The displaying of supposed witchcraft

by John Webster

1. “In the first year of Edward the Sixth. Anno Domini 1551. on St. Valentines day, at Feversham in Kent, one Arden a Gentleman was murthered by procurement of his own Wife; for the which fact she was the fourteenth of March burnt at Canterbury: Michael M^r Arden’s Man was hang’d in Chains at Feversham, and a Maiden burnt: Mosbie and his Sister were hanged in Smithfield at London: Greene which had fled, came again certain years after, and was hanged in Chains in the High-way against Feversham, and black Will the Ruffian, that was hired to do that act, after his first escape was apprehended, and burnt on a Scaffold at Flushing in Zealand.”

P. 1708.

The same horrid murther is more at large related by Hollingshead, who lived at that time, and had information of all the particulars, who saith thus much more. “This one thing (he saith) seemeth very strange and notable touching M^r Arden, that in the place he was laid, being dead, all the proportion of his body might be seen two years after and more, so plain as could be, for the grass did not grow where his body had touched, but between his legs, between his arms and about the hollowness of his neck, and round about his body: And where his legs, arms, head, or any part of his body had touched, no grass growed at all of all that time. So that many strangers came in that mean time, beside the Townsmen, to see the print of his body there on the ground in that Field, which Field he had (as some have reported) cruelly taken from a Woman, that had been a Widdow to one Cooke, and after Married to one Richard Read a Marriner, to the great hinderance of her and her Husband the said Read, for they had long enjoyed it by a Lease which they had of it for many years not then expired. Nevertheless he got it from them, for the which, the said Reads Wife not only exclaimed against him in shedding many a salt tear, but also cursed him most bitterly even to his face, wishing many a vengeance to light upon him, and that all the World might wonder on him, which was thought then to come to pass, when he was thus murthered and lay in that Field, from midnight till the morning, and so all that day, being the Fair-day, till night, all the which day there were many hundreds of people came wondring about him.” From whence we may take this Observation.

Observ.

As it is most certain that this is a true and punctual relation given us by Hollingshead, as being a publick thing done in the face of a Nation, the print of his body remaining so long after, and viewed and wondered at by so many; so that it hath not left the least starting hole for the most incredulous Atheist to get out at. So likewise it may dare the most deep-sighted Naturalist, or unbelieving Atheist, that would exalt and so far deifie Nature, as to deny and take away the existence of the God of Nature, to shew a reason of the long remaining of the print of his body, or the not growing of the grass in those places where his body had touched for two years and more after? Could it be the steams or Atoms that flowed from his body? then are why not such prints left by other murthered bodies? which we are sure by sight and experience not to be so. And therefore we can attribute it justly to no other cause but only to the power of God and divine vengeance, who is a righter of the oppressed, fatherless and Widdows, and hears their cries and regardeth their tears.

Hist. 2.

Sir Rich. Bakers Chron. fol. 448.

2. “In the second year of the Reign of King James of famous memory, a strange accident happened, to the terror of all bloody murtherers, which was this; One Anne Waters enticed by a lover of hers, consented to have her Husband strangled, and then buried him secretly under the Dunghil in a Cow-house. Whereupon the man being missing by his Neighbours, and the Wife making shew of a wondering what was become of him, it pleased God that one of the inhabitants of the Town dreamed one night that his Neighbour Waters was strangled, and buried under the Dunghill in a Cow-house, and upon declaring his dream, search being made by the Constable, the dead body was found as he had dreamed, and thereupon the Wife was apprehended, and upon examination confessing the fact was burned.” But we shall give it more at large as it was taken from the mouths of Thomas Haworths Wife, her Husband being the dreamer and discoverer, and from his Son, who together with many more, who both remember and can affirm every particular thereof, the Narrative was taken April the 17th 1663, and is this,

“In the year abovesaid, John Waters of Lower Darwen in the County of Lancaster Gardiner, by reason of his calling was much absent from his Family: In which his absence, his Wife (not without cause) was suspected of incontinency with one Gyles Haworth of the same Town; this Gyles Haworth and Waters Wife conspired and contrived the death of Waters in this manner. They contracted with one Ribchester a poor man to kill this Waters. As soon as Waters came home and went to bed, Gyles Haworth and Waters Wife conducted the hired Executioner to the said Waters. Who seeing him so innocently laid betwixt his two small Children in Bed, repented of his enterprize, and totally refused to kill him. Gyles Haworth displeased with the faint-heartedness of Ribchester, takes the Axe into his own hand, and dashed out his brains: The Murderers buried him in a Cow-house, Waters being long missing the Neighbourhood asked his Wife for him; she denied that she knew where he was. Thereupon publick search was made for him in all pits round about, lest he should have casually fallen into any of them. One Thomas Haworth of the said Town Yeoman, was for many nights together, much troubled with broken sleeps and dreams of the murder; he revealed his dreams to his Wife, but she laboured the concealment of them a long time: This Thomas Haworth had occasion to pass by the House every day where the murder was done, and did call and inquire for Waters, as often as he went near the House. One day he went into the House to ask for him, and there was a Neighbour who said to Thomas Haworth, It’s said that Waters lies under this stone, (pointing to the Hearth-stone) to which Thomas Haworth replied, And I have dreamed that he is under a stone not far distant. The Constable of the said Town being accidentally in the said House (his name Myles Aspinall) urged Thomas Haworth to make known more at large what he had dreamed, which he relateth thus. I have (quoth he) many a time within this eight weeks (for so long it was since the murder) dreamed very restlessly, that Waters was murdered and buried under a broad stone in the Cow-house; I have told my troubled dreams to my Wife alone, but she refuses to let me make it known: But I am not able to conceal my dreams any longer, my sleep departs from me, I am pressed and troubled with fearful dreams which I cannot bear any longer, and they increase upon me. The Constable hearing this made search immediately upon it, and found as he had dreamed the murdered body eight weeks buried under a flat stone in the Cow-house; Ribchester and Gyles Haworth fled and never came again. Anne Waters (for so was Waters Wifes name) being apprehended, confessed the murder, and was burned.” From whence we may observe this.

Observ.