Witchcraft -- England; Witchcraft -- Great Britain; Witchcraft -- Scotland
that she had bewitched that little babe of Annis Letherdall's, and
Laurence's wife, and, in fact, that she had done all the mischief with
which she was charged. Then, not liking to be alone, she said that Mother
Bennet had two imps; the one a black dog, called Suckin, the other red
like a lion, Lyerd: and that Hunt's wife had a spirit too, for one evening
she peeped in at her window when she was from home, and saw it look out
from a potcharde from under a bundle of cloth, and that it had a brown
nose like a ferret. And she told other lies of her neighbours, saying that
her spirit Tiffin informed her of all these things; and Brian Darcy sat
there, gloating over these maniacal revelations. But in spite of his soft
words and fair promises, Ursley Kempe was condemned, and executed when her
turn came.
Joan Pechey, widow, was then brought forward; and Ales Hunt, herself an
accused witch, deposed against her that she was angry because, at a
distribution of bread made by the said Brian Darcy, she had gotten a loaf
which was too hard baked for her; whereat in a pet she said it might have
been given to some one younger, and not to her, with no teeth to eat
through the crust. And then Ales watched her home, and saw her go in alone
to her own house where no human soul was; but there she heard her say, as
to some one, "Yea, are you so sawsie; are yee so bolde; you were not best
to bee so bolde with mee: For if you will not bee ruled, you shall have
Symonds sawse; yea, saide the saide Joan, I perceive if I doe give you an
inch you will take an ell." All of which talk Ales Hunt found was to no
Christian creature, but to her foul and wicked imps. The which testimony
her sister, Margerie Sammon, confirmed, saying that old Joan was as clever
as their own mother (a noted witch, one Mother Barnes), or any one else
in S. Osees skilled in sorcery and magic. Another examinate then came
forward with a story of a bewitched cow unbewitched by a fire lighted
around it: which, however, does not apparently touch any of the accused.
And then the accuser, Ales Hunt, was made to take the place of the
accused, and listen to the catalogue of her own sins. The chief witness
against her was her little daughter-in-law (step-child?) Febey, of the age
of eight or thereabouts, who deposed to her having two little things like
horses, the one white the other black, which she kept by her bedside in a
little low earthern pot with wool, colour white and black, and which she
fed with milk out of a black "trening" dish. When the Commissioners went
to search the place they found indeed the board which Phoebe said was
used to cover them, and she pointed out the trening dish whence they were
fed; but the little things like horses were gone; when Phoebe said they
had been sent to Hayward of Frowicke. After a time Alice Hunt was brought
to confess not only to two, but four, imps; two like colts, black and
white, called Jack and Robbin; and two like toads, Tom and Robbyn. Mother
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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