22 DORSET ASSIZES IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



magistrate to quell the Tumult. One stone from them hitt Mr. 

 Knight, one of the hearth men, upon the forehead and knocked him 

 downe, riseing againe another stone hitt him in the hinder part of the 

 head and soe was caryed into a howse and the same day seven night 

 dyed of the wound. Its said all this dosignd before ther comeing and 

 the non-appearance of the magistrate shows it too much." 



There being no Gaol Book of this date, no information is 

 available as to how all these people of Bridport were dealt 

 with, but the Bail Book for 1668 gives the names of some 

 half dozen men of Bridport who were admitted to bail, perhaps 

 charged with participating in the attack on Knight. Some 

 of the names were, and still are, well known at Bridport. 



Among the less frequent indictments may be included those 

 for arson, the illegal export of wool, cheating, vagrancy, 

 witchcraft, offences against the Church, the passing of false 

 coins, clipping coins, sedition, and high treason. A woman 

 who in 1684 burned a dwellinghouse was executed, but another 

 who a dozen years later, wishing to destroy her neighbour's 

 houses, adopted the curious expedient of setting fire to her 

 own house, was fined 20 nobles. Vagrants received very 

 stern treatment. In 1657 two very dangerous and suspicious 

 men were to be taken by the Sheriff to Shaftesbury and 

 " there be whipt on their naked backs until they bleed and 

 from thence be sent from tythinge to tythinge by passes to 

 the several 1 places of their births." Some of these wanderers, 

 had travelled far from home. A family of four adults and 

 four children had come from Derby, and another vagrant, 

 Dunkin Mackanon, was a Scottish highlander. They were 

 usually branded on the left shoulder " according to law." 

 There are but three references to witchcraft. Alice Abram 

 alias Browning, of Tolpuddle, said to be a witch, was in 1655 

 admitted to bail, eleven men of the neighbourhood being 

 bound over to prosecute. A little later, in 1660, a committee 

 was appointed to enquire with all speed into " the busines 

 concerninge witchcraft and consultacon with the Devill and 

 Evil Spirits at Sherborne." The latest mention of witchcraft 

 occurs in 1687, when Deanes Grimmerton, accused of 



