The following instance of such illegal and inhuman proceedings occurred at Oakly, near Bedford, on 12th July, 1707.  There was one woman, upwards of sixty years of age, who, being under an imputation of witchcraft, was desirous to escape from so foul a suspicion, and to conciliate the good-will of her neighbours, by allowing them to duck her.  The parish officers so far consented to their humane experiment as to promise the poor woman a guinea if she should clear herself by sinking.  The unfortunate object was tied up in a wet sheet, her thumbs and great toes were bound together, her cap torn off, and all her apparel searched for pins; for there is an idea that a single pin spoils the operation of the charm.  She was then dragged through the river Ouse by a rope tied round her middle.  Unhappily for the poor woman, her body floated, though her head remained under water.  The experiment was made three times with the same effect.  The cry to hang or drown the witch then became general, and as she lay half-dead on the bank they loaded the wretch with reproaches, and hardly forbore blows.  A single humane bystander took her part, and exposed himself to rough usage for doing so.  Luckily one of the mob themselves at length suggested the additional experiment of weighing the witch against the church Bible.  The friend of humanity caught at this means of escape, supporting the proposal by the staggering argument that the Scripture, being the work of God himself, must outweigh necessarily all the operations or vassals of the devil.  The reasoning was received as conclusive, the more readily as it promised a new species of amusement.  The woman was then weighed against a church Bible of twelve pounds jockey weight, and as she was considerably preponderant, was dismissed with honour.  But many of the mob counted her acquittal irregular, and would have had the poor dame drowned or hanged on the result of her ducking, as the more authentic species of trial.

At length a similar piece of inhumanity, which had a very different conclusion, led to the final abolition of the statute of James I. as affording countenance for such brutal proceedings.  An aged pauper, named Osborne, and his wife, who resided near Tring, in Staffordshire, fell under the suspicion of the mob on account of supposed witchcraft.  The overseers of the poor, understanding that the rabble entertained a purpose of swimming these infirm creatures, which indeed they had expressed in a sort of proclamation, endeavoured to oppose their purpose by securing the unhappy couple in the vestry-room, which they barricaded.  They were unable, however, to protect them in the manner they intended.  The mob forced the door, seized the accused, and, with ineffable brutality, continued dragging the wretches through a pool of water till the woman lost her life.  A brute in human form, who had superintended the murder, went among the spectators, and requested money for the sport he had shown them!