DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9841#0244
XXXVI.] EVEN IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 225
that "never so diffamed persons may serue for sufficient
witnesses and proofes in such triallsand, as late as
the year 1664, Sir Matthew Hale told a jury, that since
the Scripture left no doubt that there was such a thing
as witchcraft, " the only question to be considered by
them was, 1st, whether certain children were really be-
witched, and 2d, whether the witchcraft was sufficiently
brought home to the prisoners at the bar;" two unfortu-
nate women, who were found guilty by the jury, were
sentenced by the judge'02, and were duly hanged by the
executioner103.
102 ttjn conclusion the judge and all the court were fully satisfied with
the verdict, and thereupon gave judgement against the witches that they
should be hanged. They were much urged to confess, but would not. That
morning we departed for Cambridge, but no reprieve was granted: and they
were executed on Monday the seventeenth of March following, but they
confessed nothing." A Tryall of Witches at the Assizes held at Bury
St Edmond's, for the County of Suffolk; on the tenth day of March, 16(i4,
before Sir Matthew Hale, Kt. &c." London, 1682. pp. 58-5!).
103 The last death in Scotland, for the same crime, was in the year 1722.
Sir Walter. Scott, Demonology, Letter ix. p. 338. The statute of
James was not repealed till just a hundred years ago (in 1730). In France
Louis XIV. had forbidden all judicial investigation into alleged cases of
sorcery more than half a century earlier, and only eight years after Sir Matthew
Hale had pronounced his sentence of death on a similar charge. See Vol-
taire, Siecle de Louis XIV. Ch. xxxi. Godwin, Lives of the Necro-
mancers, p. 464.
that "never so diffamed persons may serue for sufficient
witnesses and proofes in such triallsand, as late as
the year 1664, Sir Matthew Hale told a jury, that since
the Scripture left no doubt that there was such a thing
as witchcraft, " the only question to be considered by
them was, 1st, whether certain children were really be-
witched, and 2d, whether the witchcraft was sufficiently
brought home to the prisoners at the bar;" two unfortu-
nate women, who were found guilty by the jury, were
sentenced by the judge'02, and were duly hanged by the
executioner103.
102 ttjn conclusion the judge and all the court were fully satisfied with
the verdict, and thereupon gave judgement against the witches that they
should be hanged. They were much urged to confess, but would not. That
morning we departed for Cambridge, but no reprieve was granted: and they
were executed on Monday the seventeenth of March following, but they
confessed nothing." A Tryall of Witches at the Assizes held at Bury
St Edmond's, for the County of Suffolk; on the tenth day of March, 16(i4,
before Sir Matthew Hale, Kt. &c." London, 1682. pp. 58-5!).
103 The last death in Scotland, for the same crime, was in the year 1722.
Sir Walter. Scott, Demonology, Letter ix. p. 338. The statute of
James was not repealed till just a hundred years ago (in 1730). In France
Louis XIV. had forbidden all judicial investigation into alleged cases of
sorcery more than half a century earlier, and only eight years after Sir Matthew
Hale had pronounced his sentence of death on a similar charge. See Vol-
taire, Siecle de Louis XIV. Ch. xxxi. Godwin, Lives of the Necro-
mancers, p. 464.