| Anne Gunter | A young girl who allegedly faked possession under pressure from her father. She had convulsions and vomited pins among other symptoms. She was relatively famous for a short period in the summer and autumn of 1605 when James VI and I interested himself in her alleged possession. Her case attracted the attention of many notable doctors of the time, including William Harvey.(135) | Interrogatories prepared by Sir Henry Hobart, Attorney-General, to be ministered to Francis Steuart, second son to the Earl of Murray, against Brian Gunter, and Anne Gunter, his daughter, of North Morton, Berks, the said Anne being accused of possession by the devil; withSteuart's answers, signed by him, and attested by L. C. Ellesmere; 29 July 1607. The answers show that the fits of frenzy were merely pretended; the chief tricks consisted in the girl's untying her garters unperceived and conveying them away; and to the last interrogatory, which asked whether her breath in and about the time of her fits did not "smell allways very stronge and hott, as of brimstone or some such thinge," the deponent answers, " that he did allwayes observe in her fitts that her breath had a very strange smell, as yf she had taken some compounded drinckes." Other persons who visited her were Mr. George Hamden, M.A., of Christ Church, Oxford, and the Lady Effingham. On parchment rolls.() |