Coate blacke, and the other browne'.[52] To Margaret Johnson, one of the
later Lancashire witches, 1633, there appeared 'a spirit or divell in the
similitude and proportion of a man, apparelled in a suite of black, tyed
about w^th silke pointes'.[53] The Yarmouth witch, 1644, 'when she was in
Bed, heard one knock at her Door, and rising to her Window, she saw, it
being Moonlight, a tall black Man there'.[54] The Essex witches, 1645,
agreed very fairly in their description of the man who came amongst them:
according to Elizabeth Clarke he appeared 'in the shape of a proper
gentleman, with a laced band, having the whole proportion of a man.... He
had oftentimes knocked at her dore in the night time; and shee did arise
open the dore and let him in'; Rebecca Weste gave evidence that 'the Devil
appeared in the likeness of a proper young man'; and Rebecca Jones said
that the Devil as 'a very handsome young man came to the door, who asked
how she did'; on another occasion she met the Devil, 'as shee was going to
St. Osyth to sell butter', in the form of a 'man in a ragged sute'.[55]
There are two accounts of the evidence given by the Huntingdonshire witch,
Joan Wallis of Keiston, 1646: Stearne says that she 'confessed the Devill
came to her in the likenesse of a man in blackish cloathing, but had cloven
feet'. Davenport's record is slightly different: 'Blackman came first to
her, about a twelve-moneth since, like a man something ancient, in
blackish cloathes, but he had ugly feet uncovered.'[56] The evidence of the
Suffolk witches, 1645-6, is to the same effect; Thomazine Ratcliffe of
Shellie confessed that 'there came one in the likeness of a man.--One
_Richmond_, a woman which lived at _Brampford_, confessed the Devill
appeared to her in the likenesse of a man, called _Daniel_ the
Prophet.--One _Bush_ of _Barton_, widdow, confessed that the Devill
appeared to her in the shape of a young black man'.[57] All the Covens of
Somerset, 1664, were evidently under one Chief; he came to Elizabeth Style
as 'a handsome man'; to Elizabeth Style, Anne Bishop, Alice Duke, and Mary
Penny as 'a Man in black Clothes, with a little Band'; to Christian Green
'in the shape of a Man in blackish Clothes'; and to Mary and Catherine
Green as 'a little Man in black Clothes with a little Band'.[58] To the
Yorkshire witch, Alice Huson, 1664, he appeared 'like a _Black Man_ on a
Horse upon the Moor', and again 'like a _Black Man_ upon a Black Horse,
with