Another adjournment took place, and the following day the Rev. Robert Strutt, Vicar of Ardeley, visited her at the White House (this was presumably the Walkern Cage), and found her with a relative, Mr. Archer of Sandon. There was the usual unsuccessful attempt to repeat the Lord's Prayer, but in addition, she was badgered into confessing herself to be a witch and to having bewitched Anne Thorne. She also acknowledged that she had a "Familiar," and that she had three confederates in Walkern, witches like herself; their names are not recorded. She admitted practising the Black Art for over sixteen years, before the death of her first husband, who, as mentioned above, is said to have come to a very miserable end owing to her bewitchments. Sir Henry Chauncy was speedily made acquainted with her "confession" and the implication of other witches; they were promptly arrested, but as Anne Thorne did not recognize them, they were set at liberty to await further evidence. Ánne Thorne was in the meanwhile constantly having fits and being as frequently restored by prayers; but a new source of discomfort was now added, viz., cats. She (and those in the house) saw and heard cats innumerable, which howled and scratched as cats do, and when discovered betook themselves to Jane Wenham's dwelling. One had a face like Jane Wenham's, and young Arthur Chauncy (who was well to the fore in all these adventures), would have killed a feline imp, "but his arm was stay'd." Anne now fell into a comatose state, but was revived by Jane Wenham being brought to see her. While there, Arthur Chauncy amused himself by running a pin up to the head in Jane Wenham's arm "a great many times," and when he plucked it out no blood came, only a little thin watery serum. The fits still continued, and were exorcised by prayer as before. Towards the next evening we have a fresh phase; crooked pins were placed in her hands by invisible means, and Arthur Chauncy (who seems to have spent all his leisure at the Rectory watching the maid) secured several for production in Court. These pins appeared everywhere, she even licked them off the pillows, and then suddenly they disappeared as mysteriously as they came; but persons who were watching Jane Wenham in the cage observed that her pincushion, which was full of pins at night, was in the morning quite empty! Meanwhile the cats screamed and scratched, and poor Mrs. Gardiner was so upset that she and her children withdrew to a neighbour's house for rest. Such a state of things could not continue, so a Mittimus was put into execution, and Jane Wenham was committed to Hertford Gaol. Before going the Revds. Bragge, Gardiner and Strutt with Arthur Chauncy tried to persuade Jane to make a "full and sincere Discovery," but to no effect; and when pressed to reveal her contract with the Evil One, she could only assert that "an Old Man did spit upon her." When urged further, she resolutely declined to commit herself, and said plainly they "lay in wait for her life," a truism that does not seem to have shamed the clergy in the least. Next we have the evidence of her escort to prison, Uriah Wright and Thomas Harvey. The latter merely echoed the former's statement, which was that Jane told him how she had seen the Devil over her shoulder, but on turning round he had gone, and that the said Devil came to her house and bade her hang herself in the buttery or drown herself in the river. Anne Thorne still continued to have her fits and recoveries, and now another discovery was made. In her newly-stuffed pillow were “cakes of feathers," so closely joined that no ordinary force could dismember them. The bewitched feathers were circular in form, a little larger than a crown piece, the small feathers placed in so many radii of the circle, in the centre of which the quill ends of the feathers met. Mr. Bragge counted the number of these feathers, and found them to be exactly thirty-two. He endeavoured to pull off two or three of them, but they were fastened by a sort of viscous matter, which would stretch seven or eight times in a thread before it broke; he suspected it was made from dead men's flesh. Having taken off several of these feathers, he removed the viscous matter and found under it in the centre some short hairs black and gray, matted together, which he verily believed to be cats' hairs. Mr. Bragge wished to save one as evidence, but he was over-ruled, and they were burnt, a course which was so effective that Anne had no more fits until the Assizes! It must be stated, too, that after Arthur Chauncy had killed a cat which knocked at the door, no more cries were heard. We have additional information, duly sworn before Sir Henry Chauncy, of how Anne saw a black cat, which spoke to her, and brought her a pin; she hid beneath the clothes, and on peeping out again found the cat gone. Jane Wenham (presumably in the shape of her "Familiar ") also appeared to her some three times, but apparently without doing her any injury. The Rev. Francis Bragge admitted that he met with much discouragement, for when he went abroad to obtain evidence he found "most people very inclinable to believe nothing at all of it." His anxiety to obtain a conviction would be amusing were it not so painfully discreditable in a man holding the responsible position of Curate of Biggleswade. He found to his annoyance that the indictment as drawn up only accused Jane of "conversing familiarly with the Devil in the shape of a cat," and not of bewitching Anne Thorne, which the Clerk of the Peace (presumably) absolutely refused to charge her with, thereby showing his good sense. The Grand Jury (one regrets that no record remains of the names of these credulous persons) speedily found a True Bill, doubtless influenced by Anne Thorne's behaviour, for she appropriately had a fit while giving evidence. The Judge was Mr. Justice Powell, who is described by Swift in his Journal to Stella as "an old fellow with gray hairs, the merriest old gentleman ever seen, who spoke pleasant things until he chuckled and cried again." The Court was crowded, so many females being present that the judge remarked, "they must not look for witches amongst the old women but amongst the young." There were sixteen witnesses in all, commencing with Anne Thorne, who had another paroxysm when in the witness-box, an exhibition which caused the judge to remark sarcastically that "he had never heard in any witch's trial before the person affected had a fit in court." Then we have the evidence of the Rev. Godfrey Gardiner and Mrs. Gardiner, followed by that of the Rev. Robert Strutt, who told of the recoveries of Anne Thorne by prayers. The Judge asked what form was used, and, being told, remarked "that he had heard there were Forms of Exorcism in the Romish Liturgy, but knew not that we had any such in our Church." Anne Thorne continuing in her fit, prayer was offered and she recovered. Arthur Chauncy's evidence was next taken. He narrated the adventure in search of sticks, the leaping over gates, the gathering of the cats, and the discovery of the pins. Some of these pins he was ready to produce, but the judge thought it needless as “he supposed they were crooked pins." Next came the chief persecutor, the Rev. Francis Bragge. His evidence chiefly dealt with the discovery of the "cakes or feathers" of which his Lordship desired to see a specimen, but as we have already seen, one could not be produced, they having all been burnt. Ten other witnesses followed, all with vague, unsupported beliefs, opinions and prejudices, which were clearly not evidence. The summing-up we are told was brief; the Judge, being fully satisfied of her innocence, went as far in his charge to the jury as he could, consistent with law, to induce them to acquit her; but as one writer says, "the same Ignorance and Superstition which had instigated her accusers to apprehend her, operated in the minds of twelve men, sworn to do justice; and they, to their eternal shame, found her guilty." My Lord then asked them "whether they found her guilty upon the charge of conversing with the Devil in the shape of a cat," evidently thinking there must be some limit to their credulity; but no, the Foreman replied, "we find her guilty of that." Upon this the prisoner (who said little for herself except that she was a clear woman) received sentence of death, but was reprieved till further orders. The rest of the Rev. Francis Bragge's first pamphlet is occupied with further descriptions of Anne Thorne's hysterical convulsions, and an extra judicial summing up of the whole case, of course with the same biassed malignity that he had shown all through. In the meantime Mr. Justice Powell was not idle. He sought an interview with Queen Anne, and with but little difficulty obtained a free pardon. As it was impossible for the poor creature to return to her native village, so bitter was the hostility of a section of the inhabitants, the parish was compelled to grant her a settled maintenance, and the authorities also had to bind themselves in sureties that she should be protected from all manner of violence. One account states that "she afterwards became possessed of a comfortable subsistence, that she did a great deal of good with it to the poor, and became as much the object of their esteem as she had been of their detestation." A home was found for her on the estate of Colonel Plumer at Gilston. Here she was visited by Mr. Hutchinson, one of the King's Chaplains and Incumbent of the Parish of St. James in St. Edmund's Bury, who afterwards rose to the Episcopal Bench. He tells us, in his "Historical Essay concerning Witchcraft," that he found her living "soberly and inoffensively,' and says further, I will take leave to add that as I have had the curiosity to see the good woman herself I have a very good assurance that she is a pious, sober woman. . . . I verily believe that there is no one who reads this but may think in their own minds that such a storm as she met with might have fallen upon them if it had been their misfortune to be poor and to have met with such accidents as she did in such a barbarous parish as she lived in." At Colonel Plumer's death she removed to a cottage on the Cowper estate at Hertingfordbury. She lived for nearly twenty years after her trial, in the same harmless and inoffensive manner in which she had spent the former part of her life, and died with all the marks of unfeigned and genuine piety. She died on Thursday, 11th January, 1730, and was buried in Hertingfordbury churchyard; her funeral sermon was preached by the curate, the Rev. M. Squire, to a numerous audience. No account of this celebrated case would be complete without A Full and Impartial ACCOUNT OF THE DISCOVERY OF SORCERY and WITCHCRAFT, Practis❜d by JANE WENHAM of Walkerne in Hertfordfbire, upon the Bodies of Anne Thorn, Anne Street, &c. The Proceedings against Her from Her being firft Appre hended, till She was Committed to Gaol by Sir HENRT CHAUNCT. ALSO HER TRY A L AT THE Affizes at Hertford before Mr. Juftice POWELL, where the was found Guilty of Felony and Witchcraft, and receiv'd Sentence of Death for the fame, March 4. 1711-12. Thou shalt not suffer a Witch to live. The Third Edition. LONDON: Printed for E. Curll, at the Dial and Bible against St Dunfian's Church in Fleetstreet. 1712. Price 6 d. |