A History of Witchcraft in England from 1558 to 1718 Part 34

Mother Sutton and Mary Sutton.

1616. Middles.e.x.

Elizabeth Rutter.

1616. Middles.e.x.

Joan Hunt.

1619. Lincoln.

Margaret and Philippa Flower.

1621. Edmonton.

Elizabeth Sawyer.

2.--Not Charged with Causing Death (so far as shown by records).

1607. Rye, Kent.

Two women entertained spirits, "to gain wealth."

1612. Lancaster.

John and Jane Bulc.o.c.k, making to waste away. It was testified against them that at Malking Tower they consented to murder, but this was apparently not in the indictment. Acquitted, but later convicted.

Alizon Device, caused to waste away.

Isabel Robey, caused illness.

1616. Enfield, Middles.e.x.

Agnes Berrye, laming and causing to languish.

1616. King's Lynn.

Mary Smith, hanged for causing four people to languish.

1616. Leicester.

Nine women hanged for bewitching a boy. Six more condemned on same charge, but pardoned by command of king.

Mixed Cases.

1607. Bakewell.

Our evidence as to the Bakewell witches is too incomplete to a.s.sure us that they were not accused of killing by witchcraft.

1612. Northampton.

Agnes Brown and Joane Vaughan were indicted for bewitching Master Avery and Mistress Belcher, "together with the body of a young child to the death."

C.--LIST OF CASES OF WITCHCRAFT, 1558-1718, WITH REFERENCES TO SOURCES AND LITERATURE.[1]

1558. John Thirkle, "taylour, detected of conjuringe," to be examined. _Acts of Privy Council_, n. s., VII, 6.

---- Several persons in London charged with conjuration to be sent to the Bishop of London for examination.

_Ibid._, 22.

1559. Westminster. Certain persons examined on suspicion, including probably Lady Frances Throgmorton. _Cal.

St. P., Dom., 1547-1580_, 142.

c. 1559. Lady Chandos's daughter accused and imprisoned with George Throgmorton. Brit Mus., Add. MSS., 32,091, fol. 176.

1560. Kent. Mother Buske of St. John's suspected by the church authorities. Visitations of Canterbury in _Archaeologia Cantiana_, XXVI, 31.

1561. c.o.xe, alias Devon, a Romish priest, examined for magic and conjuration, and for celebrating ma.s.s. Cal. St.

_P., Dom., 1547-1580_, 173.

---- London. Ten men brought before the queen and council on charge of "trespa.s.s, contempt, conjuration and sorceries." Punished with the pillory and required to renounce such practices for the future. From an extract quoted in Brit. Mus., Sloane MSS., 3,943, fol. 19.

1565. Dorset. Agnes Mondaye to be apprehended for bewitching Mistress Chettell. _Acts P. C._, n. s., VII, 200-201.

1565-1573. Durham. Jennet Pereson accused to the church authorities. _Depositions ... from ... Durham_ (Surtees Soc.), 99.

1566. Chelmsford, Ess.e.x. Mother Waterhouse hanged; Alice Chandler hanged, probably at this time; Elizabeth Francis probably acquitted. _The examination and confession of certaine Wytches at Chensforde._ For the cases of Elizabeth Francis and Alice Chandler see also _A detection of d.a.m.nable driftes,_ A iv, A v, verso.

---- Ess.e.x. "Boram's wief" probably examined by the archdeacon. W. H. Hale, _A Series of Precedents and Proceedings in Criminal Causes, 1475-1640, extracted from the Act Books of Ecclesiastical Courts in the Diocese of London_ (London, 1847), 147.

1569. Lyme, Dorset. Ellen Walker accused. Roberts, _Southern Counties_, 523.

1570. Ess.e.x. Malter's wife of Theydon Mount and Anne Vicars of Navestock examined by Sir Thomas Smith.

John Strype, _Life of Sir Thomas Smith_ (ed. of Oxford, 1820), 97-100.

1570-1571. Canterbury. Several witches imprisoned. Mother Dungeon presented by the grand jury. _Hist. MSS.

Comm. Reports_, IX, pt. 1, 156 b; Wm. Welfitt, "Civis," _Minutes collected from the Ancient Records of Canterbury_ (Canterbury, 1801-1802), no. VI.

---- ---- Folkestone, Kent. Margaret Browne, accused of "unlawful practices," banished from town for seven years, and to be whipped at the cart's tail if found within six or seven miles of town. S. J. Mackie, _Descriptive and Historical Account of Folkestone_ (Folkestone, 1883), 319.

1574. Westwell, Kent. "Old Alice" [Norrington?] arraigned and convicted. Reginald Scot, _Discoverie of Witchcraft_, 130-131.

---- Middles.e.x. Joan Ellyse of Westminster convicted on several indictments for witchcraft and sentenced to be hanged. _Middles.e.x County Records_, I, 84.

c. 1574. Jane Thorneton accused by Rachel Pinder, who however confessed to fraud. _Discloysing of a late counterfeyted possession._

1575. Burntwood, Staffords.h.i.+re. Mother Arnold hanged at Barking. From the t.i.tle of a pamphlet mentioned by Lowndes: _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._ Mrs. Linton, Witch Stories, 153, says that many were hanged at this time, but I cannot find authority for the statement.

---- Middles.e.x. Elizabeth Ducke of Harmondsworth acquitted. _Middles.e.x County Records_, I, 94.

---- Great Yarmouth, Norfolk. Katharine Smythe acquitted.

Henry Harrod, "Notes on the Records of the Corporation of Great Yarmouth," in _Norfolk Archaeology_, IV, 248.

1577. Seaford, Suss.e.x. Joan Wood presented by the grand jury. M. A. Lower, "Memorials of Seaford," in Suss.e.x Archaeological Soc., _Collections_, VII, 98.

---- Middles.e.x. Helen Beriman of Laleham acquitted.

_Middles.e.x County Records_, I, 103.

---- Ess.e.x. Henry Chittam of Much Barfield to be tried for coining false money and conjuring. _Acts P. C._, n. s., IX, 391; X, 8, 62.

1578. Prescall, Sanford, and "one Emerson, a preiste," suspected of conjuration against the queen. The first two committed. _Id._, X, 382; see also 344, 373.

---- Evidence of the use of sorcery against the queen discovered.

_Cal. St. P., Spanish, 1568-1579_, 611; see also note to Ben Jonson's _Masque of Queenes_ (London, Shakespeare Soc., 1848), 71.