Page:Saducismus Triumphatus.djvu/17

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Dr. H. More's Letter.
3

cealed it until St. Thomas Eve before Christmas, when being soon after Sun set walking in his Garden, she appeared again, and then so threatned him, and affrighted him, that he faithfully promised to reveal it next Morning. In the Morning he went to a Magistrate and made the whole Matter known with all the Circumstances; and diligent search being made, the Body was found in a Coal-pit with five Wounds in the Head, and the Pick and Shoes and Stockings yet bloody, in every Circumstance as the Apparition had related unto the Miller; whereupon Walker and Mark Sharp were both Apprehended, but would confess nothing. At the Assizes following, I think it was at Durham, they were Arraigned, found Guilty, Condemn'd and Executed; but I could never hear they confest the Fact. There were some that reported the Apparition did appear to the Judge, or the Fore-man of the Jury, who was alive in Chester in the Street about ten Years ago, as I have been credibly inform'd, but of that I know no certainty: There are many Persons yet alive that can remember this strange Murder and the discovery of it; for it was, and sometimes yet is, as much discoursed of in the North Country as any thing that almost hath ever been heard of, and the relation Printed, tho' now not to be gotten. I relate this with the greater confidence (though I may fail in some of the Circumstances) because I saw and read the Letter that was sent to Serjeant Hutton, who then lived at Goldsbrugh in Yorkshire, from the Judge before whom Walker and Mark Sharp were tried, and by whom they were Condemn'd, and had a Copy of it until about the Year 1658, when I had it and many other Books and Papers taken from me; and this I confess to be one of the most convincing Stories, being of undoubted verity, that ever I read, heard or knew of, and carrieth with it the most evident force to make the most incredulous Spirit to be satisfied that there are really sometimes such things as Apparitions; thus far he. This Story is so considerable that I make mention of it in my Scholia on my Immortality of the Soul, in my Volumen Philisophicum, Tom. 2. which I accquainting a Friend of mine with, a Prudent, Intelligent Person, Dr. J.D. he of his own accord offered me, it being a thing of such consequence, to send to a Friend of his in the North for greater assurance of the truth of the Narrative, which motion I willingly embracing he did accordingly. The Answer to this Letter from his Friend Mr. Shepherdson, is this, I have done what I can to inform my self of the Passage of Sharp and Walker; there are very few Men that I could meet that were then Men, or at the Tryal, saving these two in the