CHELMESFORD WITCHES

From:ejackson@pobox.upenn.edu (Elizabeth Jackson)
Subject:English Witches

Hi!  I have been doing research with James Serpell (who is on the
witch list) on the familiars of English witches, and thus can help you
out with information about some of the women you asked about.

Joan Allen was convicted of bewitching Joan Tuttle and hanged by the
Middlesex courts in 1650.  A date of Oct. 3 is mentioned, but I'm not
sure if that is the date she was hanged on.  That is from a book by C.
L'Estrange Ewen called "Witchcraft and Demonianism" published in 1933
by Heath Cranton Limited, London.  It was reprinted by AMS Press, New
York, in 1984.  I highly recommend that book to you for further
information about other women in witchcraft.

Joan Waterhouse was the 18 year old daughter of Mother Agnes
Waterhouse, 64 years old, of Hatfield Peveril, Essex.  She called the
familiar "Sathan" from out of her mother's shoes, expecting a toad.
Instead, a great dog came to her, demanding what she would like.  She
asked him to haunt Agnes Brown, 12, who hadn't given her enough bread
once.  Agnes Brown said that a thing came to her like a black dog with
a face like an ape, a short tail, a chain and a silver whistle around
its neck and horns on its head.  This is from "The Examination and
Confession of Certaine Wytches at Chensford (Chelmsford)", 1566.
Joan's mother was also accused of being a witch.  A transcript of the
pamphlet that tells about them can be found in "Witchcraft", edited by
Barbara Rosen.  It's a collection of pamphlets and tracts written
about various witchcraft cases.  It was published by Taplinger
Publishing Company in New York, in 1969.

The 1589 Chelmsford victims are also written about in Ewen's book.
Joan Prentice lived in the Almshouse of Heddingham Sibble, Essex.  She
confessed that the Devil appeared to her as a dunnish colored ferret
with fiery eyes and asked for her soul.  She couldn't give her soul
because it belonged to Jesus, but gave the ferret blood from her
finger and cheek.  His name was "Bidd", and when she wanted him to do
anything for her, she said, "Bidd, Bidd, Bidd, come Bidd, come Bidd,
come Bidd, come suck, come suck, come suck".  (Bidd was a familiar, or
animal kept by English witches that performed evil deeds for them and
was rewarded with sucking their blood from witch teats.)  Elizabeth
Whale and Elizabeth Mott were also accused of being "well aquainted"
with Bidd.  Joan Cunny of Stisted had 9 familiar spirits including two
black frogs, "Jack" (who killed men) and "Jill" (who killed women),
both of whom came to her 20 years after she kneeled on the ground and
prayed to Satan.  When she received them, she promised them her soul
if they would, in return, perform her wishes.  She fed them on bread
and milk and they talked with her in her own language.  She also had
two spirits like black dogs with toad faces who sucked on her sore
leg, and two others of unknown species called "Nicholas" (who killed
horses) and "Ned" (who killed cattle).  Joan Upney of Dagenham,
confessed that "Whitecote, Witch of Barking" gave her a thing like a
mole, and is she "ought any body any ill will, if she bid it, it would
go clap them".  She also confessed that she had several toads, one of
which she left under the groundsill at Harrold's house, where it
pinched his wife and sucked her until she died; another pinched
Richard Forter's wife.  Margaret Cunny, also of Stisted, sent spirits
to Father Hurrill.

All information aboaut these 1589 witches comes from a pamphlet called
"The Apprehension and confession of three notorious Witches, Arreigned
and by Justice condemned and executed at Chelmesforde, in the Countye
of Essex, 1589"


The information is in the book by Ewen that I mentioned above, however.

Please keep in touch and don't hesitate to ask if you need further
information.

Sincerely,
Elizabeth Jackson
ejackson@pobox.upenn.edu