Guernsey Folk Lore: a collection of popular superstitions, legendary tales, peculiar customs, proverbs, weather sayings, etc., of the people of that islandMacCulloch, Edgar, Sir
History
Guernsey Folk Lore: a collection of popular superstitions, legendary tales, peculiar customs, proverbs, weather sayings, etc., of the people of that island
MacCulloch, Edgar, Sir
Folklore -- Guernsey
Marie, wife of James Gallienne … deposed … Item; that for nearly ten
years her eldest daughter Rachel had been bewitched; that, having
unsewed her mattress, by which was some straw,[157] something was seen
lurking in the said straw, and Jean Le Gallez, being present, said that
it looked to him like a black cat, and sometimes like a cock, and then
like a mouse, and then like a rat, that it--whatever it was--hid in
some wood which was in the house, which was immediately rummaged and
moved, but no one knew how to capture it (ne sçurent tant faire que
de le prendre). That her husband saw it like a cock, and her daughter
like a mouse; that on opening the mattress they found within it many
spells (force sorcerons) and also beans with which were mingled black
grains as if mildewed,[158] which beans or grains having been put in
a porringer (une écuelle) in the presence of various women who were
there, it dissolved in their presence, and they did not know what
became of it (cela fondit en leur presence et ne sçurent que devint.)
That the said Isabell, having come to the house at the end of two or
three days, and asking for seven or nine sorts of things, and trying
to force an entrance into the place where the child was lying ill, all
which things were refused her by her husband, so she then went away,
and her face was all cut; and went to her husband and said that she
would not stay while Isebell Becquet was there, and she believes that
she is a witch.
On the 4th of July, 1617, these three women, Collette Dumont, widow of
Jean Becquet, Marie, her daughter, wife of Pierre Massy, and Isebell
Becquet, wife of Jean le Moigne, were convicted by the Royal Court
of Guernsey of having practised the damnable art of sorcery, and of
having thereby caused the death of many persons, destroyed and injured
much cattle, and done many other evil deeds. They were condemned to be
tied to a stake, strangled, and burnt until their bodies were totally
consumed; and their ashes to be scattered abroad. The sentence added
that, previous to execution, they were to be put to the torture[159] in
order to force them to declare the names of their accomplices.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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