In the footsteps of Borrow & Fitzgerald . ulars and an account of thetrial of witches held at Bury St. Edmundsin 1664. Fifteen witches were condemned atChelmsford and hanged, and in the sameand following year about forty were hangedat Bury St. Edmunds, and later still sixteenwere executed at Great Yarmouth, for thisimaginary crime. Men of that day couldnot endure misfortune with patience, orbelieve that the Deity had any connectionwith their adversities. Sickness and death,blight on corn, murrain among cattle, werein consequence attributed to certain lame,ugly, old, and cross-grained dames, wh
In the footsteps of Borrow & Fitzgerald . ulars and an account of thetrial of witches held at Bury St. Edmundsin 1664. Fifteen witches were condemned atChelmsford and hanged, and in the sameand following year about forty were hangedat Bury St. Edmunds, and later still sixteenwere executed at Great Yarmouth, for thisimaginary crime. Men of that day couldnot endure misfortune with patience, orbelieve that the Deity had any connectionwith their adversities. Sickness and death,blight on corn, murrain among cattle, werein consequence attributed to certain lame,ugly, old, and cross-grained dames, whoin some instances claimed the powertheir neighbours believed them to of thunder and lightning, wind andrain, were attributed to witches, and at thesound of thunder the cry was, Ring thebells, fumigate the air, and burn thewitches I Ignorant physicians set downall doubtful diseases to the agency ofwitches, and that they could fly in theair on a broomstick, make horses throw theirriders, dry up springs, kill with lightning,. FITZGERAI I (Showing Ihu Ro^; OF BORROW AND FITZGERALD 55 bring the ague, pass through key-holes, goto sea in cockle-shells, and plague thefarmers wife by preventing butter fromcoming was very generally believed. The learned and devout Richard Baxterspeaks of the judicial proceedings andexecutions for witchcraft in the EasternCounties with great satisfaction. He writes :The hanging of a great number of witchesin 1645 and 1646 is famously the rest an old reading parson,named Lowes, not far from Framlingham,was one that was hanged, who confessedthat he had two imps. The following cases, copied from raretracts and scarce documents, will illustratethis dark phase of the social and religioushistory of the people of Suffolk :— A Tryal of Witches at the Asizes held at BurySt. Edmunds, for the County of Suffolk,ON THE Tenth day of March, 1664, before SirMatthew Hale, Kt., then Lord Chief BaronOF His Majestys Court of Exchequer. The
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