Among these witches, a certain Anne Fellow was said to have been done to death by their practices. They had also bewitched cows so that they would not yield their milk; and Temperance admitted that she had caused several shipwrecks and been instrumental to the death of several persons and many cattle. They could only say the Lord’s Prayer backwards. They had squeezed Hannah Thomas to death. At their trial at the assizes, all their confessions before the Mayor and Alderman at Bideford were accepted against them. There was no evidence produced to inculpate them beyond these confessions and the suppositions of women who had felt pains and pricks in their bodies. Nevertheless, the three poor creatures were sentenced to death. On the scaffold they were again questioned, and denied almost everything that they had previously been induced or frightened into admitting. The authorities for this account are:-- “A True and Impartial Relation of the Informations against Three Witches, Temperance Lloyd, Mary Trembles, and Susanna Edwards ... London, 1682.” “The Tryal, Condemnation and Execution of three Witches ... who were arraigned at Exeter, on the 18th of August, 1682 ... London, 1682.” In this the names are given inaccurately. There is also a broadside ballad on the subject. At the top are two rude woodcuts of witches, and a third of the devil dancing in the middle of a ring of witches. He holds a candle in his right hand and a broomstick in the other. Black owls are flying about; and a black cat sits hard by looking on complacently. It has been reprinted by John Ashton in his _Century of Ballads_, London, 1887. It is wretched doggerel. Here are some stanzas:-- So these Malicious Women at the last, Having done mischief, were by Justice cast; For it appear’d they children had destroy’d, Lamed Cattel, and the Aged much annoy’d. Having Familiars always at their Beck, Their Wicked Rage on Mortals for to wreck; It being proved they used Wicked Charms, To Murder Men, and bring about sad harms. The Country round where they did live came in, And all at once their sad complaints begin; One lost a Child, the other lost a Kine, This his brave Horse, that his hopeful Swine. One had his Wife bewitch’d, the other his Friend, Because in some things they the Witch offend: For which they labour under cruel pain, In vain seek remedy, but none can gain. SIR “JUDAS” STUKELEY