In the beginning of the year 1649, a common report passing up and down in all men and women’s mouths, of an eminent warlock, whose name was Robert Grieve, alias Hob Grieve, trafficking in these parts of the country, and deceiving many simple people. He was at last discovered, apprehended, and imprisoned at the town of Lauder: and after long shifting and denial, wherein he had learned of his hellish master to be most subtile, by the great goodness of God he was at length brought to a serious acknowledgement of his guilt, and confession of his being the devil’s officer in that country, for warning all Satan’s vassals to come to the meetings where, and whensoever, the devil required, for the space of eighteen years and more. He acknowledged also, That his wife (who twenty years, or thereabout, before, was burnt at Lauder,) was the occasion of his coming into that snare; for they being poor, and having little or nothing to live upon, he began to grudge under that condition, and to complain of his lot; which his wife perceiving, desired him not to be troubled, but shewed him, that if he would follow her counsel, she should acquaint him with a gentleman who would teach him a way how to become rich. To which motion he hearkened, and at her desire went down with her to a haugh on Galawater, near to the Stow, where she trysted the gentleman; and when they had come to that place, and tarried a considerable space, seeing nobody, he began to weary, and told her, that he would be gone; but she pressing him to stay, and assuring him that the gentleman would not fail her. At length their came a great mastiff bigger than any butcher’s dog, and very black, running upon him, which put him into such a confusion, and astonishment of spirit, as that he knew not where he was; but his wife laboured to comfort him under that consternation, assuring him, that the gentleman would come presently and perform what she had promised him.
And accordingly, in a short space, the devil appeared in the shape of a Black Man, and fitting his discourse to the man’s temptation, made many promises to him, That if he would become his servant and obey him, he would teach him ways how to be made much of in all the country; unto which demand of the devil he acknowledged, that he consented, not so much for any hopes for future riches, as for fear lest he should instantly be devoured by him, (for he suspected in the very mean time it was the devil) and then he gave him that charge to be his officer to warn all to the meetings, (as was said before) in which charge he continued for the space of eighteen years and more, until he was apprehended. He was most ingenuous in his confession. An evidence whereof was this, “That there was neither man nor woman delated by him, but were all confessors when apprehended, and confronted with him, and died confessing. One instance whereof is remarkable, and worthy of observation, which is this—After he had delated many, and as many of those were apprehended as the prison could conveniently contain, and the keepers attend, he gave up another woman in the town of Lauder, whose name the magistrates resolved to conceal for a time, till the prison should be emptied of some of those who were already apprehended, and had confessed; and accordingly secrecy was engaged unto. But the devil came that same night unto her, and told her, “That Hob Grieve had blamed her for a witch; but assured her, that if she would rise up and go and challenge him for it, and never come away till he and she were confronted, that then he would deny it. Whereupon she arose and came to the prison window, and railed upon Hob Grieve, calling him warlock, and slave to the devil, and all evils which her mouth could utter; and when desired to get home by the centinels, and also by the magistrates, she sat down upon the tolbooth stair, and said, “She could never go to her house till she and that slave of the devil were confronted. Whereupon the bailie came to the preacher, desiring him to come and speak to her, to desire her to go home, for there was none accusing her, who accordingly came, and entreated her to go home; but she obstinately refusing to go, till she should be confronted with that rascal, who had declared her, an honest woman, for a witch. The bailie was constrained to grant her desire. Whereupon many being present as witnesses, she was conveyed up to prison, to the room where Hob Grieve was. And as soon as she was come in sight, she fell down upon her knees, and began to scold the man, and accuse him of a lie, in speaking of her name. Says she, “Thou common thief, how dare thou for thy soul say, that ever before this time, thou saw me or I saw thee, or ever was in thy company, either alone, or with others.” All which language he heard very patiently, till he was desired by the bailie to speak. Whereupon he asked her, How she came to know, that he had delated her for a witch? For (says he) surely none but the devil, thy old master, and mine, has told thee so much. She replied, “The devil and thou perish together, for he is not my master, though he be thine; I defy the devil and all his works.” Whereupon he says to her, “What needs all this din? Dost thou not know, these many years I have come to thy house, and warned thee to meetings, and thou and I have gone along together?” And thereafter he condescended to her upon several places, and actions done in these places by her and others; “to all which, I am, (said he) a witness.” By this she was so confounded, that immediately, in the presence of the bailie, the preacher, the schoolmaster, and many witnesses, she cried out, “Oh now (says she) I perceive that the devil is a liar, a murderer from the beginning; for this night he came to me, and bid me come and abuse thee; and he assured me, thou would deny all, and say, thou false tongue thou lied. And she with many tears confessed, that it was all truth which he had said, and prayed the minister, that he would entreat God for her poor soul, that she might be delivered out of the hands of the devil. Under this confession she continued even unto the day of her death.
Another evidence of ingenuity in him was this: That after five or six men and women whom he had delated, were also convinced and had confessed their witchcraft, he earnestly desired, “That he and they might be taken to the church on the Lord’s day, to hear the word of God;” which being granted, and they conveyed with a guard to the church, all of them sat down before the pulpit. The preacher lectured on these words, Mark ix. 21. “And oft-time it hath cast him into the fire, and into the water to destroy him,” &c. The father of the lunatic child complained to Christ of the devil’s cruelty towards his son. And the preacher briefly noted this observation from the words, “That whatever the devil did to such as he had gotten any power over, his aim and end was always to destroy the poor creature both soul and body.” This truth being seriously applied, and spoken home by the preacher to the said Hob Grieve, and the rest of the confessing Witches and Warlocks, they were all immediately so confounded, that all of them cried out with a lamentable noise, “Alas I that is a most sure truth; Oh, what will become of us, poor wretches! Oh, pray for us.” But Hob Grieve especially bare witness to that sad truth, by a general declaration, in the face of the congregation, he had experience of the truth, thereof. “For (said he) there is no trusting to his promises; for in Musselburgh-water, when I had a heavy creel upon my back, he thought to have drowned me there; and since I came into prison, he did cast me into the fire to destroy me, as is well known to the preacher and magistrates of the place and many others; and concluded with an exhortation to all to beware of the devil. “For whatever he saith or doth, his purpose is to destroy you, and that you will find to be the end of his work, as we know to our doleful experience this day.” Another evidence of the devil’s art in studying the destruction of the poor creature, was manifest, in that same place, and year 1649. A certain woman in the town of Lauder was blamed, not by Hob Grieve, but by some other, and for a long time denied. The magistrates of the place, for this cause, were loth to meddle with her, but adjudged to death all the rest, who had confessed; and ordained them to be burnt upon the Monday after; she hearing of this, and she alone was to remain in prison, without hopes of escape, was prompted by the devil to make up a confession in her own bosom, as she supposed might take away her life; and thereupon sent for the minister, and made that confession of witchcraft which she herself had patched up, before witnesses; and in the close, she earnestly entreated the magistrates and ministers, “That she might be burnt with the rest upon Monday next.” Her confession was, “That she had covenanted with the devil, and had become his servant about twenty years before, when she was but a young lass: and that he kissed her, and gave her a name, but since he had never owned her; and that she knew no more of the works of the devil, as she should answer to God, but what she had said was true.” But intelligent persons began to be jealous of the truth of that confession, and began to suspect, That out of the pride of her heart, in a desperate way, she had made up that confession to destroy her life, because she still pressed to be cut off with the rest on Monday. Therefore much pains was taken on her by ministers and others on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday morning, that she might resile from that confession, which was suspected to be but a temptation of the devil to destroy both her soul and body; yea it was charged home upon her by the ministers, that there was just ground of jealousy, that her confession was not sincere, and she was charged before the Lord to declare the truth, and not take her blood upon her own head. Yet stiffly she adhered to what she had said, and cried always to be put away with the rest. Whereupon, on Monday morning, being called before the judges, and confessing before them what she said, she was found guilty, and condemned to die with the rest that same day. Being carried forth to the place of execution, she remained silent, during the first, second, and third prayer, and then perceiving that there remained no more, but to rise and go to the stake, she lifted up her body, and with a loud voice, cried out, “Now all you that see me this day, know that I am now to die a witch by my own confession, and I free all men, especially the ministers and magistrates, of the guilt of my blood. I take it wholly upon myself, my blood be upon my own head. And as I must make answer to the God of heaven presently, I declare, I am as free of witchcraft as any child; but being delated by a malicious woman, and put in prison under the name of a witch, disowned by my husband and friends, and seeing no ground of hope of my coming out of prison, or ever coming in credit again, through the temptation of the devil I made up that confession, on purpose to destroy my own life, being weary of it, and chusing rather to die than live; and so died.” Which lamentable story, as it did then astonish all the spectators, none of which could restrain themselves from tears, so it may be to all a demonstration of Satan’s subtilty, whose design is still to destroy all, partly by tempting many to presumption, and some others to dispair. These things are attested to be true by an eye and ear-witness, who is yet alive, a faithful minister of the gospel.
X.—A true narrative of the Drummer of Tedworth.
In the year 1661, about the middle of March, a gentleman named Mr. Mompesson, in the county of Wilts, being at a neighbouring town, called Ludgarshal, and hearing a drum beat there, he enquired of the bailie of the town, at whose house he then was, what it meant. The bailie told him, That they had been for some days troubled with an idle drummer, who demanded money of the constable, by virtue of a pretended pass, which he thought was counterfeit. Upon this Mr. Mompesson sent for the fellow, and asked him by what authority he went up and down the country with his drum? The drummer answered, He had good authority, and produced his pass, with a warrant under the hands of Sir William Cowley, and Col. Ayliff of Creetenham. Mr. Mompesson knowing these gentlemen’s hands, discovered that the pass and warrant were counterfeit, and thereupon commanded the vagrant to put off his drum, and charged the constable to carry him before the next justice of the peace to be further examined, and punished. The fellow confessed the cheat, and begged only to have his drum. Mr. Mompesson told him, That if he understood from Colonel Ayliff, whose drummer he said he was, that he had been an honest man, he should have it again; but in the mean time he would secure it. So he left the drum with the bailie, and the drummer in the constable’s hands, who, it seems, was prevailed on by the fellow’s intreaties to let him go.——About the midst of April following, when Mr. Mompesson was preparing for a journey to London, the bailie sent the drum to his house. When he returned from that journey, his wife told him that they had been much affrighted in the night by thieves, and that the house had been like to have been broken up; and he had not been at home above three nights, when the same noise was heard, that had disturbed his family in his absence. It was a very great din and knocking at his doors, and the outside of his house. Hereupon he got up, and went about the house with a brace of pistols in his hands. He opened the door where the great knocking was, and then he heard the noise at another door. He opened that also, and went out round his house, but could discover nothing, only he heard a strange noise, as a thumping and drumming on the top of his house, which continued a great space, and then by degrees went off into the air. After this the noise of thumping and drumming was very frequent, usually five nights together, and then it would intermit three. It was on the out sides of the house, which is most of it of board. It came constantly as they were going to sleep, whether early or late. After a month’s disturbance without, it came into the room where the drum lay, four or five nights in seven, within half an hour after they were in bed, continuing almost two hours. The sign of it just before it came was, they still heard an hurling in the air over the house; and at its going off the beating of a drum, like that at the breaking up of a guard. It continued in the room for the space of two months, which time Mr. Mompesson lay there to observe it. In the fore-part of the night, it used to be very troublesome, but after two hours all would be quiet.——Mrs. Mompesson being brought to bed, there was but little noise that night she was in travel, nor any for three weeks after, till she had recovered strength. But after this civil cessation it returned in a ruder manner than before, and followed and vext the youngest children, beating their bedsteads with that violence, that all present expected when they would fall in pieces. In laying hands on them, one should feel no blows, but might perceive them to shake exceedingly. For an hour together it would beat on the drum, roundheads and cuckolds, and tat-too, and several other points of war, as well as any drummer could. After this they would hear a scraping under the children’s bed, as by something that had iron talons. It would lift the children up in their beds, follow them from one room to another, and for a while haunt none particularly but them. There was a cock-loft in the house, which had not been observed to have been troubled, thither they removed the children, putting them to bed, while it was fair day, where they were no sooner laid, but their troubler was with them as before.—On the 1st of November 1662, it kept a mighty noise; and a servant observing two boards in the children’s room seeming to move, he bid it give him one of them; upon which the board came (nothing moving it that he saw) within a yard of him. The man added, “Nay, let me have it in my hand;” upon which it was shut quite home to him; he thrust it back, and it was driven to him again, and so up and down, to and fro, at least twenty times together, till Mr. Mompesson forbad his servant’s such familiarities. This was in the day time, and seen by a whole roomful of people: that morning it left a sulphureous smell behind it, which was very offensive. At night the minister, one Mr. Craig and divers of the neighbours, came to the house on a visit. The minister went to prayer with them, kneeling at the children’s bed-side; during prayer-time, it withdrew into the cock-loft, but returned as soon as prayer was ended; and then, in sight of the company, the chairs walked about the room of themselves; the children’s shoes were hurled over their head, and every loose thing moved about the chamber. At the same time a bed-staff was thrown at the minister, which hit him on the leg, but so favourably, that some wool could not have fallen more softly; and it was observed, that it stopt just where it lighted, without rolling or stirring from that place. Mr. Mompesson perceiving that it so much persecuted the young children, he lodged them out at a neighbour’s house, taking his eldest daughter, who was about ten years of age, into his own chamber, where it had not been a month before. As soon as she was in bed, the disturbance began there again, continuing drumming and making noises; and it was observed, that it would exactly answer in drumming any thing that was beaten or called for. After this, the house where the children were lodging in, happening to be full of strangers, they were taken home, and no disturbance having been known in the parlour, they were lodged there, where also their persecutor found them; but then only plucked them by the hair and night clothes, without any other disturbance.
It was noted, that when the noise was loudest, no dog about the house would move, though the knocking was oft so boisterous and rude, that it had been heard a considerable distance in the fields, and awakened the neighbours in the village, none of which live very near the house. The servants sometimes were lift up with their beds, and then let gently down again without hurt; at other times it would lie like a great weight upon their feet.
About the latter end of December 1662, the drummings were less frequent; and then they heard a noise like the gingling of money, occasioned, as it was thought, by somewhat Mr. Mompesson’s mother had spoke the day before to a neighbour, who talked of fairies leaving money, viz. That she would like it well, if it would leave some money to make amends for their trouble. The night after the speaking of which, there was a great gingling of money over all the house. After this, it desisted from ruder noises, and employed itself in little apish, and less troublesome tricks. On Christmas even, a little before day, one of the boys arising out of his bed, was hit on a sore place on his heel, with the latch of the door; the pin that it was fastened with, was so small that it was a difficult matter to pick it out. The night after Christmas day, it threw the old gentlewoman’s clothes about the room, and hid her bible among the ashes. In such silly tricks it was frequent. After this it was very troublesome to a servant of Mr. Mompesson’s, who was a stout fellow, and of a sober conversation. This man lay within during the greatest disturbance; and for several nights, something would endeavour to pluck his clothes off the bed, so that he was lain to tug hard to keep them on, and sometimes were plucked from him by force, and his shoes thrown at his head. And now and then he should find himself forcibly held, as if he were bound hand and foot; but whenever he could make use of his sword, and struck with it, the spirit quitted its hold. A little after these contests, a son of Sir Thomas Bennet, whose workman the drummer had sometimes been, came to the house, and told Mr. Mompesson some words that he had spoken, which it seems were not well taken. For when they were in bed, the drum was beat up very violently and loudly; the gentleman arose, and called his man to him, who lay with Mr. Mompesson’s servant, just now spoken of, whose name was John.——When Mr. Bennet’s man was gone, John heard a ruffing noise in his chamber, and something came to his bed side, as if it had been one in silk. The man presently reached after his sword, which he found held from him; and it was with difficulty and much tugging that he got it in his power: which as soon as he had done the spirit left him; and it was always observed that it still avoided a sword. About the beginning of Jan. 1663, they were wont to hear a singing in the chimney, before it came down.——One night about this time, lights were seen in the house. One of them came into Mr. Mompesson’s chamber, which seemed blue and glimmering, and caused stiffness in the eyes of those who saw it. After this something was heard coming up the stair as it had been one without shoes. The light was seen four or five times in the children’s chamber; and the maids confidently affirm, the doors were at least ten times opened and shut in their sight; and when they were opened they heard a noise as if half a dozen had entered together. After which, some were heard to walk about the room, and one ruffled as if it had been in silk. The like Mr. Mompesson himself once heard.—During the time of the knocking, when many were present, a gentleman of the company said, “Satan, if the drummer set thee to work, give three knocks and no more;” which it did very distinctly, and stopt. Then the gentleman knocked, to see if it would answer him, as it was wont, but it did not. For further trial, he bid it, for confirmation, “If it were the drummer, to give five knocks and no more that night;” which it did, and left the house quiet all that night. This was done in the presence of Sir Thomas, Chamberlain of Oxfordshire, and divers others.——On Saturday morning an hour before day, January 10, a drum was heard beat upon the out sides of Mr. Mompesson’s chamber, from whence it went to the other end of the house, where some gentlemen strangers lay, playing at their door, and without, four or five several tunes, and so went off into the air.——The next night, a smith in the village lying with John the man, they heard a noise in the room as if one had been shoeing of an horse; and somewhat came, as it were with a pair of pinchers, snipping at the smith’s nose most part of the night.—One morning, Mr. Mompesson rising early to go a journey, heard a great noise below, where the children lay; and, running down with a pistol in his hand, he heard a voice crying, A witch, a witch, as they had also heard it once before; at his entrance all was quiet.—Having one night played some little tricks at Mr. Mompesson’s bed-foot, it went into another bed where one of his daughters lay; there it passed from side to side, lifting her up as it passed under. At that time, there were three kinds of noises in the bed. They endeavoured to thrust at it with a sword, but it still shifted, and carefully avoided the thrust, still getting under the child when they offered at it. The night after, it came panting like a dog out of breath; upon which one took a bed-staff to knock, which was caught out of her hand and thrown away: and company coming up, the room was presently filled with a bloomy noisome smell, and was very hot, though without fire, in a very sharp severe winter night. It continued in the bed panting and scratching an hour and a half, and then went into the next chamber, where it knocked a little, and seemed to rattle a chain. This it did for two or three nights together.
After all this, the old gentlewoman’s bible was found in the ashes, the paper side being downwards. Mr. Mompesson took it up, and observed that it lay open at the third chapter of Mark, where there is mention of unclean spirits falling down before our Saviour, and of his giving power to the twelve to cast out devils, and of the scribes opinion that he cast them out through Beelzebub. The next night they strewed ashes over the chamber to see what impressions it would leave. In the morning they found in one place the resemblance of a great claw, in another of a lesser, some letters in another, which they could make nothing of, besides many circles in the ashes.—About this time (says my author,) I went to the house, on purpose to inquire the truth of those passages of which there was so loud a report. It had ceased from its drumming and ruder noises before I came hither: but most of the more remarkable circumstances before related were confirmed to me by several of the neighbours together, who had been present at them. At this time it used to haunt the children as soon as they were laid. They went to bed that night I was there about eight o’clock, when a maid servant coming down, told us it was come. The neighbours that were there, and two ministers, who had seen and heard it divers times, went away: but Mr. Mompesson and I, and a gentleman that came with me, went up; I heard a scratching, which was very strange, as I went up the stairs; and when we came into the room, I perceived it was just behind the bolster of the childrens’ bed, and seemed to be against the tyking. It was as loud a scratching as one with long nails could make upon a bolster. There were two little modest girls in the bed, between seven and eleven years of age, as I guessed; I saw their hands without the clothes, so that they could not contribute to the noise that was behind their heads; they had been used to it, and had always somebody or other in the chamber with them; and therefore seemed not to be much affrighted; I, standing at the bed’s head, thrust my hand behind the bolster, directing it to the place whence the noise seemed to come; whereupon the noise ceased there, and was heard in another part of the bed; but when I had taken out my hand, it returned and was heard in the same place as before. I had been told that it would imitate noises, and made trial, by scratching several times upon the sheets, as five, seven, and ten, which it followed, and still stopt at any number. I searched under and behind the bed, turned up the clothes to the bed cords, grasped the bolster, sounded the wall behind, and made all search that I possibly could, to find if there were any trick, contrivance, or common cause of it; the like did my friend, but we could discover nothing. So that I was then verily persuaded, and am so still, that the noise was made by some dæmon or spirit. After we had searched about half an hour or more, it went into the midst of the bed, under the children, and there seemed to pant like a dog out of breath very loudly: I put my hand upon the place, and felt the bed bearing up against it, as if something within had thrust it up; I grasped the feathers to feel if any living thing were in them; I looked under, and every where about, to see if there were any dog or cat, or any other creature in the room, and so we all did, but found nothing. The motion it caused by this panting was so strong, that it shook the room and windows very sensibly; it continued this more than half an hour, while my friend and I staid in the room, and as long after, as we were told. During the panting, I chanced to see, as it were something (which I thought was a rat or a mouse) moving in a linen bag that hung up against another bed that was in the room; I stept and caught it up by the upper end with one hand, with which I held it, and drew it quite through the other, but found nothing at all in it. There was nobody near to shake the bag, or if there had, no one could have made such motion, which seemed to be from within, as if some living creature had moved in it. My friend and I lay in the chamber where the first and chief disturbance had been; we all slept well all night, but early before day in the morning I was awakened (and I awakened my bedfellow) by a great knocking just without our chamber door; I asked who was there several times, but the knocking still continued without answer. At last I said, “In the name of God, who is it, and what would you have?” to which a voice answered, “Nothing with you.” We thinking it had been some servant of the house, went to sleep again; but speaking of it to Mr. Mompesson, when we came down, he assured us, “That no one of the house lay that way, or had business thereabout, and that his servants were not up till he called them, which was after it was day.” Which they confirmed and protested, that the noise was not made by them. Mr. Mompesson had told us before, “That it would be gone in the middle of the night, and come again divers times early in the morning about four o’clock;” and this I suppose was about that same time. There came one morning a light into the children’s chamber, and a voice crying “A witch, a witch,” for at least an hundred times together. Mr. Mompesson at another time (being in the day) seeing some wood move there, as of itself, discharged a pistol into it, after which they found several drops of blood on the hearth, and in divers places of the stair: for two or three nights after the discharge of the pistol, there was a calm in the house; but then it came again, applying itself to a little child, newly taken from the nurse, which it so persecuted, that it would not let the poor infant rest for two nights together, nor suffer a candle in the room, but carry them away lighted up through the chimney, or cast them under the bed. It so scared this child by leaping upon it, that for some hours it could not be recovered out of the fright; so that they were forced again to put the children out of the house. The next night after, something about midnight came up the stairs, and knocked at Mr. Mompesson’s door, but he lying still, it went up another pair of stairs to his man’s chamber, to whom it appeared standing at his bed foot. The exact shape and proportion he could not discover; but he saith “He saw a great body, with two red glowring or glaring eyes, which for some time were fixed steadily upon him, and at length disappeared.” Another night, strangers being present, it purred in the children’s bed like a cat; at which time the clothes and children were lifted up from the bed, and six men could not keep them down. Hereupon they removed the children, intending to have ripped the bed; they were no sooner laid in another, but the second bed was more troubled than the first; it continued thus four hours, and beat the children’s legs against the bed-posts, that they were forced to rise and sit up all night; after this it would empty chamber-pots into their beds, and strew them with ashes from the hearth, though they were never so carefully watched. It put a long picked iron in Mr. Mompesson’s bed, and into his mother’s a naked knife upright. It would fill porrengers with ashes, throw every thing about the room, and make a noise all day.
About the beginning of April 1663, a gentleman that lay in the house, had all his money turned black in his pocket. And Mr. Mompesson coming one morning into his stable, found his horse he was wont to ride on, lying on the ground, having one of his hinder legs in his mouth, and so fastened, that it was difficult for several men to get it out with a lever. After this there were some other remarkable things, but my account goes no farther; only Mr. Mompesson wrote me word, “That afterwards the house was several nights beset with seven or eight, in the shape of men, who, as soon as a gun was discharged, would shuffle away together into an arbour.”