who wrote the covenant betwixt them. She further saith that the Divell promised to be her servant about twenty yeeres, and that the time is now almost expired. She further saith that the Divell promised her that she should not sinke, being throwne into the water, and that the Divell sucked twice since she came into the prison; he came to her in the forme of a Muce.’
Joan Cariden’s confession was commonplace, but Jane Hott said that ‘a thing like a hedge hog had usually visited her, and came to her a great while agoe, about twenty yeares agoe, and that if it sucked her, it was in her sleep, and the paine thereof awaked her, and it came to her once or twice in the moneth, and sucked her, and when it lay upon her breast, she strucke it off with her hand, and that it was as soft as a Cat.
‘At her first coming into the Gaole, she spake very much to the other that were apprehended before her, to confesse if they were guilty; and stood to it very perversely that she was cleare of any such thing, and that, if they put her into the Water to try her, she should certainly sinke. But when she was put into the Water it was apparent that she did flote upon the Water. Being taken forth, a Gentleman to whom, before, she had so confidently spake, and with whom she offered to lay twenty shillings to one that she could not swim, asked her how it was possible she could be so impudent as not to confesse herselfe? To whom she answered, That the Divell went with her all the way, and told her that she should sinke; but when she was in the Water, he sate upon a Crosse beame and laughed at her.’
Chapter XVII.
Confessions of Witches executed in Essex—The Witches of Huntingdon—‘Wonderfull News from the North’—Trial of Six Witches at Maidstone—Trial of Four Witches at Worcester—A Lancashire Witch tried at Worcester—A Tewkesbury Witch.
A sickening story is told in ‘A true and exact Relation of the seuerall Informations, Examinations, and Confessions of the late Witches, arraigned and executed in the County of Essex. Who were arraigned and condemned at the late Sessions, holden at Chelmesford before the Right Honorable Robert Earle of Warwicke and severall of his Majesties Iustices of Peace, the 29 of July 1645,’ etc., London, 1645. In this veritable ‘bloody assize,’ the rascally Matthew Hopkins appears, and it would almost seem as if the poor women confessed anything in order to have the luxury of dying. The charges against them were so frivolous, and the confessions so silly, that they must have either been imbecile or reckless. The following is a list of them:
| Elizabeth Clarke | confessed | executed. | ||
| Elizabeth Gooding | denied | do. | ||
| Anne Leech | confessed | do. | ||
| Helen Clark | confessed | executed. | ||
| Rebecca West | do. | acquitted. | ||
| Mary Greenleife | denied | fate unknown. | ||
| Mary Johnson | do. | do. | ||
| Anne Cooper | confessed | executed. | ||
| Elizabeth Hare | denied | condemned, but reprieved. | ||
| Margaret Moon | do. | died on the way to execution. | ||
| Marian Hocket | do. | executed. | ||
| Sarah Hating | do. | do. | ||
| Rose Hallybread | died in gaol. | |||
| Elizabeth Harvie | confessed | executed. | ||
| Joyce Boanes | do. | do. | ||
| Susan Cock | do. | do. | ||
| Margaret Landishe | do. | do. | ||
| Rebecca Jones | do. | do. | ||
| Joan Cooper | do. | died in gaol. | ||
| Anne Cate | do. | executed. |
The confession (!) of this latter will serve as an example of the puerility of them all.
‘This Examinant saith, that she hath four Familiars, which shee had from her mother, about two and twenty yeeres since; and that the names of the said Imps are James, Pricke eare, Robyn, and Sparrow; and three of these Imps are like Mouses, and the fourth like a Sparrow. And this Examinant saith, that to whomsoever shee sent the said Imp called Sparrow, it killed them presently; and that, first of all, she sent one of her three Imps like Mouses, to nip the Knee of one Robert Freeman, of Little Clacton, in the County of Essex, aforesaid, whom the said Imp did so lame, that the said Robert dyed on that lamenesse within half a yeere after: And this Examinant saith, that she sent her said Imp, Prickeare to kill the daughter of John Rawlins of Much-Holland aforesaid, which died accordingly within a short time after; and that she sent her said Imp Prickeare to the house of one John Tillet; which did suddenly kill the said Tillet.
‘And this Examinant saith that shee sent her said Imp Sparrow, to kill the childe of one George Parby of Much-Holland aforesaid, which child the said Imp did presently kill; and that the offence this Examinant took against the said George Parby to kill his said childe, was, because the wife of the said Parby denyed to give this Examinant a pint of Milke; and this Examinant further saith that shee sent her said Imp Sparrow to the house of Samuel Ray, which, in a very short time did kill the wife of the said Samuel; and that the cause of this Examinant’s malice against the said woman was, because shee refused to pay to this Examinant two pence which she challenged to be due to her; And that, afterwards,