Susan Swapper wife of Roger Swapper of Rye, sawyer, sayeth that about midlent last, viz. 1607, about midnight, she being sick in bed with her husband, 4 spirits in likeness of two men and two women appeared unto her. The one man young without hair on his face, and tall, named himself Richard, and he was in a white surplice to the ground. The other man was a short thick man, with a long grey beard, and named himself Robert. He was in a white satin doublet and hose pinked. One of the women was young and in a white waistcoat and green petticoat with a rail about her neck, and a white kerchief on her head. The other woman was young and all in white, and one of the women called herself Katherine, and the other Margery, and they appeared unto her 2 or 3 nights together.
The second time of their appearance, the woman in the green petticoat called this examinate
“Sue,” and said, “come and go with me, or else I will carry thee.”
And the spirit Richard took her by the arm and gripped her, that her arm was lame 2 days, so as she could not help herself. And she being afeared told her husband, and he laid his hand over her to hold her, and his arm was so lame for two days that he could not cut his meat. And then the vision left her.
And afterwards that night a little before day, they all 4 appeared again unto her, and she asked them
“In the name of the Father, etc., what will you have me do?” And the woman in the green petticoat said,
“I would have you go to young Anne Bennett (being the wife of George Taylor, dwelling in the same town) and call her, and go into the garden with her, and dig and set sage, and you shall be well.”
And in that afternoon she and the said Anne digged in the garden, and the said Anne thrust a spit into the ground and heard a sound, and being sick she departed without setting any sage.
About 3 nights after, one of the men and one of the women appeared unto her, and the man asked her
When young Anne Bennett had been with her? And she answered
Yesterday. And then he asked her,
What the said Anne had in the summer house? and she answered,She could not tell. And then he said that
Those things which she was troubled withall were true, viz. that there was money hidden in the said Anne’s garden amongst the thyme. And that the field at Weeks Green was ploughed, and the crock was broken, and some part thereof was found, and the rest was left behind. And so they departed.
After Whitsuntide last, they all 4 appeared to her again, and the 2 women came to her chamber, and the men went into another chamber. And one of the women said,
“How now, now thou art well!” And she answered,
”Yea, I thank God”, and the woman said
”Now thou must go with me”, and she asked
“Whither?” And a girl coming up, they vanished away.
The next night, 2 of them came again to her, and one of them asked her
If she would go with them, and she said
She would go with them the next day.
And the next day between twelve and one, she heard a great stamp in the loft, and went up, and the tall man appeared and asked her
Whether she would go with him? And she said,
“Aye, by God’s grace, if you tell me whether”. And he said
She should go to Weeks Green, and asked her
Whether she would go with him or alone? And she answered,
She had rather go alone if she knew the way.
And she did learn the way of Anne Bennett, and did go thither. And there did see the tall man stand in the street, and he called her to
Follow him through a rye field into the green field next to it, which she did. And in the middle of the field, there was a valley of the one side, and bank on the other, and there he told her
In that valley, there was a pot, and gold in it, and a chain upon the top of it. And beside the Pit under a little stub, there was a crock, metal, with three legs, in which there was money. And he bade her
Sit down upon a bank, which she did.
And then she saw a man all in black, on the one side of the hedge, and a woman in a green on the same side, going one to meet another. And she thought the ground did move under her as she sat, and then she cried
“Lord have mercy upon me, what shall become of me?”
And then the tall man came to her again and bade her
Be not afraid, for she should have no harm. And seeing the two persons before mentioned, she asked the tall man
What they were? And he said,
The woman is Queen of the Fairies, and if that if she would kneel to her she would give her a living. And then she looked and they were gone.
And the tall man came to her again, and willed her to
Arise and go home, but she could not arise, and he willed her
In the name of God to arise. And then she arose and went home sick to bed, and the man vanished away.
And the next time when they appeared, she asked them
When the said Anne should have any money of them? And the tall man said,
If she be so hasty, she should tarry till she had a child of her body should live to be six years old. The said Anne had then a son which not long after died.
And she sayeth that she hath heard the spirits talk one to another of them, and she hath seen at sundry times 18 spirits, but only the said 4 before named did speak. And the said Anne told her that she had seen 80 or 100 of them, and they were all fairies.
And she sayeth that one spirit in likeness of a woman great with child appeared unto her in the daytime, and wished she had some apples. And she did afterwards give unto her 3 apples, whereof she did eat two, and the 3 she cut in 4 quarters and flung away.
And after the tall man Richard willed her to
Go to the said Anne Bennett and demand of her a piece of raw powdered beef, which the said Anne gave unto her. And she delivered it to him, and he cut it in pieces and laid it in the window, but she knoweth not what became of it.
And sayeth that she hath divers times given them water, and once bread. And the spirits did consume the water, and when they left any water the same was blackish, and the tub became speckled with white.
And at another time the spirit Richard willed her to
Go to young Anne Bennett, and demand of her a piece of linen cloth if it were never so old, of her length and of her breadth, or a piece of inkle, or an old hairlace of that length. And she brought a piece, and the spirit said
It was too little. And she fetched then a bigger piece, and laid it where the spirits used, and it was soiled at one end with clay.
And after, the spirit Richard demanded of one of his fellows
Where the brimstone was that lay upon the mantle of the chimney? And one of the women said
She had it.
And this examinate did lay 3 nosegays in the window for the said familiars, and they were taken away as she thinketh by the spirits, for nobody else could come there, the doors being shut. And she divers times strowed herbs in the windows where the spirits used.
And when Sir Thomas Waller was coming to Rye, the people coming to meet him, she saw the spirit Richard stand underneath the further mill. And she going towards the mill, he vanished away.
And she going home, heard in her house a great piece of ordnance and a trumpet, and said to herself
“Lord have mercy upon us, there is a great troop of men come to the town, and great joy.” And the spirit Richard said
”Aye, and as much sorrow.” And she turned about and saw him.
And that day in the morning that Burditt was slain, she saw the spirits Richard and Robert walking upon the bank coming up the gungarden (in that part the great ordnance lay). And the piece which brake and killed Burditt being [was] discharged at the departure of Sir Thomas Waller out of Rye.
And that day that Anne Bennett’s son was buried, she going by the church, saw the spirit Richard go into the church, and he went all in white. And the night after, Richard said to the rest of the spirits that
The preacher’s mind was not of his sermon, but he was troubled otherwise.
And the said Anne told her that
She did see him sit in the gallery in the church during the sermon all in black, with a flat cap on his head.
Concerning the apparitions in the window, she did see at one time the shape of the head of a man. But at other times she did see divers shapes, sometime of two gentlewomen. And at another time of a man drinking, with a napkin before him.
And the said Anne and her husband bade her inquire of the spirits
Whether their daughter that died were bewitched or no? And she asked the spirit Richard, and he said
He could not tell, but if they were so doubtful, they should go and inquire of some learned man what the cause of her death was.
And she hearing a stamp in the chamber where the spirits used, went up. And there she saw a light like a candle in the midst of the chamber, which did suddenly depart. And she seeing nothing there, she did think to go into the garret. And when she was got up to the garret door, she was taken in such sort as she could not wag hand or foot, and her speech was taken from her.
And so she remained the space of an hour, till her husband came and found her, and took her by the arm, and then she felt her limbs. But could not speak till she came down.
And she sayeth that the first or second day that Master Hamon, late mayor of Rye, fell sick, the spirit Richard bade her
Go to the said Anne Bennett and will her to send him some planet water. And she carried a little bottle of water of about 3 or 4 pints spoonfuls into the chamber where the spirit was, and set it on the table, and went down (it was a whitish water).
And when she had told the said Anne had of it, the said Anne said
The bottle was not there. And this examinate went up, and there was neither the bottle nor the spirit.
The said Anne Bennett called this examinate, and said unto her,
”I do see one of them now in the window with a chain of gold about his neck, and gold bracelets about his wrists, and this is to make me bold, to come to speak to them.”
George Taylor sayeth that in the glass window about midsummer last, appeared to him in shadow, a very ancient grave man sitting very majestically in a chair with a book before him. At his right hand a man in shadow sitting as it were either reading or casting account. At his left hand a man and a woman in shadow sitting in like form, the woman having a hat on her head. All of them in shayish coloured apparel.
Behind those two, death’s head, round about him a great company thronging together as it were to hear something. And behind them shadows of people as in as rich and gorgeous apparel as could be devised.
Underneath death’s head a pretty distance below, the shadow of a woman holding --- child standing up against her knees.
And the said Susan Swapper told him
That the spirits told her, they were set there for him to behold because he was hard of belief.
Anne Taylor alias Bennett sayeth that the first time she saw the apparitions in the glass window was 2 days before the death of her first child, who died a little before midsummer last. And she first saw the picture of death, and divers other shapes of men and women at divers and sundry times after.
And afterwards she did see in the window the shape of a man, very like to Master Hamon deceased. And at one time the picture of her own son a sennight before he died.
And the said Susan Swapper told her that
Those sights were sent because of this examinate’s unbelief. And that the spirits told her that by reason of this examinate’s unbelief, it should be a long time ‘ere she should enter into the kingdom of heaven.
And she further told her this d examinate that
One of her spirits willed her to look up into the element, and she did so, and saw six candles, to her judgment. And after that appeared unto her 2 angels in her chamber, and one of them having a white fan in his hand, did let the same fall. And she stooping to take it up, the angel gave her a box on the ear, rebuking her that she being a mortal creature, should presume to meddle with handle matters appertaining to heavenly creatures. And those two angels had each of them a prophet, and those angels would reveal to those prophets, and to no other persons, the cause of their coming. And that their coming was to put out the wicked from the earth.
[Original manuscript © British Library Board Harley MS 358 no.47 fol. 188]
