The displaying of supposed witchcraft

by John Webster

5. No less villanous, bloody and Diabolical, was the design of Thompson alias Southworth, Priest or Jesuit, against Jennet Bierley, Jane Southworth, and Ellen Bierly of Samesbury in the County of Lancaster, in the year 1612. the sum of which is this. “The said Jennet Bierley, Ellen Bierley, and Jane Southworth, were Indicted at the Assizes holden at Lancaster upon Wednesday the nineteenth of August, in the year abovesaid, for that they and every of them had practised, exercised, and used divers devillish and wicked Arts, called Witchcrafts, Inchantments, Charms and Sorceries, in and upon one Grace Sowerbutts. And the chief witness to prove this was Grace Sowerbutts her self, who said that they did draw her by the hair of the head, and take her sense and memory from her, did throw her upon the Hen-roost and Hay-mow; did appear to her sometimes in their own likeness, sometimes like a black Dog with two feet, that they carried her where they met black things like men that danced with them, and did abuse their bodies; and that they brought her to one Thomas Walsham’s House in the night, and there they killed his Child by putting a nail into the Navil, and after took it forth of the Grave, and did boil it, and eat some of it, and made Oyl of the bones, and such like horrid lies.” But there appearing sufficient grounds of suspicion that it was practised knavery, the said Grace Sowerbutts was by the wisdom, and care of Sir Edward Bromley Knight, one of his Majesties Justices of Assize at Lancaster, appointed to be examined by William Leigh and Edward Chisnal Esquires, two of his Majesties Justices of peace in the same County, and so thereupon made this free confession. Being demanded “whether the accusation she laid upon her Grandmother, Jennet Bierley, Ellen Bierley and Jane Southworth, of Witchcraft, viz. of the killing of the child of Thomas Walshman, with a nail in the Navil, the boyling, eating and oyling, thereby to transform themselves into divers shapes, was true? She doth utterly deny the same, or that ever she saw any such practises done by them. She further saith, that one Mr. Thompson, which she taketh to be Mr. Christopher Southworth, to whom she was sent to say her prayers, did perswade, counsel and advise her, to deal as formerly hath been said against her said Grandmother, Aunt and Southworths Wife.

“And further she confesseth, and saith, that she never did know, or saw any Devils, nor any other visions, as formerly hath been alledged and informed.

“Also she confesseth, and saith, that she was not thrown, or cast upon the Hen-roust, and Hay-mow in the Barn, but that she went up upon the Mow by the wall side. Being further demanded whether she ever was at the Church, she saith, she was not, but promised hereafter to go to Church, and that very willingly; of which the author of the relation gives this judgment.

“How well (he saith) this project, to take away the lives of three innocent poor creatures by practice and villany, to induce a young Scholar to commit perjury, to accuse her own Grandmother, Aunt, &c. agrees either with the title of a Jesuit, or the duty of a religious Priest who should rather profess sincerity and innocency, than practise treachery! But this was lawful, for they are Hereticks accursed, to leave the company of Priests, to frequent Churches, hear the word of God preached, and profess religion sincerely.”

Hist. 6.

6. But we shall shut up the relating of these prodigious and hellish stories, of these kind of couzening and cheating delusions and impostures, with one instance more that is no less notorious than these that we have rehearsed. About the year 1634 (for having lost our notes of the same, we cannot be so exact as we should) there was a great pretended meeting of many supposed Witches at a new house or barn, in Pendle Forest in Lancashire, then not inhabited, where (as the accusation pretended) some of them by pulling by a rope of Straw or Hay, did bring Milk, Butter, Cheese, and the like, and were carried away upon Dogs, Cats or Squirrels. The informer was one Edmund Robinson (yet living at the writing hereof, and commonly known by the name of Ned of Roughs) whose Father was by trade a Waller, and but a poor Man, and they finding that they were believed and had incouragement by the adjoyning Magistrates, and the persons being committed to prison or bound over to the next Assizes, the boy, his Father and some others besides did make a practice to go from Church to Church that the Boy might reveal and discover Witches, pretending that there was a great number at the pretended meeting, whose faces he could know; and by that means they got a good living, that in a short space the Father bought a Cow or two, when he had none before. And it came to pass that this said Boy was brought into the Church of Kildwick a large parish Church, where I (being then Curate there) was preaching in the afternoon, and was set upon a stall (he being but about ten or eleven years old) to look about him, which moved some little disturbance in the Congregation for a while. And after prayers I inquiring what the matter was, the people told me that it was the Boy that discovered Witches, upon which I went to the house where he was to stay all night, where I found him, and two very unlikely persons that did conduct him, and manage the business; I desired to have some discourse with the Boy in private, but that they utterly refused; then in the presence of a great many people, I took the Boy near me, and said: Good Boy tell me truly, and in earnest, did thou see and hear such strange things of the meeting of Witches; as is reported by many that thou dost relate, or did not some person teach thee to say such things of thy self? But the two men not giving the Boy leave to answer, did pluck him from me, and said he had been examined by two able Justices of the Peace, and they did never ask him such a question, to whom I replied, the persons accused had therefore the more wrong. But the Assizes following at Lancaster there were seventeen found guilty by the Jury, yet by the prudent discretion of the Judge, who was not satisfied with the evidence, they were reprieved, and his Majesty and his Council being informed by the Judge of the matter, the Bishop of Chester was appointed to examine them, and to certifie what he thought of them, which he did; and thereupon four of them; to wit Margaret Johnson, Francis Dicconson, Mary Spenser, and Hargrieves Wife, were sent for up to London, and were viewed and examined by his Majesties Physicians and Chirurgeons, and after by his Majesty and the Council, and no cause of guilt appearing but great presumptions of the boys being suborned to accuse them falsely. Therefore it was resolved to separate the Boy from his Father, they having both followed the women up to London, they were both taken and put into several prisons asunder. Whereupon shortly after the Boy confessed that he was taught and suborned to devise, and feign those things against them, and had persevered in that wickedness by the counsel of his Father, and some others, whom envy, revenge and hope of gain had prompted on to that devillish design and villany; and he also confessed, that upon that day when he said that they met at the aforesaid house or barn, he was that very day a mile off, getting Plums in his Neighbours Orchard. And that this is a most certain truth, there are many persons yet living, of sufficient reputation and integrity, that can avouch and testifie the same; and besides, what I write is the most of it true, upon my own knowledge, and the whole I have had from his own mouth more than once.

Thus having brought these unquestionable Histories to manifest the horrid cheats and impostures that are practised for base, wicked and devillish ends, we must conclude in opposing that objection proposed in the beginning of this Chapter, which is this: That though some be discovered to be counterfeitings and impostures, yet all are not so, to which we further answer.

Reas. 1.

1. That all those things that are now adayes supposed to be done by Demoniacks or those that pretend possessions, as also all those strange feats pretended to be brought to pass by Witches or Witchcraft, are all either performed by meer natural causes (for it is granted upon all sides that Devils in corporeal matter can perform nothing but by applying fit actives to agreeable passives.) And miracles being long since ceased, it must needs follow, that Devils do nothing but only draw the minds of Men and Women unto sin and wickedness, and thereby they become deceivers, cheats and notorious impostours: so that we may rationally conclude that all other strange feats and delusions, must of necessity be no better, or of any other kind, than these we have recited, except they can shew that they are brought to pass by natural means. Must not all persons that are of sound understanding judge and believe that all those strange tricks related by Mr. Glanvil of his Drummer at Mr. Mompessons house, whom he calls the Demon of Tedworth, were abominable cheats and impostures (as I am informed from persons of good quality they were discovered to be) for I am sure Mr. Glanvil can shew no agents in nature, that the Demon applying them to fit patients, could produce any such effects by, and therefore we must conclude all such to be impostures.

Reas. 2.