Weighed Against the Church Bible

In 1808 three young women at Great Paxton fell ill with fits, and their neighbours decided they were bewitched and tried charms to find the witch. The charms pointed at Ann Izzard, a woman of about sixty, who went to the curate in tears and offered to prove her innocence by being weighed against the church Bible, an old test of a witch. The curate preached against the belief in vain: after a cart overturned she was dragged from her bed and beaten two nights running, and escaped a ducking only by fleeing to his house. Nine of her attackers were indicted at Huntingdon.