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THE TRIAL OF AGNES
WHITTENBURY
Our great grandmother,
Louisa Augusta Whittenbury brought as many fascinating ancestors
to our family tree as did my father, Frank Fullick. One of the most
interesting of them is Agnes Whittenbury who married Robert Whittenbury
of Aston on 31 October 1567. Her maiden name, Steunou, would suggest
that she or her ancestors came from Brittany. Our cousin, Sheila, discovered that in March 1603 Agnes was indicted for
'bewitching Joyce Newlands so that she 'languished' for 5 weeks:
bewitching two piggleys to death: languishing Thomas Hills for three
months'. I began to wonder whether Agnes had in fact been put to death as
Sheila had assumed and in May 2000, I contacted Ivan Bunn, an authority on people who were tried
for witchcraft, in the hope that he might be able to supply further
information about what happened to Agnes following her trial. His
reply made fascinating reading and I can do no better than to quote it
verbatim:
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"As with so many of those tried as witches in 16th/17th
century England, very
little is known about the trial of Agnes Whittenbury. The only records
that
exist that refer to her are the original trial papers - namely the Gaol
Calendar and the indictments.
According to the Gaol Calendar (a list of prisoners in the gaol awaiting
trial for felonies) Agnes Whittenbury was committed to Hertford gaol
sometime in 1603 by Phillip Butler (probably a local magistrate) on suspicion of
"veneficium".
She was tried at the Hertford Summer Sessions and General Gaol Delivery
(the Hertfordshire Assize Court). The Commission of Assize is dated 25 June
1603, so in all probability her trial took place early in July. The Judges at
her trial were Sir Francis Gawdy, Kt., Judge of the King's Bench (appointed
Chief Justice of the Common Pleas in 1605) and William Daniel, Serjeant at Law
(appointed Judge of the Common Pleas in 1604).
Three indictments were drawn up against Agnes (who's occupation is given
as a
"spinster" and husband of Robert Whittenbury) - all of which
were found to be a "true bill" by the grand jury.
She was indicted for:
1. Bewitching Joyce Newland on 25th March 1601, causing her to languish
until the 30th April 1601. Evidence was given by Joyce Newland (who obviously
recovered from her "bewitchment") and Elizabeth Benn.
2. Bewitching to death two hogs belonging to Francis Combes of Aston on
31st May 1603. Evidence was given by one Isabel Combes.
3. Bewitching Thomas Hills, at Aston, on 31 December 1602, causing him
to
languish until 1st March, 1603. Evidence was presented by Thomas Hills
himself.
On each indictment the Clerk of the court has recorded the "Not
Guilty" plea
entered by Agnes - followed by the "guilty" verdict returned
by the jury.
Unfortunately the sentence passed by the judges is not recorded on the
indictments. All the Clerk wrote was the abbreviation "judic"
which is the
legal contraction for the Latin "judicium secundum formam
statuti" (ie.,
judgement according to the form of the statute).
This last entry leads me to believe that Agnes was NOT sentenced to
death.
Normally, when a person was sentenced to death the contraction added to
the
indictment on the passing of sentence was "sus per coll" or
something similar
(being short for "suspendendae per collum" - "to be
hanged by the neck").
When a person was executed for a felony any goods or chattels owned by
the
condemned, over a certain value (I believe it was £10), were forfeited
to the
Crown. If the person had nothing to forfeit the indictment is usually
endorsed "ca null" ("catalla nulla" - "has no
good or chattels" to forfeit).
Given that neither of these endorsement were made - and taking in
consideration that the clerk had simply endorsed the indictments "judic"
- I
feel fairly certain that Agnes was sentenced to one year imprisonment
with
four appearances in the public pillory. This would be in keeping with
the
Statute of 1563 under which she was arraigned. This statute states quite
clearly that anyone found guilty of using witchcraft etc to "waste,
consume
or lame" any person, or to "destroy, waste or impair" the
goods or chattels
belonging to another, should suffer one year imprison with four
appearances
in the pillory during that time. Under this statute the death penalty
could
only be imposed if the "witchcraft" actually killed someone;
and from the
indictments it is quite clear that both both Joyce Newland and Thomas
Hills
survived.
Incidentally, the following year the statute under which Agnes was tried
was
repealed and a much harsher laws were introduced - if Agnes had been
tried
under this new statute she would have been executed for the same
"crimes".
Searching through my data-base I came upon an interesting entry - which
just
might go some way towards proving that Agnes Whittenbury wasn't hanged
in
1603.
The Gaol Delivery Roll for the Middlesex Sessions (Middlesex being the
next adjoining county south of Hertfordshire) records that a certain
"Agnes
Berrye alias Wittingberrye, widow" was indicted at the Middlesex
Assize in
1615 (or possibly 1616) for bewitching Grace Halsey on the 25 August
1615,
who languished until 3 September the same year. No trial records are to
be
found but the GDR states (of Agnes) "She was hanged". No
details regarding her place of abode, etc., are given.
Given the vagaries of 17th spelling this just MIGHT be the same person.
Obviously there is no way of proving if this is the same Agnes that was
tried
in 1603, but one cannot totally ignore the possibility that after
surviving
her years' imprisonment at Hertford in 1603, Agnes moved to Middlesex,
but
unfortunately her reputation as a convicted witch also followed with
her. A
second conviction for witchcraft - no matter how trivial, brought with
it the
death penalty.
Regards
Ivan Bunn
Lowestoft
Suffolk
England"
As an aside, I found it equally
fascinating that the surname of two of the people involved in the trial
was Combes.....a surname that reoccurred in
our family history in Hampshire during the 1800's but on the Fullick
side in that particular instance. I am currently hoping to track
down whether there was a connection between the two branches of the
Combes family
Recently, I came across the
following extract on the British History Online website 'Middlesex
Sessions Rolls: 1615', Middlesex county records: Volume 2:
1603-25 (1887), pp. 107-119.
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