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Darrel, A Detection of that sinnful ... discours of Samuel Harshnet, 40. And see above, p. 56, note. Harsnett, Discovery, 8. Ibid., 320-322; Darrel, An Apologie, or defence, L III, says that the third jury acquitted her. Harsnett refers to the fact that he was found guilty by the grand inquest. The Triall of Maist. Dorrel, preface "To the Reader." Harsnett, Discovery, 9. Ibid., 78-98.
In fine, a verdict was rendered against the two clergymen. They were deposed from the ministry and put in close prison. So great was the stir they had caused that in 1599 Samuel Harsnett, chaplain to the Bishop of London, published A Discovery of the Fraudulent Practises of John Darrel, a careful résumé of the entire case, with a complete exposure of Darrel's trickery.
Harsnett, Discovery, tells us that "certain Seminarie priests" got hold of her and carried her up and down the country and thereby "wonne great credit." Harsnett takes it up in his Discovery, 78-264. See deposition of Cooper, in Harsnett, Discovery, 114. Depositions of Somers and Darrel, ibid., 124-125.
The record of the contract is still kept in Queen's College, Brit. Mus. MSS., 5,849, fol. 254. For mention of the affair see Darrel, Detection of that sinnful ... discours of Samuel Harshnet, 36, 39, 110; also Harsnett, Discovery of the Fraudulent Practises, 93, 97. Several Jacobean writers refer to the case.
The strange Newes out of Sommersetshire, Anno 1584, tearmed, a dreadfull discourse of the dispossessing of one Margaret Cooper at Ditchet, from a devill in the likenes of a headlesse beare. Referred to by Harsnett, Discovery of the Fraudulent Practises of John Darrel, 17. A ballad seems to have been written about the Somers case. Extracts from it are given by Harsnett, ibid., 34, 120.
And six years later Samuel Harsnett, chaplain to the Bishop of London and a man already influential, called the account of the affair "a very ridiculous booke" and evidently believed the children guilty of the same pretences as William Somers, whose confessions of imposture he was relating.
Darrel was a Puritan and had nothing to do with the Catholic performances. It is quite possible to suppose, however, that its course would have been run in much the same way at a later time. For Darrel's story see The Triall of Maist. Dorrel, or A Collection of Defences against Allegations ... , 15-21. See Harsnett, Discovery, 310. Katherine Wright's evil spirit returned later.
"I have seene her begging at our doore," he declared, "as for her name I know it not." Harsnett, Discovery, 41, 265, deals briefly with the Darling case and Alse Gooderidge. See also John Darrel, A Detection of that sinnful, shamful, lying, and ridiculous discours of Samuel Harshnet , 38-40. But the fullest account is a pamphlet at the Lambeth Palace library.
Written by John Dorrel, a faithful Minister of the Gospell, but published without his knowledge.... 1599. A Discovery of the Fraudulent Practises of John Darrel, Bacheler of Artes ..., London, 1599. The "Epistle to the Reader" is signed "S. H.," i. e., Samuel Harsnett, then chaplain to the Bishop of London.
Starchie, when told of their prayers, conveyed all her property to her husband. She had two children afterwards, the two that were stricken. It is possible that all this may present some key to the case, but it is hard to see just how. See More, A true Discourse, 11-12. George More, A true Discourse, 15; Harsnett, Discovery, 22.
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