Bessie Tomlinson of Edgmond Marsh, was for many years before her death afflicted by one of those long, lingering, mysterious diseases which are so commonly set down to the effects of witchcraft.
The doctors could not find anything wrong with her but she knew very well what was the matter.
When Kitty Williams was young, she lived with a family in this neighbourhood, but was sent away for some misconduct.
She soon afterwards married, from the time she left service, everything went wrong cows dying, horses going lame, etc, etc,.
In June, 1882, a man living near Madeley-on-Severn (which I assume to be Madeley Telford, to distinguish it from Madeley Staffordshire), found in a crevice of one of the joists of his kitchen chimney a folded paper, sealed with red wax, on which the
following words were neatly written:
‘I charge all witches and ghosts to depart from this house, in the great name of Jehovah and Alpha and Omega.'
'Dick Spot the Conjurer,' lived at Oswestry in the eighteenth century, obtained the honour of a biography, which may be found by the curious among the pamphlets in the British Museum.
His real name was Richard Morris, the nickname Spot was given to him on account of a black spot on his face.
Among other things, he foretold the murder of the King of Sweden in 1792, four months beforehand.
Martha Cad, of Ludlow, missed a sheet, and proceeded to use the Key on the Bible ' to discover who had stolen it.
She and a party of friends went to the back-yards of several neighbours in succession, and at each they opened the Bible, the injured party crossed her forefingers over it, the key was balanced on the fingers, the name of the person living in the house was mentioned, and as Mrs. Cad (who should have done so) could not read, her neighbour, Mrs. Mary Ann Collier, repeated for her the sixteenth verse of the first chapter of Ruth.
The key remained motionless until they reached the yard belonging to Mrs. Elizabeth Oliver, when as soon as her name was mentioned, they declared that both key and Bible turned completely out of their hands.
A young woman from the Market Drayton neighbourhood, had actually made one of a party of six girls who sat up till midnight one All Saints' Eve, to discover which of them should be married first.
Which of them took a shift and hung it over the back of a chair before the fire, and all waited in silence until the clock struck twelve.
It was to be said very slowly, to last exactly ten minutes, and the girl whose shift moved first after the formula was completed, would be the first to marry.
The Amblers occupied a farm at Wilderley near Pulverbatch, and in a little cottage in a neighbouring dale lived an old woman commonly called Betty.
She used to beg at the farmhouse, and generally got what she asked for.
One day Betty came on her usual errand, and found the farmer's wife mixing some supping ' for the calves.
She watched the good meal and milk stirred together over the fire, took a fancy to it, and begged for a share.
Mrs. Ambler, rather vexed, spoke sharply, and refused to give her any.
Betty only said in a meaning tone, The calves wunna eat the suppin now.'
There was an old witch named Priss Morris, who lived at Cleobury North.
She had a grudge against one of the farmers of the place, because he had stopped her from leasing in his fields.
One day, not long after, his waggoner was going along the road with the wagon and horses, and suddenly the horses stopped short, right opposite the witch's house. It was a good road and a level, there was nothing to hinder them, but there they stopped, and stood still.
A farmer at Child's Ercall, in North-east Salop, was noted for having the evil eye,' and for ' having dealings with the devil'.
He could, it was believed, make people who displeased him go in a direction exactly what he wished.
One day a party of Morris Dancers called at the village inn, where our hero happened to be sitting.
After going through their performance, one of the dancers snatched up the horn of ale which stood before the farmer, and emptied it at a draught.
The farmer merely cast a glance on the impertinent youth, and soon afterwards the dancers left the house.
They had not gone far when the ale-drinker was brought to a stand-still.
Nanny Morgan, was a bad old woman.
In Nanny's girlhood, she was concerned in a robbery at the house of a Mrs. Powell at Bourton near Wenlock, together with Mary Beamond, a servant of the house.
The clothes which the latter stole were found in Nanny's possession, and both were tried for the offence at Shrewsbury Assizes, and found guilty.
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