A History of Witchcraft in England from 1558 to 1718 Part 29

[9] See Baxter's _Works_ (London, 1827-1830), XX, 255-271.

[10] See _ibid._, XXI, 87.

[11] W. Orme in his _Life of Richard Baxter_ (London, 1830), I, 435, says that the Baxter MSS. contain several letters from Glanvill to Baxter.

[12] _See Memoirs of Richard Baxter_ by Dr. Bates (in _Biographical Collections, or Lives and Characters from the Works of the Reverend Mr.

Baxter and Dr. Bates_, 1760), II, 51, 73.

[13] _Ibid._, 26; see also Baxter's _Dying Thoughts_, in _Works_, XVIII, 284, where he refers to the Demon of Mascon, a story for which Boyle, as we have seen, had stood sponsor in England.

[14] Ch. VII, sect. iv, in _Works_, XXII, 327.

[15] _Certainty of the World of Spirits_ (London, 1691), preface.

[16] Two other collectors of witch stories deserve perhaps a note here, for each prefaced his collection with a discussion of witchcraft. The London publisher Nathaniel Crouch, who wrote much for his own press under the pseudonym of "R. B." (later expanded to "Richard Burton"), published as early as 1688 (not 1706, as says the _Dict. Nat. Biog._) _The Kingdom of Darkness: or The History of Daemons, Specters, Witches, ... Containing near Fourscore memorable Relations, ... Together with a Preface obviating the common Objections and Allegations of the Sadduces [sic] and Atheists of the Age, ... with Pictures._ Edward Stephens, first lawyer, then clergyman, but always a pamphleteer, brought out in 1693 _A Collection of Modern Relations concerning Witches and Witchcraft_, to which was prefaced Sir Matthew Hale's _Meditations concerning the Mercy of G.o.d in preserving us from the Malice and Power of Evil Angels_ and a dissertation of his own on _Questions concerning Witchcraft_.

[17] _An Historical, Physiological, and Theological Treatise of Spirits, Apparitions, Witchcraft and other Magical Practices_ (London, 1705).

Dedicated to "John, Earl of Carbury."

[18] See for example, _ibid._, 63, 70, 71, 75, 130-135, 165, 204, 289, 306.

[19] Balthazar Bekker's _De Betoverde Weereld_ (Leeuwarden and Amsterdam, 1691-1693), was a most telling attack upon the reality of witchcraft, and, through various translations, was read all over Europe.

The first part was translated and published in London in 1695 as _The World Bewitched_, and was republished in 1700 as _The World Turn'd upside down_.

[20] _Essay upon Reason and the Nature of Spirits_, 195.

[21] G. P. R. James, ed., _Letters Ill.u.s.trative of the Reign of William III, ... addressed to the Duke of Shrewsbury, by James Vernon, Esq._ (London, 1841), II, 302-303.

[22] _Spectator_, no. 117.

[23] _Hist. MSS. Comm. Reports_, XIV, 3, p. 132.

[24] H. C. Foxcroft, ed., _Life and Letters of Sir George Savile, Marquis of Halifax_ (London, 1898), II, 493.

[25] G. P. R. James, ed., _op. cit._, II, 300. Shrewsbury's opinion may be inferred from Vernon's reply to him.

[26] See the _Tatler_, no. 21, May 28, 1709.

APPENDICES.

A.--PAMPHLET LITERATURE.

-- 1.--Witchcraft under Elizabeth (see ch. II).

A large part of the evidence for the trials of Elizabeth's reign is derived from the pamphlets issued soon after the trials. These pamphlets furnish a peculiar species of historical material, and it is a species so common throughout the history of English witchcraft that it deserves a brief examination in pa.s.sing. The pamphlets were written of course by credulous people who easily accepted what was told them and whose own powers of observation were untrained. To get at the facts behind their marvellous accounts demands the greatest care and discrimination. Not only must the miraculous be ruled out, but the prejudices of the observer must be taken into account. Did the pamphleteer himself hear and see what he recorded, or was his account at second hand? Did he write soon after the events, when they were fresh in his memory? Does his narrative seem to be that of a painstaking, careful man or otherwise? These are questions to be answered. In many instances, however, the pamphlets were not narrative in form, but were merely abstracts of the court proceedings and testimony. In this case, too, care must be taken in using them, for the testimony damaging to the accused was likely to be accented, while the evidence on the other side, if not suppressed, was not emphasized. In general, however, these records of depositions are sources whose residuum of fact it is not difficult to discover. Both in this and in the narrative material the most valuable points may be gleaned from the incidental references and statements. The writer has made much use of this incidental matter. The position of the witch in her community, the real ground of the feeling against her upon the part of her neighbors, the way in which the alarm spread, the processes used to elicit confession--inferences of this sort may, the writer believes, be often made with a good deal of confidence. We have taken for granted that the pamphlets possess a substratum of truth. This may not always be the case. The pamphleteer was writing to sell. A fict.i.tious narrative of witchcraft or of a witch trial was almost as likely to sell as a true narrative. More than once in the history of witch literature absolutely imaginary stories were foisted upon the public. It is necessary to be constantly on guard against this type of pamphlet. Fortunately nine-tenths of the witch accounts are corroborated from other sources. The absence of such corroboration does not mean that an account should be barred out, but that it should be subjected to the methods of historical criticism, and that it should be used cautiously even if it pa.s.s that test. Happily for us, the plan of making a witch story to order does not seem to have occurred to the Elizabethan pamphleteers. So far as we know, all the pamphlets of that time rest upon actual events. We shall take them up briefly in order.

The first was _The examination and confession of certaine Wytches at Chensforde in the Countie of Ess.e.x before the Quenes maiesties Judges, the XXVI daye of July Anno 1566_. The only original copy of this pamphlet is in the Lambeth Palace library at London and its binding bears the initials of R. B. [Richard Bancroft]. The versified introduction is signed by John Phillips, who presumably was the author.

The pamphlet--a black letter one--was issued, in three parts, from the press of William Powell at London, two of them on August 13, the third on August 23, 1566. It has since been reprinted by H. Beigel for the Philobiblon Society, London, 1864-1865. It gives abstracts of the confessions and an account of the court interrogatories. There is every reason to believe that it is in the main an accurate account of what happened at the Chelmsford trials in 1566. Justice Southcote, Dr. Cole, Master Foscue, and Attorney-General Gerard are all names we can identify. Moreover, the one execution narrated is confirmed by the pamphlet dealing with the trials at Chelmsford in 1579.

The second pamphlet, also in black letter, deals with the Abingdon cases of 1579. It is ent.i.tled _A Rehearsall both straung and true of hainous and horrible actes committed by Elizabeth Stile, alias Rockingham, Mother Dutten, Mother Devell, Mother Margaret. Fower notorious Witches apprehended at Winsore in the Countie of Barks, and at Abington arraigned, condemned and executed on the 28 daye of Februarie last anno 1579_. This pamphlet finds confirmation by a reference in the privy council records to the same event (_Acts P. C._, n. s., XI, 22).

Reginald Scot, in his _Discoverie of Witchcraft_, 17, 543, mentions another, a book of "Richard Gallis of Windesor" "about certaine witches of Windsore executed at Abington." This would seem to have been a different account of the Abingdon affair, because Scot also on p. 51 speaks of some details of the Abingdon affair as to be found "in a little pamphlet of the acts and hanging of foure witches in anno 1579."

It is perhaps the one described by Lowndes, _Bibliographer's Manual of English Literature_ (p. 2959) under the t.i.tle _The horrible Acts of Eliz. Style, alias Rockingham, Mother Dutton, Mother Dovell, and Mother Margaret, 4 Witches executed at Abingdon, 26 Feb. upon Richard Galis_ (London, 1579) or that mentioned in the Stationers' _Registers_, II (London, 1875), 352, under date of May 4, 1579, as _A brief treatise conteyninge the most strange and horrible crueltye of Elizabeth Sule_ [sic] _alias Bockingham_ [sic] _and hir confederates executed at Abingdon upon Richard Galis etc._

The second Chelmsford trials were also in 1579. The pamphlet account was called _A Detection of d.a.m.nable driftes, practised by three Witches arraigned at Chelmsforde in Ess.e.x at the last a.s.sizes there holden, whiche were executed in Aprill 1579_. There are three references in this pamphlet to people mentioned in the earlier Chelmsford pamphlet, so that the two confirm each other.

The third Chelmsford trials came in 1589 and were narrated in a pamphlet ent.i.tled _The apprehension and confession of three notorious Witches arraigned and by Justice condemnede in the Countye of Ess.e.x the 5 day of Julye last past_. Joan Cunny was convicted, largely on the evidence of the two b.a.s.t.a.r.d sons of one of her "lewde" daughters. The eldest of these boys, who was not over ten or twelve, told the court that he had seen his grandmother cause an oak to be blown up by the roots during a calm. The charges against Joan Upney concerned chiefly her dealings with toads, those against Joan Prentice, who lived in an Ess.e.x almshouse, had to do with ferrets. The three women seem to have been brought first before justices of the peace and were then tried together and condemned by the "judge of the circuit." This narrative has no outside confirmation, but the internal evidence for its authenticity is good. Three men mentioned as sheriff, justice, and landowner can all be identified as holding those respective positions in the county.

The narrative of the St. Oses case appeared in 1582. It was called _A True and just Recorde of the Information, Examination and Confession of all the Witches taken at St. Oses in the countie of Ess.e.x: whereof some were executed, and other some entreated according to the determination of Lawe.... Written orderly, as the cases were tryed by evidence, by W.

W._ The pamphlet is merely a record of examinations. It is dedicated to Justice Darcy; and from slips, where the judge in describing his action breaks into the first person, it is evident that it was written by the judge himself. Scot, who wrote two years later, had read this pamphlet, and knew of the case (_Discoverie_, 49, 542). There are many references to the case by later writers on witchcraft.

Eleven years later came the trials which brought out the pamphlet: _The most strange and admirable discoverie of the three Witches of Warboys, arraigned, convicted and executed at the last a.s.sises at Huntingdon ..._, London, 1593. Its contents are reprinted by Richard Boulton, in his _Compleat History of Magick, Sorcery, and Witchcraft_ (London, 1715), I, 49-152. There can be no doubt as to the historical character of this pamphlet. The Throckmortons, the Cromwells, and the Pickerings were all well known in Huntingdonshire. An agreement is still preserved in the archives of the Huntingdon corporation providing that the corporation shall pay 40 to Queen's College, Cambridge, in order that a sermon shall be preached on witchcraft at Huntingdon each Lady day. This was continued for over two hundred years. One of the last sermons on this endowment was preached in 1795 and attacked the belief in witchcraft. The record of the contract is still kept in Queen's College, Brit. Mus. MSS., 5,849, fol. 254. For mention of the affair see Darrel, _Detection of that sinnful ... discours of Samuel Harshnet_, 36, 39, 110; also Harsnett, _Discovery of the Fraudulent Practises_, 93, 97.

Several Jacobean writers refer to the case. What seems to be another edition is in the Bodleian: _A True and Particular Observation of a notable Piece of Witchcraft_--which is the inside heading of the first edition. The text is the same, but there are differences in the paging.

Perhaps the most curious of all Elizabethan witch pamphlets is ent.i.tled _The most wonderfull and true Storie of a certaine Witch named Alse Gooderidge of Stapenhill, who was arraigned and convicted at Darbie, at the a.s.sizes there. As also a true Report of the strange Torments of Thomas Darling, a boy of thirteen years of age, that was possessed by the Devill, with his horrible Fittes and terrible apparitions by him uttered at Burton upon Trent, in the Countie of Stafford, and of his marvellous deliverance_, London, 1597. There are two copies of this--the only ones of which the writer knows--in Lambeth Palace library. They are exactly alike, page for page, except for the last four lines of the last page, where the wording differs. The pamphlet is clearly one written by John Denison as an abstract of an account by Jesse Bee. Harsnett, _Discovery of the Fraudulent Practices of John Darrel_, 266-269, tells how these two books were written. Denison is quoted as to certain insertions made in his ma.n.u.script after it left his hands, insertions which are to be found, he says, on pages 15 and 39. The insertions complained of by Denison are indeed to be found on the pages indicated of _The most wonderfull and true Storie of ... Alse Gooderidge_, thus establishing his authorship of the pamphlet. The account by Bee, of which this is an abstract, I have not seen. Alse Gooderidge was put through many examinations and finally died in prison. "She should have been executed, but that her spirit killed her in prison." John Darrel was one of those who sought to help the boy who had been bewitched by Alice. Darrel, however, receives only pa.s.sing mention from the author of this pamphlet. The narrative does not agree very well in matters of detail with the Darrel tracts, although in the main outlines it is similar to them. It is very crudely put together, and, while it was doubtless a sincere effort to present the truth, must not be too implicitly depended upon.

Two pamphlets are hidden away in the back of the _Triall of Maist.

Dorrel_ (see below, -- 2). The first (pp. 92-98) deals with the trial of Doll Bartham of Shadbrook in Suffolk. She was tried by the chief justice and hanged the 12th of July, 1599. The second (pp. 99-103) narrates the trial of Anne Kerke before "Lorde Anderson," the 30th of December, 1599.

She also went to the gallows.

There are other pamphlets referred to in Lowndes, etc., which we have been unable to find. One of them is _The Arraignment and Execution of 3 detestable Witches, John Newell, Joane his wife, and h.e.l.len Calles; two executed at Barnett, and one at Braynford, 1 Dec. 1595_. A second bears the t.i.tle _The severall Facts of Witchcrafte approved on Margaret Haskett of Stanmore_. 1585. Black letter. Another pamphlet in the same year deals with what is doubtless the same case. It is _An Account of Margaret Hacket, a notorious Witch, who consumed a young Man to Death, rotted his Bowells and back bone asunder, who was executed at Tiborn, 19 Feb. 1585_. London, 1585. A fourth pamphlet is _The Examination and Confession of a notorious Witch named Mother Arnold, alias Whitecote, alias Glas...o...b..ry, at the a.s.sise of Burntwood in July, 1574: who was hanged for Witchcraft at Barking_. 1575.

The t.i.tle _The case of Agnes Bridges and Rachel Pinder_, created by Hazlitt, _Collections and Notes_, 1867-1876, out of the mention by Holinshed of a printed account, means but _The discloysing_, etc. (see p. 351). The case--see Holinshed, _Chronicles_ (London, 1808), IV, 325, and Stow, Annales (London, 1631), p. 678, who put the affair in 1574--was not of witchcraft, but of pretended possession. See above, p.

59.

To this period must belong also _A true report of three Straunge Witches, lately found at Newnham Regis_, mentioned by Hazlitt (_Handbook_, p. 230). I have not seen it; but the printer is given as "J. Charlewood," and Charlewood printed between 1562 and 1593. The _Stationers' Registers_, 1570-1587 (London; Shakespeare Soc., 1849), II, 32, mention also the licensing in 1577 of _The Booke of Witches_--whatever that may have been.

Among pamphlets dealing with affairs nearly related to witchcraft may be mentioned the following:

_A short treatise declaringe the detestable wickednesse of magicall sciences, as Necromancie, Coniuration of Spirites, Curiouse Astrologie and such lyke.... Made by Francis c.o.xe._ [London, 1561.] Black letter.

c.o.xe had been pardoned by the Queen.

_The Examination of John Walsh, before Master Thomas Williams, Commissary to the Reverend father in G.o.d, William, bishop of Excester, upon certayne Interrogatories touchyng Wytch-crafte and Sorcerye, in the presence of divers gentlemen and others, the XX of August, 1566._ 1566.

Black letter. John Ashton (_The Devil in Britain and America_, London, 1896, p. 202) has called this the "earliest English printed book on witchcraft pure and simple"; but it did not deal with witches and it was preceded by the first Chelmsford pamphlet.

_The discloysing of a late counterfeyted possession by the devyl in two maydens within the Citie of London._ [1574.] Black letter. The case is that of Agnes Bridges and Rachel Pinder, mentioned above (pp. 59, 351).

_The Wonderfull Worke of G.o.d shewed upon a Chylde, whose name is William Withers, being in the Towne of Walsam ... Suffolk, who, being Eleven Yeeres of age, laye in a Traunce the s.p.a.ce of Tenne Days ... and hath continued the s.p.a.ce of Three Weeks_, London, 1581. Written by John Phillips. This pamphlet is mentioned by Sidney Lee in his article on John Phillips in the _Dict. Nat. Biog._

_A Most Wicked worke of a Wretched Witch (the like whereof none can record these manie yeares in England) wrought on the Person of one Richard Burt, servant to Maister Edling of Woodhall in the Parrish of Pinner in the Countie of Myddles.e.x, a myle beyond Harrow. Latelie committed in March last, An. 1592 and newly recognized acording to the truth. By G. B. maister of Artes._ [London, 1593.] See Hazlitt, Collections and Notes, 1867-1877. The pamphlet may be found in the library of Lambeth Palace. The story is a curious one; no action seems to have been taken.

_A defensative against the poyson of supposed prophecies, not hitherto confuted by the penne of any man; which being eyther uppon the warrant and authority of old paynted bookes, expositions of dreames, oracles, revelations, invocations of d.a.m.ned spirits ... have been causes of great disorder in the commonwealth and chiefly among the simple and unlearned people._ Henry Howard, afterwards Earl of Northampton, was the author of this "defensative." It appeared about 1581-1583, and was revised and reissued in 1621.