Y a 2. “Was Indicted and Arraigned for the murder of a Child of one Dodg-sonnes.”] One acquittal was no protection to these unhappy creatures.  It caused only additional exasperation, and, sooner or later, they were brought within what Donne calls “the hungry statutes’ gaping jaws.”  Whether superstition or malice prompted this prosecution, on the part of Mr. Lister, it is difficult to say.  Some grudge he entertained, or cause of offence he had taken up against this Jennet Preston, might be her death warrant in those days, when it was penal for a woman to be old, helpless, ugly, and poor.  She was not so fortunate as the females tried at York, nine years afterwards, for bewitching the children of Edward Fairfax, of Fuyston, in the forest of Knaresborough, to whom we owe the only English translation of Tasso worthy of the name.  These females, six in number, were indicted at two successive assizes, and every effort was made by the

    “Prevailing poet! whose undoubting mind
    Believed the magic wonders which he sung,”

to procure their conviction.  Never was a more unequal contest.  On the one side was a relentless antagonist, armed with wealth, influence, learning, and accomplishments, and whose family connections gave him an unlimited power in the county; and on the other, six helpless persons, whose sex, age, and poverty were almost sufficient for their condemnation, without any evidence at all.  Yet, owing to the magnanimous firmness of the judge, whose name, deserving of immortal honour, I regret has not been preserved, these efforts were frustrated, and the women accused delivered from the gulph which yawned before them.  The disappointment he experienced in this instance, in being defrauded, as he thought, of a conviction for which he had strained every nerve and sinew, and in not being allowed to render the forest of Knaresborough as famous as that of Pendle, cast a gloom of despondency over the remaining days of this admirable poet, who has left a narration of the whole transaction, of most singular interest and curiosity, yet unpublished.  The MSS. now in my possession, and which came from Mr. Bright’s collection, consists of seventy-eight closely-written folio pages.  It is entitled “A Discourse of Witchcraft, as it was enacted in the family of Mr. Edward Fairfax, of Fuystone, coun.  Ebor, 1621.”  From page 78 to 144 are a series of ninety-three most extraordinary and spirited sketches, made with the pen, of the witches, devils, monsters, and apparitions referred to in the narrative.

Y 2 a. “Master Heyber.”] This was Thomas Hayber, or Heber, of Marton, in Craven, Esquire, who was buried at Marton, 7th February, 1633.  He was the ancestor of Bishop Reginald Heber and the late Richard Heber, Esq.