Devil; Witchcraft -- Great Britain; Witchcraft -- United States
‘The Dæmon of Burton’--‘Strange and Wonderful News from Yowel, in
Surrey’--The Story of Mrs. Jermin--A Case at Welton--‘The Relation of
James Sherring.’
The next case (in chronological order) that I have met with is very
similar to that of Mompesson, and, like that, shows the trivialities to
which this species of Devil could descend, apparently, with no object.
‘THE DÆMON OF BURTON.[9]
‘There is a Farm in _Burton_, a _Village_ in the Parish of _Weobley_, in
this County,[10] which Mr. _William Bridges_, a Linnen-Draper in _London_,
has in Mortgage from one _Thomas Tompkins_, a decay’d Yeoman man. This
Farm was, about Michaelmas, 1669. taken by Lease by Mrs. _Elizabeth
Bridges_, to commence from _February_ then next; Soon after this Tenant
was entered on the Farm, and lodg’d in the House, some _Familiar_ began to
act apish Pranks, by knocking boldly at the door in the dusk of the
Evening, and the like, early in the Morning, but no body to be seen.
‘After this, the Stools and Forms, though left in their proper places,
were, every night set round the fire, which the Tenant perceiving, she set
them next night under the Table, and next morning they were found set
orderly about the fire as before, and a continual noise of Cats heard all
night, but never seen.
‘Afterwards, the Tenant having in a Room a heap of Malt, and another of
Vetches, the two parcels were found next morning exactly mingled together,
and put into a new heap.
‘Another time she had baked a Batch of Bread, and laid the Loaves over
night on a Table; next morning the Loaves were all gone, and, after search
made, they were found in another Room, hid in Tubs, and covered with
linnen Cloathes, and all this while the Tenant had the keys of the doors
in her pocket, and found the doors in the morning fast lock’d as she left
them over night: so, also, her Cheeses and meat were often carried out of
one Room into another, whilst the doors were fast lock’d, and sometimes
convey’d into the Orchard.
‘Then the Tenant having set Cabbidg-Plants in her Garden, in the night the
Plants were pull’d up, and laid in several formes, as Crosses,
Flower-de-Luces, and the like. She caus’d them to be set again, and the
Ground finely raked about, to the end they might see if any footsteps
might be discovered in the morning, when the Plants were found pull’d up
as before, and no track or footstep to be found or perceived; the Plants
were set a third time, and then they continued unmoved.
‘She had in her Cheese-chamber many Cheeses upon Shelves, and a Bag of
Hops in the same Room. One night, the Cheeses were all laid on the floor
in several formes, and the Hops all strewed about the Room, and the
Chamber door found fast lock’d in the morning.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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