n. And why? They could keep her for 1s. 6d. there;
and, in the Gaol, she cost them a shilling more."[20] Another case
before Justice Rainsford showed him less lenient. By a mere chance we
have a letter, written at the time by one of the justices of the peace
in Malmesbury, which sheds no little light on this affair and on the
legal status of witchcraft at that time.[21] A certain Ann Tilling had
been taken into custody on the complaint of Mrs. Webb of Malmesbury. The
latter's son had swooning fits in which he accused Ann of bewitching
him. Ann Tilling made voluble confession, implicating Elizabeth Peacock
and Judith Witchell, who had, she declared, inveigled her into the
practice of their evil arts. Other witches were named, and in a short
time twelve women and two men were under accusation. But the alderman
of Malmesbury, who was the chief magistrate of that town, deemed it wise
before going further to call in four of the justices of the peace in
that subdivision of the county. Three of these justices of the peace
came and listened to the confessions, and were about to make out a
mittimus for sending eleven of the accused to Salisbury, when the fourth
justice arrived, the man who has given us the story. He was, according
to his own account, not "very credulous in matters of Witchcraft," and
he made a speech to the other justices. "Gentlemen, what is done at this
place, a Borough remote from the centre of this large County, and almost
forty miles from Salisbury, will be expended [_sic_] both by the
Reverend Judges, the learned Counsayle there ..., and the Gentry of the
body of the County, so that if anything be done here rashly, it will be
severely censured." He went on to urge the danger that the boy whose
fits were the cause of so much excitement might be an impostor, and that
Ann Tilling, who had freely confessed, might be in confederacy with the
parents. The skeptical justice, who in spite of his boasted incredulity
was a believer in the reality of witchcraft, was successful with his
colleagues. All the accused were dismissed save Tilling, Peacock, and
Witchell. They were sent to Salisbury and tried before Sir Richard
Rainsford. Elizabeth Peacock, who had been tried on similar charges
before, was dismissed. The other two were sentenced to be hanged.[22]

Ten years later came a fourth remarkable ruling against witchcraft, this
time by Justice Raymond at Exeter. During the intervening years there
had been cases a-plent