ker's
_Whalley_, p. 430, does not give the clearest light on the subject)
who married Jane, daughter of Sir Richard Sherburne, of Stonyhurst,
and who took a great lead amongst the Catholics of Lancashire. What
was the degree of relationship between Sir John and the husband of the
accused, Jane Southworth, there is nothing in the descent to show.
Family bickering might have a share, as well as superstition, in the
opinion he entertained, "that she was an evil woman." Of the old hall
at Samlesbury, the residence of the Southworths, a most interesting
account will be found in Whitaker's _Whalley_, p. 431. He considers
the centre of very high antiquity, probably not later than Edward III;
and observes, "There is about the house a profusion and bulk of oak
that must almost have laid prostrate a forest to erect it."

M 1 _b_. "_The particular points of the Evidence._"] What a waste of
ingenuity Master Potts displays in this recapitulation, where he is
merely slaying the slain, and where his wisdom was not needed. Had he
applied it to the service of the Pendle witches, he would have found
still grosser contrarieties, and as great absurdity. But in that case,
there was no horror of Popery to sharpen his faculties, or Jesuit in
the background to call his humanity into play.

M 2 _a_. "_The wrinkles of an old wiues face is good euidence to the
Iurie against a Witch._"] _Si sic omnia!_ For once the worthy clerk in
court has a lucid interval, and speaks the language of common sense.

M 2 _b_. "_But old Chattox had Fancie._"] A great truth, though Master
Potts might not be aware of the extent of it.

M 4 _a_. "_M. Leigh, a very religious Preacher._"] Parson of Standish,
a man memorable in his day. He published several pieces, amongst
others the two following: 1. "The Drumme of Devotion," by W. Leigh, of
Standish, 1613.--2. "News of a Prodigious Monster in Aldington, in the
Parish of Standish, in Lancashire," 1613, 4to, which show him to have
been an adept in the science of title-making. He was one of the tutors
of Prince Henry, and was great-grandfather of Dr. Leigh, author of the
_History of Lancashire_.

N 3 _b_. "_The Arraignment and Triall of Anne Redferne._"] This poor
woman seems to have been regularly hunted to death by her prosecutors,
who pursued her with all the dogged pertinacity of blood-hounds.
Neither the imploring appeal for mercy, in her case, from her wretched
mother, who did not ask for any in her own, nor the