A History of Witchcraft in England from 1558 to 1718 Part 39

1638. Middles.e.x. Alice b.a.s.t.a.r.d arraigned on two charges.

Acquitted. _Middles.e.x County Records_, III, 112-113.

1641. Middles.e.x. One Hammond of Westminster tried and perhaps hanged. John Aubrey, _Remaines of Gentilisme and Judaisme_ (Folk-Lore Soc.), 61.

temp. Carol I. Oxford. Woman perhaps executed. This story is given at third hand in _A Collection of Modern Relations_ (London, 1693), 48-49.

temp. Carol, I. Somerset. One or more hanged. Later the bewitched person, who may have been Edmund Bull (see above, _s. v._ 1626, Taunton), hanged also as a witch. Meric Casaubon, _Of Credulity and Incredulity_ (London, 1668), 170-171.

temp. Carol. I? Taunton Dean. Woman acquitted. North, _Life of North_, 131.

1642. Middles.e.x. Nicholas Culpepper of St. Leonard's, Sh.o.r.editch, acquitted. _Middles.e.x County Records_, III, 85.

1643. Newbury, Berks. A woman supposed to be a witch probably shot here by the parliament forces. _A Most certain, strange and true Discovery of a Witch_ ... 1643; _Mercurius Aulicus_, Oct. 1-8, 1643; _Mercurius Civicus_, Sept. 21-28, 1643; _Certaine Informations_, Sept. 25-Oct. 2, 1643; _Mercurius Britannicus_, Oct. 10-17, 1643.

1644. Sandwich, Kent. "The widow Drew hanged for a witch." W. Boys, _Collections for an History of Sandwich_, 714.

1645 (July). Chelmsford, Ess.e.x. Sixteen certainly condemned, probably two more. Possibly eleven or twelve more at another a.s.size. _A true and exact Relation ...

of ... the late Witches ... at Chelmesford_ (1645); Arthur Wilson, in Peck, _Desiderata Curiosa_, II, 76; Hopkins, _Discovery of Witches_, 2-3; Stearne, _Confirmation and Discovery of Witchcraft_, 14, 16, 36, 38, 58, etc.; _Signes and Wonders from Heaven_ (1645), 2; "R. B." _The Kingdom of Darkness_ (London, 1688). The fate of the several Ess.e.x witches is recorded by the _True and Exact Relation_ in marginal notes printed opposite their depositions (but omitted in the reprint of that pamphlet in Howell's _State Trials_). "R. B.," in _The Kingdom of Darkness_, though his knowledge of the Ess.e.x cases is ascribed to the pamphlet, gives details as to the time and place of the executions which are often in strange conflict with its testimony.

1645 (July). Norfolk. Twenty witches said to have been executed. Whitelocke, _Memorials_, I, 487. _A Perfect Diurnal_ (July 21-28, 1645) says that there has been a "tryall of the Norfolke witches, about 40 of them and 20 already executed." _Signes and Wonders from Heaven_ says that "there were 40 witches arraigned for their lives and 20 executed."

1645. Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk. Sixteen women and two men executed Aug. 27. Forty or fifty more probably executed a few weeks later. A very large number arraigned. A ma.n.u.script (Brit. Mus., Add.

MSS., 27,402, fol. 104 ff.) mentions over forty true bills and fifteen or more bills not found. _A True Relation of the Araignment of eighteene Witches at St. Edmundsbury_ (1645); Clarke, _Lives of Sundry Eminent Persons_, 172; _County Folk-Lore, Suffolk_ (Folk-Lore Soc.), 178; Ady, _A Candle in the Dark_, 104-105, 114; _Moderate Intelligencer_, Sept. 4-11, 1645; _Scottish Dove_, Aug. 29-Sept. 6, 1645.

Stearne mentions several names not mentioned in the _True Relation_--names probably belonging to those in the second group of the accused. Of most of them he has quoted the confession without stating the outcome of the cases. They are Hempstead of Creeting, Ratcliffe of Sh.e.l.ley, Randall of Lavenham, Bedford of Rattlesden, Wright of Hitcham, Ruceulver of Powstead, Greenliefe of Barton, Bush of Barton, Cricke of Hitcham, Richmond of Bramford, Hammer of Needham, Boreham of Sudbury, Scarfe of Rattlesden, King of Acton, Bysack of Waldingfield, Binkes of Haverhill.

In addition to these Stearne speaks of Elizabeth Hubbard of Stowmarket. Two others from Stowmarket were tried, "Goody Mils" and "Goody Low." Hollingsworth, _History of Stowmarket_ (Ipswich, 1844), 171.

1645. Melford, Suffolk. Alexander Sussums made confession.

Stearne, 36.

1645. Great Yarmouth, Norfolk. At least nine women indicted, five of whom were condemned. Three women acquitted and one man. Many others presented. C.

J. Palmer, _History of Great Yarmouth_, I, 273-274.

_Hist. MSS. Comm. Reports_, IX, App., pt. I, 320 a; Henry Harrod in _Norfolk Archaeol._, IV, 249-251.

1645. Cornwall. Anne Jeffries confined in Bodmin gaol and starved by order of a justice of the peace. She was said to be intimate with the "airy people" and to cause marvellous cures. We do not know the charge against her. Finally discharged. William Turner, _Remarkable Providences_ (London, 1697), ch. 82.

1645. Ipswich, Suffolk. Mother Lakeland burnt. _The Lawes against Witches_ (1645).

1645. King's Lynn, Norfolk. Dorothy Lee and Grace Wright hanged. Mackerell, _History and Antiquities of King's Lynn_, 236.

1645. Aldeburgh, Norfolk. Seven witches hanged. Quotations from the chamberlain's accounts in N. F.

Hele, _Notes or Jottings about Aldeburgh_, 43-44.

1645. Faversham, Kent. Three women hanged, a fourth tried, by the local authorities. _The Examination, Confession, Triall and Execution of Joane Williford, Joan Cariden and Jane Hott_ (1645).

1645. Rye, Suss.e.x. Martha Bruff and Anne Howsell ordered by the "mayor of Rye and others" to be put to the ordeal of water. _Hist. MSS. Comm. Reports_, XIII, pt. 4, 216.

1645. Middles.e.x. Several witches of Stepney accused. _Signes and Wonders from Heaven_, 2-3.

1645-46. Cambridgeshire. Several accused, at least one or two of whom were executed. Ady, _Candle in the Dark_, 135; Stearne, 39, 45; H. More, _Antidote against Atheisme_, 128-129. This may have been what is referred to in Glanvill's _Sadducismus Triumphatus_, pt. ii, 208-209.

1646. Northamptonshire. Several witches hanged. One died in prison. Stearne, 11, 23, 34-35.

1646. Huntingdonshire. Many accused, of whom at least ten were examined and several executed, among them John Wynnick. One woman swam and was released. John Davenport, _Witches of Huntingdon_ (London, 1646); H. More, _Antidote against Atheisme_, 125; Stearne, 11, 13, 17, 19, 20-21, 39, 42.

1646. Bedfordshire. Elizabeth Gurrey of Risden made confession.

Stearne says a Huntingdonshire witch confessed that "at Tilbrooke bushes in Bedfordshier ... there met above twenty at one time." Huntingdonshire witches seem meant, but perhaps not alone.

Stearne, 11, 31.

c. 1646. Yarmouth, Norfolk. Stearne mentions a woman who suffered here. Stearne, 53.

1646. Heptenstall, Yorkshire. Elizabeth Crossley, Mary Midgley, and two other women examined before two justices of the peace. _York Depositions_, 6-9.

1647. Ely, Cambridgeshire. Stearne mentions "those executed at Elie, a little before Michaelmas last, ...

also one at Chatterish there, one at March there, and another at Wimblington there, now lately found, still to be tryed"; and again "one Moores wife of Sutton, in the Isle of Elie," who "confessed her selfe guilty" and was executed; and yet again "one at Heddenham in the Isle of Ely," who "made a very large Confession" and must have paid the penalty. Stearne, 17, 21, 37; Gibbons, _Ely Episcopal Records_ (Lincoln, 1891), 112-113.

1647. Middles.e.x. Helen Howson acquitted. _Middles.e.x County Records_, III, 124.

1648. Middles.e.x. Bill against Katharine Fisher of Stratford-at-Bow ignored. _Middles.e.x County Records_, III, 102.

1648. Norwich, Norfolk. Two women burnt. P. Browne, _History of Norwich_ (Norwich, 1814), 38.

1649. Worcester. A Lancashire witch said to have been tried; perhaps remanded to Lancashire. _A Collection of Modern Relations._ The writer says that he received the account from a "Person of Quality" who attended the trial.

1649. Middles.e.x. Elizabeth Smythe of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields acquitted. _Middles.e.x County Records_, III, 191.

1649. Middles.e.x. Dorothy Brumley acquitted. _Ibid._

1649. St. Albans. John Palmer and Elizabeth Knott said to have been hanged for witches. _The Divels Delusion_ (1649).

1649. Berwick. Thirty women, examined on the accusation of a Scotch witch-finder, committed to prison.

Whitelocke, _Memorials_, III, 99; John Fuller, _History of Berwick_ (Edinburgh, 1799), 155-156, giving extracts from the Guild Hall Books; John Sykes, _Local Records_ (Newcastle, 1833), I, 103-105.

1649. Gloucester. Witch tried at the a.s.sizes. _A Collection of Modern Relations_, 52.

1649-50. Yorkshire. Mary Sykes and Susan Beaumont committed and searched. The former acquitted, bill against the latter ignored. _York Depositions_, 28.

1649-50. Durham. Several witches at Gateshead examined, and carried to Durham for trial; "a grave for a witch." Sykes, _Local Records_, I, 105; or _Denham Tracts_ (Folk-Lore Soc.), II, 338.

1649-50. Newcastle. Thirty witches accused. Fourteen women and one man hanged, together with a witch from the county of Northumberland. Ralph Gardiner, _England's Grievance_ (London, 1655), 108; Sykes, _Local Records_, I, 103; John Brand, _History and Antiquities of Newcastle_ (London, 1789), II, 477-478; Whitelocke, _Memorials_, III, 128; _Chronicon Mirabile_ (London, 1841), 92.

1650. Yorkshire. Ann Hudson of Skipsey charged. _York Depositions_, 38, note.

1650. c.u.mberland. A "discovery of witches." Sheriff perplexed.

_Cal. St. P., Dom., 1650_, 159.

1650. Derbyshire. Ann Wagg of Ilkeston committed for trial. J. C. c.o.x, _Three Centuries of Derbyshire Annals_, II, 88.

1650. Middles.e.x. Joan Roberts acquitted. _Middles.e.x County Records_, III, 284.