Swimming a Wizard at Wickham Skeith

In July 1825 Isaac Stebbings, a small, spare huckster of about sixty-seven, was accused of bewitching two neighbours whose minds were disturbed, and the village shoemaker blamed him when his wax would neither melt nor mix. To clear himself Stebbings offered to be swum, and in a pond called the Grimmer on Wickham Green four men laid him flat on his back in the water before crowds of onlookers, with the parish constable there to keep the peace. He floated like cork each time and came out more dead than alive after three quarters of an hour. A second swimming was stopped by the clergyman and churchwardens.