e Baptists of Yorkshire there was a possession that roused wide
comment. Mary Hall of Little Gaddesden in Hertfordshire, daughter of a
smith, was possessed in the fall of 1663 with two spirits who were said
to have come to her riding down the chimney upon a stick. The spirits
declared through the girl that Goodwife Harwood had sent them, and when
that suspected woman was brought into the girl's presence the spirits
cried out, "Oh, Goodwife Harwood, are you come?--that is well; ... we
have endeavored to choak her but cannot," and, when Mistress Harwood
left, the spirits begged to go with her.[3]

In Southwark James Barrow, the son of John Barrow, was long possessed,
and neither "doctors, astrologers, nor apothecaries" could help him. He
was taken to the Catholics, but to no purpose. Finally he was cast among
a "poor dispirited people whom the Lord owned as instruments in his hand
to do this great work."[4] By the "poor dispirited people" the Baptists
were almost certainly meant.[5] By their assistance he seems to have
been cured. So also was Hannah Crump of Warwick, who had been afflicted
by witchcraft and put in a London hospital. Through prayer and fasting
she was entirely recovered.

Mary Hall had been taken to Doctor Woodhouse of Berkhampstead, "a man
famous for curing bewitched persons." Woodhouse's name comes up now and
again in the records of his time. He was in fact a very typical specimen
of the witch doctor. When Mary Hall's case had been submitted to him he
had cut off the ends of her nails and "with somewhat he added" hung them
in the chimney over night before making a diagnosis.[6] He professed to
find stolen goods as well and fell foul of the courts in one instance,
probably because the woman who consulted him could not pay the shilling
fee.[7] He was arraigned and spent a term in prison. No doubt many of
the witch physicians knew the inside of prisons and had returned
afterwards to successful practice. Redman, "whom some say is a
Conjurer, others say, He is an honest and able phisitian," had been in
prison, but nevertheless he had afterwards "abundance of Practice" and
was much talked about "in remote parts," all this in spite of the fact
that he was "unlearned in the languages."[8]

Usually, of course, the witch doctor was a poor woman who was very happy
to get a penny fee now and then, but who ran a greater risk of the
gallows than her male competitors. Her reputation, which brought her a
little money