irish witches 2

Continued.....

She was accused with her "followers" of sacrificing at the crossroads, 

using the entrails of the sacrificial animals to

make ointments, and concourse with demons. 

Nothing if not milking the idea that she was a witch to the full.

She had a spirit called Robert Artisson, who she consorted with..

..one of the denizens of Hell.

Sometimes he appeared as a black dog, a cat, or as a black man.

Are we talking about shadow people, in the days before

the concept of shadow people took off?

There was a fierce battle between Dame Alice and the bishop.

One of the Bishop's problems was that he was an Englishman, and 

not liked because of it, so local people did rally behind her.

Witch hunters didn't always have it their own way.

To rile him, presumably, she  even escaped

and fled to England.

In the meanwhile a woman called Petronilla de Meath 

confessed to all of the crimes attributed to Alice, 

claiming that Alice was a greater witch than she was.

For being a copycat, she was flogged and then burnt.

The first person to die for witchcraft in Ireland.

Alice lived a peaceful life in England, and maybe did cast a

few nice innocent spells here and there. Or maybe not?

The presence of a black man in this story really is interesting.

What exactly was the origin of the "Black Man" in 

magical lore.? Could all shadow people be the direct result 

of witchcraft? 

More on that........

magic in Ireland

Magic in Ireland

The source for the story is Christina Hole's Witchcraft in England

(1977). The edition is a favourite of mine because it 

is illustrated by Mervyn Peake.

Better known for Titus Groan and Gormenghast, 

He was an artist illustrator, of some skill as well...

That's by the way.

The story revolves around a Dame Alice Kyteler in 1324.

She  was accused of witchcraft by her husband, Sir John le Poer,

after a maidservant persuaded him that she

dabbled, and might be responsible for the wasting disease,

from which he was dying.

She had already had three  husbands before him, 

He took her keys from her, searched her coffers,

and found magical powders and unguents, 

( also a sacrimental wafer stamped with the name of the devil,

allegedly in some versions of the  story.)

He sent the evidence to the Bishop of Ossory.

Of course being Catholic, this came 

under the auspices of the inquisition.

Therefore she was accused of not only 

trying to poison her hucband 

 but of killing her previous ones.

She was also alleged to have seduced local people to follow

Witchcraft... Anything to make the charges worse, perhaps.

You remember them? , the Spanish Inquisition, looking a little like the Monty Python team?

... to be continued.

lancashire witches 4

Pendle

Well that was early in the seventeenth century

Harrison Ainsworth wrote The Lancashire Witches in 1848

Was access to all of the available records as easy 

for  Ainsworth as it would be today.

Here is the Gutenberg australia issue

The story is downloadable off the web, from Gutenberg.

Front page of first edition

He first released the story in the Sunday Times in 1848. 

I believe that his source 

was an antiquarian frind, 

James Crossley, president of the Chesham society, 

and a  source book "The wonderfull discoverie of Witches 

in the countie of Lancaster"

Written by Thomas Potts, clerk to the court, in 1613,

 so it would have been fresh in his mind.

I like to be as clear as i can on sources of these tales.

The Lancashire Witches 3

The Lancashire Witches 3

Jenny Preston didn't get her planned meeting a year hence.

During the summer Thomas Lister died.

Perhaps then she had enough powerful magic herself?

At the end, he accused her of killing him. When he was dead, 

they brought Jenny to his body, and made her touch him.

Blood flowed. That convicted her. It was believed then that a 

murdered corpse woukd bleed in the presence of its killer

She never confessed to anything,  but was sentenced

 on the corpse's evidence, and evidence from others at the sabat that

she had been present. She was executed.

Most of the witches were accused of murder or bodily harm, and 16

deaths were put down to their powers.

Several admitted to having familiars.

Ten were sentenced to death, including Janet Preston and 

Old Demdike, who were already dead.

I have no evidence that the King was involved in the trial, 

As Harrison Ainsworth suggested.

One, Margaret Pearson was only sentenced to the pillory, 

as she had only killed a horse. 

The rest were acquitted, and maybe 

Descendants of  the witches survive today.

Y ou have to wonder about any confessions or statements 

Made by the culprits or the witnesses. For one thing 

How much pressure were they put under to confess?

Lancaster witches 2

The Lancashire Witches....continued.....

The action centred around Malkin Tower, home of Old Demdike.

One Jennifer Preston of Gisborne-in-Craven had come to ask help to kill

a man called Thomas Lister.

She too was a witch but her magic was not strong enough to

accomplish her "worthy aim"

The coven met at Malkin Tower after the arrest and questioning

of four witches,In fact on Good Friday. Those arrested were:

Old Demdike herself, Anne Whittle (Chattox), Alison Device and Ann Redfearn,

and they implicated others, and were set to be sent to the Assizes. 

So it must have been a very important meet, to free the other witches, 

put their differences aside, in the face of a threat from dangerous enemies, 

and to consider Jennifer Preston's important request.

This is recorded in the trial, so it provides some evidence of 

what their witch's sabbat was like.

They feasted on stolen mutton, before their  meeting,

And no demon was present.They did not worship Satan, dance, carouse,

nor sacrifice......It was in fact what we call today

 an extraordinary general meeting!

They decided to postpone their request to kill someone for 12 months.

 By that time, most of the coven were dead.

In the end 18 witches ended up in custody. 

Old Demdike died in prison.

Alison Device confessed to using a familiar spirit

 in the form of a black dog, to lame a pedlar, who had 

refused to let her have some pins.

She told the trial that her grandmother had bewitched a child, 

which had subsequently died, and killing a sick cow, which she 

had been asked to heal.

One of Elisabeth Device's children, Jennet, who was only 14 years old,

Calmly swore away the lives of members of her own family.

And Janet Preston, what of her......?

To be continued......

The Lancashire Witches

The witches of Pendle

Perhaps the most famous witch band of them all, in England,

The Lancashire Witches.

I have read Harrison Ainsworth's novel about them.

In 1612, in Pendle Forest.

Mostly from two families, originally, 

As they say, the house became divided, and it ended up being two

enemy groups of witches opposed to each other.

Both groups were brought to trial.

Elisabeth Southerns known as Old Demdike

encountered a 'devil' near a stone-pit in the forest, 

and it demanded her soul. This spirit was named Tibb.

She agreed, and it granted her wishes, often in the form 

of a dog or a cat, hence its name presumably.

 Sounds like it was a witch's familiar.

She initiated her son, Christopher Howgate,

 and daughter Elisabeth Device, and her children.

She then persuaded Anne Whittle, aka Chattox, 

to give her soul to a spirit, 

and then this band terrorised the neighbourhood.

However, one night there was a break in at the Device's house, and 

goods were stolen. Alison Device, 

one of Elisabeth Device's children, saw Ann Redfearn,

Old Chattox's married daughter, wearing linen and a coif stolen

 from them, and the feud began.

John Device the husband, was so afraid of Anne Chattox

that he paid her blackmail, against her magics,

so she must have grown more powerful than his mother-in law.

You have to assume that her spirit assistant was a real demon,

and consequently more powerful than Tibb was.

.....to be continued......

Mother Shipton

Ursula Soothtell, (1488-1561)

was that really her name?

Here's an early image of herself

She was a witch of some notoriety, 

alleged to have been able to foretell the future,

rather like Nostradamus, of major events 

like the Great Fire of London.

and to commune with demons.

There is a cave named after her, and a statue inside

She came to be called Mother Shipton by marrying a carpenter 

called Tony Shipton.

According to her the world came to an end in 1881.

Frankly, i do believe her.... 

We are now living in a great computer program.

Did she also foresee that?

A lot of her prophecies post date her. She was one of these 

individuals, who was posthumously made into something

greater than she had originally been

She even has a moth named after her.

Can you see a witch's face in the wing patterns?

She is supposed to be hideously  ugly

So, why did Tony marry her? Was he enchanted by her,

Or.... was he a practitioner himself, who believed that

marriage to such a powerful witch would be of magical benefit to him?