A History of Witchcraft in England from 1558 to 1718 Part 18

Now, according to the story, the constable proceeded to the woman's house and found her hand cut.

As to the social status of the people involved in the Protectorate trials there is little to say, other than has been said of many earlier cases. By far the larger number of those accused, as we have already pointed out, were charmers and enchanters, people who made a penny here and twopence there, but who had at best a precarious existence. Some of them, no doubt, traded on the fear they inspired in their communities and begged now a loaf of bread and now a pot of beer. They were the same people who, when begging and enchanting failed, resorted to stealing.[40] In one of the Yorkshire depositions we have perhaps a hint of another cla.s.s from which the witches were recruited. Katherine Earle struck a Mr. Frank between the shoulders and said, "You are a pretty gentleman; will you kisse me?" When the man happened to die this solicitation a.s.sumed a serious aspect.[41]

Witchcraft was indeed so often the outcome of lower-cla.s.s bickering that trials involving the upper cla.s.ses seem worthy of special record. During the Protectorate there were two rather remarkable trials. In 1656 William and Mary Wade were accused of bewitching the fourteen-year-old daughter of Elizabeth Mallory of Studley Hall. The Mallorys were a prominent family in Yorkshire. The grandfather of the accusing child had been a member of Parliament and was a well known Royalist colonel. When Mistress Elizabeth declared that her fits would not cease until Mary Wade had said that she had done her wrong, Mary Wade was persuaded to say the words. Elizabeth was well at once, but Mary withdrew her admission and Elizabeth resumed her fits, indeed "she was paste holdinge, her extreamaty was such." She now demanded that the two Wades should be imprisoned, and when they were "both in holde" she became well again. They were examined by a justice of the peace, but were probably let off.[42]

The story of Diana Crosse at Exeter is a more pathetic one. Mrs. Crosse had once kept a girls' school--could it be that there was some connection between teaching and witchcraft?[43]--had met with misfortune, and had at length been reduced to beggary. We have no means of knowing whether the suspicion of witchcraft antedated her extreme poverty or not, but it seems quite clear that the former school-teacher had gained an ill name in the community. She resented bitterly the att.i.tude of the people, and at one time seems to have appealed to the mayor. It was perhaps by this very act that she focussed the suspicion of her neighbors. To go over the details of the trial is not worth while. Diana Crosse probably escaped execution to eke out the remainder of her life in beggary.[44]

The districts of England affected by the delusion during this period have already been indicated. While there were random cases in Suffolk, Hertfordshire, Wiltshire, Somerset, c.u.mberland, and Northumberland, by far the greatest activity seems to have been in Middles.e.x, Cornwall, and Yorkshire. To a layman it looks as if the north of England had produced the greater part of its folk-lore. Certain it is that the witch stories of Yorkshire, as those of Lancaster at another time, by their mysterious and romantic elements made the trials of the south seem flat, stale, and unprofitable. Yet they rarely had as serious results.

To the historian the Middles.e.x cases must be more interesting because they should afford some index of the att.i.tude of the central government.

Unhappily we do not know the fate of the Yorkshire witches, though it has been surmised, in the absence of evidence to the contrary, that they all escaped execution.[45] In Middles.e.x we know that during this period only one woman, so far as our extant records go, was adjudged guilty.

All the rest were let go free. Now, this may be significant and it may not. It does not seem unreasonable to suppose that the Middles.e.x quarter sessions were in harmony with the central government. Yet this can be no more than a guess. It is not easy to take bearings which will locate the position of the Cromwellian government. The protector himself was occupied with weightier matters, and, so far as we know, never uttered a word on the subject. He was almost certainly responsible for the pardon of Margaret Gyngell at Salisbury in 1655,[46] yet we cannot be sure that he was not guided in that case by special circ.u.mstances as well as by the recommendation of subordinates.

We have but little more evidence as to the att.i.tude of his council of state. It was three years before the Protectorate was put into operation that the hesitating sheriff of c.u.mberland, who had some witches on his hands, was authorized to go ahead and carry out the law.[47] But on the other hand it was in the same period that the English commissioners in Scotland put a quietus on the witch alarms in that kingdom. In fact, one of their first acts was to take over the accused women from the church courts and demand the proof against them.[48] When it was found that they had been tortured into confessions, the commission resolved upon an enquiry into the conduct of the sheriff, ministers, and tormentors who had been involved. Several women had been accused. Not one was condemned. The matter was referred to the council of state, where it seems likely that the action of the commissioners was ratified. Seven or eight years later, in the administration of Richard Cromwell, there was an instance where the council, apparently of its own initiative, ordered a party of soldiers to arrest a Rutlandshire witch. The case was, however, dismissed later.[49]

To draw a definite conclusion from these bits of evidence would be rash.

We can perhaps reason somewhat from the general att.i.tude of the government. Throughout the Protectorate there was a tendency, which Cromwell encouraged, to mollify the rigor of the criminal law. Great numbers of pardons were issued; and when Whitelocke suggested that no offences should be capital except murder, treason, and rebellion, no one arose in holy horror to point out the exception of witchcraft,[50] and the suggestion, though never acted upon, was favorably considered.[51]

When we consider this general att.i.tude towards crime in connection with what we have already indicated about the rapid decline in numbers of witch convictions, it seems a safe guess that the Cromwellian government, while not greatly interested in witchcraft, was, so far as interested, inclined towards leniency.

[1] Whitelocke, _Memorials_, III, 63, 97, 99, 113.

[2] See an extract from the Guild Hall Books in John Fuller, _History of Berwick_ (Edinburgh, 1799), 155-156.

[3] Thomas Widdrington's letter to Whitelocke (Whitelocke, _Memorials_, III, 99). Widdrington said the man professed himself "an artist that way." The writer was evidently somewhat skeptical.

[4] _Ibid._

[5] Ralph Gardiner, _England's Grievance Discovered in Relation to the Coal Trade_ (London, 1655), 108.

[6] _Ibid._

[7] See John Brand, _History and Antiquities of ... Newcastle_ (London, 1789), II, 478, or the _Chronicon Mirabile_ (London, 1841), 92, for an extract from the parish registers, giving the names. A witch of rural Northumberland was executed with them.

[8] The witches of 1649 were not confined to the north. Two are said to have been executed at St. Albans, a man and a woman; one woman was tried in Worcestershire, one at Gloucester, and two in Middles.e.x. John Palmer and Elizabeth Knott, who suffered at St. Albans, had gained some notoriety. Palmer had contracted with the Devil and had persuaded his kinswoman to a.s.sist him in procuring the death of a woman by the use of clay pictures. Both were probably pract.i.tioners in magic. Palmer, even when in prison, claimed the power of transforming men into beasts. The woman seems to have been put to the swimming test. Both were condemned.

Palmer, at his execution, gave information about a "whole colledge of witches," most of them, no doubt, practisers like himself, but his random accusations were probably pa.s.sed over. See _The Divels Delusions or A faithfull relation of John Palmer and Elizabeth Knott ..._ (1649).

[9] Ralph Gardiner, _op. cit._, 109.

[10] See _ibid._ At his execution, Gardiner says, he confessed that he had been the death of 220 witches in Scotland and England. Either the man was guilty of unseemly and boastful lying, which is very likely, or Scotland was indeed badly "infested." See above, note 1.

[11] This narrative is contained in _Wonderfull News from the North, Or a True Relation of the Sad and Grievous Torments Inflicted upon ...

three Children of Mr. George Muschamp ..._ (London, 1650).

[12] The story of the case was sent down to London and there published, where it soon became a cla.s.sic among the witch-believing clergy.

[13] See the two pamphlets by Edmond Bower described below in appendix A, -- 5, and Henry More, _Antidote against Atheisme_, bk. III, ch. VII.

[14] Wylde was not well esteemed as a judge. On the inst.i.tution of the protectorate he was not reappointed by Cromwell.

[15] Aubrey (who had it from an eye-witness) tells us that "the crowd of spectators made such a noise that the judge could not heare the prisoner, nor the prisoner the judge; but the words were handed from one to the other by Mr. R. Chandler and sometimes not truly repeated." John Aubrey, _Remaines of Gentilisme and Judaisme ..._ (ed. J. Britten, _Folk Lore Soc. Publications_, IV, 1881), 261.

[16] For the case see _The Tryall and Examinations of Mrs. Joan Peterson ..._; _The Witch of Wapping, or an Exact ... Relation of the ...

Practises of Joan Peterson ..._; _A Declaration in Answer to severall lying Pamphlets concerning the Witch of Wapping ..._, (as to these pamphlets, all printed at London in 1652, see below, appendix A, -- 5); _French Intelligencer_, April 6-13, 1652; _Weekly Intelligencer_, April 6-13, 1652; _The Faithful Scout_, April 9-16, 1652; _Mercurius Democritus_, April 7-17, 1652.

[17] The _French Intelligencer_ tells us the story of her execution: "She seemed to be much dejected, having a melancholy aspect; she seemed not to be much above 40 years of age, and was not in the least outwardly deformed, as those kind of creatures usually are."

[18] For an account of this affair see _A Prodigious and Tragicall History of the ... Condemnation of six Witches at Maidstone ..._ (London, 1652).

[19] It was "supposed," says the narrator, that nine children, besides a man and a woman, had suffered at their hands, 500 worth of cattle had been lost, and much corn wrecked at sea. Two of the women made confession, but not to these things.

[20] See Ashmole's diary as given in Charles Burman, _Lives of Elias Ashmole, Esq., and Mr. William Lilly, written by themselves ..._ (London, 1774), 316.

[21] In his _Certainty of the World of Spirits_ (London, 1691), 44, 45, Richard Baxter, who is by no means absolutely reliable, tells us about this case. It should be understood that it is only a guess of the writer that the physician was to blame for the accusation; but it much resembles other cases where the physician started the trouble.

[22] William Cotton, _Gleanings from the Munic.i.p.al and Cathedral Records Relative to the History of the City of Exeter_ (Exeter, 1877), 149-150.

[23] _Hist. MSS. Comm. Reports, Various_, I, 127.

[24] _Mercurius Politicus_, November 24-December 2, 1653. One of these witches was perhaps the one mentioned as from Launceston in Cornwall in R. and O. B. Peter, _The Histories of Launceston and Dunheved_ (Plymouth, 1885), 285: "the grave in w^ch the wich was buryed."

[25] Richard Burthogge, _An Essay upon Reason and the Nature of Spirits_ (London, 1694), 196, writes that he has the confessions in MS. of "a great number of Witches (some of which were Executed) that were taken by a Justice of Peace in Cornwall above thirty Years agoe." It does not seem impossible that this is a reference to the same affair as that mentioned by the Launceston record.

[26] _Leicestershire and Rutland Notes and Queries_ (Leicester, 1891, etc.), I, 247.

[27] James Raine, ed., _A Selection from the Depositions in Criminal Cases taken before the Northern Magistrates, from the Originals preserved in York Castle_ (Surtees Soc., no. 40, 1861), 28-30. Cited hereafter as _York Depositions_.

[28] Yet in 1650 there had been a scare at Gateshead which cost the rate payers 2, of which a significant item was 6 d. for a "grave for a witch." _Denham Tracts_ (Folk Lore Soc.), II, 338. At Durham, in 1652, two persons were executed. Richardson, _Table Book_ (London, 1841), I, 286.

[29] J. C. c.o.x, _Three Centuries of Derbyshire Annals_ (London, 1890), II, 88. c.o.x, however, thinks it probable that she was punished.

[30] It is of course not altogether safe to reason from the absence of recorded executions, and it is least safe in the time of the Civil Wars and the years of recovery.

[31] _Middles.e.x County Records_, ed. by J. C. Jeaffreson (London, 1892), III, 295; _Hist. MSS. Comm. Reports, Various_, I, 129.

[32] _York Depositions_, 74.

[33] _Hertfordshire County Sessions Rolls_, compiled by W. J. Hardy (Hertford, 1905), I, 126. It is not absolutely certain in the second case that the committal was to the house of correction.

[34] _York Depositions_, 76-77.

[35] Joseph Glanvill, _Sadducismus Triumphatus_ (London, 1681), pt. ii, 122.

[36] Cotton, _Gleanings ... relative to the History of ... Exeter_, 152.

[37] In the famous Warboys case of 1593 it was the witch's presence that relieved the bewitched of their ailments.

[38] _York Depositions_, 64-67.