The story made a great sensation and Sir William Pelham wrote to Lord Conway that "the greatest news from the country is of a huge pack of witches which are lately discovered in Lancashire, whereof it is said nineteen are condemned and that there are at least sixty already discovered. It is suspected that they had a hand in raising the great storm wherein his Majesty was in so great danger at sea in Scotland." Popular report exaggerated the number arrested, but seven of the accused were condemned and Bishop Bridgman, of Chester, was requested to examine them. He went to the gaol and found that three had died and another, Janet Hargreaves, lay "past hope of recovery." Of the three examined by him two declared that they had no knowledge of witchcraft, but the third, Margaret Johnson, a widow of sixty, whom the Bishop describes as a person of strong imagination and weak memory, confessed to have been a witch for six years. She told him, "There appeared to her a man in black attire, who said, if she would give him her soul she should have power to hurt whom she would. He called himself Mamilion, and appeared in the shape of a brown-coloured dog, a white cat, and a hare, and in these shapes sucked her blood." The report of the Bishop to Secretary Coke reached the ears of the King, who commanded Henry Earl of Manchester, the Lord Privy Seal, to write:-- "To Alexander Baker Esq. and Sarjeant Clowes his Majesty's Chirurgions. "These shall be to will and require you forthwith to make choice of such midwives as you shall think fit to inspect and search the bodies of those women that were lately brought by the sheriff of the County of Lancaster indicted for witchcraft and to report unto you whether they find about them any such marks as are pretended: wherein the said midwives are to receive instructions from Mr. Dr. Harvey his Majesty's Physician and yourselves. "Dated at Whitehall the 29 June 1634. "H. MANCHESTER." The prisoners, who were then at the Ship Tavern in Greenwich, were brought to London upon the receipt of the King's order. They were examined and the following certificate was issued:-- "Surgeons Hall in Monkwell Street, London. "2 July A.D. 1634. "We in humble obedience to your Lordship's command have this day called unto us the Chirurgeons and midwives whose names are hereunder written who have by the directions of Mr. Dr. Harvey (in our presence and his) made diligent search and inspection on those women which were lately brought up from Lancaster and find as followeth, viz.:-- "On the bodies of Jennett Hargreaves, Ffrances Dicconson and Mary Spencer nothing unnatural nor anything like a teat or mark or any sign that any such thing hath ever been.