Stationers' _Registers_, II
(London, 1875), 352, under date of May 4, 1579, as _A brief treatise
conteyninge the most strange and horrible crueltye of Elizabeth Sule_
[sic] _alias Bockingham_ [sic] _and hir confederates executed at
Abingdon upon Richard Galis etc._

The second Chelmsford trials were also in 1579. The pamphlet account was
called _A Detection of damnable driftes, practised by three Witches
arraigned at Chelmsforde in Essex at the last Assizes there holden,
whiche were executed in Aprill 1579_. There are three references in this
pamphlet to people mentioned in the earlier Chelmsford pamphlet, so that
the two confirm each other.

The third Chelmsford trials came in 1589 and were narrated in a pamphlet
entitled _The apprehension and confession of three notorious Witches
arraigned and by Justice condemnede in the Countye of Essex the 5 day of
Julye last past_. Joan Cunny was convicted, largely on the evidence of
the two bastard sons of one of her "lewde" daughters. The eldest of
these boys, who was not over ten or twelve, told the court that he had
seen his grandmother cause an oak to be blown up by the roots during a
calm. The charges against Joan Upney concerned chiefly her dealings
with toads, those against Joan Prentice, who lived in an Essex
almshouse, had to do with ferrets. The three women seem to have been
brought first before justices of the peace and were then tried together
and condemned by the "judge of the circuit." This narrative has no
outside confirmation, but the internal evidence for its authenticity is
good. Three men mentioned as sheriff, justice, and landowner can all be
identified as holding those respective positions in the county.

The narrative of the St. Oses case appeared in 1582. It was called _A
True and just Recorde of the Information, Examination and Confession of
all the Witches taken at St. Oses in the countie of Essex: whereof some
were executed, and other some entreated according to the determination
of Lawe.... Written orderly, as the cases were tryed by evidence, by W.
W._ The pamphlet is merely a record of examinations. It is dedicated to
Justice Darcy; and from slips, where the judge in describing his action
breaks into the first person, it is evident that it was written by the
judge himself. Scot, who wrote two years later, had read this pamphlet,
and knew of the case (_Discoverie_, 49, 542). There are many references
to the case by later writers on witchcraft.

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