Mary Bateman

Disclaimer

This is NOT a page about Wiccans or neo-pagans, and I do not advocate the belief that Wiccans are Satan-worshippers and/or baby-killers. I am well aware that they are not. This is a starting point for historical research into the great witch craze of 1100-1700 AD. And please, don't ask me for spells.

Mary Bateman

The following is a published paper in Family Tree Maker Magazine. The author is Roy Stockdill, and the title of the article is "A Yorkshire Witch, A Murder Victim, and My One-Name Study." I obtained it from Best Witches.

We all know, don't we, those magic moments in genealogy when a bizarre coincidence strikes one like a bolt from the blue? Recently, I experienced one such incident and even a tired old cynic like yours truly was so enthralled he simply has to share it with you.

Readers of my Personal Opinion column in The magazine (FTM) may recall that in the March issue I bemoaned the fact that I had no illustrious ancestors of whom I could boast, nor had I any infamous ones, either. I have often secretly wished for the odd forebear who was hanged as a highwayman - even for something as mundane as horse stealing would do. Still, thus far, no luck.

However, since I wrote that piece, I am pleased to be able to report that through a chance discovery, there is every indication that I may at least have been able to add someone who was a murder victim to my one-name study! And how it came about is a somewhat curious tale in itself..."

The Lancashire witch trials of 1612 - The Witches of Pendle - attracted historical legend, but a lesser known case illustrating that belief in the powers of witchcraft continued for almost 200 years afterwards was that of Mary Bateman, known as the Yorkshire Witch. A farmer's daughter, she was born Mary Harker in the little village of Topcliffe near Thirsk, North Yorkshire, in 1768 and went into service in Thirsk when she was 13. Mary was dishonest and was dismissed for petty pilfering. She found other jobs but never held them for long. Mary was what today we should call a compulsive liar, thief, fraudster and confidence trickster. She was also, by all accounts, a consummate actress and deceived many of her victims by instilling in them a belief that she had supernatural powers.

In 1788, aged about 20, she turned up in Leeds where she worked as a dressmaker and also told fortunes. She married a wheelwright, John Bateman, but the poor fellow soon came to regret it when he discovered his wife's criminal tendencies. John, too, apparently came from Thirsk and on one occasion Mary persuaded her husband that his father was seriously ill. He rushed off hurriedly to Thirsk, only to discover he had been hoaxed. While he was away, his wife sold his clothes and all their furniture in order to repay a victim who was threatening to go to the authorities.

Mary Bateman envied the women for whom she made fine clothes and wanted to be like them, so she resorted to theft and fraud on an impressive scale. One story told how after a disastrous fire in Leeds, Mary Bateman roamed the streets supposedly begging for money, sheets and blankets for the victims - but they all ended up in her own home.

Mary began increasingly to turn to fortune-telling as her main source of income and invented a mythical person called "Mrs. Moore" who was supposed to be able to solve all problems. According to Mary Bateman, "Mrs. Moore" had supernatural skills as the seventh child of a seventh child. Mary picked as her first victim a Mrs. Greenwood, who was frightened into believing that her husband had been put in jail and only "Mrs. Moore" could secure his release. Mrs. Greenwood handed over money to Bateman and when her husband returned home, supposedly from jail, the naive Mrs Greenwood was delighted and believed her money well spent. Too late, she discovered he had never been in jail at all.

A second victim, a Mrs. Stead, was tricked into believing her husband, a solder (sic), was contemplating an illicit affair. Through the non-existent "Mrs. Moore", Mrs. Stead was instructed to place pieces of coal in front of her alleged rival's door and set fire to them, thus supposedly consuming her husband's illicit passion. Again, a tidy sum of money was handed over to Mary Bateman. The wicked fortune-teller went on inventing preposterous stories of terrible things that were going to happen to Mrs. Stead unless money for the intervention of "Mrs. Moore" was paid over. In the end, the unfortunate soldier's wife handed everything she owned to Mary Bateman to avert these supposed disasters, finally being reduced to complete penury and attempting suicide by drowning herself.

By now, Bateman had become well known throughout Leeds as a fortune-teller, warder-off of evil spirits, and a miraculous healer, though some called her a witch. Her most infamous deception concerned a hen that supposedly laid eggs bearing the words, "Christ is coming!" Mary kept producing the eggs with the amazing slogan on them from beneath the hen and charged the curious a penny each to view them. She made a lot of money with this trick.

There were other incidents of a seriously criminal nature before Mary Bateman's activities became more sinister. Two Quaker sisters called Kitchen and their mother died mysteriously after taking medicines prescribed by her. Bateman invented another helper, a "Miss Blythe." It was "Miss Blythe" who persuaded a family called Snowdon that they must hand over to Mary Bateman a silver watch and 12 guineas in order to prevent their daughter from being drowned.

By remarkable luck and cunning, Mary Bateman managed to keep out of the grasp of the authorities. But the case was eventually to bring her to the gallows involved a Mr. and Mrs. Perigo of Bramley, Leeds. When Rebecca Perigo complained of chest pains, Mary Bateman asked her husband for one of his wife's undergarments to send to "Miss Blythe". Then Mary went to the Perigos' home and told them she would sew four money notes into their bed and they were to give her four golden guineas for "Miss Blythe" to replace them and that other instructions would follow. Letters from "Miss Blythe" duly arrived, saying the couple was to fasten horseshoes over their door and demanding more money in return for Mrs. Perigo being restored to full health.

Sums of money and other gifts were handed over by the credulous pair for "Miss Blythe", who of course they never met. Then they received letters informing them that they were to eat puddings - to which poisonous powder had been added by Bateman - otherwise they would die of a terrible disease. Mr. Perigo could not stomach more than a spoonful of the foul mixture but his wife ate it all, dying in agony in May 1806. The hapless Mr. Perigo was still being fleeced by Bateman two years later, until he eventually decided to retrieve the paper notes sewn into their bed and discovered that they were worthless pieces of paper. Finally realizing he had been duped, he arranged a meeting with Mary Bateman at which she was arrested by two justice officers.

Her trial for fraud and the murder took place at York in March 1809. Bateman strongly pleaded her innocence but the evidence was overwhelming. Poison was found in her home, as well as many possessions of the Perigos' and the Kitchins. It didn't take the jury long to find Mary Bateman guilty of murder. To the end, she tried to weave her spells and tricks. She attempted to avoid her fate by claiming she was pregnant and it was not legal for a pregnant woman to be hanged. However, again she was found to be lying on a medical examination. Even in the death cell she defrauded a fellow prisoner, a young woman, out of money. On March 20, 1809, Mary Bateman, the Yorkshire witch, was led to her execution in front of a large crowd. Some of the spectators still believed her to have supernatural powers and that she would somehow escape the noose. But it was not to be. None of her spells or imaginary "friends" was able to help her and she died on the gallows, still protesting her innocence.

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The article "Mary Bateman" is copyrighted to Roy Stockdill. The Witching Hours is copyrighted to Shantell Powell.