the Salmesbury witches.

One would suppose that this verdict might have turned the tide in the
other cases. But the evidence, as Potts is careful to show, lest the
reader should draw a wrong conclusion, was of very different character
in the other trials. They were all finished on the third day of court
and turned over to the jury. Five of the accused, exclusive of those at
Salmesbury, were acquitted, one condemned to a year's imprisonment, and
ten sentenced to death. To this number should be added Jennet Preston,
who had in the preceding month been tried at York for the killing of a
Mr. Lister, and who was named by the Lancaster witnesses as one of the
gang at Malking Tower.

So ended the Lancashire trials of 1612. The most remarkable event of the
sort in James's reign, they were clearly the outcome of his writings and
policy. Potts asks pointedly: "What hath the King's Maiestie written and
published in his Daemonologie by way of premonition and prevention, which
hath not here by the first or last beene executed, put in practice, or
discovered?"

Our second group of cases includes those where convulsive and
"possessed" persons had started the alarm. The Northampton, Leicester,
and Lichfield cases were all instances in point. The last two, however,
may be omitted here because they will come up in another connection. The
affair at Northampton in 1612, just a month earlier than the Lancashire
affair, merits notice. Elizabeth Belcher and her brother, "Master
Avery," were the disturbing agents. Mistress Belcher had long been
suffering with an illness that baffled diagnosis. It was suggested to
her that the cause was witchcraft. A list of women reputed to be witches
was repeated to her. The name of Joan Brown seemed to impress her. "Hath
shee done it?" she asked.[12] The name was repeated to her and from that
time she held Joan guilty.[13] Joan and her mother were shut up.
Meantime Master Avery began to take fits and to aid his sister in making
accusation. Between them they soon had accused six women for their
afflictions. The stir brought to the surface the hidden suspicions of
others. There was a witch panic and the justices of the peace[14]
scurried hither and thither till they had fourteen witches locked up in
Northampton. When the trial came off at Northampton, Master Avery was
the hero. He re-enacted the role of the Throckmorton children at Warboys
with great success. When he came to court--he came in a "coch"--he wa