The Witches of Northamptonshire

Witches Executed

...and as it were challenge the murderer for that blood which he before had feloniously stolen from the body: so it may be that God has appointed (as a supernatural sign of the monstrous impiety of witches) that the element of water should refuse to receive them into her bosom—those who have shaken off the sacred water of baptism and willfully refused its benefit by making that breach and fall from God by participating so vilely with the spirits of Belial original: "Beliall." A name for the Devil or a high-ranking demon in the Bible and occult lore.. Through these spirits and the exercise of this sin, their hearts are so hardened that their eyes are not even able to shed tears, no matter how much you threaten or torture them. It is thought that God does not permit them to hide their stubbornness in such a horrible crime—not even the women, although that sex is usually ready to shed tears upon every slight occasion The inability to shed tears was a common belief in witch trials; it was thought that a witch could not cry during an interrogation or even under torture.. But to return to our matter.

These three—the father, mother, and son—being thus seen floating upon the water, the suspicion that was previously not well-grounded was now confirmed. Thereupon, the said Arthur Bill, being the principal or (I think) the only actor in this tragedy, was apprehended and sent to Northampton jail on the twenty-ninth day of May last by Sir Gilbert Pickering of Titchmarsh original: "Tichmash alias Tichmase." A village in East Northamptonshire. in the same county, Knight. Immediately after his commitment, fearing that his old father would relent and perhaps confess things that might be damaging to him, he sent for his mother to come to him. To her, revealing his mind,