Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dzt6s Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T03:35:07.917Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Cunning-Folk in England and Wales during the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 October 2008

Owen Davies
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

In a recent article Willem de Blécourt highlighted how little we really know about cunning-folk in the context of European witchcraft, and stressed the need for further substantial research. The study of English cunning-folk in the early modern period has been well served by the work of Keith Thomas and Alan Macfarlane, but their respective chapters are, nevertheless, tantalising rather than conclusive. Although in the last twenty-five years early-modern historians have continued to take a strong interest in the witch-trials, and the social dynamics of witch-accusations, cunning-folk have, by and large, been neglected. De Blécourt also remarked upon the paucity of relevant research on cunning-folk in the period after the trials. This observation is particularly applicable to British historiography, and it is the purpose of this present paper to begin to redress this imbalance. Most work on cunning-folk has tended to concentrate on what they did, rather than on who they were.

Type
Research Article
Information
Rural History , Volume 8 , Issue 1 , April 1997 , pp. 91 - 107
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1997

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1. Blécourt, Willem de, ‘Witch doctors, soothsayers and priests. On cunning folk in European historiography and tradition’, Social History 19 (1994), 285–303.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

2. Thomas, Keith, Religion and the Decline of Magic (London, 1971), pp. 252–301;Google ScholarMacfarlane, Alan, Witchcraft in Tudor and Stuart England (London, 1970), pp. 115–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

3. One significant exception being Nagy, Doreen G., Popular Medicine in Seventeenth-Century England (Ohio, 1988).Google Scholar

4. The Spectator, 9 October, 1712.

5. Dove, John, A vindication of the Hebrew scriptures; with animadversions on the mark set on Cain, the giantship, wizardry, and witchcraft, mentioned in the Pentateuch and the Prophets … (London, 1771), p. 50.Google Scholar

6. Southey, Robert, Letters from England (London, 1807), p. 295.Google Scholar

7. Smith, Kathryn C., ‘The Wise Man and His Community’, Folk Life 15 (1977), 24–35; 27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

8. Norway, Arthur H., Highways and Byways in Devon and Cornwall (London, 1911), p. 45.Google Scholar

9. Thomas, , Religion, p. 295;Google ScholarMacfarlane, , Witchcraft, p. 127.Google Scholar

10. Smith, , ‘The Wise Man’, 32.Google Scholar

11. Lincolnshire Notes and Queries 1 (1889), p. 131.Google Scholar

12. Barry, Reay, ‘The context and meaning of popular literacy: some evidence from nineteenth-century rural England’, Past and Present 131 (1991), 89–129; table 1.Google Scholar

13. For example, the Reverend William Barnes dabbled in astrology; Baxter, Lucy, The Life of William Barnes (London, 1887), p. 125.Google Scholar

14. See Luxton, Brian C., ‘William Jenkin, the Wizard of Cadoxton-juxta-Barry’, Morgannwg 24 (1980), 31–59; 35.Google Scholar

15. Aubrey, John, Brief Lives, ed. Clark, A. (Oxford, 1898), vol. 2, p. 109.Google Scholar For a discussion of the magical reputations of clergymen in the nineteenth century see Davies, Owen, ‘Methodism, the Clergy, and the Popular Belief in Witchcraft and Magic’, History, forthcoming.Google Scholar

16. His miscellany book of medicine, magic, and astrology, compiled between 1733 and 1745, is held in the College Library in Bangor, MS 3212 ff 181, 191; Jones, Glyn Penrhyn, ‘Folk Medicine in Eighteenth-Century Wales’, Folk Life 1 (1969), 60–75; 64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

17. Dawson, W. Harbutt, History of Skipton (London, 1882), pp. 390–94.Google Scholar In 1826 the Cornish clergyman, the Reverend Polwhele, noted that there had been ‘cunning' clerks within his memory; Polwhele, R., Traditions and Recollections (London, 1826), vol. 2, p. 605.Google Scholar

18. Cited in Obelkevitch, James, Religion and Rural Society: South Lindsey, 1825–75 (Oxford, 1976), p. 290.Google Scholar

19. Chanter, J. F., ‘Parson Joe and his Book’, Devon and Cornwall Notes and Queries 8 (1914–15), 87–8.Google Scholar

20. William, Hone (ed.), Table Book, vol. 2 (1831), p. 781.Google Scholar

21. Somerset County Herald, 3 July, 1926.Google Scholar

22. Wheater, William, ‘Yorkshire Superstitions’, Old Yorkshire 4 (1883), 265–72; 271.Google Scholar

23. ‘Anecdotes of English Rural Life. By an English Clergyman’, Chambers's Journal, 25 September, 1880, 616–20; 618.Google Scholar

24. MrsGutch, , County Folklore: East Riding of Yorkshire (London, 1912), p. 65;Google ScholarNicholson, John, Folk Lore of East Yorkshire (Driffield, 1890), pp. 92–3.Google Scholar

25. Hamer, Edward, ‘A Parochial Account of Llangurig’, Montgomeryshire Collections 3 (1870), 270.Google Scholar

26. Devon Record Office, D7/1311/4. The properties were 6 Melbourne Place, 15 Centre Street, and 3 Collaton Grove.

27. The Life and Mysterious Transactions of Richard Morris, Esq. Better known by the name of Dick Spot, the conjuror, particularly in Derbyshire and Shropshire, Written by an Old Acquaintance (London, 1799), p. 45;Google ScholarSomerset County Herald, 15 May, 1858;Google ScholarPearson, Alexander, Annals of Kirby Lonsdale (Kendal, 1930), p. 85;Google ScholarWestern Morning News, 11 May, 1903.Google Scholar

28. The following account is based on: Mee, Arthur, Magic in Carmarthenshire. The Harrieses of Civrt-y-cadno (privately printed tract, 1912);Google ScholarCymru Fu, 10 March, 1888, pp. 117–8;Google Scholar‘Penardd, ’ [Davies, J. H.], Rhai o hen Ddewiniaid Cymru (privately printed, 1901);Google ScholarIsaac, Evan, Coelion Cymru (Aberystwyth, 1938), pp. 136–7;Google ScholarNational Library of Wales, MS. 6791 B, pp. 23–7.Google Scholar For some of the many stories surrounding John and Henry Harries see Davies, Jonathan Caredig, Folk-Lore of West and Mid-Wales (Aberystwyth, 1911), pp. 230–64;Google ScholarTrevelyan, Marie, Folk-Lore and Folk-Stories of Wales (London, 1909), pp. 214–18;Google ScholarLewes, Mary L., Stranger than Fiction (London, 1911), pp. 196–8.Google Scholar

29. I suspect that at this period Raphael was the occultist Frederick Hockley. For the background to this letter and Raphael see Davies, Owen, ‘The Decline in the Popular Belief in Witchcraft and Magic’, unpublished PhD thesis, Lancaster University, 1995, pp. 321–33.Google ScholarThe Prophetic Messenger was an almanac published from 1827 to 1858; see Howe, Ellic, Urania's Children (London, 1967), pp. 31–3.Google Scholar

30. Carmarthen Journal, 23 April, 1886.Google Scholar

31. For examples of some of the horoscopes drawn up by John Harries see National Library of Wales, MS. 11716c.

32. Life and Mysterious Transactions.

33. Wheater, , ‘Yorkshire Superstitions’, 271.Google Scholar

34. Dawson, , Skipton, p. 393.Google Scholar

35. Atkinson, J. C., Forty Years in a Moorland Parish (London, 1923; first published 1891), pp. 114, 124;Google ScholarBrockie, William, Legends and Superstitions of Durham (Sunderland, 1886), pp. 25–7;Google ScholarHenderson, William, Folklore of the Northern Counties (London, 1866), pp. 218–19.Google Scholar

36. Hamer, , ‘Llangurig’, 267–70;Google ScholarHamer, Edward and Lloyd, H. W., History of the Parish of Llangurig (London, 1895), p. 114;Google ScholarIsaac, , Coelion Cymru, p. 138.Google Scholar For folk stories relating to Savage and Morgan see also Davies, , Folk-Lore of West and Mid-Wales, pp. 235, 264.Google Scholar

37. Western Morning News, 17 June, 1876;Google ScholarTransactionsof the Devonshire Association 26 (1894), 83.Google Scholar

38. Harland, J. and Wilkinson, T. T., Lancashire Folklore (London, 1882), pp. 123–4;Google ScholarGutch, , East Riding, p. 68;Google ScholarDavies, J. H. (ed.), The Life and Opinions of Robert Roberts (Cardiff, 1923), p. 51.Google Scholar

39. For further discussion of the libraries of cunning-folk see Davies, , ‘The Decline’, 189–94.Google Scholar

40. Wilson, G. H., Wonderful Characters: comprising Memoirs and Anecdotes of the most Remarkable Persons, of every age and nation (London, 1842), pp. 9–10.Google Scholar

41. Atkinson, , Forty Years, p. 115.Google Scholar

42. Western Daily Mercury 28 January, 1875.Google Scholar

43. Fairfax-Blakeborough, J., Yorkshire East Riding (London, 1951), p. 162.Google Scholar

44. March, Henry Colley, ‘Dorset Folklore’, Folklore 11 (1900), 108.Google Scholar

45. Maple, Eric, ‘Cunning Murrell: A Study of a Nineteenth-Century Cunning Man in Hadleigh, Essex’, Folklore 71 (1960): 37–43; 42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

46. Taunton Courier, 31 December, 1890.Google Scholar

47. Davies, , Robert Roberts, p. 51.Google Scholar

48. Luxton, , ‘William Jenkin’, 36.Google Scholar

49. Hamer, Edward, ‘A Parochial Account of Llanidloes’, Montgomeryshire Collections 10 (1877), 254.Google Scholar

50. From a manuscript book of memoirs by the Brooks, Reverend James; cited in the Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Society 54 (1939), 20.Google Scholar

51. Ibid, 19–20.

52. Robertson, William, Rochdale and the Vale of Whitworth (Rochdale, 1897), pp. 392–4.Google Scholar

53. Carmarthen Journal, 23 April, 1886.Google Scholar

54. Transactions of the Devonshire Association 11 (1879), 105.Google Scholar

55. Atkinson, , Forty Years, p. 114.Google Scholar

56. Ibid, p. 114.

57. Carmarthen Journal, 23 April, 1886.Google Scholar

58. Somerset County Herald, 4 September, 1858.Google Scholar

59. Smith, , ‘The Wise Man’, 29.Google Scholar

60. Folklore Record 5 (1882), 174.Google Scholar

61. Transactions of the Devonshire Association 57 (1925), 115.Google Scholar

62. Hamer, , ‘Llangurig’, 269.Google Scholar

63. Montague, Frederick, Gleamings in Craven (London, 1838), pp. 8–9.Google Scholar

64. Taunton Courier, 3 December, 1890.Google Scholar

65. The Times, 27 October, 1866.Google Scholar

66. Baring-Gould, Sabine, Devonshire Characters and Strange Events (London, 1908), p. 81.Google Scholar

67. The Times, 24 April, 1851.Google Scholar

68. Somerset County Gazette, 9 July, 1881.Google Scholar

69. Transactions of the Devonshire Association 26 (1894), 82–3.Google Scholar

70. Howse, W. H., Radnorshire (Hereford, 1949), p. 197.Google Scholar

71. March, , ‘Dorset Folklore’, 112.Google Scholar

72. Fletcher, J. S., Recollections of a Yorkshire Village (London, 1910), pp. 102–3.Google Scholar

73. Paynter, William H., ‘Tales of Cornish Witches’, Old Cornwall 9 (1929), 28–33; 33.Google Scholar

74. Rawlence, E. A., ‘Folk-Lore and Superstitions still obtaining in Dorset’, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Antiquarian Field Club 35 (1914), 86.Google Scholar

75. Hamer, , ‘Llanidloes’, 254; and ‘Llangurig’, 268.Google Scholar

76. Burne, Charlotte, Shropshire Folk-Lore (London, 1883), p. 172.Google Scholar

77. Bogg, Edmund, Lower Wharfeland (York, 1904), p. 401;Google ScholarHamer, , ‘Llangurig’, 268.Google Scholar

78. Davies, T. A., ‘Folklore of Gwent’, Folklore 48 (1937), 41–59; 45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar See also the trick played on Edward Savage by a group of young men; Hamer, , ‘Llangurig’, 267–9.Google Scholar

79. Life and Mysterious Transactions, pp. 30–31.Google Scholar See also the tale of two men who tried to fool John Wrightson; Atkinson, , Forty Years, pp. 117–19.Google Scholar

80. Macfarlane, , Witchcraft, p. 121.Google Scholar

81. The Times 27 April, 1857.Google Scholar

82. Hawkins, Thomas, The Iniquity of Witchcraft, censured and exposed: Being the substance of two sermons delivered at Warley, Near Halifax, Yorkshire (Halifax, 1808).Google Scholar

83. Ibid, p. iii.

84. Ibid, pp. 17, 20.

85. Baring-Gould, , Devonshire Characters, p. 83.Google Scholar