Devil; Witchcraft -- Great Britain; Witchcraft -- United States
On this they sent to one John Hutton, a reputed wizard, who told them that
it was Mistress Swinnow who was the culprit, and he gave them two drops
of his own blood, which he wiped off his arm, with the paper on which the
girl had written. Returning home, they applied this remedy, in some way
unstated, and ‘On Munday night she fell into a heavenly rapture, rejoycing
that ever she was borne, for these two drops of blood had saved her life.’
The girl was afterwards very ill, and Dorothy Swinnow, now a widow, was
arrested, and committed to prison, where the narrative leaves off, with
the addition of the confession of one Margaret White, who ‘Confesseth and
saith, That she hath beene the Divells servant these five yeares past, and
that the Divell came to her in the likenes of a man in blew cloaths, in
her owne house, and griped her fast by the hand, and told her she should
never want, and gave her a nip on the shoulder, and another on her back;
and confesseth her Familiar came to her in the likenesse of a black
Gray-hound. She also Confesseth upon Oath that Mrs. _Swinnow_ and her
sister _Jane_, and herselfe were in the Divels company in her sister
_Jane’s_ house, where they did eate and drinke together, and made merry.
‘And Mrs. _Swinnow_, and her the sayd _Margaret’s_ sister, with her selfe,
came purposely to the house of Mr. _Edward Moore_ of _Spittle_, to take
away the life of _Margaret Muschamp_ and _Mary_, and they were the cause
of the Children’s tormenting, and that they were three several times to
have taken away their lives, and especially upon St. John’s day at night
gone twelve moneths: and sayth that God was above the Divell, for they
could not get their desires perfected; and saith that Mrs. _Swinnow_
would have consumed the childe that Mrs. _Moore_ had last in her wombe,
but the Lord would not permit her; and that after the childe was borne,
Mrs. _Swinnow_ was the occasion of its death; and that she and her sister
were also the occasion, and had a hand in the death of the sayd child; and
further confesseth that she and her sayd sister were the death of _Thomas
Yong_ of _Chatton_ (by reason) a kill full of Oates watched against her
sister’s minde; And further saith that the Divell called her sister _Jane_
(Besse); She confesseth that her sister _Jane_ had much troubled _Richard
Stanley_ of _Chatton_, and that she was the occasion of his sore leg.’
In ‘A Prodigious and Tragicall History of the Arraignment, Tryall,
Confession and Condemnation of six Witches at Maidstone in Kent, at the
Assizes there held in July, Fryday 30, this present year 1652,’ a new
feature is introduced.
‘The said _Anne Ashby_ further confessed, that the Divell had given them a
piece of flesh, which whensoever they should touch, they should thereby
effect their desires.
‘That this flesh lay hid amongst grasse, in a certain place which she
named, where, upon search, it was found accordingly.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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