He published several pieces, amongst
others the two following: 1. "The Drumme of Devotion," by W. Leigh, of
Standish, 1613.--2. "News of a Prodigious Monster in Aldington, in the
Parish of Standish, in Lancashire," 1613, 4to, which show him to have
been an adept in the science of title-making. He was one of the tutors
of Prince Henry, and was great-grandfather of Dr. Leigh, author of the
_History of Lancashire_.
N 3 _b_. "_The Arraignment and Triall of Anne Redferne._"] This poor
woman seems to have been regularly hunted to death by her prosecutors,
who pursued her with all the dogged pertinacity of blood-hounds.
Neither the imploring appeal for mercy, in her case, from her wretched
mother, who did not ask for any in her own, nor the want of even the
shadow of a ground for the charge, had the slightest effect upon the
besotted prejudices of the judge and jury. Acquitted on one
indictment, she is now put on her trial on another; the imputed crime
being her having caused the death of a person, who did not even accuse
her of being accessory to it, nearly eighteen years before, by
witchcraft; the only evidence, true or false, being, that she had been
seen, about the same period, making figures of clay or marl. Her real
offence, it may well be conjectured, was her having rejected the
improper advances of the ill-conditioned young man whose death she was
first indicted for procuring, and to which circumstance the rancour of
his relations, the prosecutors, may evidently be traced.
Pages:
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333