A HISTORY OF BEDFORDSHIRE 



jack; also separately mentioned ' one furnace ' assessed Sit £i los. In the 

 buttery among the other tubs, &c., are three ' kimnels,' which are large tubs 

 for salting meat or for brewing purposes. In the chamber over the hall is, 

 , among other things, a ' court-cupboard,' which would be a cabinet for the 

 display of plate, &c. There are two spinning-wheels in the garrets, also 

 a parcel of cheese and two flitches of bacon, as well as seven pair of sheets 

 and a quantity of small linen. Coming to the stock, implements, and 

 produce we find : — Five horses and all the harness, ^Tao ; colt, £4. ; eleven 

 cows in the pastures, £2j 10s. ; two yearling calves, £2 los. ; six 

 carts, four pair of wheels, two pair of harrows, three ploughs, two drag- 

 rakes, a screen, sacks, sieves, forks, rakes, bushel, fan, cow-rings, roll, &c., 



jT 1 3 I 6j. 8d'. ; 1 40 sheep, £2 5 5 ^°^^ ^°g^ ^^ '^^ Y^^^t £3 5^- I ^^Y ^^ ^^^ 

 barns and carts, ^^18 5 J. (the inventory was taken on 2 September) ; one 

 parcel of wool, ^11 5J. ; firewood, jC^2 ; four hovels, ^^3 2 J. 6^/. ; old 

 grain, £10 10s. ; wheat in the yard and barns, ^45 ; barley in the barns, 

 ^3 1 ; pease and beans, £2^ ; 27J acres of tilth in the fields, £2^ js. 6d. ; 

 his wearing apparel and money in his purse, ^5 1 5J. 



The rural population of the county found it difficult to give up their 

 belief in witchcraft. In this they were only on a par with their con- 

 temporaries in other counties. Sir Walter Scott, in his Letters on Demonology 

 and Witchcraft, has preserved the details of a case of determined persecution 

 of a woman above sixty years of age, at Oakley, near Bedford, in 1707. 

 The case is remarkable for the fact that the woman, anxious to free herself 

 from the imputation of witchcraft, asked to be submitted to the test of 

 ducking. Sir Walter says that the ' parish officers so far consented to their 

 humane experiment ' as to promise the victim a guinea if she cleared herself 

 by sinking. The woman was tied up in a sheet, with her thumbs and great 

 toes bound together, and then, by a rope fastened round her waist, she was 

 dragged three times through the River Ouse. Each time, though her head 

 was under water, her body floated — doubtless kept afloat by the air contained 

 in the sheet and her clothing. As she did not sink there was a general cry 

 to drown or hang her. At length it was suggested that she should be 

 weighed against the Church Bible. This test saved the poor woman, 

 apparently to the disappointment of many of the mob. Though the law 

 of James I against witchcraft was repealed in 1735, we find that as late as 

 175 1 an attempt was made at Leighton to bring mob law to bear upon a 

 couple of reputed witches. A number of people brought the women to the 

 Market Cross, and took them thence to Luton, where the people doubtless 

 would have carried out their intentions had they not been prevented by some 

 of the more intelligent residents of that town."' 



The Bedfordshire County Records — none of which, unfortunately, are 

 extant of an earlier date than 1714 — help us to understand the condition of 

 the people during the 18th century. We cannot estimate the amount of 

 crime relatively to the population ; but we get glimpses of its character, and 

 learn much about the punishments inflicted. As to the character of the 

 crime, there seems to have been little difference between then and now. A 

 few offences sprang out of the then existing economic conditions ; as non- 

 observance of common rights, unlawful cutting of wood, removing cattle 



'" Beds. N. and Q. i, 43, where is given the copy of a newspaper-cutting of the date. 



100 



