Elizabeth Tibbots , a Witchy Wednesday article
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| Letter about Elizabeth Tibbots. (Catalogue ref: SP 29/317 f.116) |
In this letter the account of a woman who has been observed acting incredibly strangely is reported. The author suspects that she has either been bewitched, or is a witch herself. He is certain of what he has seen and that the Devil must be behind her bizarre behaviour, 2 November, 1672.
Transcript
(a)
All our wonder hereabouts is employed at the strange
condition of a maid near us, one Elizabeth
Tibbots of about 18 years of age living with her
uncle, one Thomas Crofts, at a place called Hust
in the parish of Stoneleigh, about two miles hence.
Which maid, for about this 3 weeks past has been
taken with strange fits, in which she has vomited
up several things incredible, as first several
pebble stones near as big as eggs, knives, scissors,
pieces of glass, some of them two or three inches
square, pieces of iron, an iron bullet of
at least 8 inches round and 2 pound & half
weight, a black drinking-pot of near
half a pint, pieces of cloth and wood, a
pocket pistol, a pair of pincers, bottoms
of yarn, and several other things, many
whereof are now at our Mayor’s, and have been
evidently seen to come out of her mouth
by many credible witnesses. Nor should I my
self venture to give you this relation, which
seems so unlike truth, had I not myself
been an eyewitness with my most curious
observation of so much of it, that I am con-
firmed in the belief of the whole. All which is
imputed to some diabolical practices of one
Watson, a strange kind of an empiric [fraud or charlatan] to whom
she was sometime a patient, who had it seems
so wrought with her, as that she had promised him
marriage, and to go with him (though she knew
not whither) but afterwards refused it. Immediately
upon which she fell into those fits. Yet now she has
respites, during which she appears reasonably well, and I (b) have heard her discourse very rationally of her
self and her condition, a full account whereof would
be too long to give. ‘Tis said
these 4 or 5 days past (in which I have
not seen her) some what appears to her in
the shape of a dog. Now, whether she is bewitched
or whether she be a witch, or whether
the devil be in her, as well as some others
of her sex, I know not, but that what I
have told you seemed to the most vigilant eye
to be infallibly true, is not doubtable. So
that it be not really so, I can only say
the devil’s in it, who, you may perhaps may
fancy to be in him that gives this seemingly
incredible relation. which be pleased to accept
for better for worse.
From
Sir your most obliged humble servant
Ralph Hope
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| This woodcut from the early 1700s shows a witch holding a stem of herbs or other plant. (Wellcome Collection. Public Domain Mark) |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/
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