A CASE OF WITCHCRAFT

Whitsun 1599 – Edmund Pike, steward of Edward Seymour, the Earl of Hertford at Tottenham Park, was charged by his lordship to enquire into faults and misdemeanours at Easton concerning witches, enchanters and charmers.

Pike duly presided at the Law Day of the manor court. A villager, Michael Clark, accused John Stagg of being a witch who had used a charm on his livestock, several of which had subsequently died.

None of the jurors present were prepared to support Clark’s claim at which point he became very aggressive.  Edmund Pike’s frustration reached tipping point, telling Clark that ‘if he did notleave off such malice and enmity, he would die a beggar’ and thereupon closed up his book and departed, although the court had not yet ended.

The matter was then brought to the attention of the church authorities. In the summer of 1600, several village residents travelled to Salisbury to make statements to bishop officials for a case between Michael Clark and John Stagg. Sorcery and magic were considered morally reprehensible and such superstitious beliefs were contrary to the established religion.

Among those giving evidence was a former Easton curate, Richard Brown, who stated that some years before, Stagg had asked him for paper and ink. While looking over his shoulder, Brown had seen Stagg write out three times ‘Arabo,Arabus, Adhibo, Adhibus Harpulis pro’ which he had explained was a charm to cure a mad (rabid) dog at Milton Lilbourne. Stagg then claimed he used such charms to cure pigs, dogs and cattle. Brown had asked the churchwardens to report Stagg to the bishop on his next parish visit, but they had not done so.

Stagg apparently wrote his charm on pieces of cheese or apple which were eaten by those affected by the bite of a mad dog. His use of charms was widely acknowledged in the parish and reported by other witnesses.

One witness stated that Stagg had given a note attached to an apple to Clark’s pigs and that ‘they never provided bacon or pork but pined away and died’. Another witness said that three years before, some pigs belonging to John Mist were bitten by a mad dog. Stagg had used the same charm - those he gave the charm to recovered and those to whom he had given none had died.

Clark and Stagg were well known as mortal enemies - on one occasion Clark had apparently beaten-up Stagg and thrown him in a ditch. Stagg had been previously charged twice with the crime of sexual incontinence, first with Edith Cottwell and secondly with Mary Tiler to whom he paid 8d per week for keeping of a child. It is probable that Clark had spread the rumours giving fuel to the enmity between them which had eventually burst into open conflict.

The reluctance of villagers to support the claims of Clark suggests that Stagg may have been fulfilling an important and useful role to his credulous neighbours. The bite of a rabid dog was a serious and often fatal matter in times before penicillin.

It is doubtful whether the case was brought to any conclusion. Suits were rarely prosecuted as far as a final verdict, probably because the sheer effort of going to court often defused the tension and let tempers cool. Hopefully a degree of   calm returned to Easton, at least for a while.