| Sir Edward Coke | A man from the county of Suffolk, described as Sir Edward Coke who was Lord Chief Justice, and known to converse with Robert Spatchet of Dunwich in the county of Suffolk, the grandfather of alleged demoniac Thomas Spatchet, who suffered fits attributed to Aubrey Grinset.
Coke was a prominent lawyer, legal writer and politician. By 1600, he had become an extremely wealthy land and owned over a hundred properties, including property in Suffolk. He was appointed chief justice of the court of common pleas in 1606, and chief justice of the king's bench in 1613.
In his text The Third Part of the Institutes of the Laws of England, Coke defined a witch as someone who has conference with the Devil, and should not be suffered to live. He also rules against conjurers, sorcerers and enchanters, as being know to consort with demons or the Devil. All are to be punished by death. Burning is the punishment for heretics, and may also be used in the case of witchcraft and consulting with the Devil. Coke mentions a precedent in which a sorcerer was beheaded, and the head burnt along with his book of sorcery.
He includes using, practicing or exercising an invocation of an evil or wicked spirit in his definition of felony. Also included is consorting with wicked spirits, using or otherwise disturbing the dead for the purpose of witchcraft, harming or killing a person through witchcraft, using witchcraft to find treasure or cheating others of their money, finding lost or stolen things, provoking unlawful love, or destroying the cattle or goods of another person, or otherwise through witchcraft hurting or destroying a person.(2) | His Name is Mr. Thomas Spatchet; he was born [...]out the midst of the Month of Ianuary 1614 and hath been Bayliff twice in that antient Maritime Town of Dunwich in the Country of Suffolk; his Fathers Name was Mr. Iames Spatchet, his Grandfathers Name was Mr. Robert Spatchet of Dunwich, who was a very prudent man, and conversed much with Sir Edward Coke, late Lord Chief Justice.() |