The Assizes
| DOI | 10.1177/002201834400800202 |
| Date | 01 April 1944 |
| Published date | 01 April 1944 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
The Assizes
A
PROSECUTION
UNDER
THE
WITCHCRAFT
ACT, 1735
R. v. Duncan and
others
ACASE recently committed for trial
at
the
Central
Criminal Court from
Portsmouth
under section 14 of
the
Criminal Justice Act 1925 presented
many
matters
of
interest
both
from a layman's
and
alawyer's point of view.
Helen Duncan,
Ernest
Edward
Hartland
Homer,
Elizabeth Anne Jones,
and
Frances Brown were
sent
for
trial
on charges arising
out
of certain seances held
at
a
place called
the
"Master Temple Psychic Centre", a room
over a shop in Cognor Road, Portsmouth.
The
Witchcraft
Act
1735 repealed earlier
statutes
which forbade "conjuration, witchcraft
and
dealing in
evil
and
wicked spirits",
and
section
4-
ran
as follows :---
"And
for
the
more effectual preventing
and
punishing of
any
pretences to such
arts
or powers as are before mentioned whereby
ignorant persons are frequently deluded
and
defrauded be
it
further
enacted
that
if
any
person shall pretend to exercise or use
any
kind of witchcraft, sorcery, enchantment, or conjuration, or
undertake to tell fortunes, or pretend, from his or her skill or know-
ledge in
any
occult or
crafty
science, to discover where or in
what
manner
any
goods
or
chattels supposed to
have
been stolen or lost
may
be found, every person so offending, being thereof lawfully
convicted on indictment or information
sha11
for every such
offence suffer imprisonment by
the
space of one whole year without
bail or mainprize,
and
shall once in every
quarter
of
the
said
year
in some
market
town
of
the
proper
county
upon
the
market
day
there
stand
openly on
the
pillory
by
the
space of one hour,
and
also
shall (if
the
court
by
which such judgment shall be given shall
think
fit) be obliged to give sureties for his or her good behaviour, in such
sum
and
for such time, as
the
said
court
shall judge proper according
to
the
circumstances of
the
offence,
and
in such case shall be further
imprisoned until such sureties be given."
With
the
exception
that
the
punishment of
the
pillory
100
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