The Bewitching of John Smith, a Child 1616: A True Account
In the manor house of Husbands Bosworth1, a village of around eighty cottages a few miles south of Leicester, John Smith, eldest son of the owner with his second wife2, was unwell. Ever since early childhood, and he was now nearly twelve3, he had complained of headaches and stomach pains, but recently, beginning around Shrovetide4, he had taken a turn for the worse and had begun to have fits that were now occurring several times a day. His father, Roger, at first tried to hold him down, but his child was thrashing about so wildly that he had to call for help, and even with servants holding his arms and legs, they could not calm him. Over the course of a few fretful weeks, the child’s condition worsened, until he no longer had bowel movements and was wailing in pain from his bloated stomach, and was refusing food and water.
Roger Smith was reluctantly away on business in London when Doctor Sheppard was called for. Vomit purges were administered to the boy that relieved the most pressing symptoms, but the fits continued, so further remedies were applied in an attempt to restore the equilibrium of the humours; but not one was successful. At a loss to explain the child’s suffering, Doctor Sheppard wrote to Roger that, summarising conversations at the boy’s bedside, he hoped that his son had not been possessed by demons. A second opinion from Doctor Cotta was requested who suspected ‘falling sickness’5. This diagnosis, however, corresponded with a further level of affliction, that everyone referred to as the ‘senseless fits’ in which, even when not convulsing, John Smith was struck blind, deaf and dumb, and during the fits appeared to be fighting unseen tormentors, and was shrieking and making strange noises. He now needed to be watched constantly, with onlookers armed with sheets to try and catch him if he should fall out of bed. At night, he insisted on having the candles lit at all times. The observers were horrified at the spectacle, most especially John’s mother, and Roger returned to find a household in chaos and panic.
Into this maelstrom came Randall, a woman from the village known for her powers of healing. Desperate for some alternative to the medical advice that had failed, Roger ushered her to the invalid’s bedside where John was having yet another of his interminable fits. The doctors stepped aside to let this dishevelled person pass, and watched suspiciously as Randall recited some incomprehensible incantations, and applied foul-smelling potions, but then there was general astonishment as John’s body stopped shaking, and he opened his eyes. Shortly afterwards, rumours began to circulate that witchcraft was the cause of John’s ailments and, in a settlement of less than five hundred souls, word spread quickly.
After a respite of a few days, John Smith’s fits returned and Randall was summoned back to explain herself. Roughly interrogated this time on the topic of witchcraft, she eventually allowed herself to be searched for witches marks, which proved inconclusive. Nevertheless, demeaned and still accused of being a witch, which she denied vehemently, she deflected blame onto no fewer than five other local women – Lea, Hartshorne, Fritter, Hawes and Halliday – whom she openly admitted she had fallen out with, and who she suspected really were witches, because she had knowledge of their animal spirits.
Towards the end of April, Roger was back in London, and almost immediately after he had departed, some startling complexity was added to John Smith’s malady. Now he cried out “Oh filthy witch, the spirit says she must be made to say it”, insisting that he was possessed by animal spirits which could only be driven out if the relevant ‘witch’, for that is how they were referred to, was brought to his bedside to recite her ‘charm’. Over the next couple of weeks, the accused women were forcibly brought to Bosworth Hall, one by one, inspected and found ‘faulty’, and presented to the boy during a fit. In this way, the onlookers, an ever-increasing crowd of relatives and local dignitaries, learned of the various combinations of witches and familiars: Randall had a fish; Lea, a fummard6; Fritter, a toad; Hartshorne, a black cat called Pur; Hawes, a horse, or more precisely a foal; and Halliday had a peculiar dog, with three horns on its head, from each of which three smaller horns protruded. Furthermore, each animal spirit was associated with a physical symptom: the fummard made him blind; the toad made him dumb; the cat set his jaw so tightly that no food could pass; the fish stopped him from feeding himself; the horse prevented his bowel movements and passing water at the stool7; and the dog caused him to strike himself. It also appeared that the witches were now acting in pairs: Lea conspiring with Fitter; Randall with Hartshorne; and Hawes with Halliday.
At John Smith’s insistence, the recitation of the charm in front of him took on a standardised form: “As I am a witch and have a spirit coming unto me in the likeness of a fish / fummard / toad /cat / horse / dog and consenting with Randall / Lea / Fritter / Hartshorne / Hawes / Halliday to the bewitching of you then I command you to come out of your fit.” Upon completion of this phrase, he stopped convulsing, and lay still. As far as all present were concerned, wilfully ignoring that they had compelled the women to repeat the exact words provided by the child, the ‘witch’ had damned herself with her own words: “As I am a witch…”
Little by little, the underlying frenzy of the fits extended to violence. First he banged his head against the headboard and bedposts, then he began to strike his body with his fists, although strangely none of these left any marks. In the midst of the escalation of violence, there was one attempt to reign back the hysteria. Doctor Cotta confessed that he had some suspicion that the boy might be play-acting, so it was decided to test the theory during a subsequent fit, and the doctor was permitted beat him with a birch rod, pinch him until he was bruised, and put a pin through his earlobe, and through all of this John did not react at all. At least, not until the fit was over, when he complained bitterly of the soreness.
As evidence of guilt was gathered, the six women found themselves hauled before various local officials for questioning and, despite refutations, were arrested by the constable and towards the end of May were sent to jail at Leicester to await the summer Assize court. For some of them this was not the first time they had been accused of witchcraft. Lea, whose husband had just died, had already been blamed for the death of a child by witchcraft, and Fritter was said to have inherited her witchcraft from her mother. But this was the first time they had been imprisoned, away from their husbands and children. They might have found solace in their common circumstances — all were poor, making a pittance through a combination of midwifery, healing or begging – however, competing for the same limited customers, few were on speaking terms, and each held a bundle of grievances against the others.
John Smith’s fits had afflicted him for three months, and he was exhausted and emaciated. Once the six women were arrested and jailed, the fits miraculously ceased and did not return until one week before the trial was due to start in July.
Assize Court
In the summer of 1616, two senior judges from London set off on the 350-mile route of the Midlands Circuit of the Assize Court8, with their retinue of clerks and servants, and a large wicker basket containing the court papers. A few miles outside Leicester, they were met by a procession led by the sheriff’s bailiff, and representatives of the local gentry, followed by a colourful and noisy cavalcade of pikemen, liverymen and trumpeters, and were accompanied with much ceremony into the city to be introduced to the sheriff. At their lodgings, after changing from their travelling robes, they were given reports of the main cases that they would preside over, and it was then that they learned of the accusations, having been recently confirmed by the Grand Jury, against six women in the county jail. They then went to a local church for prayers and a sermon by the sheriff’s chaplain.
The Assize Court sessions began at seven o’clock the next morning, Monday 15th July 16169, in the Great Hall of Leicester Castle, dating from the 12th century, a cavernous space with timber aisle posts supporting a beamed ceiling. These next four days would be long, not finishing until eleven at night in candlelight, and conducted at a fast pace to be able to get through the volume of cases. Given the serious nature of the matters before the Assize Court10, two judges were required – in this instance Sir Humphrey Winch who was 61 and a senior judge with a distinguished career in Ireland behind him, and Sir Ranulphe Crewe who was 58 and a Serjeant-at-Law and had been Speaker of the House of Commons at the last parliament. These two eminent individuals sat in the middle of a raised bench with the Lord Lieutenant, sheriff, bailiff, and court clerks at a table below. To one side was the jury box and opposite was the prisoners’ dock. The rest of the Hall was at capacity and had a carnival atmosphere, with a fidgeting crowd of spectators that consisted mainly of the relatives, many with children, of the accused. The ‘persons of quality’ were separated from the masses, on a platform reached by a curving staircase, from which they had an unimpeded view.
Administrative procedures came first. The jury, selected from respectable men living within the hundreds11 of Leicestershire, was sworn in. Sir Ranulphe welcomed them with a short speech which underlined the authority of the King, the wisdom of Parliament, and respect for the common laws of the land. He reminded them of the weight of responsibility on their shoulders — that it was as great a crime to condemn the innocent as it was to let the guilty go free.
The most notorious case — that of the Bewitching of John Smith, a Child — was scheduled for arraignment12 on Tuesday. The Sheriff handed in the writ of assize13, plus a list of names of those officials involved in the case, together with their documentation — examinations before the justice of the peace, statements from the constables and bailiffs, medical opinion from the doctor, and confessions from some of the accused. The names of the prisoners were entered into the record — Randall, Lea, Hawes, Halliday, Hartshorne and Fritter14. The charges were read out: that these women through witchcraft had bewitched the body of John Smith, a child, with evil spirits in the form of animals that caused him endless fits, afflicting him by day and night. These convulsions had been seen by many people, including many of the distinguished persons here present. The Smiths, the court was informed, are the epitome of a respectable Godly family, in fact the boy’s uncle was Henry “Silver Tongued” Smith, that prominent Puritanical preacher from the time of Queen Elizabeth, whose sermons were still widely read and reprinted, particularly his tract “God’s Arrow Against Atheists”15.
Three of the women had signed confessions admitting guilt, and had implicated the others, offering an insight into their motivations. There was, of course, greed – one of the witches, Lea, claimed that after suckling her body, her spirit promised her as much gold and silver as she wished. Then there was spite — Hawes and Halliday mentioned their anger against Roger Smith, the child’s father, for having ignored their pleas for wood to burn when he was handing out bundles in the depths of winter to other villagers. The pleas were entered, being three guilty and three not guilty.
By the time that John Smith was brought to court for his trial, on Wednesday 17th July 1616 for the seven o’clock start, there had been many rumours of the fits he had suffered since arriving in Leicester the previous Saturday, so as the call for silence was made, and the judges took their seats on the bench, the whole attention of the court was focused on the boy, a well-dressed but sallow youth, in the front row. He was to be the only witness called to give evidence. At first, he shrank in on himself, but then he began to twitch, and started to moan. Soon he could not control his movements, and those close by began to clear a space as he collapsed on the floor and started thrashing about wildly. The moaning became a wailing and then, in between the cries, those watching open-mouthed — the judges, county officials, the local gentry, the crowd of onlookers — heard the unmistakable sounds of animals, the whinny of a horse, the bark of a dog, the mewling of a cat, the croaking of a toad and other unrecognisable noises. The boy then began to strike himself continuously in the stomach, which he had exposed by ripping open his shirt. Sir Henry Hastings rose from his chair, and tried to restrain the boy, but this only appeared to exacerbate the violence, so he reluctantly gave up. The blows continued — he must have punched himself hundreds of times — until to the relief of everyone present, he gradually slowed and stopped and started whispering manically to himself.
He was standing upright now, and swaying from side to side, but no-one could make out what he was saying, so Doctor Clarke who was nearby, leaned in and repeated in a loud voice what John Smith was mouthing. He was reciting Lea’s charm and calling for her to be brought out to repeat it to him, so there were a few tense moments whilst she was sought from somewhere outside the court, before she was led out in shackles. Having been apprised of a situation that she was more than familiar with, she began: “As I am a witch…” Immediately upon finishing the final words “I command thee to come out of your fit”, John Smith fell down and began whispering again, this time Fritter’s charm. And now a lengthy routine emerged whereby Doctor Clarke translated, the next ‘witch’ was brought out and was forcibly encouraged to repeat after him, whilst the child moved around convulsively until he fell down at the end. Everyone noted that the entry of each new ‘witch’ brought with it a different reaction: for Fritter, he put his hands behind his back and hopped around making a croaking sound; for Hartshorne, he tumbled around and mewed like a cat; for Randall, he looked as though he was swimming. The arrival of Hawes was especially remarkable since it resulted in his dramatic neighing and jumping, like a frightened horse.
Sir Henry Hastings had now witnessed this performance on several occasions, and decided it was time to make absolutely sure that what all present were seeing was indeed witchcraft, by attempting to test a hypothesis. Just as John Smith was senselessly curvetting16 backwards, and Hawes was about to recite her charm, he interrupted and told her to recite Hartshorne’s charm instead, that of the black cat. When she had finished, there was no reaction from John Smith who continued as a horse. Next, Sir Henry invited an acquaintance, Lady Cave, to come forward and recite Hawes’s charm, for which a written copy was provided. This she did, but at the end the fit continued. Taking advantage of the rapt attention from everyone at this new turn of events, Doctor Clarke was invited to demonstrate that the fit was genuine, by striking the boy on the back of his legs with a birch riding whip, which left three red welts but which did nothing to stop the jumping and leaping. Lastly, Sir Henry himself approached the boy, and, with two others attempting to hold him still, stuck a pin into his earlobe until blood was drawn. There was no reaction from the boy, although a gasp emanated from the crowd at the sight of blood, and upon release, the fit continued until, finally and not before time, Hawes’ correct charm worked and he fell down.
Halliday was the last of the six to be brought forward, for which John Smith barked like a dog. Only when she had finished did he lie, still and silent on the floor. No-one else spoke, but after a while Doctor Clarke and Roger, his father, went to help him up, but whereas during his fits he appeared strong, jumping and leaping about, now he could barely walk and did not say a word as he was taken back to his seat. The attention of the onlookers then turned to the six women, who made a sorry spectacle. Ten weeks of jail conditions had reduced their previously ragged garments to shreds, and they were filthy and foul-smelling, with hair caked in dirt and vacant eyes. Huddled together, they formed a gaggle of madwomen.
Everyone was emotionally exhausted by this spectacle, which had lasted, without an interval, for over two and a half hours. There was no appetite for any questioning of the child after that but, after conferring, the judges had one final request before delivering their recommendation to the jury. A commission, a small group of gentlemen involved in the case — namely Sir Henry Hastings, Doctor Chippingdale, Mr Bale and the Clerk of the Assizes — was asked to visit the women in the cells and ensure that the confessions of guilt which had been made were still valid, and how the remainder, given the damning theatrics, now pleaded.
Verdict
In the jail, Hawes was acting manically but was willing to admit everything, and stood by her former confession, which she said she had made many times to many people including Mr Dymocke, the preacher, of being visited by the spirit of a foal that caused her to tremble with fear and feel faint, and that she was unable to resist doing what it wanted because it would not leave until she had agreed to torment the child, for which she felt a terrible guilt and wanted to repent. She admitted to conspiring with Halliday, and also to being the source of the identification of the animal spirits of the other women. Sir Henry advised her that she would be hanged for this, but she was adamant she was telling the truth.
Halliday was similarly remorseful, and remained in agreement with her former confession, which mirrored the account of spirit coercion and collaboration given by Hawes. Despite the seriousness of the circumstances in which she found herself, she was still keen that the other four women were not told that she had confessed, for fear of reprisals because she had been told in no uncertain terms that they would all be burned at the stake. As the gentlemen were about to move on, she added that she was happy the spirit had now departed, and that she was no longer a witch, something she had recounted to her daughter-in-law who had been permitted to visit her briefly, being concerned for the health of her newborn baby.
Lea confirmed her confession of having a spirit of a polecat. Unlike Halliday, she admitted that it still visited her, and in fact had done so twice that week in the jail — last Sunday to warn her in advance of John Smith’s fit on Monday and the blows she would receive from him; and then in the small hours of that same Wednesday morning to warn her about John Smith’s most terrible fit of all.
The commission reported back that Randall, Hartshorne and Fritter obstinately refused to be questioned at all, and referred the learned judges to their guilt by association as evidenced by the other confessions. Hartshorne was noted as being in a particularly poor state, sitting in a corner of her cell with her tongue hanging about two inches out of her mouth, and so swollen she could not put it back in17.
The verdicts and sentences for all of the trials were delivered in one session on the last day of the Assize court. In the case of the six accused women of Husbands Bosworth, who stood amongst the throng of other accused awaiting their fates, there could be no doubts of guilt, because the facts had been dramatically presented for all to see. Judge Winch and Serjeant Crewe conversed together for a few moments and the sentence was confirmed. The law, specifically the Witches Act of 1604, introduced by James 1 himself, was clear: the penalty for witchcraft was death by hanging. A pair of white gloves was handed to Judge Winch, which he put on before signing the warrants. The clerk of the court wrote “cul”18 above the name of each of the women on the indictment, then returned to each and added “suspend”19. The prisoners were taken back to the jail beneath The Gainsborough building20 on the market square in the city centre.
The next morning, Thursday 18th July 1616, barely twelve hours after receiving their sentences, the condemned witches were taken by horse-drawn cart to the place of execution21. Among the crowd surrounding the gallows was John Smith, with his father and mother, standing still without moving a muscle, his body straight and his face expressionless. Seeing him, Hawes, Halliday and Lea begged permission to ask his forgiveness, and fell to their knees before him. Halliday shouted out to the three others who had remained on the cart, calling them ‘hard-hearted women’ for not confessing their evil deeds. Lea, in the midst of praying, asked in a very penitent manner, that he might forgive her before she died, as she was truly sorrowful for what they had done in bewitching him.
John Smith’s response, whether spoken or whispered, or none at all, was not recorded.22
Counterfeit
A little more than a month later, in the middle of August 1616, King James 1 was on progress and stopped for the night in Leicester where he heard about the case of the Bewitched Child and the severity of the punishments handed down. He learned that since the trial outcome — with its proof beyond doubt of witchcraft having infiltrated the houses in Husbands Bosworth like a devilish mist — six further women had been accused, and were in the county jail awaiting the autumn Assize court session. Intrigued, and somewhat alarmed, he had the boy and his father brought before him and found, having accounted for the nervousness of the child being presented before the King at short notice, that John Smith was not a convincing witness.
With no further time to spare on the matter, the boy was sent to London to be further interrogated by Lord Abbott, Archbishop of Canterbury. A panel was set up to investigate the circumstances in finer detail, witnesses were re-interviewed, evidence re-examined for clues, and Roger Smith was encouraged to document his account of events for the record. At the top of the page, he wrote “A breife declaracon of the bewitching of Mr John Smyth.” At the same time, he was writing letters to the King’s inner circle, protesting his, and his son’s, innocence. In front of the panel, pointing to his son sitting quietly beside him, he maintained that, even with the fatal consequences, it was all worthwhile since he could scarcely have envisaged the day when he could present his son to the world, with no signs of the fits that had, for a period of time, consumed him. Praise the Lord.
Despite parental support, under ecclesiastical pressure John Smith eventually admitted that he had feigned possession by spirits and was able to perform, upon request, the tricks he had used. By the middle of September, the Archbishop sent John Smith back to the King, who had finished his progress and was at Windsor, with the conclusion that the boy had counterfeited his illness, and that there was no longer evidence to suggest witchcraft. King James was enraged, and immediately ordered the release of the further six women who remained in jail in Leicester.
Sir Humphrey Winch and Sir Ranulphe Crewe were publicly rebuked by the King. In the second week of October, news of the findings and royal displeasure leaked out into society, and the two contrite judges were said to be ‘somewhat discountenanced’ for having hanged six witches based on uncorroborated evidence from one child, who the King had rather quickly uncovered as a fake23, and their reputations were seriously damaged among their peers.
Four days later, on October 16th, the King’s authorisation reached Leicester, and the women were released, although tragically one of them had already died in custody.24
Aftermath
There was an aftermath. Roger Smith and his family left Husbands Bosworth soon after, in 1617, and moved to Edmondthorpe, thirty miles away, where he built a new Hall. He later became an Alderman of the City of London and was knighted in 1635, and as Sir Roger Smith lived contentedly until his death in 1655, at the age of 84. An alabaster tomb was constructed for his remains, and those of his two wives, within the local church25.
Despite distancing himself from the people and events of Husbands Bosworth, witchcraft found a way of following his family. A local legend in Edmondthorpe arose in subsequent generations whereby Anne Smith, his second wife and John’s mother, had the power to turn herself into a cat. Having thus transformed on one occasion, she was wounded on the paw by a butler wielding a knife, and returned to human form still bearing the bloody marks26. It would appear that she, not her husband, had blood on her hands.
John Smith never married and died at the age of forty27.
And miscarriages of justice, however voluminously fatal, did not linger long in the royal memory. Nine years after the verdict, in 1625, Sir Ranulphe Crewe was appointed by James 1 to the highest legal position in England, as Chief Justice of the King’s Bench.
Timeline
| Date | Event |
| 1604 | John Smith, son of Roger, born in Husbands Bosworth (August) |
| 1616 | John Smith first became unwell (February). Six local women accused of witchcraft and sent to jail in Leicester (April / May). Summer Assize Court began (15th July); John Smith had fit in courtroom (17th); six women (Randall, Lea, Hawes, Halliday, Hartshorne and Fritter) were hanged for bewitching John Smith (18th). King James I arrived in Leicester on progress and learned of events; he sent John Smith for interrogation in London (August). John Smith confessed to Archbishop of Canterbury that he had counterfeited symptoms (September). King James I ordered release of six other women who had been jailed on the same charges, one of whom had died in prison; Assize Court judges publicly rebuked (October). |
| 1617 | Roger Smith and his family left Husbands Bosworth and moved to Edmondthorpe. |
| 1644 | John Smith died, unmarried, aged forty. |
Footnotes
- In the 1530s, the Dixie family owned two villages called Bosworth which were in relatively close proximity. In order to distinguish them, the larger was called Market Bosworth, and the smaller community was referred to as Husbandsmen Bosworth, this being the term used at the time for farmers. ↩︎
- Roger Smith had a son and daughter with his first wife Jane Heron who died in 1599; he married again to Anne Goodman on 27th September 1601 with whom he had at least 20 children, of which John was the eldest. ↩︎
- In his account of events, Roger Smith notes his son was 11 ½ years old in February 1616, which means he was born around August 1604. ↩︎
- The last 3 days before Lent, which means early February in 1616. ↩︎
- Now known as epilepsy. ↩︎
- Fummard – A polecat ↩︎
- Stool – chamber pot, or toilet. ↩︎
- Assize (from ‘assises’, meaning sittings or sessions) Court circuits were established by Henry II in the twelfth century. He ordered judges to travel around the country to decide cases. This led to national laws, or ‘common law’, to replace local customs. ↩︎
- This date is in the Julian calendar, which was in use at that time. ↩︎
- Minor crimes were dealt with by Justices of the Peace, also known as Magistrates, who presided over sessions on their own (called petty sessions) or as a group (called quarter sessions). ↩︎
- A hundred was the division of a county for administrative, military and judicial purposes, representing in its original meaning enough land to sustain approximately one hundred households. ↩︎
- Arraignment – The first hearing before the jury when the defendant’s plea is taken. ↩︎
- A writ of Assize is issued to people permitted to obtain a jury trial. ↩︎
- The first names of only two of the women are recorded in the documentation: Ursula Hawes and Elizabeth Hartshorne. ↩︎
- In this book, he rails against paganism, Islam and Roman Catholicism, arguing that these are lies of the Devil and that Puritan Christianity is the only true religion. ↩︎
- Curvet – (of a horse) perform a series of jumps on the hind legs. ↩︎
- Macroglossia, also called a “big tongue” or “enlarged tongue”, is usually caused by an underlying condition such as physical trauma, hormonal or thyroid problems, or inflammatory conditions. Symptoms include difficulty talking, breathing, and eating and if left untreated, can cause death from airway obstruction preventing oxygen from reaching the brain. ↩︎
- Abbreviation of ‘culpabilis’ – Latin for guilty. ↩︎
- Abbreviation of ‘suspendatur’ – let them hang. ↩︎
- Replaced by the Corn Exchange in 1851. ↩︎
- Now called Gallowtree Gate. ↩︎
- A letter from Robert Heyrick, an Alderman and former Mayor of Leicester, to his brother, dated July 18th 1616, summarises the same events. The only mystery is that he mentions nine women who are hanged as witches. He does not appear to have been personally present at the trial and had received his information in a letter from an unknown source (“…and the examinations and finding out of the matter came to my hand in writing just as I began your letter.”) so this might explain the discrepancy. A discrepancy of 3 lives is hardly an insignificant matter, but no mention is made in the 24 pages of hand-written documentation from 1616 that survives in the Lincoln Archives, of any other than the six named women from Husbands Bosworth. ↩︎
- As recounted in a letter dated October 12, 1616 from John Chamberlain to his friend Sir Dudley Carleton, Ambassador to the Netherlands, who he is keeping up to date with news from London. He observes that Judge Winch and Serjeant Crewe are ‘somewhat discountenanced for hanging certain witches at their circuit in Leicester, whereas the King coming that way found out the juggling and imposture of the boy that counterfeited to be bewitched’. ↩︎
- A further letter from Robert Heyrick to his brother, dated 15th October 1616, confirms the release ‘for tomorrow’ of 5 women and the death of 1. ↩︎
- Also part of the tomb are effigies of his son Edward by his first wife, and Edward’s son also called Edward. There are no effigies of any of the 20 children he had by his second wife. ↩︎
- The dark red stain on the wrist of her alabaster effigy in the local church may have something to do with this narrative. ↩︎
- From a pedigree chart of the Smith family that appears in the History and Antiquities of the County of Leicester.
↩︎
Sources
The original documents (24 pages) of the trial of the Bewitching of John Smith, a Child, 1616, held in the Lincoln Archives, in the form of a transcript by Ethel Ruskin (1893-1985), a writer and historian from Lincolnshire; provided by the archivists.
A History of English Assizes 1558–1714, by J.S. Cockburn; published by Cambridge University Press 1972.