Yorkshire Almanac 2025

Unedited excerpt

The excerpt in the book is shorter, edited and, where applicable, translated.

There was one Samuel Mitchell drinking in Halifax, April 11, 1667 at Mr Wade’s. There came a man and woman to Mr Wade desiring him to tell them where to find something they had lost, for they took him for a conjurer. He said he could not tell but he had an Egyptian in the house that could. They together came to Sam Mitchell, he blubbered [so] that nobody could tell what he said, [but] Wade was his interpreter, and gave them instructions about the lost thing. They were satisfied and gave him three shillings for his pains. They drunk that merrily, but upon Monday after this Mitchell died, and was buried upon Wednesday, and a thousand to one he had died at a whore’s house that he frequented, for having been at one, and called to see another, she not being within, he came home and died presently after. He threatened his wife (as tis said) the day before he died that if she went not to wak. [Wakefield?] and swore that the inventory was less of her former husband’s goods he would kill her – but god took him away.

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To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

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Can someone explain the last sentence to me? Conspiracy theorists may speculate that Wade poisoned Mitchell to conceal their deception.

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Tags

Tags are assigned inclusively on the basis of an entry’s original text and any comment. You may find this confusing if you only read an entry excerpt.

• Divination (2) W/G ·
• Fraud (22) W/G ·
• 📌Halifax (43) W/G ·
• Heywood, Oliver (1630-1702) (34), Bolton-born nonconformist minister and diarist, active in the West Riding, resident at Northowram, ejected for his beliefs W/G ·
• Prostitution (15) W/G ·
• Romani people (7) W/G ·
• Superstition (14) W/G ·
• 📌Wakefield (37), cathedral city on the River Calder in the West Riding/West Yorkshire W/G ·

All tags.

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To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

Comment

Comment

Can someone explain the last sentence to me? Conspiracy theorists may speculate that Wade poisoned Mitchell to conceal their deception.

Something to say? Get in touch

Similar

20 April 1631: Quoting Elizabeth I’s 1572 Vagabonds Act, justices of the peace in Thirsk order a crackdown on a variety of layabouts

17 December 1674: Michael Gilburn, a Halifax lawyer, terminates a drunken weekend in style

24 February 1673: Oliver Heywood regrets impulsively baptising the child of an irresponsible Quaker father

2 April 1683: A domestic dispute at the Heywoods’ in Northowram (Halifax)

18 June 1664: Jane Thompson of Craven, “a swinish drunkard,” dies of a barely-treated compound fracture

2 March 1665: A sighting of the northern lights at Northowram (Halifax) recalls the eve of the civil war

10 March 1665: Blizzards and Dutch attacks prolong Restoration-induced shortages of fodder and coal at Northowram (Halifax)

21 July 1666: A white ghost army is seen by the Don near Sheffield

27 August 1673: John Holden fatally mugs his wife at Lightcliffe (Calderdale), but witnesses are fearful, and the jury sees only manslaughter

5 April 1674: An anonymous message to a preacher

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To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

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Comment

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