Joan Guppie and the South Perrott dispute
Star Chamber bill extract
STAC 8/149/24; bill extract
Complete supplied extract, not complete manuscript. Original spelling, editorial glosses and terminal ellipsis preserved. Exact defendant for interrogatories unresolved.
Modern English explanatory reading
Thomas and Joan Guppie of South Perrott petition the king, alleging that neighbours conspired to accuse Joan of witchcraft and damage her reputation. They say that on 29 June last she was travelling towards Crewkerne market when named opponents stopped and assaulted her. Robert Gibbs is said to have seized the bridle; Judith is said to have pricked her body and legs. The next clauses describe brambles tearing her face and demands for her blood and life. The original extract does not securely settle every actor in those clauses and ends before the full bill does. Its purpose-of-journey wording is awkward and is not silently corrected here. The year, legal disposition and subsequent proceedings are not supplied by this excerpt alone.
Original English excerpt as transmitted
To the Kings most excellent Majesties
Humbly complaining sheweth unto your most excellent Majesty your poor dutiful and obedient subjects, Thomas Guppies of South Perrot in the county or Dorset and Joan
Guppie his wife. That whereas your said subject Joan Guppie hath all her time lived in good report and honest estimation amongst her neighbours, so it is may it please
your most excellent Majesty that Robert Gibbs, Judith Gibbs, Richard Shepard and Margaret Abington, wife of Andrew Abington, upon the nine and twentieth day of
June last being causeless malice against your said subject, did plot practice and combine to bring an imputation [accusation] upon your said subject Joan Guppie that she
should be a witch. Thereby to bring your said subject Joan into contempt and disgrace amongst her honest neighbours. And the more notoriously to defame and abuse
your said subject Joan. They well knowing that your said subject Joan Guppie, in and upon the said nine and twentieth day of June last past, did appoint and intend
to ride into South Perrot aforesaid unto Crewkerne being a market town within the said County of Somerset to buy and provide such provision as these defendants
thought fit for themselves and their families. They the said Robert Gibbs Margaret Abingdon the wife of Andrew Abingdon, gent, and Judith Gibbes, out
of their said inveterate [long-standing] and causeless hatred and malice towards your said subject Joan Guppie and desiring by all means to make some mischievous
revenge upon your said subject Joan Guppie, although she never gave them any cause of hatred or malice [wish to harm] against her, and thinking and imagining
that they could never hold a fitter time to effect their pretended revenge and malice towards your said subject Joan Guppie, then at such a time and place
that none might see or know of their barbarous and uncivil demeanours intended as aforesaid, did confederate conspire [secretly plan] and agree between them
selves to watch and waylay [stop] your said subject Joan Guppie as she should pass towards Crewkorne aforesaid then and there to work and
effect their cankered [corrupt] hatred and malice as aforesaid. And your said subject Joan Guppie according to her intent and purpose aforesaid did in and upon
the said nine and twentieth day of June last past ride towards Crewkerne aforesaid intending then and there to have dispatched her needful occasions as aforesaid
whereupon the said confederates according to their pretended plot and confederacy, did in and upon the said nine and twentieth day of June last past
being armed and arrayed with long piked staves, swords, daggers and other warlike weapons and having all provided great overgrown brambles
to tear and rend the flesh of the said Joan Guppie in riotous and unlawful manner assemble themselves together at or near unto the
street of South Perrot in the said county, and did then and there beset and waylay your said subject Joan Guppie and did then and there in most
riotous and barbarous manner set upon and assault your said subject, being in God’s peace and your Majesty’s, riding towards Crewkerne as aforesaid.
And the said Robert Gibbs giving the first onset came unto your said subject Joan Guppie, and took hold by the bridal of the beast whereon she rode
and stayed the same, and the said Judith came also and assaulted your said subject Joan Guppie and did with pins prick your said subject, and thrust
them into the body and legs of your said subject Joan Guppie and took the said great overgrown bramble and drew them about the face of your said
subject Joan Guppie, and did therewith rent and tear the flesh from the face of your subject Joan Guppie saying that your said subject Joan Guppie was a
witch, and that they came for the blood of your subject Joan Guppie, and they would have it and her life also before they left her...
Answers to interrogatories 10 and 11
STAC 8/149/24; answers to interrogatories 10–11
Complete supplied extract, not complete manuscript. Original spelling, editorial glosses and terminal ellipsis preserved. Exact defendant for interrogatories unresolved.
Modern English explanatory reading
To question 10, an unidentified male defendant says Joan is locally suspected of being a witch and known to use sorcery or charms. To question 11, he says Judith has suffered bodily swelling for roughly three years. He reports having been told that neighbours and those treating her thought she was bewitched. He adds that he can say no more. This retains the distinction between claimed public reputation, reported illness and secondhand explanation.
Original English excerpt as transmitted
[Page one]
To the 10th Interrogatory he saith that the said Joan
Guppie is in the place where she
dwelleth [lived] is suspected to be a witch & known
to have used sorcery or
charms.
To the 11th Interrogatory this defendant saith [said] that it is known that the
said Judith Gibbs hath been by the space
of 3 years of thereabouts troubled
with a swelling in her body, and that
it hath been thought by neighbours &
such as had her in cure
as this defendant hath been told, that the said Judith
[Page two]
was bewitched with that grief. And more than is aforesaid
he cannot say to this Interrogatory
Blood
p.172, quoting STAC 8/149/24, 3
Public-domain primary wording quoted by Bonzol; not a fresh diplomatic transcription. Check reveared against original.
Original English excerpt as transmitted
a comonly reveared opinion in the country that to scratch and fetche bloud of such as doe harme in that quality is a meanes to cure them that be hurt
Remedy
p.172, quoting STAC 8/149/24, 3
Three separate quoted phrases, explicitly separated here; no invented continuous sentence. Claimants are the defendants.
Original English excerpt as transmitted
medicinable scratch / medicinable drop of blood / revived eased and amended in the state of her body
Objects
p.174, quoting STAC 8/149/24, 3
Separate primary phrases. The accompanying published discussion identifies clothing and animal hair; their exact original syntax is not fully available here.
Original English excerpt as transmitted
in a secret chamber / certen praiers or charmes upon them / certen powders
Transfer
p.173, quoting STAC 8/149/24, 3
Two primary excerpts separated by slash; ellipsis belongs to published quotation. Alleged skill, not proof of transfer.
Original English excerpt as transmitted
lay it upon herself for a tyme … But where she then bestoweth it, the Lord knoweth / some Beast, Fowle or worme
Prayer
p.174, quoting STAC 8/149/24, 3
Defendants’ reported Lord’s Prayer test; not a narrator’s judgment of Joan’s faith or literacy.
Original English excerpt as transmitted
she began it diverse tymes but was not able to say it through so ignorant and untoward was she in the service of God
Prophecy
p.174, quoting STAC 8/149/24, 3
Separate quoted phrases, not a single continuous utterance. Claims concern reputation and payment; no amount or specific coin supplied.
Original English excerpt as transmitted
Rare Spiritt of Prophesy or Divination / money and Rewards / any thing that is said or done in house in the town or elsewhere
Son
p.173, citing STAC 8/149/24, 30
Only this short phrase is reproduced verbatim here. Bonzol reports an unnamed fourteen-year-old son alleged to have boasted of helping conjure it; the complete original statement and voice are unavailable.
Original English excerpt as transmitted
familiar spyrit
Plaster
p.173, quoting STAC 8/149/24, 3
Separate phrases with published omissions/bracketed identification. Reported household remedy; not itself proof of a magical object.
Original English excerpt as transmitted
comfortable playster / which being laid on … [Joane’s] body her paines and gripes presently eased
Certificate
Person 6059, p.42, quoting E 163/17/5
Quotation transmitted by modern finding aid with ellipsis; not a complete certificate transcription or a new translation.
Original English excerpt as transmitted
donne good to manye people aswell in curinge of dyvers peoples wounds … as in drenching of cattell & such like exercises
Pov
pp.176–177, quoting E 163/17/5
Primary certificate wording as quoted by Bonzol; supporters’ attestation, not an acquittal.
Original English excerpt as transmitted
lyved of good name and fame without anye Spott or Touch of enchantment, Sorcerye or Witchcraft
About this case and its sources
The National Archives, STAC8/149/24 and E163/17/5. Star Chamber dispute and supporters’ certificate. Encounter dated29 June, year1604/1605 disputed; certificate1606. English excerpts transmitted through educational editions, scholarship and a finding aid. Full manuscripts and signatories not collated. No judicial outcome established. Edition29 October2026; cite archive, transmitting edition and quotation locator together. Place names are qualified associations; no coordinates inferred.