951 – Chair and bibles

Physical description:

Black iron chair incorporating a balance holding a 2-volume bible ('Southwell's Family Bible'), for weighing suspected witches (reproduction).

Museum classification:

Persecution

Size:

1900 x 1100 x 500 mm

Information:

This reproduction is based on a chair found in Plymouth.
Whilst not legally recognised, weighing a person against a church bible was an accepted method of establishing guilt.
Being lighter than the bible was proof that the accused was a witch. In 1780 the inhabitants of Bexhill persuaded a local clergyman to weigh two women against the Church bible, both were heavier than the bible and all were satisfied that their suspicions were ill founded.
Weighing may have been preferred by clergy to prevent the cruelty and abuse of the witch finders.
Features in a photograph of Cecil Williamson in the archive (1657).

The following extract is from the text panel currently (2018) on display with the chair in the Museum:

Weighing Chair

“In June 1792, an old woman from Stanningfield in Suffolk, who could no longer face the accusations of witchcraft being made against her … had to resort to popular justice to clear her name… [In court] the old woman charged another with having called her a witch, which she said had very much disordered her head.  The justices told her, however that they could take no cognisance thereof and she was dismissed.  Having received no legal help, she handed herself over to the community to prove her innocence by extra-legal means.  First it was suggested that she be weighed against the Bible, but the clergyman refused to lend it, so she was forced to undergo the far more dangerous procedure of swimming.  She was swum in a local horsepond, was found to sink, and was then dragged out ‘almost lifeless’.  Her husband, who along with her brother and another man, held the rope at her swimming, was reported to have said that he thought it better to indulge her therein, than to suffer her to destroy herself, which she would otherwise have certainly done.” Owen Davies, Witchcraft, magic and culture, 1736-1951, pp.104-105

Why did this poor lady ask to be weighed against the Bible?  She clearly thought it was a way to prove that she was not a witch as she would weigh more than it.  But why did people think that this was a way to test for witchcraft?  There are very few English records to work from but there are examples of weighing apparatus in museums in Holland and Germany (though these do not have Bibles on them).

The idea of weighing a suspected witch against the Bible may be linked to the idea that witches were unnaturally light (they could fly after all).  Weighing therefore became a means of unveiling the witch and punishing them.  Or it may be to do with the fact that the Bible was not just any book - its heavy words would prove the guilt of the witch.  Bibles were sometimes used to hold down tables that were believed to have been moved by spirits (no other weight could do this, just the Bible because of its metaphorical rather than literal weight).

Or the weighing chair may have been a way used by local clergy to protect those accused of witches from an angry mob.  It was extremely unlikely that anyone would have weighed less than a Bible, and it is possible that these chairs were a means of controlling mobs who were unaware of the changes in the law regarding witchcraft after 1736.  The clergy may have played with people’s superstitions to save lives.  In Bexhill in 1780 for example, inhabitants persuaded a local clergyman to weigh two women who were thought to be witches.  Both were heavier than the Church Bible, and were therefore released.

 

 

 

Resource:

Object

Materials:

Iron etc

This reproduction is based on a chair found in Plymouth.
Whilst not legally recognised, weighing a person against a church bible was an accepted method of establishing guilt.
Being lighter than the bible was proof that the accused was a witch. In 1780 the inhabitants of Bexhill persuaded a local clergyman to weigh two women against the Church bible, both were heavier than the bible and all were satisfied that their suspicions were ill founded.
Weighing may have been preferred by clergy to prevent the cruelty and abuse of the witch finders.
Features in a photograph of Cecil Williamson in the archive (1657).

The following extract is from the text panel currently (2018) on display with the chair in the Museum:

Weighing Chair

“In June 1792, an old woman from Stanningfield in Suffolk, who could no longer face the accusations of witchcraft being made against her … had to resort to popular justice to clear her name… [In court] the old woman charged another with having called her a witch, which she said had very much disordered her head.  The justices told her, however that they could take no cognisance thereof and she was dismissed.  Having received no legal help, she handed herself over to the community to prove her innocence by extra-legal means.  First it was suggested that she be weighed against the Bible, but the clergyman refused to lend it, so she was forced to undergo the far more dangerous procedure of swimming.  She was swum in a local horsepond, was found to sink, and was then dragged out ‘almost lifeless’.  Her husband, who along with her brother and another man, held the rope at her swimming, was reported to have said that he thought it better to indulge her therein, than to suffer her to destroy herself, which she would otherwise have certainly done.” Owen Davies, Witchcraft, magic and culture, 1736-1951, pp.104-105

Why did this poor lady ask to be weighed against the Bible?  She clearly thought it was a way to prove that she was not a witch as she would weigh more than it.  But why did people think that this was a way to test for witchcraft?  There are very few English records to work from but there are examples of weighing apparatus in museums in Holland and Germany (though these do not have Bibles on them).

The idea of weighing a suspected witch against the Bible may be linked to the idea that witches were unnaturally light (they could fly after all).  Weighing therefore became a means of unveiling the witch and punishing them.  Or it may be to do with the fact that the Bible was not just any book - its heavy words would prove the guilt of the witch.  Bibles were sometimes used to hold down tables that were believed to have been moved by spirits (no other weight could do this, just the Bible because of its metaphorical rather than literal weight).

Or the weighing chair may have been a way used by local clergy to protect those accused of witches from an angry mob.  It was extremely unlikely that anyone would have weighed less than a Bible, and it is possible that these chairs were a means of controlling mobs who were unaware of the changes in the law regarding witchcraft after 1736.  The clergy may have played with people’s superstitions to save lives.  In Bexhill in 1780 for example, inhabitants persuaded a local clergyman to weigh two women who were thought to be witches.  Both were heavier than the Church Bible, and were therefore released.