| Andrew West | A man from Little Oakly in the county of Essex, husband to Anne West, and a farmer or specifically a pig farmer. West and his wife Anne testify about a number of odd occurrences which happen, which point to Annis Heard as the generative element. Andrew West falls afoul with Annis Heard after he appears to rescind a deal his wife made with her. Anne has offered to give Heard a pig at below market value because she could not afford to keep it. In the mean time, Andrew, claiming he suspected that Heard no longer wanted it because she never came to pick it up, sold two of his free pigs to another neighbor. Shortly thereafter, one of his best pigs grew frighteningly ill. It "fel vpon a crying as they stood all together before the dore in the yard, and the rest of the pigs we~t away from yt: at the length the pig that cried folowed stackering as though it were lame in the hinder partes." He called his labours from all around and a number of them gave him suggestions which amounted countermagics; "some of them said, burne it, other said, cut of the eares & burn them, and so they did, & then the pig amended by & by." (E8v-Fv) | Andrewe West and Anne saith, that on a time the said Annis Herd came vnto his house, saying, she had been at mill, and that she coulde get neither meale nor bread, at which her speeches hee knowing her neede, saith, hee caused his wife to giue her a peece of a lofe: and that the~ he said vnto her Annis, thou art ill thought of for witchcraft, the which she then vtterly denyed yt she coulde or did any such thing: whereunto he saith, his wife saide wee haue a sort of pigges I woe not what we shall doe with the,
saying, I woulde some body had one or two of them, to that the said Annis said, that if a poore body should haue of them and bestow cost, & that then if they should die it would halfe vndoe the~, and said if her Landlord would giue her leaue to keepe one, she the~ wished that she would giue her one of them, whereunto this examinat said, shee should haue one: But for that she came not for it, this examinat saith, that he did thinke that she cared not for it, and after a while one of her neighbours bought two of them, and within ii. or iii. dayes after the said Annis came for one: to whom this examint said, for yt they had not hard no more of her, that he thought she would haue none, and told her that he had sold two of them, and so the said Annis departed and went home.
This examinat saith, yt his wife the next day sent vnto the said Annis a pound of wooll to be spun: and that she said to the boy that brought it, saying, can she not haue her weeders to spin the same? and that she then said to ye boy, your Aunt might as well giue me one of he pigges, as to Penly. and this examinat saith, that within two houres after, one of the best pigs that he had fel vpon a crying as they stood all together before the dore in the yard, and the rest of the pigs we~t away from yt: at the length the pig that cried folowed stackering as though it were lame in the hinder partes, and yt then he called his weeders
to see in what strange case the pig was in, and asked them what was best to doe therewith, to which some of them said, burne it, other said, cut of the eares & burn them, and so they did, & then the pig amended by & by. and within two daies after this examinats wife met with the said Annis Herd, and shee then burdened her with that she had said to her boy: To the which y^ said Annis made answere, yt she did say so: and then this examinats wife told the said Annis in what case her pig was, saying, thou saidest the other day thou hadst no skill in witcherie, his saide wife then said, I will say thou hast an vnhappie tongue. After which, this examinats wife could not brewe to haue any drinke yt was good, so as she was full of care, saying, yt somtimes she put one thing into her brewing fat, sometimes an other thing to see if it could doe it any good, but shee saith, it did none: then she saith one gaue her counsell to put a hot yron into her mesh fat, the which she did, and then shee could brewe as well as she did before.() |