Extract from W.W., A true and just Recorde (1582)

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This lengthy pamphlet gives the examinations by the JP Brian Darcey of women from the Essex village of St Osyth who were accused (often, mutually accused) of witchcraft. I have modernised the extract from the full text in Marion Gibson’s Early Modern Witches: Witchcraft Cases in Contemporary Writing (Routledge, 2000), pp.94-5. It gives a view of the long skein of mutual accusations a demonologically-minded JP could trigger, and a sense of the mixture of dramatic public confrontations and off-the-record private interviews and confessions which Darcey thought legally suitable. Darcey, via W.W. - who is effectively his ghostwriter - makes it quite clear in the preface to the pamphlet that he sides with the French demonologist Jean Bodin (who is cited) in considering hanging too good for witches, and advocates burning the convicted. That he is also prepared to prevaricate with apparent promises of ‘favour’ to elicit confessions makes him a very dangerous man. Of the accused here, Annis Glascock died in prison, Alice Hunt was acquitted, and Margaret Salmon apparently fled. The 14 witches Darcey ‘uncovered’ around St Osyth seem to have harboured some 31 familiars between them, in the shapes of cats, toads, a lamb, dogs, colts, blackbirds, cattle, rats with short horns. Every basket and old pottery vessel in the community seems to have harboured these prolific beasts.

This Examinate (i.e. Annis Glascocke) being charged, that she sent a spirit to plague Mitchell (the shoemaker’s) child, or that she had bewitched the said child, denied that she had done either of both. And she being asked, whether she ever fell out with one Fortune or his wife, or whether she hurt any of their children, saith that there was no falling out between them, or that she hurt any of his children.

Annis Letherdall and Margaret Simpson, women appointed to see and view the body of this said Examinate, said, and affirm upon their credits, that upon the left side of the thigh of this Examinate, there be some spots, and upon the left shoulder likewise one or two: which spots be like the sucked spots, that Ursley Kempe hath upon her body.(1)

This Examinate and the said Ursley Kemp, alias Grey, being brought before me face to face, the said Ursley then charged this Examinate to have plagued and punished Mitchell’s child, whereof it died, and also Fortune’s wife’s child, whereof it languished. At which speeches this Examinate used outrageous words, calling the said Ursley whore, saying she would scratch her: for she was a Witch, and that she was sure she had bewitched her: for that she could not now weep.(2)

The Confession and Examination of Alice Hunt, the Wife of William Hunt, taken before me Brian Darcey Esquire, the xxiiii day of February.

The said Alice Hunt being asked, whether there was any falling out between this Examinate, and Hayward of Frowick, or his wife, saith, there was none, but rather she had cause to be beholding unto them, saying that Hayward’s wife did christen her a child. And she being charged to have a spirit in a potshard, which Ursley Kemp had seen, denied that she had any such, or that she had plagued Hayward’s cattle with that or with any other spirit.

This Examinate being asked, if she never did feed her spirits with milk out of a little trenyng dish, said no, the which dish was brought by the Constable from her house, and then shewed to this Examinate, the which she denied to be her dish, or that she had any such in her house.(3)

This Examinate’s warrant being made, and to her read, and she committed to the Constable to be carried to the gaol, desired to speak alone with me the said Brian Darcey, whereupon I went into my garden, and this Examinate followed me, she then falling upon her knees with weeping tears, confessed and said, that she had within vi days before this examination, two spirits like unto little colts, the one black, and the other white, and saith she called them by the names of Jack and Robin, and that they told her, that the said Ursley Kemp would betray her this Examinate, and willed her to make shift for her self. And so they went from her, and sithence this Examinate saith she saw them not.(4)

This Examinate saith, that her sister (named Margery Salmon) hath also two spirits like Toads, the one called Tom, and the other Robin, and saith further, her said sister and she had the same spirits from their Mother, Mother Barnes, who departed from the world within xii days before the taking of this examination.

The Examination and confession of Margery Salmon, taken before me Brian Darcey Esquire, the xxv of February.(5)

The said Margery Salmon, sister to the said Alice Hunt, daughter to one Mother Barnes lately deceased (which Mother Barnes was accounted to be a notorious witch) said, that she remained at home with her mother by the space of half a year, and saith she was with her mother several times, when she lay sick, and also at the hour of her death, but denieth the having any spirits of her said Mother, or that her Mother had any to her knowledge.

The said Margery that night being committed to the ward and keeping of the Constable, and the next day brought before me the said Brian in the presence of her sister Alice Hunt, and being charged by her said sister to have two spirits like toads, given her by her mother at her death, utterly denied the same, saying ‘I defy thee, though thou art my sister’, saying that she never saw any such: at which speeches her sister taking her aside by the arm, whispered her in the ear: and then presently after, this Examinate with great submission and many tears, confessed that she had two spirits delivered by her Mother, the same day she departed. And she this Examinate carried them away with her in the evening, they being in a wicker basket, more than half full of black and white wool, and that she asked her mother what she should do with them, she bade her keep them and feed them. This Examinate asking wherewithall, her mother answered, if thou doest not give them milk, they will suck of thy blood, and saith, she called them by the names of Tom and Robin. And this Examinate being asked how often she had given them meat sithence she had them, saith and confesseth, that she fed them twice out of a dish with milk, and being asked when she fed them last, this Examinate said, upon Tuesday last past before this examination, and that with milk.(6)

This Examinate saith also, that when she took them of her Mother, she said unto her, ‘If thou wilt not keep the said spirits, then send them to Mother Pechey, for I know she is a Witch, and will be glad of them’. And saith further, that she hearing that Ursley Kemp was apprehended, and fearing that she should be called in question, saith thereupon she took the said spirits being in a basket, and in the evening went unto the ground of her Master, and so into Read’s ground, and bade them go to the said Mother Pechey: and which words they skipped out of the said basket, and went before this Examinate, she this Examinate saying, ‘All evil go with you, and the Lord in Heaven bless me from ye’ and saith, she might see the said spirits going toward a barred stile, going over into Howe Lane, and when they came to the stile, she saith, they skipped over the same stile, and went the ready way to Mother Pechey’s house, and saith she verily thinketh the said Mother Pechey hath them.

The Examination and confession of Joan Pechey widow…(7)

(1) Here we see that as in all cases, other women readily served in the prosecution of accused witches.

(2) A bizarre passage. Annis Glascock seems to have asserted as proof both that Ursula Kemp was a witch and that she was herself a victim of Ursula’s bewitchment, that such was the power of Ursula’s spell over her, she was no longer able to weep. She proposes to ‘scratch’ Ursula, on the face, above the mouth: this drawing of blood was held to break a witch’s spell. No doubt that if Darcey had allowed this ‘scratching’, Annis would then have burst into tears. But the witch lore is skewed, as Gibson notes: inability to weep was a traditional mark of the witch, not of the witch’s victim. The next two accused both weep under interrogation in making confession. Darcey makes no comment on their tears. Once a woman is in the position of Scherazade, telling stories to forestall her own death, a kind of contest over whose witch-lore counts for most must begin.

(3) Alice is foolish to deny ownership of the dish. A later witness can avouch that she owned it. The panicky lie makes it harder for her to refute the absurd charge about what she did with the dish (which may be a ‘straining’ dish, used for skimming milk).

(4) Why did Alice change her story? The warrant for her imprisonment is read to her (she was most probably illiterate). Suddenly she has had two familiar spirits for 6 days, now departed. From an earlier part of the account, we can see Darcey’s method of getting confessions: ‘The said Brian Darcey then promising to the said Ursley, that if she would deal plainly and confess the truth, that she should have favour and so by giving her fair speeches she confessed as followeth’ (p.83). Notice how hedged about that promise was: one moment it is ‘favour’, the next, these are just ‘fair speeches’ rather than fair play.

(5) After Alice has accused her sister and their recently deceased mother, Margaret is brought in for examination in her turn. Why the married daughter should accuse the spinster who stayed at home to look after their ailing and aged mother might go back to a family tension. Margaret hotly denies her sister’s charges, and then, as we see, after a word aside from her sister, proceeds into an adroit repentance, confession, and incrimination of yet another woman.

(6) Margery carefully distances herself from physical contact with the familiars, which she has briefly looked after, and sent off with a hop, skip and a jump over a stile to Mother Pechey.

(7) As usual, the new accused denies everything with indignation (and defends the character of her co-eval, Mother Barnes). But a trawling of old gossip produces angry words from old quarrels, an insinuation that she was involved in the death of one Johnson, a ‘collector for the poor’, and the sensational slur that slept naked in the same bed as her son Philip when he was aged 23. Philip says that this is true, and was done at her will and command. She does confess to the ownership of a kitten and a little dog.