and languished long before he dyed. Whom elfe haft thou kill'd for her? faid we; Wolton's Wife, faid he: Where did fhe dwell? In Weftwell, faid he: What elfe haft thou done for her? faid we; What she would bave me, faid he: What is that? faid we; To fetch her Meat, Drink and Corn, faid he: Where hadft thou it? faid we; in every Houfe, faid he Name the Houses faid we; At Potman's, at Farm's, at Millen's, at Fuller's, and in every Houfe: After this, we commanded Satan in the Name of Jefus Chrift, to depart from her, and never to trouble her any more, nor any Man elfe; then he faid, He would go; he would go; but he went not: Then we commanded him as before, with fome more Words; then he faid, Igo, Igo; and fo he departed: Then faid the Maid, he is gone, Lord have Mercy upon me; for he would have killed me; and then we kneel'd down, and gave God Thanks with the Maiden; Praying that God would keep her from Satan's Power, and affift her with his Grace. And noting this in a piece of Paper, we departed. Satan's Voice did differ much from the Maid's Voice; and all that he spake was in his own Name. Subfcribed thus.

Witneffes to this, that heard and faw this whole Matter, as followeth,

After this Account at large of her Cafe, Mr. Scot proceeds: Upon the brink of her Divinity, and miraculous Trances, fhe was convented before Mr. Thomas Wotton of Bodon Malherb, a Man of great Worship and Wisdom, and, for deciding and ordering of Matters, of rare and fingular Dexterity; through whose discreet handling of the Matter, with the Affiftance and Aid of George Darrel, Efq; being alfo a right, good and difcreet Juftice of the fame Limit, the Fraud was found, and the Cozenage confeffed, and she received condign Punishment: Neither was her Confeffion won, according to the Form of the Spanish Inquifition, through Extremity of Tortures, nor yet by Guile, or Flattery, nor by Prefumptions, but through wife and perfect Tryal of every Circumftance, the Illufion was manifeftly difclofed.

After her due Tryal, fhe fhewed her Feats, Illufions, and Trances, with the Refidue of all her miraculous Works, in the Prefence of divers Gentlemen of great Worfhip and Credit, at Bolton Malberb, in the Houfe of the faid Mr. Wotton.

Scot's Difcovery of Witchcraft, Book VII. 1ft and 2d Chapters.

The Third RELATION,

Of the IMPOSTURE of William Somers of Nottingham, pretended to be Difpoffeft by Mr. John Darrel.

N this following Relation I muft crave the Reader's Patience, tho' I be particular and large: For it is a Cafe that hath been famous, and often difputed. Our Seventy-fecond Canon was made immediately after it, and very much upon the Account of that, and fome Popish Impoftures, printed in the Compaffionate Addrefs to Papifts. And The Compleat Hiftory of Witchcraft, &c. hath now, after fo many Q

Years,

Years, Re-printed the Depofitions of Seventeen Witneffes, to confirm the Truth of the Fact, without ever taking notice of those plain Detections that you will find after them: And as, I believe, it will both raise your Indignation at this Author, and let you fee the Neceflity there is, that it fhould be anfwer'd, I beg leave to take my Account from the Beginning of Mr. Darrel's Practice and foul Dealings in this Matter.

Mr. John Darrel, the chief Actor in what follows, was firft entred into the Study of the Common Law: He spent one Year in it; but in the 30th Page of his Detection, he faith, God withdrew him from it, by laying a ftrange and extraordinary Sluggishness upon him in that Study. It is hard to guefs, by what Rules of Scripture or found Reafon, he could conclude, that an extraordinary Sluggishness was an Indication, that Providence defigned him for a Divine : It seems rather a Touch of that rafh Enthufiaftick Judgment, that troubled the World fo much afterward. But however, the Notion was ftrong with him, that we find him foon after a Preacher amongst thofe, that, in that Age, were called Puritans; and his Behaviour in the Ministry was fuitable to the Reason of his Entrance; for one of the firft Works he undertook, was, a cafting out of Devils. For when he lived at Mansfield, of the Age of Four and Twenty, one Katherine Wright, a Girl of Seventeen, happened to have her Belly fwell, and not like one with Child, but as having fome hyfterick Diftemper, and a Motion fometimes in it; and going to a Well for Water, fhe fancied fhe faw a Child without Feet: After that fhe had Fits, and thought the faw Shapes and Apparitions: and the confeffed afterwards, that finding that this made a fevere Father-in-Law more kind, he made her Fits more, and worse than they were. This young Woman was brought to Mansfield, to young Mr. Darrel, who, fome way or o

ther,

₹

ther, even then, had made himself known for a Man of Hope, as they exprefs'd it, for the relieving thofe that were diftreffed in that fort. Now a wife Man would have thought, a young Woman, of that Age, fwell'd in that manner, had had the Green Sickness, and that the Child without Legs, might be her own Image in the Water: For when any fee themselves in a Well, the Legs are out of Sight. But Mr. Darrel's Notions led him the other way; for he gave his Opinion, that her Trouble was from the Devil: and he, and his Wife, with Three or Four of the Family, kept a Day of Prayer for her, and beginning at Four of the Clock in the Morning, by Noon fhe was thought to be difpoffefs'd.

And to pass over many Follies that fhew'd both great Ignorance and Prefumption; one was, that upon the Suggeftion of that Maid, he accus'd one Margaret Roper, for fending the Spirit into her by Witchcraft, and carrying her before one Mr. Fouliamb, a Juftice of Peace; Mr. Fouliamb perceiving how Matters had been carry'd, difcharg'd the poor Woman, and threatned to fend him to Goal, if he demean'd himself no better.

Such a juft Reproof, from a fober Magiftrate, might have cur'd a young Man of fuch Enthufiaftical ill-grounded Notions: And very likely it did for fome time; for we find no more Actions of this, fort till Ten Years after. Then, being in a new Place, and Mr. Fouliamb being dead, he got a fresh Credit from the Boy of Burton; and the fame Year he was thought to have difpoffefs'd Seven in one Mr. Starky's Family in Lancashire: and by them gave the Common Prayer-Book a great Foil: for they found by Experience, that Stinted Prayers, read out of a Book, had little Effect upon the Spirits: but at con⚫ceived Prayers, the Parties were much troubled. But I will pass over thefe Facts, and come to his Two laft; for if the First and Laft be found Coun

terfeits, I will truft it to the Reader's Judgment to think, whether the Middle was much better: and befides, the laft contains more Variety; for the Dæmoniack being a Fidler's Boy, that was ftrong and nimble, and a crafty Mimick, the Devil was thought to fhew himself more plainly in him; for in our modern Poffeffions, fuch as the Dæmoniack is, fuch is the Dæmon.

To come then to the Cafe of William Somers, and his Sifter-in-Law, Mary Cowper; and that I may not mingle any Thing that may be thought doubtful, I will pafs over fome Depofitions of Somers, in which he charges Mr. Darrel, to have fore-inftructed, and taught him, before ever he began to counterfeit. 'Not but there are confiderable Probabilities even of that; but as that refts, as it must needs, upon the Boy's own Teftimony, and becaufe one cannot be fure, but, that to extenuate his own Fault, he might make Mr. Darrel worfe than he was; therefore I will let that Part pafs, and come to thofe Things where the Boy's Teftimony was confirmed by Notoriety of the Fact, and other Witneffes, and Mr. Darrel's own Examination, and Books.

This Cafe of William Somers happen'd towards the latter End of Queen Elizabeth's Reign; he was a Servant to one Mr. Brakenbury, near Afhby-de-la Zouch, the Place where Mr. Darrel, about that Time, lived. He had fome odd kind of Fits there, which Mr. Darrel afterward believed was a Poffeffion. He was turned out of his Place for them, and having no Exorcift, was well of himfelf for feveral Years: From Mr. Brakenbury's, he came to Nottingham, to one Robert Cowper, his Father-in-Law; and his Mother bound him Apprentice to one Thomas Porter, one of the Town-Mufick. After fome Time, he ran away from him, and came back; ran away again; but returned to him again, defigning to ferve out his Time; but underftanding, that his Mafter would

make