Chetham Society

"I knew her a good woman and well bred,Of an unquestion'd carriage, well reputedAmongst her neighbours, reckoned with the best."Heywood's Lancashire Witches.

She is described as the wife of Richard Nutter of the Rough Lee, and mother of Miles Nutter, who were in all likelihood nearly related to the other Nutters whose descent has been given. The tradition is, that she was closely connected by relationship or marriage with Eleanor Nutter, the daughter of Ellis Nutter of Pendle Forest, the grandmother of Archbishop Tillotson. That she was the victim of a foul and atrocious conspiracy, in which the movers were some of her own family, there seems no reason to doubt. The anxiety of her children to induce her to confess may possibly have originated in no impure or sinister motive, but it is difficult altogether to dismiss from the mind the suspicion that her wealth was her great misfortune; and that to secure it within their grasp her own household were passive, if not active, agents in her destruction. Any thing more childish or absurd than the evidence against her—as, for instance, that she joyned in killing Henry Mitton because he refused a penny to Old Demdike—it would not be easy, even from the records of witch trials, to produce. As regards Alice Nutter, Potts is singularly meagre, and it is to be lamented that the deficiency of information cannot at present be supplied. Almost the only fact he furnishes us with is, that she died maintaining her innocence. It would have been most interesting to have had the means of ascertaining how she conducted herself at her trial and after her condemnation; and how she met the iniquitous injustice of her fate, sharpened, as it must have been, by the additional bitterness of the insults and execrations of the blind and infuriated populace at her execution. It is far from improbable that some of the correspondence now deposited in the family archives in the county hitherto unpublished may ultimately furnish these particulars.

Alice Nutter was doubtless the original of the story of which Heywood availed himself inThe Late Lancashire Witches, 1634, 4to, which isfrequently noticed by the writers of the 17th century—that the wife of a Lancashire country gentleman had been detected in practising witchcraft and unlawful arts, and condemned and executed. In that play there can be little hesitation in ascribing to Heywood the scenes in which Mr. Generous and his wife are the interlocutors, and to Broome, Heywood's coadjutor, the subordinate and farcical portions. It is a very unequal performance, but not destitute of those fine touches, which Heywood is never without, in the characters of English country gentlemen and the pathos of domestic tragedy. The following scene, which I am tempted to extract, though very inferior to the noble ones in hisWoman Killed by Kindness, between Mr. and Mrs. Frankford, which it somewhat resembles in character, is not unworthy of this great and truly national dramatic writer:—

Mr. Generous.Wife.Robin,a groom.Gen.My blood is turn'd to ice, and all my vitalsHave ceas'd their working. Dull stupiditySurpriseth me at once, and hath arrestedThat vigorous agitation, which till nowExprest a life within me. I, methinks,Am a meer marble statue, and no man.Unweave my age, O time, to my first thread;Let me lose fifty years, in ignorance spent;That, being made an infant once again,I may begin to know. What, or where am I,To be thus lost in wonder?Wife.Sir.Gen.Amazement still pursues me, how am I chang'd,Or brought ere I can understand myselfInto this new world!Rob.You will believe no witches?Gen.This makes me believe all, aye, anything;And that myself am nothing. Prithee, Robin,Lay me to myself open; what art thou,Or this new transform'd creature?Rob.I am Robin;And this your wife, my mistress.Gen.Tell me, the earthShall leave its seat, and mount to kiss the moon;Or that the moon, enamour'd of the earth,Shall leave her sphere, to stoop to us thus low.What, what's this in my hand, that at an instantCan from a four-legg'd creature make a thingSo like a wife!Rob.A bridle; a jugling bridle, Sir.Gen.A bridle! Hence, enchantment.A viper were more safe within my hand,Than this charm'd engine.—A witch! my wife a witch!The more I strive to unwindMyself from this meander, I the moreTherein am intricated. Prithee, woman,Art thou a witch?Wife.It cannot be denied,I am such a curst creature.Gen.Keep aloof:And do not come too near me. O my trust;Have I, since first I understood myself,Been of my soul so chary, still to studyWhat best was for its health, to renounce allThe works of that black fiend with my best force;And hath that serpent twined me so about,That I must lie so often and so longWith a devil in my bosom?Wife.Pardon, Sir. [She looks down.]Gen.Pardon! can such a thing as that be hoped?Lift up thine eyes, lost woman, to yon hills;It must be thence expected: look not downUnto that horrid dwelling, which thou hast soughtAt such dear rate to purchase. Prithee, tell me,(For now I can believe) art thou a witch?Wife.I am.Gen.With that word I am thunderstruck,And know not what to answer; yet resolve me.Hast thou made any contract with that fiend,The enemy of mankind?Wife.O I have.Gen.What? and how far?Wife.I have promis'd him my soul.Gen.Ten thousand times better thy body hadBeen promis'd to the stake; aye, and mine too,To have suffer'd with thee in a hedge of flames,Than such a compact ever had been made. Oh—Resolve me, how far doth that contract stretch?Wife.What interest in this Soul myself could claim,I freely gave him; but his part that made itI still reserve, not being mine to give.Gen.O cunning devil: foolish woman, know,Where he can claim but the least little part,He will usurp the whole. Thou'rt a lost woman.Wife.I hope, not so.Gen.Why, hast thou any hope?Wife.Yes, sir, I have.Gen.Make it appear to me.Wife.I hope I never bargain'd for that fire,Further than penitent tears have power to quench.Gen.I would see some of them.Wife.You behold them now(If you look on me with charitable eyes)Tinctur'd in blood, blood issuing from the heart.Sir, I am sorry; when I look towards heaven,I beg a gracious pardon; when on you,Methinks your native goodness should not beLess pitiful than they; 'gainst both I have err'd;From both I beg atonement.Gen.May I presume 't?Wife.I kneel to both your mercies.Gen.Knowest thou whatA witch is?Wife.Alas, none better;Or after mature recollection can beMore sad to think on 't.Gen.Tell me, are those tearsAs full of true hearted penitence,As mine of sorrow to behold what state,What desperate state, thou'rt fain in?Wife.Sir, they are.Gen.Rise; and, as I do you, so heaven pardon me;We all offend, but from such falling offDefend us! Well, I do remember, wife,When I first took thee, 'twasfor good and bad:O change thy bad to good, that I may keep thee(As then we past our faiths) 'till Death us sever.O woman, thou hast need to weep thyselfInto a fountain, such a penitent springAs may have power to quench invisible flames;In which my eyes shall aid: too little, all.Late Lancashire Witches, Act 4.

P 2a1. "Being examined by my Lord."] She had evidently learned her lesson well; but this was, with all submission to his Lordship, if adopted as a test, a mighty poor one. Jennet Device must have knownwell the persons of the parties she accused, and who were now upon their trial, as they were all her near neighbours.

P 2a2. "Whether she knew Iohan a Style?"] His Lordship's introduction of this apocryphal legal personage on such an occasion is very amusing. Had he studied Littleton and Perkins a little less, and given some attention to the Lancashire dialect, and some also to the study of that great book, in which even a judge may find valuable matter, the book of human nature, he might have been more successfull in his examination. Jack's o' Dick's o' Harry's would have been more likely to have been recognised as a veritable person of this world by Jennet Device, than such a name as Johan a Style; which, though very familiar at Westminster, would scarcely have its prototype at Pendle. But Jennet Device, young as she was, in natural shrewdness was far more than a match for his lordship.

P 3a. "Katherine Hewit, alias Movld-heeles."] Of this person, who comes next in the list of witches, our information is very scanty. She was not of Pendle, but of Colne; and as her husband is described as a "clothier," may be presumed to have been in rather better circumstances than Elizabeth Southernes or Anne Whittle's families. She made no confession.

P 4a1. "Anne Foulds of Colne. Michael Hartleys of Colne."] Folds and Hartley are still the names of families at and in the neighbourhood of Colne.

P 4a2. "Had then in hanck a child."] The meaning of this term is clear, the origin rather dubious. It may come from the Scotch word,to hanck, i.e. to have in holdfast or secure, vide Jamieson's Scotch Dictionary, tit. hanck, or from handkill, to murder, vide Jamieson, under that word; or lastly, may be metaphorically used, from hanck, also signifying a skein of yarn or worsted which is tied or trussed up.

Q 2a. "Iohn Bulcocke, Iane Bulcocke his mother."] The condition of these persons is not stated. It may be conjectured that they were of the lowest class.

Q 3a1. "At the Barre hauing formerly confessed."] Why is not their confession given?

Q 3a2. "Crying out in very violent and outrageous manner, even to the gallowes."] The latter end of these unfortunate people was perhaps similar to that of Isobel Crawford, executed in Scotland the year after for witchcraft, who, on being sentenced, openly denied all her former confessions, and died without any sign of repentance, offering repeated interruption to the minister in his prayer, and refusing to pardon the executioner.

Q 4a. "Master Thomas Lister of Westby."] See note on p.Ya.

Q 4b. "The said Bulcockes wife doth know of some Witches to bee about Padyham and Burnley."] Precious evidence this to put the lives of two poor creatures into jeopardy.

Ra. "Accused the said Iohn Bulcock to turne the Spitt there."] What a fact this would have been for De Lancre. With all his accurate statistics on the subject of the witches' Sabbath, he was not aware that a turnspit was a necessary officer on such occasions, as well as a master of ceremonies. This artful and well instructed jade, Jennet Device, must have borne especial malice against John Bulcock.

R 1b. "The names of the Witches at the Great Assembly and Feast at Malking-Tower, viz. vpon Good-Friday last, 1612."] In this list of fourteen individuals, Master Potts has omitted "the painful steward so careful to provide mutton," James Device, who made up the number to fifteen. Of these persons seven were not indicted: Jennet Hargraves, the wife of Hugh Hargraves, of Barley under Pendle; Elizabeth Hargraves, the wife of Christopher Hargraves; Christopher Howgate, the son of Old Demdike; Christopher Hargraves, who is described as of Thurniholme, or Thornholme, and as Christopher o' Jacks, and was husband of Elizabeth Hargraves; Grace Hay, of Padiham; Anne Crunkshey, of Marchden, or more properly, Cronkshaw of Marsden; and Elizabeth Howgate, the wife of Christopher Howgate. The two Howgates were, it may be, the "one Holgate and his wife," mentioned in Robinson's deposition in 1633. Alice Graie, or Gray, included in the list, was indicted, though no copy of the indictment is afforded by Potts, and, singular as it may seem, acquitted. Richard Miles' wife, of the Rough Lee, stated to have been present in some of the depositions, (G 3b,) was, beyond doubt, Alice Nutter, so called as the wife of Richard and mother of Miles Nutter.

It may afford matter for speculation, whether any real meeting tookplace of any of the persons above enumerated, which gave occasion for the monstrous versions of the witnesses at this trial. It is far from unlikely, that on the apprehension and commitment of Old Demdike, Old Chattox, Alizon Device, and Anne Redfern to Lancaster, a meeting would take place of their near relations, and others who might attend from curiosity, or from its being rumoured that they were themselves implicated by the confessions of those apprehended, and who by such attendance sealed their dooms. In all similar fabrications there is generally some slight foundation of fact, some scintilla of homely truth, from which, like the inverted apex of a pyramid, the disproportioned fabric expands. It is possible that, from the simple occurrence of an unusual attendance at Malking Tower on Good Friday, not unnatural under the circumstances, some of the witnesses, ignorant and easily persuaded, might be afterwards led to believe in the existence of those monstrous superadditions with which the convention was afterwards clothed. However this may be, there must have been at hand for working up the materials into a plausible form, some drill sergeant of evidence behind the curtain, who had his own interest to serve or revenge to gratify. The two particulars in the narrative that one feels least disposed to question, are, that James Device stole a wether from John Robinson of Barley, to provide a family dinner on Good Friday, and that when the meat was roasted John Bulcock performed the humble, but very necessary, duty of turning the spit.

R 3a. "My Lord Gerrard."] Thomas Gerard, son and heir of Sir Gilbert Gerard, Master of the Robes 23d Elizabeth, was raised to the peerage by the title of Lord Gerard of Gerard's Bromley, in Staffordshire, 1603. He died 1618.

Sa. "Kniues, Elsons, and Sickles." In thePromptorium Parvulorum, p. 138, to Elsyn (elsyngk) Sibula, Mr. Way appends this note: "This word occurs in the Gloss on Gautier de Bibelesworth, Arund. MS. 220, where a buckled girdle is described:—

"Een isy doyt le hardiloun (þe tunnge)Passer par tru de subiloun (a bore of an alsene.)

"An elsyne,—acus, subula. Cath. Ang. Sibula, an elsyn, an alle or a bodkyn.Ortus. In the inventory of the goods of a merchant at Newcastle, A.D. 1571, occur, 'vj. doss' elsen heftes, 12d; 1 clowte and ½ a C elsen blades,viijs. viijd; xiij. clowtes of talier, needles, &c.' Wills and Inventories published by the Surtees Society, l. 361. The term is derived from the Frenchalene; elson for cordwayners, alesne. Palsg. In Yorkshire and some other parts of England an awl is still called an elsen."

Sb. "Which the said Alizon confessing."] In the case of this paralytic pedlar, John Law, his mishap could scarcely be called such, as it would for the remainder of his life, be an all-sufficient stock-in-trade for him, and popular wonder and sympathy, without the judge's interposition, would provide for his relief and maintenance. The near apparent connection and correspondence of thedamnum minatumanddamnum secutum, in this instance, imposed upon this unfortunate woman, as it had done upon many others, and gave to her confession an earnestness which would appear to the unenlightened spectator to spring only from reality and truth.

S 3b. "Margaret Pearson."] This Padiham witch fared better than her neighbours, being sentenced only to the pillory. Nothing affords a stronger proof of the vindictive pertinacity with which these prosecutions were carried on than the fact of this old and helpless creature being put on her trial three several times upon such evidence as follows. Chattox, like many other persons in her situation, was disposed to have as many companions in punishment, crime or no crime, as she could compass, and denounced her accordingly: "The said Pearson's wife is as ill as shee."

Ta. "The said Margerie did carrie the said Toade out of the said house in a paire of tonges."] This toad was disposed of more easily than that of Julian Cox, as to which see Glanvil'sCollection of Relations, p. 192:—

Another witness swore, that as he passed by Cox her door, she was taking a pipe of tobacco upon the threshold of her door, and invited him to come in and take a pipe, which he did. And as he was talking Julian said to him, Neighbour, look what a pretty thing there is. He look't down, and there was a monstrous great toad betwixt his leggs, staring him in the face. He endeavoured to kill it by spurning it, but could not hit it. Whereupon Julian bad him forbear, and it would do him no hurt. But he threw down his pipe and went home, (which was about two miles off of Julian Cox her house,) and told his family what had happened, and that he believed it was one of Julian Cox her devils. After, he was taking a pipe of tobacco at home, and the same toad appeared betwixt his leggs. He took the toad out to kill it, and to his thinking cut it in several pieces, but returning to his pipe,the toad still appeared. He endeavoured to burn it, but could not. At length he took a switch and beat it. The toad ran several times about the room to avoid him he still pursuing it with correction. At length the toad cryed and vanish't, and he was never after troubled with it.

Dr. More's comment on the circumstance is written with all the seriousness so important a part of a witch's supellex deserves. He commences defending the huntsman, who swore that he hunted a hare, and when he came to take it up, he found it to be Julian Cox:

Those half-witted people thought he swore false, I suppose because they imagined that what he told implied that Julian Cox was turned into an hare. Which she was not, nor did his report imply any such real metamorphosis of her body, but that these ludicrous dæmons exhibited to the sight of this huntsman and his doggs the shape of an Hare, one of them turning himself into such a form, and others hurrying on the body of Julian near the same place, and at the same swiftness, but interposing betwixt that hare-like spectre and her body, modifying the air so that the scene there, to the beholders sight, was as if nothing but air were there, and a shew of earth perpetually suited to that where the hare passed. As I have heard of some painters that have drawn the sky in an huge large landskip, so lively that the birds have flown against it, thinking it free air, and so have fallen down. And if painters and juglers by the tricks of legerdemain can do such strange feats to the deceiving of the sight, it is no wonder that these airy invisible spirits as far surpass them in all such præstigious doings as the air surpasses the earth for subtilty.And the like præstigiæ may be in the toad. It might be a real toad (though actuated and guided by a dæmon) which was cut in pieces, and that also which was whipt about, and at last snatcht out of sight (as if it had vanished) by these aerial hocus-pocus's. And if some juglers have tricks to take hot coals into their mouth without hurt, certainly it is not surprising that some small attempt did not suffice to burn that toad. That such a toad, sent by a witch and crawling up the body of the man of the house as he sate by the fire's side, was overmastered by him and his wife together, and burnt in the fire; I have heard credibly reported by one of the Isle of Ely.Of these dæmoniack vermin, I have heard other stories also, as of a rat that followed a man some score of miles trudging through thick and thin along with him.So little difficulty is there in that of the toad.—Glanvil's Collection of Relations, p. 200.

And the like præstigiæ may be in the toad. It might be a real toad (though actuated and guided by a dæmon) which was cut in pieces, and that also which was whipt about, and at last snatcht out of sight (as if it had vanished) by these aerial hocus-pocus's. And if some juglers have tricks to take hot coals into their mouth without hurt, certainly it is not surprising that some small attempt did not suffice to burn that toad. That such a toad, sent by a witch and crawling up the body of the man of the house as he sate by the fire's side, was overmastered by him and his wife together, and burnt in the fire; I have heard credibly reported by one of the Isle of Ely.Of these dæmoniack vermin, I have heard other stories also, as of a rat that followed a man some score of miles trudging through thick and thin along with him.So little difficulty is there in that of the toad.—Glanvil's Collection of Relations, p. 200.

T 2a1. "Isabel Robey." This person was of Windle, in the parish of Prescot, a considerable distance from Pendle. The Gerards were lords of the manor of Windle. Sir Thomas Gerard, before whom the examinations were taken, was created baronet, 22nd May, 9th James I.; and thrice married. From him the present Sir John Gerard, of New Hall, nearWarrington, is descended. Sir Thomas was determined that the hundred of West Derby should have its witch as well as the other parts of the county. A more melancholy tissue of absurd and incoherent accusations than those against this last of the prisoners convicted on this occasion, it would not be easy to find; who was hanged, for all that appears, because one person was suddenly "pinched on her thigh, as she thought, with four fingers and a thumb," and because another was "sore pained with a great warch in his bones."

T 2a2. "This Countie of Lancaster, which now may lawfully bee said to abound asmuch in Witches of diuers kindes as Seminaries, Iesuites, and Papists."] Truly, the county palatine was in sad case, according to Master Potts's account. If the crop of each of these was over abundant, it was from no fault of the learned judges, who, in their commissions ofOyer and Terminer, subjected it pretty liberally to the pruning-hook of the executioner.

T 2a3. "This lamentable and wofull Tragedie, wherein his Maiestie hath lost so many Subjects, Mothers their Children, Fathers their Friends and Kinsfolk." The Lancashire bill of mortality, under the head witchcraft, so far as it can be collected from this tract, will run thus:—

1. Robert Nutter, of Greenhead, in Pendle.2. Richard Assheton, son of Richard Assheton, of Downham, Esquire.3. Child of Richard Baldwin, of Wheethead, within the forest of Pendle.4. John Device, or Davies, of Pendle.5. Anne Nutter, daughter of Anthony Nutter, of Pendle.6. Child of John Moore, of Higham.7. Hugh Moore, of Pendle.8. John Robinson,aliasSwyer.9. James Robinson.10. Henry Mytton, of the Rough Lee.11. Anne Townley, wife of Henry Townley, of the Carr, gentleman.12. John Duckworth.13. John Hargraves, of Goldshaw Booth.14. Blaze Hargraves, of Higham.15. Christopher Nutter.16. Anne Folds, of Colne.

Sixteen persons reported dead of this common epidemic, besides a countless number with pains and "starkness in their limbs," and "a great warch in their bones!" No wonder that Doctors Bromley and Potts thought active treatment necessary, with a decided preference for hemp, as the leading specific.

T 3b. "With great warch in his bones."] Warch is a word well known and still used in this sense,i.e., pain, in Lancashire.

T 4b1. "The said Peter was now satisfied that the said Isabel Robey was no Witch, by sending to one Halseworths, which they call a wiseman."] I honour the memory of this Halsworth, or Houldsworth, as I suppose it should be spelled, for he was indeed a wise man in days when wisdom was an extremely scarce commodity.

T 4b2. "To abide vpon it."]i.e., my abiding opinion is.

Xa. "Elizabeth Astley, John Ramsden, Alice Gray, Isabel Sidegraues, Lawrence Hay."] The specific charges against these persons, with the exception of Alice Gray, do not appear, nor is it said where their places of residence were. Alice Gray was reputed to have been at the meeting of witches at Malkin's Tower, and to her the judge refers, perhaps, in particular, when he says, "Without question, there are amongst you that are as deepe in this action as any of them that are condemned to die for their offences."

Xb. "The Execution of the Witches."] We could have dispensed with many of the flowers of rhetoric with which the pages of this discovery are strewed, if Master Potts would have favoured us with a plain, unvarnished account of what occurred at this execution. It is here, in the most interesting point of all, that his narrative, in other respects so full and abundant, stops short, and seems curtailed of its just proportions. The "learned and worthy preacher," to whom the prisoners were commended by the judge, was probably Mr. William Leigh, of Standish, before mentioned. Amongst his papers or correspondence, if they should happen to have been preserved, some account may eventually be found of the sad closing scene of these melancholy victims of superstition.

X 2a. "Neither can I paint in extraordinarie tearmes."] The worthy clerk is too modest. He is a great painter, the Tintoretto of witchcraft.

Ya1. "Hauing cut off Thomas Lister, Esquire, father to this gentleman now liuing."] Thomas Lister, of Westby, ancestor of the Listers, Lords Ribblesdale, married Jane, daughter of John Greenacres, Esquire, of Worston, county of Lancaster, and was buried at Gisburn, February 8th, 1607. His son, Thomas Lister, referred to as the "gentleman now living," married Jane, daughter of Thomas Heber, Esq., of Marton, after mentioned, and was buried at Gisburn, July 10th, 1619.

Ya2. "Was Indicted and Arraigned for the murder of a Child of one Dodg-sonnes."] One acquittal was no protection to these unhappy creatures. It caused only additional exasperation, and, sooner or later, they were brought within what Donne calls "the hungry statutes' gaping jaws." Whether superstition or malice prompted this prosecution, on the part of Mr. Lister, it is difficult to say. Some grudge he entertained, or cause of offence he had taken up against this Jennet Preston, might be her death warrant in those days, when it was penal for a woman to be old, helpless, ugly, and poor. She was not so fortunate as the females tried at York, nine years afterwards, for bewitching the children of Edward Fairfax, of Fuyston, in the forest of Knaresborough, to whom we owe the only English translation of Tasso worthy of the name. These females, six in number, were indicted at two successive assizes, and every effort was made by the

"Prevailing poet! whose undoubting mindBelieved the magic wonders which he sung,"

to procure their conviction. Never was a more unequal contest. On the one side was a relentless antagonist, armed with wealth, influence, learning, and accomplishments, and whose family connections gave him an unlimited power in the county; and on the other, six helpless persons, whose sex, age, and poverty were almost sufficient for their condemnation, without any evidence at all. Yet, owing to the magnanimous firmness of the judge, whose name, deserving of immortal honour, I regret has not been preserved, these efforts were frustrated, and the women accused delivered from the gulph which yawned before them. The disappointment he experienced in this instance, in being defrauded, as he thought, of a conviction for whichhe had strained every nerve and sinew, and in not being allowed to render the forest of Knaresborough as famous as that of Pendle, cast a gloom of despondency over the remaining days of this admirable poet, who has left a narration of the whole transaction, of most singular interest and curiosity, yet unpublished. The MSS. now in my possession, and which came from Mr. Bright's collection, consists of seventy-eight closely-written folio pages. It is entitled "A Discourse of Witchcraft, as it was enacted in the family of Mr. Edward Fairfax, of Fuystone, coun. Ebor, 1621." From page 78 to 144 are a series of ninety-three most extraordinary and spirited sketches, made with the pen, of the witches, devils, monsters, and apparitions referred to in the narrative.

Y 2a. "Master Heyber."] This was Thomas Hayber, or Heber, of Marton, in Craven, Esquire, who was buried at Marton, 7th February, 1633. He was the ancestor of Bishop Reginald Heber and the late Richard Heber, Esq.

Y 3a. "The said Iennet Preston comming to touch the dead corpes, they bled fresh bloud presently."] On the popular superstition of touching the corpse of a murdered person, as an ordeal or test for the discovery of the innocence or guilt of suspected murderers, the reader cannot better be referred than to the very learned and elaborate essay in Pitcairne'sCriminal Trials, vol. iii. p. 182-189. Amongst the authors there quoted, Webster is omitted, who, (seeDisplaying of supposed Witchcraft, p. 304,) discusses the point at considerable length, and with an earnest and implicit faith singularly at variance with his enlightened scepticism in other matters. But there were regions of superstition in which even this Sampson of logic became imbecile and powerless. The rationale of the bleeding of a murdered corpse at the touch of the murderer is given by Sir Kenelm Digby with his usual force and spirit:

To this cause, peradventure, may be reduced the strange effect which is frequently seen in England, when,at the approach of the Murderer, the slain body suddenly bleedeth afresh. For certainly the Souls of them that are treacherously murdered by surprise, use to leaue their bodies with extreme unwillingness, and with vehement indignation against them that force them to so unprovided and abhorred a passage! That Soul, then, to wreak its evil talent against the hated Murderer, and to draw a just and desired revenge upon his head, would do all it can to manifest the author of the fact! Tospeakit cannot—for in itself it wanteth the organs of voice; and those it is parted from are now grown too heavy, and are too benummed, for to give motion unto: Yet some change it desireth tomake in the body, which it hath so vehement inclination to; and therefore is the aptest for it to work upon. It must then endeavour to cause a motion in the subtilest and most fluid parts (and consequently the most moveable ones) of it. This can be nothing butthe blood, which then being violently moved,must needs gush out at those places where it findeth issue!

In the two following Scotch cases of witchcraft, this test was resorted to. The first was that of

Marioun Peebles,[79]aliasPardone, spouse toSwene, in Hildiswick, who was, on March 22, 1644, sentenced to be strangled at a stake, and burnt to ashes, atthe Hill of Berrie, forWitchcraftandMurder. Marion and her husband having 'ane deadlie and venefical malice in her heart' against Edward Halero in Overure, and being determined 'to destroy and put him down,' being 'transformed in the lyknes of ane pellack-quhaill, (the Devill changing her spirit, quhilk fled in the same quhaill,') and the said Edward and other four individuals being in a fishing-boat, coming from the Sea, at the North-banks of Hildiswick, 'on ane fair morning, did cum under the said boat, and overturnit her with ease, and drowned and devoired thame in the sey, right at the shore, when there wis na danger wtherwayis.' The bodies of Halero and another of these hapless fishermen having been found, Marion and Swene 'wir sent for, and brought to see thame, and to lay thair hands on thame, ... dayis after said death and away-casting, quhaire thair bluid was evanished and desolved, from every natural cours or caus, shine, and run; the said umquhill Edwardbled at the collir-bain or craig-bane, and the said ...,[80]in the hand and fingers, gushing out bluid thairat, to the great admiration of the beholders—and revelation of the judgement of the Almytie! And by which lyk occasionis and miraculous works of God, made manifest in Murders and the Murderers; whereby, be many frequent occasiones brought to light, and the Murderers, be the said proof brought to judgment, conuict and condemned, not only in this Kingdom, also this countrie, but lykwayis in maist forrin Christiane Kingdomis; and be so manie frequent precedentis and practising of and tuitching Murderis and Murdereris, notourlie known: So, the forsaid Murder and Witchcraft of the saidis persons, with the rest of their companions, through your said Husband's deed, art, part, rad,[81]and counsall, is manifest and cleir to all, not onlie through and by the foirsaid precedentis of your malice, wicked and malishes[82]practises, by Witchcraft, Confessionis, and Declarationis of the said umquill Janet Fraser, Witch, revealed to her, as said is, and quha wis desyrit by him to concur and assist with you to the doing thereof; but lykwaysbe the declaration and revelation of the justice and judgementis of God, through the said issuing of bluid from the bodies!' &c.A similar and very remarkable instance is related in the following Triall: In the Dittay ofChristian Wilson, aliasthe Lanthorne,[83]accused of Murder, Witchcraft, &c., (which is founded upon the examinations of James Wilson, AbrahamMacmillan, William Crichton, and Fyfe and George Erskine, &c. led before Sir William Murray of Newtoun, and other Commissioners, at Dalkeith, Jun. 14, 1661,) it is stated, that 'Ther being enimitie betuixt the said Christiane and Alexander Wilsone, her brother, and shoe having often tymes threatned him, at length, about 7 or 8 monthes since, altho' the said Alexander was sene that day of his death, at three houres afternoone, in good health, walking about his bussnesse and office; yitt, at fyve howres in that same night, he was fownd dead, lying in his owne howse, naked as he was borne, with his face torne and rent, without any appearance of a spot of blood either wpon his bodie or neigh to it. And altho' many of the neiboures in the toune (Dalkeith) come into his howse to see the dead corpe, yitt shoe newar offered to come, howbeit her dwelling was nixt adjacent thairto; nor had shoe so much as any seiming greiff for his death. Bot the Minister and Bailliffes of the towne, taking great suspitione of her, in respect of her cairiage comand it that shoe showld be browght in; bot when shoe come, shoe come trembling all the way to the howse—botshoe refuised to come nighthe corpsor totuitchitsaying, that shoe "nevir tuitched a dead corpe in her lyfe!" Bot being arnestly desyred by the Minister, Bailliffes, and hir brother's friends who was killed, that shoe wold "bottuitch the corpes softlie," shoe granted to doe it—but before shoe did it, the Sone being shyning in at the howse, shoe exprest her selfe thus, humbly desyring, that "as the Lord made the Sone to shyne and give light into that howse, that alsohe wald give light to discovering of that Murder!" And with these words, shoetuitcheingthe wound of the dead man, verie saftlie, it being whyte and cleane, without any spot of blod or the lyke!—yittimediatly,whill her fingers was wpon it,the blood rushed owt of it, to the great admiratioune[84]of all the behoulders, who tooke it fordiscoverie of the Murder, according to her owne prayers.—For ther was ane great lumpe of flesh taken out of his cheik, so smowthlie, as no rasor in the world cowld have made so ticht ane incisioune, wpon flesh, or cheis—and ther wes no blood at all in the wownd—nor did it at all blead, altho' that many persones befor had tuitched it, whill[85]shoe did tuitche it! And the howse being searched all over, for the shirt of the dead man, yitt it cowldnot be found; and altho' the howse was full of people all that night, ever vatching the corpes;[86]neither did any of them tuitch him that night—which is probable[87]—yitt, in the morneing, his shirt was fownd tyed fast abowt his neck, as a brechame,[88]non knowing how this come to pass! And this Cristian did immediatlie transport all her owne goods owt of her own howse into her dowghter's, purposing to flie away—bot was therwpon apprehendit and imprisoned.'—Pitcairn's Criminal Trials, vol. iii. p. 194.

A similar and very remarkable instance is related in the following Triall: In the Dittay ofChristian Wilson, aliasthe Lanthorne,[83]accused of Murder, Witchcraft, &c., (which is founded upon the examinations of James Wilson, AbrahamMacmillan, William Crichton, and Fyfe and George Erskine, &c. led before Sir William Murray of Newtoun, and other Commissioners, at Dalkeith, Jun. 14, 1661,) it is stated, that 'Ther being enimitie betuixt the said Christiane and Alexander Wilsone, her brother, and shoe having often tymes threatned him, at length, about 7 or 8 monthes since, altho' the said Alexander was sene that day of his death, at three houres afternoone, in good health, walking about his bussnesse and office; yitt, at fyve howres in that same night, he was fownd dead, lying in his owne howse, naked as he was borne, with his face torne and rent, without any appearance of a spot of blood either wpon his bodie or neigh to it. And altho' many of the neiboures in the toune (Dalkeith) come into his howse to see the dead corpe, yitt shoe newar offered to come, howbeit her dwelling was nixt adjacent thairto; nor had shoe so much as any seiming greiff for his death. Bot the Minister and Bailliffes of the towne, taking great suspitione of her, in respect of her cairiage comand it that shoe showld be browght in; bot when shoe come, shoe come trembling all the way to the howse—botshoe refuised to come nighthe corpsor totuitchitsaying, that shoe "nevir tuitched a dead corpe in her lyfe!" Bot being arnestly desyred by the Minister, Bailliffes, and hir brother's friends who was killed, that shoe wold "bottuitch the corpes softlie," shoe granted to doe it—but before shoe did it, the Sone being shyning in at the howse, shoe exprest her selfe thus, humbly desyring, that "as the Lord made the Sone to shyne and give light into that howse, that alsohe wald give light to discovering of that Murder!" And with these words, shoetuitcheingthe wound of the dead man, verie saftlie, it being whyte and cleane, without any spot of blod or the lyke!—yittimediatly,whill her fingers was wpon it,the blood rushed owt of it, to the great admiratioune[84]of all the behoulders, who tooke it fordiscoverie of the Murder, according to her owne prayers.—For ther was ane great lumpe of flesh taken out of his cheik, so smowthlie, as no rasor in the world cowld have made so ticht ane incisioune, wpon flesh, or cheis—and ther wes no blood at all in the wownd—nor did it at all blead, altho' that many persones befor had tuitched it, whill[85]shoe did tuitche it! And the howse being searched all over, for the shirt of the dead man, yitt it cowldnot be found; and altho' the howse was full of people all that night, ever vatching the corpes;[86]neither did any of them tuitch him that night—which is probable[87]—yitt, in the morneing, his shirt was fownd tyed fast abowt his neck, as a brechame,[88]non knowing how this come to pass! And this Cristian did immediatlie transport all her owne goods owt of her own howse into her dowghter's, purposing to flie away—bot was therwpon apprehendit and imprisoned.'—Pitcairn's Criminal Trials, vol. iii. p. 194.

Za. "Master Leonard Lister."] This Leonard Lister was the brother of Master Thomas Lister, for whose murder Jennet Preston was indicted; and married Ann, daughter of —— Loftus, of Coverham Abbey, county of York.

Z 2a. "His Lordship commanded the Iurie to obserue the particular circumstances."] The judge in this case was Altham, who seems even to have been more superstitious, bigotted, and narrow-minded than his brother in commission, Bromley. Fenner, who tried the witches of Warbois, and Archer, before whom the trial of Julian Cox took place, are the only judges I can meet with, quite on a level with this learned baron in grovelling absurdity, upon whom "Jennet Preston would lay heavy at the time of his death," whether she had so lain upon Mr. Thomas Lister or not, if bigotry, habit, and custom did not render him seared and callous to conscience and pity.

Z 3b1. "Take example by this Gentlemen to prosecute these hellish Furies to their end."] It is marvellous that Potts does not, like Delrio, recommend the rack to be applied to witches "in moderation, and according to the regulations of Pope Pius the Third, and so as not to cripple the criminal for life." Not that this learned Jesuit is much averse to simple dislocations occasioned by the rack. These, he thinks, cannot be avoided in the press of business. He is rather opposed, though in this he speaks doubtfully and with submission to authority, to those tortures which fracture the bones or lacerate the tendons. Verily, the Catholic and the Protestant author might have shaken hands; they were, beyond dispute,pœne Gemelli.

Z 3b2. "Posterities."] Master Potts, of the particulars of whose life nothing is known, made, as far as can be discovered, no further attempt toacquire fame in the character of an author. No subject so interesting probably again occurred, as that which had diversified his legal pursuits "in his lodgings in Chancery-lane," from the pleasing recollections associated with his Summer Circuit of 1612. He was not, however, the only person of the name of Pott, or Potts, who distinguished himself in the field of Witchcraft. The author of the following tract, in my possession, might have garnished it with various flowers from theworknow reprinted, if he had been aware of such a repository: "Pott (Joh. Henr.) De nefando Lamiarum cum Diabolo coitu." 4to. Lond. 1689. The other celebrated cases of supposed witchcraft occurring in the county of Lancaster, besides those connected with the foregoing republication, are, the extraordinary one of Ferdinand, Earl of Derby, who died at Latham in 1594, for which the reader is referred to Camden'sAnnals of Elizabeth, years 1593, 1594; Kennet, 2. 574, 580; or Pennant'sTour from Downing to Alston Moor, p. 29;—the case of Edmund Hartley, hanged at Lancaster in 1597, for bewitching some members of the family of Mr. Starkie, of Cleworth, which will be fully considered in the proposed republication of the Chetham Society, which gives the history of that event;—and lastly, that of a person of the name of Utley, (Whitaker, p. 528; Baines, vol. i. p. 604,) who was hanged at Lancaster about 1630, for having bewitched to death Richard, the son of Ralph Assheton, Esq., Lord of Middleton, of whose trial, unfortunately, no report is in existence. Webster also mentions two supposed witches as having been put to death at Lancaster, within eighteen years before hisDisplaying of supposed Witchcraftwas published; and which occurrence, not referred to by any other historian, must therefore have taken place about the year 1654.

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Brereton's Travels.

The Lancashire Civil War Tracts.

Chester's Triumph in Honor of her Prince.

Pott's Discovery of Witches in the County of Lancaster, from the edition of 1613.

The Life of the Rev. Adam Martindale, Vicar of Rostherne, in Cheshire, from the MS. in the British Museum. (4239 Ascough's Catalogue.)

Dee's Compendious Rehearsal, and other Autobiographical Tracts, not included in the recent Publication of the Camden Society edited by Mr. Halliwell, with his Collected correspondence.

Iter Lancastrense, by Dr. Richard James; an English Poem, written in 1636, containing a Metrical Account of some of the Principal Families and Mansions in Lancashire; from the unpublished MS. in the Bodleian Library, Oxford.

Selections from the Unpublished Correspondence of the Rev. John Whittaker, Author of the History of Manchester, and other Works.

More's (George) Discourse concerning the Possession and Dispossession of Seven Persons in one Family in Lancashire, from a Manuscript formerly belonging to Thoresby, and which gives a much fuller Account of that Transaction than the Printed Tract of 1600; with a Bibliographical and Critical Review of the Tracts in the Darrel Controversy.

A Selection of the most Curious Papers and Tracts relating to the Pretender's Stay in Manchester in 1745, in Print and Manuscript.

Proceedings of the Presbyterian Classis of Manchester and the Neighbourhood, from 1646 to 1660, from an Unpublished Manuscript.

Catalogue of the Alchemical Library of John Webster, of Clitheroe, from a Manuscript in the Rev. T. Corser's possession; with a fuller Life of him, and List of his Works, than has yet appeared.

Correspondence between Samuel Hartlib (the Friend of Milton), and Dr. Worthington, of Jesus College, Cambridge (a native of Manchester), from 1655 to 1661, on various Literary Subjects.

"Antiquities concerning Cheshire," by Randall Minshull, written A.D. 1591, from a MS. in the Gough Collection.

Selections from the Visitations of Lancashire in 1533, 1567, and 1613, in the Herald's College, British Museum, Bodleian, and Caius College Libraries.

Selections from Dodsworth's MSS. in the Bodleian Library, Randal Holmes's Collections for Lancashire and Cheshire (MSS. Harleian), and Warburton's Collections for Cheshire (MSS. Lansdown).

Annales Cestrienses, or Chronicle of St. Werburgh, from the MS. in the British Museum.

A Reprint of Henry Bradshaw's Life and History of St. Werburgh, from the very rare 4to of 1521, printed by Pynson.

The Letters and Correspondence of Sir William Brereton, from the original MSS., in 5 vols. folio, in the British Museum.

A Poem, by Laurence Bostock, on the subject of the Saxon and Norman Earls of Chester.

Bishop Gastrell's Notitia Cestriensis, on the subject of the Ecclesiastical Antiquities of the Diocese of Chester, from the original MS.

History of the Earldom of Chester, collected by Archbishop Parker, entitled De Successione Comitum Cestriæ a Hugone Lupo ad Johannem Scoticum, from the original MS. in Ben'et College Library, Cambridge.

Volume of Funeral Certificates of Lancashire and Cheshire.

Volume of Early Lancashire and Cheshire Wills.

A Selection of Papers relating to the Rebellion of 1715, including Clarke's Journal of the March of the Rebels from Carlisle to Preston.

A Memoir of the Chetham Family, from original documents.

The Diary of the Rev. Henry Newcome, M.A., from the original MS. in the possession of his descendant, the Rev. Thomas Newcome, M.A., Rector of Shenley, Herts.

Lucianus Monacus de laude Cestrie, a Latin MS. of the 13th century, descriptive of the walls, gates, &c., of the City of Chester, formerly belonging to Thomas Allen, DD., and now in the Bodleian Library, Oxford.

Richard Robinson's Golden Mirrour, Bk. lett. 4to. Lond., 1580. Containing Poems on the Etymology of the names of several Cheshire Families; from the exceedingly rare copy formerly in the collection of Richard Heber, Esq., (see Cat. pt. iv. 2413,) and now in the British Museum.

A volume of the early Ballad Poetry of Lancashire.

The Coucher Book of Whalley Abbey.

coat of arms

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