It is, therefore, strictly forbidden to
all the inhabitants of this island to receive any counsel or
assistance in their adversities from any Witches or
Diviners, or anyone suspected of practicing Sorcery, under
pain of one month's imprisonment in the Castle, on bread and
water; and on their liberation they shall declare to the
Court the cause of such presumption, and according as this
shall appear reasonable, shall be dealt with as the law of
God directs.
In 1562 two women were executed in Jersey for witchcraft. One of them
named _Anne_, a native of St. Brelade's, was burnt at St. Helier's;
and the other, _Michelle La Blanche_, expiated her crime at the gibbet
of the Hurets, in the parish of St. Ouen, because criminals dwelling
on the Fief Haubert de St. Ouen, were, in accordance with custom,
required to be executed within the boundaries of the said Fief--seeing
that it possessed a gallows-right--and their goods and lands became
forfeited to the Seigneur.
In 1583 a rather curious point of law was raised in connection with a
pending witch-trial at St. Helier's.
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