The East Anglian Magazine 1955

East Anglian Magazine 1955

March, Pages 294-297

The wizard who couldn't sink



by CHAS. H. COOKE
Illustrated by Mary Jarvis

WITCHCRAFT reached the zenith of its satanical power in the 16th century, after which it gradually ceased to exist except in certain less-active forms in some districts. It had a substantial hold on popular imagination in its heyday and the cult attracted considerable numbers of followers, despite the strong measures taken to stamp it out.

Even today we still read of occasional cases of dark and mysterious happenings and although witchcraft, as intellectually understood, has become a subject for students of the occult and those interested in the curious byways of anthropological history, it still lingers in out-of-the-way places and it must not he forgotten that many of our popular superstitions are relics of this, once-powerful cult of evil.

In the 'Times' for 19 July 1825 appeared a description based on a report in the "Suffolk Chronicle” of a case of supposed witchcraft in that county. A contemporary comment on this incident was that the case 'proves the deplorable ignorance of certain human beings in England. It is to be hoped that such persons are not allowed to bring up their sons in the same darkness. Little can be done towards civilizing adults of this description but their infants may be reared as intelligent members of society.'

The report in question stated that a man named Stebbings at Wickham Skeith was 'swum for a wizard' in July 1825.

This Isaac Stebbings was a small, thin man of about 67 years of age who earned a livelihood as a huckster. Near to his cottage there resided a thatcher whose wife was afflicted by a mental ailment. In the same parish, also, lived a farmer who was troubled by periodical attacks of mental derangement.

Some busy-body in the neighbourhood began to spread libelous stories that both these deranged persons were bewitched by the said Stebbings, who was spoken of, to all and sundry we suppose, as the instigator of all the mischief.

Rumour followed rumour and one story led to another, each one more fantastic and more lurid than the previous one. Accumulated hearsays were readily accepted as infallible proof of guilt.

Among the many stories circulated in the district was one that the friends of the afflicted woman had recourse to some means recorded in the annals of witchcraft for detecting the devil's agent and that whilst the operation was proceeding at night Stebbings came dancing up to the door. In his denial of this nocturnal 'crime' he admitted that he had once called at his neighbour's house with mackerel for sale at four o'clock in the morning before the family was up and this admission was accepted to be as much as he was likely to make.

Apart from this fact, the village shoemaker persisted that one morning, as Stebbings passed two or three times before his house, he was unable to 'make' his wax as the ingredients would neither melt nor mix.

On village hearsay and idle gossip, Stebbings stood accused of being a wizard, the masculine form of a witch. He was teased by his neighbours and so tormented by these accusations that he proposed to undergo the old-fashioned ordeal of "sink or swim," a method supposed to be infallible in discovering the guilt of witches and those suspected of subscribing to the black arts.

It was believed that water rejected servants of the devil and that if a suspected person floated and refused to sink when placed in water it was proof of guilt. Even as late as 1785 we find a newspaper report of a case of suspected witchcraft in Northamptonshire stating that if a witch was thrown into the water she would swim.

Stebbings' self-made offer was readily accepted, probably more with the idea of cheap entertainment than from any sincere desire on the part of the majority to have him proved or acquitted of satanic practises.

The trial by water was fixed for the following Saturday at two o'clock in the afternoon at a large pond called the Grimmer on Wickham Green. Four men walked into the water with the accused and the parish constable was engaged to keep the peace, for the banks of the pond were crowded with morbid spectators, men, women and children.

Stebbings wore his breeches and shirt and the men who had accompanied him into the water breast high lifted him up and laid him flat on his hack. Stebbings moved neither hand nor foot and continued in that position in the water for 10 minutes.

This was the first trial and the crowd called out: 'Give him another!'

It would appear, (in the face of it) that Stebbings was proven guilty by his refusal to sink.

But we must remember that this trial took place many years after witchcraft proper had died a natural death. This trial was merely a popular, superstitious, mock-affair and lacked the seriousness with which real witch trials were conducted. It is also correct to assume that the specta­tors were enjoying the proceedings, hence their desire to have the victim 'tried' again.

A further trial was accordingly performed for the same length of time and with the same result as before.

But the crowd were not satisfied and cried out: "Try him again and dip him under the water!”

This was duly carried out, one of the men pressing Stebbings' chest down with the result that his head went under and his feet came up. These trials kept the poor victim in the water for three-quarters of an hour and when at last he came out he was more dead than alive.

Yet, even so, some of the witnesses were still not satisfied with the entertainment and suggested that another man of equal age and weight should he swum with him. To this further proposal Stebbings willingly agreed, so anxious was he to rid himself, if at all possible, of the accusations levelled against him. His idea seems to have been that, if only he could sink, his innocence would be proved and even if he suffered the consequence of being half-drowned his accusers would have lost their case.

The next trial was fixed for the following Sunday and a man named Tom Wilden of Bacton was chosen as the accompanying swimmer. The story quickly got around the district and hundreds of people flocked from surrounding countryside to watch this further ordeal by water.

In the meantime, however, the clergyman and his two churchwardens intervened in the unfortunate affair and the swimmers were kept away, to the immense disappointment of the crowds.

It was seriously admitted that at the time Stebbings was being 'swum', the farmer mentioned earlier was unusually perturbed and cried out that he could see the imps all about him and tried to frighten them away with his voice. His shouts and his mental aberrations were explained as being due to the magical effects produced by Stebbings when he refused to sink!

This strange affair was completed by a respectable farmer in the district visiting a "cunning man” who convinced him, on payment of a certain sum of money, that Stebbings was indeed a wizard and ought to be 'killed by inches,' another relic of the old days of witchcraft.

The report in the 'Times' made no mention of the ultimate outcome of this local incident or what further steps, if any, were taken against Stebbings in view of the tests previously applied to him. We can be almost certain, however, that if nothing further was done to bring him to justice, his life must have been far from pleasant, for once public opinion had reached such depths of infamy and malice legal redress in those days was not so easy to obtain as it would be at the present time.

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East Anglian Magazine 1955

October, Pages 710-712

The Witches of St. Osyth

Based on an account which appeared in an old magazine kindly sent us by Mr. J. R. Read. 25 Forest View Road, Wulthamstow, London, E.17. Illustrated by Mary Tye

Three or four hundred years ago St. Osyth and its neighbourhood had an evil notoriety on account of the large number of reputed witches who dwelt there. In the library of the British Museum is a book, published in the year 1582 which bears on its title page the following quaint inscription: "A true and just record of the information, examination and confession of all the witches taken at St. Osyth in the countie of Essex whereof some were executed and other some estreated according to the determination of the lawe. Wherein all men may see what a pestilent people witches are and, how unworthy to lyve in a Christian common wealth."

This book contains a report of the evidence given before Brian Darcy. J.P., against a number of women who were suspected of witchcraft and it is astonishing to see on what sort of evidence many of these poor creatures were condemned. The book contains a long list of injuries, sicknesses and deaths which were said to have been wrought upon persons and cattle by witches but in many instances no attempt appears to have been made to connect these with the women who were brought before the magistrate and both he and the witnesses seem to have been satisfied with the bare fact that some person or domestic animal had been stricken with an unusual disease or sudden death without any remark being made as to how it came about.

In some cases the evidence of children of tender ages was taken against their own parents. For instance a boy of eight was brought before the magistrate and declared that his mother, Ursula Kemp, who was accused of having perpetrated many crimes by means of witchcraft, had four 'spirits' - "one like a grey cat, one like a white lamb, one black like a toad and one black like a cat".

Coming a little nearer to our own time we learn from another little volume that in the year 1645, although the great civil war between King and commons was then raging, a justice of the peace for the county of Essex could find time and opportunity to conduct a great witch hunt in the country east of Colchester. Out of 22 women mentioned in this volume as having been indicted for witchcraft 13 were executed, two died in gaol and one ex­pired on the way to the scaffold.

The names of those who belonged to St. Osyth were Rose Hallybread, Joyce Boanes, Susan Cock, Margaret Landish and Rebecca Jones. The first-named died in gaol and the other four were executed at Chelmsford. Strange to say, many of the accused confessed to evil doings by witchcraft. The only possible reason one can see for this is that they knew there was small chance of being acquitted and hoped to be pardoned upon confession. They were, however, sadly deceived in their expectation. Joyce Boanes stated that she had two imps “in the likenesse of mouses" and that she sent them 'to a farmhouse in St. Osyth, Cocket-wick, where one Richard Welch then lived and there, she said, her imps killed 10 or 12 lambs of the said Richard'. The record of her evidence proceeds as follows: 'And the said examinant also saith that she carried one of her said imps called Rug to the house of the said Rose Hallybread and that Rug, with three imps of the said Rose Hally­bread, Susan Cock and Margaret Lan­dish, each of them sending one, were carried by this examinant from the house of the said Rose Hallybread to the house of the said Robert Turner to kill the servant of the said Robert.'

The evidence of Robert Turner, of St. Osyth, carpenter, as to the death of his servant reads thus: "This information saith that about eight dayes since his servant was taken sick, shaking and shrieking and crying out of Rose Hallybread that she had bewitched him and this informant saith that some­times his said servant since hee was taken sick as aforesaid had crowed perfectly as a cock, sometimes barked like a dog, sometimes violently groaned beyond the ordinary course of nature and struggling with such strength (being but a youth) that four or five strong men were not able to hold him down in his bed and sometimes sung divers and sundry tunes and that this informant could not perceive his mouth to open or so much as his lips to stir all the time of his singing."