Discovery of Witches: The Wonderfull Discoverie of Witches in the Countie of LancasterPotts, Thomas, active 1612-1618
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Discovery of Witches: The Wonderfull Discoverie of Witches in the Countie of Lancaster
Potts, Thomas, active 1612-1618
Preston, Jennet, -1612; Witchcraft -- England -- Lancashire
And if they would torment a man, they bid theire spirit goe and tormt.
him in any particular place. And yt Good-Friday is one constant day
for a yearely generall meetinge of witches. And yt on Good-Friday
last, they had a meetinge neare _Pendle_ water syde. Shee alsoe saith,
that men witches usually have women spirits, and women witches men
spirits. And theire devill or spirit gives them notice of theire
meetinge, and tells them the place where it must bee. And saith, if
they desyre to be in any place upon a sodaine, theire devill or spirit
will upon a rodde, dogge, or any thinge els, presently convey them
thither: yea, into any roome of a man's house. But shee saith it is
not the substance of theire bodies, but theire spirit assumeth such
form and shape as goe into such roomes. Shee alsoe saith, yt ye devill
(after he begins to sucke) will make a pappe or dugge in a short tyme,
and the matter which hee sucks is blood. And saith yt theire devills
can cause foule weather and storms, and soe did at theire meetings.
Shee alsoe saith yt when her devill did come to sucke her pappe, hee
usually came to her in ye liknes of a cat, sometymes of one colour and
sometymes of an other. And yt since this trouble befell her, her
spirit hath left her, and shee never sawe him since."
[Footnote 59: The omission here is thus supplied in Baines's
Transcript; but the actual names are scarcely to be recognised, from
the clerical errors of the copy:--
"One Pickerne and his wife both of Wyndwall,
Rawson of Clore and his wife
Duffice wife of Clore by the water side
Cartmell the wife of Clore
And Jane of the hedgend in Maresden."]
On the evidence contained in these examinations several persons were
committed for trial at Lancaster, and seventeen, on being tried at the
ensuing assizes, were found guilty by the jury. The judge before whom
the trial took place was, however, more sagacious and enlightened than
his predecessors, Bromley and Altham. He respited the execution of the
prisoners; and on the case being reported to the king in council, the
Bishop of Chester, Dr. Bridgman, was required to investigate the
circumstances. The inquiry was instituted at Chester, and four of the
convicted witches, namely, Margaret Johnson, Frances Dickonson, Mary
Spencer, and the wife of one of the Hargreaves's, were sent to London,
and examined, first by the king's physicians and surgeons, and
afterwards by Charles the first in person.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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