On 28 February 1579, four elderly women from Windsor were hanged at Abingdon for witchcraft; one of them, Elizabeth Stile, had made a long statement to the gaoler at Reading Gaol about their misdeeds, which formed the basis for a pamphlet printed after the execution: A Rehearsall both straung and true, of heinous and horrible acts committed by Elizabeth Stile, alias Rockingham, Mother Dutten, Mother Devell, Mother Margaret, fower notorious Witches, apprehended at Windsor in the Countie of Berks, and at Abingdon arraigned, condemned, and executed the 28 day Februarie last 1579.
It is always debatable how far the contents of such pamphlets truly represent what the accused and the trial witnesses said, and how far they are semi-fictional narratives constructed by the writer – or, in this case, by the combined efforts of Elizabeth Stile, her gaoler, and the pamphleteer. Once written and published, however, they were sure of wide circulation, entering into the mainstream of tradition, and thus supporting folk belief by apparently factual anecdotes.
Elizabeth’s account gives a good picture of witchcraft as it was conceived of at the period when belief was at its strongest. She and her associates were all poor; one was a cripple and lived in an almhouse where their original leader, now dead, had also lived. Each of the four had an animal familiar which she woud send out to do harm to anyone who had offended her. Elizabeth’s was a rat called Philip, which she fed with blood from her right wrist; the others had a toad, a called called Jill, and a kitten called Jenny, all of which were given drops of blood, either sucked directly or mixed with milk or bread, as a reward for what they did.
The magic described was malevolent. Elizabeth confessed that they had joined in killing a farmer from Windsor called Langford, Langford’s maid, two butchers, and a former mayor of Windsor, Richard Galis. She herself once gave ‘one Saddock a clap on the shoulder for not keeping his promise of an old cloak to make her a safeguard, who presently went home and died.’ The other victims had been killed by image magic; Mother Dutten made wax figures ‘a hand span long and two or three fingers broad’, which were pricked with pins on their left sides and proved fatal.
A curious feature in her account was the relationship of these women to a certain Father Rosimund from Farnham Royal (Buckinghamshire), about eight miles (13 km) north of Windsor. This was no priest, despite his title, but a male witch, who had the power to change into any shape he chose. He and his daughter used to come to Windsor and meet with Elizabeth Stile and her cronies to plan the harm they would do to their neighbors, and it was at such a meeting that Elizabeth was persuaded by Mothers Dutton and Devell to join their group by renouncing God and pledging herself to the Devil. However, Rosimund and his daughter were not brought to trial; why not, is not said.
The use of image magic weighed heavily against the Windsor witches. The Privy Council in London took an interest in this charge, comparing it to the recent discovery of a similar device ‘very likelie to be intended to the destruction of her majesties person’. This refers to the alarm in London court circles a few months previously when three wax images were found in a dunghill by a stable in Islington:
The centre figure had the word Elizabeth written on the forehead and the side figures were dressed like her councilors, and were covered with a great variety of different signs, the left side of the images being transfixed with a large quantity of pig’s bristles, as if it were some kind of witchcraft.
There can have been little surprise when sentence of death was passed on the four witches of Windsor.