Reporting murder: Fiction in the archives in early modern England

Social History

Volumn 23, Issue 1, 1998, Pages 1-30

  Gaskill, Malcolm ^a  

^a ANGLIA RUSKIN UNIVERSITY   (United Kingdom)

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 0346963310     PISSN: 03071022     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/03071029808568018     Document Type: Article

References (384)

1. The literature is now extensive. For guidance, see Douglas Hay, 'The criminal prosecution and its historians', Modern Law Review, XLVII (1984), 1-29; Joanna Innes and John Styles, 'The crime wave: recent writing on crime and criminal justice in eighteenth-century England', Journal of British Studies, XXV (1986), 380-435; J. A. Sharpe, 'The history of crime in England c. 1300-1914', British Journal of Criminology, XXVIII (1988), 124-37. For a review of some of the most recent literature see Malcolm Gaskill, 'New directions in the history of crime and the law in early modern England: a review article', Criminal Justice History (forthcoming, 1997).
2. The literature is now extensive. For guidance, see Douglas Hay, 'The criminal prosecution and its historians', Modern Law Review, XLVII (1984), 1-29; Joanna Innes and John Styles, 'The crime wave: recent writing on crime and criminal justice in eighteenth-century England', Journal of British Studies, XXV (1986), 380-435; J. A. Sharpe, 'The history of crime in England c. 1300-1914', British Journal of Criminology, XXVIII (1988), 124-37. For a review of some of the most recent literature see Malcolm Gaskill, 'New directions in the history of crime and the law in early modern England: a review article', Criminal Justice History (forthcoming, 1997).
3. The literature is now extensive. For guidance, see Douglas Hay, 'The criminal prosecution and its historians', Modern Law Review, XLVII (1984), 1-29; Joanna Innes and John Styles, 'The crime wave: recent writing on crime and criminal justice in eighteenth-century England', Journal of British Studies, XXV (1986), 380-435; J. A. Sharpe, 'The history of crime in England c. 1300-1914', British Journal of Criminology, XXVIII (1988), 124-37. For a review of some of the most recent literature see Malcolm Gaskill, 'New directions in the history of crime and the law in early modern England: a review article', Criminal Justice History (forthcoming, 1997).
4. The literature is now extensive. For guidance, see Douglas Hay, 'The criminal prosecution and its historians', Modern Law Review, XLVII (1984), 1-29; Joanna Innes and John Styles, 'The crime wave: recent writing on crime and criminal justice in eighteenth-century England', Journal of British Studies, XXV (1986), 380-435; J. A. Sharpe, 'The history of crime in England c. 1300-1914', British Journal of Criminology, XXVIII (1988), 124-37. For a review of some of the most recent literature see Malcolm Gaskill, 'New directions in the history of crime and the law in early modern England: a review article', Criminal Justice History (forthcoming, 1997).
5. For a general description of pre-trial procedures, see John H. Langbein, Prosecuting Crime in the Renaissance. England, Germany, France (Harvard, 1974); Cynthia B. Herrup, The Common Peace. Participation and the Criminal Law in Seventeenth-Century England (Cambridge, 1987), chap. 4; J. M. Beattie, Crime and the Courts in England 1660-1800 (Oxford, 1986), 268-81. On informal mediation as an alternative to prosecution, see Robert B. Shoemaker, Prosecution and Punishment. Petty Crime and the Law in London and Rural Middlesex, c. 1600-1725 (Cambridge, 1991), chaps 2, 4, 5.
6. For a general description of pre-trial procedures, see John H. Langbein, Prosecuting Crime in the Renaissance. England, Germany, France (Harvard, 1974); Cynthia B. Herrup, The Common Peace. Participation and the Criminal Law in Seventeenth-Century England (Cambridge, 1987), chap. 4; J. M. Beattie, Crime and the Courts in England 1660-1800 (Oxford, 1986), 268-81. On informal mediation as an alternative to prosecution, see Robert B. Shoemaker, Prosecution and Punishment. Petty Crime and the Law in London and Rural Middlesex, c. 1600-1725 (Cambridge, 1991), chaps 2, 4, 5.
7. For a general description of pre-trial procedures, see John H. Langbein, Prosecuting Crime in the Renaissance. England, Germany, France (Harvard, 1974); Cynthia B. Herrup, The Common Peace. Participation and the Criminal Law in Seventeenth-Century England (Cambridge, 1987), chap. 4; J. M. Beattie, Crime and the Courts in England 1660-1800 (Oxford, 1986), 268-81. On informal mediation as an alternative to prosecution, see Robert B. Shoemaker, Prosecution and Punishment. Petty Crime and the Law in London and Rural Middlesex, c. 1600-1725 (Cambridge, 1991), chaps 2, 4, 5.
8. For a general description of pre-trial procedures, see John H. Langbein, Prosecuting Crime in the Renaissance. England, Germany, France (Harvard, 1974); Cynthia B. Herrup, The Common Peace. Participation and the Criminal Law in Seventeenth-Century England (Cambridge, 1987), chap. 4; J. M. Beattie, Crime and the Courts in England 1660-1800 (Oxford, 1986), 268-81. On informal mediation as an alternative to prosecution, see Robert B. Shoemaker, Prosecution and Punishment. Petty Crime and the Law in London and Rural Middlesex, c. 1600-1725 (Cambridge, 1991), chaps 2, 4, 5.
9. The term 'mentalities' is subject to varied definition. Peter Burke has distinguished between mentalities in a strong sense (the history of intellectual systems), and a weak sense (the beliefs and ideas of ordinary people). In Britain, historians have tended towards the latter. 'The history of mentalities in Great Britain', Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis, XCIII, 4 (1980), 530, 538-9. See also Patrick Hutton, 'The history of mentalities: the new map of cultural history'. History and Theory, XX (1981), 237-9; Michel Vovelle, Ideologies and Mentalities (Cambridge, 1990), 4-12; Susan Reynolds, 'Social mentalities and the case of medieval scepticism', Transactions of the Royal Historical Society (hereafter TRHS), 6th series, I (1991), 21-3.
10. The term 'mentalities' is subject to varied definition. Peter Burke has distinguished between mentalities in a strong sense (the history of intellectual systems), and a weak sense (the beliefs and ideas of ordinary people). In Britain, historians have tended towards the latter. 'The history of mentalities in Great Britain', Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis, XCIII, 4 (1980), 530, 538-9. See also Patrick Hutton, 'The history of mentalities: the new map of cultural history'. History and Theory, XX (1981), 237-9; Michel Vovelle, Ideologies and Mentalities (Cambridge, 1990), 4-12; Susan Reynolds, 'Social mentalities and the case of medieval scepticism', Transactions of the Royal Historical Society (hereafter TRHS), 6th series, I (1991), 21-3.
11. The term 'mentalities' is subject to varied definition. Peter Burke has distinguished between mentalities in a strong sense (the history of intellectual systems), and a weak sense (the beliefs and ideas of ordinary people). In Britain, historians have tended towards the latter. 'The history of mentalities in Great Britain', Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis, XCIII, 4 (1980), 530, 538-9. See also Patrick Hutton, 'The history of mentalities: the new map of cultural history'. History and Theory, XX (1981), 237-9; Michel Vovelle, Ideologies and Mentalities (Cambridge, 1990), 4-12; Susan Reynolds, 'Social mentalities and the case of medieval scepticism', Transactions of the Royal Historical Society (hereafter TRHS), 6th series, I (1991), 21-3.
12. The term 'mentalities' is subject to varied definition. Peter Burke has distinguished between mentalities in a strong sense (the history of intellectual systems), and a weak sense (the beliefs and ideas of ordinary people). In Britain, historians have tended towards the latter. 'The history of mentalities in Great Britain', Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis, XCIII, 4 (1980), 530, 538-9. See also Patrick Hutton, 'The history of mentalities: the new map of cultural history'. History and Theory, XX (1981), 237-9; Michel Vovelle, Ideologies and Mentalities (Cambridge, 1990), 4-12; Susan Reynolds, 'Social mentalities and the case of medieval scepticism', Transactions of the Royal Historical Society (hereafter TRHS), 6th series, I (1991), 21-3.
13. Edward Muir and Guido Ruggiero (eds), History from Crime. Selections from Quaderni Storici (Baltimore, 1994) vii, 226. See also Jacques Le Goff, 'Mentalities: a history of ambiguities' in Jacques Le Goff and Pierre Nora (eds), Constructing the Past. Essays in Historical Methodology (Cambridge, 1974), 168, 174; Eva Österberg, Mentalities and Other Realities (Lund, 1991), esp. 117.
14. Edward Muir and Guido Ruggiero (eds), History from Crime. Selections from Quaderni Storici (Baltimore, 1994) vii, 226. See also Jacques Le Goff, 'Mentalities: a history of ambiguities' in Jacques Le Goff and Pierre Nora (eds), Constructing the Past. Essays in Historical Methodology (Cambridge, 1974), 168, 174; Eva Österberg, Mentalities and Other Realities (Lund, 1991), esp. 117.
15. Edward Muir and Guido Ruggiero (eds), History from Crime. Selections from Quaderni Storici (Baltimore, 1994) vii, 226. See also Jacques Le Goff, 'Mentalities: a history of ambiguities' in Jacques Le Goff and Pierre Nora (eds), Constructing the Past. Essays in Historical Methodology (Cambridge, 1974), 168, 174; Eva Österberg, Mentalities and Other Realities (Lund, 1991), esp. 117.
16. Simply because English legal records are less rich than their continental equivalents, and 'there will never be an English Montaillou or The Cheese and the Worms', does not necessarily mean we have to look elsewhere for sources as some historians have suggested; see, for example, James Obelkevich, 'Proverbs and social history' in Peter Burke and Roy Porter (eds), The Social History of Language (Cambridge, 1987), 43.
17. Muir and Ruggiero, op. cit., ix; Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie, Montaillou. Cathars and Catholics in a French Village (Harmondsworth, 1980), xv; Bob Scribner, 'Is a history of popular culture possible?', History of European Ideas, x (1989), 176-7, quotation at 177; Vovelle, op. cit., 99-100, 237. In addition, it is inescapable that historians of mentalities seek 'ordinary everyday assumptions on the basis of the records of what were extraordinary events in the lives of the accused': Peter Burke, 'Overture: the new history, its past and its future' in Burke (ed.), New Perspectives on Historical Writing (Cambridge, 1991), 12. See also Le Goff, op. cit., 172.
18. Muir and Ruggiero, op. cit., ix; Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie, Montaillou. Cathars and Catholics in a French Village (Harmondsworth, 1980), xv; Bob Scribner, 'Is a history of popular culture possible?', History of European Ideas, x (1989), 176-7, quotation at 177; Vovelle, op. cit., 99-100, 237. In addition, it is inescapable that historians of mentalities seek 'ordinary everyday assumptions on the basis of the records of what were extraordinary events in the lives of the accused': Peter Burke, 'Overture: the new history, its past and its future' in Burke (ed.), New Perspectives on Historical Writing (Cambridge, 1991), 12. See also Le Goff, op. cit., 172.
19. Muir and Ruggiero, op. cit., ix; Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie, Montaillou. Cathars and Catholics in a French Village (Harmondsworth, 1980), xv; Bob Scribner, 'Is a history of popular culture possible?', History of European Ideas, x (1989), 176-7, quotation at 177; Vovelle, op. cit., 99-100, 237. In addition, it is inescapable that historians of mentalities seek 'ordinary everyday assumptions on the basis of the records of what were extraordinary events in the lives of the accused': Peter Burke, 'Overture: the new history, its past and its future' in Burke (ed.), New Perspectives on Historical Writing (Cambridge, 1991), 12. See also Le Goff, op. cit., 172.
20. Muir and Ruggiero, op. cit., ix; Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie, Montaillou. Cathars and Catholics in a French Village (Harmondsworth, 1980), xv; Bob Scribner, 'Is a history of popular culture possible?', History of European Ideas, x (1989), 176-7, quotation at 177; Vovelle, op. cit., 99-100, 237. In addition, it is inescapable that historians of mentalities seek 'ordinary everyday assumptions on the basis of the records of what were extraordinary events in the lives of the accused': Peter Burke, 'Overture: the new history, its past and its future' in Burke (ed.), New Perspectives on Historical Writing (Cambridge, 1991), 12. See also Le Goff, op. cit., 172.
21. Muir and Ruggiero, op. cit., ix; Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie, Montaillou. Cathars and Catholics in a French Village (Harmondsworth, 1980), xv; Bob Scribner, 'Is a history of popular culture possible?', History of European Ideas, x (1989), 176-7, quotation at 177; Vovelle, op. cit., 99-100, 237. In addition, it is inescapable that historians of mentalities seek 'ordinary everyday assumptions on the basis of the records of what were extraordinary events in the lives of the accused': Peter Burke, 'Overture: the new history, its past and its future' in Burke (ed.), New Perspectives on Historical Writing (Cambridge, 1991), 12. See also Le Goff, op. cit., 172.
22. Muir and Ruggiero, op. cit., ix; Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie, Montaillou. Cathars and Catholics in a French Village (Harmondsworth, 1980), xv; Bob Scribner, 'Is a history of popular culture possible?', History of European Ideas, x (1989), 176-7, quotation at 177; Vovelle, op. cit., 99-100, 237. In addition, it is inescapable that historians of mentalities seek 'ordinary everyday assumptions on the basis of the records of what were extraordinary events in the lives of the accused': Peter Burke, 'Overture: the new history, its past and its future' in Burke (ed.), New Perspectives on Historical Writing (Cambridge, 1991), 12. See also Le Goff, op. cit., 172.
23. Michael Dalton, The Countrey Justice (1618), 269 (my emphasis). 'What appears as direct testimony in a judicial text may well be a paragraph redaction of something that took quite a long time to say': David Warren Sabean, Power in the Blood. Popular Culture and Village Discourse in Early Modern Germany (Cambridge, 1984), 2. In general, see T. G. Barnes, 'Examination before a justice in the seventeenth century', Somerset and Dorset Notes & Queries, XXVII (1955), 39-42.
24. Michael Dalton, The Countrey Justice (1618), 269 (my emphasis). 'What appears as direct testimony in a judicial text may well be a paragraph redaction of something that took quite a long time to say': David Warren Sabean, Power in the Blood. Popular Culture and Village Discourse in Early Modern Germany (Cambridge, 1984), 2. In general, see T. G. Barnes, 'Examination before a justice in the seventeenth century', Somerset and Dorset Notes & Queries, XXVII (1955), 39-42.
25. Michael Dalton, The Countrey Justice (1618), 269 (my emphasis). 'What appears as direct testimony in a judicial text may well be a paragraph redaction of something that took quite a long time to say': David Warren Sabean, Power in the Blood. Popular Culture and Village Discourse in Early Modern Germany (Cambridge, 1984), 2. In general, see T. G. Barnes, 'Examination before a justice in the seventeenth century', Somerset and Dorset Notes & Queries, XXVII (1955), 39-42.
26. Langbein, op. cit., 24, 33-45 and passim. According to Professor Langbein, the magistrate's principal job was 'filling in gaps in a system of citizen prosecution': ibid., 39.
27. Langbein, op. cit., 24, 33-45 and passim. According to Professor Langbein, the magistrate's principal job was 'filling in gaps in a system of citizen prosecution': ibid., 39.
28. W. S. Holdsworth, A History of English Law, ed. A. L. Goodhart and H. G. Hanbury (1903-72), vol. 3, 650; J. S. Cockburn, A History of English Assizes 1558-1714 (Cambridge, 1972), chap. 6, esp. 102-3, 120-2; Herrup, op. cit., chaps 4-6, esp. 86, 160. The first legal change to this came in 1666 when inquest depositions became technically admissible as evidence in their own right without verbal corroboration: T. B. Howell (ed.), A Complete Collection of State Trials and Proceedings for High Treason and Other Crimes and Misdemeanours (1809-98) (hereafter State Trials), vol. 6, 770.
29. W. S. Holdsworth, A History of English Law, ed. A. L. Goodhart and H. G. Hanbury (1903-72), vol. 3, 650; J. S. Cockburn, A History of English Assizes 1558-1714 (Cambridge, 1972), chap. 6, esp. 102-3, 120-2; Herrup, op. cit., chaps 4-6, esp. 86, 160. The first legal change to this came in 1666 when inquest depositions became technically admissible as evidence in their own right without verbal corroboration: T. B. Howell (ed.), A Complete Collection of State Trials and Proceedings for High Treason and Other Crimes and Misdemeanours (1809-98) (hereafter State Trials), vol. 6, 770.
30. W. S. Holdsworth, A History of English Law, ed. A. L. Goodhart and H. G. Hanbury (1903-72), vol. 3, 650; J. S. Cockburn, A History of English Assizes 1558-1714 (Cambridge, 1972), chap. 6, esp. 102-3, 120-2; Herrup, op. cit., chaps 4-6, esp. 86, 160. The first legal change to this came in 1666 when inquest depositions became technically admissible as evidence in their own right without verbal corroboration: T. B. Howell (ed.), A Complete Collection of State Trials and Proceedings for High Treason and Other Crimes and Misdemeanours (1809-98) (hereafter State Trials), vol. 6, 770.
31. W. S. Holdsworth, A History of English Law, ed. A. L. Goodhart and H. G. Hanbury (1903-72), vol. 3, 650; J. S. Cockburn, A History of English Assizes 1558-1714 (Cambridge, 1972), chap. 6, esp. 102-3, 120-2; Herrup, op. cit., chaps 4-6, esp. 86, 160. The first legal change to this came in 1666 when inquest depositions became technically admissible as evidence in their own right without verbal corroboration: T. B. Howell (ed.), A Complete Collection of State Trials and Proceedings for High Treason and Other Crimes and Misdemeanours (1809-98) (hereafter State Trials), vol. 6, 770.
32. Muir and Ruggiero, op. cit., ix. Even the cautious Michel Vovelle concedes that recent work suggests that court records 'allow far more truth to filter through the prison walls than we might have thought': op. cit., 241. The use of depositions as historical sources is discussed more fully in Malcolm Gaskill, 'Attitudes to Crime in Early Modern England, with Special Reference to Witchcraft, Coining and Murder' (Ph.D., Cambridge, 1994), 22-7.
33. Muir and Ruggiero, op. cit., ix. Even the cautious Michel Vovelle concedes that recent work suggests that court records 'allow far more truth to filter through the prison walls than we might have thought': op. cit., 241. The use of depositions as historical sources is discussed more fully in Malcolm Gaskill, 'Attitudes to Crime in Early Modern England, with Special Reference to Witchcraft, Coining and Murder' (Ph.D., Cambridge, 1994), 22-7.
34. Muir and Ruggiero, op. cit., ix. Even the cautious Michel Vovelle concedes that recent work suggests that court records 'allow far more truth to filter through the prison walls than we might have thought': op. cit., 241. The use of depositions as historical sources is discussed more fully in Malcolm Gaskill, 'Attitudes to Crime in Early Modern England, with Special Reference to Witchcraft, Coining and Murder' (Ph.D., Cambridge, 1994), 22-7.
35. Natalie Zemon Davis, Fiction in the Archives. Pardon Tales and their Tellers in Sixteenth-Century France (Stanford, CA, 1987), quotation at 3-4. See also Yves Castan, Honnêteté et Relations Sociales en Languedoc, 1715-1780 (Paris, 1974), 90-4; David Lindley, The Trials of Frances Howard. Fact and Fiction at the Court of King James (London, 1993), 3-5. Lennard Davis has argued that divisions between fact and fiction 'are not to be taken as simply logical, self-evident ways of classifying narrative, but are to be seen as themselves subjective and highly contextualized. . . . If humans treat these arbitrary categories as clearly defined, it is because we are habituated to their use': Factual Fictions. The Origins of the English Novel (New York, 1983), 8, 10.
36. Natalie Zemon Davis, Fiction in the Archives. Pardon Tales and their Tellers in Sixteenth-Century France (Stanford, CA, 1987), quotation at 3-4. See also Yves Castan, Honnêteté et Relations Sociales en Languedoc, 1715-1780 (Paris, 1974), 90-4; David Lindley, The Trials of Frances Howard. Fact and Fiction at the Court of King James (London, 1993), 3-5. Lennard Davis has argued that divisions between fact and fiction 'are not to be taken as simply logical, self-evident ways of classifying narrative, but are to be seen as themselves subjective and highly contextualized. . . . If humans treat these arbitrary categories as clearly defined, it is because we are habituated to their use': Factual Fictions. The Origins of the English Novel (New York, 1983), 8, 10.
37. Natalie Zemon Davis, Fiction in the Archives. Pardon Tales and their Tellers in Sixteenth-Century France (Stanford, CA, 1987), quotation at 3-4. See also Yves Castan, Honnêteté et Relations Sociales en Languedoc, 1715-1780 (Paris, 1974), 90-4; David Lindley, The Trials of Frances Howard. Fact and Fiction at the Court of King James (London, 1993), 3-5. Lennard Davis has argued that divisions between fact and fiction 'are not to be taken as simply logical, self-evident ways of classifying narrative, but are to be seen as themselves subjective and highly contextualized. . . . If humans treat these arbitrary categories as clearly defined, it is because we are habituated to their use': Factual Fictions. The Origins of the English Novel (New York, 1983), 8, 10.
38. Natalie Zemon Davis, Fiction in the Archives. Pardon Tales and their Tellers in Sixteenth-Century France (Stanford, CA, 1987), quotation at 3-4. See also Yves Castan, Honnêteté et Relations Sociales en Languedoc, 1715-1780 (Paris, 1974), 90-4; David Lindley, The Trials of Frances Howard. Fact and Fiction at the Court of King James (London, 1993), 3-5. Lennard Davis has argued that divisions between fact and fiction 'are not to be taken as simply logical, self-evident ways of classifying narrative, but are to be seen as themselves subjective and highly contextualized. . . . If humans treat these arbitrary categories as clearly defined, it is because we are habituated to their use': Factual Fictions. The Origins of the English Novel (New York, 1983), 8, 10.
39. On the importance of rooting the study of mentalities in social structures, exchanges and conflicts, see Le Goff, op. cit., 174-6; Peter Burke, 'Strengths and weaknesses of the history of mentalities'. History of European Ideas, VII (1986), 445; Michael A. Gismondi, "The gift of theory": a critique of the histoire des mentalités', Social History, X (1985), 212; E. P. Thompson, Customs in Common (London, 1991), 7.
40. On the importance of rooting the study of mentalities in social structures, exchanges and conflicts, see Le Goff, op. cit., 174-6; Peter Burke, 'Strengths and weaknesses of the history of mentalities'. History of European Ideas, VII (1986), 445; Michael A. Gismondi, "The gift of theory": a critique of the histoire des mentalités', Social History, X (1985), 212; E. P. Thompson, Customs in Common (London, 1991), 7.
41. On the importance of rooting the study of mentalities in social structures, exchanges and conflicts, see Le Goff, op. cit., 174-6; Peter Burke, 'Strengths and weaknesses of the history of mentalities'. History of European Ideas, VII (1986), 445; Michael A. Gismondi, "The gift of theory": a critique of the histoire des mentalités', Social History, X (1985), 212; E. P. Thompson, Customs in Common (London, 1991), 7.
42. On the importance of rooting the study of mentalities in social structures, exchanges and conflicts, see Le Goff, op. cit., 174-6; Peter Burke, 'Strengths and weaknesses of the history of mentalities'. History of European Ideas, VII (1986), 445; Michael A. Gismondi, "The gift of theory": a critique of the histoire des mentalités', Social History, X (1985), 212; E. P. Thompson, Customs in Common (London, 1991), 7.
43. Miranda Chaytor suggests that depositions 'often drew on ready-made stories or fragments of stories - the formulaic but adaptable anecdote, the memorable, serviceable image or phrase'. Thus they deserve careful attention 'not just to their content but to language and form: to the way the narrative is structured, to imagery, emphases and . . . to evasions and gaps': 'Husband(ry): narratives of rape in the seventeenth century', Gender and History, VI (November 1995), 379-80. The phrase 'weapons of the weak' belongs to James C. Scott, who argues that 'oral traditions, due simply to their means of transmission, offer a kind of seclusion, control, and even anonymity that make them ideal vehicles of cultural resistance': Domination and the Arts of Resistance. Hidden Transcripts (Yale, 1990), 160.
44. Miranda Chaytor suggests that depositions 'often drew on ready-made stories or fragments of stories - the formulaic but adaptable anecdote, the memorable, serviceable image or phrase'. Thus they deserve careful attention 'not just to their content but to language and form: to the way the narrative is structured, to imagery, emphases and . . . to evasions and gaps': 'Husband(ry): narratives of rape in the seventeenth century', Gender and History, VI (November 1995), 379-80. The phrase 'weapons of the weak' belongs to James C. Scott, who argues that 'oral traditions, due simply to their means of transmission, offer a kind of seclusion, control, and even anonymity that make them ideal vehicles of cultural resistance': Domination and the Arts of Resistance. Hidden Transcripts (Yale, 1990), 160.
45. Two Notorious Murders. One Committed by a Tanner on his Wives Sonne, nere Hornechurch in Essex. The Other by a Grasier nere Ailsburie in Buckinghamshire (1595) [Short Title Catalogue (hereafter STC) 18289], 3.
46. Peter Lake, 'Puritanism, Armimanism and a Shropshire axe-murder', Midland History, XV (1990), 37-64; 'Deeds against nature: protestantism, cheap print and murder in early modern England' in Kevin Sharpe and Peter Lake (eds), Culture and Politics in Early Stuart England (London, 1994), 257-83; 'Popular form, puritan content? Two puritan appropriations of the murder pamphlet from mid-seventeenth-century London' in Anthony Fletcher and Peter Roberts (eds), Religion, Culture and Society in Early Modern Britain. Essays in Honour of Patrick Collinson (Cambridge, 1994), 313-24. See also Gaskill, 'Attitudes to Crime', op. cit., chap 6, esp. 215-25. On Providence in general see Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic (London, 1971), chap. 4; Alexandra Walsham, 'Aspects of Providentialism in Early Modern England' (Ph.D., Cambridge, 1995), esp. chap. 1.
47. Peter Lake, 'Puritanism, Armimanism and a Shropshire axe-murder', Midland History, XV (1990), 37-64; 'Deeds against nature: protestantism, cheap print and murder in early modern England' in Kevin Sharpe and Peter Lake (eds), Culture and Politics in Early Stuart England (London, 1994), 257-83; 'Popular form, puritan content? Two puritan appropriations of the murder pamphlet from mid-seventeenth-century London' in Anthony Fletcher and Peter Roberts (eds), Religion, Culture and Society in Early Modern Britain. Essays in Honour of Patrick Collinson (Cambridge, 1994), 313-24. See also Gaskill, 'Attitudes to Crime', op. cit., chap 6, esp. 215-25. On Providence in general see Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic (London, 1971), chap. 4; Alexandra Walsham, 'Aspects of Providentialism in Early Modern England' (Ph.D., Cambridge, 1995), esp. chap. 1.
48. Peter Lake, 'Puritanism, Armimanism and a Shropshire axe-murder', Midland History, XV (1990), 37-64; 'Deeds against nature: protestantism, cheap print and murder in early modern England' in Kevin Sharpe and Peter Lake (eds), Culture and Politics in Early Stuart England (London, 1994), 257-83; 'Popular form, puritan content? Two puritan appropriations of the murder pamphlet from mid-seventeenth-century London' in Anthony Fletcher and Peter Roberts (eds), Religion, Culture and Society in Early Modern Britain. Essays in Honour of Patrick Collinson (Cambridge, 1994), 313-24. See also Gaskill, 'Attitudes to Crime', op. cit., chap 6, esp. 215-25. On Providence in general see Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic (London, 1971), chap. 4; Alexandra Walsham, 'Aspects of Providentialism in Early Modern England' (Ph.D., Cambridge, 1995), esp. chap. 1.
49. Peter Lake, 'Puritanism, Armimanism and a Shropshire axe-murder', Midland History, XV (1990), 37-64; 'Deeds against nature: protestantism, cheap print and murder in early modern England' in Kevin Sharpe and Peter Lake (eds), Culture and Politics in Early Stuart England (London, 1994), 257-83; 'Popular form, puritan content? Two puritan appropriations of the murder pamphlet from mid-seventeenth-century London' in Anthony Fletcher and Peter Roberts (eds), Religion, Culture and Society in Early Modern Britain. Essays in Honour of Patrick Collinson (Cambridge, 1994), 313-24. See also Gaskill, 'Attitudes to Crime', op. cit., chap 6, esp. 215-25. On Providence in general see Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic (London, 1971), chap. 4; Alexandra Walsham, 'Aspects of Providentialism in Early Modern England' (Ph.D., Cambridge, 1995), esp. chap. 1.
50. Peter Lake, 'Puritanism, Armimanism and a Shropshire axe-murder', Midland History, XV (1990), 37-64; 'Deeds against nature: protestantism, cheap print and murder in early modern England' in Kevin Sharpe and Peter Lake (eds), Culture and Politics in Early Stuart England (London, 1994), 257-83; 'Popular form, puritan content? Two puritan appropriations of the murder pamphlet from mid-seventeenth-century London' in Anthony Fletcher and Peter Roberts (eds), Religion, Culture and Society in Early Modern Britain. Essays in Honour of Patrick Collinson (Cambridge, 1994), 313-24. See also Gaskill, 'Attitudes to Crime', op. cit., chap 6, esp. 215-25. On Providence in general see Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic (London, 1971), chap. 4; Alexandra Walsham, 'Aspects of Providentialism in Early Modern England' (Ph.D., Cambridge, 1995), esp. chap. 1.
51. Peter Lake, 'Puritanism, Armimanism and a Shropshire axe-murder', Midland History, XV (1990), 37-64; 'Deeds against nature: protestantism, cheap print and murder in early modern England' in Kevin Sharpe and Peter Lake (eds), Culture and Politics in Early Stuart England (London, 1994), 257-83; 'Popular form, puritan content? Two puritan appropriations of the murder pamphlet from mid-seventeenth-century London' in Anthony Fletcher and Peter Roberts (eds), Religion, Culture and Society in Early Modern Britain. Essays in Honour of Patrick Collinson (Cambridge, 1994), 313-24. See also Gaskill, 'Attitudes to Crime', op. cit., chap 6, esp. 215-25. On Providence in general see Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic (London, 1971), chap. 4; Alexandra Walsham, 'Aspects of Providentialism in Early Modern England' (Ph.D., Cambridge, 1995), esp. chap. 1.
52. This belief was expressed in a variety of ways. One account claimed that God discovered murder by enlightening otherwise powerless magistrates; another stated that Providence triumphed where men's endeavours failed: Heaven's Cry Against Murder. Or, A true Relation of the Bloudy & unparallel'd Murder of John Knight (1657), 7; An Account of the Discovery of the bloody Murther and Robbery committed on Mrs Le Grand in Spittle Fields (1694), 15. The idea of divine exposure of murder pre-dates the Reformation, but illustrated providentialism particularly well; see Lake, 'Deeds against nature', op. cit., 273-4.
53. This belief was expressed in a variety of ways. One account claimed that God discovered murder by enlightening otherwise powerless magistrates; another stated that Providence triumphed where men's endeavours failed: Heaven's Cry Against Murder. Or, A true Relation of the Bloudy & unparallel'd Murder of John Knight (1657), 7; An Account of the Discovery of the bloody Murther and Robbery committed on Mrs Le Grand in Spittle Fields (1694), 15. The idea of divine exposure of murder pre-dates the Reformation, but illustrated providentialism particularly well; see Lake, 'Deeds against nature', op. cit., 273-4.
54. This belief was expressed in a variety of ways. One account claimed that God discovered murder by enlightening otherwise powerless magistrates; another stated that Providence triumphed where men's endeavours failed: Heaven's Cry Against Murder. Or, A true Relation of the Bloudy & unparallel'd Murder of John Knight (1657), 7; An Account of the Discovery of the bloody Murther and Robbery committed on Mrs Le Grand in Spittle Fields (1694), 15. The idea of divine exposure of murder pre-dates the Reformation, but illustrated providentialism particularly well; see Lake, 'Deeds against nature', op. cit., 273-4.
55. Sandra Clark, The Elizabethan Pamphleteers. Popular Moralistic Pamphlets 1580-1640 (London, 1983), 89-90. All manner of strange news was shaped into warnings against sin and immorality: see Walsham, op. cit., chaps 2-4; Jerome Friedman, Miracles and the Pulp Press during the English Revolution (London, 1993), esp. chaps 3, 8-10; Dudley Wilson, Signs and Portents. Monstrous Births from the Middle Ages to the Enlightenment (London, 1993), chap. 2.
56. Sandra Clark, The Elizabethan Pamphleteers. Popular Moralistic Pamphlets 1580-1640 (London, 1983), 89-90. All manner of strange news was shaped into warnings against sin and immorality: see Walsham, op. cit., chaps 2-4; Jerome Friedman, Miracles and the Pulp Press during the English Revolution (London, 1993), esp. chaps 3, 8-10; Dudley Wilson, Signs and Portents. Monstrous Births from the Middle Ages to the Enlightenment (London, 1993), chap. 2.
57. Sandra Clark, The Elizabethan Pamphleteers. Popular Moralistic Pamphlets 1580-1640 (London, 1983), 89-90. All manner of strange news was shaped into warnings against sin and immorality: see Walsham, op. cit., chaps 2-4; Jerome Friedman, Miracles and the Pulp Press during the English Revolution (London, 1993), esp. chaps 3, 8-10; Dudley Wilson, Signs and Portents. Monstrous Births from the Middle Ages to the Enlightenment (London, 1993), chap. 2.
58. Sandra Clark, The Elizabethan Pamphleteers. Popular Moralistic Pamphlets 1580-1640 (London, 1983), 89-90. All manner of strange news was shaped into warnings against sin and immorality: see Walsham, op. cit., chaps 2-4; Jerome Friedman, Miracles and the Pulp Press during the English Revolution (London, 1993), esp. chaps 3, 8-10; Dudley Wilson, Signs and Portents. Monstrous Births from the Middle Ages to the Enlightenment (London, 1993), chap. 2.
59. On claims to truth in cheap print see Davis, Factual Fictions, op. cit., 52-6; Walsham, op. cit., 39-40.
60. On claims to truth in cheap print see Davis, Factual Fictions, op. cit., 52-6; Walsham, op. cit., 39-40.
61. Thomas Cooper, The Cry and Revenge of Blood. Expressing the Nature and Haynousnesse of Wilful Murther (1620) [STC 5698], sig. F4v.
62. A Briefe Discourse of Two Most Cruell and Bloudie Murthers, Committed bothe in Worcestershire (1583) [STC 25980], sig. A8v; C. W., The Crying Murther: Contayning the Cruell and Most Horrible Butcher[ing] of Mr Trat (1624) [STC 24900], sig. C2; The Apprehension,Arraignment, and Execution of Elizabeth Abbot . . . for a Cruell, and Horrible Murther (1608 [STC 23], sig. B1v.
63. A Briefe Discourse of Two Most Cruell and Bloudie Murthers, Committed bothe in Worcestershire (1583) [STC 25980], sig. A8v; C. W., The Crying Murther: Contayning the Cruell and Most Horrible Butcher[ing] of Mr Trat (1624) [STC 24900], sig. C2; The Apprehension,Arraignment, and Execution of Elizabeth Abbot . . . for a Cruell, and Horrible Murther (1608 [STC 23], sig. B1v.
64. A Briefe Discourse of Two Most Cruell and Bloudie Murthers, Committed bothe in Worcestershire (1583) [STC 25980], sig. A8v; C. W., The Crying Murther: Contayning the Cruell and Most Horrible Butcher[ing] of Mr Trat (1624) [STC 24900], sig. C2; The Apprehension,Arraignment, and Execution of Elizabeth Abbot . . . for a Cruell, and Horrible Murther (1608 [STC 23], sig. B1v.
65. A Most Horrible & Detestable Murther . . . At Mayfield in the Countie of Sussex (1595) [STC 17748], sig. A4v; A Warning for all Murderers. A Most Rare, Strange, and Wonderful Accident . . . not Farre from Rithin in Wales (?1638) in William Chappell and J. Woodfall Ebsworth (eds), The Roxburghe Ballads (1869-99; reprinted New York, 1969), vol. 3, 136-43.
66. A Most Horrible & Detestable Murther . . . At Mayfield in the Countie of Sussex (1595) [STC 17748], sig. A4v; A Warning for all Murderers. A Most Rare, Strange, and Wonderful Accident . . . not Farre from Rithin in Wales (?1638) in William Chappell and J. Woodfall Ebsworth (eds), The Roxburghe Ballads (1869-99; reprinted New York, 1969), vol. 3, 136-43.
67. A Most Horrible & Detestable Murther . . . At Mayfield in the Countie of Sussex (1595) [STC 17748], sig. A4v; A Warning for all Murderers. A Most Rare, Strange, and Wonderful Accident . . . not Farre from Rithin in Wales (?1638) in William Chappell and J. Woodfall Ebsworth (eds), The Roxburghe Ballads (1869-99; reprinted New York, 1969), vol. 3, 136-43.
68. Genesis, iv, 11-12; Clark, op. cit., 102. See also Anthony Munday, A View of Sundry Examples. Reporting Many Straunge Murthers (1580), reprinted by The Shakespeare Society (1851), 87; Henry Goodcole, Natures Cruell Step-Dames: or, Matchlesse Monsters of the Female Sex (1637) [STC 12012], 17. See also Macbeth, III, iv.
69. Genesis, iv, 11-12; Clark, op. cit., 102. See also Anthony Munday, A View of Sundry Examples. Reporting Many Straunge Murthers (1580), reprinted by The Shakespeare Society (1851), 87; Henry Goodcole, Natures Cruell Step-Dames: or, Matchlesse Monsters of the Female Sex (1637) [STC 12012], 17. See also Macbeth, III, iv.
70. Genesis, iv, 11-12; Clark, op. cit., 102. See also Anthony Munday, A View of Sundry Examples. Reporting Many Straunge Murthers (1580), reprinted by The Shakespeare Society (1851), 87; Henry Goodcole, Natures Cruell Step-Dames: or, Matchlesse Monsters of the Female Sex (1637) [STC 12012], 17. See also Macbeth, III, iv.
71. Genesis, iv, 11-12; Clark, op. cit., 102. See also Anthony Munday, A View of Sundry Examples. Reporting Many Straunge Murthers (1580), reprinted by The Shakespeare Society (1851), 87; Henry Goodcole, Natures Cruell Step-Dames: or, Matchlesse Monsters of the Female Sex (1637) [STC 12012], 17. See also Macbeth, III, iv.
72. Genesis, iv, 11-12; Clark, op. cit., 102. See also Anthony Munday, A View of Sundry Examples. Reporting Many Straunge Murthers (1580), reprinted by The Shakespeare Society (1851), 87; Henry Goodcole, Natures Cruell Step-Dames: or, Matchlesse Monsters of the Female Sex (1637) [STC 12012], 17. See also Macbeth, III, iv.
73. Gilbert Dugdale, A True Discourse of the Practices of Elizabeth Caldwell (1604) [STC 7293], sig. B1; Three Bloodie Murthers . . . Very Strangely Found Out by a Dogge (1613) [STC 18287]; Horrid News From St Martins: or, Unheard-of-Murder and Poyson (1677), 5. For dogs raising the alarm in other ways, see Deeds Against Nature, and Monsters by Kinde (1614 [STC 12630], sig. A4-A2v; A True and Exact Relation of the Horrid and Cruel Murther lately committed upon Prince Cossuma Albertus (1661), 5.
74. Gilbert Dugdale, A True Discourse of the Practices of Elizabeth Caldwell (1604) [STC 7293], sig. B1; Three Bloodie Murthers . . . Very Strangely Found Out by a Dogge (1613) [STC 18287]; Horrid News From St Martins: or, Unheard-of-Murder and Poyson (1677), 5. For dogs raising the alarm in other ways, see Deeds Against Nature, and Monsters by Kinde (1614 [STC 12630], sig. A4-A2v; A True and Exact Relation of the Horrid and Cruel Murther lately committed upon Prince Cossuma Albertus (1661), 5.
75. Gilbert Dugdale, A True Discourse of the Practices of Elizabeth Caldwell (1604) [STC 7293], sig. B1; Three Bloodie Murthers . . . Very Strangely Found Out by a Dogge (1613) [STC 18287]; Horrid News From St Martins: or, Unheard-of-Murder and Poyson (1677), 5. For dogs raising the alarm in other ways, see Deeds Against Nature, and Monsters by Kinde (1614 [STC 12630], sig. A4-A2v; A True and Exact Relation of the Horrid and Cruel Murther lately committed upon Prince Cossuma Albertus (1661), 5.
76. Gilbert Dugdale, A True Discourse of the Practices of Elizabeth Caldwell (1604) [STC 7293], sig. B1; Three Bloodie Murthers . . . Very Strangely Found Out by a Dogge (1613) [STC 18287]; Horrid News From St Martins: or, Unheard-of-Murder and Poyson (1677), 5. For dogs raising the alarm in other ways, see Deeds Against Nature, and Monsters by Kinde (1614 [STC 12630], sig. A4-A2v; A True and Exact Relation of the Horrid and Cruel Murther lately committed upon Prince Cossuma Albertus (1661), 5.
77. Gilbert Dugdale, A True Discourse of the Practices of Elizabeth Caldwell (1604) [STC 7293], sig. B1; Three Bloodie Murthers . . . Very Strangely Found Out by a Dogge (1613) [STC 18287]; Horrid News From St Martins: or, Unheard-of-Murder and Poyson (1677), 5. For dogs raising the alarm in other ways, see Deeds Against Nature, and Monsters by Kinde (1614 [STC 12630], sig. A4-A2v; A True and Exact Relation of the Horrid and Cruel Murther lately committed upon Prince Cossuma Albertus (1661), 5.
78. Two Most Unnaturall and Bloodie Murthers (1605) [STC 18288], 16; A True Report of the Horrible Murther, which was Committed in the House of Sir Jerome Bowes (1607) [STC 3434], sig. C2; The Downfall of William Grismond; Or, A Lamentable Murther by him Committed at Lainterdine in the County of Hereford (?1651), in Chappell and Ebsworth (eds), op. cit., vol. 8, 71.
79. Two Most Unnaturall and Bloodie Murthers (1605) [STC 18288], 16; A True Report of the Horrible Murther, which was Committed in the House of Sir Jerome Bowes (1607) [STC 3434], sig. C2; The Downfall of William Grismond; Or, A Lamentable Murther by him Committed at Lainterdine in the County of Hereford (?1651), in Chappell and Ebsworth (eds), op. cit., vol. 8, 71.
80. Two Most Unnaturall and Bloodie Murthers (1605) [STC 18288], 16; A True Report of the Horrible Murther, which was Committed in the House of Sir Jerome Bowes (1607) [STC 3434], sig. C2; The Downfall of William Grismond; Or, A Lamentable Murther by him Committed at Lainterdine in the County of Hereford (?1651), in Chappell and Ebsworth (eds), op. cit., vol. 8, 71.
81. Two Most Unnaturall and Bloodie Murthers (1605) [STC 18288], 16; A True Report of the Horrible Murther, which was Committed in the House of Sir Jerome Bowes (1607) [STC 3434], sig. C2; The Downfall of William Grismond; Or, A Lamentable Murther by him Committed at Lainterdine in the County of Hereford (?1651), in Chappell and Ebsworth (eds), op. cit., vol. 8, 71.
82. Blood Washed Away by Tears of Repentance (1657), 6; Bloody News from Devonshire . . . Four Barbarous and Horrid Murders (1694), 3; [John Taylor], The Unnatural Father: or, The Cruell Murther Committed by John Rowse (1621) [STC 23808a], sig. B2.
83. Blood Washed Away by Tears of Repentance (1657), 6; Bloody News from Devonshire . . . Four Barbarous and Horrid Murders (1694), 3; [John Taylor], The Unnatural Father: or, The Cruell Murther Committed by John Rowse (1621) [STC 23808a], sig. B2.
84. Blood Washed Away by Tears of Repentance (1657), 6; Bloody News from Devonshire . . . Four Barbarous and Horrid Murders (1694), 3; [John Taylor], The Unnatural Father: or, The Cruell Murther Committed by John Rowse (1621) [STC 23808a], sig. B2.
85. [Arthur Golding], A Briefe Discourse of the Late Murther of Master George Sanders (1573); No Naturall Mother, but a Monster (1634) in Hyder E. Rollins (ed.), A Pepysian Garland. Black-Letter Broadside Ballads for the Years 1595-1639, (Cambridge, 1922), 428; A Cruell Murther Committed Lately upon the Body of Abraham Gearsay (?1635), in Chappell and Ebsworth (eds), op. cit., vol. 3, 150-3.
86. [Arthur Golding], A Briefe Discourse of the Late Murther of Master George Sanders (1573); No Naturall Mother, but a Monster (1634) in Hyder E. Rollins (ed.), A Pepysian Garland. Black-Letter Broadside Ballads for the Years 1595-1639, (Cambridge, 1922), 428; A Cruell Murther Committed Lately upon the Body of Abraham Gearsay (?1635), in Chappell and Ebsworth (eds), op. cit., vol. 3, 150-3.
87. [Arthur Golding], A Briefe Discourse of the Late Murther of Master George Sanders (1573); No Naturall Mother, but a Monster (1634) in Hyder E. Rollins (ed.), A Pepysian Garland. Black-Letter Broadside Ballads for the Years 1595-1639, (Cambridge, 1922), 428; A Cruell Murther Committed Lately upon the Body of Abraham Gearsay (?1635), in Chappell and Ebsworth (eds), op. cit., vol. 3, 150-3.
88. [Arthur Golding], A Briefe Discourse of the Late Murther of Master George Sanders (1573); No Naturall Mother, but a Monster (1634) in Hyder E. Rollins (ed.), A Pepysian Garland. Black-Letter Broadside Ballads for the Years 1595-1639, (Cambridge, 1922), 428; A Cruell Murther Committed Lately upon the Body of Abraham Gearsay (?1635), in Chappell and Ebsworth (eds), op. cit., vol. 3, 150-3.
89. [Arthur Golding], A Briefe Discourse of the Late Murther of Master George Sanders (1573); No Naturall Mother, but a Monster (1634) in Hyder E. Rollins (ed.), A Pepysian Garland. Black-Letter Broadside Ballads for the Years 1595-1639, (Cambridge, 1922), 428; A Cruell Murther Committed Lately upon the Body of Abraham Gearsay (?1635), in Chappell and Ebsworth (eds), op. cit., vol. 3, 150-3.
90. The Unnatural Grand Mother, Or a True Relation Of a Most Barbarous Murther Committed by Elizabeth Hazard (1659), 7; Murther and Robbery committed on Mrs Le Grand, op. cit., 15.
91. The Unnatural Grand Mother, Or a True Relation Of a Most Barbarous Murther Committed by Elizabeth Hazard (1659), 7; Murther and Robbery committed on Mrs Le Grand, op. cit., 15.
92. Two Horrible and Inhumane Murders Done in Lincolnshire, by Two Husbands upon their Wives (1607) [STC 4768], sig. A4v; Murther Will Out, Or, A True and Faithful Relation of an Horrible Murther Committed Thirty Three Years ago by an Unnatural Mother (?1675). Some were tormented by birds: see, for example, A True Relation of the Most Horrid and Barbarous Murders, Committed by Abigail Hill (1658), cited in Friedman, op. cit., 32. Reference was also made to classical blood-guiltiness and Furies: see The Bloody Husband, and Cruell Neighbour. Or, A True Historie of Two Murthers . . . in Kent (1653), 13; Bloody and Barbarous News From Bishopsgate-street. A Perfect Narrative of the Horrid Murder of M[ist]ris Jewers (1678), 7.
93. Two Horrible and Inhumane Murders Done in Lincolnshire, by Two Husbands upon their Wives (1607) [STC 4768], sig. A4v; Murther Will Out, Or, A True and Faithful Relation of an Horrible Murther Committed Thirty Three Years ago by an Unnatural Mother (?1675). Some were tormented by birds: see, for example, A True Relation of the Most Horrid and Barbarous Murders, Committed by Abigail Hill (1658), cited in Friedman, op. cit., 32. Reference was also made to classical blood-guiltiness and Furies: see The Bloody Husband, and Cruell Neighbour. Or, A True Historie of Two Murthers . . . in Kent (1653), 13; Bloody and Barbarous News From Bishopsgate-street. A Perfect Narrative of the Horrid Murder of M[ist]ris Jewers (1678), 7.
94. Two Horrible and Inhumane Murders Done in Lincolnshire, by Two Husbands upon their Wives (1607) [STC 4768], sig. A4v; Murther Will Out, Or, A True and Faithful Relation of an Horrible Murther Committed Thirty Three Years ago by an Unnatural Mother (?1675). Some were tormented by birds: see, for example, A True Relation of the Most Horrid and Barbarous Murders, Committed by Abigail Hill (1658), cited in Friedman, op. cit., 32. Reference was also made to classical blood-guiltiness and Furies: see The Bloody Husband, and Cruell Neighbour. Or, A True Historie of Two Murthers . . . in Kent (1653), 13; Bloody and Barbarous News From Bishopsgate-street. A Perfect Narrative of the Horrid Murder of M[ist]ris Jewers (1678), 7.
95. Two Horrible and Inhumane Murders Done in Lincolnshire, by Two Husbands upon their Wives (1607) [STC 4768], sig. A4v; Murther Will Out, Or, A True and Faithful Relation of an Horrible Murther Committed Thirty Three Years ago by an Unnatural Mother (?1675). Some were tormented by birds: see, for example, A True Relation of the Most Horrid and Barbarous Murders, Committed by Abigail Hill (1658), cited in Friedman, op. cit., 32. Reference was also made to classical blood-guiltiness and Furies: see The Bloody Husband, and Cruell Neighbour. Or, A True Historie of Two Murthers . . . in Kent (1653), 13; Bloody and Barbarous News From Bishopsgate-street. A Perfect Narrative of the Horrid Murder of M[ist]ris Jewers (1678), 7.
96. Two Horrible and Inhumane Murders Done in Lincolnshire, by Two Husbands upon their Wives (1607) [STC 4768], sig. A4v; Murther Will Out, Or, A True and Faithful Relation of an Horrible Murther Committed Thirty Three Years ago by an Unnatural Mother (?1675). Some were tormented by birds: see, for example, A True Relation of the Most Horrid and Barbarous Murders, Committed by Abigail Hill (1658), cited in Friedman, op. cit., 32. Reference was also made to classical blood-guiltiness and Furies: see The Bloody Husband, and Cruell Neighbour. Or, A True Historie of Two Murthers . . . in Kent (1653), 13; Bloody and Barbarous News From Bishopsgate-street. A Perfect Narrative of the Horrid Murder of M[ist]ris Jewers (1678), 7.
97. Two Horrible and Inhumane Murders Done in Lincolnshire, by Two Husbands upon their Wives (1607) [STC 4768], sig. A4v; Murther Will Out, Or, A True and Faithful Relation of an Horrible Murther Committed Thirty Three Years ago by an Unnatural Mother (?1675). Some were tormented by birds: see, for example, A True Relation of the Most Horrid and Barbarous Murders, Committed by Abigail Hill (1658), cited in Friedman, op. cit., 32. Reference was also made to classical blood-guiltiness and Furies: see The Bloody Husband, and Cruell Neighbour. Or, A True Historie of Two Murthers . . . in Kent (1653), 13; Bloody and Barbarous News From Bishopsgate-street. A Perfect Narrative of the Horrid Murder of M[ist]ris Jewers (1678), 7.
98. Munday, op. cit., 87. In Jacobean Suffolk a minister allegedly used a sermon on the heinousness of murder to catch a guilty apprentice, who was identified because 'there appeared no such signe of guilt in any as in him, for he sate like one [who] had laine six daies in a grave'. Before long, the culprit confessed, having 'forced his own tongue by the terror which he pronounced was in Gods judgement to reveale the treason his hand did': Two Most Unnaturall and Bloodie Murthers, op. cit., 26-7. Compare Hamlet, II, ii: 'I have heard/That guilty creatures, sitting at a play/Have by the very cunning of the scene/Bene struck so to the soul that presently/They have proclaimed their malefactions;/For murder, though it have no tongue, will speak/With most miraculous organ.'
99. Munday, op. cit., 87. In Jacobean Suffolk a minister allegedly used a sermon on the heinousness of murder to catch a guilty apprentice, who was identified because 'there appeared no such signe of guilt in any as in him, for he sate like one [who] had laine six daies in a grave'. Before long, the culprit confessed, having 'forced his own tongue by the terror which he pronounced was in Gods judgement to reveale the treason his hand did': Two Most Unnaturall and Bloodie Murthers, op. cit., 26-7. Compare Hamlet, II, ii: 'I have heard/That guilty creatures, sitting at a play/Have by the very cunning of the scene/Bene struck so to the soul that presently/They have proclaimed their malefactions;/For murder, though it have no tongue, will speak/With most miraculous organ.'
100. Munday, op. cit., 87. In Jacobean Suffolk a minister allegedly used a sermon on the heinousness of murder to catch a guilty apprentice, who was identified because 'there appeared no such signe of guilt in any as in him, for he sate like one [who] had laine six daies in a grave'. Before long, the culprit confessed, having 'forced his own tongue by the terror which he pronounced was in Gods judgement to reveale the treason his hand did': Two Most Unnaturall and Bloodie Murthers, op. cit., 26-7. Compare Hamlet, II, ii: 'I have heard/That guilty creatures, sitting at a play/Have by the very cunning of the scene/Bene struck so to the soul that presently/They have proclaimed their malefactions;/For murder, though it have no tongue, will speak/With most miraculous organ.'
101. Lake, 'Deeds against nature', op. cit.; 'Popular form, puritan content?', op. cit.
102. Lake, 'Deeds against nature', op. cit.; 'Popular form, puritan content?', op. cit.
103. Adam Fox, 'Ballads, libels and popular ridicule in Jacobean England', Past and Present, CXLV (November 1994), 48.
104. Among the educated: Joseph Hunter (ed.), The Diary of Ralph Thoresby (1830), vol. 1, 35-6, 36n; Public Record Office, London (hereafter PRO), STAG S/20/11, m. 2 (1617); Richard Gough, The History of Myddle, ed. David Hey (1981), 59-60; John L. Nickalls (ed.), The Journal of George Fox (Cambridge, 1952), 178-80; J. Horsfall Turner (ed.), The Rev. Oliver Heywood, B.A., 1630-1702. His Autobiography, Diaries, Anecdote and Event Books (Brighouse, 1882-5), vol. 2, 267; vol. 3, 94-5. Among the uneducated: PRO, ASSI 45/11/3/183; 45/5/3/ 95-7 (1656); Cambridge University Library (hereafter CUL), EDR E9/6/5V (1636); Acts of the Privy Council, 1599-1600 (hereafter APC), 649-50; Proceedings . . . in the Old Bayly the 9th and 10th of July 1718 (1718), 6; Ipswich Journal (29 July-5 August 1721), 3-4.
105. Among the educated: Joseph Hunter (ed.), The Diary of Ralph Thoresby (1830), vol. 1, 35-6, 36n; Public Record Office, London (hereafter PRO), STAG S/20/11, m. 2 (1617); Richard Gough, The History of Myddle, ed. David Hey (1981), 59-60; John L. Nickalls (ed.), The Journal of George Fox (Cambridge, 1952), 178-80; J. Horsfall Turner (ed.), The Rev. Oliver Heywood, B.A., 1630-1702. His Autobiography, Diaries, Anecdote and Event Books (Brighouse, 1882-5), vol. 2, 267; vol. 3, 94-5. Among the uneducated: PRO, ASSI 45/11/3/183; 45/5/3/ 95-7 (1656); Cambridge University Library (hereafter CUL), EDR E9/6/5V (1636); Acts of the Privy Council, 1599-1600 (hereafter APC), 649-50; Proceedings . . . in the Old Bayly the 9th and 10th of July 1718 (1718), 6; Ipswich Journal (29 July-5 August 1721), 3-4.
106. Among the educated: Joseph Hunter (ed.), The Diary of Ralph Thoresby (1830), vol. 1, 35-6, 36n; Public Record Office, London (hereafter PRO), STAG
107. Among the educated: Joseph Hunter (ed.), The Diary of Ralph Thoresby (1830), vol. 1, 35-6, 36n; Public Record Office, London (hereafter PRO), STAG S/20/11, m. 2 (1617); Richard Gough, The History of Myddle, ed. David Hey (1981), 59-60; John L. Nickalls (ed.), The Journal of George Fox (Cambridge, 1952), 178-80; J. Horsfall Turner (ed.), The Rev. Oliver Heywood, B.A., 1630-1702. His Autobiography, Diaries, Anecdote and Event Books (Brighouse, 1882-5), vol. 2, 267; vol. 3, 94-5. Among the uneducated: PRO, ASSI 45/11/3/183; 45/5/3/ 95-7 (1656); Cambridge University Library (hereafter CUL), EDR E9/6/5V (1636); Acts of the Privy Council, 1599-1600 (hereafter APC), 649-50; Proceedings . . . in the Old Bayly the 9th and 10th of July 1718 (1718), 6; Ipswich Journal (29 July-5 August 1721), 3-4.
108. Among the educated: Joseph Hunter (ed.), The Diary of Ralph Thoresby (1830), vol. 1, 35-6, 36n; Public Record Office, London (hereafter PRO), STAG S/20/11, m. 2 (1617); Richard Gough, The History of Myddle, ed. David Hey (1981), 59-60; John L. Nickalls (ed.), The Journal of George Fox (Cambridge, 1952), 178-80; J. Horsfall Turner (ed.), The Rev. Oliver Heywood, B.A., 1630-1702. His Autobiography, Diaries, Anecdote and Event Books (Brighouse, 1882-5), vol. 2, 267; vol. 3, 94-5. Among the uneducated: PRO, ASSI 45/11/3/183; 45/5/3/ 95-7 (1656); Cambridge University Library (hereafter CUL), EDR E9/6/5V (1636); Acts of the Privy Council, 1599-1600 (hereafter APC), 649-50; Proceedings . . . in the Old Bayly the 9th and 10th of July 1718 (1718), 6; Ipswich Journal (29 July-5 August 1721), 3-4.
109. Among the educated: Joseph Hunter (ed.), The Diary of Ralph Thoresby (1830), vol. 1, 35-6, 36n; Public Record Office, London (hereafter PRO), STAG S/20/11, m. 2 (1617); Richard Gough, The History of Myddle, ed. David Hey (1981), 59-60; John L. Nickalls (ed.), The Journal of George Fox (Cambridge, 1952), 178-80; J. Horsfall Turner (ed.), The Rev. Oliver Heywood, B.A., 1630-1702. His Autobiography, Diaries, Anecdote and Event Books (Brighouse, 1882-5), vol. 2, 267; vol. 3, 94-5. Among the uneducated: PRO, ASSI 45/11/3/183; 45/5/3/ 95-7 (1656); Cambridge University Library (hereafter CUL), EDR E9/6/5V (1636); Acts of the Privy Council, 1599-1600 (hereafter APC), 649-50; Proceedings . . . in the Old Bayly the 9th and 10th of July 1718 (1718), 6; Ipswich Journal (29 July-5 August 1721), 3-4.
110. Among the educated: Joseph Hunter (ed.), The Diary of Ralph Thoresby (1830), vol. 1, 35-6, 36n; Public Record Office, London (hereafter PRO), STAG S/20/11, m. 2 (1617); Richard Gough, The History of Myddle, ed. David Hey (1981), 59-60; John L. Nickalls (ed.), The Journal of George Fox (Cambridge, 1952), 178-80; J. Horsfall Turner (ed.), The Rev. Oliver Heywood, B.A., 1630-1702. His Autobiography, Diaries, Anecdote and Event Books (Brighouse, 1882-5), vol. 2, 267; vol. 3, 94-5. Among the uneducated: PRO, ASSI 45/11/3/183; 45/5/3/ 95-7 (1656); Cambridge University Library (hereafter CUL), EDR E9/6/5V (1636); Acts of the Privy Council, 1599-1600 (hereafter APC), 649-50; Proceedings . . . in the Old Bayly the 9th and 10th of July 1718 (1718), 6; Ipswich Journal (29 July-5 August 1721), 3-4.
111. Among the educated: Joseph Hunter (ed.), The Diary of Ralph Thoresby (1830), vol. 1, 35-6, 36n; Public Record Office, London (hereafter PRO), STAG S/20/11, m. 2 (1617); Richard Gough, The History of Myddle, ed. David Hey (1981), 59-60; John L. Nickalls (ed.), The Journal of George Fox (Cambridge, 1952), 178-80; J. Horsfall Turner (ed.), The Rev. Oliver Heywood, B.A., 1630-1702. His Autobiography, Diaries, Anecdote and Event Books (Brighouse, 1882-5), vol. 2, 267; vol. 3, 94-5. Among the uneducated: PRO, ASSI 45/11/3/183; 45/5/3/ 95-7 (1656); Cambridge University Library (hereafter CUL), EDR E9/6/5V (1636); Acts of the Privy Council, 1599-1600 (hereafter APC), 649-50; Proceedings . . . in the Old Bayly the 9th and 10th of July 1718 (1718), 6; Ipswich Journal (29 July-5 August 1721), 3-4.
112. In 1646 a woman said that 'the divell stirred upp & downe w[i]thin her' as she cut her child's throat. As soon as it was dead, she was paralysed: CUL, EDR, E12 1647, testimony of Jane Hall, 1646.
113. In one Jacobean pamphlet a man reminded his murderous wife of 'the inevetable dangers, and strange Judgements of God, show'd upon people in the like kinde of offending': Newes from Perin in Cornwall: Of a Most Bloody and Un-exampled Murther Very Lately Committed by a Father on his Oume Sonne (1618) [STC 19614], sig. B4v.
114. Tessa Watt, Cheap Print and Popular Piety, 1550-1640 (Cambridge, 1991), 108; Lake, 'Deeds against nature', op. cit., 257-8. Certainly, many pious authors were worried that their work would be seen as exciting news: see Randolph Yearwood, The Penitent Murderer. Being an Exact Narrative of the Life and Death of Nathaniel Butler (1657), sig. B1v; Fair Warning to Murderers of Infants: Being an Account of the Tryal, Co[n]demnation and Execution of Mary Good-enough (1692), sig. A2. Yet, as a consumer product, the primary aim of the murder pamphlet must have been to titillate: Lake, 'Deeds against nature', op. cit., 259-62.
115. Tessa Watt, Cheap Print and Popular Piety, 1550-1640 (Cambridge, 1991), 108; Lake, 'Deeds against nature', op. cit., 257-8. Certainly, many pious authors were worried that their work would be seen as exciting news: see Randolph Yearwood, The Penitent Murderer. Being an Exact Narrative of the Life and Death of Nathaniel Butler (1657), sig. B1v; Fair Warning to Murderers of Infants: Being an Account of the Tryal, Co[n]demnation and Execution of Mary Good-enough (1692), sig. A2. Yet, as a consumer product, the primary aim of the murder pamphlet must have been to titillate: Lake, 'Deeds against nature', op. cit., 259-62.
116. Tessa Watt, Cheap Print and Popular Piety, 1550-1640 (Cambridge, 1991), 108; Lake, 'Deeds against nature', op. cit., 257-8. Certainly, many pious authors were worried that their work would be seen as exciting news: see Randolph Yearwood, The Penitent Murderer. Being an Exact Narrative of the Life and Death of Nathaniel Butler (1657), sig. B1v; Fair Warning to Murderers of Infants: Being an Account of the Tryal, Co[n]demnation and Execution of Mary Good-enough (1692), sig. A2. Yet, as a consumer product, the primary aim of the murder pamphlet must have been to titillate: Lake, 'Deeds against nature', op. cit., 259-62.
117. Tessa Watt, Cheap Print and Popular Piety, 1550-1640 (Cambridge, 1991), 108; Lake, 'Deeds against nature', op. cit., 257-8. Certainly, many pious authors were worried that their work would be seen as exciting news: see Randolph Yearwood, The Penitent Murderer. Being an Exact Narrative of the Life and Death of Nathaniel Butler (1657), sig. B1v; Fair Warning to Murderers of Infants: Being an Account of the Tryal, Co[n]demnation and Execution of Mary Good-enough (1692), sig. A2. Yet, as a consumer product, the primary aim of the murder pamphlet must have been to titillate: Lake, 'Deeds against nature', op. cit., 259-62.
118. Tessa Watt, Cheap Print and Popular Piety, 1550-1640 (Cambridge, 1991), 108; Lake, 'Deeds against nature', op. cit., 257-8. Certainly, many pious authors were worried that their work would be seen as exciting news: see Randolph Yearwood, The Penitent Murderer. Being an Exact Narrative of the Life and Death of Nathaniel Butler (1657), sig. B1v; Fair Warning to Murderers of Infants: Being an Account of the Tryal, Co[n]demnation and Execution of Mary Good-enough (1692), sig. A2. Yet, as a consumer product, the primary aim of the murder pamphlet must have been to titillate: Lake, 'Deeds against nature', op. cit., 259-62.
119. For a general survey see Robert P. Brittain, 'Cruentation in legal medicine and in literature', Medical History, IX (1965), 82-8. The practice was current in the Middle Ages and outside England: see Lowry Charles Wimberly, Folklore in the English and Scottish Ballads (New York, 1965), 79; J. C. M. B. Kervyn de Lettenhove (ed.), Oeuvres de Georges Chastellain (Brussels, 1863-6), vol. 1, 144; Frederic C. Tubach, Index Exemplorum. A Handbook of Medieval Religious Tales (Helsinki, 1969), 408; 'Ordeal of touch in colonial Virginia', Virginia Historical Magazine, IV (1897), 185-97. (I owe the last three examples to Graeme Small, Alex Walsham and John Pagan respectively.)
120. For a general survey see Robert P. Brittain, 'Cruentation in legal medicine and in literature', Medical History, IX (1965), 82-8. The practice was current in the Middle Ages and outside England: see Lowry Charles Wimberly, Folklore in the English and Scottish Ballads (New York, 1965), 79; J. C. M. B. Kervyn de Lettenhove (ed.), Oeuvres de Georges Chastellain (Brussels, 1863-6), vol. 1, 144; Frederic C. Tubach, Index Exemplorum. A Handbook of Medieval Religious Tales (Helsinki, 1969), 408; 'Ordeal of touch in colonial Virginia', Virginia Historical Magazine, IV (1897), 185-97. (I owe the last three examples to Graeme Small, Alex Walsham and John Pagan respectively.)
121. For a general survey see Robert P. Brittain, 'Cruentation in legal medicine and in literature', Medical History, IX (1965), 82-8. The practice was current in the Middle Ages and outside England: see Lowry Charles Wimberly, Folklore in the English and Scottish Ballads (New York, 1965), 79; J. C. M. B. Kervyn de Lettenhove (ed.), Oeuvres de Georges Chastellain (Brussels, 1863-6), vol. 1, 144; Frederic C. Tubach, Index Exemplorum. A Handbook of Medieval Religious Tales (Helsinki, 1969), 408; 'Ordeal of touch in colonial Virginia', Virginia Historical Magazine, IV (1897), 185-97. (I owe the last three examples to Graeme Small, Alex Walsham and John Pagan respectively.)
122. For a general survey see Robert P. Brittain, 'Cruentation in legal medicine and in literature', Medical History, IX (1965), 82-8. The practice was current in the Middle Ages and outside England: see Lowry Charles Wimberly, Folklore in the English and Scottish Ballads (New York, 1965), 79; J. C. M. B. Kervyn de Lettenhove (ed.), Oeuvres de Georges Chastellain (Brussels, 1863-6), vol. 1, 144; Frederic C. Tubach, Index Exemplorum. A Handbook of Medieval Religious Tales (Helsinki, 1969), 408; 'Ordeal of touch in colonial Virginia', Virginia Historical Magazine, IV (1897), 185-97. (I owe the last three examples to Graeme Small, Alex Walsham and John Pagan respectively.)
123. For a general survey see Robert P. Brittain, 'Cruentation in legal medicine and in literature', Medical History, IX (1965), 82-8. The practice was current in the Middle Ages and outside England: see Lowry Charles Wimberly, Folklore in the English and Scottish Ballads (New York, 1965), 79; J. C. M. B. Kervyn de Lettenhove (ed.), Oeuvres de Georges Chastellain (Brussels, 1863-6), vol. 1, 144; Frederic C. Tubach, Index Exemplorum. A Handbook of Medieval Religious Tales (Helsinki, 1969), 408; 'Ordeal of touch in colonial Virginia', Virginia Historical Magazine, IV (1897), 185-97. (I owe the last three examples to Graeme Small, Alex Walsham and John Pagan respectively.)
124. Richard III, I, ii; The Lamentable and True Tragedie of M. Arden of Faversham (1592) [STC 733], sig. J4. See also Michael Drayton, Idea. In Sixtie Three Sonnets (1619), no. 46, in Works, ed. J. William Hebel (Oxford, 1931-3), vol. 2, 133. As a literary device, the ordeal of touch was immortalized by Sir Walter Scott in The Fair Maid of Perth, chap. 22: 'The wounds renew their clotter'd flood,/ And every drop cry blood for blood.'
125. Richard III, I, ii; The Lamentable and True Tragedie of M. Arden of Faversham (1592) [STC 733], sig. J4. See also Michael Drayton, Idea. In Sixtie Three Sonnets (1619), no. 46, in Works, ed. J. William Hebel (Oxford, 1931-3), vol. 2, 133. As a literary device, the ordeal of touch was immortalized by Sir Walter Scott in The Fair Maid of Perth, chap. 22: 'The wounds renew their clotter'd flood,/ And every drop cry blood for blood.'
126. Richard III, I, ii; The Lamentable and True Tragedie of M. Arden of Faversham (1592) [STC 733], sig. J4. See also Michael Drayton, Idea. In Sixtie Three Sonnets (1619), no. 46, in Works, ed. J. William Hebel (Oxford, 1931-3), vol. 2, 133. As a literary device, the ordeal of touch was immortalized by Sir Walter Scott in The Fair Maid of Perth, chap. 22: 'The wounds renew their clotter'd flood,/ And every drop cry blood for blood.'
127. Richard III, I, ii; The Lamentable and True Tragedie of M. Arden of Faversham (1592) [STC 733], sig. J4. See also Michael Drayton, Idea. In Sixtie Three Sonnets (1619), no. 46, in Works, ed. J. William Hebel (Oxford, 1931-3), vol. 2, 133. As a literary device, the ordeal of touch was immortalized by Sir Walter Scott in The Fair Maid of Perth, chap. 22: 'The wounds renew their clotter'd flood,/ And every drop cry blood for blood.'
128. Richard III, I, ii; The Lamentable and True Tragedie of M. Arden of Faversham (1592) [STC 733], sig. J4. See also Michael Drayton, Idea. In Sixtie Three Sonnets (1619), no. 46, in Works, ed. J. William Hebel (Oxford, 1931-3), vol. 2, 133. As a literary device, the ordeal of touch was immortalized by Sir Walter Scott in The Fair Maid of Perth, chap. 22: 'The wounds renew their clotter'd flood,/ And every drop cry blood for blood.'
129. Munday, op. cit., 91-2; Sundrye Strange and Inhumaine Murthers, Lately Committed (1591) [STC 18286.5], sigs A4-A4v (in another case described here, the corpse's eye opened and stared at the murderer: sig. A4v). For other examples, see A True Report of the Late Horrible Murther Committed by William Sherwood (1581) [STC 22432], sig. A3v; The Araignment, Examination, Confession and Judgement of Arnold Cosbye (1592) [STC 5813] sig. B3; The Most Horrible and Tragicall Murther of . . . John Lord Bourgh (1591), reprinted in J. Payne Collier (ed.), Illustrations of Early English Popular Literature (1863), vol. 2, 8-11.
130. Munday, op. cit., 91-2; Sundrye Strange and Inhumaine Murthers, Lately Committed (1591) [STC 18286.5], sigs A4-A4v (in another case described here, the corpse's eye opened and stared at the murderer: sig. A4v). For other examples, see A True Report of the Late Horrible Murther Committed by William Sherwood (1581) [STC 22432], sig. A3v; The Araignment, Examination, Confession and Judgement of Arnold Cosbye (1592) [STC 5813] sig. B3; The Most Horrible and Tragicall Murther of . . . John Lord Bourgh (1591), reprinted in J. Payne Collier (ed.), Illustrations of Early English Popular Literature (1863), vol. 2, 8-11.
131. Munday, op. cit., 91-2; Sundrye Strange and Inhumaine Murthers, Lately Committed (1591) [STC 18286.5], sigs A4-A4v (in another case described here, the corpse's eye opened and stared at the murderer: sig. A4v). For other examples, see A True Report of the Late Horrible Murther Committed by William Sherwood (1581) [STC 22432], sig. A3v; The Araignment, Examination, Confession and Judgement of Arnold Cosbye (1592) [STC 5813] sig. B3; The Most Horrible and Tragicall Murther of . . . John Lord Bourgh (1591), reprinted in J. Payne Collier (ed.), Illustrations of Early English Popular Literature (1863), vol. 2, 8-11.
132. Munday, op. cit., 91-2; Sundrye Strange and Inhumaine Murthers, Lately Committed (1591) [STC 18286.5], sigs A4-A4v (in another case described here, the corpse's eye opened and stared at the murderer: sig. A4v). For other examples, see A True Report of the Late Horrible Murther Committed by William Sherwood (1581) [STC 22432], sig. A3v; The Araignment, Examination, Confession and Judgement of Arnold Cosbye (1592) [STC 5813] sig. B3; The Most Horrible and Tragicall Murther of . . . John Lord Bourgh (1591), reprinted in J. Payne Collier (ed.), Illustrations of Early English Popular Literature (1863), vol. 2, 8-11.
133. Munday, op. cit., 91-2; Sundrye Strange and Inhumaine Murthers, Lately Committed (1591) [STC 18286.5], sigs A4-A4v (in another case described here, the corpse's eye opened and stared at the murderer: sig. A4v). For other examples, see A True Report of the Late Horrible Murther Committed by William Sherwood (1581) [STC 22432], sig. A3v; The Araignment, Examination, Confession and Judgement of Arnold Cosbye (1592) [STC 5813] sig. B3; The Most Horrible and Tragicall Murther of . . . John Lord Bourgh (1591), reprinted in J. Payne Collier (ed.), Illustrations of Early English Popular Literature (1863), vol. 2, 8-11.
134. Munday, op. cit., 91-2; Sundrye Strange and Inhumaine Murthers, Lately Committed (1591) [STC 18286.5], sigs A4-A4v (in another case described here, the corpse's eye opened and stared at the murderer: sig. A4v). For other examples, see A True Report of the Late Horrible Murther Committed by William Sherwood (1581) [STC 22432], sig. A3v; The Araignment, Examination, Confession and Judgement of Arnold Cosbye (1592) [STC 5813] sig. B3; The Most Horrible and Tragicall Murther of . . . John Lord Bourgh (1591), reprinted in J. Payne Collier (ed.), Illustrations of Early English Popular Literature (1863), vol. 2, 8-11.
135. Dalton, op. cit., 266. The ordeal of touch might even be recorded as the official reason for an exhumation: see W. A. Fearon and J. F. Williams, The Parish Registers and Parochial Documents in the Archdeaconry of Winchester (1909), 83.
136. Dalton, op. cit., 266. The ordeal of touch might even be recorded as the official reason for an exhumation: see W. A. Fearon and J. F. Williams, The Parish Registers and Parochial Documents in the Archdeaconry of Winchester (1909), 83.
137. Cheshire Record Office, Chester, DDX 196, fol. 10 (I am grateful to Steve Hindle for this reference). Magical experiments were often attributed to Aristotle, for the sake of scientific authenticity: see Richard Kieckhefer, Magic in the Middle Ages (Cambridge, 1989), 27-8, 142-3. The 'Aristotelian' explanation was doubtless astrological in origin: ibid., 122, 131.
138. Cheshire Record Office, Chester, DDX 196, fol. 10 (I am grateful to Steve Hindle for this reference). Magical experiments were often attributed to Aristotle, for the sake of scientific authenticity: see Richard Kieckhefer, Magic in the Middle Ages (Cambridge, 1989), 27-8, 142-3. The 'Aristotelian' explanation was doubtless astrological in origin: ibid., 122, 131.
139. Peter Brown, 'Society and the supernatural: a medieval change' in Society and the Holy in Late Antiquity (London, 1982), 307-14. The ordeal could also be turned metaphorically against authority. During the Great Recoinage in 1696, a Yorkshire pedlar committed suicide because her savings were in clipped money; her neighbours said that they would have the parliament men come and touch her corpse: C. Jackson (ed.), The Diary of Abraham de la Pryme, Surtees Society, LIV (1870), 98.
140. Peter Brown, 'Society and the supernatural: a medieval change' in Society and the Holy in Late Antiquity (London, 1982), 307-14. The ordeal could also be turned metaphorically against authority. During the Great Recoinage in 1696, a Yorkshire pedlar committed suicide because her savings were in clipped money; her neighbours said that they would have the parliament men come and touch her corpse: C. Jackson (ed.), The Diary of Abraham de la Pryme, Surtees Society, LIV (1870), 98.
141. Thomas Potts, The Wonderfull Discoverie of Witches in the Countie of Lancaster (1613), Chetham Society, 1st series, VI (1845), sig. Y3.
142. Michael Dalton, The Countrey Justice (1746), 382. Interestingly, Dalton's original advice about witches had been dropped by this time. The ordeal of touch remained part of English and American popular belief long after 1800: see J. Timbs, Curiosities of History (4th edn, 1859), 124; Thomas Rogers Forbes, Surgeons at the Bailey. English Forensic Medicine to 1878 (New Haven, 1985), 62.
143. Michael Dalton, The Countrey Justice (1746), 382. Interestingly, Dalton's original advice about witches had been dropped by this time. The ordeal of touch remained part of English and American popular belief long after 1800: see J. Timbs, Curiosities of History (4th edn, 1859), 124; Thomas Rogers Forbes, Surgeons at the Bailey. English Forensic Medicine to 1878 (New Haven, 1985), 62.
144. Michael Dalton, The Countrey Justice (1746), 382. Interestingly, Dalton's original advice about witches had been dropped by this time. The ordeal of touch remained part of English and American popular belief long after 1800: see J. Timbs, Curiosities of History (4th edn, 1859), 124; Thomas Rogers Forbes, Surgeons at the Bailey. English Forensic Medicine to 1878 (New Haven, 1985), 62.
145. Thomas, op. cit., 261-2. As one contemporary put it, 'dead bodies, being removed, doe often bleed, and then, he whose conscience is tainted with the Synteresis of the fact, is troubled in such sort, that by his mouth or gesture he often bewrayes his owne guiltinesse': Five Philosophical Questions Most Eloquently and Substantially Disputed (1650), 1. The sceptic Thomas Ady made this point even more forcibly, arguing that the bleeding is 'a common and natural thing'; the providential aspect lies in the effect that occurrence has on the conscience of the murderer. To equate the physical signs alone with the guilt of the suspect, he believed, was the invention of popish inquisitors: A Candle in the Dark (1655), 131-2 (I am grateful to Alex Walsham for this reference). Magistrates were advised to watch a suspect closely for 'The change of his countenance, his blushing, looking downewards, silence, trembling': Dalton, op. cit. (1618 edn), 266.
146. Thomas, op. cit., 261-2. As one contemporary put it, 'dead bodies, being removed, doe often bleed, and then, he whose conscience is tainted with the Synteresis of the fact, is troubled in such sort, that by his mouth or gesture he often bewrayes his owne guiltinesse': Five Philosophical Questions Most Eloquently and Substantially Disputed (1650), 1. The sceptic Thomas Ady made this point even more forcibly, arguing that the bleeding is 'a common and natural thing'; the providential aspect lies in the effect that occurrence has on the conscience of the murderer. To equate the physical signs alone with the guilt of the suspect, he believed, was the invention of popish inquisitors: A Candle in the Dark (1655), 131-2 (I am grateful to Alex Walsham for this reference). Magistrates were advised to watch a suspect closely for 'The change of his countenance, his blushing, looking downewards, silence, trembling': Dalton, op. cit. (1618 edn), 266.
147. Thomas, op. cit., 261-2. As one contemporary put it, 'dead bodies, being removed, doe often bleed, and then, he whose conscience is tainted with the Synteresis of the fact, is troubled in such sort, that by his mouth or gesture he often bewrayes his owne guiltinesse': Five Philosophical Questions Most Eloquently and Substantially Disputed (1650), 1. The sceptic Thomas Ady made this point even more forcibly, arguing that the bleeding is 'a common and natural thing'; the providential aspect lies in the effect that occurrence has on the conscience of the murderer. To equate the physical signs alone with the guilt of the suspect, he believed, was the invention of popish inquisitors: A Candle in the Dark (1655), 131-2 (I am grateful to Alex Walsham for this reference). Magistrates were advised to watch a suspect closely for 'The change of his countenance, his blushing, looking downewards, silence, trembling': Dalton, op. cit. (1618 edn), 266.
148. Thomas, op. cit., 261-2. As one contemporary put it, 'dead bodies, being removed, doe often bleed, and then, he whose conscience is tainted with the Synteresis of the fact, is troubled in such sort, that by his mouth or gesture he often bewrayes his owne guiltinesse': Five Philosophical Questions Most Eloquently and Substantially Disputed (1650), 1. The sceptic Thomas Ady made this point even more forcibly, arguing that the bleeding is 'a common and natural thing'; the providential aspect lies in the effect that occurrence has on the conscience of the murderer. To equate the physical signs alone with the guilt of the suspect, he believed, was the invention of popish inquisitors: A Candle in the Dark (1655), 131-2 (I am grateful to Alex Walsham for this reference). Magistrates were advised to watch a suspect closely for 'The change of his countenance, his blushing, looking downewards, silence, trembling': Dalton, op. cit. (1618 edn), 266.
149. PRO, ASSI 45/9/2/51. In 1697 suspicions against a Lancashire man increased after he refused to touch a corpse at the request of a coroner's jury: PRO, PL 27/2, part 1, testimony of Robert Emett, 1697.
150. G. Dyfnault Owen, Elizabethan Wales. The Social Scene (Cardiff, 1962), 181; Weekly Miscellany, CLXXI (27 March 1736), 3.
151. G. Dyfnault Owen, Elizabethan Wales. The Social Scene (Cardiff, 1962), 181; Weekly Miscellany, CLXXI (27 March 1736), 3.
152. PRO, ASSI 45/5/5/57-8.
153. William Matthews (ed.), The Diary of Dudley Ryder, 1715-1716 (1939), 332; John Brand, Observations on the Popular Antiquities of Great Britain, ed. H. Ellis (1883-8), vol. 3, 231; D. Jones-Baker, The Folklore of Hertfordshire (London, 1977), 164; J. L. Rayner and G. T. Crook (eds), The Complete Newgate Calendar (London, 1926) (hereafter Newgate Calendar), vol. 1, 46-50; Gentleman's Magazine (hereafter Gent. Mag.) (September 1731), 395-6. Despite extensive corroborating testimony, the appeal was overturned by Sir Nicholas Hyde CJKB; Ryder, however, noted that in the end the suspects were executed. In the 1650s Sir John Finch noted that a baby's corpse, which Lady Purbeck and a maidservant were ordered to touch, had bled at the touch of the latter but not the former. The maid confessed: Historical Manuscripts Commission (hereafter HMC), 'Journal of Sir John Finch', Finch Manuscripts, vol. 1 (1913), 62.
154. William Matthews (ed.), The Diary of Dudley Ryder, 1715-1716 (1939), 332; John Brand, Observations on the Popular Antiquities of Great Britain, ed. H. Ellis (1883-8), vol. 3, 231; D. Jones-Baker, The Folklore of Hertfordshire (London, 1977), 164; J. L. Rayner and G. T. Crook (eds), The Complete Newgate Calendar (London, 1926) (hereafter Newgate Calendar), vol. 1, 46-50; Gentleman's Magazine (hereafter Gent. Mag.) (September 1731), 395-6. Despite extensive corroborating testimony, the appeal was overturned by Sir Nicholas Hyde CJKB; Ryder, however, noted that in the end the suspects were executed. In the 1650s Sir John Finch noted that a baby's corpse, which Lady Purbeck and a maidservant were ordered to touch, had bled at the touch of the latter but not the former. The maid confessed: Historical Manuscripts Commission (hereafter HMC), 'Journal of Sir John Finch', Finch Manuscripts, vol. 1 (1913), 62.
155. William Matthews (ed.), The Diary of Dudley Ryder, 1715-1716 (1939), 332; John Brand, Observations on the Popular Antiquities of Great Britain, ed. H. Ellis (1883-8), vol. 3, 231; D. Jones-Baker, The Folklore of Hertfordshire (London, 1977), 164; J. L. Rayner and G. T. Crook (eds), The Complete Newgate Calendar (London, 1926) (hereafter Newgate Calendar), vol. 1, 46-50; Gentleman's Magazine (hereafter Gent. Mag.) (September 1731), 395-6. Despite extensive corroborating testimony, the appeal was overturned by Sir Nicholas Hyde CJKB; Ryder, however, noted that in the end the suspects were executed. In the 1650s Sir John Finch noted that a baby's corpse, which Lady Purbeck and a maidservant were ordered to touch, had bled at the touch of the latter but not the former. The maid confessed: Historical Manuscripts Commission (hereafter HMC), 'Journal of Sir John Finch', Finch Manuscripts, vol. 1 (1913), 62.
156. William Matthews (ed.), The Diary of Dudley Ryder, 1715-1716 (1939), 332; John Brand, Observations on the Popular Antiquities of Great Britain, ed. H. Ellis (1883-8), vol. 3, 231; D. Jones-Baker, The Folklore of Hertfordshire (London, 1977), 164; J. L. Rayner and G. T. Crook (eds), The Complete Newgate Calendar (London, 1926) (hereafter Newgate Calendar), vol. 1, 46-50; Gentleman's Magazine (hereafter Gent. Mag.) (September 1731), 395-6. Despite extensive corroborating testimony, the appeal was overturned by Sir Nicholas Hyde CJKB; Ryder, however, noted that in the end the suspects were executed. In the 1650s Sir John Finch noted that a baby's corpse, which Lady Purbeck and a maidservant were ordered to touch, had bled at the touch of the latter but not the former. The maid confessed: Historical Manuscripts Commission (hereafter HMC), 'Journal of Sir John Finch', Finch Manuscripts, vol. 1 (1913), 62.
157. William Matthews (ed.), The Diary of Dudley Ryder, 1715-1716 (1939), 332; John Brand, Observations on the Popular Antiquities of Great Britain, ed. H. Ellis (1883-8), vol. 3, 231; D. Jones-Baker, The Folklore of Hertfordshire (London, 1977), 164; J. L. Rayner and G. T. Crook (eds), The Complete Newgate Calendar (London, 1926) (hereafter Newgate Calendar), vol. 1, 46-50; Gentleman's Magazine (hereafter Gent. Mag.) (September 1731), 395-6. Despite extensive corroborating testimony, the appeal was overturned by Sir Nicholas Hyde CJKB; Ryder, however, noted that in the end the suspects were executed. In the 1650s Sir John Finch noted that a baby's corpse, which Lady Purbeck and a maidservant were ordered to touch, had bled at the touch of the latter but not the former. The maid confessed: Historical Manuscripts Commission (hereafter HMC), 'Journal of Sir John Finch', Finch Manuscripts, vol. 1 (1913), 62.
158. William Matthews (ed.), The Diary of Dudley Ryder, 1715-1716 (1939), 332; John Brand, Observations on the Popular Antiquities of Great Britain, ed. H. Ellis (1883-8), vol. 3, 231; D. Jones-Baker, The Folklore of Hertfordshire (London, 1977), 164; J. L. Rayner and G. T. Crook (eds), The Complete Newgate Calendar (London, 1926) (hereafter Newgate Calendar), vol. 1, 46-50; Gentleman's Magazine (hereafter Gent. Mag.) (September 1731), 395-6. Despite extensive corroborating testimony, the appeal was overturned by Sir Nicholas Hyde CJKB; Ryder, however, noted that in the end the suspects were executed. In the 1650s Sir John Finch noted that a baby's corpse, which Lady Purbeck and a maidservant were ordered to touch, had bled at the touch of the latter but not the former. The maid confessed: Historical Manuscripts Commission (hereafter HMC), 'Journal of Sir John Finch', Finch Manuscripts, vol. 1 (1913), 62.
159. James I, Daemonologie (1603), 229; John Webster, The Displaying of Supposed Witchcraft (1677), 305-10, quotation at 308. Other explanations harmonized science and religion. In 1688 Sir George MacKenzie opined: 'Divine Power which makes the blood circulate during life has oft times in all nations opened a passage to it after death': Five Philosophical Questions, op. cit., 1-2; J. D. J. Havard, The Detection of Secret Homicide. A Study of the Medico-legal System of Investigation of Sudden and Unexplained Deaths (1960), 6. It was believed that corpses bled in the murderer's mere presence - and that for the murderer to bleed was also incriminating: Reginald Scot, The Discoverie of Witchcraft (1584), 171-2; Dalton, op. cit. (1618 edn), 266; Ady, op. cit., 131. For a case where a man's nose allegedly bled on seeing his victim's corpse displayed at a tavern, see H[enry] G[oodcole], Heavens Speedie Hue and Cry Sent After Lust and Murther (1635) [STC 12010].
160. James I, Daemonologie (1603), 229; John Webster, The Displaying of Supposed Witchcraft (1677), 305-10, quotation at 308. Other explanations harmonized science and religion. In 1688 Sir George MacKenzie opined: 'Divine Power which makes the blood circulate during life has oft times in all nations opened a passage to it after death': Five Philosophical Questions, op. cit., 1-2; J. D. J. Havard, The Detection of Secret Homicide. A Study of the Medico-legal System of Investigation of Sudden and Unexplained Deaths (1960), 6. It was believed that corpses bled in the murderer's mere presence - and that for the murderer to bleed was also incriminating: Reginald Scot, The Discoverie of Witchcraft (1584), 171-2; Dalton, op. cit. (1618 edn), 266; Ady, op. cit., 131. For a case where a man's nose allegedly bled on seeing his victim's corpse displayed at a tavern, see H[enry] G[oodcole], Heavens Speedie Hue and Cry Sent After Lust and Murther (1635) [STC 12010].
161. James I, Daemonologie (1603), 229; John Webster, The Displaying of Supposed Witchcraft (1677), 305-10, quotation at 308. Other explanations harmonized science and religion. In 1688 Sir George MacKenzie opined: 'Divine Power which makes the blood circulate during life has oft times in all nations opened a passage to it after death': Five Philosophical Questions, op. cit., 1-2; J. D. J. Havard, The Detection of Secret Homicide. A Study of the Medico-legal System of Investigation of Sudden and Unexplained Deaths (1960), 6. It was believed that corpses bled in the murderer's mere presence - and that for the murderer to bleed was also incriminating: Reginald Scot, The Discoverie of Witchcraft (1584), 171-2; Dalton, op. cit. (1618 edn), 266; Ady, op. cit., 131. For a case where a man's nose allegedly bled on seeing his victim's corpse displayed at a tavern, see H[enry] G[oodcole], Heavens Speedie Hue and Cry Sent After Lust and Murther (1635) [STC 12010].
162. James I, Daemonologie (1603), 229; John Webster, The Displaying of Supposed Witchcraft (1677), 305-10, quotation at 308. Other explanations harmonized science and religion. In 1688 Sir George MacKenzie opined: 'Divine Power which makes the blood circulate during life has oft times in all nations opened a passage to it after death': Five Philosophical Questions, op. cit., 1-2; J. D. J. Havard, The Detection of Secret Homicide. A Study of the Medico-legal System of Investigation of Sudden and Unexplained Deaths (1960), 6. It was believed that corpses bled in the murderer's mere presence - and that for the murderer to bleed was also incriminating: Reginald Scot, The Discoverie of Witchcraft (1584), 171-2; Dalton, op. cit. (1618 edn), 266; Ady, op. cit., 131. For a case where a man's nose allegedly bled on seeing his victim's corpse displayed at a tavern, see H[enry] G[oodcole], Heavens Speedie Hue and Cry Sent After Lust and Murther (1635) [STC 12010].
163. James I, Daemonologie (1603), 229; John Webster, The Displaying of Supposed Witchcraft (1677), 305-10, quotation at 308. Other explanations harmonized science and religion. In 1688 Sir George MacKenzie opined: 'Divine Power which makes the blood circulate during life has oft times in all nations opened a passage to it after death': Five Philosophical Questions, op. cit., 1-2; J. D. J. Havard, The Detection of Secret Homicide. A Study of the Medico-legal System of Investigation of Sudden and Unexplained Deaths (1960), 6. It was believed that corpses bled in the murderer's mere presence - and that for the murderer to bleed was also incriminating: Reginald Scot, The Discoverie of Witchcraft (1584), 171-2; Dalton, op. cit. (1618 edn), 266; Ady, op. cit., 131. For a case where a man's nose allegedly bled on seeing his victim's corpse displayed at a tavern, see H[enry] G[oodcole], Heavens Speedie Hue and Cry Sent After Lust and Murther (1635) [STC 12010].
164. James I, Daemonologie (1603), 229; John Webster, The Displaying of Supposed Witchcraft (1677), 305-10, quotation at 308. Other explanations harmonized science and religion. In 1688 Sir George MacKenzie opined: 'Divine Power which makes the blood circulate during life has oft times in all nations opened a passage to it after death': Five Philosophical Questions, op. cit., 1-2; J. D. J. Havard, The Detection of Secret Homicide. A Study of the Medico-legal System of Investigation of Sudden and Unexplained Deaths (1960), 6. It was believed that corpses bled in the murderer's mere presence - and that for the murderer to bleed was also incriminating: Reginald Scot, The Discoverie of Witchcraft (1584), 171-2; Dalton, op. cit. (1618 edn), 266; Ady, op. cit., 131. For a case where a man's nose allegedly bled on seeing his victim's corpse displayed at a tavern, see H[enry] G[oodcole], Heavens Speedie Hue and Cry Sent After Lust and Murther (1635) [STC 12010].
165. James I, Daemonologie (1603), 229; John Webster, The Displaying of Supposed Witchcraft (1677), 305-10, quotation at 308. Other explanations harmonized science and religion. In 1688 Sir George MacKenzie opined: 'Divine Power which makes the blood circulate during life has oft times in all nations opened a passage to it after death': Five Philosophical Questions, op. cit., 1-2; J. D. J. Havard, The Detection of Secret Homicide. A Study of the Medico-legal System of Investigation of Sudden and Unexplained Deaths (1960), 6. It was believed that corpses bled in the murderer's mere presence - and that for the murderer to bleed was also incriminating: Reginald Scot, The Discoverie of Witchcraft (1584), 171-2; Dalton, op. cit. (1618 edn), 266; Ady, op. cit., 131. For a case where a man's nose allegedly bled on seeing his victim's corpse displayed at a tavern, see H[enry] G[oodcole], Heavens Speedie Hue and Cry Sent After Lust and Murther (1635) [STC 12010].
166. 'In cases of secret murders . . . where open and evident proofes are seldome to be had, there, it seemeth, halfe proofes are to be allowed': Dalton, op. cit. (1618 edn), 277. There is a parallel here to the belief that lower standards of evidence should be observed in witchcraft trials: ibid., 243; Christina Larner,' "Crimen exceptum"? The crime of witchcraft in Europe' in Witchcraft and Religion. The Politics of Popular Belief (Oxford, 1984), 35-67. One witchcraft pamphlet referred to 'that secret supernatural sign for trial of that secret unnatural crime', where blood flows to 'challenge the murderer for that blood which he before had feloniously stolen from the body': The Witches of Northamptonshire (1612) in Barbara Rosen, Witchcraft in England 1558-1618 (Amhurst, Mass., 1991), 350. See also John Stearne, A Confirmation and Discovery of Witchcraft (1648), 55-6; Potts, op. cit., sig. Y3.
167. 'In cases of secret murders . . . where open and evident proofes are seldome to be had, there, it seemeth, halfe proofes are to be allowed': Dalton, op. cit. (1618 edn), 277. There is a parallel here to the belief that lower standards of evidence should be observed in witchcraft trials: ibid., 243; Christina Larner,' "Crimen exceptum"? The crime of witchcraft in Europe' in Witchcraft and Religion. The Politics of Popular Belief (Oxford, 1984), 35-67. One witchcraft pamphlet referred to 'that secret supernatural sign for trial of that secret unnatural crime', where blood flows to 'challenge the murderer for that blood which he before had feloniously stolen from the body': The Witches of Northamptonshire (1612) in Barbara Rosen, Witchcraft in England 1558-1618 (Amhurst, Mass., 1991), 350. See also John Stearne, A Confirmation and Discovery of Witchcraft (1648), 55-6; Potts, op. cit., sig. Y3.
168. 'In cases of secret murders . . . where open and evident proofes are seldome to be had, there, it seemeth, halfe proofes are to be allowed': Dalton, op. cit. (1618 edn), 277. There is a parallel here to the belief that lower standards of evidence should be observed in witchcraft trials: ibid., 243; Christina Larner,' "Crimen exceptum"? The crime of witchcraft in Europe' in Witchcraft and Religion. The Politics of Popular Belief (Oxford, 1984), 35-67. One witchcraft pamphlet referred to 'that secret supernatural sign for trial of that secret unnatural crime', where blood flows to 'challenge the murderer for that blood which he before had feloniously stolen from the body': The Witches of Northamptonshire (1612) in Barbara Rosen, Witchcraft in England 1558-1618 (Amhurst, Mass., 1991), 350. See also John Stearne, A Confirmation and Discovery of Witchcraft (1648), 55-6; Potts, op. cit., sig. Y3.
169. 'In cases of secret murders . . . where open and evident proofes are seldome to be had, there, it seemeth, halfe proofes are to be allowed': Dalton, op. cit. (1618 edn), 277. There is a parallel here to the belief that lower standards of evidence should be observed in witchcraft trials: ibid., 243; Christina Larner,' "Crimen exceptum"? The crime of witchcraft in Europe' in Witchcraft and Religion. The Politics of Popular Belief (Oxford, 1984), 35-67. One witchcraft pamphlet referred to 'that secret supernatural sign for trial of that secret unnatural crime', where blood flows to 'challenge the murderer for that blood which he before had feloniously stolen from the body': The Witches of Northamptonshire (1612) in Barbara Rosen, Witchcraft in England 1558-1618 (Amhurst, Mass., 1991), 350. See also John Stearne, A Confirmation and Discovery of Witchcraft (1648), 55-6; Potts, op. cit., sig. Y3.
170. 'In cases of secret murders . . . where open and evident proofes are seldome to be had, there, it seemeth, halfe proofes are to be allowed': Dalton, op. cit. (1618 edn), 277. There is a parallel here to the belief that lower standards of evidence should be observed in witchcraft trials: ibid., 243; Christina Larner,' "Crimen exceptum"? The crime of witchcraft in Europe' in Witchcraft and Religion. The Politics of Popular Belief (Oxford, 1984), 35-67. One witchcraft pamphlet referred to 'that secret supernatural sign for trial of that secret unnatural crime', where blood flows to 'challenge the murderer for that blood which he before had feloniously stolen from the body': The Witches of Northamptonshire (1612) in Barbara Rosen, Witchcraft in England 1558-1618 (Amhurst, Mass., 1991), 350. See also John Stearne, A Confirmation and Discovery of Witchcraft (1648), 55-6; Potts, op. cit., sig. Y3.
171. 'In cases of secret murders . . . where open and evident proofes are seldome to be had, there, it seemeth, halfe proofes are to be allowed': Dalton, op. cit. (1618 edn), 277. There is a parallel here to the belief that lower standards of evidence should be observed in witchcraft trials: ibid., 243; Christina Larner,' "Crimen exceptum"? The crime of witchcraft in Europe' in Witchcraft and Religion. The Politics of Popular Belief (Oxford, 1984), 35-67. One witchcraft pamphlet referred to 'that secret supernatural sign for trial of that secret unnatural crime', where blood flows to 'challenge the murderer for that blood which he before had feloniously stolen from the body': The Witches of Northamptonshire (1612) in Barbara Rosen, Witchcraft in England 1558-1618 (Amhurst, Mass., 1991), 350. See also John Stearne, A Confirmation and Discovery of Witchcraft (1648), 55-6; Potts, op. cit., sig. Y3.
172. 'In cases of secret murders . . . where open and evident proofes are seldome to be had, there, it seemeth, halfe proofes are to be allowed': Dalton, op. cit. (1618 edn), 277. There is a parallel here to the belief that lower standards of evidence should be observed in witchcraft trials: ibid., 243; Christina Larner,' "Crimen exceptum"? The crime of witchcraft in Europe' in Witchcraft and Religion. The Politics of Popular Belief (Oxford, 1984), 35-67. One witchcraft pamphlet referred to 'that secret supernatural sign for trial of that secret unnatural crime', where blood flows to 'challenge the murderer for that blood which he before had feloniously stolen from the body': The Witches of Northamptonshire (1612) in Barbara Rosen, Witchcraft in England 1558-1618 (Amhurst, Mass., 1991), 350. See also John Stearne, A Confirmation and Discovery of Witchcraft (1648), 55-6; Potts, op. cit., sig. Y3.
173. Forbes, op. cit., 62; Brittain, op. cit., 83. In one murder trial, surgeons alleged that the corpse, being touched by the suspect, 'the blood darted and sprung out'; in another, a coroner's jury testified that 'the black & setled places about the body of the Child grew fresh & red so that blud was redy to come through the skin': State Trials, vol. 11, 1417; Accomac Court House, (Accomack Co., Virginia). Wills, Deeds and Orders, 1678-82, 160 (I am grateful to John Pagan for this last reference).
174. Forbes, op. cit., 62; Brittain, op. cit., 83. In one murder trial, surgeons alleged that the corpse, being touched by the suspect, 'the blood darted and sprung out'; in another, a coroner's jury testified that 'the black & setled places about the body of the Child grew fresh & red so that blud was redy to come through the skin': State Trials, vol. 11, 1417; Accomac Court House, (Accomack Co., Virginia). Wills, Deeds and Orders, 1678-82, 160 (I am grateful to John Pagan for this last reference).
175. Forbes, op. cit., 62; Brittain, op. cit., 83. In one murder trial, surgeons alleged that the corpse, being touched by the suspect, 'the blood darted and sprung out'; in another, a coroner's jury testified that 'the black & setled places about the body of the Child grew fresh & red so that blud was redy to come through the skin': State Trials, vol. 11, 1417; Accomac Court House, (Accomack Co., Virginia). Wills, Deeds and Orders, 1678-82, 160 (I am grateful to John Pagan for this last reference).
176. Forbes, op. cit., 62; Brittain, op. cit., 83. In one murder trial, surgeons alleged that the corpse, being touched by the suspect, 'the blood darted and sprung out'; in another, a coroner's jury testified that 'the black & setled places about the body of the Child grew fresh & red so that blud was redy to come through the skin': State Trials, vol. 11, 1417; Accomac Court House, (Accomack Co., Virginia). Wills, Deeds and Orders, 1678-82, 160 (I am grateful to John Pagan for this last reference).
177. For these and other symbolic exaggerations see Keith Thomas, 'Numeracy in early modern England', TRHS, 5th series, XXXVII (1987), 122-4; Adam Fox, 'Aspects of Oral Culture and its Development in Early Modern England' (Ph.D., Cambridge, 1992), 32-6; Gwyn Prins, 'Oral history' in Burke (ed.), New Perspectives, op. cit., 119, 125; Thompson, op. cit., 355-9.
178. For these and other symbolic exaggerations see Keith Thomas, 'Numeracy in early modern England', TRHS, 5th series, XXXVII (1987), 122-4; Adam Fox, 'Aspects of Oral Culture and its Development in Early Modern England' (Ph.D., Cambridge, 1992), 32-6; Gwyn Prins, 'Oral history' in Burke (ed.), New Perspectives, op. cit., 119, 125; Thompson, op. cit., 355-9.
179. For these and other symbolic exaggerations see Keith Thomas, 'Numeracy in early modern England', TRHS, 5th series, XXXVII (1987), 122-4; Adam Fox, 'Aspects of Oral Culture and its Development in Early Modern England' (Ph.D., Cambridge, 1992), 32-6; Gwyn Prins, 'Oral history' in Burke (ed.), New Perspectives, op. cit., 119, 125; Thompson, op. cit., 355-9.
180. For these and other symbolic exaggerations see Keith Thomas, 'Numeracy in early modern England', TRHS, 5th series, XXXVII (1987), 122-4; Adam Fox, 'Aspects of Oral Culture and its Development in Early Modern England' (Ph.D., Cambridge, 1992), 32-6; Gwyn Prins, 'Oral history' in Burke (ed.), New Perspectives, op. cit., 119, 125; Thompson, op. cit., 355-9.
181. For a general discussion of the development of 'facts' in English law, see Barbara Shapiro, 'The concept "fact": legal origins and cultural diffusion', Albion, XXVI, 2 (1994), 227-52.
182. For a parallel from the ancient world, see Sally Humphries, 'Social relations on stage: witnesses in classical Athens', History and Anthropology, 1, 3 (1985), 313-69. For the classical distinction between evidence which will persuade an audience and more rigorous proof, see G. E. R. Lloyd, Demystifying Mentalities (Cambridge, 1990), 59. On this point, see also Nicholas Humphrey's foreword to E. P. Evans, The Criminal Prosecution and Capital Punishment of Animals (1906; 1987 edn), xxiv-xxvi; Clifford Geertz, Local Knowledge (New York, 1983), chap. 8.
183. For a parallel from the ancient world, see Sally Humphries, 'Social relations on stage: witnesses in classical Athens', History and Anthropology, 1, 3 (1985), 313-69. For the classical distinction between evidence which will persuade an audience and more rigorous proof, see G. E. R. Lloyd, Demystifying Mentalities (Cambridge, 1990), 59. On this point, see also Nicholas Humphrey's foreword to E. P. Evans, The Criminal Prosecution and Capital Punishment of Animals (1906; 1987 edn), xxiv-xxvi; Clifford Geertz, Local Knowledge (New York, 1983), chap. 8.
184. For a parallel from the ancient world, see Sally Humphries, 'Social relations on stage: witnesses in classical Athens', History and Anthropology, 1, 3 (1985), 313-69. For the classical distinction between evidence which will persuade an audience and more rigorous proof, see G. E. R. Lloyd, Demystifying Mentalities (Cambridge, 1990), 59. On this point, see also Nicholas Humphrey's foreword to E. P. Evans, The Criminal Prosecution and Capital Punishment of Animals (1906; 1987 edn), xxiv-xxvi; Clifford Geertz, Local Knowledge (New York, 1983), chap. 8.
185. For a parallel from the ancient world, see Sally Humphries, 'Social relations on stage: witnesses in classical Athens', History and Anthropology, 1, 3 (1985), 313-69. For the classical distinction between evidence which will persuade an audience and more rigorous proof, see G. E. R. Lloyd, Demystifying Mentalities (Cambridge, 1990), 59. On this point, see also Nicholas Humphrey's foreword to E. P. Evans, The Criminal Prosecution and Capital Punishment of Animals (1906; 1987 edn), xxiv-xxvi; Clifford Geertz, Local Knowledge (New York, 1983), chap. 8.
186. For a critique of functionalist interpretations of ordeals, see Bartlett, op. cit., 42.
187. PRO, ASSI 45/16/1/39-41; George Roberts (ed.), The Diary of Walter Yonge, Esq., Camden Society, XLI (1848), xxiii; J. O. Halliwell (ed.), The Autobiography and Correspondence of Sir Simonds D'Ewes (1845), vol. 1, 57-60, quotation at 60. Even negative results did not always alter existing convictions: see, for example, The Unhappy Marksman: Or, a Perfect and Impartiall Discovery of that Late Barbarous and Unparalleled Murder Committed by Mr. George Strangeways (1659), reprinted in The Harleian Miscellany, IV (1745), 1-11, esp. 5.
188. PRO, ASSI 45/16/1/39-41; George Roberts (ed.), The Diary of Walter Yonge, Esq., Camden Society, XLI (1848), xxiii; J. O. Halliwell (ed.), The Autobiography and Correspondence of Sir Simonds D'Ewes (1845), vol. 1, 57-60, quotation at 60. Even negative results did not always alter existing convictions: see, for example, The Unhappy Marksman: Or, a Perfect and Impartiall Discovery of that Late Barbarous and Unparalleled Murder Committed by Mr. George Strangeways (1659), reprinted in The Harleian Miscellany, IV (1745), 1-11, esp. 5.
189. PRO, ASSI 45/16/1/39-41; George Roberts (ed.), The Diary of Walter Yonge, Esq., Camden Society, XLI (1848), xxiii; J. O. Halliwell (ed.), The Autobiography and Correspondence of Sir Simonds D'Ewes (1845), vol. 1, 57-60, quotation at 60. Even negative results did not always alter existing convictions: see, for example, The Unhappy Marksman: Or, a Perfect and Impartiall Discovery of that Late Barbarous and Unparalleled Murder Committed by Mr. George Strangeways (1659), reprinted in The Harleian Miscellany, IV (1745), 1-11, esp. 5.
190. PRO, ASSI 45/16/1/39-41; George Roberts (ed.), The Diary of Walter Yonge, Esq., Camden Society, XLI (1848), xxiii; J. O. Halliwell (ed.), The Autobiography and Correspondence of Sir Simonds D'Ewes (1845), vol. 1, 57-60, quotation at 60. Even negative results did not always alter existing convictions: see, for example, The Unhappy Marksman: Or, a Perfect and Impartiall Discovery of that Late Barbarous and Unparalleled Murder Committed by Mr. George Strangeways (1659), reprinted in The Harleian Miscellany, IV (1745), 1-11, esp. 5.
191. PRO, PL 27/2, part 1, testimony of Elizabeth Faraday, Jennett Gradwell, Thomas Fawcett, Ann Shaw, 1695; PL 27/2, part 2, testimony of Alice Barker, 1695.
192. Cf. Jonathan K. van Patten, 'Magic, prophecy, and the law of treason in Reformation England', American Journal of Legal History, XXVII, 1 (1983), 32.
193. The ghost of an executed murderer, who had protested his innocence to the end, symbolically wore a rope around its neck and carried a burning torch: The Guilford Ghost (1709) in John Ashton (ed.), Chap-Books of the Eighteenth Century (London, 1969), 72-3.
194. The ghost of an executed murderer, who had protested his innocence to the end, symbolically wore a rope around its neck and carried a burning torch: The Guilford Ghost (1709) in John Ashton (ed.), Chap-Books of the Eighteenth Century (London, 1969), 72-3.
195. A woman haunted by the ghost of her mother confessed that the latter had once drowned a child, for although 'the thoughts of Loathsome Barbarity may be smothered for a time, yet the continual Stings of Conscience will be like so many Gastly Ghosts to stare the Murtherer in the Face': Concelaed Murther Reveild. Being a Strange Discovery of a most Horrid and Barbarous Murther . . . On the Body of Hannah Jones an Infant (?1697), 2. Indeed, some commentators believed ghosts to be no more than the consciences of the wicked: see Francis Atterbury, Forty Three Sermons and Discourses on Several Subjects and Occasions (6th edn, 1742), vol. 4, 109.
196. A woman haunted by the ghost of her mother confessed that the latter had once drowned a child, for although 'the thoughts of Loathsome Barbarity may be smothered for a time, yet the continual Stings of Conscience will be like so many Gastly Ghosts to stare the Murtherer in the Face': Concelaed Murther Reveild. Being a Strange Discovery of a most Horrid and Barbarous Murther . . . On the Body of Hannah Jones an Infant (?1697), 2. Indeed, some commentators believed ghosts to be no more than the consciences of the wicked: see Francis Atterbury, Forty Three Sermons and Discourses on Several Subjects and Occasions (6th edn, 1742), vol. 4, 109.
197. See, for example, The Dorset-shire Tragedy: Or, A Shepherd's Daughter's Death and Distraction by a False Steward (c. 1680), in H. E. Rollins (ed.), The Pepys Ballads (Cambridge, Mass., 1929-32), vol. 7, 134; The Bloody Tragedy. Giving A Full and True Account of one John Day (n.p., c. 1700).
198. See, for example, The Dorset-shire Tragedy: Or, A Shepherd's Daughter's Death and Distraction by a False Steward (c. 1680), in H. E. Rollins (ed.), The Pepys Ballads (Cambridge, Mass., 1929-32), vol. 7, 134; The Bloody Tragedy. Giving A Full and True Account of one John Day (n.p., c. 1700).
199. See, for example, The Dorset-shire Tragedy: Or, A Shepherd's Daughter's Death and Distraction by a False Steward (c. 1680), in H. E. Rollins (ed.), The Pepys Ballads (Cambridge, Mass., 1929-32), vol. 7, 134; The Bloody Tragedy. Giving A Full and True Account of one John Day (n.p., c. 1700).
200. A Full and True Relation of the Examination and Confession of W. Barwick and E. Mangall, Of Two Horrid Murders (1690). The most famous literary example is Hamlet (c. 1602). For other examples, see Wimberley, op. cit., 260-1.
201. A Full and True Relation of the Examination and Confession of W. Barwick and E. Mangall, Of Two Horrid Murders (1690). The most famous literary example is Hamlet (c. 1602). For other examples, see Wimberley, op. cit., 260-1.
202. Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, op. cit., 703, 713-15. John Webster observed that such apparitions could not be victims' souls as this was a Catholic belief, but neither could they be demons because their effect was beneficial: op. cit., 297. Compare Hamlet, 1, iv. Others explicitly linked ghosts to Providence: 'so certainly does the Revenge of God pursue the Abominated Murderer that when Witnesses are wanting of the Fact, the very Ghost of the Murdered-Parties cannot rest quiet in their Graves, till they have made the Detection themselves': Confession of W. Barwick and E. Mangall, op. cit., 1.
203. Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, op. cit., 703, 713-15. John Webster observed that such apparitions could not be victims' souls as this was a Catholic belief, but neither could they be demons because their effect was beneficial: op. cit., 297. Compare Hamlet, 1, iv. Others explicitly linked ghosts to Providence: 'so certainly does the Revenge of God pursue the Abominated Murderer that when Witnesses are wanting of the Fact, the very Ghost of the Murdered-Parties cannot rest quiet in their Graves, till they have made the Detection themselves': Confession of W. Barwick and E. Mangall, op. cit., 1.
204. Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, op. cit., 703, 713-15. John Webster observed that such apparitions could not be victims' souls as this was a Catholic belief, but neither could they be demons because their effect was beneficial: op. cit., 297. Compare Hamlet, 1, iv. Others explicitly linked ghosts to Providence: 'so certainly does the Revenge of God pursue the Abominated Murderer that when Witnesses are wanting of the Fact, the very Ghost
205. Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, op. cit., 703, 713-15. John Webster observed that such apparitions could not be victims' souls as this was a Catholic belief, but neither could they be demons because their effect was beneficial: op. cit., 297. Compare Hamlet, 1, iv. Others explicitly linked ghosts to Providence: 'so certainly does the Revenge of God pursue the Abominated Murderer that when Witnesses are wanting of the Fact, the very Ghost of the Murdered-Parties cannot rest quiet in their Graves, till they have made the Detection themselves': Confession of W. Barwick and E. Mangall, op. cit., 1.
206. Halliwell (ed.), op. cit., vol. 1, 60. For a first-hand account of a Yorkshireman made 'sad and restless' by his victim's endless entreaties that he should repent, see Webster, op. cit., 297-8. In 1672 a gentleman at Gloucester who murdered his mother reported that he was made to confess by her ghost: Gyles Isham (ed.), The Diary of Thomas Isham of Lamport . . . 1671 to 1673 (Farnborough, 1971), 97-9.
207. Halliwell (ed.), op. cit., vol. 1, 60. For a first-hand account of a Yorkshireman made 'sad and restless' by his victim's endless entreaties that he should repent, see Webster, op. cit., 297-8. In 1672 a gentleman at Gloucester who murdered his mother reported that he was made to confess by her ghost: Gyles Isham (ed.), The Diary of Thomas Isham of Lamport . . . 1671 to 1673 (Farnborough, 1971), 97-9.
208. Halliwell (ed.), op. cit., vol. 1, 60. For a first-hand account of a Yorkshireman made 'sad and restless' by his victim's endless entreaties that he should repent, see Webster, op. cit., 297-8. In 1672 a gentleman at Gloucester who murdered his mother reported that he was made to confess by her ghost: Gyles Isham (ed.), The Diary of Thomas Isham of Lamport . . . 1671 to 1673 (Farnborough, 1971), 97-9.
209. PRO, ASSI 45/5/7/55. In the 1630s a Durham man deposed that the ghost of a blood-drenched woman forced him to inform against her murderer, and gave him full details of how she was killed and where to find crucial evidence: Webster, op. cit., 298-300. In Scotland, in 1675, an attempt was made to stop a marriage on the grounds that the ghost of the groom's first wife claimed he had murdered her: Paul Hair (ed.), Before the Bawdy Court. Selections from Church Court Records (London, 1972), 205.
210. PRO, ASSI 45/5/7/55. In the 1630s a Durham man deposed that the ghost of a blood-drenched woman forced him to inform against her murderer, and gave him full details of how she was killed and where to find crucial evidence: Webster, op. cit., 298-300. In Scotland, in 1675, an attempt was made to stop a marriage on the grounds that the ghost of the groom's first wife claimed he had murdered her: Paul Hair (ed.), Before the Bawdy Court. Selections from Church Court Records (London, 1972), 205.
211. HMC, Fifth Report (1876), 384; Ipswich Journal (20-27 July 1728), 2.
212. HMC, Fifth Report (1876), 384; Ipswich Journal (20-27 July 1728), 2.
213. In a ballad from the 1690s, starving babies invaded the dreams of a gaoled sadistic midwife driving her to attempt suicide; in another, a man confessed to his wife's murder unable to bear the 'Cries of Conscience' of her ghost in his dreams: The Midwife's Maid's Lamentation, In Newgate (1693), Howell (ed.), op. cit., vol. 7, 16; The Mournful Murderer: Or, the Last Dying Lamentation of George Gadesby (?1697), in ibid., 264-5. More objective accounts reported the same. In the 1720s the murderer of a London apprentice confessed in court that he had suffered from nightmares in which he met his victim on Judgement Day: Ipswich Journal (29 July-5 August 1721), 4.
214. In a ballad from the 1690s, starving babies invaded the dreams of a gaoled sadistic midwife driving her to attempt suicide; in another, a man confessed to his wife's murder unable to bear the 'Cries of Conscience' of her ghost in his dreams: The Midwife's Maid's Lamentation, In Newgate (1693), in Howell (ed.), op. cit., vol. 7, 16; The Mournful Murderer: Or, the Last Dying Lamentation of George Gadesby (?1697), in ibid., 264-5. More objective accounts reported the same. In the 1720s the murderer of a London apprentice confessed in court that he had suffered from nightmares in which he met his victim on Judgement Day: Ipswich Journal (29 July-5 August 1721), 4.
215. In a ballad from the 1690s, starving babies invaded the dreams of a gaoled sadistic midwife driving her to attempt suicide; in another, a man confessed to his wife's murder unable to bear the 'Cries of Conscience' of her ghost in his dreams: The Midwife's Maid's Lamentation, In Newgate (1693), Howell (ed.), op. cit., vol. 7, 16; The Mournful Murderer: Or, the Last Dying Lamentation of George Gadesby (?1697), in ibid., 264-5. More objective accounts reported the same. In the 1720s the murderer of a London apprentice confessed in court that he had suffered from nightmares in which he met his victim on Judgement Day: Ipswich Journal (29 July-5 August 1721), 4.
216. In a ballad from the 1690s, starving babies invaded the dreams of a gaoled sadistic midwife driving her to attempt suicide; in another, a man confessed to his wife's murder unable to bear the 'Cries of Conscience' of her ghost in his dreams: The Midwife's Maid's Lamentation, In Newgate (1693), Howell (ed.), op. cit., vol. 7, 16; The Mournful Murderer: Or, the Last Dying Lamentation of George Gadesby (?1697), in ibid., 264-5. More objective accounts reported the same. In the 1720s the murderer of a London apprentice confessed in court that he had suffered from nightmares in which he met his victim on Judgement Day: Ipswich Journal (29 July-5 August 1721), 4.
217. In a ballad from the 1690s, starving babies invaded the dreams of a gaoled sadistic midwife driving her to attempt suicide; in another, a man confessed to his wife's murder unable to bear the 'Cries of Conscience' of her ghost in his dreams: The Midwife's Maid's Lamentation, In Newgate (1693), Howell (ed.), op. cit., vol. 7, 16; The Mournful Murderer: Or, the Last Dying Lamentation of George Gadesby (?1697), in ibid., 264-5. More objective accounts reported the same. In the 1720s the murderer of a London apprentice confessed in court that he had suffered from nightmares in which he met his victim on Judgement Day: Ipswich Journal (29 July-5 August 1721), 4.
218. Alan Macfarlane, The Family Life of Ralph Josselin, A Seventeenth-Century Clergyman (Cambridge, 1970), 183n. See also Kieckhefer, op. cit., 85-6; William Perkins, A Discourse of the Damned Art of Witchcraft (Cambridge, 1608), 93-104, esp. 96; Nathanael Homes, Daemonologie and Theologie (1650), chap. 9. Dreams 'helped men to take decisions, and gave expression to their hopes and fears': Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, op. cit., 151-3, 176, 286, 768-9, quotation at 153.
219. Alan Macfarlane, The Family Life of Ralph Josselin, A Seventeenth-Century Clergyman (Cambridge, 1970), 183n. See also Kieckhefer, op. cit., 85-6; William Perkins, A Discourse of the Damned Art of Witchcraft (Cambridge, 1608), 93-104, esp. 96; Nathanael Homes, Daemonologie and Theologie (1650), chap. 9. Dreams 'helped men to take decisions, and gave expression to their hopes and fears': Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, op. cit., 151-3, 176, 286, 768-9, quotation at 153.
220. Alan Macfarlane, The Family Life of Ralph Josselin, A Seventeenth-Century Clergyman (Cambridge, 1970), 183n. See also Kieckhefer, op. cit., 85-6; William Perkins, A Discourse of the Damned Art of Witchcraft (Cambridge, 1608), 93-104, esp. 96; Nathanael Homes, Daemonologie and Theologie (1650), chap. 9. Dreams 'helped men to take decisions, and gave expression to their hopes and fears': Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, op. cit., 151-3, 176, 286, 768-9, quotation at 153.
221. Alan Macfarlane, The Family Life of Ralph Josselin, A Seventeenth-Century Clergyman (Cambridge, 1970), 183n. See also Kieckhefer, op. cit., 85-6; William Perkins, A Discourse of the Damned Art of Witchcraft (Cambridge, 1608), 93-104, esp. 96; Nathanael Homes, Daemonologie and Theologie (1650), chap. 9. Dreams 'helped men to take decisions, and gave expression to their hopes and fears': Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, op. cit., 151-3, 176, 286, 768-9, quotation at 153.
222. Alan Macfarlane, The Family Life of Ralph Josselin, A Seventeenth-Century Clergyman (Cambridge, 1970), 183n. See also Kieckhefer, op. cit., 85-6; William Perkins, A Discourse of the Damned Art of Witchcraft (Cambridge, 1608), 93-104, esp. 96; Nathanael Homes, Daemonologie and Theologie (1650), chap. 9. Dreams 'helped men to take decisions, and gave expression to their hopes and fears': Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, op. cit., 151-3, 176, 286, 768-9, quotation at 153.
223. A Warning Piece Against the Crime of Murder: or, An Account of many Extraordinary and most Providential Discoveries of Secret Murders (1752), 88, 225-7. This volume also contains numerous accounts of ghosts solving murders: 229-32, 277-9.
224. Webster, op. cit., 295-6.
225. William Smythies, A True Account of the Robbery and Murder of John Stockden (1698). This story drew directly upon court proceedings, and was confirmed by the Bishop of Gloucester and the Dean of York: see Gent. Mag. (September 1731), 394-5; Daily Courant (6 September 1731), 1. The account in the Courant described Smythies as 'a very pious Divine'.
226. William Smythies, A True Account of the Robbery and Murder of John Stockden (1698). This story drew directly upon court proceedings, and was confirmed by the Bishop of Gloucester and the Dean of York: see Gent. Mag. (September 1731), 394-5; Daily Courant (6 September 1731), 1. The account in the Courant described Smythies as 'a very pious Divine'.
227. William Smythies, A True Account of the Robbery and Murder of John Stockden (1698). This story drew directly upon court proceedings, and was confirmed by the Bishop of Gloucester and the Dean of York: see Gent. Mag. (September 1731), 394-5; Daily Courant (6 September 1731), 1. The account in the Courant described Smythies as 'a very pious Divine'.
228. Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, op. cit., 711, 714, quotation at 714. Natalie Davis makes the point that 'Turning a terrible action into a story is a way to distance oneself from it, at worst a form of self-deception, at best a way to pardon the self': op. cit., 114.
229. Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, op. cit., 711, 714, quotation at 714. Natalie Davis makes the point that 'Turning a terrible action into a story is a way to distance oneself from it, at worst a form of self-deception, at best a way to pardon the self': op. cit., 114.
230. As one commentator noted, the ordeal of touch was used 'as an Argument at least, to frighten, though 'tis no conclusive one to condemn': The Athenian Oracle: Being an Entire Collection Of all the Valuable Questions and Answers in the Old Athenian Mercuries (2nd edn, 1704), vol. 1, 106-7. For a sceptic who worried that murderers were condemned solely on such proof: Ady, op. cit., 131-2. In 1661 a man was certainly hanged at Durham after a coroner testified that 'the Corps bled abundantly at the nostrils' when he touched it. We do not know, however, what other evidence was heard in court: Webster, op. cit., 305-6.
231. As one commentator noted, the ordeal of touch was used 'as an Argument at least, to frighten, though 'tis no conclusive one to condemn': The Athenian Oracle: Being an Entire Collection Of all the Valuable Questions and Answers in the Old Athenian Mercuries (2nd edn, 1704), vol. 1, 106-7. For a sceptic who worried that murderers were condemned solely on such proof: Ady, op. cit., 131-2. In 1661 a man was certainly hanged at Durham after a coroner testified that 'the Corps bled abundantly at the nostrils' when he touched it. We do not know, however, what other evidence was heard in court: Webster, op. cit., 305-6.
232. Even magical divination might be used as evidence because, although superstitious (and technically illegal), it reflected local opinion. In 1667 a cunning man at Carlisle predicted that a man 'was Murthered & the Murther shall be discovered by a woman whoe it was that did it': PRO, ASSI 45/8/2/117. John Webster reasoned that because a two-year-old imprint in the grass left by the corpse of Arden of Faversham was 'a publick thing done in the face of a Nation', it must have actually happened: op. cit., 295. See Holinshed, Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland (1586; 1808 edn), vol. 3, 1030; Arden of Faversham, op. cit., sig. K1v. Jeremy Bentham reduced spectral evidence to two counter-forces - its improbability, and its probative force as evidence: Rationale of Judicial Evidence (1827; reprinted New York, 1978), vol. 3, 340. On dreams, see ibid., vol. 1, 177, 180-1.
233. Even magical divination might be used as evidence because, although superstitious (and technically illegal), it reflected local opinion. In 1667 a cunning man at Carlisle predicted that a man 'was Murthered & the Murther shall be discovered by a woman whoe it was that did it': PRO, ASSI 45/8/2/117. John Webster reasoned that because a two-year-old imprint in the grass left by the corpse of Arden of Faversham was 'a publick thing done in the face of a Nation', it must have actually happened: op. cit., 295. See Holinshed, Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland (1586; 1808 edn), vol. 3, 1030; Arden of Faversham, op. cit., sig. K1v. Jeremy Bentham reduced spectral evidence to two counter-forces - its improbability, and its probative force as evidence: Rationale of Judicial Evidence (1827; reprinted New York, 1978), vol. 3, 340. On dreams, see ibid., vol. 1, 177, 180-1.
234. Even magical divination might be used as evidence because, although superstitious (and technically illegal), it reflected local opinion. In 1667 a cunning man at Carlisle predicted that a man 'was Murthered & the Murther shall be discovered by a woman whoe it was that did it': PRO, ASSI 45/8/2/117. John Webster reasoned that because a two-year-old imprint in the grass left by the corpse of Arden of Faversham was 'a publick thing done in the face of a Nation', it must have actually happened: op. cit., 295. See Holinshed, Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland (1586; 1808 edn), vol. 3, 1030; Arden of Faversham, op. cit., sig. K1v. Jeremy Bentham reduced spectral evidence to two counter-forces - its improbability, and its probative force as evidence: Rationale of Judicial Evidence (1827; reprinted New York, 1978), vol. 3, 340. On dreams, see ibid., vol. 1, 177, 180-1.
235. Even magical divination might be used as evidence because, although superstitious (and technically illegal), it reflected local opinion. In 1667 a cunning man at Carlisle predicted that a man 'was Murthered & the Murther shall be discovered by a woman whoe it was that did it': PRO, ASSI 45/8/2/117. John Webster reasoned that because a two-year-old imprint in the grass left by the corpse of Arden of Faversham was 'a publick thing done in the face of a Nation', it must have actually happened: op. cit., 295. See Holinshed, Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland (1586; 1808 edn), vol. 3, 1030; Arden of Faversham, op. cit., sig. K1v. Jeremy Bentham reduced spectral evidence to two counter-forces - its improbability, and its probative force as evidence: Rationale of Judicial Evidence (1827; reprinted New York, 1978), vol. 3, 340. On dreams, see ibid., vol. 1, 177, 180-1.
236. Even magical divination might be used as evidence because, although superstitious (and technically illegal), it reflected local opinion. In 1667 a cunning man at Carlisle predicted that a man 'was Murthered & the Murther shall be discovered by a woman whoe it was that did it': PRO, ASSI 45/8/2/117. John Webster reasoned that because a two-year-old imprint in the grass left by the corpse of Arden of Faversham was 'a publick thing done in the face of a Nation', it must have actually happened: op. cit., 295. See Holinshed, Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland (1586; 1808 edn), vol. 3, 1030; Arden of Faversham, op. cit., sig. K1v. Jeremy Bentham reduced spectral evidence to two counter-forces - its improbability, and its probative force as evidence: Rationale of Judicial Evidence (1827; reprinted New York, 1978), vol. 3, 340. On dreams, see ibid., vol. 1, 177, 180-1.
237. Forbes, op. cit., chap. 1. On medical opinion in suspected suicide cases, see Michael MacDonald and Terence R. Murphy, Sleepless Souls. Suicide in Early Modern England (Oxford, 1990), 223-6.
238. Forbes, op. cit., chap. 1. On medical opinion in suspected suicide cases, see Michael MacDonald and Terence R. Murphy, Sleepless Souls. Suicide in Early Modern England (Oxford, 1990), 223-6.
239. Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, op. cit., 105. In general, see Steven Shapin, A Social History of Truth. Civility and Science in Seventeenth-Century England (Chicago, 1994).
240. Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, op. cit., 105. In general, see Steven Shapin, A Social History of Truth. Civility and Science in Seventeenth-Century England (Chicago, 1994).
241. Forbes, op. cit., 21, 45-9. A late eighteenth-century sample of 2779 inquests revealed only eight autopsies: R. F. Hunnisett (ed.), Wiltshire Coroners' Bills, 1752-96, Wiltshire Record Society, XXXVI (1980), li. Suspicious deaths of the rich merited closer attention than those of the poor: see the medico-legal debate about Sir Edmundbury Godfrey and the Earl of Essex, 1682-3: London Mercury (20-23 June 1682), 1-2; State Trials, vol. 7, 159-250; vol. 8, 1359-98; Michael MacDonald, 'The strange death of the earl of Essex', History Today, XLI (1991), 13-18. For other examples see APC, 1597-8, 187; PRO, ASSI 45/4/3/23; PL 27/1, testimony of Thomas Brainhall, 1686.
242. Forbes, op. cit., 21, 45-9. A late eighteenth-century sample of 2779 inquests revealed only eight autopsies: R. F. Hunnisett (ed.), Wiltshire Coroners' Bills, 1752-96, Wiltshire Record Society, XXXVI (1980), li. Suspicious deaths of the rich merited closer attention than those of the poor: see the medico-legal debate about Sir Edmundbury Godfrey and the Earl of Essex, 1682-3: London Mercury (20-23 June 1682), 1-2; State Trials, vol. 7, 159-250; vol. 8, 1359-98; Michael MacDonald, 'The strange death of the earl of Essex', History Today, XLI (1991), 13-18. For other examples see APC, 1597-8, 187; PRO, ASSI 45/4/3/23; PL 27/1, testimony of Thomas Brainhall, 1686.
243. Forbes, op. cit., 21, 45-9. A late eighteenth-century sample of 2779 inquests revealed only eight autopsies: R. F. Hunnisett (ed.), Wiltshire Coroners' Bills, 1752-96, Wiltshire Record Society, XXXVI (1980), li. Suspicious deaths of the rich merited closer attention than those of the poor: see the medico-legal debate about Sir Edmundbury Godfrey and the Earl of Essex, 1682-3: London Mercury (20-23 June 1682), 1-2; State Trials, vol. 7, 159-250; vol. 8, 1359-98; Michael MacDonald, 'The strange death of the earl of Essex', History Today, XLI (1991), 13-18. For other examples see APC, 1597-8, 187; PRO, ASSI 45/4/3/23; PL 27/1, testimony of Thomas Brainhall, 1686.
244. Forbes, op. cit., 21, 45-9. A late eighteenth-century sample of 2779 inquests revealed only eight autopsies: R. F. Hunnisett (ed.), Wiltshire Coroners' Bills, 1752-96, Wiltshire Record Society, XXXVI (1980), li. Suspicious deaths of the rich merited closer attention than those of the poor: see the medico-legal debate about Sir Edmundbury Godfrey and the Earl of Essex, 1682-3: London Mercury (20-23 June 1682), 1-2; State Trials, vol. 7, 159-250; vol. 8, 1359-98; Michael MacDonald, 'The strange death of the earl of Essex', History Today, XLI (1991), 13-18. For other examples see APC, 1597-8, 187; PRO, ASSI 45/4/3/23; PL 27/1, testimony of Thomas Brainhall, 1686.
245. Forbes, op. cit., 21, 45-9. A late eighteenth-century sample of 2779 inquests revealed only eight autopsies: R. F. Hunnisett (ed.), Wiltshire Coroners' Bills, 1752-96, Wiltshire Record Society, XXXVI (1980), li. Suspicious deaths of the rich merited closer attention than those of the poor: see the medico-legal debate about Sir Edmundbury Godfrey and the Earl of Essex, 1682-3: London Mercury (20-23 June 1682), 1-2; State Trials, vol. 7, 159-250; vol. 8, 1359-98; Michael MacDonald, 'The strange death of the earl of Essex', History Today, XLI (1991), 13-18. For other examples see APC, 1597-8, 187; PRO, ASSI 45/4/3/23; PL 27/1, testimony of Thomas Brainhall, 1686.
246. Forbes, op. cit., 21, 45-9. A late eighteenth-century sample of 2779 inquests revealed only eight autopsies: R. F. Hunnisett (ed.), Wiltshire Coroners' Bills, 1752-96, Wiltshire Record Society, XXXVI (1980), li. Suspicious deaths of the rich merited closer attention than those of the poor: see the medico-legal debate about Sir Edmundbury Godfrey and the Earl of Essex, 1682-3: London Mercury (20-23 June 1682), 1-2; State Trials, vol. 7, 159-250; vol. 8, 1359-98; Michael MacDonald, 'The strange death of the earl of Essex', History Today, XLI (1991), 13-18. For other examples see APC, 1597-8, 187; PRO, ASSI 45/4/3/23; PL 27/1, testimony of Thomas Brainhall, 1686.
247. Forbes, op. cit., 21, 45-9. A late eighteenth-century sample of 2779 inquests revealed only eight autopsies: R. F. Hunnisett (ed.), Wiltshire Coroners' Bills, 1752-96, Wiltshire Record Society, XXXVI (1980), li. Suspicious deaths of the rich merited closer attention than those of the poor: see the medico-legal debate about Sir Edmundbury Godfrey and the Earl of Essex, 1682-3: London Mercury (20-23 June 1682), 1-2; State Trials, vol. 7, 159-250; vol. 8, 1359-98; Michael MacDonald, 'The strange death of the earl of Essex', History Today, XLI (1991), 13-18. For other examples see APC, 1597-8, 187; PRO, ASSI 45/4/3/23; PL 27/1, testimony of Thomas Brainhall, 1686.
248. On surgeons, see Margaret Pelling and Charles Webster, 'Medical practitioners' in Charles Webster (ed.), Health, Medicine and Mortality in the Sixteenth Century (Cambridge, 1979), 165-235; Margaret Pelling, 'Barbers and barber-surgeons: an occupational group in an English provincial town, 1550-1640', Society for the Social History of Medicine Bulletin, XXVIII (1981), 14-16. Titles of medical practitioners were used interchangeably in records: R. S. Roberts, 'The personnel and practice of medicine in Tudor and Stuart England', Medical History, VI (1962), 375-6.
249. On surgeons, see Margaret Pelling and Charles Webster, 'Medical practitioners' in Charles Webster (ed.), Health, Medicine and Mortality in the Sixteenth Century (Cambridge, 1979), 165-235; Margaret Pelling, 'Barbers and barber-surgeons: an occupational group in an English provincial town, 1550-1640', Society for the Social History of Medicine Bulletin, XXVIII (1981), 14-16. Titles of medical practitioners were used interchangeably in records: R. S. Roberts, 'The personnel and practice of medicine in Tudor and Stuart England', Medical History, VI (1962), 375-6.
250. On surgeons, see Margaret Pelling and Charles Webster, 'Medical practitioners' in Charles Webster (ed.), Health, Medicine and Mortality in the Sixteenth Century (Cambridge, 1979), 165-235; Margaret Pelling, 'Barbers and barber-surgeons: an occupational group in an English provincial town, 1550-1640', Society for the Social History of Medicine Bulletin, XXVIII (1981), 14-16. Titles of medical practitioners were used interchangeably in records: R. S. Roberts, 'The personnel and practice of medicine in Tudor and Stuart England', Medical History, VI (1962), 375-6.
251. CUL, EDR E11 (1639), testimony of Henry Thompson, 1639; PRO, ASSI 45/6/2/51. For a full certificate of death from 1647, in which the surgeon describes a wound which he examines with 'his probbe', see ASSI 45/2/1/211.
252. In the 1660s physicians of repute certified that wounds sustained by the earl of Shrewsbury in a duel healed in a remarkably short space of time, and thus could not have caused his death: HMC, The Manuscripts of S. H. Le Fleming (1890), 55. For a similar case at a humbler level, see PRO, ASSI 45/1/5/77 (1646). In 1610 a Doctor of Physic was accused of accepting a bribe to steer a Kent jury towards an acquittal: PRO, STAC 8/142/22, m. 2; J. S. Cockburn (ed.), Calendar of Assize Records. Kent Indictments, James I (London, 1980), no. 475.
253. In the 1660s physicians of repute certified that wounds sustained by the earl of Shrewsbury in a duel healed in a remarkably short space of time, and thus could not have caused his death: HMC, The Manuscripts of S. H. Le Fleming (1890), 55. For a similar case at a humbler level, see PRO, ASSI 45/1/5/77 (1646). In 1610 a Doctor of Physic was accused of accepting a bribe to steer a Kent jury towards an acquittal: PRO, STAC 8/142/22, m. 2; J. S. Cockburn (ed.), Calendar of Assize Records. Kent Indictments, James I (London, 1980), no. 475.
254. PRO, ASSI 45/1/5/24; 45/5/1/64.
255. PRO ASSI 45/8/2/61. In 1729 a London watchman gauged the depth of a wound with his tobacco-pipe: Proceedings . . . in the Old Bayly the 3d, 4th 5th, and 6th of December, 1729 (1729), 5. Inquest jurors were required to 'viewe the lenthe, bredthe, and depnes of al woundes', but this was probably as much to identify a weapon to be valued as a deodand, as to discover cause of death: Anthony Fitzherbert, The Newe Boke of Justices of the Peas (1538) fol. 59v; R. F. Hunnisett, The Medieval Coroner (Cambridge, 1961), 20. For a good example, see PRO, STAC 8/72/6, m. 3 (1610).
256. PRO ASSI 45/8/2/61. In 1729 a London watchman gauged the depth of a wound with his tobacco-pipe: Proceedings . . . in the Old Bayly the 3d, 4th 5th, and 6th of December, 1729 (1729), 5. Inquest jurors were required to 'viewe the lenthe, bredthe, and depnes of al woundes', but this was probably as much to identify a weapon to be valued as a deodand, as to discover cause of death: Anthony Fitzherbert, The Newe Boke of Justices of the Peas (1538) fol. 59v; R. F. Hunnisett, The Medieval Coroner (Cambridge, 1961), 20. For a good example, see PRO, STAC 8/72/6, m. 3 (1610).
257. PRO ASSI 45/8/2/61. In 1729 a London watchman gauged the depth of a wound with his tobacco-pipe: Proceedings . . . in the Old Bayly the 3d, 4th 5th, and 6th of December, 1729 (1729), 5. Inquest jurors were required to 'viewe the lenthe, bredthe, and depnes of al woundes', but this was probably as much to identify a weapon to be valued as a deodand, as to discover cause of death: Anthony Fitzherbert, The Newe Boke of Justices of the Peas (1538) fol. 59v; R. F. Hunnisett, The Medieval Coroner (Cambridge, 1961), 20. For a good example, see PRO, STAC 8/72/6, m. 3 (1610).
258. See, for example, PRO, PL 27/2, part 2, testimony against Sarah Maken, 1739; ASSI 45/5/7/73; PL 27/1, testimony against Ellen Ainsworth, 1684. For a formal charge to constables to appoint 'sev[e]rall grave matrons to enquier after and seartch all women w[i]thin there Constableries that they shold any way suspect to be gilty of ye late privat bearing of a Childe', see ASSI 45/12/4/88. For other related female spheres of activity, see James C. Oldham, 'On pleading the belly: a history of the jury of matrons', Criminal Justice History, VI (1985), 1-64; Adrian Wilson, 'Participant or patient? Seventeenth-century childbirth from the mother's point of view' in Roy Porter (ed.), Patients and Practitioners. Lay Perceptions of Medicine in Pre-Industrial Society (Cambridge, 1985), 129-44.
259. See, for example, PRO, PL 27/2, part 2, testimony against Sarah Maken, 1739; ASSI 45/5/7/73; PL 27/1, testimony against Ellen Ainsworth, 1684. For a formal charge to constables to appoint 'sev[e]rall grave matrons to enquier after and seartch all women w[i]thin there Constableries that they shold any way suspect to be gilty of ye late privat bearing of a Childe', see ASSI 45/12/4/88. For other related female spheres of activity, see James C. Oldham, 'On pleading the belly: a history of the jury of matrons', Criminal Justice History, VI (1985), 1-64; Adrian Wilson, 'Participant or patient? Seventeenth-century childbirth from the mother's point of view' in Roy Porter (ed.), Patients and Practitioners. Lay Perceptions of Medicine in Pre-Industrial Society (Cambridge, 1985), 129-44.
260. PRO, ASSI 45/3/25-7. In 1684 at Hambleton, Lancashire, Isabell Windle was found in bed, covered in blood which she insisted was due to 'the stopping of her monthly courses'. Searching her room the constable found nothing, yet women present, allowed greater intimacy, turned back the bedclothes to discover 'a little red thing, ab[ou]t the dimension & bignes, & like unto a need Catt'. Windle was taken off to gaol: PL 27/1, testimony of William Hornby, Alice Thompson, Mary Mather et al., 1684. Equally, searchers might try to prove the suspect innocent, as in the case of a woman reassured that 'yf itt be an Abortine birth ye women will conclude it were not a liveing Child': PL 27/2, part 2, testimony of Edward Lund, 1696.
261. The deaths of Sarah Langhorne (1691) and Mary Shaw (1694). Many probate accounts specify that women were responsible for wrapping corpses in their winding-sheets: Clare Gittings, Death Burial and the Individual in Early Modern England (London, 1984). 112. Conversely, at exhumations women seem usually to have unwrapped them.
262. CUL, EDR E17 (1656); E15 (1656), case against Joan Meade, 1656; PRO, ASSI 45/5/3/34; Centre for Kentish Studies, Maidstone (hereafter CKS), Q/SB 2, fol. 3, testimony of Sarah Benskin and Elizabeth Parker, 1653; A. F. Oakley, 'Reresby and the Moor: a seventeenth-century coroner's inquest', History of Medicine, III (1971), 29. In Jacobean Buckinghamshire when the body of an alleged witchcraft victim was laid out, it was reported to have been covered in black and blue marks: PRO, STAC 8/270/1, m. 1.
263. CUL, EDR E44 Q/S (1632), testimony of Roger Marshall, Richard Browne, Edward Whittred, Henry Miller, 1632. For another case, see CKS, NR/JC 24 (New Romney, 1620). Such women performed a similar role to the searchers who identified the 'tokens' of death at times of plague: Thomas R. Forbes, The searchers' in Saul Jarcho (ed.), Essays on the History of Medicine (New York, 1976), 145-52; Paul Slack, The Impact of Plague in Tudor and Stuart England (London, 1985), 149, 239, 274-6. Although searchers were originally only meant to search for plague, they did report on other sudden deaths: Forbes, 'Searchers', op. cit., 147-8. Watchers were employed to guard bodies pending coroners' inquests: Munday, op. cit., 92; Gittings, op. cit., 107-8.
264. CUL, EDR E44 Q/S (1632), testimony of Roger Marshall, Richard Browne, Edward Whittred, Henry Miller, 1632. For another case, see CKS, NR/JC 24 (New Romney, 1620). Such women performed a similar role to the searchers who identified the 'tokens' of death at times of plague: Thomas R. Forbes, The searchers' in Saul Jarcho (ed.), Essays on the History of Medicine (New York, 1976), 145-52; Paul Slack, The Impact of Plague in Tudor and Stuart England (London, 1985), 149, 239, 274-6. Although searchers were originally only meant to search for plague, they did report on other sudden deaths: Forbes, 'Searchers', op. cit., 147-8. Watchers were employed to guard bodies pending coroners' inquests: Munday, op. cit., 92; Gittings, op. cit., 107-8.
265. CUL, EDR E44 Q/S (1632), testimony of Roger Marshall, Richard Browne, Edward Whittred, Henry Miller, 1632. For another case, see CKS, NR/JC 24 (New Romney, 1620). Such women performed a similar role to the searchers who identified the 'tokens' of death at times of plague: Thomas R. Forbes, The searchers' in Saul Jarcho (ed.), Essays on the History of Medicine (New York, 1976), 145-52; Paul Slack, The Impact of Plague in Tudor and Stuart England (London, 1985), 149, 239, 274-6. Although searchers were originally only meant to search for plague, they did report on other sudden deaths: Forbes, 'Searchers', op. cit., 147-8. Watchers were employed to guard bodies pending coroners' inquests: Munday, op. cit., 92; Gittings, op. cit., 107-8.
266. CUL, EDR E44 Q/S (1632), testimony of Roger Marshall, Richard Browne, Edward Whittred, Henry Miller, 1632. For another case, see CKS, NR/JC 24 (New Romney, 1620). Such women performed a similar role to the searchers who identified the 'tokens' of death at times of plague: Thomas R. Forbes, The searchers' in Saul Jarcho (ed.), Essays on the History of Medicine (New York, 1976), 145-52; Paul Slack, The Impact of Plague in Tudor and Stuart England (London, 1985), 149, 239, 274-6. Although searchers were originally only meant to search for plague, they did report on other sudden deaths: Forbes, 'Searchers', op. cit., 147-8. Watchers were employed to guard bodies pending coroners' inquests: Munday, op. cit., 92; Gittings, op. cit., 107-8.
267. CUL, EDR E44 Q/S (1632), testimony of Roger Marshall, Richard Browne, Edward Whittred, Henry Miller, 1632. For another case, see CKS, NR/JC 24 (New Romney, 1620). Such women performed a similar role to the searchers who identified the 'tokens' of death at times of plague: Thomas R. Forbes, The searchers' in Saul Jarcho (ed.), Essays on the History of Medicine (New York, 1976), 145-52; Paul Slack, The Impact of Plague in Tudor and Stuart England (London, 1985), 149, 239, 274-6. Although searchers were originally only meant to search for plague, they did report on other sudden deaths: Forbes, 'Searchers', op. cit., 147-8. Watchers were employed to guard bodies pending coroners' inquests: Munday, op. cit., 92; Gittings, op. cit., 107-8.
268. The same could also be applied to female searchers appointed to examine the bodies of witches, whose strong community bias could explain why so few negative examinations were recorded: Clive Holmes, 'Women: witnesses and witches', Past and Present, CXL (August 1993), 73-5.
269. CUL, EDR E44 Q/S (1632). For cases where trial juries disputed the verdicts of searchers and coroners' juries, see PRO, STAC 8/254/2, m. 149 (1607); J. S. Cockburn (ed.), Calendar of Assize Records. Surrey Indictments, James I (London, 1982), nos 1108-9 (1620); PRO, SP 36/26/38 (1732). In 1578 a jury of matrons even contradicted a mother's confession to infanticide: Calendar of State Papers, Domestic [hereafter CSPD], 1547-80, 588. Witnesses were also vulnerable to bribes: see A True Relation of the Most Inhumane and Bloody Murder, of Master James (1609) [STC 14436], sig. B2; PRO, STAC 8/276/21, m. 14 (1606); Slack op. cit., 296.
270. CUL, EDR E44 Q/S (1632). For cases where trial juries disputed the verdicts of searchers and coroners' juries, see PRO, STAC 8/254/2, m. 149 (1607); J. S. Cockburn (ed.), Calendar of Assize Records. Surrey Indictments, James I (London, 1982), nos 1108-9 (1620); PRO, SP 36/26/38 (1732). In 1578 a jury of matrons even contradicted a mother's confession to infanticide: Calendar of State Papers, Domestic [hereafter CSPD], 1547-80, 588. Witnesses were also vulnerable to bribes: see A True Relation of the Most Inhumane and Bloody Murder, of Master James (1609) [STC 14436], sig. B2; PRO, STAC 8/276/21, m. 14 (1606); Slack op. cit., 296.
271. CUL, EDR E44 Q/S (1632). For cases where trial juries disputed the verdicts of searchers and coroners' juries, see PRO, STAC 8/254/2, m. 149 (1607); J. S. Cockburn (ed.), Calendar of Assize Records. Surrey Indictments, James I (London, 1982), nos 1108-9 (1620); PRO, SP 36/26/38 (1732). In 1578 a jury of matrons even contradicted a mother's confession to infanticide: Calendar of State Papers, Domestic [hereafter CSPD], 1547-80, 588. Witnesses were also vulnerable to bribes: see A True Relation of the Most Inhumane and Bloody Murder, of Master James (1609) [STC 14436], sig. B2; PRO, STAC 8/276/21, m. 14 (1606); Slack op. cit., 296.
272. CUL, EDR E44 Q/S (1632). For cases where trial juries disputed the verdicts of searchers and coroners' juries, see PRO, STAC 8/254/2, m. 149 (1607); J. S. Cockburn (ed.), Calendar of Assize Records. Surrey Indictments, James I (London, 1982), nos 1108-9 (1620); PRO, SP 36/26/38 (1732). In 1578 a jury of matrons even contradicted a mother's confession to infanticide: Calendar of State Papers, Domestic [hereafter CSPD], 1547-80, 588. Witnesses were also vulnerable to bribes: see A True Relation of the Most Inhumane and Bloody Murder, of Master James (1609) [STC 14436], sig. B2; PRO, STAC 8/276/21, m. 14 (1606); Slack op. cit., 296.
273. Without physical remains proven to be that of the alleged victim, circumstantial evidence was invalid: State Trials, vol. 11, 464n; Hunmsett, Medieval Coroner, op. cit., 9.
274. Without physical remains proven to be that of the alleged victim, circumstantial evidence was invalid: State Trials, vol. 11, 464n; Hunmsett, Medieval Coroner, op. cit., 9.
275. The Bloudy Booke. Or, The Tragicall and Desperate End of Sir John Fites (1605) [STC 10930], sig. B2; Newgate Calendar, vol. 1, 49; Derby Mercury (3 December 1736), 1; PRO, DURH 17/1, part 2 informations & examinations, 1709-11, testimony of Mr Burton, 1707. In 1726 churchwardens at Westminster ordered a severed head to be washed, combed and set on a post 'for the publick View, to the End, that [s]ome Discovery might be made'. After three days a surgeon preserved it in a glass of spirits, and it was put back on display: Select Trials at the Sessions-House in the Old Bailey, for Murder, Robberies, Rapes, Sodomy, Coining, Frauds, Bigamy, and other Offences (1742), vol. 3, 4.
276. The Bloudy Booke. Or, The Tragicall and Desperate End of Sir John Fites (1605) [STC 10930], sig. B2; Newgate Calendar, vol. 1, 49; Derby Mercury (3 December 1736), 1; PRO, DURH 17/1, part 2 informations & examinations, 1709-11, testimony of Mr Burton, 1707. In 1726 churchwardens at Westminster ordered a severed head to be washed, combed and set on a post 'for the publick View, to the End, that [s]ome Discovery might be made'. After three days a surgeon preserved it in a glass of spirits, and it was put back on display: Select Trials at the Sessions-House in the Old Bailey, for Murder, Robberies, Rapes, Sodomy, Coining, Frauds, Bigamy, and other Offences (1742), vol. 3, 4.
277. The Bloudy Booke. Or, The Tragicall and Desperate End of Sir John Fites (1605) [STC 10930], sig. B2; Newgate Calendar, vol. 1, 49; Derby Mercury (3 December 1736), 1; PRO, DURH 17/1, part 2 informations & examinations, 1709-11, testimony of Mr Burton, 1707. In 1726 churchwardens at Westminster ordered a severed head to be washed, combed and set on a post 'for the publick View, to the End, that [s]ome Discovery might be made'. After three days a surgeon preserved it in a glass of spirits, and it was put back on display: Select Trials at the Sessions-House in the Old Bailey, for Murder, Robberies, Rapes, Sodomy, Coining, Frauds, Bigamy, and other Offences (1742), vol. 3, 4.
278. The Bloudy Booke. Or, The Tragicall and Desperate End of Sir John Fites (1605) [STC 10930], sig. B2; Newgate Calendar, vol. 1, 49; Derby Mercury (3 December 1736), 1; PRO, DURH 17/1, part 2 informations & examinations, 1709-11, testimony of Mr Burton, 1707. In 1726 churchwardens at Westminster ordered a severed head to be washed, combed and set on a post 'for the publick View, to the End, that [s]ome Discovery might be made'. After three days a surgeon preserved it in a glass of spirits, and it was put back on display: Select Trials at the Sessions-House in the Old Bailey, for Murder, Robberies, Rapes, Sodomy, Coining, Frauds, Bigamy, and other Offences (1742), vol. 3, 4.
279. For an example of considerable ability shown by inquest jurors, see MacDonald and Murphy, op. cit., 224.
280. Brand, op. cit., vol. 3, 234: Isha Mellor, Touch Wood. Superstitions (London, 1980), 91.
281. Brand, op. cit., vol. 3, 234: Isha Mellor, Touch Wood. Superstitions (London, 1980), 91.
282. See The Bloody Murtherer, or, the Unnatural Son His Just Condemnation. At the Assizes Held at Monmouth (1672), 11. Measuring footprints was recommended in Dalton, op. cit. (1618 edn), 266. Lead-shot occasioned discussion on ballistics at an Old Bailey trial in 1682: State Trials, vol. 9, 21-2.
283. See The Bloody Murtherer, or, the Unnatural Son His Just Condemnation. At the Assizes Held at Monmouth (1672), 11. Measuring footprints was recommended in Dalton, op. cit. (1618 edn), 266. Lead-shot occasioned discussion on ballistics at an Old Bailey trial in 1682: State Trials, vol. 9, 21-2.
284. See The Bloody Murtherer, or, the Unnatural Son His Just Condemnation. At the Assizes Held at Monmouth (1672), 11. Measuring footprints was recommended in Dalton, op. cit. (1618 edn), 266. Lead-shot occasioned discussion on ballistics at an Old Bailey trial in 1682: State Trials, vol. 9, 21-2.
285. PRO, PL 27/1, testimony of Robert Sanderson, 1692; PL 27/2 part 1, testimony of William Kellett, 1692; The Araignement & Burning of Margaret Ferne-Seede, For the Murther of Her Late Husband (1608) [STC 10826], sig. A3v.
286. Cooper, op. cit., 43; The Flying Post: or, The Post-Master (8-10 April 1697); 1-2; PRO, PL 27/2, part 1, testimony of Isabel Backhouse, 1696; PL 27/1, testimony of Rosamond Bond and Isabel Backhouse, 1696. For another example, see PRO, ASSI 45/15/4/86-7 (1690).
287. Cooper, op. cit., 43; The Flying Post: or, The Post-Master (8-10 April 1697); 1-2; PRO, PL 27/2, part 1, testimony of Isabel Backhouse, 1696; PL 27/1, testimony of Rosamond Bond and Isabel Backhouse, 1696. For another example, see PRO, ASSI 45/15/4/86-7 (1690).
288. CUL, EDR E9/6/6v, testimony of Anne Queen. In general, this story is gathered from depositions at EDR E9/6/4-7Av; E9/1/20-27, 29-31.
289. CUL, EDR E9/6/5v, testimony of Mary Panfreyman; E9/6/6A, 7Av, 6Av, testimony of William Bradshaw, Richard Springe and John Linwood; E9/6/5, 7, testimony of Bridget Bonham, Richard Peck and John Linwood. The date of birth is confirmed by the parish register: Cambridgeshire Record Office, Cambridge (hereafter CRO), P148/1/1. For recognizances, see CUL, EDR E9/1/20-27, 29-31. Bonham was tried for murder at Ely but was acquitted. In 1647, however, the Bonhams were tried as witches, and in 1662 both were tried and acquitted again for their son's murder: EDR Q/S, gaol calendar, E45 1662; plea roll, E42 Fragments.
290. The poisoner 'operated secure in the knowedge that only manifest evidence of external violence would attract an inquest, and that even if an inquest was held, the absence of medical evidence would render his crime unlikely to be recognized': Havard, op. cit., 64. See also MacDonald and Murphy, op. cit., 227. On the development of forenac medicine relating to infanticide and poisoning, see Forbes, Surgeons at the Bailey, op. cit., chaps 6, 8.
291. The poisoner 'operated secure in the knowedge that only manifest evidence of external violence would attract an inquest, and that even if an inquest was held, the absence of medical evidence would render his crime unlikely to be recognized': Havard, op. cit., 64. See also MacDonald and Murphy, op. cit., 227. On the development of forenac medicine relating to infanticide and poisoning, see Forbes, Surgeons at the Bailey, op. cit., chaps 6, 8.
292. The poisoner 'operated secure in the knowedge that only manifest evidence of external violence would attract an inquest, and that even if an inquest was held, the absence of medical evidence would render his crime unlikely to be recognized': Havard, op. cit., 64. See also MacDonald and Murphy, op. cit., 227. On the development of forenac medicine relating to infanticide and poisoning, see Forbes, Surgeons at the Bailey, op. cit., chaps 6, 8.
293. CKS, Q/SB 6, fols 29-30. For another good example, see PRO, PL 27/2, part 2, testimony of Clemence Chamberline, 1691.
294. See R. P. Brittain, 'The hydrostatic and similar tests of live birth: a historical review', Medical-Legal Journal, XXXI (1963), 189-94; Thomas Rogers Forbes, 'Crowther's quest', Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, LXVIII, part 1 (1978), 45-7. For a detailed example of the test, carried out by a surgeon in 1733, see Proceedings . . . in the Old Bayly the 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th of October 1733 (1733), 10.
295. See R. P. Brittain, 'The hydrostatic and similar tests of live birth: a historical review', Medical-Legal Journal, XXXI (1963), 189-94; Thomas Rogers Forbes, 'Crowther's quest', Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, LXVIII, part 1 (1978), 45-7. For a detailed example of the test, carried out by a surgeon in 1733, see Proceedings . . . in the Old Bayly the 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th of October 1733 (1733), 10.
296. See R. P. Brittain, 'The hydrostatic and similar tests of live birth: a historical review', Medical-Legal Journal, XXXI (1963), 189-94; Thomas Rogers Forbes, 'Crowther's quest', Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, LXVIII, part 1 (1978), 45-7. For a detailed example of the test, carried out by a surgeon in 1733, see Proceedings . . . in the Old Bayly the 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th of October 1733 (1733), 10.
297. PRO, SP 36/30/54.
298. In a Yorkshire trial of 1654 a witness deposed that the baby she had seen was 'wrapt in an old wastcoate, itt was a faire liking child perfect every way and noe signe of Hurt on itt': PRO, ASSI 45/5/1/107v. On these matters in general, see Mark Jackson. New-Born Child Murder: Women, Illegitimacy and the Courts in Eighteenth-Century England (Manchester, 1996).
299. Testing for poisons was slow to develop: see W. A. Campbell, 'The history of the chemical detection of poisons', Medical History, XXV (1981), 202-3. In some cases, poisons were traced to their vendors: see CKS, Q/SB 6, fols 38-9; PRO, ASSI 45/13/3/69; 45/16/5/12; PL 27/1, case against Thomas Lancaster, 1671; L. B., The Examination, Confession, and Condemnation of Henry Robson. Fisherman of Rye, Who Poysoned His Wife (1598) [STC 21131], sig. B1; J. S. Cockburn (ed.), Calendar of Assize Records, Surrey Indictments, Elizabeth I (London, 1980), no. 1826 (1587). One poisoner was shown a selection of poisons from which to identify the one he had used: The Poysoner Self-Poysoned: or, A Most True and Lamentable Relation from Lewis in Sussex (?1679), 3-4.
300. Testing for poisons was slow to develop: see W. A. Campbell, 'The history of the chemical detection of poisons', Medical History, XXV (1981), 202-3. In some cases, poisons were traced to their vendors: see CKS, Q/SB 6, fols 38-9; PRO, ASSI 45/13/3/69; 45/16/5/12; PL 27/1, case against Thomas Lancaster, 1671; L. B., The Examination, Confession, and Condemnation of Henry Robson. Fisherman of Rye, Who Poysoned His Wife (1598) [STC 21131], sig. B1; J. S. Cockburn (ed.), Calendar of Assize Records, Surrey Indictments, Elizabeth I (London, 1980), no. 1826 (1587). One poisoner was shown a selection of poisons from which to identify the one he had used: The Poysoner Self-Poysoned: or, A Most True and Lamentable Relation from Lewis in Sussex (?1679), 3-4.
301. Testing for poisons was slow to develop: see W. A. Campbell, 'The history of the chemical detection of poisons', Medical History, XXV (1981), 202-3. In some cases, poisons were traced to their vendors: see CKS, Q/SB 6, fols 38-9; PRO, ASSI 45/13/3/69; 45/16/5/12; PL 27/1, case against Thomas Lancaster, 1671; L. B., The Examination, Confession, and Condemnation of Henry Robson. Fisherman of Rye, Who Poysoned His Wife (1598) [STC 21131], sig. B1; J. S. Cockburn (ed.), Calendar of Assize Records, Surrey Indictments, Elizabeth I (London, 1980), no. 1826 (1587). One poisoner was shown a selection of poisons from which to identify the one he had used: The Poysoner Self-Poysoned: or, A Most True and Lamentable Relation from Lewis in Sussex (?1679), 3-4.
302. Testing for poisons was slow to develop: see W. A. Campbell, 'The history of the chemical detection of poisons', Medical History, XXV (1981), 202-3. In some cases, poisons were traced to their vendors: see CKS, Q/SB 6, fols 38-9; PRO, ASSI 45/13/3/69; 45/16/5/12; PL 27/1, case against Thomas Lancaster, 1671; L. B., The Examination, Confession, and Condemnation of Henry Robson. Fisherman of Rye, Who Poysoned His Wife (1598) [STC 21131], sig. B1; J. S. Cockburn (ed.), Calendar of Assize Records, Surrey Indictments, Elizabeth I (London, 1980), no. 1826 (1587). One poisoner was shown a selection of poisons from which to identify the one he had used: The Poysoner Self-Poysoned: or, A Most True and Lamentable Relation from Lewis in Sussex (?1679), 3-4.
303. Isham (ed.), op. cit., 81. The most prominent sign of arsenic poisoning is bluish skin; but then this also occurs in many natural deaths.
304. Murther, Murther. Or, A Bloody Relation How Anne Hamton . . . Murthered Her Deare Husband (1641), 4-5; L. B., op. cit., sig. B1. That strong poison would break a glass receptacle may have been a popular superstition: see CSPD, 1595-1597, 568-9.
305. Murther, Murther. Or, A Bloody Relation How Anne Hamton . . . Murthered Her Deare Husband (1641), 4-5; L. B., op. cit., sig. B1. That strong poison would break a glass receptacle may have been a popular superstition: see CSPD, 1595-1597, 568-9.
306. PRO, STAC 8/176/1, m. 5. Indeed, it was a common but mistaken belief maintained by coroners' juries into the nineteenth century that ulcers and blisters on a corpse were evidence of poisoning: Forbes, Surgeons at the Bailey, op. cit., 132-3.
307. CRO, borough Q/S (1677), no. 7, case against John Ilgarr, 1677.
308. For example, see Othello, V, i (Roderigo); Macbeth, IV, ii (Macduff's son). I am grateful to Adam Fox and Chris Marsh respectively for these references.
309. For example, see Othello, V, i (Roderigo); Macbeth, IV, ii (Macduff's son). I am grateful to Adam Fox and Chris Marsh respectively for these references.
310. Araignment . . . of Arnold Cosbye, op. cit., sig. A4; The Inhuman Butcher Of Leaden-Hall Market (1697) in Rollins (ed.), Pepys Ballads, op. cit., vol. 7, 260. A man stabbed at Twickenham, Middlesex, in 1605 allegedly 'fel downe presentlie and died, onlie with a woful noyse and hydeous shrieck, crying out: I am kild': The Bloudy Booke, op. cit., sig. D4v . For another good example, see The Childrens Cryes Against Their Barbarous & Cruel Father (?1696) in Rollins (ed.), Pepys Ballads, op. cit., vol. 7, 22 7.
311. Araignment . . . of Arnold Cosbye, op. cit., sig. A4; The Inhuman Butcher Of Leaden-Hall Market (1697) in Rollins (ed.), Pepys Ballads, op. cit., vol. 7, 260. A man stabbed at Twickenham, Middlesex, in 1605 allegedly 'fel downe presentlie and died, onlie with a woful noyse and hydeous shrieck, crying out: I am kild': The Bloudy Booke, op. cit., sig. D4v . For another good example, see The Childrens Cryes Against Their Barbarous & Cruel Father (?1696) in Rollins (ed.), Pepys Ballads, op. cit., vol. 7, 22 7.
312. Araignment . . . of Arnold Cosbye, op. cit., sig. A4; The Inhuman Butcher Of Leaden-Hall Market (1697) in Rollins (ed.), Pepys Ballads, op. cit., vol. 7, 260. A man stabbed at Twickenham, Middlesex, in 1605 allegedly 'fel downe presentlie and died, onlie with a woful noyse and hydeous shrieck, crying out: I am kild': The Bloudy Booke, op. cit., sig. D4v . For another good example, see The Childrens Cryes Against Their Barbarous & Cruel Father (?1696) in Rollins (ed.), Pepys Ballads, op. cit., vol. 7, 22 7.
313. Araignment . . . of Arnold Cosbye, op. cit., sig. A4; The Inhuman Butcher Of Leaden-Hall Market (1697) in Rollins (ed.), Pepys Ballads, op. cit., vol. 7, 260. A man stabbed at Twickenham, Middlesex, in 1605 allegedly 'fel downe presentlie and died, onlie with a woful noyse and hydeous shrieck, crying out: I am kild': The Bloudy Booke, op. cit., sig. D4v . For another good example, see The Childrens Cryes Against Their Barbarous & Cruel Father (?1696) in Rollins (ed.), Pepys Ballads, op. cit., vol. 7, 22 7.
314. Araignment . . . of Arnold Cosbye, op. cit., sig. A4; The Inhuman Butcher Of Leaden-Hall Market (1697) in Rollins (ed.), Pepys Ballads, op. cit., vol. 7, 260. A man stabbed at Twickenham, Middlesex, in 1605 allegedly 'fel downe presentlie and died, onlie with a woful noyse and hydeous shrieck, crying out: I am kild': The Bloudy Booke, op. cit., sig. D4v . For another good example, see The Childrens Cryes Against Their Barbarous & Cruel Father (?1696) in Rollins (ed.), Pepys Ballads, op. cit., vol. 7, 22 7.
315. Araignment . . . of Arnold Cosbye, op. cit., sig. A4; The Inhuman Butcher Of Leaden-Hall Market (1697) in Rollins (ed.), Pepys Ballads, op. cit., vol. 7, 260. A man stabbed at Twickenham, Middlesex, in 1605 allegedly 'fel downe presentlie and died, onlie with a woful noyse and hydeous shrieck, crying out: I am kild': The Bloudy Booke, op. cit., sig. D4v . For another good example, see The Childrens Cryes Against Their Barbarous & Cruel Father (?1696) in Rollins (ed.), Pepys Ballads, op. cit., vol. 7, 22 7.
316. The Bloody-Minded Husband: Or, the Cruelty of John Chambers (c. 1685) in Rollins (ed.), Pepys Ballads, op. cit., vol. 3, 204. For a classic deathbed accusation, see Henry Goodcole, The Wonderfull Discoverie of Elizabeth Sawyer a Witch, Late of Edmonton (1621) [STC 12014], sig. B2v. For a highly symbolic death-speech, see Two Most Unnaturall and Bloodie Murthers, op. cit., 9.
317. The Bloody-Minded Husband: Or, the Cruelty of John Chambers (c. 1685) in Rollins (ed.), Pepys Ballads, op. cit., vol. 3, 204. For a classic deathbed accusation, see Henry Goodcole, The Wonderfull Discoverie of Elizabeth Sawyer a Witch, Late of Edmonton (1621) [STC 12014], sig. B2v. For a highly symbolic death-speech, see Two Most Unnaturall and Bloodie Murthers, op. cit., 9.
318. The Bloody-Minded Husband: Or, the Cruelty of John Chambers (c. 1685) in Rollins (ed.), Pepys Ballads, op. cit., vol. 3, 204. For a classic deathbed accusation, see Henry Goodcole, The Wonderfull Discoverie of Elizabeth Sawyer a Witch, Late of Edmonton (1621) [STC 12014], sig. B2v. For a highly symbolic death-speech, see Two Most Unnaturall and Bloodie Murthers, op. cit., 9.
319. The Bloody-Minded Husband: Or, the Cruelty of John Chambers (c. 1685) in Rollins (ed.), Pepys Ballads, op. cit., vol. 3, 204. For a classic deathbed accusation, see Henry Goodcole, The Wonderfull Discoverie of Elizabeth Sawyer a Witch, Late of Edmonton (1621) [STC 12014], sig. B2v. For a highly symbolic death-speech, see Two Most Unnaturall and Bloodie Murthers, op. cit., 9.
320. PRO, SP 35/11/41; Proceedings . . . in the Old Bayly the 25th, 26th, 27th, and 28th of February, 1718 (1718), 3. For other cases, see PRO, STAC 8/24/16, m. 19 (1618); ASSI 45/2/2/212 (1648); 45/10/2/23 (1672); 17/2/41-2, 53 (1697); Newcastle Courant (24-26 November 1712), 7; British Library, London, Harleian MS. 6866, fol. 523 (1732).
321. PRO, SP 35/11/41; Proceedings . . . in the Old Bayly the 25th, 26th, 27th, and 28th of February, 1718 (1718), 3. For other cases, see PRO, STAC 8/24/16, m. 19 (1618); ASSI 45/2/2/212 (1648); 45/10/2/23 (1672); 17/2/41-2, 53 (1697); Newcastle Courant (24-26 November 1712), 7; British Library, London, Harleian MS. 6866, fol. 523 (1732).
322. CUL, EDR E9/8/1, Northampton Mercury (22 September 1735), 72; PRO, ASSI 45/9/1/102. Similarly, during an alehouse scuffle at Cleator, Cumberland, in 1668, a man who had been stabbed said: 'Lord have mercie upon me I am slaine': PRO, ASSI 45/9/1/60.
323. At the trial of a Bristol alehouse-keeper for killing his wife in 1735, the court heard how she had reproved him for not stopping a brawl: 'You Dog, what will you see Murder committed in your own House?' At this, he beat and kicked her, and to cries of 'Murder, Murder', replied: 'If you want Murder, I will give you Murder': Northampton Mercury (22 September 1735), 72.
324. In 1720 the wounds of a man stabbed at Newbury, Berkshire, were pronounced mortal by a surgeon. A witness related how he had seen a crowd and 'asking what was matter, the people said there was a man murdered' even while he still had breath in his body: PRO, ASSI 6/1, part 2, Berkshire 1719/20 & 1754, testimony of John Strange and John Wright, 1720. In 1739 a woman was found 'murder'd', but not quite dead: Derby Mercury (4 January 1739), 2. For other examples see PRO, PL 27/2, part 2, death of John Hindle, 1739; ASSI 45/1/3/53. Witnesses were aware that only death resulting within a year and a day was murder: PRO, ASSI 45/3/1/145 (1649); 45/5/3/119 (1656). An assailant might be held until a victim's condition improved: see 'Journal of John Hobson' in Yorkshire Diaries and Autobiographies in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, Surtees Society, LXV (1875), 21-2; PRO, DURH 17/3, assizes 1728, testimony of Elizabeth Cuthbertson, 1728.
325. In 1720 the wounds of a man stabbed at Newbury, Berkshire, were pronounced mortal by a surgeon. A witness related how he had seen a crowd and 'asking what was matter, the people said there was a man murdered' even while he still had breath in his body: PRO, ASSI 6/1, part 2, Berkshire 1719/20 & 1754, testimony of John Strange and John Wright, 1720. In 1739 a woman was found 'murder'd', but not quite dead: Derby Mercury (4 January 1739), 2. For other examples see PRO, PL 27/2, part 2, death of John Hindle, 1739; ASSI 45/1/3/53. Witnesses were aware that only death resulting within a year and a day was murder: PRO, ASSI 45/3/1/145 (1649); 45/5/3/119 (1656). An assailant might be held until a victim's condition improved: see 'Journal of John Hobson' in Yorkshire Diaries and Autobiographies in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, Surtees Society, LXV (1875), 21-2; PRO, DURH 17/3, assizes 1728, testimony of Elizabeth Cuthbertson, 1728.
326. Holdsworth, op. cit., vol. 3, 315.
327. Philippe Ariès, Western Attitudes Toward Death. From the Middle Ages to the Present (London, 1974), 11.
328. On deathbed rituals, see Philippe Ariès, The Hour of Our Death (London, 1981); David E. Stannard, The Puritan Way of Death. A Study in Religion, Culture and Social Change (New York, 1977), chap, 1; Eamon Duffy, The Stripping of the Altars. Traditional Religion in England 1400-1580 (New Haven, 1992), chap. 9.
329. On deathbed rituals, see Philippe Ariès, The Hour of Our Death (London, 1981); David E. Stannard, The Puritan Way of Death. A Study in Religion, Culture and Social Change (New York, 1977), chap, 1; Eamon Duffy, The Stripping of the Altars. Traditional Religion in England 1400-1580 (New Haven, 1992), chap. 9.
330. On deathbed rituals, see Philippe Ariès, The Hour of Our Death (London, 1981); David E. Stannard, The Puritan Way of Death. A Study in Religion, Culture and Social Change (New York, 1977), chap, 1; Eamon Duffy, The Stripping of the Altars. Traditional Religion in England 1400-1580 (New Haven, 1992), chap. 9.
331. Ariès, Western Attitudes Toward Death, op. cit., 9-10.
332. I am grateful to Catherine Crawford for this point. PRO, ASSI 45/4/1/111; CUL, EDR E14, September 1652, testimony of Elizabeth Nicholson and John Barnes, 1651; E44 Q/S files 1653-4. Barnes admitted beating his wife, but 'onely out of a hastie Colloricke Humer being some what hett with beere'. The charge was reduced to clergiable manslaughter. In 1609 at Fakenham, Norfolk, Sir John Hayden allegedly told his attorney 'that hee was cowardly murthered': PRO, STAC 8/152/12, m. 1.
333. PRO, ASSI 45/15/2/73. In 1678 at Santon, Cumberland, as Mary Greensides's condition deteriorated, her brother asked 'if she should die at that time whether or noe she would blame the said Mary Newmar[sh] for her death, where upon she said who could she blame else', and added that she could never forgive her: ASSI 45/12/2/62. For similar cases, see ASSI 45/4/3/73-4 (1653); 45/5/1/41 (1654); 45/9/2/94A (1669); 45/14/2/75 (1685).
334. At Witcham, Cambridgeshire, in 1642, a dying Barbary Barber admitted provoking Elizabeth Redman, but could not say if she would forgive her. In her own defence, Redman said the attack was unpremeditated and lamented, 'alas Barbary I have killed thee': CUL, EDR E12 (1641-2), fols 15-16; E12 1644-5, gaol calendar, 16 August 1642. In return for her display of regret, Redman was only charged with manslaughter: E12 1642-3, coroner's inquest, 1642.
335. For example, see Gent. Mag. (July 1742), 386; PRO, TS 11/894/3042; ASSI 45/10/1/16, 118 (1671); DURH 17/3, assizes 1728, confession of Thomas Wilkinson, 1728; Proceedings . . . in the Old-Bayly, the 6th, 7th, 8th, 10th of December 1739 (1739), 3. The 'murder' cry was a useful way of attracting attention: see Domestick Intelligence (6 January 1680), 2; A Bloudy New-Yeares Gift, or A True Declaration of the Most Cruell and Bloudy Murther (1609) [STC 13018.3], 3.
336. For example, see Gent. Mag. (July 1742), 386; PRO, TS 11/894/3042; ASSI 45/10/1/16, 118 (1671); DURH 17/3, assizes 1728, confession of Thomas Wilkinson, 1728; Proceedings . . . in the Old-Bayly, the 6th, 7th, 8th, 10th of December 1739 (1739), 3. The 'murder' cry was a useful way of attracting attention: see Domestick Intelligence (6 January 1680), 2; A Bloudy New-Yeares Gift, or A True Declaration of the Most Cruell and Bloudy Murther (1609) [STC 13018.3], 3.
337. For example, see Gent. Mag. (July 1742), 386; PRO, TS 11/894/3042; ASSI 45/10/1/16, 118 (1671); DURH 17/3, assizes 1728, confession of Thomas Wilkinson, 1728; Proceedings . . . in the Old-Bayly, the 6th, 7th, 8th, 10th of December 1739 (1739), 3. The 'murder' cry was a useful way of attracting attention: see Domestick Intelligence (6 January 1680), 2; A Bloudy New-Yeares Gift, or A True Declaration of the Most Cruell and Bloudy Murther (1609) [STC 13018.3], 3.
338. For example, see Gent. Mag. (July 1742), 386; PRO, TS 11/894/3042; ASSI 45/10/1/16, 118 (1671); DURH 17/3, assizes 1728, confession of Thomas Wilkinson, 1728; Proceedings . . . in the Old-Bayly, the 6th, 7th, 8th, 10th of December 1739 (1739), 3. The 'murder' cry was a useful way of attracting attention: see Domestick Intelligence (6 January 1680), 2; A Bloudy New-Yeares Gift, or A True Declaration of the Most Cruell and Bloudy Murther (1609) [STC 13018.3], 3.
339. Lake, 'Deeds against nature', op. cit., 279-80; 'Popular form, puritan content', op. cit., 328-30.
340. Lake, 'Deeds against nature', op. cit., 279-80; 'Popular form, puritan content', op. cit., 328-30.
341. The Manner of the Cruell Outragious Murther of William Storre (Oxford, 1603), sig. A3. In one ballad, a man who cried to his wife: 'What hast thou done, I prethee looke . . . for thou hast killed me', ultimately forgave and prayed for her: T. Platte, Anne Wallens Lamentation for the Murthering of her Husband (?1616) in Rollins (ed.), Pepysian Garland, op. cit., 87. For another example, see [Golding], op. cit., sig. A3v.
342. The Manner of the Cruell Outragious Murther of William Storre (Oxford, 1603), sig. A3. In one ballad, a man who cried to his wife: 'What hast thou done, I prethee looke . . . for thou hast killed me', ultimately forgave and prayed for her: T. Platte, Anne Wallens Lamentation for the Murthering of her Husband (?1616) in Rollins (ed.), Pepysian Garland, op. cit., 87. For another example, see [Golding], op. cit., sig. A3v.
343. The Manner of the Cruell Outragious Murther of William Storre (Oxford, 1603), sig. A3. In one ballad, a man who cried to his wife: 'What hast thou done, I prethee looke . . . for thou hast killed me', ultimately forgave and prayed for her: T. Platte, Anne Wallens Lamentation for the Murthering of her Husband (?1616) in Rollins (ed.), Pepysian Garland, op. cit., 87. For another example, see [Golding], op. cit., sig. A3v.
344. The Manner of the Cruell Outragious Murther of William Storre (Oxford, 1603), sig. A3. In one ballad, a man who cried to his wife: 'What hast thou done, I prethee looke . . . for thou hast killed me', ultimately forgave and prayed for her: T. Platte, Anne Wallens Lamentation for the Murthering of her Husband (?1616) in Rollins (ed.), Pepysian Garland, op. cit., 87. For another example, see [Golding], op. cit., sig. A3v.
345. PRO, PL 27/2, part 1, case against John Porter, 1698. In 1651 a bailiff's wife, Lucy Sharpe, was forgiven by her victim with the words: 'shee desyered god to forgive herrr the s[ai]d Mrs Sharpe as shee desyered to bee forgiven of god': CKS, Q/SB 2, sessions papers 1651, fols 8, 34, quotation at fol. 8v; Elizabeth Melling (ed.), Kentish Sources, VI. Crime and Punishment (Maidstone, 1969), 55n. For similar examples, see CUL, EDR E15 (1656), testimony of John Gaynsby, 1656; E17 (1656), indictment of Ursula Bishop and Joan Meade, 1656; PRO, ASSI 45/5/5/57 (1658); 45/11/2/40 (1675); Proceedings . . . in the Old Bayly the 3d, 4th, 5th, and 6th of December, 1729 (1729), 5.
346. PRO, PL 27/2, part 1, case against John Porter, 1698. In 1651 a bailiff's wife, Lucy Sharpe, was forgiven by her victim with the words: 'shee desyered god to forgive herrr the s[ai]d Mrs Sharpe as shee desyered to bee forgiven of god': CKS, Q/SB 2, sessions papers 1651, fols 8, 34, quotation at fol. 8v; Elizabeth Melling (ed.), Kentish Sources, VI. Crime and Punishment (Maidstone, 1969), 55n. For similar examples, see CUL, EDR E15 (1656), testimony of John Gaynsby, 1656; E17 (1656), indictment of Ursula Bishop and Joan Meade, 1656; PRO, ASSI 45/5/5/57 (1658); 45/11/2/40 (1675); Proceedings . . . in the Old Bayly the 3d, 4th, 5th, and 6th of December, 1729 (1729), 5.
347. PRO, ASSI 45/12/1/10E.
348. From the sixteenth century, blood feuds were less often tolerated than they had been in the Middle Ages, and recourse to law was encouraged in order to keep the peace and to reinforce the state's monopoly over punitive violence. Previously, an extra-judicial settlement . . . was a more effective instrument for the regulation of violence than the authority of the courts, even in the case of homicide': Bruce Lenman and Geoffrey Parker, The state, the community and the criminal law in early modern Europe' in V. A. C. Gatrell, Bruce Lenman and Geoffrey Parker (eds), Crime and the Law. The Social History of Crime in Western Europe Since 1500 (London, 1980), 24. On feuds and vendettas, see Lawrence Stone, The Crisis of the Aristocracy 1558-1641 (Oxford, 1965), 242-50; V. G. Kiernan, The Duel in European History. Honour and the Reign of Aristocracy (Oxford, 1988), 61-2, 103-4; Jenny Wormald, 'Bloodfeud: kindred and government in early modern Scotland', Past and Present, LXXXVII (May 1980), 54-97.
349. From the sixteenth century, blood feuds were less often tolerated than they had been in the Middle Ages, and recourse to law was encouraged in order to keep the peace and to reinforce the state's monopoly over punitive violence. Previously, an extra-judicial settlement . . . was a more effective instrument for the regulation of violence than the authority of the courts, even in the case of homicide': Bruce Lenman and Geoffrey Parker, The state, the community and the criminal law in early modern Europe' in V. A. C. Gatrell, Bruce Lenman and Geoffrey Parker (eds), Crime and the Law. The Social History of Crime in Western Europe Since 1500 (London, 1980), 24. On feuds and vendettas, see Lawrence Stone, The Crisis of the Aristocracy 1558-1641 (Oxford, 1965), 242-50; V. G. Kiernan, The Duel in European History. Honour and the Reign of Aristocracy (Oxford, 1988), 61-2, 103-4; Jenny Wormald, 'Bloodfeud: kindred and government in early modern Scotland', Past and Present, LXXXVII (May 1980), 54-97.
350. From the sixteenth century, blood feuds were less often tolerated than they had been in the Middle Ages, and recourse to law was encouraged in order to keep the peace and to reinforce the state's monopoly over punitive violence. Previously, an extra-judicial settlement . . . was a more effective instrument for the regulation of violence than the authority of the courts, even in the case of homicide': Bruce Lenman and Geoffrey Parker, The state, the community and the criminal law in early modern Europe' in V. A. C. Gatrell, Bruce Lenman and Geoffrey Parker (eds), Crime and the Law. The Social History of Crime in Western Europe Since 1500 (London, 1980), 24. On feuds and vendettas, see Lawrence Stone, The Crisis of the Aristocracy 1558-1641 (Oxford, 1965), 242-50; V. G. Kiernan, The Duel in European History. Honour and the Reign of Aristocracy (Oxford, 1988), 61-2, 103-4; Jenny Wormald, 'Bloodfeud: kindred and government in early modern Scotland', Past and Present, LXXXVII (May 1980), 54-97.
351. From the sixteenth century, blood feuds were less often tolerated than they had been in the Middle Ages, and recourse to law was encouraged in order to keep the peace and to reinforce the state's monopoly over punitive violence. Previously, an extra-judicial settlement . . . was a more effective instrument for the regulation of violence than the authority of the courts, even in the case of homicide': Bruce Lenman and Geoffrey Parker, The state, the community and the criminal law in early modern Europe' in V. A. C. Gatrell, Bruce Lenman and Geoffrey Parker (eds), Crime and the Law. The Social History of Crime in Western Europe Since 1500 (London, 1980), 24. On feuds and vendettas, see Lawrence Stone, The Crisis of the Aristocracy 1558-1641 (Oxford, 1965), 242-50; V. G. Kiernan, The Duel in European History. Honour and the Reign of Aristocracy (Oxford, 1988), 61-2, 103-4; Jenny Wormald, 'Bloodfeud: kindred and government in early modern Scotland', Past and Present, LXXXVII (May 1980), 54-97.
352. PRO, ASSI 45/12/2/60B.
353. Davis, Fiction in the Archives, op. cit., 15, 64, 111.
354. J. S. Cockburn, Calendar of Assize Records. Home Circuit Indictments Elizabeth I and James I, Introduction (London, 1985). 106.
355. Cf. Cynthia B. Herrup. 'Law and morality in seventeenth-century England', Past and Present, CVI (February 1985), 102-23.
356. In a murder trial of 1684 a judge confidently challenged the prosecution's claim that hearsay was 'evidence there was such a talk, and that is evidence of the probability of the thing': State Trials, vol. 9, 118. Hearsay had been excluded by judges earlier, but this practice remained patchy until the later eighteenth century when the law of evidence in the modern sense was first applied routinely: Holdsworth, op. cit., vol. 9, 214; John H. Langbein, 'The criminal trial before the lawyers', University of Chicago Law Review, XLV, 2 (1978), 300-6, 314-15. On 'credible' and 'lawful' witnesses, see Barbara J. Shapiro, Probability and Certainty in Seventeenth-Century England (Princeton, 1983), 185-90.
357. In a murder trial of 1684 a judge confidently challenged the prosecution's claim that hearsay was 'evidence there was such a talk, and that is evidence of the probability of the thing': State Trials, vol. 9, 118. Hearsay had been excluded by judges earlier, but this practice remained patchy until the later eighteenth century when the law of evidence in the modern sense was first applied routinely: Holdsworth, op. cit., vol. 9, 214; John H. Langbein, 'The criminal trial before the lawyers', University of Chicago Law Review, XLV, 2 (1978), 300-6, 314-15. On 'credible' and 'lawful' witnesses, see Barbara J. Shapiro, Probability and Certainty in Seventeenth-Century England (Princeton, 1983), 185-90.
358. In a murder trial of 1684 a judge confidently challenged the prosecution's claim that hearsay was 'evidence there was such a talk, and that is evidence of the probability of the thing': State Trials, vol. 9, 118. Hearsay had been excluded by judges earlier, but this practice remained patchy until the later eighteenth century when the law of evidence in the modern sense was first applied routinely: Holdsworth, op. cit., vol. 9, 214; John H. Langbein, 'The criminal trial before the lawyers', University of Chicago Law Review, XLV, 2 (1978), 300-6, 314-15. On 'credible' and 'lawful' witnesses, see Barbara J. Shapiro, Probability and Certainty in Seventeenth-Century England (Princeton, 1983), 185-90.
359. In a murder trial of 1684 a judge confidently challenged the prosecution's claim that hearsay was 'evidence there was such a talk, and that is evidence of the probability of the thing': State Trials, vol. 9, 118. Hearsay had been excluded by judges earlier, but this practice remained patchy until the later eighteenth century when the law of evidence in the modern sense was first applied routinely: Holdsworth, op. cit., vol. 9, 214; John H. Langbein, 'The criminal trial before the lawyers', University of Chicago Law Review, XLV, 2 (1978), 300-6, 314-15. On 'credible' and 'lawful' witnesses, see Barbara J. Shapiro, Probability and Certainty in Seventeenth-Century England (Princeton, 1983), 185-90.
360. In 1688 the counsel of an accused parricide, at whose touch the corpse had bled, declared in open court that this was 'a superstitious observation, founded neither upon law nor reason': Newgate Calendar, vol. 1, 318; State Trials, vol. 11, 1371-1420, esp. 1376, 1417. See also [John Trenchard], The Natural History of Superstition (n.p. 1709), 23; Francis Hutchinson, An Historical Essay Concerning Witchcraft (1718), 287. By the early nineteenth century, Bentham could write of magical proofs, 'Judges are no where prepared to credence to them; and, this being understood, suitors are as little prepared to hazard them': op. cit., vol. 3, 343.
361. In 1688 the counsel of an accused parricide, at whose touch the corpse had bled, declared in open court that this was 'a superstitious observation, founded neither upon law nor reason': Newgate Calendar, vol. 1, 318; State Trials, vol. 11, 1371-1420, esp. 1376, 1417. See also [John Trenchard], The Natural History of Superstition (n.p. 1709), 23; Francis Hutchinson, An Historical Essay Concerning Witchcraft (1718), 287. By the early nineteenth century, Bentham could write of magical proofs, 'Judges are no where prepared to credence to them; and, this being understood, suitors are as little prepared to hazard them': op. cit., vol. 3, 343.
362. In 1688 the counsel of an accused parricide, at whose touch the corpse had bled, declared in open court that this was 'a superstitious observation, founded neither upon law nor reason': Newgate Calendar, vol. 1, 318; State Trials, vol. 11, 1371-1420, esp. 1376, 1417. See also [John Trenchard], The Natural History of Superstition (n.p. 1709), 23; Francis Hutchinson, An Historical Essay Concerning Witchcraft (1718), 287. By the early nineteenth century, Bentham could write of magical proofs, 'Judges are no where prepared to credence to them; and, this being understood, suitors are as little prepared to hazard them': op. cit., vol. 3, 343.
363. In 1688 the counsel of an accused parricide, at whose touch the corpse had bled, declared in open court that this was 'a superstitious observation, founded neither upon law nor reason': Newgate Calendar, vol. 1, 318; State Trials, vol. 11, 1371-1420, esp. 1376, 1417. See also [John Trenchard], The Natural History of Superstition (n.p. 1709), 23; Francis Hutchinson, An Historical Essay Concerning Witchcraft (1718), 287. By the early nineteenth century, Bentham could write of magical proofs, 'Judges are no where prepared to credence to them; and, this being understood, suitors are as little prepared to hazard them': op. cit., vol. 3, 343.
364. In 1688 the counsel of an accused parricide, at whose touch the corpse had bled, declared in open court that this was 'a superstitious observation, founded neither upon law nor reason': Newgate Calendar, vol. 1, 318; State Trials, vol. 11, 1371-1420, esp. 1376, 1417. See also [John Trenchard], The Natural History of Superstition (n.p. 1709), 23; Francis Hutchinson, An Historical Essay Concerning Witchcraft (1718), 287. By the early nineteenth century, Bentham could write of magical proofs, 'Judges are no where prepared to credence to them; and, this being understood, suitors are as little prepared to hazard them': op. cit., vol. 3, 343.
365. Daines Barrington, Observations on the Statutes (1766). quoted in State Trials, vol. 16, 27n. In 1879 such declarations became inadmissible unless a material part of the incident: L. Crispin Warmington (ed.), Stephen's Commentaries on the Laws of England (21st edn, London, 1950), vol. 4, 188-9. For a modern critique of this ruling, see Adrian Keane, The Modern Law of Evident (3rd edn, London, 1994), 233. Nevertheless, it must still be proved that the victim was 'under a settled hopeless expectation of death' for testimony to be valid: ibid., 231. I am grateful to Ciara McCloskey for the last reference and for general advice on this point of law.
366. Daines Barrington, Observations on the Statutes (1766). quoted in State Trials, vol. 16, 27n. In 1879 such declarations became inadmissible unless a material part of the incident: L. Crispin Warmington (ed.), Stephen's Commentaries on the Laws of England (21st edn, London, 1950), vol. 4, 188-9. For a modern critique of this ruling, see Adrian Keane, The Modern Law of Evident (3rd edn, London, 1994), 233. Nevertheless, it must still be proved that the victim was 'under a settled hopeless expectation of death' for testimony to be valid: ibid., 231. I am grateful to Ciara McCloskey for the last reference and for general advice on this point of law.
367. Daines Barrington, Observations on the Statutes (1766). quoted in State Trials, vol. 16, 27n. In 1879 such declarations became inadmissible unless a material part of the incident: L. Crispin Warmington (ed.), Stephen's Commentaries on the Laws of England (21st edn, London, 1950), vol. 4, 188-9. For a modern critique of this ruling, see Adrian Keane, The Modern Law of Evident (3rd edn, London, 1994), 233. Nevertheless, it must still be proved that the victim was 'under a settled hopeless expectation of death' for testimony to be valid: ibid., 231. I am grateful to Ciara McCloskey for the last reference and for general advice on this point of law.
368. Daines Barrington, Observations on the Statutes (1766). quoted in State Trials, vol. 16, 27n. In 1879 such declarations became inadmissible unless a material part of the incident: L. Crispin Warmington (ed.), Stephen's Commentaries on the Laws of England (21st edn, London, 1950), vol. 4, 188-9. For a modern critique of this ruling, see Adrian Keane, The Modern Law of Evident (3rd edn, London, 1994), 233. Nevertheless, it must still be proved that the victim was 'under a settled hopeless expectation of death' for testimony to be valid: ibid., 231. I am grateful to Ciara McCloskey for the last reference and for general advice on this point of law.
369. Daines Barrington, Observations on the Statutes (1766). quoted in State Trials, vol. 16, 27n. In 1879 such declarations became inadmissible unless a material part of the incident: L. Crispin Warmington (ed.), Stephen's Commentaries on the Laws of England (21st edn, London, 1950), vol. 4, 188-9. For a modern critique of this ruling, see Adrian Keane, The Modern Law of Evident (3rd edn, London, 1994), 233. Nevertheless, it must still be proved that the victim was 'under a settled hopeless expectation of death' for testimony to be valid: ibid., 231. I am grateful to Ciara McCloskey for the last reference and for general advice on this point of law.
370. In 1728 a judge granted an appeal to a murderer on the grounds that: 'Singing ballads about a person accus'd before his Trial, and printing such a pamphlet seems Calculated only to prejudice people against him by very unjustifiable and illegal methods': PRO, SP 36/7/784-84v. For another example, see Proceedings . . . in the Old-Bayly, the 14th, 15th, 17th, 18th, and 19th Days of January, 1697 (1698), 6.
371. Davis, Factual Fictions, op. cit., chap. 5.
372. On the decline of providential interpretations, and the corresponding rise in techniques of modern policing, see Malcolm Gaskill, 'The displacement of providence: policing and prosecution in seventeenth-and eighteenth-century England', Continuity and Change, XI (1996), 341-74.
373. State Trials, vol. 2, 1031; Beattie, op. cit., 111n. Murder indictments were so often insufficient at law because they 'contained too little of the kinds of fact upon which legal distinctions rest': J. H. Baker, 'The refinement of English criminal jurisprudence, 1500-1848' in Louis A. Knafla (ed.), Crime and Criminal Justice in Europe and Canada (Ontario, 1981), 23.
374. State Trials, vol. 2, 1031; Beattie, op. cit., 111n. Murder indictments were so often insufficient at law because they 'contained too little of the kinds of fact upon which legal distinctions rest': J. H. Baker, 'The refinement of English criminal jurisprudence, 1500-1848' in Louis A. Knafla (ed.), Crime and Criminal Justice in Europe and Canada (Ontario, 1981), 23.
375. State Trials, vol. 2, 1031; Beattie, op. cit., 111n. Murder indictments were so often insufficient at law because they 'contained too little of the kinds of fact upon which legal distinctions rest': J. H. Baker, 'The refinement of English criminal jurisprudence, 1500-1848' in Louis A. Knafla (ed.), Crime and Criminal Justice in Europe and Canada (Ontario, 1981), 23.
376. On general long-term developments of this nature, see Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, op. cit., 93, 126-9; C. John Sommerville, The Secularization of Early Modern England. From Religious Faith to Religious Culture (Oxford, 1992), 50-3, 79, 163, 183-4.
377. On general long-term developments of this nature, see Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, op. cit., 93, 126-9; C. John Sommerville, The Secularization of Early Modern England. From Religious Faith to Religious Culture (Oxford, 1992), 50-3, 79, 163, 183-4.
378. One eighteenth-century authority defended the existence of ghosts on the grounds that many eyewitnesses were persons 'under no Distemper of Imagination' and, significantly, that ghosts were useful for discovering things unknown - especially murderers: The History of the Works of the Learned For the Year One Thousand Seven Hundred and Forty (1740) vol. 1, 901. The mystery of the infamous Red Barn murders of 1828 was solved by a dream: Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, op. cit., 176.
379. One eighteenth-century authority defended the existence of ghosts on the grounds that many eyewitnesses were persons 'under no Distemper of Imagination' and, significantly, that ghosts were useful for discovering things unknown - especially murderers: The History of the Works of the Learned For the Year One Thousand Seven Hundred and Forty (1740) vol. 1, 901. The mystery of the infamous Red Barn murders of 1828 was solved by a dream: Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, op. cit., 176.
380. W. Lance Bennett and Martha S. Feldman, Reconstructing Reality in the Courtroom (London, 1981) ix. 'People who cannot manipulate symbols within a narrative format may be at a disadvantage even when, as witnesses or defendants, they are telling the truth': ibid., 6.
381. W. Lance Bennett and Martha S. Feldman, Reconstructing Reality in the Courtroom (London, 1981) ix. 'People who cannot manipulate symbols within a narrative format may be at a disadvantage even when, as witnesses or defendants, they are telling the truth': ibid., 6.
382. Cf. Lloyd, op. cit., passim. Historians of mentalities always risk making social changes appear to 'float forward upon a theory of modernization': Gismondi, op. cit., 226. On the falsity of the distinction between modern (scientific) society and early modern (pre-scientific) society, see Christina Lamer, The Thinking Peasant. Popular and Educated Belief in Pre-Industrial Culture (Glasgow, 1982), chap. 5. In any case, as Jacques Le Goff has asserted, 'Mentalities change slower than anything else; and their history is a lesson in the slow march of history': op. cit., 170.
383. Cf. Lloyd, op. cit., passim. Historians of mentalities always risk making social changes appear to 'float forward upon a theory of modernization': Gismondi, op. cit., 226. On the falsity of the distinction between modern (scientific) society and early modern (pre-scientific) society, see Christina Lamer, The Thinking Peasant. Popular and Educated Belief in Pre-Industrial Culture (Glasgow, 1982), chap. 5. In any case, as Jacques Le Goff has asserted, 'Mentalities change slower than anything else; and their history is a lesson in the slow march of history': op. cit., 170.
384. Cf. Lloyd, op. cit., passim. Historians of mentalities always risk making social changes appear to 'float forward upon a theory of modernization': Gismondi, op. cit., 226. On the falsity of the distinction between modern (scientific) society and early modern (pre-scientific) society, see Christina Lamer, The Thinking Peasant. Popular and Educated Belief in Pre-Industrial Culture (Glasgow, 1982), chap. 5. In any case, as Jacques Le Goff has asserted, 'Mentalities change slower than anything else; and their history is a lesson in the slow march of history': op. cit., 170.