[This opening section appears in diary pasted in middle of entry for 28 November] New Year’s Day Friday [January 1, 1762] Rose abt 8 & sat out for Litn1 near 9 home p 12. Went to Change2 2 went to dinner with AD3 [at] Mrs Symes’s afterwds to off:4 visited Rachell5 at Mr Davis’s6 where .. came last Tuesdy. Afterwds at bror Jnos7 & at 7 retd to Mr Symes’s & spent the evening .. till p 10. Today the toll began to be collected ,.. [Br]istol temporary bridge.8 Saturday [January 2, 1762] Rose this mg abt 7 took walk & [brea]kfasted with mother: then to .. & about 12 went up to the Lamb9 where were also Mr Hey Durbin, JaS Smith,10 Messrs Penny & Eaton. We were all by ourselves in a room .. order to try an experiment with ..yling ye childrens water11 with ... in it but the experiment was not properly tryed. The two children were present & Po[lley]12 the eldest had like to have [been] strangled once & was quite black in the face, by ... invisible hand clasping rou.. her neck. This morng they .. us she cou’d not drink a dish of ... Her arm being struck up.. as she had got the cup to her ... & once the tea cup was rais[ed] from ye saucer 12 inches ... perpendicular, by 1 The gunpowder works at Littleton (see introduction) lie in the valley of the Winford brook between Winford and Chew Magna. 2 The Bristol Exchange off Corn Street, opened in September 1743. 3 Ann Dyer*. 4 Dyer’s office was the gunpowder office of Baugh*, Ames* and co, described in 1775 as ‘first door on right up one pair of stairs 17 in the Exchange’, above the Exchange Coffeehouse. They had moved there in December 1751, at an annual rent of £8, and they remained until 1792 when the Coffeehouse was replaced by a new bank. 5 Rachel Tucker*. 6 Henry Davis*. 7 John Dyer*. 8 While Bristol Bridge was rebuilt, a temporary bridge was operating: a notice of the tolls ran in the Bristol papers from 14 December 1761. 9 The Lamb Inn, 9 West Street, without Lawford’s Gate, kept by Richard Giles*. See the photograph on the front cover of this publication. BRO 40197/3 is a photograph of the Lamb Inn, West Street, endorsed 'diagram of building with measurements', c. June 1904. 10 A James Smith baker was listed at 15 Lamb Street in 1775. 11 See Eaton’s diary 2-8 January for more on this as ‘an experiment that was trying in order to afflict the w-ch’. A remedy against witchcraft in FFBJ 25 November 1752 had noted that a mixture of urine and other exotic ingredients, if boiled, would cause the witch agony and, if it boiled quite away, she would die. The recipe ‘to perplex or kill a witch’, was taken from an old collection ‘written when the laws of our country admitted of witches and punishing them’ and included, besides urine, foal’s heart, apple, a lock of hair, blood and pins. The guilty party would be found naked, with their skin turned black and in most horrid torments. Sceptics about the Lamb Inn case picked on such counter- measures: one questioning those involved for sitting around while ‘something is cooling over the fire that is to bring the witch to the door’ (FFBJ 20 February), while another noted ‘charms have been devised, the waters of the purest virgins have been preserved in urinals and tortured in a burning cauldron’ before adding, more fantastically, ‘whereto hath been added a select number of crooked horse-nails, ditto beheaded pins, the skin of a rat, the claw of a cat, the wing of a bat, the white of a rattle-snake, and the slime of a toad &c, &c, &c’(Lloyd’s Evening Post, 15 February). Durbin’s narrative generally omits all reference to this aspect. 12 Mary Giles*, known as Molly to Durbin and Polley (or Polly) to Dyer. an invis.. power & then fell down in pieces. I staid there w.. above gentlemen ‘till ½ p 2 & p 3 at off: & std there &c ‘till ... went again to the Lamb ... there with Mr Eaton ‘till nea.. we set Polly to write several words but somtimes her righ.. was given such a sudden jerk ..... ..dren were both put away in ...closed ½ an hour in the same ... room during wch time Doppey1 ye youngest cried out twice ... somthing was pulling her out of bed by the neck & we cou’d perceive her neck was strain’d as if pulled by somthing, but cou’d not see any thing. Polly had also like to be strangled 6 or 7 times & appea.. black in ye face each time when lifted her up in the bed as quick as possible & then it went off. This morng about 10 o’clock the family had missed Doppey ... an hour & was under great consternation concerng her havg searched every place as cou’d be thought of. At last Mr Giles turned up stairs & looking under a bed in an inward room i.e. the seco.. room from the stair case He said the poor child ... ... the bed but cou.. cry havg its mouth cover.. said afterwards by an ha.. in a short time after he took her... cryed vehemently & said that a...was standg by the kitchen ... a hand cover’d her mou.. another hand took her rou.. neck & lug’d her up stairs & ... don’t remember seting one ... on ye stairs, nor does she .. whether any person was ... ye kitchen fire when she ... convey’d away. This same ... was quite pulled out of b.. a few nights ago. I had almost forgot to ment.. that this eveng I heard in the ... a scratching several times ... as if done with iron claws ... upon striking once or twice with my foot against the Bed ste.. [ju]st as many times wou’d the scratching echo & I am quite convinced it cou’d not be done by the children Sunday, [Janua]ry 3, [1762] Rose abt 7 went to the Lamb Heard Polley Giles has had a convuls..2 ... tonight. Called on Mother Davis – in foreno went to St Nichs & ... sacrat & had a comfortable opportunity.3 Afterwds went to St Werbghs4 ... ..all’d on Rachell at Mr Davis’s from ..nce to Bror Jnos & then to Mr Eaton ... went with him to Quakers meetg5 & spent near 2 hours there very ..greeably where I heard one Mr Thos Whitehead6 a truly good man! Who delivered the truth wth clearness & energy. Monday, Jan[ua]ry 4, 1762 Rose abt 7 - p 9 up in To[wn]7 staid at off: &c ‘till 2. After dinner went with Mr Ames to Mr ... but the latter was from home. At 5 home. Retd to off: & p 7 we.. up to Mr Eatons & made enquir.. 1 Dorothy Giles*, known as Dobby to Durbin and Doppey to Dyer. 2 Durbin’s account (p. 13) describes the girl’s fit in some detail, but argues that ‘it was no convulsion’ in a medical sense. See 5/1 for Dyer’s views on this. 3 Comfortable means strengthening or inspiring; in particular the 1547-8 order of communion refers to the ‘most comfortable sacrament’ and after the absolution there are scriptural sayings known as the ‘comfortable words’. 4 In Corn Street, rebuilt in 1759-61 and reopened in February 1761. 5 Quakers Friars meeting house in Rosemary Street had been new built in 1747-9. 6 Thomas Whitehead (c. 1719-98) was a Quaker preacher, who was an insurance broker for many years (in 1763 he married Mrs Short, who kept the Exchange Coffeehouse and in 1775 Whitehead and Bailey insurance brokers were at 44 Corn Street, while he lived at 44 St Michael’s Hill), but he also operated as a banker, being a partner with Ames*, Deane* and others in the Small Street bank. He subscribed (as a ‘banker’) to Lovett’s* Philosophical Essays in 1766. 7 This refers to the main part of Bristol, across the Bridge from the Redcliffe/Temple area where Dyer lived. concerng ye affair at the Lam.. wch appears rather worse tha.. better. This morng while in bed one of the children dec.. she saw a Hand & part of the body of a person who (I thin..) draw’d the curtain. [Added in smaller hand] There was a womn who ... with ye children last night also declares she ... This day Bro:r and Sister Hop[kins]1 dined with us & staid the ev.. This visit being to comme[mo]rate wedding day, which 10 years yesterday to them & 11 yesterday to me & my wife.2 [Tuesday, January 5, 1762]3 ..had but just done when suddenly her head was jerked forward & struck her mouth against the cup. She was then desired to come & sit in a chair just by me and I held her elbow with one hand & her head with t’other when she drank without interruption but whenever she attempted to drink without so doing either her elbow or head was jerked. After breakfast she sat in the window again (about 6 inches from her right side being the window shutter) soon after which her head was with a sudden jerk struck against the said window shutter. & this (I think) was repeated twice. Her sister Doppey or Dorothy was then placed between the window shutter & herself when of a sudden she was jerked against her sister & that with some violence & it appeared to her as if a hand had suddenly taken hold of the oposite arm just above the elbow & performed this sudden jerk.