Tales of strange disappearances and people being transported from one place to another through mystical means are not uncommon in English myth and folklore. What is perhaps more surprising is to find them contained in accounts that purport to be a more ‘accurate’ telling of historical events. Such an example is the 1652 pamphlet …
The Missing Mercer’s Wife: The Mysterious Disappearance of Katherine Atkins Read More »
Name: Agnes Hurst Location: Westhoughton, Lancashire Date: 1665 Accusations: Jane Gregory testified that her husband Thomas had been taken ill after an encounter with Agnes Hurst, a woman reputed to have been a witch for the last twenty years. He had helped in transporting the old woman in a chair with a group of others, …
Name:Margaret Flower Date:1619 Location: Bottesford, Vale of Belvoir, Leicestershire Accusations: After Margaret was dismissed from service at Belvoir Castle by the wife of the Earl of Rutland, she was accused along with her mother Joan and sister Philippa of bewitching two of the Earl’s sons to death in revenge. The magic was worked against them …
Name: Margaret Ellnore Date: 1694 Location: Ipswich Accusations: Francis Hutchinson recorded in his Historical Essay Concerning Witchcraft that when a man named Rudge refused to let Margaret Ellnore a house, his wife fell ill soon afterwards and Margaret was blamed. The woman remained unwell for three years, only improving during the periods when Margaret was arrested …
Name:Jane Brooks Location: Shepton Mallet, Somerset Date:1657/8 Accusations:The elderly Jane, along with her sister, was accused of tormenting young Richard Jones. Jane had begged bread from him, and in return had given the boy an apple; after taking a bite from it he had suffered a fit and could not move or speak. Jane and …
Agnes and her husband John Godfrey were married 25th January, 1578 at St. Andrew’s, Enfield, and had at least six children in the years that followed. There is no evidence one way or another as to how their marriage fared, but relations within the local community were certainly less than harmonious as Agnes was accused …
Name:Anne Ashby, (alias Anne Cobler) Location:Cranbrook, Kent Date:1652 Accusations:Anne, a spinster, was accused of bewitching the three year old daughter of Richard Wilding to death, and another infant on 4th December the year before. She was also accused along with four other women of bewitching Elizabeth Osborne on 19th April, 1652, causing her to languish until she died …
What immediately springs to mind at the words “Lancashire” and “Witches” are the infamous Pendle witch trials of 1612. There were, however, several later cases in the same area: one such occurred in 1634 when ten year old Edmund Robinson related a fantastical story regarding his experience with local witches. He had, he insisted, witnessed …
The Witch and Her Bucket: Mary Spencer and The Lancashire Witches Read More »
Having one wife accused of consorting with the devil was crisis enough. It is possible however that Thomas Oliver of Norwich, Norfolk, had not one but two wives who went to their deaths on accusations of witchcraft. Thomas Oliver’s exact date of birth is unknown, but he married Mary Leman at St. Andrew’s Church, …
The Husband of Witches: The Marital Strife of Thomas Oliver Read More »
After a lovely and much-needed rest, The Witch, The Weird and the Wonderful returns with the first Wednesday Weirdness post of 2016! It is a pleasure to welcome Brian Langston, with a tale of a mysterious teleportation that leaves more questions than answers… ********* On a dusty shelf in a quiet corner of Oxford’s Bodleian …
