ABSTRACT
This is the only witchcraft pamphlet of the period which is by an author whose other works are well known. Henry Goodcole (1586-1641) was a writer of pamphlets on crime, based on his access to prisoners in Newgate gaol where he acted as chaplain. Like Margaret Harkett (The severall factes of Witch-crafte, 1585) Elizabeth Sawyer was sent for trial at the Old Bailey because she was a suspected felon from Middlesex, and so she was imprisoned in Newgate awaiting execution when Goodcole spoke to her. He visited the condemned daily, as he reports in most of his pamphlets, and heard their stories as part of an attempt to ensure repentance. The resultant texts were published with approval ‘by authority’ – although it is not known precisely who sanctioned them. This quarto was entered in the Stationers’ Register to bookseller William Butler on 27 April 1621 and printed by Augustine Matthewes. The text used here is in the British Library.
