The Witch's Familiar and the Fairy in Early Modern England and Scotland

Author(s): Emma Wilby

Source: Folklore , Oct., 2000, Vol. 111, No. 2 (Oct., 2000), pp. 283-305
Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. on behalf of Folklore Enterprises, Ltd.

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Folklore 111 (2000):283-305

RESEARCH ARTICLE

The Witch's Familiar and the Fairy in Early

Modern England and Scotland
Emma Wilby

Abstract
This paper is a preliminary study into the nature of popular belief in the witch's
familiar in early modem England and Scotland. It illustrates some of the
similarities to be found between beliefs in the witch's familiar and contemporary
fairy beliefs and argues that the extent of these similarities suggests that in the
period there must have been considerable confusion between the two kinds of
spirit, particularly on a popular level. The paper then goes on to argue that fairy
beliefs provided a matrix of thought which underpinned the whole construct of
the witch's familiar in the popular mind, a construct which interacted with elite
demonological theory in a coherent and dynamic way.

Until recently, historians have tended to assume that the early modern witch's
familiar was predominantly an elite demonological concept, imposed upon
popular culture "from above." According to this hypothesis, prosecutorial
suggestion during witchcraft trials, witchcraft pamphlets, pulpit teachings and
so on served to gradually impress the idea of the witch's familiar into the
popular imagination, where it then became a vehicle for the sensationalist and
paranoid fantasies of the witch and her neighbours. There is now increasing
acknowledgement, however, that ideas about witchcraft merged in a far more
complex manner than this simplistic elite/popular abstraction allows and histo-
rians have been quicker to recognise that there was a substantial folkloric
contribution to these beliefs, noting, among other things, the particularly close
links between the fairy and the witch's familiar. [1] The folkloric dimension to
English and Scottish familiar beliefs has still not been examined in any detail,
however, and Keith Thomas's assertion that the English witch's animal familiar
is a phenomenon "largely unaccounted for" remains as true today as it was
when it was written nearly thirty years ago (Thomas 1971, 569). [2]
This paper examines some of the similarities to be found between early
modern beliefs in the witch's familiar and contemporary fairy beliefs. It will
argue that the nature and extent of these similarities prompts one to question
how far the witch's familiar and the fairy existed as separate phenomena in the
early modern mind, particularly on a popular level. The paper concludes by
suggesting that fairy beliefs played a more significant role in the creation and
promulgation of beliefs concerning the stereotypical witch's familiar than has
been hitherto acknowledged.
Generalising about English and Scottish beliefs in this context is not without
its problems, for the source material indicates considerable differences in belief
ISSN 0015-587X print; 1469-8315 online/00/020283-23; Routledge Journals; Taylor & Francis Ltd
? 2000 The Folklore Society
DOI: 10.1080/00155870020004648

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 284 Emma Wilby

between the two reg

familiar frequently
experience. In Engla
the familiar most fr
intimacy with the
differences in the ju
Scotland. However t
belief. [3] Whilst not
is to present a broad
Scottish beliefs as a whole.

Terminology
Dispute over the definition of spirits in the early modem period is an
central to this paper. Spirits were labelled differently depending on geogra
education and religious perspective, and categories of spirit overlapped cons
erably. This is vividly illustrated in some witchcraft trials, most notably t
from Scotland. The dittays from the trial of Orkney witch Elspeth Reoch in
describe how Elspeth claimed that a "blak man cam to her ... And callit him s
ane farie man quha wes sumtyme her kinsman callit Johne Stewart quh
slane be Mc Ky at the doun going of the soone." Elspeth's interrog
obviously did not find her definition of Johne Stewart (fairy man or g
sufficient, for the dittay later reads "she confest the devell quhilk she callis the f
man lay with hir" (Black and Thomas 1903, 113-4. My italics). Similarly com
seems the identity of the spirit allegedly encountered by a man tried
Aberdeen in 1598. The trial dittays record that:
Thow confessis that the Devill, thy maister, quhom thow termes Christsonday, and suppo
to be ane engell, and Goddis godsone, albeit he hes a thraw by God, and swyis to the Quen
of Elphen, is rasit be the speking of the word Benedicte (Stuart 1841, 120).

The pivotal definitions used in this paper i.e. "familiar," "devil," and "fairy
general and simplistic in such a context, however a working terminolog
needed. The term "familiar" was used in the period to both denote the witc
demonic spirit and, in a more general sense, personal helping spirits, o
defined as fairies. For the purposes of this paper, however, the term "fami
will refer only to the "witch's familiar," often termed "a devil" or "the Dev
in witchcraft trial records and elite writings and will include the famil
both human and animal form, as found in both England and Scotland.
term "a/the devil" will be employed in the strictly theological sense (
is, wholly malicious spirit identified as, or in the service of, Satan)
comprehensive term "fairy" can only be employed in a very general sense,
following Katharine Briggs (1976) specific reference will be made to f
"hobmen" (that is, a wide range of essentially solitary spirits known variou
as hobgoblins, boggarts, brownies, hobs, lobs and so on, which nonetheless
basic characteristics and can be loosely considered a type). To denot
popular magical practitioners of the period who were known to commun
with the fairies, the term "cunning man/woman" will be used, although
people could be known under a variety of other titles such as "seer," "conju

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The Witch's Familiar and the Fairy 285

"wise man/woman," and so on. The terms "cu

be predominantly used in the feminine to ref
sources used.

Sources

There are many references to familiar belief in trial records and demonological
texts. Contemporary references to fairy belief, however, are less common. The
Secret Common-Wealth of Elves, Fauns and Fairies, compiled at the end of the
seventeenth century (see Sanderson 1976), provides us with the only comprehen-
sive discussion specifically devoted to fairy belief, otherwise snippets are to be
found in a wide range of elite scholarly writings and literature. Other sources of
fairy beliefs are the records from trials for magical practices, most notably
Scottish witchcraft trials. All written sources present problems when trying to
isolate popular fairy belief, for they all, to a greater or lesser degree, reflect the
prejudices of their educated authors and must therefore be treated with caution.
It is possible to argue, however, that some confessions for witchcraft contain the
most authentic (that is, closest to first-hand) examples of popular fairy belief.
Because the prosecutors had no vested interest in a spirit being called a fairy, in
the significant minority of witches' confessions where fairies are mentioned
directly we can hazard that the references came from the witches themselves.
Many other trial records evidently contain allusions to fairies which have been
cloaked with demonological definition, however only those which contain direct
references to fairies will be used as evidence of popular fairy belief. [4]
Because early modem sources of fairy belief are scarce, occasional reference
will be made to beliefs from later sources, particularly those from the nineteenth
century, though one should bear in mind the dangers of hypothesising about
earlier belief on the basis of later.

Familiars and Fairies: The Resemblances

In the early modem period both familiars and fairies were believed to po
a range of supernatural powers which were considered capable of affe
almost any aspect of human life. Those aspects with which the familiar
primarily associated-that is, human/animal health, domestic/farming
cesses and the general securing of material prosperity-were also are
central concern to many types of fairy. Conversely, certain skills which we
primarily associated with the fairies-such as the ability to divine the fu
seek out lost goods, identify criminals and so on-were often associated with
familiar.
Although comparisons can be drawn between the familiar and many diffe
kinds of fairy, the familiar seems to bear most frequent and specific resemb
to the fairy hobman. Both types of spirit were particularly communicative
indeed "familiar" with human beings and could be found living alon
occasionally in small groups, either alongside humans in their houses or
(the domestic hobman and many English animal familiars) or in the country
(the non-domestic hobman and many familiars in the form of men).

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 286 Emma Wilby

ew WilA Fadet. enall

X n r are

iwa if

vi

/II ' rr " '? "

II

Lr--~S
_ _ . ,, . . ," _ _ . - .- Z . .... . . . . . . . . . . ,

Figure I Matthew Hopkins with Witches. "Discovery of W

of The British Library.

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The Witch's Familiar and the Fairy 287

Appearances and Names

Although some familiars conformed to a demon
dress/cloven feet/fearsome aspect and so on)
extraordinary (a tiny or giant size/shadowy/glo
and so on) in many instances both types of spir
humans or animals with slight, if any, visual an
geneity, for example, between the sober appe
tainly a fairy hobman) described by a parishion
"ane litill bodie, haiffing a scheavin berd, cled i
Pherson 1929, 130) and the Devil as described
Gray in 1597 as "in the scheap of ane agit man,
a thrummit hatt" (Stuart 1841, 127). Similarly,
King of the Fairies as described by Auldearn wi
braw man, weill favoured, and broad faced, etc.
Devil as described by Forfar witch Issobel
gentleman" (Kinloch 1848, 132) or Essex witch R
handsome young man" (Howell 1816, 4:854). The
he appeared in Scotland, was often described
and we correspondingly find an early modem t
that "A spirit, by the Country People call'd Bro
the shape of a tall Man" (Martin 1970, 334). By
seem to have been notably small ("half long," "l
also redolent of hobmen as they appear in ea
frequency, later fairy sources. Both familiars a
wholly in black, or wholly in white, or in any
many accounts the devil appears in green, a colo
with the fairies. In 1661 Scottish witch Jonet W
"The Deivill apeired vnto her, in the likne
clothes ... and went away from her in the liknes
3:601). Like many familiars, Jonet's "prettie boy
magical skill which was also associated with the
Some of the less intimate English animal
"permanent" fairy animals which were less close
hobman in animal form. The most common per
in English and Scottish sources up to the ninete
one of the forms most frequently assumed by th
are consulted a close visual fairy match can b
familiars.
Correspondences can also be drawn in rel
already seen, the terms "familiar" and "devil
the two types of spirit, this semantic intima
comments of a Scottish clergyman in 1677 wh
whom:

the vulgar call white deviles, which possibly have neither so much power nor malice as the
black ones have, which served our great grandfathers under the names of Brouny, and Robin
Goodfellow, and, to this day, make dayly service to severals in quality of familiars (Law
1818, lxxvi).

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 288 Emma Wilby

Similarly interchang
used to denote the E
obvious fairy associat
(often diminutive)
particularly in Engl
often found between
familiars shared a f
For example, the dev
group of witches in
hobman:

on Thursday Night before Whitsunday last, about the same place met Catharine Green ... and
Henry Walter, and being met they called out Robin. Upon which instantly appeared a little
Man in black Clothes to whom all made obeysance, and the Man put his hand to his Hat,
saying, How do ye? Speaking low but big (Glanvil 1681, 164-5).

Similar correspondences from the period, are (citing familiar name first and fair
equivalent in brackets): Tom Twit/Vinegar Tom/Thomas a Fearie (Thom Rei
Tom Tumbler, Tomb Thombe, Tom Tit Tot); Hob (Hob/Hobgoblin); Great o
Little Browning (Browny/Brouny); Piggin (Pigwiggen); Pluck/Puppet (Puck
Puckle); Ball/Bidd (Billy); Willet/William/Walliman (Will o' the Wisp); Tib
(Tib); Jill (Jill/Jin). [5] If names from later fairy sources are brought into the
equation, then one or more fairy equivalents can be found for the majority of
familiar names on record.

The Encounter

Although many people believed in the existence of both familiar and fairy, f
fewer considered themselves to have encountered them visually. Of this num
ber, some claimed to have "seen" such spirits just once, or occasionally, wher
others claimed to encounter them on a more regular basis, commonly develop
ing a particularly close relationship with one or more spirits. Both familiar a
fairy could be encountered either as the result of an invocation, or spontaneou
(although in England it was also not uncommon to find the animal famil
passed from one witch to another, often between family members). The init
encounter with both types of spirit was often described as spontaneous a
conformed, in fundamentals, to standard encounter narratives found in fairy
anecdotes and folktales of all periods. The individual was usually alone, eit
in the countryside or at home, and in some sort of trouble, when the sp
suddenly appeared and offered to help. In 1646 Huntingdonshire witch Jo
Winnick confessed (of his familiar) that:

on a Friday being in the barne, making hay-bottles for his horses ... there appeared unto him
a Spirit, blacke and shaggy, and having pawes like a Beare, but in bulk not fully so big as
a Coney. The Spirit asked him what he ailed to be so sorrowfull, this Examinate answered
that he had lost a purse and money, and knew not how to come by it againe. The Spirit
replied "... I will help you" (Davenport 1646, 3).

The following seventeenth-century description of a fairy encounter from th

North of England, given by a man charged with witchcraft, follows a sim

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 The Witch's Familiar and the Fairy 289

pattern (the man goes on to describe how he w

to a "Queen" who sat in great state):

one night before the day was gone, as he was going hom
and full of heavy thoughts, not knowing how to get
Children, he met a fair Woman in fine cloaths, who ask
her that it was by reason of his poverty, to which she
counsel she would help him (Webster 1677, 301).

The Offer of Help

Both familiar and fairy offered the suffering h

familiar is most notoriously associated with o
harm and revenge herself on her enemies and s
generally the first and most frequent offer
promise of help to ease the witch's material suf
the fairies. Although both familiar and fairy co
more frequently promised something rather less
particularly in Scotland, the devil offered wh
from want" which in many cases amounted to h
living. Freedom from want could also be offere
Susan Swapper (accused of witchcraft) confessed
the Fairies and had been told that if she knelt t
"a living" (Gregory 1991, 36). In many cases bot
this offer, not through the direct gift of m
making themselves and their powers or know
then used this resource to set themselves up
titioner i.e. witch or cunning woman. The most
the cunning woman was that of healing, and
individuals tried as witches, particularly in Scot
Aberdeenshire cunning man tried as a witch i
his healing skills from the fairies, the trial ditt
Elphen, promesit to the [cunning man], that
suld help and cuir all sort of seikness" (Stuar
dittays from the trial of Orkney witch Jonet R
the Devil who offered Jonet her healing abilitie
to you He sould learne yow [Jonet] to win alm
and Thomas 1903, 103).

The Contract

The familiar was notorious for the fact that it demanded something from the
witch in return for its services, the two of them negotiating terms in wh
amounted to a contract or covenant. Margaret Flower, who was tried as a witc
in Leicestershire in 1619, claimed that she promised her animal familiars
what they wanted and in return, "they covenanted to do all things whic
she commanded them" (Rosen 1991, 381). Historiographically the overt

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 290 Emma Wilby

contractual nature of
of the elements of th
the most purely eli
relationship between
modem fairy beliefs.
In both elite and pop
cultivated either non
common "ordinary" t
have been implicitly
that in England "Cou
might doe them no
common relationship
inherently different
ship became explicit
unheard voice becam
desired from the fair
that we find written r
believed themselves t
We cannot assume,
paper, that popular
done the same. Som
relationships on a po
that the fairies "wa
promesit that scho
promeis" (Pitcairn 183
in the confession rec
ship with the old ma
help him" (Webster 1
contracts, but are als
rituals described in m
popular belief. One
folk-lore" details the
and then urges the in
for your purpose and
is proved" (Briggs 19
Leicestershire witch
confession of 1619 (
section).
Later sources clearly indicate that contractual relationships with visually
encountered fairies were a part of nineteenth-century folk belief. In Scotland, for
example, the fairy "men and women of peace" were believed to habitually form
"alliances" with mortals and negotiate to work with them for a prescribed length
of time, for an agreed payment, in a manner redolent of the bargains sometimes
struck between early modern Scottish witches and the Devil (Campbell 1900,
40-1). This is also a common folktale element, the protagonist often striking a
verbal "deal" with an encountered fairy or other supernatural being which has
offered them its help.

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 The Witch's Familiar and the Fairy 291

The Demands

Whether the contract between the human and familiar/fairy was explic
implicit, both types of spirit made a variety of contractual demands in exch
for their services. Two of the most notorious of the familiar's demands, and
those most commonly assumed by historians to have had elite origins, were that
the witch promise her soul to the familiar and that she renounce her Christian
faith.
The explicit demand for the soul, though not made by every familiar,
commonly occurs in confessions. In 1612 Lancashire witch Elizabeth Southerns
confessed that she "was coming homeward from begging" when she met "a
spirit or devil in the shape of a boy, the one half of his coat black and the other
brown, who bade this examinate stay, saying to her that if she would give him
her soul, she should have anything that she would request" (Rosen 1991, 358).
It was not uncommon for the familiar to demand that the soul be handed over
after a specific number of years, or at death. Huntingdonshire witch Anne
Desborough claimed in 1646, for example, that two spirits in the form of mice
called "Tib" and "Jone" told her that "when she dyed, they must have her soule
(Davenport 1646, 12). Occasionally a witch's confession contains a spirit, defined
there as a fairy, making a demand for the soul. The most dramatic example is
to be found in the confession of Leicestershire witch Joan Willimot in 1619, Joan
claiming that:
(her master) willed her to open her mouth ... and he would blow into her a fairy which
should do her good. And that she opened her mouth, and that presently after his blowing,
there came out of her mouth a spirit which stood upon the ground in the shape and form
of a woman, which spirit did ask of her soul, which she then promised unto it ... the use
which she had of the spirit was to know how those did which she had undertaken to amend
(Rosen 1991, 377).

It is easy to assume that references to the explicit contract for the soul found in
such descriptions of fairy encounters are the result of elite intervention. There
are, however, close links to be found between the human soul and the fairies in
the early modern period, particularly in relation to beliefs surrounding human
travel with the fairies or entry into fairyland.
Transition into the fairy world was believed to occur either "in body" (during
which, to mortal eyes, the physical body either completely disappeared or was
replaced with a fairy or fairy "stock") or "in spirit." [6] In the latter case, it was
only the spiritual part of the human (which in Christian terms would be called
the soul) which went into fairyland, leaving the material body behind, an event
which generally occurred when the human was dreaming, sick, or in some kind
of trance. In 1675, for example, the Synod of Aberdeen recorded that it had
received "divers complaints and reports ... by several brethren that some under
pretence of trances or familiarities of spirits of going with these spirits com-
monly called the fairies" (McPherson 1929, 130). This spiritual as opposed to
bodily interpretation of human entry into fairyland corresponds with early
modem evidence, most frequently found in Scottish sources, connecting fairies
and the dead. Many believed that some (or all) fairies were souls of the dead,
albeit clothed in some type of astral form. After natural death human soul
might find themselves in fairyland; alternatively, living humans taken into or

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292 Emma Wilby

visiting the fairy r

resulting in the deat
In the early modem
in spirit, was believe
this fairy enthusiasm
borns, the fairy was
prompted by a vari
practical need for hu
In 1662 Isobel Gowdi
of helping the fairi
3:602-12). On a lighte
claimed that his mus
Sometimes fairies wer
in fairyland permane
seven yearly teind [t
humans often stray
encouraged human e
Scottish witch Issob
furth ... wes caryit t
stayed with the "ff
thence by "a man wit
also employ more su
even bargaining, tem
promise of material g
In 1576 Ayrshire wit
tactics, claiming tha
politely "baid hir sit
her ghost familiar Th
nor euer sche was" (
In the context of the
method the fairy e
whatever reason they
desiring and appropri
In the same context t
fairyland voluntaril
visit amounted to a
used/enjoyed by) the
human entered fair
practitioner, more co
individual most likely
contract for the soul
fairyland was sister
permanently in the
have a relationship w
likely to have been a
surmise that any pro
as that enjoyed by t
the possibility of suc

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The Witch's Familiar and the Fairy 293

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Castle.

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 294 Emma Wilby

resting place could h

the spiritual interpre
not consciously involv
to envisage how th
interrogator searchin

The Renunciation

The familiar's demand that the witch renounce her Christianity, though not
frequent as the demand for her soul, appears quite regularly in trial rec
throughout Britain. Essex witch Hellen Clark, for example, claimed in 1645 t
her familiar (in the form of a white dog called "Elimanzer") "appeared to he
her house ... and bade her deny Christ, and shee should never want" (Ho
1816, 4:839). Occasionally a trial confession, such as that of Scottish witch B
Dunlop in 1576 (Pitcairn 1833, 1:49-58), will feature a fairy, or a spirit closel
linked to the fairies, demanding a similarly overt renunciation of Christian
The strong likelihood of elite interrogatorial intervention on this point, howe
(as with the promise of the soul), means that such records are not trustwor
evidence that explicit renunciations were a traditional feature of human/fai
encounter beliefs. A conscious but implicit renunciation, however, is likely t
have been an integral part of many human/fairy negotiations.
Any spirit of pagan provenance which had escaped wholesale assimila
into the Christian pantheon was officially defined as an "evil spirit" by m
contemporary theologians. In this context, any dealings with such spirits we
theoretically a betrayal, or in other words, "renunciation" of the true faith. S
a negative equation was intensified by the fact that fairies, on their part, w
often considered hostile towards Christianity. An anecdote recorded in Scotl
at the beginning of the eighteenth century describes how a brownie w
displeased when his master read the Bible (Martin 1970, 392). Robert K
describes this fairy hostility in more detail, claiming that the fairies have:
no discernible Religion, Love, or Devotione towards God the Blessed Maker of all. Th
disappear whenever they hear his name invocked, or the name of Jesus ... nor can they act
ought at that time, after hearing of that Sacred Name (Sanderson 1976, 56).

Many early modern individuals must have been aware, to a greater or le

degree, of these mutual hostilities, and if they wished to avail themselves of f
powers they must have circumnavigated this problem in some way. Th
solutions may not have differed greatly from those used in later centuries b
people who believed in fairies. In the nineteenth century, for example, when
sea, fishermen on the Moray Firth:
would never mention such words as Church or manse or minister. Any utterance suggestiv
of the new faith would be displeasing to the ancient god of the ocean, and might bring
disaster upon the boat (McPherson 1929, 70).

By their silence the fishermen were, for the duration of their journey, maki
superficial show of putting aside their Christian allegiances in return for
protection and goodwill of "the ancient god of the ocean." It is not difficult
imagine how, in a different century and different context, this and other ty

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 The Witch's Familiar and the Fairy 295

of diplomacy towards non-Christian powers

direct renunciation of Christianity. In 1670 Edi
that she had performed a simple ritual at th
(almost certainly a fairy) in order that all her "c
Jean also claimed that she had given the w
discovered that she had gained miraculous sp
however:

did so affright the declarant, that she did set bye her wheile, and did shut the door, and did
stay within her house for the space of twentie dayes or thereby, and was exceedinglie
trubled, and weeped becaus she thought what she had done in manner forsaid was in effect
the renuncing of her baptisme (Law 1818, 27. My italics).

It is possible that many overt renunciations found in confessions for witchcraf

mask the more implicit renunciations common to those negotiating with th
fairies. Whoever recorded the confession of Essex witch Elizabeth Francis in
1566, as it appears in a pamphlet, wrote that Elizabeth was advised by her
grandmother to "renounce God and His word, and to give of her blood to Satan
(as she termed it)" (Rosen 1991, 74). The bracketed phrase "as she termed it"
strongly suggests that Elizabeth's version of events may have been rephrased
into something more demonologically coherent by either the prosecution or the
pamphleteer. The argument for the implicit renunciation, of course, also
strengthens the case for the explicit. To entertain the possibility that some
individuals may have openly verbalised the normally tacit renunciation, partic-
ularly in the context of a believed visual encounter, is not unreasonable. In 1588
Alesoun Peirsoun of Fifeshire claimed that "thair come ane man to hir, cled in
grene clathis, quha said to hir, 'Gif scho wald be faithfull, he wald do hir guid"'
(Pitcairn 1833, 1:163). Alesoun only needed to say "yes" and we easily have,
according to prosecutorial perception at least, an explicit renunciation.

The English Animal Familiar: Sucking Blood and Drinking Milk

Comparison with fairy beliefs can throw some light on two specific demands
which, though sometimes found in Scottish sources, have been predominantly
associated with the English animal familiar. The most notorious of these was the
request for permission to suck the witch's blood. This demand, and the witch's
agreement to it, became a stock indicator of the depraved relationship between
the witch and her animal familiar. In 1646 for example, Huntingdonshire witch
Ellen Shepheard claimed that four familiars in the shape of grey rats promised
her "all happinesse" and that in return they demanded, among other things, to
"have blood from her, which she granted, and thereupon they sucked her upon
and about her hippes" (Davenport 1646, 9-10).
In later fairy sources there is evidence that some fairies were believed to suck
human blood. Evans Wentz, for example, records a nineteenth-century anecdote
from the Isle of Man:

At night the fairies came into a house in Glen Rushen to bake. The family had put no water
out for them; and a beggar-man ... heard the fairies say, "We have no water, so we'll take
blood out of the toe of the servant who forgot our water." And from the girl's blood they
mixed their dough (Evans Wentz 1981, 127-8).

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 296 Emma Wilby

This belief was also

"the reason assigned f
would suck the sleep
(Campbell 1900, 20).
Although these exam
one relatively early
belief was held in ear
her mother had give
of toads called "Tom"
trial dittays state th
examinate [Margery]
not give them milk,
warning to her daugh
warnings likely to h
parents to their child
a number of trial rec
familiar's bloodthirst
In The Secret Common-Wealth we find evidence of a different kind of link
between the feeding habits of the fairies and the bloodlust of the familiar. Robe
Kirk describes:

the damnable practise of Evil Angels, their sucking of blood and spirits out of Witches bodys
(till they drein them, into a deformd and dry leanness) to feed their own Vehicles withal,
leaving what wee call the Witches mark behind (Sanderson 1976, 97).

Kirk's claim that the familiar sucks "blood and spirits" out of the witch
pertinent in the light of another passage in which he claims that fairies gained
nourishment by piercing animals with elf-arrows and then sucking out "t
aereal and aethereal parts, the most spirituous matter for prolonging
Lyfe ... leaving the Terrestriall behind" (ibid., 50 and 59-60. My italics). Al
though here Kirk mentions only animals being consumed by fairies in this way
earlier in the same passage he claims that humans can also be "pierced or
wounded with those peoples weapon" (ibid., 59). [9] Contemporary trial records
also contain references to humans having been "elf-shot." A later Scottis
folktale in which three of four men who encounter a malevolent baobhain sith ar
reduced to "bloodless bodies" because it had "sucked them dry" resonates wi
descriptions of both familiar and fairy feeding habits (Robertson 1910, 262; al
see Briggs 1976, 16).
Despite the sensationalism of promising the soul, renouncing Christianity, an
sucking blood, the most common payment given to the English animal familia
(often in conjunction with payment in blood) was ordinary food. Sometim
familiars demanded what could be seen as some sort of sacrifice like a live
chicken, however on a daily basis they generally required nothing more than a
bowl of bread, milk, ale, water and so on. This tradition is particularly evident
in trial records from the southeastern counties: Essex witch Elizabeth Francis
claimed in 1566 that she had been given a familiar called "Satan ... in the
likeness of a white spotted cat, and [that her grandmother] taught her to feed the
said cat with bread and milk" and in 1582 another Essex witch Elizabeth Bennett
claimed to possess two spirits "one called Suckin, being black like a dog, the

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 The Witch's Familiar and the Fairy 297

other called Lierd, being red like a lion" and sai

of her milk bowl." In the same region over eigh
was accused of feeding her "twelve impes" with
74 and 122-5; Howell 1816, 4:847-8 respectivel
explicitly, verbally contract for this form of
underpinned the witch/familiar relationship,
basis rather than in exchange for a particular d
Many fairies were fed in precisely the same w
partial to the odd animal sacrifice, but most com
stuffs in return for their services and goodwil
were often poured on springs, trees and rocks s
bread, milk or water and suchlike were left i
domestic hobman or visiting trooping fairies.
liked a "messe of milke sopt with white bread";
"a pail of clean water, good victuals, and the l
hobman Robin Goodfellow needed a "messe of white bread and milke." This
food and drink was not usually verbally contracted for and seems to have bee
given on a regular basis, as it was to the familiar. According to Scot, Rob
Goodfellow's "messe" of white bread and milk was his "standing fee" (Aubr
1972, 203; Burton 1977, 193; Scot 1972, 48 respectively).

Powers and Morality

It could be assumed that, no matter how many similarities can be identif
between the fairy and the familiar, they emerged in the period as two distin
phenomena for one prominent reason-the fairy was believed capable of helpin
humans, while the familiar was believed to be only concerned with harm
them. In relation to popular culture, however, the argument that it was by th
moral nature of their actions that the familiar and the fairy could be clea
distinguished is untenable. Looking at their capacities and predilections for go
and evil alone it is virtually impossible to distinguish between the familiar an
the fairy.
There is considerable evidence from witches' confessions that many of the
spirits defined there as familiars were believed capable of doing good. The
familiar described by Dorsetshire witch John Walsh in 1566 (appearing "like a
gray blackish culver, and sometime like a brended dog, and sometimes like a
man in all proportions, saving that he had cloven feet") seems to have per-
formed only beneficent acts, John claiming that it "serveth for no purpose but to
search out things theft-stolen" (Rosen 1991, 70). Other familiars seem to have
behaved in a more ambivalent manner, exhibiting a capacity for harm but
nevertheless performing many beneficent acts. Scottish witch Agnes Sampson
confessed in 1590 that her familiar (described variously as a dog and a man and
whom she seems to have invoked by calling "Elva") taught her how to perform
malevolent magic and encouraged her to help him raise winds in order to cause
shipwrecks. However, Agnes was also a healer of some repute, and she main-
tained that in the process of curing the sick she "sought her haill responses"
from this same familiar (Normand and Roberts forthcoming). Even those famil-
iars accused of great malevolence could sometimes be seen to perform some

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 298 Emma Wilby

good, even if it was

Elizabeth Francis an
familiar they shared
and bring sheep into
familiar was believed
who considered the f
documenting the tria
the fondness and ignora
recourse to them for the
the honorable name of "w
devil (ibid., 84).

The early modern f

evolence. Fairy natu
completely maliciou
minority) being tota
of the rather inaccur
ambivalent, capable
fairies were generally
recording that "they
be the Messengers o
associated with a wide
were generally indi
frequently associate
humans) and the dis
hobman, for example
was notorious for be
was particularly fea
human master at the
inciting the maliciou
"standing fee" of bre

Conclusions

It would not be unreasonable to argue, on the basis of this brief look at

modem fairy beliefs, that in popular culture of the period it was considered b
logical and beneficial for an individual to believe that they fostered a close a
contractual relationship (whether non-visual or, less commonly, visual) w
supernatural entity which was often ready to do harm, frequently hosti
Christianity, and theoretically had the potential to appropriate the human s
and, in some cases, suck human blood. From this perspective it would
likely that whatever role elite ideas may have played in the creation an
promulgation of the familiar stereotype they were affiliating themselves to
coherent and dynamic matrix of indigenous folk beliefs. By the same token
fact that the believed relationship between witch and familiar corresponded
closely to this relatively ubiquitous and (on a popular level) culturally conser
tive matrix of fairy belief suggests that psychological analyses of the pheno
enon offered by some scholars (that the familiar beliefs of the general popula

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The Witch's Familiar and the Fairy 299

were sourced in a paranoid sensationalism fuelle

the witch's supposed relationship with her fami
from her mental instability) are far too simp
similarities listed between familiar and fairy on
question how far the familiar actually existed a
the fairy in both the popular and elite mind. Th
will attempt to enlarge upon these points by
familiar and fairy beliefs may have interacted i

The Interface
According to elite demonological theory, the fa
and when looking for its closest fairy counterpa
the wholly malevolent fairy. As we have seen, h
familiar possessed far more in common with the
purely malevolent ones. It is the ambivalence of
the popular mind accommodated this ambiva
sights into the interface between familiar and fa
The ambivalent fairy was believed to shift fro
it was angered or mistreated in some way. Pe
avoid fairy displeasure, and their efforts to ple
rewarded with great loyalty, particularly from
Briggs wrote of the brownie (as found in both
that "where he was well treated ... and his wh
be wholly committed to the interests of his
comment suggests that, like a devoted dog who
it to, the well-nurtured brownie would conform
their direction. This "litmus paper" quality of t
in this popular rhyme which, although recorded
is likely to be much older:
Gin ye ca' me imp or elf,
I rede ye look weel to yourself;
Gin ye ca' me fairy,
I'II work ye muckle tarrie;
Gin guid neibour ye ca' me;
Then guid neibour I will be;
But gin ye ca' me seelie wicht,
I'II be you freend baith day and nicht
(Chambers 1870, 324).

The implication is that the definition of the spir

words, the human could choose to employ the s
ends, suggesting that it was the moral position
that of the spirit itself, which determined the
time. Many comments in witches' confessions su
may have been the case. In 1619 Leicestershire w
her fairy familiar that "neither did she employ h
bring word how those did which she had underta

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300 Emma Wilby

pointed out that she

suggests that Joan m
could have employe
records, rather than
offers to serve the w
"to do what she woul
tell her that "she sh
"leme her to ken and
1991, 76 and 358; Bla
freedom from want,
not in themselves to
achieve those ends, t
is possible that immo
woman chose to em
Defining a spirit by
not have been a sim
magical practitioner
good, it is evident th
allies. Defining such
way her actions were
tations would have be
one individual may h
Agnes Sampson was
been practising as a
of Keith" (Law 1818
a man had "done he
employing maleficium
is highly likely that
others in her commu
differently, bearing
the ancient form of
ability of the law and
self-centred ambiva
claimed in 1629 that
thair was nather man no
almiss and praying to W
angrie and mak thair be

It is quite possible t
have moved up and d
were judged by her n
acts, she would hav
performing malevol
woman." The distin
have been a small one
the definition of the
with the same brush
a fairy familiar em

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The Witch's Familiar and the Fairy 301

fairy familiar employed to do harm. The dist

employed to do harm" and "witch's familiar
distinction between bad cunning woman and wi
a given spirit on a popular level, however, if an
to bring its mistress to the dock and define her
elite, the fairy's transformation into the wholl
familiar could easily have become complete. The
and her fairy helpers could also then have sh
munity or prosecutorial perceptions. Such a shif
comment made by Margaret Flower, who was tr
Leicestershire in 1619. In reference to a conf
familiars (named Rutterkin, Little Robin and Sp
middle of the night in Lincoln jail, Margaret cla
them nor suspected herself till then" (Rosen 19
Early modem popular (and to a lesser degree el
ably influenced by a magical, essentially mo
would have been more comfortable with the ide
and spirits than contemporary Christian teac
individuals must have accepted that certain spir
capacity to act in ways which could deliberat
them, and have attempted to manipulate them i
to ensure that they would be the recipient of g
ambivalence of the fairy or cunning woman may
to that displayed by the Christian God and h
punish must often have seemed as great as hi
The same tolerance of contradiction enabled
spirit which was theoretically hostile to Chr
themselves to be Christians. Such a paradox w
Church and state. Most theologians officially co
yet fairy belief was often tolerated by clergyme
Elizabethan statute made the invocation of evil
and this was reinforced (to include, among other
of familiar spirits) in the statute of 1604 (Ro
courtrooms, especially in the beginning of th
confessed to such things were allowed to walk
Trial records reflect these contradictions. Alon
Christianity it is not uncommon to find detaile
(usually of Catholic origin) which the witch c
purposes, sometimes believing that they had b
familiar. We also find angels and familiars se
fairies and familiars serving God and/or urging
faith, and even familiars who are called "Jesu
Christ" (Howell 1816, 4:847-9).
The mental outlooks which generated such ideo
be surmised. The evidence suggests that for t
grasp of Christian teaching the cosmos would
of supernatural figures, of both Christian and p

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 302 Emma Wilby

no discrimination bei
those individuals who
and Church, many ar
in effect pledging all
religious confusions w
so clearly in Religio
encourage such dupl
survive in a harsh w
promised to improve
moral status too deep
encountered the ghos
distress and poverty,
[weak] point." She wa
can almost hear the w
offer of help, sayin
(Pitcairn 1833, 1:52).
Issobell Haldane in 1
spiritual agency had b
before (being "taikin
she nevertheless emp
she met there as a fa
A cunning woman st
into the reductionist
escaping the charge
consider herself to b
could be a devil whic
for an angry commu

Notes

[1] Historians once thought the same of the witches' sabbath. However, several studies, most
notably those in Ginzburg 1991, have argued for a strong folkloric component to sabbath
belief in early modem Europe. Although sabbath beliefs and familiar beliefs overlap consi
erably, owing to limitations of space this paper cannot discuss the sabbath in any detail (see
footnote 7).
[2] The folkloric dimension to familiar beliefs is mentioned, though briefly, in several recent
studies of witchcraft, among them Briggs 1996, 28-31; Purkiss 1996, 135-9; Sharpe 1996, 71-9;
and less recently Russell 1972, 51-3.
[3] I am grateful to Professor Diane Purkiss of the University of Exeter, for emphasising this
point to me. She explores the differences between English and Scottish fairy beliefs, and the
way these differences are reflected in witchcraft beliefs in her forthcoming book Troublesome
Things: A History of Fairies and Fairy Stories, Penguin, December 2000.
[4] The nature and extent of popular fairy beliefs in this period is unknown, for the people who
held them left few clues. On the basis of evidence found in elite literature, witchcraft trial
confessions, contemporary pamphlets (particularly those reporting instances of cozenage) and
so on, Katharine Briggs and others have concluded that fairy beliefs were widespread and
powerful in early modem Britain (Briggs 1959, 112; Rosen 1991, 214). However, whilst
acknowledging that fairy beliefs did exist in the period, recent historians tend to be more
cautious about their nature and extent (Thomas 1971, 606-14). Owing to limitations of space

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The Witch's Familiar and the Fairy 303

this debate cannot be examined in any detail here. The

based upon the assumption that fairy beliefs were rela
still vivacious enough to influence culture in the ways

[5] The familiar names here are all taken from trial recor
names are predominantly taken from contemporary el
"popular" belief) and dramatic literature. Personalised n
can be categorically ascribed to fairies (as opposed to b
few.

[6] The terms "in body" and "in spirit" are an over-si
possessed a more complex understanding of matter and t
is suggested by this essentially dualist categorisation. B
intermediary or astral bodies (also found in later sourc
human and fairy ontology.

[7] This explanation would account for the fact that the
occurs in Scottish sources. In these sources we find that
familiar often pre-dates a sabbath experience, and the
between the experience of the witches' sabbath and visi
to this discussion is the fact that, as with the visit to fair
could be experienced "in body" or "in spirit." Other co
human was often invited into fairyland or to the sabbath
that the human could be transported there in flight, of
once there, was encouraged to "serve" or "worship" th
Queen of the Fairies or the Devil); that the visiting hum
perform magic and/or enjoy pleasures such as eatin
drinking, dancing, music-making, sport or warfare
relationships with, and/or make contracts of marriage w
gifts of money or food and so on received in fairy
disappeared or turned to dust on return home and tha
taboos on the visiting humans, forbidding them to talk
concerned nocturnal human flight into human hou
individuals feasted, fought, performed magic and so on
or the Devil, often accompanied by other humans. The w
the supernatural authority, carnal relations, acquisition
illusory gifts, and imposition of taboos also frequently
human and fairy or familiar outside the fairyland or sab
of space this paper cannot examine these corresponden

[8] We cannot rule out the possibility that some nineteen

fairies (and contemporary beliefs concerning fairies en
with humans, and fairies desiring to appropriate the h
the historical influence of familiar lore, for there was
influence occurring between the two sets of belief
preliminary study this paper has a directional bias, that
of fairy beliefs on familiar beliefs, largely in response to
beliefs in early modern witchcraft has been under-ack

[9] It is also interesting to speculate whether Kirk's refere

and aethereal parts" of animals could be pertinent to th
appropriate the human soul.

[10] Assize records state, for example, that in 1566 Essex w

death sentence despite, if a pamphlet recording the tr

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 304 Emma Wilby

to performing maleficiu
Around the middle of th
Webster was acquitted,
fairies (Webster 1677, 30

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Biographical Note
Emma Wilby's background is in the humanities. She has recen
the University of Exeter in the history and literature of witchcr
research into the folkloric dimension of popular witchcraft beli

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