now threatens those who have the repression of them in their hands.  It is, therefore, strictly forbidden to all the inhabitants of this island to receive any counsel or assistance in their adversities from any Witches or Diviners, or anyone suspected of practicing Sorcery, under pain of one month’s imprisonment in the Castle, on bread and water; and on their liberation they shall declare to the Court the cause of such presumption, and according as this shall appear reasonable, shall be dealt with as the law of God directs.

In 1562 two women were executed in Jersey for witchcraft.  One of them named Anne, a native of St. Brelade’s, was burnt at St. Helier’s; and the other, Michelle La Blanche, expiated her crime at the gibbet of the Hurets, in the parish of St. Ouen, because criminals dwelling on the Fief Haubert de St. Ouen, were, in accordance with custom, required to be executed within the boundaries of the said Fief—­seeing that it possessed a gallows-right—­and their goods and lands became forfeited to the Seigneur.

In 1583 a rather curious point of law was raised in connection with a pending witch-trial at St. Helier’s.  On the 15th of February in that year, a suspected witch named Marion Corbel, who had been imprisoned in the Castle awaiting her trial, suddenly died.  Whereupon her relatives came forward and claimed to be heirs to her goods and chattles, seeing that she had not been convicted of the imputed crime, and urging that her death put an end to further criminal proceedings.  The Queen’s Procureur, however—­it was in the reign of Elizabeth—­contended that death was no bar to the completion of the indictment, although it had effectually removed the criminal from the jurisdiction of the Court, as far as punishment was concerned.  The very reasonable claim of the deceased woman’s relatives was therefore set aside, and the defunct of course being found guilty, her possessions reverted to the crown.

Again, forty years later, in 1623, an old woman of sixty, named Marie Filleul, daughter of Thomas Filleul, of the parish of St. Clement’s, was tried before a jury of twenty-four of her countrymen, and found guilty of the diabolical crime of Sorcery.  She was therefore hanged and burnt as a witch, and her goods were confiscated to the King [James I.], and to the Seigneurs to whom they belonged.

It may be interesting to note here the opinion of Mr. Philippe Le Geyt, the famous commentator on the constitution and laws of Jersey, and one of the most enlightened men of his time, who for many years was Lieutenant-Bailiff of that island.  He was born in 1635 and died in 1715, in his eighty-first year.  In Vol.  I., page 42, of his works, there occurs a passage of which the following is a translation:—­