Being Bewitched : : A True Tale of Madness, Witchcraft, and Property Development Gone Wrong / / Kirsten C. Uszkalo.

• VerfasserIn: Uszkalo, Kirsten C.,
• Place / Publishing House: University Park, PA : : Penn State University Press, , [2021]; ©2017
• Year of Publication: 2021
• Language: English
• Series: Early Modern Studies ; 20
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (256 p.)

In 1622, thirteen-year-old Elizabeth Jennings fell strangely ill. After doctors' treatments proved useless, her family began to suspect the child had been bewitched, a suspicion that was confirmed when Elizabeth accused their neighbor Margaret Russell of witchcraft. In the events that followed, witchcraft hysteria intertwines with family rivalries, property disputes, and a web of supernatural beliefs. Starting from a manuscript account of the bewitchment, Kirsten Uszkalo sets the story of Elizabeth Jennings against both the specific circumstances of the powerful Jennings family and the broader history of witchcraft in early modern England. Fitting together the intricate pieces of this complex puzzle, Uszkalo reveals a story that encompasses the iron grip of superstition, the struggle among professionalizing medical specialties, and London's lawless and unstoppable sprawl. In the picture that emerges, we see the young Elizabeth, pinned like a live butterfly at the dark center of a web of greed and corruption, sickness and lunacy.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Illustrations -- Principal Dramatis Personæ -- Genealogical Charts -- Maps -- Chronology -- Introduction: "My mother sawe her in the kitchin" -- Chapter 1: The Background: Landed Power, Lunacy, and Libraries -- Chapter 2: Blood Evidence: Sickness in the Blood -- Chapter 3: Comparables: Familial Witchcraft -- Chapter 4: Models and Accusations for Being Bewitched -- Chapter 5: Tensions: Prohibitions and Projects -- Chapter 6: Tensions: Magics and Medicines -- Chapter 7: The New Suspect: The Apothecary -- Chapter 8: Witnesses and Persons of Interest, Bedside & Barside -- Chapter 9: Wrap Up: The Final Expert Assessment -- Chapter 10: Post-Bewitchment: Elizabeth Jenyns of St. Mary le Savoy -- Conclusion: "They had power over all them" -- Appendix 1: "Of Elizabeth Jennings being bewitched," 1622 -- Appendix 2: Indictments, 27 October 1616 and 3 December 1616 -- Appendix 3: Napier on Elizabeth Jennings, 1622 -- Appendix 4: Napier on Bulbeck, Arpe, and Latch, 1623 -- Appendix 5: John Latch's Signature, 1620, 1622 -- Bibliography -- Index -- About the Author