2°* S. No 64., Mar. 21. '57.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES.* 



233 



and with " The whole Booke of Psalms collected 

 into English meter, with apt notes to sing them 

 withall," date 1581. 



I purchased the volume at a sale in Oxfordshire 

 thirty-two years since for one pound. W. T. 



DEMONOLOGICAL QUERIES. 



(2"" S. ii. 492.) 



Mary Gaffe. — Mary, the wife of John Goffe of 

 Rochester, died at her father's house at West 

 Mulling, June 4, 1691. The day before her death 

 she expressed a sti'ong wish to see her two chil- 

 dren, who were left at Rochester in the care of a 

 nurse. In the morning, between one and two 

 o'clock, she fell into a deep sleep or trance, and on 

 waking declared that she had been at home with 

 her children. At Rochester the nurse saw her, a 

 little before two o'clock, come from the chamber 

 in which the elder child slept and stand by the bed 

 of the younger. West Mulling is about nine miles 

 from Rochester. 



Communicated to Richard Baxter, "for the 

 conviction of Atheists and Sadducees, and the 

 promoting of true religion and godliness," by 

 Tho. Tilson, Minister of Aylesford, Kent. {The 

 Certainty of the World of Spirits, by Richard 

 Baxter, London, 1696, reprint 1834, p. 49.) 



H. Dorien, " the Master of the Ceremonies. — 

 Herr Dorien was not " master of the ceremonies," 

 but Hofmeister, i. e. maitre d'hotel, or steward, to 

 the Caroline College at Brunswick. He was noted 

 for honesty and punctuality. He died on Mid- 

 summer Day, 1746, and shortly after appeared to 

 M. Hofer, another steward, and to Professors 

 Oeder and Seidler, Avith a short pipe in his mouth. 

 After many inquiries, which were answered only 

 by signs, they discovered that he owed a trifle to 

 his tobacconist. His executor paid it, and he then 

 reappeared, holding something like a broken pic- 

 ture ; he had borrowed some slides of a magic 

 lanthorn which had been mislaid. These were re- 

 turned and he was seen no more. (Theorie der 

 Geisterkunde, von Dr. Johan Heinrlch Jung, ge- 

 nannt Stilling, Stutgart, 1832, p. 230.) 



Zachary, the Socinian Lover. — The case of Za- 

 chary, the Polish lover, is given in Adrianus 

 Regenvolscius's Systema Historico- Chronologiciim 

 Ecclesiarum Slavonicarum, p. 95., Utrecht, 1652, 

 and Bekker's Betoverede Weereld, b. iv. p. 166., 

 Deventer, 1739. Though this Zachary was a 

 Catholic priest, I think he is the person meant, as 

 Bekker, in introducing the story, mentions the 

 Polish Anti-Trinitarians. About 1597 Zachary 

 was betrothed to a young woman named Bietka: 

 this coming to the ears of his ecclesiastical supe- 

 riors they removed him, and he hanged himself. 

 His spirit afterwards renewed the engagement 



and lived with Bietka about three years. Though 

 visible to her only she became famous, received 

 much money, and staid a year in the house of the 

 Governor of Cracow. This was known over all 

 Poland, and mentioned in Italy by some Polish 

 travellers : a certain magician who heard the de- 

 scription guessed that the spirit was one that he 

 had lost ; so he went to Poland, exorcised the 

 demon, stuck him in a ring, and took him back 

 to Italy. 



Regenvolscius's book has a preface by Voetius, 

 to which Bekker directs attention, that " onse 

 Voetius," who only corrected the press, may not 

 be treated as an authority for the story. 



Berchta of Rosenberg. — Berchta was born be- 

 tween 1420 and 1430. She was the daughter of 

 Ulric von Rosenberg and Katherina von Waiten- 

 berg. She was married in 1449 to Johan von 

 Lichtenstein, with whom she lived unhappily. He 

 died in 1451, and she went to live with her brother 

 Heinrich IV. 



She was not a witch, but a worthy princess. 

 She built a palace, and promised her subjects a 

 good dinner when it was finished. She not only 

 kept her word, but made the dinner annual ; it 

 was continued to a recent period, and perhaps is 

 still. Berchta is now a German " white woman," 

 and appears presaging death in several noble 

 families. (Jung-Stilling, Theorie der Geister- 

 kunde, p. 275.) 



Anne Bodenham. — Anne Bodenham was exe- 

 cuted at Salisbury in 1653. The direct evidence 

 against her was that of a maid-servant, who was 

 bewitched by her, and saw her turn herself into a 

 cat, &c., which, as Dr. H. More says, " must have 

 been true if the maid was not perjured." He 

 gives reasons in favour of the maid, and the judge 

 and jury were of his opinion. I do not attempt to 

 abridge this case, which deserves to be read, and 

 occupies eight folio pages of a book by no means 

 scarce. (Dr. H. More, Antidote against Atheism^ 

 p. 103.) 



Mary Hill, Beckington. — Mary Hill of Beck- 

 ington was not a witch, but the person bewitched. 

 Bekker, Betoverede Weereld, b. iv. p. 257., gives the 

 translation of a paper just received from England, 

 November, 1689. I retranslate the argument : 



" Great news from the west of England, being a true 

 relation of two voung persons bewitched at Beckington in 

 the county of Somerset ; describing the lamentable state 

 they were in, and their vomiting of pins, nails, pewter, 

 copper, lead, iron, and tin, to the great wonder of all be- 

 holders : and how the old witch was several times dragged 

 to a great river and plunged therein with her legs tied ; 

 and how she floated on the water like cork ; and how she 

 has been examined by women duly sworn to see if she has 

 any marks, and such being positively sworn to, she is sent 

 to prison, to be tried at the next assizes." 



The old woman's name is not given. The per- 

 sons bewitched were William Spicer and Mary 



