Irish Witchcraft and DemonologySeymour, St. John D. (St. John Drelincourt)
History
Irish Witchcraft and Demonology
Seymour, St. John D. (St. John Drelincourt)
Demonology; Witchcraft -- Ireland
"Mary Longdon being sworn, and bidden to look upon the prisoner, her
countenance chang'd pale, and she was very fearful to look towards
her, but at last she did, and being asked whether she knew her, she
said she did, and wish'd she never had. Being asked how long she had
known her, she said for three or four years. And that at Christmas the
said Florence came to the Deponent, at the house of John Pyne in
Youghal, where the Deponent was a servant, and asked her to give her a
piece of Beef out of the Powdering Tub; and the Defendant answering
her that she would not give away her Master's Beef, the said Florence
seemed to be very angry, and said, _Thou had'st as good give it me_,
and went away grumbling.
"That about a week after the Defendant going to the water with a Pail
of Cloth on her head she met the said Florence Newton, who came full
in her Face, and threw the Pail off her head, and violently kiss'd
her, and said, _Mary, I pray thee let thee and I be Friends; for I
bear thee no ill will, and I pray thee do thou bear me none_. And that
she the Defendant afterwards went home, and that within a few Days
after she saw a Woman with a Vail over her Face stand by her bedside,
and one standing by her like a little old Man in Silk Cloaths, and
that this Man whom she took to be a Spirit drew the Vail off the
Woman's Face, and then she knew it to be Goody Newton: and that the
Spirit spoke to the Defendant and would have her promise him to follow
his advice and she would have all things after her own Heart, to
which she says she answered that she would have nothing to say to him,
for her trust was in the Lord.
"That within a month after the said Florence had kiss'd her, she this
Defendant fell very ill of Fits or Trances, which would take her on a
sudden, in that violence that three or four men could not hold her;
and in her Fits she would be taken with Vomiting, and would vomit up
Needles, Pins, Horsenails, Stubbs, Wooll, and Straw, and that very
often. And being asked whether she perceived at these times what she
vomited? She replied, she did; for then she was not in so great
distraction as in other parts of her Fits she was. And that before the
first beginning of her Fits several (and very many) small stones would
fall upon her as she went up and down, and would follow her from place
to place, and from one Room to another, and would hit her on the head,
shoulders, and arms, and fall to the ground and vanish away. And that
she and several others would see them both fall upon her and on the
ground, but could never take them, save only some few which she and
her Master caught in their hands. Amongst which one that had a hole in
it she tied (as she was advised) with a leather thong to her Purse,
but it was vanish'd immediately, though the latter continu'd tied in a
fast knot.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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