[Rarebooks] fa: 1691 Account of WITCHCRAFT aboard a SHIP BOUND FOR VIRGINIA + GHOSTS - ATHENIAN MERCURY

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

Listed now, auctions ending Sunday, February 17. More details and images can be found at the URL below or by searching under the seller name arch_in_la.

http://tinyurl.com/al7rkjj

Thanks,
Ardwight Chamberlain
L.A.


The Athenian Mercury. Vol. 4, Number 10 [and] Number 20[-22]. London: Printed for John Dunton, 1691. Four folio sheets, (32.5 x 19.5 cm.; 12 3/4 x 7 3/4 in.) printed on both sides. Mild toning, light spotting to the last two leaves, some wear and small chips to the edges, a few shallow creases.

These four issues (the three leaves of No. 20 actually comprise nos. 20-22) of this popular late seventeenth-century English coffeehouse newspaper are devoted to ghosts, witchcraft and demonic possession. The editors, clearly diehard believers in the validity of such "supernatural Transactions," give over the entirety of issue no. 10 to a discussion of apparitions and spirits: We have received several Letters of Instances about Apparitions, &c. which we have promis'd all together,… that the Credibility of 'em may conduce to the reducing the many Proselytes of Sadducism and Hobbism [Glanvill and Hobbes] amongst us..." Printed in full is "the most diverting Relation of a Night-walker that ever was heard of," as well as other accounts of  ghostly visitations and hauntings, e.g.: "Near Chesham, in Buckingamshire, there was one Joseph Chambers, ... who after he had been buried three days, as the Maid of the House was walking into a little Orchard adjoyning to it,… she saw this Joseph Chambers (in a Melancholy Posture) leaning against a Tree, in the very Cap and Dress he was laid out in..."

Nos. 20-22 are largely devoted to a lively and fascinating account, accompanied by sworn affidavits, of an apparent case of witchcraft on board an emigrant ship bound for the New World. The story begins: "On the twenty first of October, 1674, putting forth from Plymouth into the Sea, with the Ship Recovery of London: John Wood Commander bound to Virginia, we had very bad Winds as West South West, and at South, with very bad weather, that all our Fore Shrouds broke at times, being good Ropes, our Topmast broke twice, our Mizzen yard broak, our Spritsle yard washt from the Boultspreet, one Main and two Foretops split, most of our running rigging shatter’d, the Ship’s planks working from the Stern-post, our Men tyred with working: Fair weather or foul, it was all one, what was mended one day, would the next day be in pieces..." And it just gets worse. The crew and passengers come to believe that "our ship was bewitched by one Witch aboard, ... and that we should not get to Virginia, but lye and spend our provision and liquor in the sea." Eventually, their suspicions fall on one Elizabeth Masters. But even after the Jonah-witch has been arrested and "clapt in chain at a gun in the steerage," the accursed ship's troubles continue… This harrowing yarn is followed up with several items of a similar nature, including another case of witchcraft, accounts of demonic possession, and a reader's question about a curious instance of reanimation: "A piece of Liver of about half a Pound fell into a Tub of Water, ...lay there for some time, about five days, and afterwards did swim, the Reason?"