A History of Witchcraft in England from 1558 to 1718

by Wallace Notestein

1607. Bakewell, Derby. Several women said to have been executed here. See Robert Simpson, A Collection of Fragments illustrative of the History and Antiquities of Derby (Derby, 1826), 90; Glover, History of Derby (ed. Thos. Noble, 1833), pt. I, vol. II, p. 613; J. C. Cox, Three Centuries of Derbyshire Annals, II, 88. For what purports to be a detailed account of the affair see W. Andrews, Bygone Derbyshire, 180-184.

1607-11. Rye, Sussex. Two women condemned by local authorities probably discharged upon interference from London. Hist. MSS. Comm. Reports, XIII, pt. 4, 136-137, 139-140, 147-148.

1608. Simon Read pardoned. Cal. St. P., Dom., 1603-1610, 406.

1610. Norfolk. Christian[a] Weech, pardoned in 1604, now again pardoned. Ibid., 96, 598. Was this the Christiana Weekes of Cleves Pepper, Wilts, who in 1651 and 1654 was again and again accused of telling where lost goods were? See Hist. MSS. Comm. Reports, Various, I, 120.

1610. Middlesex. Agnes Godfrey of Enfield, with four bills against her, acquitted on three, found guilty of killing. File containing sentence lost. Middlesex County Records, II, 57-58. Acquitted again in 1621. Ibid., 79, 80.

1610. Leicestershire. Depositions taken by the sheriff concerning Randall and other witches. Hist. MSS. Comm. Reports, XII, pt. 4 (MSS. of the Duke of Rutland), I, 422.

1611. Carnarvon. Story of witchcraft "committed on six young maids." Privy Council orders the Bishop of Bangor and the assize judges to look into it. Cal. St. P., Dom., 1611-1618, 53.

1611. Wm. Bate, indicted twenty years before for practising invocation, etc., for finding treasure, pardoned. Ibid., 29.

1611. Thirsk, Yorkshire. Elizabeth Cooke presented by quarter sessions for slight crime related to witchcraft. North Riding Record Soc., I, 213.

1612. Lancaster. Margaret Pearson, who in 1612 was sentenced to a year's imprisonment and the pillory, had been twice tried before, once for killing, and once for bewitching a neighbor. Potts, Wonderfull Discoverie of Witches in the countie of Lancaster (Chetham Soc., 1845).