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REMAINS
HISTORICAL & LITERARY
CONNECTED WITH THE PALATINE COUNTIES OF
LANCASTER AND CHESTER
PUBLISHED BY
THE CHETHAM SOCIETY.
VOL. VI.
PRINTED FOR THE CHETHAM SOCIETY.
M.DCCC.XLV.
Council.
EDWARD HOLME, Esq., M.D., President.
REV. RICHARD PARKINSON, B.D., Canon of Manchester, Vice-President.
THE HON. & VERY REV. WILLIAM HERBERT, Dean of Manchester.
GEORGE ORMEROD, Esq., D.C.L., F.R.S., F.S.A., F.G.S., Sedbury Park.
SAMUEL HIBBERT WARE, Esq., M.D., F.R.S.E., Edinburgh.
REV. THOMAS CORSER, M.A.
REV. GEORGE DUGARD, M.A.
REV. C.G. HULTON, M.A.
REV. J. PICCOPE, M.A.
REV. F.R. RAINES, M.A., F.S.A., Milnrow Parsonage, near Rochdale.
JAMES CROSSLEY, Esq.
JAMES HEYWOOD, Esq., F.R.S.
WILLIAM LANGTON, Esq., Treasurer.
WILLIAM FLEMING, Esq., M.D., Hon. Secretary.
POTTS'S
DISCOVERY OF WITCHES
In the County of Lancaster,
REPRINTED FROM THE ORIGINAL EDITION OF
1613.
WITH AN
INTRODUCTION AND NOTES,
BY
JAMES CROSSLEY, Esq.
PRINTED FOR THE CHETHAM SOCIETY.
M.DCC.XLV.
Manchester:
Printed by Charles Simms and Co.
[Transcriber's Note: This Table of Contentswas not present in the original.]
CONTENTS.
THE WONDERFVLL DISCOVERIE OF WITCHES IN THE COVNTIE OF LANCASTER.
INTRODUCTION.
Were not every chapter of the history of the human mind too preciousan inheritance to be willingly relinquished,—for appalling as itscontents may be, the value of the materials it may furnish may beinestimable,—we might otherwise be tempted to wish that the miserablerecord in which the excesses occasioned by the witch mania arenarrated, could be struck out of its pages, and for ever cancelled.Most assuredly, he, who is content to take the fine exaggeration ofthe author of Hydriotaphia as a serious and literal truth, and whobelieves with him that "man is a glorious animal," must not go to thechapter which contains that record for his evidences and proofs. If heshould be in search of materials for humiliation