CP.H.4987A · Reading edition 2.2 · Editorial review
Askwith reports “whore & a witch.” In Mary Williamson’s surviving testimony, “whore” is the secure reading. Their accounts preserve different parts of the charge against Walker.
Partial edition. Gaps, damaged wording and unresolved passages are identified with the relevant text. English comes first, followed by the original where available. Brackets mark gaps, uncertainty or editorial intervention.
Documentary edition
Libel, image 3 left
CP.H.4987A Libel, image 3 left
English reading or editorial account
Reading: The libel alleges that Walker spoke and reported, “although falsely,” that Rayner was a whore and a witch. The lead-in, date and connecting Latin clauses are physically damaged and not fully transcribed. This is the promoter’s allegation, not a proven utterance.
Original transcription or surviving excerpt
“the s[ai]d John Walker Speaking to and of the s[ai]d Grace Rayner said & reported (licet falso) that shee the s[ai]d Grace Rayner was a whore and a Witch”
Walker’s personal answers, image 4 right
CP.H.4987A Walker’s personal answers, image 4 right
English reading or editorial account
English reading: To the first position Walker refers to canon law, so far as it exists. To the second, he accepts that the pleaded provincial constitution exists and is true in itself. He does not believe the third or sixth positions true; he believes the seventh; and for the eighth he admits what he has admitted and denies what he has denied. To the fourth and fifth, he says that legally he need not answer because they are criminal positions. That procedural refusal is not an admission or denial of the reported insults. The heading and part of the first response are lost; the 9 November 1682 date is retained as written.
Original transcription or surviving excerpt
Ad primam positionem respondendo refert se ad jura Canonica desuper edita
(quatenus sunt) [remaining procedural clause unread].
Ad secundam positionem respondendo credit C[on]stitutionem provincialem
in eadem articulat[am] (quatenus extitit) [contracted connecting words unread]
credit eandem [inserted: ad rem] esse veram in se.
Ad tertiam positionem respondendo non credit eandem esse veram in aliquo.
Ad quartam et quintam positiones respondendo credit quod de jure non
tenetur eisdem respondere quia sunt positiones Criminales.
Ad sextam positionem respondendo non credit eandem esse veram in aliquo.
Ad septimam positionem respondendo credit eandem esse veram.
Ad octavam positionem respondendo credit credita et negat negata.
Wm: Savile. John walker
Thomas Brooke’s deposition, image 5
CP.H.4987A Thomas Brooke’s deposition, image 5
English reading or editorial account
The surviving passage places Brooke with Walker at a house of a widow provisionally read as Willy, in Cleckheaton, Birstall parish, around May or June last. Brooke says Walker spoke of Grace Rayner and called her a “whore,” followed by a damaged or unresolved abusive clause. He names the widow and her daughter as people who did or might hear the words. The record does not securely identify the daughter.
Brooke separately says that during the week before his examination he heard Walker in Richard Blackburn’s Cleckheaton shop, before Blackburn, Timothy [surname partly unread] and Joshua Searling [surname provisional], acknowledge and repeat the words. This is a witness’s report of Walker repeating speech, not an admission of witchcraft.
Original transcription or surviving excerpt
[Original wording unresolved in the reviewed edition.]
Timothy Askwith’s deposition, image 6 left
CP.H.4987A Timothy Askwith’s deposition, image 6 left
English reading or editorial account
Askwith independently reports both sexual and witchcraft slander and repeated utterance. The damaged and inserted clauses prevent a complete reading of the setting and all hearers. A later passage says Rayner’s good name and fame were much hurt among her neighbours and her credit lost. That is reported reputational harm, not bodily injury.
Original transcription or surviving excerpt
“[...] being bound man to Richard Blackburn [...] in Cleckheaton [...] the said John Walker [...] the said Grace Rayner said & reported that she the said Grace Rayner was a whore & a witch & repeated the same words divers times over [...]”
Mary Williamson’s deposition, image 6
CP.H.4987A Mary Williamson’s deposition, image 6
English reading or editorial account
The beginning, setting and edge are lost or unread. The preserved word is “whore”; witch wording is not securely present in Mary’s surviving deposition. The dossier records that she cannot depose to articles five and six.
Original transcription or surviving excerpt
“That in July last past [...] the said John Walker [...] of the art[icula]te Grace Rayner said she was a whore [...]”
Source register
- Grace Rayner and John Walker. CP.H.4987A saved manuscript images https://discover.york.ac.uk/ark:/36941/CP_H_4987A/presentation/3/manifest
About this case and its sources
The research database records what this source says. Follow these links to the records in Throwing Bones.
All events citing this source in Throwing Bones
Cases
- Grace Rayner and John Charlesworth junior
- Grace Rayner and John Charlesworth senior
- Grace Rayner and John Walker
- Grace Rayner and Richard Blackborn / Blackburne
Events
- Surviving English clause: Reading: The libel alleges that Walker spoke and reported, “although falsely,” that Rayner was a whore and a witch. The lead-in, date and connecting Latin clauses are physically damaged and not fully transcribed. This is the promoter’s allegation, not a proven utterance.
- English reading: To the first position Walker refers to canon law, so far as it exists. To the second, he accepts that the pleaded provincial constitution exists and is true in itself. He does not believe the third or sixth positions true; he believes the seventh; and for the eighth he admits what he has admitted and denies what he has denied. To the fourth and fifth, he says that legally he need not answer because they are criminal positions. That procedural refusal is not an admission or denial of the reported insults. The heading and part of the first response are lost; the 9 November 1682 date is retained as written.
- The surviving passage places Brooke with Walker at a house of a widow provisionally read as Willy, in Cleckheaton, Birstall parish, around May or June last. Brooke says Walker spoke of Grace Rayner and called her a “whore,” followed by a damaged or unresolved abusive clause. He names the widow and her daughter as people who did or might hear the words. The record does not securely identify the daughter. Brooke separately says that during the week before his examination he heard Walker in Richard Blackburn’s Cleckheaton shop, before Blackburn, Timothy [surname partly unread] and Joshua Searling [surname provisional], acknowledge and repeat the words. This is a witness’s report of Walker repeating speech, not an admission of witchcraft.
- Surviving excerpt: Askwith independently reports both sexual and witchcraft slander and repeated utterance. The damaged and inserted clauses prevent a complete reading of the setting and all hearers. A later passage says Rayner’s good name and fame were much hurt among her neighbours and her credit lost. That is reported reputational harm, not bodily injury.
- Surviving excerpt: The beginning, setting and edge are lost or unread. The preserved word is “whore”; witch wording is not securely present in Mary’s surviving deposition. The dossier records that she cannot depose to articles five and six.