Solomon's Secret Arts (82 page)

115.
Bodl. Lib., Ms. Rawl. Poet 133, No. III, ff. 162
^b
–168.

116.
Steele supported a proposal by Samber to publish a translation of Ovid's
Metamporphoses
: Bodl. Lib., Ms. Rawl. Poet. 134
^b
, f. 152
^v
.

117.
R.F. Gould, “Martin Clare,”
Ars Quatuor Coronatorum
, 4 (1891), pp. 33–41; Martin Clare,
Youth's Introduction to Trade and Business
(5th ed., London, 1740), title page; [Martin Clare],
Rules and Orders for the Government of the Academy in Soho-Square, London
([London], [c. 1740]).

118.
Martin Clare,
The Movement of Fluids, Natural and Artificial
(2nd ed., London, 1746), sigs A
₂
, A
₄
.

119.
“A Defence of Masonry, Publish'd
A.D. 1730
. Occasion'd by a
Pamphlet
Entitl'd
Masonry Dissected
,” in James Anderson,
The New Book of Constitutions of the Ancient and
Honorable Fraternity of Free and Acceped Masons
(London, 1738), pp. 219–22. As Anderson's name appeared on this edition of the
Constitutions
, there was no need to disguise his authorship of the “Defence.” Samuel Prichard's anti-Masonic pamphlet,
Masonry Dissected
, appeared in 1730 and was frequently reprinted.

120.
“Defence of Masonry,” pp. 224–5.

121.
That the Eleusinian mysteries were well known to a broad audience is illustrated by their description in standard works of reference like
A Dictionary of All Religions, Ancient and Modern
(London, 1723).

122.
Lewis Theobald to Warburton, 24 Feb. 1730, in John Nichols, ed.,
Illustrations of the Literary History of the Eighteenth Century
(8 vols, London, 1817–58), vol. 2, p. 517, a reference to Masonry in Shakespeare. This comment may be directed at Alexander Pope, who was a Freemason. Warburton, of course, later befriended the poet and became his literary executor. For
The Divine Legation
, see also B.W. Young,
Religion and Enlightenment in Eighteenth-Century England: Theological Debate from Locke to Burke
(Oxford, 1998), ch. 5.

123.
William Warburton,
The Divine Legation of Moses
(3 vols in 2 parts, London, 1738–41), vol. 1, pp. 133–4.

124.
Ibid.
, vol. 1, p. 182. Warburton devoted fifty pages of the first volume to Aeneas's journey into Hades.

125.
Ibid.
, pp. 332–3, 403–9, quotation on p. 408. For more against “the infamous Spinoza,” see part 2, vol. 2, part 1, pp. 310–11.

126.
Ibid.
, vol. 2, part 1, pp. 113, 153.

127.
Ibid.
, vol. 2, part 1, pp. 201, 206.

128.
Ibid.
, vol. 2, part 2, p. 639. Unlike Stukeley, Warburton concentrates on the formal characteristics of ritual or writing and is not much concerned with the origins of the sacred ideas behind them.

129.
Still poorly understood, the difficulties of British Freemasonry in the mid-eighteenth century were first indicated by R.F. Gould in
The History of Freemasonry: Its Antiquities, Symbols, Constitutions, Customs, Etc.
(6 vols, London, 1882–7), vol. 3, chs 17–19.

Chapter Six: The Occult on the Margins

1.
This question has been asked more often by historians of other parts of Europe, beginning with Peter Burke,
Popular Culture in Early Modern Europe
(New York, 1978) and including F. Steven Wilson,
The Magical Universe: Everyday Ritual and Magic in Pre-Modern Europe
(Hambledon and London, 2000).

2.
Alexandra Walsham, “Recording Superstition in Early Modern Britain: The Origins of Folklore,” in S.A. Smith and Alan Knight, eds,
The Religion of Fools? Superstition Past and Present
, Past and Present Supplement 3 (Oxford, 2008), pp. 178–206.

3.
Henry Bourne,
Antiquitates Vulgares: or, The Antiquities of the Common People
(Newcastle, 1725), pp. x–xi. For Bourne, see Walsham, “Recoding Superstition,” pp. 193–9; Sash Handley,
Visions of an Unseen World: Ghost Beliefs and Ghost Stories in Eighteenth-Century England
(London, 2007), pp. 181–3. The campaign to reform popular customs is considered in David Underdown,
Revel, Riot and Rebellion: Popular Politics and Culture in England, 1603–1660
(Oxford, 1985), and Ronald Hutton,
The Rise and Fall of Merry England: The Ritual Year, 1400–1700
(Oxford, 1994).

4.
Bourne,
Antiquitates Vulgares
, p. 63.

5.
Ibid.
, pp. 77, 84.

6.
Ibid.
, pp. 114, 224.

7.
Handley,
Visions of an Unseen World
, ch. 2, gives a thorough analysis of these.

8.
John Frazer, ΔEYTEPOΣKOΠIA
[Deutoroskopia] or, A Brief Discourse Concerning the Second Sight, Commonly So Called
(Edinburgh, 1707), p. 25, reprinted in Michael Hunter, ed.,
The Occult Laboratory: Magic, Science and Second Sight in Late 17th-Century Scotland
(Woodbridge, Suffolk, 2001), p. 200.

9.
Ibid.
, pp. 11–12. For more on second sight, see “Theophilus Insulanus” [Donald Macleod],
A Treatise on the Second Sight, Dreams and Apparitions
(Edinburgh, 1763); Martin Rackwitz,
Travels to Terra Incognita: The Scottish Highlands and Hebrides in Early Modern Traveller's Accounts, c. 1600–1800
(Münster, 2007), pp. 505–12.

10.
Discussions of these three works can be found in Rodney Baine,
Daniel Defoe and the Supernatural
(Athens, Georgia, 1969), and Katherine Clark,
Daniel Defoe: The Whole Frame of Nature, Time and Providence
(Basingstoke, 2007). See also Ian Bostridge,
Witchcraft and its Transformations, c. 1650–c. 1750
(Oxford, 1997), pp. 136–8; Paula R. Backscheider,
Daniel Defoe: His Life
(Baltimore, 1989), pp. 522–6; John J. Richetti,
The Life of Daniel Defoe
(Oxford, 2005), pp. 169–73.

11.
[Daniel Defoe],
The Political History of the Devil
(London,1726), pp. 2, 226.

12.
Ibid.
, pp. 341, 343–4.

13.
[Daniel Defoe],
An Essay on the History and Reality of Apparitions
(London, 1727), p. 341.

14.
Ibid.
, p. 21.

15.
[Daniel Defoe],
A System of Magick; or, A History of the Black Art
(London, 1727), sig. A
₃
, pp. 1–2.

16.
Ibid.
, pp. 65, 102–3, 226.

17.
Ibid.
, pp. 285–316. The profession in general is discussed in Owen Davies,
Cunning-Folk: Popular Magic in English History
(London, 2003). A certain Dr Borman was assessed for eight hearths in the parish of Bexley, Kent in 1664: Duncan Harrington, ed., “Kent Hearth Tax Assessment, Lady Day, 1664: CKS Q/RTh,” accessed at
http://www.hearthtax.org.uk/communities/kent/kent_1664L_transcript.pdf
. Bexley is not near Maidstone, but it is on the main road to it from London. Daniel Borman was town chamberlain of Maidstone in 1685–6, and William Borman a common councilman, or town officer, in 1745:
http://www.kent-opc.org/Parishes/Court/MaidstoneChamberlains.html
;
http://www.kent-opc.org/Parishes/Court/MaidstoneJuratsetal.html
.

18.
[Defoe],
System of Magick
, pp. 316, 318, 320.

19.
Ibid.
, pp. 321–35.

20.
Ibid.
, pp. 397–403, quotation on p. 397.

21.
Ibid.
, p. 378.

22.
William Bond,
The History of the Life and Adventures of Mr. Duncan Campbell
(2nd ed., London, 1720), pp. 281–2; [Duncan Campbel],
Secret Memoirs of the Late Mr. Duncan Campbel, the Famous Deaf and Dumb Gentleman
(London, 1732), pp. 39–40. The judge who took Coates's affidavit was Robert Raymond, later lord chief justice. See also
Eliza Haywood, a Spy on the Conjuror: or, A Collection of Surprising and Diverting Stories … By Way of Memoirs of the Famous Mr. Duncan Campbell
(London, 1724); Baine,
Defoe and the Supernatural
, ch. 7, and Owen Davies, “Decriminalizing the Witch: The Origin of and Response to the 1736 Witchcraft Act,” in John Newton and Jo Bath, eds,
Witchcraft and the Act of 1604
(Leiden, 2008), pp. 214–18. Haywood was a well-known playwright and a friend of Richard Steele.

23.
[Campbel],
Secret Memoirs
, p. 7.

24.
[Duncan Campbel],
The Friendly Dæmon, or The Generous Apparition
(London, 1725), pp. 9, 14. This account was also included in his
Secret Memoirs
, pp. 166–95.

25.
[Campbel],
Secret Memoirs
, sigs [A
₁
-A
₁
v], pp. 12, 196 ff. The Scots lords were the duke of Argyle, the earl of Marchmont and viscount Stair, while the Tories included Sir Nathaniel Curzon and Sir Richard Grosvenor. Davies, “Decriminalizing the Witch,” also mentions William Wyndham, the future earl of Egremont, as a customer.

26.
W. Harbutt Dawson, “An Old Yorkshire Astrologer and Magician, 1694–1760,”
The Reliquary
, 23 (1882–3), pp. 197–202.

27.
John Money, ed.,
The Chronicles of John Cannon, Excise Officer and Writing Master
(2 vols, Oxford, 2010), vol. 1, p. 21.

28.
Ibid.
, vol. 1, pp. 42–4. John Read also taught Cannon how to predict the weather from the phases of the moon:
ibid.
, vol. 2, p. 400.

29.
Ibid.
, vol. 2, pp. 116, 149–50, 171, 277–8, 319, 346–7, 351, 390–1, 399–400, 450, 461, 548, for examples.

30.
Ibid.
, vol. 2, pp. 353, 458. “Sky battles” and other celestial phenomena caused widespread consternation in the early years of George I: see Vladimir Jankovic, “The Politics of Sky Battles in Early Hanoverian Britain,”
Journal of British Studies
, 41, 4 (2002), pp. 403–28; Elisha Smith,
The Superstition of Omens and Prodigies; with the Proper Reception, and Profitable Improvement. A Divinity Lecture upon the Surprising Phænomenon of Light, March 6, 1715. On the Sunday After
(London, 1716).

31.
Money, ed.,
Chronicles of Cannon
, vol. 2, p. 458; Geoffrey of Monmouth,
The British History
, trans. Aaron Thompson (London, 1718), pp. v, 203 ff.; Davies,
Witchcraft, Magic and Culture
, pp. 142–7.

32.
Nixon's Cheshire Prophecy at Large
(5th ed., London, 1718), p. 18. The edition of Mother Shipton's prophecies used by Cannon may have been J. Tyrrel,
Past, Present, and to Come, or Mother Shipton's Yorkshire Prophecy
(London, 1740), although he could also have read the chapbook
The History of Mother Shipton
(London, 1750[?]). Apparently, the predictions of Shipton and Nixon were published together for the first time only in 1797.

33.
Money, ed.,
Chronicles of Cannon
, vol. 2, pp. 450, 559–60; John Partridge,
Merlinus Liberatus … 1743
(London, 1742), sigs C
₇
–C
₁₀
. I have not been able to trace a copy of
Vox Stellarum
for 1740.

34.
Money, ed.,
Chronicles of Cannon
, vol. 2, p. 303;
Gentleman's Magazine
, 7 (March 1737), p. 157. Smith's fascination with eclipses was further evidenced in a short pamphlet, George Smith,
A Dissertation on the General Properties of Eclipses; and Particularly the Ensuing Eclipse of 1748, Considered thro’ All its Periods
(London, 1748), as well as in the projection he made to show the path of the 1737 eclipse around the globe: B.L., Maps *23.(10), accessed at
http://www.mapforum.com/07/bleclip.htm#8
.

35.
Money, ed.,
Chronicles of Cannon
, vol. 2, p. 400; John Middleton,
Practical Astrology
(London, 1679); Richard Saunders,
The Astrological Judgment and Practice of Physick
(London, 1677). Woodward was the compiler of an almanac,
Vox Uraniae
, that ran through the 1680s, and of an ephemeris that appeared in the early 1690s.

36.
Money, ed.,
Chronicles of Cannon
, vol. 2, p. 516; William Whiston,
The Cause of the Deluge Demonstrated
(London, 1717); Richard S. Westfall,
Never at Rest: A Biography of Isaac Newton
(Cambridge, 1980), pp. 391–7.

37.
Money, ed.,
Chronicles of Cannon
, vol. 2, p. 400.

38.
Ibid.
, vol. 2, p. 529.

39.
Ibid.
, vol. 2, pp. 314, 488.

40.
Ibid.
, vol. 2, p. 285.

41.
Ibid.
, vol. 2, pp. 457–8.

42.
The Statutes at Large
(7 vols, London, 1742), vol. 7, p. 52, 9 G. II, c. 5. The best accounts of the Witchcraft Act are in Bostridge,
Witchcraft and its Transformations
, ch. 8, and Owen Davies,
Witchcraft, Magic and Culture, 1736–1951
(Manchester, 1999), ch. 1. Much of Bostridge's chapter also appears in his article “Witchcraft Repealed,” in Jonathan Barry, Marianne Hesther and Gareth Roberts, eds,
Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe: Studies in Culture and Belief
(Cambridge, 1996), pp. 309–34.

43.
London Journal
, no. 974, 8 April 1738, cited in
The London Magazine, and Monthly Chronologer
(London, 1738), pp. 178–9. For coffee-houses, see Brian Cowan,
The Social Life of Coffee: The Emergence of the Coffehouse
(New Haven and London, 2005).

44.
T.J.F. Kendrick, “Sir Robert Walpole, the Old Whigs and the Bishops, 1733–36: A Study in Eighteenth-Century Parliamentary Politics,”
Historical Journal
, 11, 3 (1968), pp. 421–45; Stephen Taylor, “Sir Robert Walpole, the Church of England, and the Quaker Tithes Bill of 1736,”
Historical Journal
, 28, 1 (1985), pp. 51–77; Peter Clark, “The Mother Gin Controversy in the Early Eighteenth Century,”
Transactions of the Royal Historical Society
, 5th series, 38 (1988), pp. 63–84; Jonathan White, “The ‘Slow But Sure Poison:’ The Representation of Gin and its Drinkers, 1736–1751,”
Journal of British Studies
, 42, 1 (2003), pp. 35–64.