from his heart thought the poor old creature before them guilty of crime of which she was accused; and he answering in the affirmative the humane magistrate replied, pointing to the prisoner, It is not such a poor wrinkled wretch as this that I should take for a witch, but such beautiful ladies as those,' bowing to some very handsome females who were near him.

from his heart thought the poor old creature before them guilty of t crime of which she was accused; and he answering in the affirmative the humane magistrate replied, pointing to the prisoner, It is not such a poor wrinkled wretch as this that I should take for a witch, but such beautiful ladies as those,' bowing to some very handsome females who were near him.

Whittlesey Mere.

Williams Rich? als Cromwell

Wyson with Houghton

533.

d

Yaxley yelling

Noble's Crom. Vol. I. p. 20,-21.

547.

571.

he had no issue: she died in July, 1592, of a lingering illness, which the senseless but popular superstition of the age attributed to Witchcraft; and three persons, of the name of Samwell, who were then inhabitants of Warboys, (a village between Huntingdon and Ramsey,) were committed to prison, and afterwards tried, and executed, as the authors of her death.* This judicial murder was accompanied by the forfeiture to Sir Henry, as Lord of the Manor of Warboys, of all the goods of the much-injured sufferers, which amounted in value to about forty pounds; "but he, unwilling to possess himself of the supposed felons' goods, gave them to the Corporation (of Huntingdon) conditionally, that they procured from the Queen's College, in Cambridge, a Doctor, or Bachelor of Divinity, to preach on every anniversary of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin, a sermon against the sin of Witchcraft." The bulk of Sir Henry's fortune went to Sir Oliver, his

A a 4

* See more particulars under the head Warboys.

eldest

+ Noble's Crom. Vol. I. p. 25,-6. "It is with real concern," continues this gentleman, "that I acquaint the reader, that there is still an annual sermon preached against witchcraft in Huntingdon, by a divine sent from Queen's College, for which he receives 21. but is obliged to distribute ten shillings to the poor; and by custom to treat part of the corporation with a dinner. This is the more extraordinary, as all the penal statutes against this supposed crime of witchcraft, have been repealed by an Act of Parliament, which is tacitly declaring that there are no such beings as witches, nor crime as witchcraft: it would be therefore highly commendable in the Corporation of Huntingdon, and Queen's College, to agree, that if a sermon must be preached, the subject of it should, instead of being levelled at the pretended sin of witohcraft, be an address to the people, cautioning them against falling into such errors and prejudices, as made their forefathers involve the unhappy and immeasurably injured Samwells in ruin and destruction.—In the Jast trial for witchcraft in England, the Judge asked a clergyman, who had the folly to appear against the supposed witch, whether he really from his heart thought the poor old creature before them guilty of the crime of which she was accused; and he answering in the affirmative, the humane magistrate replied, pointing to the prisoner, It is not such a poor wrinkled wretch as this that I should take for a witch, but such beautiful ladies as those,' bowing to some very handsome females who were near him.