ABSTRACT
Confession was a pre-trial statement made by the suspect in which he or she admitted guilt. The confession was made either to the examining Justice of the peace or to other persons. Upon which confession, the JP committed her to Northampton Goal, where she was to remain until the next assizes. For many, confession was the most elegant solution to the dilemma of proving the crime. Dalton argued that in witchcraft cases, hard-to-prove crimes, the confession of the accused in the examination, something he considered a 'half proof', ought to be admitted into evidence. Corroboration of the confession with additional evidence seems to have been the practice in English courts of the early seventeenth century. Toward the end of the seventeenth century, lawyers, physicians and churchmen alike demanded that the reports of witnesses be credible. Although the notion of credibility overshadowed the mechanical concept of the oath, the divines seemed to embrace it as well.
