Part 9 (1/2)

[26] Potts, E 3 verso, F 4, G 2; also _The Wonderful Discoverie of the Witchcrafts of Margaret and Phillip Flower, ..._ (London, 1619), 21.

[27] See MS. account of the Northampton witches.

[28] _Ibid._: ”Sundry other witches appeared to him.... Hee heard many of them railing at Jane Lucas, laying the fault on her that they were thus accused.”

[29] There was practically no spectral evidence in the Lancas.h.i.+re cases.

Lister on his death-bed had cried out against Jennet Preston, and John Law was tormented with a vision of Alizon Device ”both day and night”; Potts, Y 2 verso. But these were exceptional.

[30] See _The Most Cruell and b.l.o.o.d.y Murther committed by ... Annis Dell.... With the Severall Witch-crafts ... of one Johane Harrison and her Daughter_ (London, 1606).

[31] MS. account of the Northampton witches.

[32] See Potts, Z 2.

[33] The dramatist Dekker made use of this; see his _Witch of Edmonton_, act IV, scene I (Mermaid edition, London, 1904):

1st Countreyman.--This thatch is as good as a jury to prove she is a witch.

Justice.-- Come, come: firing her thatch? ridiculous!

Take heed, sirs, what you do; unless your proofs Come better aimed, instead of turning her Into a witch, you'll prove yourselves stark fools.

[34] See Potts, P 2.

[35] See _ibid._, Q verso. This, however, was the second time that the judge had tried this ruse; see _ibid._, P 2.

[36] See above, note 21.

[37] North Riding Record Soc., _Quarter Sessions Records_ (London, 1883, etc.), III, 181.

[38] Two of them, however, were issued to the same woman, one in 1604 and one in 1610.

[39] _Hist. MSS. Comm. Reports_, XIII, 4 (Rye), pp. 136-137, 139-140, 144, 147-148.

[40] The term ”spinster” was sometimes used of a married woman.

[41] _Cal. St. P., Dom., 1619-1623_, 125, Chamberlain to Carleton, February 26, 1620: ”Peac.o.c.k, a schoolmaster, committed to the Tower and tortured for practising sorcery upon the King, to infatuate him in Sir Thos. Lake's business.” This is one of those rare cases in which we know certainly that torture was used.

[42] Sir Thomas Lake to Viscount Cranbourne, January 20, 1604, Brit.

Mus., Add. MSS., 6177, fol. 403.

[43] _Cal. St. P., Dom., 1623-1625_, 474, 485, 497.

[44] T. B. and T. J. Howell, _State Trials_ (London, 1809-1818), II.

[45] See Potts, O 3 verso.

[46] See _Hist. MSS. Comm. Reports_, XIII, 4 (Rye), pp. 136-137, 139-140, 144, 147-148.

[47] See Alexander Roberts, _A Treatise of Witchcraft ..._ (London, 1616), dedicated to the ”Maior and Aldermen.”