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    Witchcraft and Devil Lore in the Channel Islands Transcripts from the Official Records of the Guernsey Royal Court, with an English Translation and Historical Introduction
    Witchcraft and Devil Lore in the Channel Islands Transcripts from the Official Records of the Guernsey Royal Court, with an English Translation and Historical Introduction
    Witchcraft and Devil Lore in the Channel Islands Transcripts from the Official Records of the Guernsey Royal Court, with an English Translation and Historical Introduction
    Ebook119 pages1 hour

    Witchcraft and Devil Lore in the Channel Islands Transcripts from the Official Records of the Guernsey Royal Court, with an English Translation and Historical Introduction

    By John Linwood Pitts

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    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArchive Classics
    Release dateMay 1, 2007
    Witchcraft and Devil Lore in the Channel Islands Transcripts from the Official Records of the Guernsey Royal Court, with an English Translation and Historical Introduction

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      Book preview

      Witchcraft and Devil Lore in the Channel Islands Transcripts from the Official Records of the Guernsey Royal Court, with an English Translation and Historical Introduction - John Linwood Pitts

      The Project Gutenberg EBook of Witchcraft and Devil Lore in the Channel

      Islands, by John Linwood Pitts

      This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with

      almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or

      re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included

      with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net

      Title: Witchcraft and Devil Lore in the Channel Islands

      Author: John Linwood Pitts

      Release Date: December 2, 2005 [EBook #17203]

      Language: English

      *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WITCHCRAFT AND DEVIL LORE IN ***

      Produced by Steven Gibbs, Linda Cantoni, and the Online

      Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

      WITCHCRAFT

      AND

      DEVIL LORE

      IN THE

      CHANNEL ISLANDS

      TRANSCRIPTS FROM THE OFFICIAL RECORDS OF THE GUERNSEY ROYAL COURT, WITH AN ENGLISH TRANSLATION AND HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.

      BY

      JOHN LINWOOD PITTS,

      Membre de la Société des Antiquaires de Normandie.

      Editor of The Patois Poems of the Channel Islands; The Sermon on the Mount and the Parable of the Sower, in the Franco-Norman Dialects of Guernsey and Sark, &c., &c.

      Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.

      —Exodus xxii, 18.

      Guernsey:

      GUILLE-ALLÈS LIBRARY,

      AND

      THOMAS M. BICHARD, PRINTER TO THE STATES.

      1886.

      [All Rights Reserved.]

      TO

      EDGAR MacCULLOCH, Esquire,

      F.S.A., LONDON AND NORMANDY, AND MEMBER OF THE FOLKLORE SOCIETY,

      BAILIFF OF GUERNSEY,

      WHOSE HISTORICAL RESEARCHES HAVE TENDED SO MUCH TO ELUCIDATE THE TIME-HONOURED CONSTITUTION

      AND

      ANCIENT CUSTOMS OF HIS NATIVE ISLAND,

      THIS

      BRIEF RECORD OF ONE OF THE DARKEST CHAPTERS IN ITS CHEQUERED ANNALS

      IS DEDICATED

      WITH SENTIMENTS OF THE HIGHEST RESPECT AND ESTEEM.

      Venena magnum fas nefasque non valent Convertere humanam vicem.

      Horace, Epod. V. 87-8.

      FOREWORD.

      In presenting to the public another little volume of the Guille-Allès Library Series, it affords me much pleasure to acknowledge various kindnesses experienced during its preparation. From Edgar MacCulloch, Esq., F.S.A., Bailiff of Guernsey, I have received several valuable hints and suggestions bearing upon the subject; and also from F.J. Jérémie, Esq., M.A., Jurat of the Royal Court. I am also particularly indebted to James Gallienne, Esq., Her Majesty's Greffier, for his uniform kindness and courtesy in allowing the fullest access at all times to the Archives under his care, not only in respect to the subject-matter of the present publication, but also in other historical researches which I have wished to make. I am equally obliged to Mr. E.M. Cohu and Mr. H.J.V. Torode, Deputy-Greffiers, and to Mr. A. Isemonger, Bailiff's Clerk, for various information and much ready help, which materially facilitated my investigations. All these gentlemen have my cordial acknowledgments and best thanks.

      J.L.P.

      Guernsey, December, 1885.

      Note.—The Seal represented on the title page is that of the Guernsey Bailiwick. It was first granted by Edward I. in the seventh year of his reign (1279), and bears the inscription: S. Ballivie Insule de Gernereye.

      CONTENTS.

      Dedication v.

      Foreword vii.

      Table of Contents viii.

      Introduction 1

      Witchcraft in Guernsey 1

      The Witches' Sabbath 2

      The Devil's Ointment 2

      Three Women burnt for Heresy in Guernsey 3

      Witchcraft in Jersey 4

      Ordinance of the Royal Court 4

      Women Hanged and Burnt *4

      Mr. Philippe Le Geyt's Opinion 5

      Later Superstitions 5

      The Pricking of Witches *5

      Sorcerots, or Witches' Spells 6

      Torture of Witches in Guernsey *6

                        Scotland 7

      General Persecution of Witches *7

      On the Continent *7

      In America *7

      In England 8

      In Scotland 8

      Confessions of Guernsey Witches under Torture 9

      Collette Du Mont 11

      Marie Becquet 15

      Isabel Becquet 16

      Depositions against Collas Becquet 22

      Note on the Guernsey Records 27

      Witchcraft Trials in Guernsey, 1563-1634 28

      The Story in Brief of the Guille-Allès Library 33

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      INTRODUCTION.

      The Witchcraft superstitions of the Channel Islands, sad as they were in their characteristics and results—as is abundantly evidenced by our judicial records—were but a part and parcel of that vast wave of unreasoning credulity which swept across the civilised world during the Middle Ages, and more or less affected every class of society, and all sorts and conditions of men. From the lists given in the following pages (pp. 28-32), it will be seen that in about seventy-one years, during the reigns of Elizabeth, James I. and Charles I., no fewer than seventy-eight persons—fifty-eight of them being women, and twenty of them men—were brought to trial for Sorcery in Guernsey alone. Out of these unfortunate victims, three women and one man appear to have been burnt alive; twenty-four women and four men were hanged first and burnt afterwards; one woman was hanged for returning to the island after being banished; three women and one man were whipped and had each an ear cut off; twenty-two women and five men were banished from the island; while five women and three men had the good fortune to be acquitted. Most of these accused persons were natives of Guernsey, but mention is made of one woman from Jersey, of three men and a woman from Sark, and of a man from Alderney.

      With regard to the gatherings at the so-called Witches' Sabbaths, there can be no doubt that—quite apart from the question of any diabolic presence at such meetings—very questionable assemblies of people did take place at intervals among the inhabitants of many countries. Probably these gatherings first had their rise in the old pagan times, and were subsequently continued from force of habit, long after their real origin and significance had been forgotten. Now, it would be very easy for these orgies to become associated—particularly in the then superstitious condition of the popular mind—with the actual bodily presence of the Devil as one of the participants; while it is also not improbable that, in some cases at least, heartless and evil-minded persons worked upon the prevailing credulity to further their own nefarious purposes. Our esteemed Bailiff has offered a suggestion or two of considerable value on this point with regard to certain Guernsey phases of the superstition. He thinks it highly probable that some of these deluded women were actually the dupes of unprincipled and designing men, who arrayed themselves in various disguises and then met their unfortunate victims by appointment. This idea

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