Witch

The Story of the witch of Cleworth Hall

The story of the Tyldesley Witch at Cleworth Hall took place during the reign of Elizabeth I (1558 - 1603).

The ancient Cleworth Hall was destroyed in 1805

It was a period of real fear of witches and demonic possession. James I (1603 - 1625) had a firm belief in witchcraft. He said there was a

"…fearful abounding at this time in this country of these detestable slaves of the Devil, the witches or enchanters".

An Act was passed by James in 1604, which imposed the death penalty "for making a covenant with an evil spirit, using a corpse for magic, hurting life or limb, procuring love, or injuring cattle by means of charms". It also said,

" If any person or persons shall use, talk with, meet with, entertain, employ, feed or reward any evil or wicked spirit for any purpose; or take any dead man or child out of his or her grave, or the skin, bone or any other part of any dead person, to be used in any manner of Witchcrafts ...they Shall suffer the pains of death".

The demonic possessions at Cleworth Hall, in Tyldesley Lancashire, from 1594 onwards could bear several interpretations. The wife of Nicholas Starkie of Cleworth was an heiress. Some of her Roman Catholic relatives had vowed to pray for the death of her children. These relatives wanted her inheritance for themselves.

Mrs Starkie’s four eldest children died in mysterious circumstances. They literally pined away. Two other children, John and Anne, she bore to Nicholas Starkie were afflicted with sickness and fits. Anne was taken with

'a dumpish and heauie countenance and a certain startling and pulling together of her body'

There was no mention of witches at this stage. The Catholic relatives must have been extremely active.

Edmund Hartley, a magician and travelling "conjurer", happened to be in the neighbourhood. Starkie approached him for help. The Starkie children had respite so long as Hartley visited them. After some eighteen months Hartley saw an opportunity to be well rewarded for his efforts. Nicholas Starkie refused his demands. Hartley threatened dire reprisals and had immediate results. The Starkie children, two adult females, and three other children being raised at Cleworth Hall became afflicted.

Hartley drew a magic circle when he and Nicholas Starkie were alone in a wood. The witch Hartley was a problem and Starkie wanted him gone.

Edmund Hartley began to take fits. He had to be held down by the adults at the Hall. One woman who held him became infected by his behaviour. It was suspected that Hartley tried to kiss his victims, and thus breathe the devil into them. The only servant he hadn’t kissed suffered no fits or illness.

The five children and the two adult women were struck speechless when asked for evidence to convict the witch Hartley. One of the women, Jane Ashton, responded by barking and howling like a dog. This servant was previously afflicted almost a year before, when she peeked into Hartley’s magic chest. Jane claimed that she immediately felt a sensation in her throat "like a pin sticking there."

Margaret Byron, the other afflicted adult, was asked by two local magistrates to confront Hartley in their presence. She was struck dumb on five occasions. A Puritan minister had taught her well.

Edmund Hartley was hanged because he cast a magic circle. He was hanged twice; the rope broke at the first attempt. The fits continued after Hartley’s death. John Darrell received recognition after he had supposedly "cured" the Burton Boy, Thomas Darling.

John Darrell, a Puritan exorcist and George Moore were called in to exorcise the possessed victims at Cleworth Hall. There were many Protestant dispossessors of demons at this time. The best-known of these was the notorious John Darrell. Darrell's castings out of devils began in 1596; but in 1598, he was tried in London, condemned for fraudulent practices and both deposed from the ministry and sent to prison for at least a brief stay.

At Cleworth Darrell and Moore were joined by Mr Dickons, Nicholas Starkie’s own parish minister. The three preachers’ combined efforts eventually drove the devils out of the seven victims. Only Jane Ashton was not permanently cured. She went to live with a Roman Catholic uncle.

George Moore, the Puritan minister, claimed that certain Catholic priests exploited Jane Ashton. Their conjurations and magical experiments lured the evil spirit back into Jane’s body. Samuel Harsnett, the future Archbishop of York, wrote that Jane Ashton counterfeited fits under the direction of "seminarie priests." The inference was that the Catholics were exhibiting Jane Ashton all over Lancashire to highlight the very real dangers of witchcraft. No doubt the faithful were assured that Satan was running loose in Lancashire because some Catholics had foolishly become Protestants. The struggle between Catholics and Protestants would be highlighted in later Lancashire witch trials.