, alias Old Demdike, died in prison in 1612, about 80 years old.

1 | 2 ------------------------------ | | Christopher = Eliz. Elizabeth, executed = John Device, or Howgate. Both of at Lancaster, | Davies, supposed them were reputed 1612. | to have been bewitched to be at the witches | to death, meeting on Good | by Widow Chattox, Friday, 1612, but | because he had not were not indicted. | paid her his yearly Perhaps they were | aghen dole of meal.

the "one Holgate | and his wife" mentioned | amongst the | witches in 1633. | 1 2 | 3 --------------------------------------------------- | | | James Device, or Alizon, executed Jennet, 9 years old Davies, executed at at Lancaster in 1612. in 1612, and an evidence Lancaster in 1612. in the present trial. Condemned herself, along with 16 other persons, for witchcraft, in 1633, when she appears to have been unmarried, but not executed.

Anne Whittle, alias Chattox, executed at Lancaster, 1612, about 80 years old.

| Anne, executed = Thomas Redferne.

in 1612. | | Mary.

D 3 _a_. "_Commaunded this examinate to call him by the name of Fancie._"] The fittest name for a familiar she could possibly have chosen. Sir Walter Scott (_Letters on Demonology_, p. 242) unaccountably speaks of Fancie as a female devil. Master Potts would have told him, (see M 2 _b_,) "that Fancie had a very good face, and was a very proper man."

D 3 _b_ 1. "_The wife of Richard Baldwin, of Pendle._"] Richard Baldwin was the miller who accosted Old Dembdike so unceremoniously.

D 3 _b_ 2. "_Robert Nutter._"] The family of the Nutters, of Pendle, bore a great share in the proceedings referred to in this trial. It seems to have been a family of note amongst the inferior gentry or yeomanry of the forest. A Nutter held courts for many years about this period, as deputy steward at c.l.i.theroe. (See Whitaker's _Whalley_, p.

307.) Three of the name are stated in the evidence to have been killed by witchcraft, Christopher Nutter, Robert Nutter, and Anne, the daughter of Anthony Nutter; and one of the unfortunate persons convicted is Alice Nutter. The branch to which Robert belonged is shewn in the following table:

Robert Nutter, the elder, = Elizabeth, who is reputed of Pendle, called old | to have employed Anne Robert Nutter. | Chattox, Loomeshaw's | wife, and Jane Boothman | to bewitch to death young | Robert Nutter, that other | relations might inherit.

| Christopher, reputed to have died of witchcraft about 18 years before.

| 1 | 2 3 ------------------------------------------------------ | | | Robert, of Greenhead, = Mary John, of Higham Margaret = Crooke in Pendle, a retainer Booth. | of Sir Richard | | Shuttleworth, --------------------------- reputed to have been gave evidence at the trial.

bewitched to death 18 or 19 years before the trial took place.

D 4 _a_. "_One Mr. Baldwyn (the late Schoole-maister at Coulne) did by his learning, stay the sayd Loomeshaws wife, and therefore had a Capon from Redfearne._"] I regret that I can give no account of this learned Theban, who appears to have stayed the plague, and who taught at the school at which Archbishop Tillotson was afterwards educated. He well deserved his capon. Had he continued at Colne up to the time of this trial, he might perhaps, on the same easy terms, have kept the powers of darkness in check, and prevented some imputed crimes which cost ten unfortunates their lives.

E _b_ 1. "_Iames Robinson._"] Baines, in his _History of Lancas.h.i.+re_, vol. i. p. 605, speaks of Edmund Robinson, the father of the boy on whose evidence the witches were convicted in 1633, as if he had been a witness at the present trial; which is probably a mistake for this James Robinson, as no Edmund Robinson appears amongst the witnessses whose depositions are given.

E _b_ 2. "_Anne Whittle alias Chattox was hired by this examinates wife to card wooll._"] She seems to have been by occupation a carder of wool, and to have filled up the intervals, when she had no employment, by mendicancy.

E 2 _a_. "_Sir Richard Shuttleworth._"} Of the family of the Shuttleworths of Gawthorp, "where they resided" Whitaker observes, "in the condition of inferior gentry till the lucrative profession of the law raised them, in the reign of Elizabeth, to the rank of knighthood and an estate proportioned to its demands." Sir Richard was Sergeant-at-law, and Chief Justice of Chester, 31st Elizabeth, and died without issue about 1600.

E 2 _b_. "_A Charme._"] Evidently in so corrupted a state as to bid defiance to any attempt at elucidation.

E 3 _a_ 1. "_Perceiuing Anthonie Nutter of Pendle to fauour Elizabeth Sothernes alias Dembdike._"] The Sothernes and Davies's and the Whittles and Redfernes were the Montagus and Capulets of Pendle. The poor cottager whose drink was forsepoken or bewitched, or whose cow went mad, and who in his attempt to propitiate one of the rival powers offended the other, would naturally exclaim from the innermost recesses of his heart, "A plague on both your houses."

E 3 _a_ 2. "_Gaping as though he would haue wearied this Examinate._"]

Wearied for worried.

E 3 _b_. "_Examination of Iames Device._"] This is a very curious examination. The production of the four teeth and figure of clay dug up at the west-end of Malkin Tower would look like a "d.a.m.ning witness"

to the two horror-struck justices and the a.s.sembled concourse at Read, who did not perhaps consider how easily such evidences may be furnished, and how readily they who hide may find. The incident deposed to at the burial at the New Church in Pendle is a wild and striking one.

E 4 _a_. "_About eleuen yeares agoe, this Examinate and her mother had their firehouse broken._"] The inference intended is, that Whittle's family committed the robbery from Old Demdike's house. This was, in all probability, the origin of their feuds. The abstraction of the coif and band, tempting articles to the young daughter of Old Chattox, not dest.i.tute, if we may judge from one occurrence deposed to, of personal attractions, may be said to have convulsed Lancas.h.i.+re from the Leven to the Mersey,--to have caused a sensation, the shock of which, after more than two centuries, has scarcely yet subsided, and to have actually given a new name to the fair s.e.x.

E 4 _b_ 1. "_One Aghen-dole of meale._"] This Aghen-dole, a word still, I believe, in use for a particular measure of any article, was, I presume, a kind of witches' black mail. My friend, the Rev. Canon Parkinson, informs me that Aghen-dole, sometimes p.r.o.nounced Acken-dole, signifies an half-measure of anything, from half-hand-dole. Mr. Halliwell has omitted it in his Glossary, now in progress.

E 4 _b_ 2. "_Iohn Moore of Higham, Gentleman._"] Sir Jonas Moore, of whom an account is contained in Whitaker's _Whalley_, p. 479, and whom he characterizes as a sanguine projector, was born in Pendle Forest, and was probably of this family.

E 4 _b_ 3. "_She would meet with the said Iohn Moore, or his._"] i.e.

She would be equal with him.

F _a_ 1. "_Charne._"] i.e. Charm.

F _a_ 2. "_With weeping teares she humbly acknowledged them to be true._"] She seems to have confessed in the hope of saving her daughter, Anne Redfern. But from such a judge as Sir Edward Bromley, mercy was as little to be expected as common sense from his "faithful chronicler," Thomas Potts.

F 2 _b_. "_Sparing no man with fearefull execrable curses and banning._"] Nothing seems to shock the nerves of these witch historiographers so much as the utter want of decorum and propriety exhibited by these unhappy creatures in giving vent to these indignant outbreaks, which a sense of the wicked injustice of their fate, and seeing their own offspring brought up in evidence against them, through the most detestable acts, and by the basest subornation, would naturally extort from minds even of iron mould. If ever Lear's or Timon's power of malediction could be justifiably called into exercise, it would be against such a tribunal and such witnesses as they had generally to encounter.

F 4 _a_. "_That at the third time her Spirit._"] Something seems to be wanting here, as she does not state what occurred at the two previous interviews. The learned judge may have exercised a sound discretion in this omission, as the particulars might be of a nature unfit for publication. The present tract is, undoubtedly, remarkably free from those disgusting details of which similar reports are generally full to overflowing.

F 4 _b_. "_The said Iennet Deuice, being a yong Maide, about the age of nine yeares._"] This child must have been admirably trained, (some Master Thomson might have been near at hand to instruct her,) or must have had great natural capacity for deception. She made an excellent witness on this occasion. What became of her after the wholesale extinction of her family, to which she was so mainly instrumental, is not now known. In all likelihood she dragged on a miserable existence, a forlorn outcast, pointed at by the hand of scorn, or avoided with looks of horror in the wilds of Pendle. As if some retributive punishment awaited her, she is reported to have been the Jennet Davies who was condemned in 1633, on the evidence of Edmund Robinson the younger, with Mother d.i.c.kenson and others, but not executed. Her confession, if she made one at the second trial, might not have been unsimilar to that of Alexander Sussums, of Melford in Suffolk, who, Hearne tells us, confessed "that he had things which did draw those marks I found upon him, but said he could not help it, for that all his kinred were naught. Then I asked him how it was possible they could suck without his consent. He said he did consent to that. Then I asked him again why he should do it when as G.o.d was so merciful towards him, as I then told him of, being a man whom I had been formerly acquainted withal, as having lived in town. He answered again, he could not help it, for that all his generation was naught; and so told me _his mother and aunt were hanged, his grandmother burnt for witchcraft, and ten others of them questioned and hanged_. This man is yet living, notwithstanding he confessed the sucking of such things above sixteen years together."--_Confirmation_, p. 36.

G 3 _a_. "_Anne Crouckshey._"] Anne Cronkshaw.

G 3 _b_ 1. "_Vpon Good Friday last there was about twentie persons._"]

This meeting, if not a witches' Sabbath, was a close approximation to one. On the subject of the Sabbath, or periodical meeting of witches, De Lancre is the leading authority. He who is curious cannot do better than consult this great hierophant, (his work is ent.i.tled Tableau de l'Inconstance des mauvais Anges et Demons. Paris, 1613, 4to.) whose knowledge and experience well qualified him to have been const.i.tuted the Itinerant Master of Ceremonies, an officer who, he a.s.sures us, was never wanting on such occasions. In that singular book, _The History of Monsieur Oufle_, p. 288, (English Translation, 1711, 8vo.) are collected from various sources all the ceremonies and circ.u.mstances attending the holding the Sabbath. It appears that non-attendance invariably incurred a penalty, which is computed upon the average at the eighth part of a crown, or in French currency at ten sous--that, though the contrary has been maintained by many grave authors, egress and ingress by the chimney (De Lancre had depositions without number, he tells us, _vide_ p. 114, on this important head,) was not a matter of solemn obligation, but was an open question--that no gra.s.s ever grows upon the place where the Sabbath is kept; which is accounted for by the circ.u.mstance of its being trodden by so many of those whose feet are const.i.tutionally hot, and therefore being burnt up and consequently very barren--that two devils of note preside on the occasion, the great negro, who is called Master Leonard, and a little devil, whom Master Leonard sometimes subst.i.tutes in his place as temporary vice-president; his name is Master John Mullin. (De Lancre, p. 126.) With regard to a very important point, the bill of fare, great difference of opinion exists: some maintaining that every delicacy of the season, to use the newspaper phrase, is provided; others stoutly a.s.serting that nothing is served up but toads, the flesh of hanged criminals, dead carcases fresh buried taken out of Churchyards, flesh of unbaptized infants, or beasts which died of themselves--that they never eat with salt, and that their bread is of black millet. (De Lancre, pp. 104, 105.) In this diversity of opinion I can only suggest, that difference of climate, habit, and fas.h.i.+on, might possibly have its weight, and render a very different larder necessary for the witches of Pendle and those of Gascony or Lorrain.

The fare of the former on this occasion appears to have been of a very substantial and satisfactory kind, "beef, bacon, and roasted mutton:"

the old saying so often quoted by the discontented masters of households applying emphatically in this case:--

"G.o.d sends us good meat, but the devil sends cooks."

We find in the present report no mention made of the

"Dance and provencal song"

which formed one great accompaniment of the orgies of the southern witches. Bodin's authority is express, that each, the oldest not excused, was expected to perform a coranto, and great attention was paid to the regularity of the steps. We owe to him the discovery, which is not recorded in any annals of dancing I have met with, that the lavolta, a dance not dissimilar, according to his description, to the polka of the present day, was brought out of Italy into France by the witches at their festive meetings. Of the language spoken at these meetings, De Lancre favours us with a specimen, valuable, like the Punic fragment in the Poenolus, for its being the only one of the kind. _In nomine patrica araguenco petrica agora, agora, Valentia jouando goure gaiti goustia._ As it pa.s.ses my skill, I can only commend it to the especial notice of Mr. Borrow against his next journey into Spain. What was spoken at Malkin Tower was, doubtless, a dialect not yet obsolete, and which Tummus and Meary would have had no difficulty in comprehending. On the subject of these witches'

Sabbaths, Dr. Ferriar remarks, in his curious and agreeable _Essay on Popular Illusions_, (see _Memoirs of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society_, vol. iii., p. 68,) a sketch which it is much to be regretted that he did not subsequently expand and revise, and publish in a separate form:--

The solemn meetings of witches are supposed to be put beyond all doubt by the numerous confessions of criminals, who have described their ceremonies, named the times and places of meeting, and the persons present, and who have agreed in their relations, though separately delivered.[78] But I would observe, first, that the circ.u.mstances told of those festivals are ridiculous and incredible in themselves; for they are represented as gloomy and horrible, yet with a mixture of childish and extravagant fancies, more likely to disgust and alienate than to conciliate the minds of the guests. They have every appearance of uneasy dreams; sometimes the devil and his subjects _say ma.s.s_, sometimes he _preaches_ to them, more commonly he was seen in the form of a black goat, surrounded by imps in a thousand frightful shapes; but none of these forms are _new_, they all resemble known quadrupeds or reptiles. Secondly, I observe, that there is direct proof furnished even by demonologists, that all these supposed journies and entertainments are nothing more than dreams. Persons accused of witchcraft have been repeatedly watched, about the time which they had fixed for the meeting; they have been seen to anoint themselves with soporific compositions, after which they fell into profound sleep, and on awaking, several hours afterwards, they have related their journey through the air, their amus.e.m.e.nt at the festival, and have named the persons whom they saw there. In the instance told by Hoffman, the dreamer was chained to the floor. Common sense would rest satisfied here, but the enthusiasm of demonology has invented more than one theory to get rid of these untoward facts. Dr.

Henry More, as was formerly mentioned, believed that the astral spirit only was carried away: other demonologists imagined that the witch was really removed to the place of meeting, but that a cacodemon was left in her room, as an [Greek: eidolon], to delude the spectators. Thirdly, some stories of the festivals are evidently tricks. Such is that related by Bodinus, with much gravity: a man is found in a gentleman's cellar, and apprehended as a thief; he declares his wife had brought him thither to a witch-meeting, and on his p.r.o.nouncing the name of G.o.d, she and all her companions had vanished, and left him inclosed. His wife is immediately seized, on this righteous evidence, and hanged, with several other persons, named as present at the meeting.

[Footnote 78: There is a grave relation, in Delrio, of a witch being shot flying, by a Spanish centinel, at the bridge of Nieulet, near Calais, after that place was taken by the Spaniards. The soldier saw a black cloud advancing rapidly, from which voices issued: when it came near, he fired into it; immediately a witch dropped. This is _undoubted proof_ of the meetings!--_Disq. Mag._, p. 708.]

G 3 _b_ 2. "_Christopher Iackes, of Th.o.r.n.y-holme, and his wife._"]

This would appear to be Christopher Hargreaves, called here Christopher Jackes, for o' or of Jack, according to the Lancas.h.i.+re mode of forming patronymics.

G 4 _a_. "_The first was, for the naming of the Spirit, which Alizon Deuice, now Prisoner at Lancaster, had: But did not name him, because shee was not there._"] Gaule says, speaking of the ceremonies at the witches' solemn meetings: "If the witch be outwardly Christian, baptism must be renounced, and the party must be rebaptized in the Devil's name, and a new name is also imposed by him; and here must be G.o.dfathers too, for the Devil takes them not to be so adult as to promise and vow for themselves." (_Cases of Conscience touching Witches_, page 59. 1646, 12mo.) But Gaule does not mention any naming or baptism of spirits and familiars on such occasions.

G 4 _b_. "_Romleyes Moore._"] Romilly's or Rumbles Moor, a wild and mountainous range in Craven, not unaptly selected for a meeting on a special emergency of a conclave of witches.

H 2 _a_ 1. "_Was so insensible, weake, and vnable in all thinges, as he could neither speake, heare, or stand, but was holden vp._"]

Pitiable, truly, was the situation of this unhappy wretch. Brought out from the restraint of a long imprisonment, before and during which he had, as we may conjecture, been subjected to every inhumanity, in a state more dead than alive, into a court which must have looked like one living ma.s.s, with every eye lit up with horror, and curses, not loud but deep, muttered with harmonious concord from the mouths of every spectator.

H 2 _a_ 2. "_Anne Towneley, wife of Henrie Townely, of the Carre._"]

Would this be Anne, the daughter and co-heiress of Thomas Catterall, of Catterall and Little Mitton, Esq., who married Henry Townley, the son of Lawrence Townley? (See Whitaker's _Whalley_, p. 396.) The Townleys of Barnside and Carr were a branch of the Townleys, of Townley. Barnside, or Barnsete, is an ancient mansion in the towns.h.i.+p of Colne, which, Whitaker observes, was abandoned by the family, for the warmer situation of Carr, about the middle of the last century.

H 2 _a_ 3. "_Master Nowel humbly prayed Master Towneley might be called._"] It is to be regretted we have no copy of the _viva voce_ examination of Mr. Townley, the husband of the lady whose life was said to have been taken away by witchcraft. The examinations given in this tract are altogether those of persons in a humble rank of life.

The contrast between their evidence and that of an individual occupying the position of the descendant of one of the oldest families in the neighbourhood, with considerable landed possessions, might have been amusing and instructive.

H 2 _a_ 4. "_Master Nowell humbly prayed, that the particular examinations taken before him and others might be openly published and read in court._"] This kind of evidence, the witnesses being in court, and capable of being examined, would not be received at the present day. At that time a greater laxity prevailed.

H 3 _a_. "_Sheare Thursday._"] The Thursday before Easter, and so called, for that, in the old Fathers' days, the people would that day, "shave their hedes, and clypp their berdes, and pool their heedes, and so make them honest against Easter Day."--_Brand's Popular Antiquities_, vol. i., p. 83, edition 1841.

K _b_ 1. "_A Charme._"] Sinclair, in his _Satan's Invisible World Discovered_, informs us, that "At night, in the time of popery, when folks went to bed, they believed the repet.i.tion of this following prayer was effectual to preserve them from danger, and the house too.