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n Although she is included in thenstory of the Lancashire witches, Jennet Preston was, strictly speaking, anYorkshire witch. She lived at Gisburn, now in Lancashire, but in thenseventeenth century Gisburne-in-Craven was part of Yorkshire. The Register of GisburnnParish Church records the marriage of Jennet Balderston to William Preston onnMay 10th 1587, so we may assume she would be in her mid-forties whennthe events took place some twenty-five years later. Potts is once more ournprimary source; he includes his account at the end of his WonderfullnDiscoverie, although the events he describes took place before thenLancaster trials. Jennet Preston of Gisburn was made welcome in the home ThomasnLister of Westby Hall, where she had ‘free access, kind respect and entertainment’n– “Which of you that dwelleth neare them in Crauen but can and will witnessenit?” writes Potts.
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| Thomas Potts – Trial of Jennet Preston 1612 |
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nFollowing the death of Mr Lister, in 1608, his son, alsoncalled Thomas, continued to extend kindness towards Jennet. Early in 1612,nJennet was brought before the Lent assizes at York, charged with causing thendeath by witchcraft of one ‘Dodg-sonne’s child’. The parish register ofnBolton-by-Bowland (lying next to Gisburn) records a Thomas Dodgson beingnbaptised on September 10th 1610, and a Thomas Dodgsonne buried onnApril 19th 1611, which may well be the same child. Jennet was triednbefore Judge Bromley and “by the fauour and mercifull consideration” ofnthe jury was acquitted of the crime.
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| St Mary’s, Gisburn |
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nFour days later, Jennet was at the GoodnFriday meeting at Malkin Tower, where, we are told, she was seeking assistancenin bewitching to death Thomas Lister (the younger). On the evidence of thenother witnesses, she was returned to York for the August assizes, charged
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n“…thatnshee felloniously had practised, vsed, and exercised diuerse wicked andndeuillish Arts, called Witchcrafts, Inchauntments, Charmes, and Sorceries, innand vpon one Thomas Lister of Westby in Crauen.”n
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nShe was said to havencaused harm to Lister’s goods and cattle, and then evidence was brought that fournyears previously she had murdered Thomas Lister senior by witchcraft. Why thisnwas never mentioned at the Lent assizes is a mystery. Why was she charged withnthe death of Dodg-sonne’s child but not the death of Mr Lister? If she wasnguilty now, why not then? Nevertheless, Anne Robinson ‘and others’ providednevidence in court that when Mr Lister was on his death-bed, he cried out inndistress, saying, “Iennet Preston lyes heauie vpon me, Preston’s wife liesnheauie vpon me; helpe me, helpe me,” whereupon he died. He was wrapped in anwinding-sheet, and Jennet Preston was brought to his body and made to touch it,nand before all present who saw, it bled fresh blood. This was proof to all thatnshe was the murderer.
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nSir Kenelm Digby (him again), wrote of,
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n“… the strangeneffect which is frequently seen in England, when, at the approach of thenMurderer, the slain body suddenly bleedeth afresh,”n
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nand King James, in his Daemonologie,nalso wrote,
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n“…for as in a secret murther, if the deade carcase be at anyntime thereafter handled by the murtherer, it wil gush out of bloud, as if thenblud wer crying to the heauen for reuenge of the murtherer, God hauingnappoynted that secret super-naturall signe, for tryall of that secretenvnnaturall crime.”n
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nJohn Webster of Clitheroe, usually level-headed, writes,n
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n“… that such bleeding is absolutely true de facto, and also that there isnsomething more than ordinary in it.”n
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| Extract from The Displaying of Supposed Witchcraft – John Webster – 1677 |
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nMichael Dalton’s The CountreynJustice (1643) – a handbook for magistrates – lists “The Bleeding of thendead Body in his Presence,” as a cause for bringing a suspected murderer tontrial.
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| Extract from The Countrey Justice – Michael Dalton – 1643 |
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nJennet Preston’s fate was sealed, for this was proof enough for anseventeenth century jury. She was hanged at York for a witch, protesting herninnocence to the last, on Wednesday July 29th 1612.
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| Hanging the Witch |
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nJonathan Lumby puts forward an interestingntheory in his excellent The Lancashire Witch Craze (1995). Thomas Listernsenior did not die at Gisburn, as we may expect, but in nearby Bracewell,nwhere, it seems, he was attending the wedding of his son, also Thomas, thennaged sixteen. Lister senior was about thirty-eight, roughly the same age asnJennet Preston at the time, and Lumby suggests that there was more theirnrelationship. If Lister was calling out for his lover on his death-bed, thisnputs things in a different light. Hours before, young Lister was a bridegroomnand heir; hours later, he was master of the Westby estate. His dead father hadncalled not for his wife, but his mistress. Obviously, there would be suspicion,nglances and whispers. Jennet was still in the household, but would have beenntreated differently now. Thomas’s widow, Jane, would have treated herndifferently too. Resentment, suspicion, jealousy and guilt. All feeding andnfestering away in rural Gisburn. How long before thoughts of ill-will, revengenand blame were born?
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nYoung Lister wanted rid of Jennet, but he needed annexcuse, as he didn’t want the truth about his father’s relationship with her toncome out in open court. Hence, the convenient case of Dodg-sonne’s child. Butnthat hadn’t worked, as the jury had been inconveniently merciful, so a secondncase was necessary, with the evidence massaged to fit his purpose. Witnessesnhad heard his father cry out Jennet’s name, but if the context were altered, andifferent interpretation could be read into this. And the bleeding corpse –nwell, Jennet would doubtless have wanted to see her dead lover one last time,nso just add a little more detail. A little detail like the corpse bleeding.nYour word against her’s. Job done.
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nAnd who would know that if a corpse bled, itnwas because the murderer was present, and that this was evidence enough for anconviction?
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nWhy, a magistrate of course. Young Lister had gone to Bracewell tonmarry. His new bride, called Jane, like his mother, was the daughter of ThomasnHeber. Thomas Heber was a magistrate. He was also the presiding prosecutionnmagistrate at the trial of Jennet Preston at the August assizes at York.
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nJob,nas they say, very well done indeed.
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