Unnamed witches: a witch at sea. (Catalogue ref: SP 29/288 f. 5)
The witch in this source was accused of a range of serious crimes, including causing the Queen’s bareness and the death of an MP. It shows how much witches could be feared and what it was perceived their powers could be, 27 February, 1671.
Transcript
Paragraph 3:
- There is a woman about Looe in this County
- apprehended for a witch & is by letters from
- [?] I am informed that he hath dis-
- covered that she was in the fleet when the
- Duke of York was at sea & hindered the
- prosecution of that victor against the Dutch
- & that she hath been the cause of the
- Queen’s barrenness & several other things
- & that she caused the bull to kill Colonel
- Robinson a parliament man & justice of the
- peace because he prosecuted the non con-
- formists she being one herself: either a
- Presbyterian or a Baptist. She was discovered
- by cats bouncing in the air & inviting
- one of her neighbours to the same craft.
- Some say she is Mize & say & con-
- fess anything but by letter that came
- from those parts say that she hath several
- marks about her where the Devil hath
- sucked her. She is apprehended & sent to
- Gaol, the Assizes being near I shall then
- give you a more certain account.