General

Jemmy Allen, noted piper of Northumberland, was born in 1734 at Woodhouses, Rothbury, Northumberland. He was one of six children of a traveller family.

As he was a bright lad; a local squire sent him to school so that he would end up in a more “respectable occupation”, unlike his father. Despite everyone’s attempts to get him to better himself, he resisted. His father, Will Allen, as well as being a skilled vermin hunter was a notable musician in his own right on the Northumbrian small pipes. He taught young Jemmy the arts of his music.

‘Music hath charms to soothe the savage breast’.

Later on in his youth, he saw a performance by The Northern Militia Band at Alnwick, Northumberland and this led him to join up. This occupation turned out to be even worse than his experience with school and he soon deserted. He was arrested at Stagshaw Bank Fair, but escaped. He deserted several more times.

He travelled far and wide over the North, skilfully playing his pipes but also indulging in various criminal activities along the way. In 1769 he was appointed as a musician at Alnwick but he misbehaved and was sacked. He reverted back to his old ways of felony, breaking jail, drinking and horse stealing. 

He never learned his lesson and appeared in court several times. Ultimately, this put to a stop to his lawless life. In 1803 he had been drinking and stole a horse and rode “o’er the border and awa.’” He was captured and the court found him guilty, sentencing him to death. The death sentence was then changed to transportation, but because of his age (69) and his infirmities, this was commuted to incarceration for life. He died in jail aged 77 on 13^th November 1810.

It was a sign of his popularity that a petition was made to free Jemmy; the Prince Regent was first to sign it. However, his death came before the letter granting him pardon arrived. 

Folklore tales, true and untrue were fondly told of the adventures of Jemmy Allen’s vagabond life as a roving musician, both before, and after, his life ended.

The Monthly Chronicle, of North – Country Lore and Legend, Jubilee Edition. Volume 1, 1887

In 1542, during the reign of Henry VIII, the Witchcraft Act was introduced.  Witchcraft was defined as a felony to be tried through the courts with a maximum penalty of hanging.  Elizabeth I further strengthened this in 1563. A first time offender would be imprisoned for a year and placed into a pillory [sort of stock with holes for hands and feet] four times, a second offence would result in death by hanging unless the person was convicted of murder by witchcraft in the first instance.  In 1604 James IV of Scotland and James I of England strengthened English law to make death by hanging compulsory for those injured. King James was very interested in witchcraft, having written an earlier book entitled ‘Daemonologie’ and personally attending trials. Although, he did not take the opportunity to mirror the punishment carried out in Scotland of burning at the stake.  

In 1904 Balfour published “County Folklore Vol IV Northumberland” bringing together numerous sources to record different folklore stories across the county (other volumes were completed for other English counties).   Below are some of the stories told…

Acklington had a reputation for dealings in the magic arts including ‘invulation’ “by which the life, death or suffering of an enemy was attempted by means of a figure in which pins were struck” or was roasted on a fire.  Brinkburne Abbey was recorded as having its own witch living in a nearby cottage; she had an ‘evil eye’ and local villagers were afraid of her cat. The witch that lived in Hawkwell transformed herself into a hare.

A number of individuals, mostly women, are cited as being accused of being  witches; with the accounts often being heard by the then Mayor of Newcastle.   In 1659-60 Elisabeth Simpson of Tynmouth was refused a pot of beer by Frances Mason.  Elisabeth threatened Frances who became lame within days, taking to her bed claiming Elisabeth ‘did pinch her heart’.  In 1661, when Elizabeth Richardson of Blaydon took ill , Jane Watson was called. The pain disappeared, “but imediately after the paine left her, and a dogg which as in said house presently dyed”.  

Isabell Fletcher was at the Stanners near Morpeth one night and she saw a “white thing comeing through the water like a woman”.  The vision asked Isabell if she recognised her and she confirmed it was Margaret Milbourne of Bedlington “whome she was very well acquainted with, she being servant lately to…” her son William.  Isabell refused the visions instruction to visit ‘thy dame’, and was told “it would be worse for her”. When the vision came forward again, it caused Isabell to faint and be in a “distracted condition all the night”.

The case against Jane Simpson and Isabell Atcheson was heard in July 1664.  Jane had given some ‘threatening words’ towards Dorothy Hearon after selling her some cherries.  Within days Dorothy had taken ill to her bed where she suffered “sad and lamentable fitts to the admiration and astonishment of all spectators, being sometimes rageing madd, other tymes laughing and singing, other tymes dispareing and disconsolate, other tymes very solitary and mute”.  A couple of days later in her bed, crying, Dorothy said that it was Jane and Isabell that tormented her and were about to carry her away. She asked her husband Anthony Hearon, a baker and brewer, if he could see the ladies beside the bed. After moving the curtain he said that “he did clearly see Isable Atcheson standing att the bedd side, in her owne shape”, she vanished when he called for the Lord.  A footnote to this story is noted “The sick person draws blood from the suspected witch and recovers”.

How did these accusations come about?  In 1649-50 two sergeants, Thomas Stevel and Cuthbert Nicholson, from Newcastle magistrates were sent to Scotland to collect an unnamed witch-finder who could “find out witches by pricking them with pins”.  When he arrived in Newcastle a bellman was sent around the town asking anyone with a complaint against a woman for being a witch should come forward so that the women could be sent for trial with the witch-finder.

Belief in and accusations of witchcraft were commonplace in England, and indeed Europe, during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.  Many of the denunciations and evidence given nowadays appear somewhat nonsensical and in many cases can be explained away by advancement in modern medicine or science.  However, in a society so grounded in religious belief, where the greatest fear was the Devil himself, it is a little easier to understand why allegations could have arisen out of situations that just could not be explained in any other way at the time.

Numerous individuals in Northumberland were accused of being witches, the evidence which seems flimsy by today’s standards, included night time visions or the use of threatening words.  The majority, but not all, of those who fell under suspicion were female. In “County Folklore Vol IV Northumberland” by M.C. Balfour the tale of Peter Banks is told. Although sadly we do not know exactly where Banks or his accusers were from, his story was heard by Robert Roddam, Mayor of Newcastle in 1673/4.

Peter Banks was described as “a most strange seducer and inticer of the king’s subjects and people, and deludes them in a wonderfull manner, perswadeing and makeing them beleive that he cann tell leases [charms] to people” (p.34); he was said to have confessed to the use of enchantments, magic arts and conjuring evil spirits.

Jane Crossby bought a charm for ten shillings and two new shirts compelling her husband to be pleasant to her for a year.  During this time the husband was said to be ‘loveing and kind’, however when she did not renew the charm at the end of the year her husband’s behaviour became ‘ill and untoward againe’.

Ellinor Pattison was terrified by night visions and apparitions after a disagreement with Banks.  He knew that she was bewitched and offered to cure her. She permitted him to cut out a small piece of her hair which was wrapped in paper and burned.  After this she ‘grew better’.

Sadly Balfour does not tell us the outcome for Peter Banks, this may be lost to history, but it offers a fantastic insight into the accusations made against this particular male witch.