Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 Disfigured by the Devil: The story of Alexander Nyndge
- Chapter 2 Two possessed maidens in London: The story of Agnes Briggs and Rachel Pinder
- Chapter 3 The witches of Warboys: The story of the Throckmorton children
- Chapter 4 The boy of Burton: The story of Thomas Darling
- Chapter 5 A household possessed: The story of the Lancashire seven
- Chapter 6 The counterfeit demoniac: The story of William Sommers
- Chapter 7 The puritan martyr: The story of Mary Glover
- Chapter 8 The boy of Bilson: The story of William Perry
- Chapter 9 A pious daughter: The story of Margaret Muschamp
- References
- Index
Chapter 5 - A household possessed: The story of the Lancashire seven
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 September 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 Disfigured by the Devil: The story of Alexander Nyndge
- Chapter 2 Two possessed maidens in London: The story of Agnes Briggs and Rachel Pinder
- Chapter 3 The witches of Warboys: The story of the Throckmorton children
- Chapter 4 The boy of Burton: The story of Thomas Darling
- Chapter 5 A household possessed: The story of the Lancashire seven
- Chapter 6 The counterfeit demoniac: The story of William Sommers
- Chapter 7 The puritan martyr: The story of Mary Glover
- Chapter 8 The boy of Bilson: The story of William Perry
- Chapter 9 A pious daughter: The story of Margaret Muschamp
- References
- Index
Summary
In December 1596, Nicholas Starkie a gentleman of Cleworth in Lancashire visited the celebrated Dr John Dee, astronomer and alchemist of Manchester about the possession of a number of persons in his household. In February 1595, his daughter Anne and his son John, nine and ten years of age, began to show signs of possessions. Later three other children resident in the household, Margaret Hurdman, Ellinor Hurdman, and Ellen Holland, became similarly possessed. Eventually, a maid Jane Ashton, thirty years old, and a poor relation Margaret Byrom, thirty-three years of age, acted demonically.
John Dee had had experience of demoniacs. In August 1590 a nurse in his household, Ann Frank, had become possessed by an evil spirit which he had attempted to exorcise by prayer and (unusually) the anointing of her breast with holy oil. The exorcism was unsuccessful. Two weeks later she tried to drown herself in his well, and three weeks after that successfully cut her own throat.
John Dee, perhaps as a consequence wary of any direct involvement, counselled Nicholas Starkie to gain the assistance of ‘some godly preachers, with whom he should join in prayer and fasting for the help of his children’. And it was upon this advice, and having heard the story of Thomas Darling, that Starkie sought the services of John Darrell and George More.
John Dee also called in Edmond Hartley, a witch, whom he sharply reproved.
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- Chapter
- Information
- Demonic Possession and Exorcism in Early Modern EnglandContemporary Texts and their Cultural Contexts, pp. 192 - 239Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2004