Part 16 (2/2)

[76] Thomas Wright, John Ashton, J. O. Jones, and the other writers who have dealt with Hopkins, speak of the Worcester trials, in 1647, in which four women are said to have been hanged. Their statements are all based upon a pamphlet, _The Full Tryals, Examination, and Condemnation of Four Notorious Witches at the a.s.sizes held at Worcester on Tuseday the 4th of March.... Printed for I. W._ What seems to have been the first edition of this brochure bears no date. In 1700 another edition was printed for ”J. M.” in Fleet Street. Some writer on witchcraft gained the notion that this pamphlet belonged in the year 1647 and dealt with events in that year. Wright, John Ashton, and W. H. Davenport Adams (_Witch, Warlock, and Magician_, London, 1889), all accept this date. An examination of the pamphlet shows that it was cleverly put together from the _True and Exact Relation_ of 1645. The four accused bear the names of four of those accused at Chelmsford, and make, with a few differences, the same confessions. See below, appendix A, -- 4, for a further discussion of this pamphlet. It is strange that so careful a student as Thomas Wright should have been deceived by this pamphlet, especially since he noticed that the confessions were ”imitations” of those in Ess.e.x.

[77] A. Gibbons, ed., _Ely Episcopal Records_ (Lincoln, 1891), 112-113.

[78] Stearne, 37.

[79] That there were a.s.sizes is proved by the statement that ”Moore's wife” confessed before the ”Judge, Bench, and Country,” _ibid._, 21-22, as well as by the reference in the _Ely Episcopal Records_, 113, to the ”a.s.sizes.”

[80] Stearne, 17, 21-22.

[81] For a clear statement of this point of view, see _ibid._, 40-50.

[82] Stearne, 46-47.

[83] _Ibid._, 50.

[84] _Ibid._, 17.

[85] _Ibid._, 13.

[86] _Ibid._, 14.

[87] Hopkins, 5. But Hopkins was not telling the exact truth here. When he was at Aldeburgh in September (8th) the accused were watched day and night. See chamberlain's accounts, in N. F. Hele, _Notes or Jottings about Aldeburgh_, 43.

[88] Hopkins, 7.

[89] Hopkins, 9.

[90] Stearne, 18. Hopkins did not attempt to deny the use of the ordeal.

He supported himself by quoting James; see Hopkins, 6.

[91] Stearne, 18. He means, of course, Serjeant G.o.dbolt.

[92] See Stearne, in his preface to the reader, also p. 61; and see also the complete t.i.tle of Hopkins's book as given in appendix A (p. 362).

[93] A similar case was that of Anne Binkes, to whom Stearne refers on p. 54. He says she confessed to him her guilt. ”Was this woman fitting to live?... I am sure she was living not long since, and acquitted upon her trial.”

[94] Not until after Stearne was already busy elsewhere. Stearne, 58.

[95] It would seem, too, that Stearne was sued for recovery of sums paid him. ”Many rather fall upon me for what hath been received; but I hope such suits will be disannulled.” Stearne, 60.

[96] Hopkins, 11.

[97] _County Folk Lore, Suffolk_ (Folk Lore Soc.) 176, quoting from J.

T. Varden in the _East Anglian Handbook_ for 1885, p. 89.

[98] James Howell, _Familiar Letters_, II, 551. Howell, of course, may easily have counted convictions as executions. Moreover, it was a time when rumors were flying about, and Howell would not have taken the pains to sift them. Yet his agreement with Stearne in numbers is remarkable.

Somewhat earlier, (the letter is dated February 3, 1646/7) Howell had written that ”in Ess.e.x and Suffolk there were above two hundred indicted within these two years and above the one half executed” (_ibid._, 506).

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