ssessing of one Margaret Cooper at
Ditchet, from a devill in the likenes of a headlesse beare._ Referred to
by Harsnett, _Discovery of the Fraudulent Practises of John Darrel_, 17.

A ballad seems to have been written about the Somers case. Extracts from
it are given by Harsnett, _ibid._, 34, 120.

Sec. 3.--James I and Witchcraft and Notable Jacobean Cases (see chs. V,
VI).

_The Most Cruell and Bloody Murther committed by an Innkeepers Wife
called Annis Dell, and her Sonne George Dell, Foure Yeares since....
With the severall Witch-crafts and most damnable practices of one Iohane
Harrison and her Daughter, upon several persons men and women at
Royston, who were all executed at Hartford the 4 of August last past
1606._ So far as the writer knows, there is no contemporary reference to
confirm the executions mentioned in this pamphlet. The story itself is a
rather curious one with a certain literary flavor. This, however, need
not weigh against it. It seems possible rather than probable that the
narrative is a fabrication.

_The severall notorious and lewd Cosenages of Iohn West and Alice West,
falsely called the King and Queene of Fayries ... convicted ... 1613_,
London, 1613. This might pass in catalogues as a witch pamphlet. It is
an account of two clever swindlers and of their punishment.

_The Witches of Northamptonshire._

_Agnes Browne_ } _Arthur Bill_ }
_Joane Vaughan_} _Hellen Jenkenson_} _Witches._
_Mary Barber_ }

_Who were all executed at Northampton the 22. of July last. 1612._

Concerning this same affair there is an account in MS., "A briefe
abstract of the arraignment of nine witches at Northampton, July 21,
1621" (Brit. Mus., Sloane, 972). This narrative has, in common with the
printed narrative, the story of Mistress Belcher's and Master Avery's
sufferings from witchcraft. It mentions also Agnes Brown and Joan Brown
(or Vaughan) who, according to the other account, were hanged. All the
other names are different. But it is nevertheless not hard to reconcile
the two accounts. The "briefe abstract" deals with the testimony taken
before the justices of the peace on two charges; the _Witches of
Northamptonshire_ with the final outcome at the assizes. Three of those
finally hanged were not concerned in the first accusations and were
brought in from outlying districts. On the other hand, most of those who
were first accused by Belcher and Avery seem not to have been indict