A sickening story is told in ‘A true and exact Relation of the seuerall Informations, Examinations, and Confessions of the late Witches, arraigned and executed in the County of Essex. Who were arraigned and condemned at the late Sessions, holden at Chelmesford before the Right Honorable Robert Earle of Warwicke and severall of his Majesties Iustices of Peace, the 29 of July 1645,’ etc., London, 1645. In this veritable ‘bloody assize,’ the rascally Matthew Hopkins appears, and it would almost seem as if the poor women confessed anything in order to have the luxury of dying. The charges against them were so frivolous, and the confessions so silly, that they must have either been imbecile or reckless. The following is a list of them:

The confession (!) of this latter will serve as an example of the puerility of them all.

‘This Examinant saith, that she hath four Familiars, which shee had from her mother, about two and twenty yeeres since; and that the names of the said Imps are James, Pricke eare, Robyn, and Sparrow; and three of these Imps are like Mouses, and the fourth like a Sparrow. And this Examinant saith, that to whomsoever shee sent the said Imp called Sparrow, it killed them presently; and that, first of all, she sent one of her three Imps like Mouses, to nip the Knee of one Robert Freeman, of Little Clacton, in the County of Essex, aforesaid, whom the said Imp did so lame, that the said Robert dyed on that lamenesse within half a yeere after: And this Examinant saith, that she sent her said Imp, Prickeare to kill the daughter of John Rawlins of Much-Holland aforesaid, which died accordingly within a short time after; and that she sent her said Imp Prickeare to the house of one John Tillet; which did suddenly kill the said Tillet.

‘And this Examinant saith that shee sent her said Imp Sparrow, to kill the childe of one George Parby of Much-Holland aforesaid, which child the said Imp did presently kill; and that the offence this Examinant took against the said George Parby to kill his said childe, was, because the wife of the said Parby denyed to give this Examinant a pint of Milke; and this Examinant further saith that shee sent her said Imp Sparrow to the house of Samuel Ray, which, in a very short time did kill the wife of the said Samuel; and that the cause of this Examinant’s malice against the said woman was, because shee refused to pay to this Examinant two pence which she challenged to be due to her; And that, afterwards, her said Imp Sparrow killed the said Childe of the said Samuel Ray: and this Examinant confesseth, that as soon as shee had received the said four Imps from her said mother, the said Imps spake to this Examinant, and told her, shee must deny God and Christ, which this Examinant did then assent unto.’

In ‘The Witches of Huntingdon, their Examinations and Confessions,’ etc., London, 1646, we have eight cases of witchcraft which were tried at different times early in 1646. Among these eight, two were men; but there is no record of the fate of any of them. They are the same old story, the one with the most originality being that of Jane Willis, of Keiston, in the county of Huntingdon.

‘This Examinate saith, as she was making of her bedde in her Chamber, there appeared in the shape of a man in blacke cloaths, and blackish cloaths about six weeks past, and bid her good morrow, and shee asked what his name was, and he said his name was Blackeman, and asked her if she were poore, and she said I:[47] then he told her he would send one Grissell and Greedigut to her, that shall do anything for her: Shee looking upon him, saw hee had ugly feete, and then she was very fearfull of him, for that sometimes he would seem to be tall, and sometimes lesse, and suddenly vanished away.

‘And being demanded whether he lay with her, shee said hee would have lain with her, but shee would not suffer him: and after Blackeman was departed from her, within three or 4 dayes, Grissell and Greedigut came to her, in the shape of dogges, with great brisles of hogges haire upon their backs, and said to her they were come from Blackeman to do what she would command them, and did aske her if shee did want any thing, and they would fetch it: and shee said she lacked nothing. Then they prayed her to give them some victuals, and she said she was poore and had none to give them; and so they departed: Yet she confessed that Blackeman, Grissel and Greedigut divers times came to her afterwards, and brought her two or three shillings at a time, and more saith not.’

Another type of witchcraft is to be found in ‘Wonderfull News from the North; or, a true relation of the sad and grievous torments inflicted upon the Bodies of three Children of Mr. George Muschamp, late of the County of Northumberland, by Witchcraft,’ etc. London, 1650. It begins thus:

‘First in harvest, some two Months before Michaelmas, about four or five of the Clock in the afternoone, Mistris Margaret Muschamp suddainly fell into a great Trance; her Mother being frighted, called Company, and with much adoe recovered her; as soone as the childe looked up, cryed out, deare Mother, weepe not for me; for I have seene a happy Sight, and heard a blessed sound, for the Lord hath loved my poore Soule, that he hath caused his blessed Trumpet to sound in my eares, and hath sent two blessed Angels to receive my sinfull soule. O weepe not for me, but rejoyce, that the Lord should have such respect to so sinfull a wretch as I am, as to send his heavenly Angels to receive my sinfull soule: with many other divine expressions.’

After this she continued pretty well till Candlemas Eve, when she was taken very bad indeed, losing the use of her limbs and speech, ‘and such torments, that no eyes could looke on her without compassion.’ For 16 weeks she refused all food, saying ‘that God fed her with Angel’s food: for truely all the 16 weekes fast she did not appeare to diminish her fatness or favour anything at all.‘On Whitsun Eve in the morning, she had eight hours bitter torment. In the afternoone, her mother being abroad, left her Husband’s Brother’s Daughter, Mrs. Elizabeth Muschamp with her, who made signes to her to carry her into the Garden, in her mother’s absence; her Cozen, casting a mantle about her, gave her her desire, and sate in the Garden with her on her knee; who, in the bringing down, had so little strength in her neck, that her head hung wagging downe; but was not set a quarter of an houre, till showing some signes to her Cozen, bolted off her knee, ran thrice about the Garden, expressing a shrill voyce, but did not speake presently: she that was brought down in this sad condition came up stairs on her owne legs.’

However, this improvement did not last long; she had more illnesses, and in one of them she made signs that she wished to write; so ‘they layd paper on her brest, and put a pen with inke in her hand, and she, not moving her eyes, writ, Jo. Hu. Do. Swo. have been the death of one deare friend, consume another, and torment mee.’ The wiseacres puzzled over this, and at last came to the conclusion that Mistress Dorothy Swinnow, then wife to Col. Swinnow, who subsequently died, had bewitched her. At another time this Margaret Muschamp wrote the same words with the addition, ‘two drops of his or her bloud would save my life; if I have it not, I am undone; for seven yeares to be tormented before death come.’

On this they sent to one John Hutton, a reputed wizard, who told them that it was Mistress Swinnow who was the culprit, and he gave them two drops of his own blood, which he wiped off his arm, with the paper on which the girl had written. Returning home, they applied this remedy, in some way unstated, and ‘On Munday night she fell into a heavenly rapture, rejoycing that ever she was borne, for these two drops of blood had saved her life.’ The girl was afterwards very ill, and Dorothy Swinnow, now a widow, was arrested, and committed to prison, where the narrative leaves off, with the addition of the confession of one Margaret White, who ‘Confesseth and saith, That she hath beene the Divells servant these five yeares past, and that the Divell came to her in the likenes of a man in blew cloaths, in her owne house, and griped her fast by the hand, and told her she should never want, and gave her a nip on the shoulder, and another on her back; and confesseth her Familiar came to her in the likenesse of a black Gray-hound. She also Confesseth upon Oath that Mrs. Swinnow and her sister Jane, and herselfe were in the Divels company in her sister Jane’s house, where they did eate and drinke together, and made merry.

‘And Mrs. Swinnow, and her the sayd Margaret’s sister, with her selfe, came purposely to the house of Mr. Edward Moore of Spittle, to take away the life of Margaret Muschamp and Mary, and they were the cause of the Children’s tormenting, and that they were three several times to have taken away their lives, and especially upon St. John’s day at night gone twelve moneths: and sayth that God was above the Divell, for they could not get their desires perfected; and saith that Mrs. Swinnow would have consumed the childe that Mrs. Moore had last in her wombe, but the Lord would not permit her; and that after the childe was borne, Mrs. Swinnow was the occasion of its death; and that she and her sister were also the occasion, and had a hand in the death of the sayd child; and further confesseth that she and her sayd sister were the death of Thomas Yong of Chatton (by reason) a kill full of Oates watched against her sister’s minde; And further saith that the Divell called her sister Jane (Besse); She confesseth that her sister Jane had much troubled Richard Stanley of Chatton, and that she was the occasion of his sore leg.’

In ‘A Prodigious and Tragicall History of the Arraignment, Tryall, Confession and Condemnation of six Witches at Maidstone in Kent, at the Assizes there held in July, Fryday 30, this present year 1652,’ a new feature is introduced.

‘The said Anne Ashby further confessed, that the Divell had given them a piece of flesh, which whensoever they should touch, they should thereby effect their desires.

‘That this flesh lay hid amongst grasse, in a certain place which she named, where, upon search, it was found accordingly.

‘The flesh was of a sinnewy substance, and scorched, and was seen and felt by this Observator, and reserved for publique view at the sign of the Swan in Maidstone.’

They were duly hanged, but ‘Some there were that wished rather they might be burnt to Ashes; alledging, that it was a received opinion amongst many, that the body of a witch being burnt, her bloud is prevented thereby from becomming hereditary to her Progeny in the same evill, which by hanging is not.’

However, in the case of four witches tried at Worcester on March 4, 1647,[48] they ‘received Sentance to be Burnt at the Stak all Four together.

‘When being come to the Place of Execution, they made a strange and lamentable Yeling and Howling, after which they Confessed the Crimes for which they Suffered, and also declared how they had kill’d abundance of Cattle for several years past, and that it was extream Pride, Malice, and Revenge, that caused them to enter into such a curssed and Hellish League with the Devil, who told them to the last, that he would secure them from Public Punishment, but now, too late, they found him a Lyer, as he was from the beginning of the World. Cock and Landish seemed penitent, desiring all young Women to take Warning by their Devilish Lives, and Shameful Deaths, assuring the Spectators, that as Satan in the first Infancy of the World, prevail’d on the Woman to bring his Hellish attempts to pass, so he still strives with that Sex, as the weaker Vessels, to Work their Distructions; they both said the Lord’s Prayer very distinctly, but Rebecca West and Rose Hallybread dyed very Stuburn and Refractory, without any remorss, or seeming Terror of Conscience for their abominable Witch-craft.’

‘A RELATION OF A LANCASHIRE WITCH, TRYED AT WORCESTER, IN THE YEAR 1649.[49]

‘At Droitwich in the County of Worcester, a poor Woman’s Boy in the Month of May, looking for his Mother’s Cow, espied some Bushes in a Brake to shake; and, supposing the Cow to be Brousing there, went to the Place, where he found no Cow, but an Old Woman, who, upon his approach, said Boh to him: whereupon he presently lost his speech, and could only make a Noise, but could not speak any thing articulately, so as could be understood. In this condition he came home to his Mother, made a great Noise, but no body could understand what ailed him, or what he meant. A while after, he ran out, and, at Sir Edward Barret’s door, found, about One a Clock, amongst other poor People, the same old Woman supping up a Mess of hot Pottage, and ran furiously upon her, and threw her Pottage in her Face, and offered some other Violence to her. Whereupon the Neighbours wondering at the condition of the Boy, and his rage against the old Woman, and suspecting that she had done him some hurt, Apprehended her, and she was committed to the Prison, which they call the Checker. At Night the Boy’s Mother Lodged him in a Garret over her own Lodging; and, in the Morning, hearing a great Bussle over her, ran up, and found the Boy gotten out of his Bed, with the Leg of a Form in his hand, striking furiously at something in the Window; but saw nothing there that he should strike at. The Boy presently put on his Cloaths, and ran downe into the Street towards the Prison; and, as he was going, endeavouring to speak, found his Speech restored.

‘When he came to the Prison, he asked for the old Woman, and told the Gaoler how she had served him, and how his Speech came to him again in the Way. The Gaoler, in the mean time, suspecting that she had Bewitched the Boy, would not let her have either Meat or Drink, unless she would first say the Lord’s Prayer, and bid God bless the Boy: which, at last, her Hunger forced her to do; and it appeared to be at the same instant, as near as can be guessed, that the Boy had his Speech restored to him. The Boy asked the Gaoler, why he did not keep her faster, but let her come out, and trouble him? The Gaoler answered, he had kept her very safe. The Boy replied No, he had not; for she came and sat in his Chamber Window, and grinned at him; and that, thereupon, he took up a Form Leg, and therewith gave her two good bangs upon the Back, as she would have scutled from him, before she could get away. Whereupon the Gaoler caused some Women to search her, who found the Marks of two such Strokes upon her, as the Boy said he had given her. All this was Sworn upon her Tryal by the Boy, his Mother, the Gaoler, and the Women. Upon Examination she was found to be a Lancashire Woman; who, upon the Scarcity in those Parts, after the Defeat of Duke Hamilton, wandred abroad to get Victuals.’

‘ANOTHER RELATION OF A TEUKSBURY WITCH, TRYED AT GLOUCESTER ABOUT THE SAME TIME.

‘At Teuksbury, about the same time, a Man, who had a Sow and Pigs, observing his Sow to have great store of Milk, and yet the Pigs to be almost Famished, and consulting with his Neighbours about it, they all concluded that she must needs be Sucked by something else, and so the Pigs be robbed of their milk. Whereupon he resolved to watch till he found out the Matter: and, having placed himself conveniently for that purpose, at last he saw a black Four footed Creature, like a Pole Cat, come and beat away the pigs, and having a pitchfork in his Hand, he ran the Prongs into the Thigh of it, and ran it to the ground. Yet it struggled so as to get off from him at last. There were some Neighbours not far off, but they saw no such creature, but saw a Wench go away, and that Blood fell from her as she went: whereupon they searched her, and found her so Wounded, as the Man said he had wounded the thing which he found Sucking: And, thereupon, she was Apprehended and Tryed at Gloucester Assizes, where this Matter was given in Evidence against her.’