The witch at Newbury, 1643

On or about this day 368 years ago, the woman purportedly depicted in this woodcut was summarily shot by parliamentary forces near Newbury. The picture gets reproduced in museum displays, etc: it was the title page of A most certain, strange, and true discovery of a witch being taken by some of the Parliament forces as she was standing on a small planck board and sayling on it over the river of Newbury: together with the strange and true manner of her death, with the propheticall words and speeches she used at the same time. Printed by John Hammond, 1643. George Thomason dated the publication more precisely to September 28^th, which was the day the Earl of Essex led his undefeated army back into London after getting rather the better of the first battle of Newbury (Sept 20^th). The image of course attempts no likeness, but makes the unknown, unnamed victim of the soldiers conform to a witch stereotype.

My main project here was to set off the pamphlet’s account against other references to this incident in the periodical press of the day. Having transcribed those accounts and passing mentions I have found made the newsletters, I then discovered that EEBO has not yet done a full text transcript of the 28^th September pamphlet. So I did one, and here it is; but between the two long paragraphs (and after them) I will insert some comments of my own.

A most certain, strange, and true discovery of a witch, etc, 1643

“Many are in a belief, that this silly sex of women by no means attaine to that so vile and damned a practice of sorcery and Witch-craft, in regard of their illiteratenesse and want of learning, which many men have by great learning done, Adam by temptation toucht and tasted the deceiving apple, so some high learnd & read by the same temptation that deceived him hath bin so insnared to contract with the Divel; as for example, in the instancing a few, as English Bacon of Oxford, Vandermast of Holland, Bungay of Germany, Fostus of the same, Franciscus the English Monke of Bury, Doctor Slackleach, and divers others which were too tedious to relate of, but how weake women should attain unto it many are incredible of the same, and many too are opposite in opinion against the same, that giving a possibility to their doubtings, that the malice, and inveterate malice of a woman entirely devoted to her revengefull wrath frequenting desolate and desart places, and giving way unto their wished temptation, may have converse with that world roaring lion, and covenant and contract upon condition, the like hath in sundry place, and divers times been tried at the Assises of Lancaster, Carlisle, Buckingham, and elsewhere, but to come to the intended relation of this Witch or Sorceresse, as is manifest and credibly related by the Gentlemen, Commanders, and Captains, of the Earl of Essex his Army.

(RB: like many of these pamphlets, the recital of the incidents is offered as a proof that witchcraft exists, and in this case that sorcery can be practised by women, even if illiteracy prevents them from making a written contract. A female civilian had been executed without trial. Newbury was town which generally favoured the parliamentarian cause, so there needed to be a good reason for this atrocity. At the start of the following paragraph, we will see confusion as to exactly where this fatal encounter took place. If the army really was marching through Newbury, then it happened after the battle. But at the end, the ‘witch’ finally breaks down into speech, and makes prophecy of Essex’s forthcoming victory. The straggling march with troops foraging in the hedgerows sounds like conditions in Essex’s half-starved force as it moved east from Hungerford towards Newbury on Sept. 19^th. Royalist forces moving from Wantage got to Newbury before Essex’s advance party, and were withdrawn towards Oxford after the battle, leaving Essex free to march through Newbury and on towards London.)

“A part of the Army marching through Newbury some of the Souldiers being scattered by the reason of their loitering by the way, in gathering Nuts, Apples, Plummes, Blackberries, and the like, one of them by chance in clambering up a tree, being pursued by his fellow or Comrade in waggish merriment, jesting one with another, espied on the river being there adjacent, a tall, lean, slender woman, as he supposed, to his amazement, and great terreur treading of the water with her feet, with as much ease and firmnesses as if one could walk or trample on the earth, wherewith his softly calls, and beckened to his fellows to behold it, and with all possible speed that could be to obscure them from her sight, who as conveniently as they could they did observe, this could be no little amazement unto them you may think to see a woman dance upon the water, nor could all their sights be deluded, though perhaps one might but coming nearer to the shore, they could perceive there was a plank or deale overshadowed with a little shallow water that she stood upon, the which did beare her up, anon rode by some of the Commanders who were eye witnesses, as well as they, and were as much astonished as they could be, still too and fro she fleeted on the water, the boord standing firm bout upright, indeed I have both heard and read of many that in tempests and on rivers by casualty have been shipwracked, or cast over board, where catching empty barrels, rudders, boards, or planks have made good shift by the assisting providence of God to get on shore, but not in this womans kind to stand upon the board, turning and winding it which way she pleased, making it pastime to her, as little thinking who perceived her tricks, or that she did imagine that they were the last she ever should show, as we have heard the swan sing before her death, so did this divellish woman, as after plainly it appeared make sport before her death, at last having sufficiently been upon the water, he that deceived her always did so then, blinding her that she could not at her landing see the ambush that was laid for her, coming upon the shore she gave the board a push, which they plainly perceived, and crossed the river, they searched after her but could not find her she being landed the Commanders beholding her, gave order to lay hold on her and bring her to them straight, the which some were fearfull, but some being more venturous then other some, boldly went to her and seized on her by the arme, demanding what she was? But the woman no whit replying any words unto them, they brought her unto the Commanders, to whom though mightily she was urged she did reply as little: so consulting with themselves what should be done with her, being it so apparently appeared she was a Witch, being loth to let her goe, and as loth to carry her with them, they so resolved with themselves, to make a shot at her, and gave order to a couple of their Souldiers that were approved good marks-men, to charge and shoot her straight, which they prepared to doe: so setting her boult upright against a mud banke or wall; two of the Souldiers according to their command made themselves ready, where having taken aime gave fire and shot at her as thinking sure they had sped her, but with a deriding and loud laughter at them she caught the bullets in her hands and chew’d them, which was a stronger testimony then the water, that she was the same that their imagination thought her so to be, so resolving with themselves if either fire or sword or halter were sufficient for to make an end of her, one set his carbin close unto her brest: where discharging the bullet back rebounded like a ball, and narrowly he mist it in his face that was the shooter: this so enraged the Gentleman, that one drew out his sword & manfully run at her with all the force his strength had power to make, but it prevailed no more than did the shot, the woman still though speechlesse, yet in a most contemptible way of scorn, still laughing at them, which did the more exhaust their furie against her life, yet one amongst the rest had heard that piercing or drawing bloud from forth the veines that cross the temples of the head, it would prevail against the strongest sorcery, and quell the force of Witchcraft, which was allowed for triall: the woman hearing this, knew that the Devill had left her and her power was gone, whereupon she began alowd to cry, and roare, tearing her haire, and making piteous moan, which in these words expressed were; and is this come to passe, that I must dye indeed? Why then his Excellency the Earl of Essex shall be fortunate and win the field, after which no more words could be got from her; wherewith they immediately discharged a pistol underneath her eare, at which she straight sunk down and dyed, leaving her legacy of a detested carcase to the wormes, her soul were ought not to judge of, though the evils of her wicked life and death can scape no censure.

(The writer makes the desperate foraging sound like schoolboy fun, exactly like the boy Robinson looking for ‘bullaces’ at the start of The Late Lancashire Witches. In the imputed mood of levity, the ‘witch’ is sighted. I imagine that people who lived by lakes and rivers got very good at balancing on the slightest of craft: the woman’s apparent enjoyment of her skill brought to the mind of her assailants the kind of images of sorcerers floating on mere planks that we see in Olaus Magnus' Historia de gentibus Septentrionalibus, and hear about in tales of witches sailing in eggshells, sieves, etc.

It seems possible that the woman did scoff at or ridicule the soldiers. The Parliamentary cause had not gone well up to this point of the war, the Royalists were winning. Rather than larking about up trees, the soldiers were more likely to be very much on edge. A confused passage in the narrative seems to indicate that the woman thought she could cross the river to safety, but they seem to have gone to the trouble of rounding her up. She had said too much, they decided to finish her off. The initial impression that she was walking on the water itself, rejected by the very baptismal element itself, remains more potent in their jumpy response than any rational attention to her body board. Notice that they ask ‘what’, not ‘who’ she was: they seem at no point to have been interested in her name; her personal individuality was simply swallowed up in this new one, ‘witch’. Their attempts to shoot her are in effect her trial: that she is seemingly impervious to shot proves that she actually is what she is being shot for being, a pacted witch (and it says nothing about their potentially worrisome inability to shoot straight). After ‘scratching’, her power of ‘charmed life’ is broken, like Macbeth’s finally was, and she succumbs to a pistol shot beneath her ear. Had she been reported to have died after the first shots, this might have looked more like the murder it was, but she was by then safely incriminated to men who had no inclination to take her with them for trial (they all faced a battle, after all).

Here’s the account of the incident in Certaine Informations from Severall Parts of the Kingdome, September 25, 1643 - October 2, 1643; Issue 37.

“The general vote of the souldiers that are returned from the fight at Newbery is, that a Witch was sent by the Cavaliers into their Army to do mischiefe, who being shot at, was so impenetrable, that no bullets would pierce her, whereupon a Captaine bid shoot her with a button, and one of the souldiers pulled a brasse button from his doublet, and therewith charging his pistoll, fired it upon her head, and slew her. If it be true that she were a witch, and sent by the Cavaliers, as the common voice it, [illeg.] will verify the old verse, viz. Flectere si nequeo superos, Acheronta movebo

But it will be thought ridiculous that any man should be shot free. Whereunto we answer, that we have heard some English Commanders that have been in the Swedes wars, credibly affirme, that it is an ordinary thing in those parts.”

In this other parliamentary account, the witch was a royalist agent. The forces of hell are deployed against the trained bands. The 1645 pamphlet, Signs and wonders from heaven shows the persistence of this belief that eliminating witches would nullify Prince Rupert’s preternatural invulnerability: “It is likewise certified by many of good quality and worth that at the last Assises in Norfolke there were 40 witches araigned for their lives, and 20. executed: and that they have done very much harme in that Countrey, and have prophesied of the downfall of the King and his Army, and that Prince Robert (sic) shall be no longer shot-free: with many strange and unheard of things that shall come to passe.” Curious, then, that the September 28^th pamphleteer made so little of the ‘witch’ as a spell-casting antagonist, or as an associate of Prince Rupert: she is surprised (in his account) while intent on her own recreations, like Acrasia being caught unawares in her Bower of Bliss. I had not come across buttons as efficacious against supernatural things – a silver coat button would have been more familiar. But a brass one worked (as it would).

For the royalist side Mercurius Britanicus Communicating the Affaires of Great Britaine, October 10, 1643 - October 17, 1643; Issue 8, offered this derisive account of what was claimed. It in turn shows no compassion for the dead woman, but does insinuate something of the injustice: the witch was killed ‘before she was born’ (where I think the intended sense is, before she became one):

“And that the Citie may have plenty of strange things together, the Faction made a fine new Witch, borne and brought forth at Newbury, which (you must know) was the true cause why so many trained bands lost their lives, and this Witch (for certaine) they saw walke upon the water, being as light-heeld as any of the She-Committee, and had an impenetrable skin till a faithful Shoomaker scratched her on the arme, by which meanes they put a Pistoll to her eare, and so discovered her to be a Malignant woman, that is (said master Peard) a Witch or Sorceresse. So this Witch being killed (before she was borne) their victory went on bravely.

And for the Witch, since you have so much faith in her as we heare, we will sell ye her grissels and bones, you may make spels and charmes of them to keep you Shot-free and Scot-free: I am persuaded you are so superstitious, you thinke one tooth of such a grave, old woman may be the preservation of Prince Rupert himselfe, and His majesties whole Army.”

Mercurius Aulicus (1643: Oxford) (Oxford, England), Sunday, October 15, 1643 reports on the contents of some intercepted letters. The incident appears (for this writer) among the other follies the parliamentarian forces entertained: prejudices, lies, hopeful rumours, and absurdities, the wild words of a defeated rabble:

“Though their forces are not many their lyes are, which since they prosper so ill in print, they convey them confidently in writing (though sometimes they expresse a sensible sigh for the unluckinesse of their cause) many of which were this weeke were intercepted. One writes to his sister Mistresse Mary Greene, that he saw the French Ambassador come into London, but Oh sister (said he) his very horses head had all Crosses on. (sure they were not horses) Another, one Broughton, writes to Alderman Basnet at Coventree, that his unkle George Gresley saw an old Witch at Newbury with his very eyes (nay with his very eares). Another writes to his friend at Coventry that he received a wound at Auburne by one of my Lord Jermyn’s Souldiers nine inches deepe. Another writes that, Prince Rupert is mortally wounded…”

Whoever she was, perhaps an eel-catcher, trout fisher or reed-bed cutter on the Kennet, she was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and had the folly to laugh at tired, hungry and nervous soldiers, men who were capable of believing anything of their enemy. She was, after a bit of shooting and missing, killed, and then posthumously incriminated according to that dictates of that convenient excuse, witchcraft.

Losing hope on the Hope-well: two more supernatural sea stories

I have a lecture to give during the coming term on ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’. After the witch on the ship ‘Recovery’, this inclined me to find more supernatural goings-on at sea. Two more follow: immediately below, I have transcribed a full text of a brief pamphlet from the very end of the 17^th century. Then follows the EEBO transcript (slightly edited) of another. I make brief comment on both.

First, Strange and wonderful news being a true, tho' sad relation of six sea-men (Belonging to the Margaret of Boston,) who sold themselves to the devil, and were invisibly carry’d away. Like the 1691 story of Elizabeth Masters, we are looking at ready-made substance for coffee house chat: the pamphlet is really aimed at getting the curious to go and see the fuller evidence on display in Lloyd’s coffee house.

The pamphlet has a brief preamble:

“Though this following Relation contains matter of very great Wonder and Amazement; nevertheless it comes to our Hands, confirm’d by that sufficient testimony, that we offer it to the Reader as a Narrative of unquestion’d Truth and Reputation.

By a Letter from Barbadoes, of the 23 of July last, written by a Person of Worth and Credit, in that island, we have this relation, viz., That the Margaret from Boston, the [illeg.], of December 95 bound to Berbadoes, in their Passage one of the saylers at the Helm call’d to the Master of the Vessel, and told him, That he could steer no longer. The Master asking the reason, he replyed, That he was not well; and for that cause quitted his Post; the Master taking the Helm, the said sailor further declared, That there stood a Spirit by the Binnacle, that accus’d him of killing a Woman; a fault which the Spirit had falsly charg’d him with; for he had never committed any such unmanly Crime in his Life. The Spirit, he said, further told him, that all the Ships Company had sign’d an Agreement with the Divel, which was us’d as an argument for him to do the same.

The next day the Fellow fell into strange Deleriums, and talk’d of wonderful Accidents that would befall the Ship; which were look’d upon as nothing but the wild Notions of his craz’d senses, the Chimera’s of Frenzy. Particularly he said, That the Spirit had brought a boat to fetch him away; with other ridiculous idle discourse of the same Nature.

Upon the 17^th of January in the Latitude of 19 about 9 at Night, a small white Cloud arose, without any rain, or extraordinary Wind, which presently falling upon the ship pressed her down with that strange and supernatural Weight and force that the hatches flew out, and the whole Ship was under Water, by which unhappy Accident, the Boy was wash’d off and drowned.

But to begin the more miraculous part of my Narrative, the Ship continued under water for eleven Weeks; a thing that struck (as may be well imagin’d) an extraordinary Consternation and Confusion through the Marriners, from several strange Arguments of their Astonishment. First, that the ship should be wholly immerged under water, and yet not sunk downright to the bottom. Secondly, that tho’ they were apparently thus intirely under water, yet the Ship was not wholly filled with Water, but that they had Air enough to breath in, by which means they continued alive; feeding all this while, upon raw meat, and fresh Fish which came swimming over the Vessel, and several of which they Caught and Eat. Their lodging was on Boards placed athwart the Rail near the Taffrel covered with a Sail. The Men were always wet which, in so long a time, made an impression upon them that their flesh on their bodies was galled and raw.

But what was the most dismal part of all, Six of the Ship’s Crew upon the sinking of the Vessel under water, were frighted with Infernal Spirits; and about 12 the first Night were carried away invisibly, leaving no more then 4 persons alive behind them; which indeed gave some little Credit to what the afore mentioned Sailor at the helm had declared in his Deleriums.

After this 11 weeks Immurement these wondrous watry Walls, for so I may justly call it, the Ship recovered itself above the Water again, and the first Land they could discover was the Island Dissiado, which, with so few hands left, they could not fetch up, by reason of a strong Northern Current that bore against’em. The next was Grand-Terra, where they met with the same Disapointment: but on the 5^th of April they run themselves on Shore upon Guardelupo; where the French treated them very kindly, not as prisoners, but as Men in Distress.

The names of the three Seamen left alive are William Davis Master (a Man very well known in London among the Berbadoes Merchants), William Cadner, and William Bywater. Not only the Original Letter, and the whole Relation, at large; is to be seen at Mr Lloyd’s coffee-house in Lumbard-Street, but likewise several Persons are to be heard of, and spoken withal upon the Exchange, in Attestation of the whole Truth herein declared.

The reverend Mr Baxter, in his Treatise of Spirits, says, That tho’ Hurricanes and tempests have natural causes, yet there is great reason to think they are managed by Spirits. In confirmation whereof, he relates some notable instances of his own particular Deliverances from the Fury of most boisterous Whirlewinds; namely, when the Reapers in Evesham Vale were Hurt, Writhen, and One killed, some friendly Power (for so he expresses it) restrain’d the course of Gravelly Sand, rais’d by a whirlwind, as it met him in a narrow lane.”

We will never know what happened on the Margaret (of Boston). That some men might survive for a while below decks on a semi-submerged vessel is not impossible (though the narrative does also seem to say that they were lodged on boards placed across the taffrail, apparently sheltered under a sail). But trapped below decks for eleven weeks? Living off raw meat and fish that swam past? What did they drink? And finally the vessel just pumped itself out and re-surfaced? Some terrible story is concealed under these events, and the supernatural story is just a ruse, to distract attention away from normal likelihoods, and what they did to survive.

Like the case of the witch on the ‘Recovery’, we have a story that starts with a seaman losing his nerve, making wild accusations against both himself and others, and feeling the diabolic temptation of a Satanic delivery from the sea: “Particularly he said, That the Spirit had brought a boat to fetch him away.”

The concluding reference to Richard Baxter is interesting. The agèd Baxter, writing earlier in the same decade, still believed in a spirit-haunted, witch-and-devil-filled world. When the anonymous writer thought of this parallel, he connects the mariners’ yarn of six seamen having made a pact with the devil (and disappearing invisibly, quickly and totally at midnight, rather than disappearing piecemeal) with a mindset in which it can be believed that the devil directs hurricanes and whirlwinds, that these somehow only strike churches, while the just enjoy ‘particular Deliverances’ (though Baxter has to concede that the personal linen of the just doesn’t enjoy quite such protection from that ‘friendly power’).

Baxter had said this: “Though Hurricanes and Whirlwinds have Natural Causes, yet I have great cause to think, that they are managed by some Spirits (as I said before of Storms). Gunpowder worketh in Guns according to its nature; but if some Rational Agent did not invent, make, and manage it, all its Power, would be of little use. I have marvelled to see my own small Linnen spred out by Servants to dry, to be suddenly catcht up, and carried over the Town and Steeple away, and never more heard of. Near the time when some Reapers in the Vale of Evesham were hurt, writhen, and one killed with a Whirlwind, I was walking in a Gravelly Way in a Corn-field, there being a Lane besides me, between two Hedges; suddenly a Whirlwind came up the Cart-way, casting up the Gravelly Sand directly to meet me; when it came within Ten or Twelve Yards of me, I was about stepping out of the way into the Corn, to escape it, but it suddenly turned out of the way to the Right-hand, into the Lane from me, so as perswaded me, that it was a voluntary Motion, directed by a friendly Power; for it went straight on up the Lane, and tore the Hedges and Branches of the Trees on the side of the Lane. But these are small effects to what other see, especially of the great Hurricanes at Sea in the West-Indies. The Spirits that Rule in the Air have great Power of the Airy Motions.

Many and many Churches have been thus torn, proportionably so much beyond all other Buildings, especially of Stone, that I cannot but think there is some knowing Agent that maketh the Choice, though I know not who, nor why. Except a few Hay-Ricks, I remember not that till this Seventy sixth Year of my Age, I have known Lightenings to have had Hurting Power on any Buildings but Churches, save very rarely, and small, as this last Year, at Islington, it entred a House, and kil’'d a Woman and Child:) Nor to have torn any Wood but Oak, (which in Trees and Buildings I have seen torn where I dwelt.) But divers persons have been killed and scorch’d by it. An Eminent Knight, that I knew, is commonly said to have been struck dead by it in his Garden.”

[Extracts from: The certainty of the worlds of spirits … Richard Baxter (1691).]

EEBO also offers this cleverly self-exculpatory supernatural narrative (for such I take it to be) attested to by a ship’s master. Having lost his collier off Spurn Head on its way back from Newcastle, he has concocted a stirring tale of the evil spirit on board that sank the ship. It manifested to him (and only him) frequently, but he shapes his story so that we can see that he reacted with professional skill and courage. But all to no avail: on board his ship, nothing would work properly, candles burned blue, the ship’s boat launched itself, the explosive departure of the spirit as the ship went down burned his face...

A True and Perfect Relation of the Strange and Dreadful Apparition which lately Infested and Sunk a Ship bound for New-castle, called, The Hope-well of London.

The 22. of February, 1672 we sailed from Gravesend; and the 26. by Gods Providence we sailed over the Bar of Newcastle, and there Loaded the 2. of March. About Nine or Ten of the Clock in the Night following, we having made all clear and ready for the furtherance of our Voyage, some time after Supper I went to rest, when about Twelve of the Clock in the Night, to the best of my remembrance, I was awaked out of my sleep by a great noise, (but saw nothing) which to the best of my capacity, bid me Be gone, and that I had nothing to do there. But being so hastily disturbed, and not certain what might be the cause, I gave it over for a Dream, and past that accident as uncertain of the truth. Now after the first Day was past, about Eight or Nine of the Clock at Night I went to rest; and about twelve, my Mate was striking a Light to take a Pipe of Tobacco, (as I suppose) and expecting the Wherry to go up to the Town, being the Tide fell out about Two in the Morning, I desired the Candle might not be put out; and being as well awake as now I am, to the best of my judgement, I was then pulled by the Hair of my Head off from my Pillow, and the same words declared to me as before; and then I saw the perfect face and proportion of a Man, in a black Hat, stuff Coat, and striped Neck-cloth, with hanging down Hair, and a sower-down-looking Countenance, and his Teeth being set in his Head, I had then time to say, Lord have mercy upon me· What art? at which he vanished: Yet the Candle burned very blew, and almost went out: Hereupon being much discontented, I did by the following Post give my Owners a just account of what had befallen me.

The Fifth of that instant, we set sail: about four of the Clock in the day, the Wind at W. S. W. fair Weather, and a brave Gale off the shore, which continued until half an hour after a Eleven on Wednesday Night; at which time the man at the Helm called out that he could not stir the Helm: but after I had pulled off the Whip-staff, the Ship steered as before, being still fair Weather, the Wind then coming to the N. W. and Snowing Weather, but very fair and clear. I was yet doubtful of more Wind, and therefore caused the Men to furl the fore Top-sail, and lower down the main Top-sail upon the back of the main Sail, but could not with all the strength we had hale in; the Weather brake off the fore Top-sail, when this was still in my judgement, that our Ship did hale as much, as when our Sails were out. Then we haled up our main Sail, and still the Ship had the same list as with a large Wind, which to my judgment might be half a streak or thereabout.

By this time it was Two of the Clock, then our Men tried the Pump, and found little or no water in her: the Man at the Helm called out, That the Candle burned so blew in the Lanthorn, That it gave little or no light, and three several times went out, so that I held the Candle to the Look-out, which Candle did burn very well, and showed a good light; but of a sudden our Ship would not feel her Helm so kindly as before, and brought all our Sails aback. Then our Ship heeled as much to Windward as before to Leeward: the Glass being out, we went to the Pump, and found no water in the Ship, but she did not steer well, neither could I find the reason, being still so fair weather: This unkind steerage, made me urgent to try the Pump yet more, but I could not get the upper box to work, nor stir; but having taken that up, and trying with the Pump-hook, we could not come near the lower box by a foot and a half, which to my judgement was hindered by something like a Bull-fish, or Woolsack, that as we forced down, gave up again with the hook: Whereupon Mistrusting that all was not well, I caused our men to keep the Coat of our pump up, and my self loosened the tack; in the mean time I ordered two men to loose the Boat, which they did, being lashed in three places: Yet they do not remember to this hour, that they loosened any of them but the middlemost; and with three men in her, the Boat went over the top of the Fore-sheet, which lay above the stem, without touching it, with such violence, as even amazed us that saw it: And they that were in the Boat gave such loud cries, as frighted him at the Helm who came running out unknown to me. But then finding the ship coming nearer the wind then formerly, I ran to the stair-case, to bid him put the Helm over, but could not: And hearing one jump down at the hatch, which was open at the half Deck, did suppose that the Helms man came down again; and calling him by his name to come and help me, the word was no sooner out of my mouth, but I perceived the same person that I had formerly seen before we came out of the Harbour; who came violently to me, saying, Be gone, you have no more to do here; throwing me in at the Cabin door, clear upon the top of the table; when I crying out, In the name of God what art, he vanished away in a flash of fire: thinking withal, that the ship had split in a thousand pieces, it giving such a crack. The men thereupon calling out, Master if ye be a man come away, did something revive me; and striving to have got to my chest, being I had some money in it, I found that something hindered me, but what it was I could not tell. Then perceiving the main Sea coming in so fast, that I was up to the waste, before I could get out of the Cabin; and finding all our men in the Boat but only one, I desired him to get a compass; which he did, yet could never after know what became of it. We were no sooner in the Boat, but the Ship sank down, and yet having a great Sea Fur Gown, which lay upon the dicker upon the ships going down, the very upset of the water brought it to the Boats side, and one of our men took it in. We reckoned our selves to be ten or twelve Leagues E. S. E. from the Spurn, I perceived the Fane at the Main-top-mast head, when the ship was sunk: We continued in the Boat from three in the morning, till ten or eleven that day, when we were taken up by a Whitby Ketch, who used us very kindly, and towed our Boat at his stern with two ends of a hawser, till she brake away: She being bound for Newcastle, and the wind being contrary, did on the Saturday following, set us a shore at Grimsby in Hull River, where the Mayor gave us a Pass for London.

This is a true and perfect relation to the best of my knowledge in every respect,

John Pye Master. And attested by nine men more, all belonging to my Ship.

Postscript. I had forgot to express, that one side of my face is burnt and blasted sorely, which I felt within half an hour after I was gone out of the Ship; but how it came upon me in the Ship I could not tell, being then in a great horror and amazement. John Pye.

The little pamphlet was published in both Edinburgh and London.

The slimy burgers of this earthly ball: Edward Browne and his troubles.

This image is of Edward Browne, a compulsive self-publisher and brooder upon his own wrongs, who busily published his recantations for ever publishing, and generally repeated offence he had already given in the course of his many denials of ever having meant to cause offence. He rushed into print with manic frequency between 1640 and 1642, and, in his self-absorption, was unable to see that 1641 was probably not the best time to put out a long prose meditation on the Virgin Mary. His magnum opus, conceived as a product of his own experience of that ‘soul ravishing and heavenly Muse’, du Bartas’s Urania, was A description of an annuall world, or, Briefe meditiations upon all the holy-daies in the yeere. But it was ‘not approved but greatly disliked contrary to my expectation’. He had based his work on the Church Liturgy and its holy days, but woke up late to how some would anyway term the Book of Common Prayer ‘The English Masse-booke’. His ‘Pharisaicall’ detractors said ‘It is papisticall and to be cast away as an Idoll’.

The woodcut Browne had made of himself is him creating his own image: a scholarly young gentleman, well dressed, at ease with his two pious children. He’s just writing ‘Finis’ to one of his works. Some of his problems, though, are exposed in the accompanying poem about himself, ‘A Phantastick Lover’. For writing was, in Browne’s case, Renaissance Un-self-fashioning, advised against by his employers, destructive to his fortunes, catastrophic to the marriage he had wanted to make, and putting him at odds with his time.

His story is told throughout his publications and re-publications. Sent out into the world to make his own fortunes, he became clerk to Sir James Cambel, who was senior alderman of London, had oversight of the French merchants in London, and was in charge at the ‘Staple’ in the wool and cloth trade. Browne was not able to go to university. He read widely in the Bible, largely for purposes of self-identification, and saw Sylvester’s translation of du Bartas as the best thing in poetry.

Now, clearly, Browne was at times difficult employee. He seems to have left and then resumed his service, he occupied himself with writing his books, against his employer’s advice, and he seems (this is me reading between the lines) to have attempted a socially ambitious marriage to one Rachel Bright. He never names her but broadly hints at her identity. This marriage may have been prevented; Browne blames his own writings: “I confesse it was not wisely done in me, to seeke the favour and good will of a young Damsell to be my wife, by making good Books.”

In February 1641 Sir James died aged 72, and he left a most spectacular will, one which fissured Browne entirely: for it was extraordinarily pious, but it did nothing substantial for his servant of sixteen or eighteen years. Despite his very mixed feelings, Browne launched into A rare paterne of iustice and mercy; exemplified in the many notable, and charitable legacies of Sr. Iames Cambel, Knight, and alderman of London, deceased: worthy imitation.

The details of the will are worth repeating: Cambel left 1,000 marks to start a free school in Barking, £2,000 to the Bridewell prison ‘for a stock to keep such at labour and work in Bridewell’, £1,300 to poor freemen of the Ironmongers company, £500 to Christ’s Hospital, £1,500 to St Thomas’s Hospital, £300 to the ‘poor, blind, lame, diseased and lunatic’ in three London hospitals, £1,000 to redeem captives from the Turks, £1,000 to redeem hopeless debtors from debtors’ prisons, £500 to poor ministers, £250 for a new bridge at the ford in Wanstead, £500 worth of coals to warm the poor, £1,000 towards the repair of St Paul’s Cathedral, and, rather revealingly, £200 to beggars ‘to avoid trouble on the day of his Funeral dinner’. The estimated £10,00 more of ‘overplus’ Cambel which thought might be realised in the winding up of his estate (bad debts allowing) were to go to other charitable works as his executors thought fit.

Oh, and he left £20 to Edward Browne his clerk, among £300 to be given out among his former servants.

The executors must have drawn a deep breath when they saw this will, which conspicuously fails to make provision for his wife of 24 years, Dame Rachel, who was his ‘relict executrix’ (with two others). Then they must also have been taken aback when Browne, torn between admiration and being aggrieved, rushed all this into print as a rare example of charity. I imagine there might have been some thought about challenging the will: Browne had publicised it in all its munificence, alerting all kinds of interested parties.

Browne, making the best of his own situation, makes it far worse:

If Sir James ‘had given me a large portion of wealth, I should have been proud and idle, but being due so small a portion for my long service, it hath made me humble and industrious to publish his charitable Legacies’.

He describes, with apparent enthusiasm, Sir James’s monument for St Olaves Church in Old Jewry (in my other composite image, with the portrait): Sir James to ‘lie there is stately sort / Clad all in armour like a Martiall man’ (with his aldermanic robes over the armour), Justice at his feet, Mercy at his head, ‘Close by him kneels his lady’, pleurans, while an angel descends from heaven.

But Browne seeks through the Bible for a precedent for his situation, and meditates obsessively on himself as Jacob, Sir James as Laban: that account in Genesis of long service and being cheated. ‘I will write of Laban, as a Serpent. I will divide him into three parts: first his head, secondly his skinne, and last of all his Sting’. In an autobiographical poem, he says he was ‘still employed to rub, to scrape, and sweepe’. We keep getting a subversive image of his posthumously munificent employer as tight fisted in his lifetime. After eighteen years of service, ‘eleven pounds is paid my due’. His sexual disappointment is mixed in with all this, of course: ‘Leah was tender-eyed, but Rachel was beautiful’ says the Bible, but Browne felt himself defrauded of Rachel Bright, and that Laban in his case ‘cheated him with blear-ey’d Leah’. This unwanted other partner must have borne the two children in the woodcut of the poet: Browne does not mention her, and maybe she died early, for he continues to say ‘I only want a wife’.

This double-edged tribute to his late master caused Browne no end of trouble. In his Potent Vindication for Book-making, prequel to his A compendious and patheticall retractation for book-making very usefull for these distracted times (1642, 1643), he has gathered nineteen signatories to a testimonial that ‘he did not these Bookes with any intent to dishonour his said Master’, and bitterly declaims against those who ‘say [now] as they did to my late Master, that I seeke his and their dishonour by bookmaking, and therefore not worthy to be harboured in an obscure chamber upon my owne bedding, as I have been this eight yeares, and upwards’. You see, even as he denies, he confirms his real feelings.

Browne’s untroubled capacity for being in utrumque partem about himself is also apparent in his long self-conflict over his publishing. In writing his works, he ‘lost Pretious time … I lost my Love who is lately married to another’, and, what grieves him most, he lost money. It cost him £20 to put his Annual World, his Sacred Poems, his Star, Meteor and the pattern of Justice and Mercy into print, and ‘I believe if I had surceased from printing books my Master would have bequeathed me £200’ (this is from his Sir James Cambels Clarks Disaster by Making Books, Nov 15^th 1642).

Browne couldn’t help loving his own works. He planned a complete edition: ‘I did lately joyne all my labours of love together in the volume with marginall note and annotations, and offered them to the press. But no executioner, I mean a Stationer or Printer had the heart to undertake the work’. If he had got his legacy, he’d probably have blown it all on vanity printing.

I will end with some of his verse, in his manner after du Bartas. He’s writing about the creation of the fish in Genesis I 20-22:

“Th’Almighty Father, as of watery matter

It pleased him make the people of the water,

So of an earthly substance made he all

The slimy Burgers of this earthly ball.”

As poor Browne says in self-vindication, Francis Quarles, George Wither and John Taylor the Water Poet encouraged him in his writing. Yes, that makes sense.

A witch detected en route for America, aboard the ‘Recovery’, 1674.

“We shall here according to our promise … give a full and true relation of a strange account which, as a supplement to our papers of Apparitions and Witches, we offer to the impartial Considerations of our Modern Saducees; who deny the existence of Witches, Spirits, & c. The whole relation and affidavits hereafter are originals, and we have also had a more particular Account from the captain of the Ship, Viva Voce, because we would neither be impos’d upon ourselves, or be accessory to the imposing upon others…”

The writer is either Samuel Wesley (the father of John Wesley the Methodist), or John Dunton the bookseller and writer (soon to be the London publisher of Cotton Mather’s braying account of the Salem witch trials). The source is the periodical they produced, the Athenian Gazette or Casuistical Mercury, in the issue for Sunday, November 29, 1691. This publication was a twice-weekly print stimulus for coffee house chat, popular for “resolving weekly all the most nice and curious questions propos’d by the ingenious”. The ‘full and true relation’ was supplied as part of a continued campaign of propaganda for the validity of witchcraft beliefs: Wesley (or Dunton) was writing as one of the late 17^th century die-hard believers in witchcraft.

After the brief polemical introduction follows a quite fascinating account of a witchcraft accusation made in a nautical context, on a ship full of emigrants heading to Virginia. I have not seen it referred to before. The late 17^th century editor-writers of the Athenian Gazette claim that this account was original material, and that they had also interviewed the ship’s captain. John Dunton might have picked up the material and the personal contact during his own trip to America in 1685-6. It could also be a dishonest re-hash of a news pamphlet published closer to the date of the events, but I cannot find any sign of such publication on EEBO.

It is interesting in the way all witchcraft accounts are, but particularly striking is the setting, an accursed voyage in which the crew look around for the Jonah on board, and find a candidate whose culpability is endorsed by fellow passengers. The account lets us see the contagious idea of witchcraft on its way to America, with, indeed, an emigrant ‘witch’.

The difficult voyage from Plymouth

Here’s the voyage, with all its setbacks and accidents. This must be from the Captain’s ‘Viva voce’ account:

“On the twenty first of October, 1674, putting forth from Plymouth into the Sea, with the Ship Recovery of London: John Wood Commander bound to Virginia, we had very bad Winds as West South West, and at South, with very bad weather, that all our Fore Shrouds broke at times, being good Ropes, our Topmast broke twice, our Mizzen yard broak, our Spritsle yard washt from the Boultspreet, one Main and two Foretops split, most of our running rigging shatter’d, the Ship’s planks working from the Stern-post, our Men tyred with working: Fair weather or foul, it was all one, what was mended one day, would the next day be in pieces: In this condition we put into the Road of Fiall, in hopes of mending our gear: But being bad weather for six or seven days, that we were like to lose the ship, scarce able to get up our anchors, though all atground, our best bower cable broak, the Buoy under water, at a high water, which at half Ebb bearing, and good weather, our Boat went to the Buoy, and taking hold of the Rope, of seven Inches and a half, almost new, hal’d it up, having no hold of the Anchor which we lost; the Ship rolling excessively, Sea or no Sea: Upon this the Master ordered his Mate to get up the other two anchors, and stand off and on the road, until he went with the Pinnace to clear the Ship with the Councel, but proving clam, the Ship drove to Sea: The Master sending two Portagess Boats with Wines after her, could not reach the Ship, she drove so fast out. The mean times the Pinnace grabnels would not hold, that she drove ashore and sunk, breaking the hoodings to one Strake of her Keel upward from the Stem: The People on Shoar telling us we had a Witch aboard…”

There’s more material of this kind. Just possibly the Captain may have been covering up for an unseaworthy ship: he so continually stresses that these breakings and partings were all of new items of shipboard equipment that he may in fact have been covertly aware of actual deficiencies. He would then have backed the witch story which emerged as a fine distraction from his own failings.

The voyage must have been touch-and-go. The effort to ship wines from Portugal was a failure, with the ship ‘Recovery’ driven out to sea as if by supernatural forces. Those left ashore made a desperately risky attempt to catch back up with the departing ship, but once back on board, their only reward for their desperate risk-taking was a continued litany of disasters and deaths:

“Upon sight of the Ship, we put to sea with the Boat, making a Sail with three bisquet bags and one Oar for a gard, with which through Gods great mercy we reacht the Ship, the Wind fresh at North-East, the said ship accidentally tacking, fetch the Boat; which if the Ship had stood but one hour longer, and then tackt, she had weathered the Boat out of sight, that undoubtedly we had all perisht, being very leack, that we continuall hove the Water out with rundlets, and incapable to row; when we were well on Board, and the Boat in the Ship, bearing away our Course, we began to consider our Miserable Trouble and loss of Time, Anchor and Wine. One of our Passenger fell from the Ship, and was drowned. Thus being again at sea, we fell to our old trade of braking Shrouds, Chane, Boults and Plates, Rigging and Sails. Insomuch, that neither Iron, Wood, Ropes, or canvas would hold …

… Our Fore-yard broke with a little Wind, the Eye-boult of the Mizzen Sheet broke, the sheet was flown, the Sail split to Flitters …

… Every Night procured the Days work following, the Weather fair or foul, our men all sick, but the Master, Doctor and Steward, blessed be God, none of our seamen dying, but very weak and lame: Only one man with a rowl of the ship was flung from the head of the Maintopmast, making fast the Topgallon sail which blew loose, and was drowned under the ships stern; and another tumbled over the waist before day in a calm, and was drowned.”

The Identification of the Witch

Under this continued pressure, that old superstition of the sea (of there being someone on board who is causing all the misfortunes) meshes with the demonological aberration of their theology:

“The third of October 1674. at three or four a clock in the afternoon, our carpenters mate told our Master, our ship was bewitched by one Witch aboard, and two in England: and that we should not get to Virginia, but lye and spend our provision and liquor in the sea, and have no men left to help us, unless we bore away in time for some other Port…”

The opinion first voiced in Portugal is now openly voiced on ship. The carpenter’s mate is quizzed about where he has got this idea from – he is ready with a self-exonerative answer, it came to him as an answer to his prayers:

“Our Master questioning him how he understood this business, he answered, those often and continual accidents attending us, continually gave him Occasion fervently to call on God, begging of him to reveal to some body the Reason of our Miseries, and that accordingly in Prayers the particulars above mentioned, were revealed to him.”

The story is quickly believed, and acted on with astonishing speed. A candidate for the witch on board is identified then and there: Elizabeth Masters is seen alone, and she is either praying, or using the posture of prayer to sabotage the ship:

“Upon this Information, our Master observing Elizabeth Masters Posture, being on her knees on the forecastle, with her hands up, as if she were at Prayers, with her elbows between the kenels, where we were going to belay the Tack of our single small Foresail, which was now brought to our Main-yard, no female being upon Deck but her self, our said master calling down presently, said to several people, he feared that she was the witch, wishing she had no intent of mischief to the tack to which the sail was their belayed, at eleven aClock at night, the Master found the said Masters by her self upon the deck, all the rest of the passengers in their cabins, in the morning after day light, the said tack broak in little wind”.

This was a ship where things were always going wrong, and there were 130 people on board. So someone must always have been close to a piece of the equipment that soon afterwards fell apart. But Masters’ solitude and somehow suspicious display of piety (even though this was a ship where fervent solitary prayer might have been expected of anyone unfortunate enough to be aboard) have singled her out. There might even have been an invisible provocation in her surname: the ship’s ‘Master’ confronts, in Masters, a rival power on board, a woman with many masters. As she comes under scrutiny, in this next extract which tells of her actual arrest, ‘Master’ is actually set by the typographer as her surname. The ship’s master “Then rang the bell to prayers. Our gunner calling the passengers, sick and well up, the said Master as one startled at it, ‘What is the matter, Gunner’, who answered, ‘you must all to prayers’, she seeming blank, said no more, but was one of the first up, being observed to sit all the time in a very careless posture. At last the Foot Rope of the Mane or rather foresail broke in the clew, it being little wind as the others formerly did, and split, but we saved the canvas: Upon this suspicion, our Master Apprehended and clapt the said Masters in chain at a gun in the steerage …”

The testimonies against Elizabeth Masters

At this point, the Jonah-witch has been identified in this floating community. No petition of protest speaking of her good character follows, rather, a number of passengers come forward with their stories to confirm the justice of the detention.

Now, it tended to be taken as axiomatic that a witch under arrest could no longer command her spirits to do harm. The ship ‘Recovery’ was not going to recover so easily. Things continued to go wrong, and so a story rapidly emerges to account for Masters’ continued malign influence.

“after which apprehending of her: these particulars hereafter written, followed …We rummaged to know what Beer and water was in the said ship…” They find they have seven butts of water, and three of beer. Two of these butts of water are used, but two and a half butts of beer also are emptied, unaccountably. In the evening before they sighted land, only two full butts of water were left: and by the next morning “the water in both them was likewise out and lost, with the prints of the claws of some Creature, as cat or the like, left upon the Hoops of the said water-cask”. No one can see any sign of leakage, the water and beer supply is just being supernaturally drained. It turns into a close run thing: the ship arrives in Mari-Galante (an island off Guadeloupe) with “not above three gallons of water left”. Again, it’s hard not to suspect that Elizabeth Masters was a convenient scapegoat for some incompetent provisioning.

The captain’s account ends at this point, and there follows testimonies from passengers. They are all remarkable, and worth individual attention.

“William Rennols, Passenger

That in the month of October, 1674 in the night, Elizabeth Masters came to him as he lay in his Cabbin, between the decks of the said ship, and called this deponent by his name, who answered her the said Masters: This deponent further saith, that then the said Masters said to him, will you be of my gang? And if you will, you shall not want for Gold or Money: Saying, she was with this deponents mother, but the night before. This deponent farther saith, that he said to the said Masters, no truly, I will not have to do with you: This deponent farther saith, that the said Elizabeth Masters told him his Mother was a witch, and if he would be of her gang, he should go out of the said ship, and see his Mother when he pleased: This deponent farther saith, that his own Mother was a very lewd Liver, and kept a Brothel house in Dog and Bitch Yard, London, and would often in the night go abroad, and come home very bloudy, and that the said Elizabeth Masters lived with his said Mother.

The mark of William Rennols”

~ Rennols must have been a young adult who has turned godly, and rejected his previous life with his mother, the ‘lewd liver’. His internal conflict about his actions is obvious. He has heard the story about a ‘witch in England’ in league with the witch on board: he decides the witch back in England must be his own mother. This mother suddenly exerts a preternatural pull across the ocean, and even as he sails away from her, he is making no distance. Masters suddenly connects him closely to the lewd life in Dog and Bitch Yard which he had left, she embodies the temptation to go back to it, facilitating a return that would be quick and easy to do (but utterly evil).

The testimony of John Hall addresses the problem of Masters actually being under arrest, while the ship’s problems are continuing. She can also be a black cat. You will see that he automatically genders the cat he thinks he sees as female. Nor does that cat work its mischief alone:

“That on or about the twenty third of October, 74, He this deponent did see in the night, between the decks of the said ship, two things like black cats, which presently ran into a scupper hole, he this deponent catching at them, but mist them: this deponent further saith, that the next night he desired to watch with a Sword in his hand, to see if he could see any more Cats: This deponent farther saith, that accordingly he did watch, and that then, about Eight of the clock in the evening, he did see in the Great Cabbin of the said ship, something in the shape of a great black cat .. he did then and there with the said sword strike at the cat three blows, and, to his thinking, hit her every blow, and so it vanished. … there was not, to his knowledge, any Cat in the Ship.”

~ This is a classic story in witchcraft, that of the man who battles cats (in its full form, he actually injures the female witches who were in cat form. It’s in the Malleus Maleficarum, it’s in The Late Lancashire Witches.)

Matthew Lewis swore his corroborative account to Hall’s: “He did then on board the said ship, see a thing about the bigness of a cat, which looked him in the face, and that it came out of the Steerage of the said ship where Elizabeth Masters lay chain’d, and at his, this Deponents Cry, passed forward and vanished.”

Back across the Atlantic by coach and horses.

The deposition of Martha Jeffres is still more remarkable. We can sense the way she has listened avidly to both the initial deductions of the carpenter’s mate and to William Reynolds. She starts with a story which is directly based on the initial revelation:

“8^th October. … she, this deponent, went into the Steerage of the said ship, where Elizabeth Masters lay chained, and that the said Masters then, and there, asked her, this deponent, If the wind was fair for the ship? Who answered, she knew not: the said Masters voluntarily saying, That the said Ship should never get to Virginia, nor to any other place: but should lye tumbling in the sea until the people were almost famisht for want of victuals and water … the said ship never should get to England, unless some place of the ship was opened, and that the Master should have a worse passage home than he had out, saying, That she would drown him, the said Master, if she could, and be revenged of some other person in the said ship, if she lived.”

Jeffres then picks up on that tension between desire to carry virtuously onwards, or return sinfully back which was expressed in William Reynolds’ story, as she invents an extraordinary mechanism whereby the speedy return to London Reynolds had hinted at as being within the power of Masters and her ‘gang’ might be carried out: you would travel in a coach pulled by four black horses across the ocean! Moreover, her fantasy of speedy return from this voyage full of high level dread back to familiar scenes is so strong that she cannot stop herself from saying that she actually made the trip. It’s like a supercharged version of Robin’s nocturnal ride on a black horse all the way from Lancashire to London and back (on a black horse) in The Late Lancashire Witches:

“The said Elizabeth Masters came to her to her cabin, between the decks of the said ship, at Midnight, about the middle of the month of October 74 and desired her to go to London in a coach, which she would provide for her, with four black horses, to fetch on board the ship, Mary, living in Dog and Bitch yard, London: She, this deponent, farther saith, she accordingly to this Elizabeth Masters second request, went into a coach, with four black horses the same night, and was conveyed out of one of the upper decks gun ports of the said ship, into a dark room, which, after a little time, was light, with a fire in the chimney: She, this deponent, farther saith, she stayed there a small time, speaking to the said Mary, to whom she was sent, telling her, that Elizabeth Masters would speak with her; the which said Mary answered that she knew where she was and would come that night, in a Coach, to the said Masters: This deponent farther saith, That the time she stayed in the aforesaid room, shee did see many black shagged Dogs, and at her return to the said Ship again, she, this deponent brought with her aboard the said Ship in the said Coach, several men and women. This deponent farther saith, That the said Elizabeth Masters sent a woman with her, who turned like a bullock when she talked with the aforesaid Mary; and that ending her discourse with Mary, she, the said woman which turned like a bullock, turning again like a woman, said to this deponent, Will you be as I am, and you shall want for nothing, you shall live as if you were in heaven, and keep a Maid … This Deponent farther saith, That on or about the 21th of October 1674 at Midnight, a Cat carried her on her back, from her Cabbin, up the Steeridg scuttle, so through into the forecastle to ease her self and from thence into the steerage again; where a woman, a stranger, tempted her, this deponent, to turn; who still refusing, the said woman vanish’d …”

After telling this extraordinary and not entirely innocent story, Martha tried to cover for her own silence about what had been going on, and for the inevitable denial of Elizabeth Masters herself:

“Masters told her, That if she should tell either the Captain, or any other body in the Ship of what had past, she, the said Masters, would torment her night and day: This deponent farther saith, That the said Elizabeth Masters saith, she will dye before she will confess any thing. The mark of Martha Jeffres.”

Frederick Johnson, the Quarter-master, confirmed that he too had seen the enchained Elizabeth on the loose in feline form. He also had a vision of spirit sailors up in the rigging, apt to his profession:

(6^th December, 11 o clock at night), “sitting in the steerage, on board the Ship, Smoaking Tobacco, see a thing, in the shape of a Black cat, come from the place where Elizabeth Masters was chained.”

(Middle of January at Mari-galant) he saw “the Larboard yard-arm of the said Main yard, full of men, as if they were furling the sayls; this deponent declaring, he stood upon the Quarter deck near, and viewing them, for the space of half a quarter of an hour; at last all vanished.”

William Goodfellow, the ship’s cooper, was actually wounded by the cat:
(22^nd December, near midnight) “something passed over him very hard, that it left the print of a Cat’s Foot, or the like, in the flesh of his Thigh, through his Cloaths”. A night or two later, he saw the great black cat in the ship’s great cabin which John Hall assailed with his sword - and “to this deponent’s thinking, hit her the said cat two or three blows, and then it vanished”.

You can imagine that a lot of the passengers on the ship Recovery would have been in a bad physical shape, or ill. “Mary Leare, passing.” may simply have been infested with fleas, but the identification of a witch on board offers a more dramatic explanation and a traditional anti-charm solution – scratching the witch and drawing blood, to break the charm. Masters was chained to a gun, and could not escape:

(Mary Leare was) “Dreadfully pinched at the small of her back, hips, and Buttocks: This deponent farther saith, That she was very desirous to get blood of Elizabeth Masters, believing it was she that pinched and Bewitched her: the which blood, the said deponent saith, She did fetch blood of the said Masters, and from that to this time hath gained her health.”

Others took the same course against their maladies. John Westrow testified that on 23^rd December ,“standing behind Elizabeth Masters, where she lay in chains … it being after a Sick man had pricked her, to get her blood; which said sick man often declared, he see her, the said Masters pinch him in his cabin … which said Man is now dead: he, the said deponent, farther saith, he did then and there hear the said Elizabeth Masters say, You prick and punish me, but you do not punish Martha, who went the other night to London.”

Comment by the late 17^th century editors

You can see by this last remark quoted that the inventive Martha Jefferies had talked herself into trouble. Frustratingly, the account ends there, and the fate of Elizabeth Masters is not mentioned. Wesley (or Dunton) finally make some remarks on the depositions:

“Remarks upon the first Deposition” (i.e., William Reynolds, ‘join our gang and you won’t be short of money’):

“'Tis an egregious cheat the Devill puts on 'em, making 'em believe, they enjoy such and such Treasures, Entertainments, &c which is evidently false, by their being always Lean and Poor.”

“Remarks upon the second Deposition” (i.e. John Hall, black cats):

“These apparitions are not the real parties chang’d into such Creatures, for the Witches are always exanimated at such times, and their bodies at home appearing to be dead…”

3^rd (Matthew Lewis, black cats again): “ 'Twas no cheat, and seen by many: the Captain himself says, he saw it.”

5^th (William Goodfellow, wounded by the cat): “this strengthens the Credit of the foremention’d depositions … we will allow Fancy may do much to the representing of the things, but it cannot pain a man to make him cry, nor wound him with shapes of Cat’s feet, &c … all saw the Impression upon his Thigh.”

The editorial comment on 7^th and 8^th depositions seems actually to begin with comment on Martha Jeffres’ dangerous testimony, the third given: “ 'Tis a great Question, Whether the Devill can use any Art to save a Person from expiring, in so swift a motions as this must be, we believe not; but rather that this Martha was her self deceiv’d, and was really a W---ch: (For the Captain told me, he heard that she was afterwards burnt for a W---ch. Tis probable, all that she thought, said, and did, was Delusion, and Suggested to her fancy by the Devil.”

King James in his Demonologie thinks that witches can fly for only so long as they can hold their breath, otherwise their velocity through the air would kill them. The editor seems to refer to this ‘great Question’. Martha’s fate sounds like hearsay. I do not know why ‘witch’ is here softened to ‘w---ch’, there had been no previous compunction about using the word. The editor goes on to condemn the practice of scratching: “Fetching Blood … 'tis unlawful, and a breach of the Sixth Commandment .. 'tis an unaccountable wickedness, and a running to the Devil, to be cur’d of the Distemper.”

So that’s the story, not quite complete. I suppose these people all eventually arrived at Virginia. They had endured a nightmare voyage, and, in a way very traditional to the sea, had identified the cause of their troubles, and tried to do something about it. That witches could raise tempests and sink ships was common lore. Transformation and transvection stories accrued to the collective narrative they shaped. A yearning to be back with their families, however disreputable, or simply safe by a London fireside was evident and understandable. Most victimised Elizabeth Masters without compunction; Martha Jefferies produced her dangerous narrative of complicity. What happened to the accused woman isn’t recorded, which is odd. It is easy to imagine that the Recovery sailed on, and that Guadeloupe inherited the problem of what to do with her. Indentured labour on a sugar plantation, I suppose.

My image is from A monumental memorial of marine mercy (1684). This will be my final post for a couple of weeks. I am off boating on the Norfolk Broads. Preferably without a witch.