Trial of Eight Reputed Witches at Carrickfergus in 1711.
A correspondent has supplied us (Standard) with copious extracts from an old pamphlet, entitled “A narrative by an eye-witness, of some strange events that took place in Island Magee and neighbourhood, in the year 1711, in consequence of which several persons were tried and convicted at Carrickfergus for witchcraft.”
The “events” affords a singular illustration of the extent to which superstitious credulity prevailed in the North-West of Ireland at the beginning of the last century. The narrative was, it appears, printed from the original M.S. of the “eye-witness,” by Joseph Smith, publisher, Belfast, in 1822; and an Appendix was added to the publication, consisting of a letter giving an account of the trial, written in the year in which it occurred, by a Dr. Wm. Tisdall, of Belfast, and which letter was afterwards published in the Hibernian Magazine for January, 1775.
We learn from these curious documents that the events recorded took place at a house which had, up to her death, been occupied by an old lady, Mrs Haltridge, widow of the Rev. John Haltridge, Presbyterian Minister, Island Magee, and which, after her death, continued to be occupied by her son and his wife, Mrs Haltridge, jun. Previous to the death of the old lady, the house, it would appear, became the scene of a variety of unearthly manifestations, very similar in character to the recent doings of the so-called “Tullymoan Ghost” in our own locality. Among the many strange things that happened at Island Magee, previous to the death of old Mrs Haltridge, the “narrative of the eye-witness” records the following: –
“Great quantities of turf and stones thrown about the house, particularly at old Mrs Hattridge, and often when she was in bed. Pillows pulled from under her head, and the coverlet and blankets pulled of the bed where she lay. They blamed a cat, but, lighting a candle, could see nothing. Her cane would be taken away and missing for several days. She was reading Widderburn’s Sermons on Sunday, the 11th February, and, having laid it by for a little, it was suddenly taken away.
“Next day an odd-looking, little boy broke a quarry of glass in the kitchen window, and thrust his hand and the book in it, asking the female servant if “she wanted a book?” The girl said no, but that the mistress could not want it. He replied that “she should never get it.” He afterwards replied to the girl’s question, saying, “the devil taught him to read.” This imp began to dig with a sword outside the house, and told the girl it was a grave for a corpse that would soon come out if the house. Mrs Hattridge died in about a week. During her illness the bed clothes were often taken and made up in the form of a corpse. The evening before she died they were taken off the bed where she used to lie, folded with a great deal of nicety, and laid in a chest above stairs.”
Up to this period the eight reputed witches had not made their appearance on the scene, and, after the burial of old Mrs Haltridge, quietness continued for some days until, says the narrative, “a cousin of youn g Mrs Haltridge, Miss Mary Dunbar, came to bear her company in her affliction, and until her husband would come home, who was at that time in Dublin.” The very night of Miss Dunbar’s arrival, unearthly disturbances re-commenced, and that young lady subsequently became the object of the persecutions for which the eight reputed witches were brought to trial.
At the trial, we learn from the eye witness, “among the evidence were the Rev. Wm. Ogilby, Rev. Mr Skevington, the Rev. Patrick Adair, and Rev. James Cobham; Mr James Haltridge, and Mrs Haltridge, who were the heads of the house where these things happened to Miss Dunbar. The trial lasted from six in the morning till two in the afternoon – neither counsel nor attorney employed.”
At this point we take up the more detailed narrative of Dr Tisdall, who premises that he writes from notes taken by himself during the trial, and who treats the whole affair as one of great solemnity. He writes:-
“The chief evidences produced on this trial were six persons of good repute for understanding and integrity, and seemingly of good fashion and substance, and the most considerable persons in the neighbourhood where the facts happened. The party afflicted was a young girl, aged about 18 years, with an open and innocent countenance; she was a very intelligent young gentlewoman. I discoursed with her after the trial, and received very satisfactory and reasonable answers from her; she was an utter stranger in that country where she was afflicted, and only came there on a visit to a relation. She neither knew nor was known by any of the persons accused, as was confessed by the accused, and mother of the afflicted.
The supposed witches were eight in number, six of them with such strange varieties of ill looks, that, had the afflicted known them before, it might have given ground to suspect she had singled them out for her tormentors, even from their diabolical appearances. The seventh was not so disagreeable, but had a sedate and composed countenance. The eighth was a young girl, about 17, who seemed by her countenance to have more of the Lancashire than Scotch witch; she had a fair complexion, and a very good face; and so was represented by the afflicted before she was discovered.
The supposed witches were discovered by the afflicted after this manner: – Upon the death of old Mrs Haltridge, who (as is generally believed by the neighbhourhood), was bewitched to death, there was an apron which had been missing for some time before brought back, tied with nine knots, (and a flannel cap of the deceased wrapped up in the middle of it). The afflicted, who found it, untied all the knots, without the least fear of witchcraft, after which, in the evening, she was siezed with violent fits, and, on recovering, cried out that a knife was run through her thigh; that she was most grievously afflicted by three women, whom she described with the greatest particularity imaginable, but could then give no account of their names.
She was then seized with a second fit about midnight, and in her vision there appeared to her (as she declared when she came out of her fit) seven or eight women, who conversed together, and called each other, some by their christian, and some by their surnames. The descriptions the afflicted gave of them, together with some of their names, were so very particular, that several of them were guessed at, and sent from different parts to the afflicted, whom she discovered from many other women who were brought with them.
She was constantly more afflicted as they approached the house, particularly there was one (Latimer) who had been sent from Carrickfergus, privately, by Mr Adair, the dissenting (minister) teacher; when she came into the house where the afflicted was, viz., in Island Magee, none of them suspected her, but the afflicted fell into a fit as she came near the house, and, recovering when the woman was in the chamber, the first words she said were, “O Latimer, Latimer!!” (which was her name) and her description agreed most exactly to the person.
After this manner were all the rest discovered; and at one time she singled out one of her tormentors from amongst thirty, whom they brought to see i they could deceive her either in the name or description of the accused person. All this was sworn to by persons who were present, as having heard it from the afflicted as she recovered from her several fits.
The supposed witches were called to the bar to compare them with the description given by the afflicted at several times; and it is really inconceivable to imagine how exactly they all agreed to the descriptions given, though it was confessed they had never seen the afflicted, nor the afflicted them. One particular, which seemed most extraordinary, was this: in her fits she had often her tongue thrust into her windpipe in such a manner that she was like to choak, and the root seemed to be pulled up into her mouth. On her recovery from these fits, she complained greatly of one Janet Main (I think her name was), who had twisted her tongue; and she told them she had tore her throat and tortured her violently, by reason of her crooked fingers and swelled knuckles. The woman was called to the bar on this evidence, and ordered to show her hand. It was really amazing to see the exact agreement betwixt the description of the afflicted and the hand of the supposed tormentor – all the joints were distorted, and the tendons shrivelled up, as the afflicted had described.
These facts appeared most extraordinary upon the trial. – 1st. It was sworn by some of the witnesses, that in some of her fits, three strong men were scarce able to hold her down, that she would mutter to herself, and speak some words distinctly, and tell everything she had said in her conversation with the witches, and how she came to say such and such things, which she spoke when in her fits.
2nd. One of the men who held her in a fit, swore she had nothing visible on her arms, when he took hold of them, and that all in the room saw some worsted yarn tied round her wrist, which was put on invisibly; there was upon this string seven double knots and one single one.
3rd. She cried out in one of her fits that she was grievously afflicted with a pain about her knee, and found a fillet tied fast about it; her mother swore to the fillet, that it was the same she had given her that morning, and had seen it tied about her head. This fillet had also seven double knots and one single one.
4th. Her mother was advised by a Popish priest to use a counter-charm, by writing some words out of the first chapter of St. John, and tying it with an inkle three times round her neck, knotted each time. This charm the girl herself declined, bu ther mother, in one of the times of her being afflicted, used it; she was in a violent fit upon the bed, held down by a man, and, recovering a little, complained grievously of a pain in her back and about her middle. Immediately the company observed the individual inkle, which had been tied about her neck, tied round her middle with seven double knots and a single one. This was sworn to by several. The man who held the afflicted was asked by the judge, if it was possible she could reach the inkle about her neck while he held her? He said it was not, by virtue of his oath, he having all that time her hands fast down.
5th. There was a great quantity of things produced in court, and sworn to be what she had vomited out of her throat. I had them all in my hand, and found there was a great quantity of feathers, pins, cotton yarn, and two large waistcoat buttons – at least as much as would fill my hand. They gave evidence to the court they had seen these very things come out of her mouth and received them into their hands as she threw them up.
6th. The afflicted, during one of her fits, was observed to slide off the bed in an unaccountable manner, and to be laid gently on the ground, as if supported and drawn invisibly. upon her recovery she told them the several persons who had drawn her in that manner, with an intention, as they told her, of bearing her out of the window when open; but that, reflecting at the time, and calling upon God in her mind, they let her drop on the floor.
7th. The afflicted, recovering from a fit, told the persons present that her tormentors declared that she should not have power to go over the threshold of the chamber door. The evidence declared they had several times attempted to lead her out of the door, and that she was as often thrown into fits as they had brought her to the said threshold, upon which they were immediately struck with so strong a smell of brimstone, that the stench spread through the whole house, and afflicted several to that degree that they grew sick in the stomach, and were much disordered. These were the principal facts sworn to in the court, to which most of the evidence gave their joint testimony. It seems the supposed tormentors had told the afflicted the day before the trial that she should have no power to give evidence in court. She was accordingly, that morning before the trial that she should have no power to give evidence in court. She was accordingly, that morning before the trial, struck dumb, and so continued in the court during the whole trial, but had no violent fit.
I saw her in the court cast her eyes about in a wild distracted manner, and was then thought to be recovering from a fit, and I was hoped would give in her own evidence. I observed, as they were raising her up, she sunk into the arms of a person who held her, closed her eyes, and seemed perfectly senseless and motionless. I went to see her after the trial. She told me she knew not where she was, when in court, and that she had been afflicted all that time by three persons, of whom she gave a particular description of their proportions, habits, hair, features and complexion. She said she had never seen these persons till the day before the trial.
When all the witnesses were examined upon oath to the precedent facts, the judge ordered the prisoners at the bar to offer what they could to the court in their own defence. They all, in general, positively denied the facts charged against them. One of them, with the worst look, and generally the most suspected, called the great God of heaven and earth to witness she was injured. The character of each person was inquired into; some of them were of a general ill-fame, which, upon inquiry, seemed rather due to their ill looks. It appeared upon oath, most of them received the communion, some of them very lately; that some of them had been laborious, industrious people; had frequently been known to pray in their families, both publicly and privately; most of them could say the Lord’s Prayer they being every one Presbyterians. When they had ended their defence, Judge Upton summed up the evidence with great exactness and perspicuity, notwithstanding the confused manner in which it was offered. He seemed entirely of opinion that the jury could not bring them in guilty upon the sole testimony of the afflicted person’s visionary images.
He said he could not doubt but the whole matter was preternatural and diabolical, but conceived that, had the persons accused been really witches, and in compact with the devil, it could hardly have been presumed they should be so constant attendants on Divine service, both public and private.
Mr Justice McCartney spoke to the jury after Judge Upton had ended. He seemed to add nothing to what Judge Upton had said, but differed from him in opinion, and thought the jury might, from the evidence, bring them in guilty, which they accordingly did.
The jury brought their verdict – “That Janet Liston, Elizabeth Sellor, Janet Carson, Catherine McCalmond, Janet Main, Janet Latimer, Jean Millar, and Margaret Mitchell, were guilty of exercising witchcraft on the body of Mary Dunbar, and were sentenced to be imprisoned twelve months, and to be pilloried four times.” They were pelted with boiled eggs and cabbage stalks, and one of them lost an eye by such abuse.
Londonderry Standard, 26th September 1868.
Memories of Witchcraft Trials at Carrickfergus.
In days gone past when Carrickfergus boasted the distinction of being an Assize town, witchcraft trials were not uncommon. In this article William Gee recalls some of the strange cases that came before the court.
At the local Assizes on March 31, 1711, Janet Mean, of Bridesland; Janet Latimer, Irish Quarter, Carrickfergus; Janet Millar, Scotch Quarter, Carrickfergus; Margaret Mitchell, Kilroot; Catherine McCalmond, Janet Liston, Elizabeth Seller and Janet Carson, the last four hailing from Islandmagee, were tried for witchcraft. Their alleged crime was tormenting a young woman named Mary Dunbar (18) at the house of James Hattridge, Islandmagee, and at other places to which she was forcibly removed.
The circumstances were that Mary Dunbar, in the month of February, 1711, being in the house of James Hattridge (which was believed to be haunted by evil spirits) found an apron on the parlour floor that had been reported missing, tied with five strange knots which she loosened. On the following day she was suddenly seized with violent pains in her thigh, and afterwards fell into fits and ravings, and on recovering, said she was tormented by several women whose personal appearance she minutely described. Later she was again subjected to like fits and accused five other women of tormenting her, describing them also.
When the accused were brought from different parts of the country, Miss Dunbar appeared to suffer extreme fear and additional torture, as they approached the house. It was also deposed that strange noises, as of whistling, scratching, etc., were heard in the house and that a sulphurous smell was observed in the rooms; that stones, turf and the like , were thrown about the house, and the coverlets frequently taken off the beds and made up in the shape of a corpse, and that a bolster once walked out of a room into the kitchen with a nightgown round it.
It also appeared in evidence that in some of Miss Dunbar’s fits, three strong men were scarcely able to hold her in bed; that at times she vomited feathers, cotton yarn, pins and buttons, and that on one occasion she slid off the bed and was laid on the floor, as if supported and drawn by an invisible power.
The afflicted person was unable to give any evidence at the trial, being during that time dumb, but had no violent fit during its continuance.
For the defence, it was stated that the accused were mostly sober, industrious people, who attended public worship, could repeat the Lord’s Prayer, and had been known to pray both in public and in private, and that some of them had lately received Communion. Judge Upton remarked that he thought it improbable that real witches could so far retain the form of religion, as to frequent the religious worship of God, both publicly and privately which had been proved in favour of the accused. He concluded by giving his opinion that the jury could not return a verdict of guilty upon the sole testimony of the afflicted person’s visionary images.
Mr Justice Macartney, who differed in opinion, thought the jury might find the accused guilty, which they accordingly did.
The trial lasted from 6 a.m. till 2 p.m., and the prisoners were sent to jail for twelve months, and ordered to stand four times in the pillory of Carrickfergus. Tradition says that the townspeople were much exasperated against these unfortunate persons who were severly pelted in thepillory with boiled eggs, cabbage stalks, etc., by which one of them had an eye beaten out.
Larne Times, 3rd May 1951.