In February 1844 a woman called Nancy Houldsworth and an unnamed friend burst into the newspaper office of the Halifax Guardian. Nancy proceeded to tell the astonished journalists a true ‘tale of mystery’.[i] A tale of love, death, curses and witchcraft.
The story begins in 1841 with two sweethearts, Mary Wilson and Samuel Bottomley, both of Old Bank, Halifax. The young couple were in love and were planning their future together. Unfortunately, poor Mary sickened and died and a witch’s curse was suspected. Samuel was distraught and mourned his lost love. Sometime later, though, as he recovered from his loss, he began to develop feelings for another young woman. This time the object of his affections was Nancy Houldsworth’s niece, Sarah. Things seemed to be going well for the couple and Samuel once more started to look forward to a happy future with his beloved. Unfortunately, it seems the curse, whatever it was, had not been lifted and poor Sarah also sickened and died earlier in 1844 leaving Samuel bereft again.
Even before Sarah died, though, Samuel’s eye had been caught by a young lady who went by the name of Mary Baxendale and he whispered many ‘sweet nothings’ into her ear. But the same curse struck again. Mary number two developed a sudden illness and seemed to be at death’s door. Neither Samuel nor the people in the neighbourhood could understand the poor lad’s misfortune in love.
Now, Nancy, the narrator of this sad tale, was contacted by a mysterious unnamed person. This mystery person offered to tell her the truth about the curse on the condition that she would promise to keep it a secret. Nancy was told that beneath a flag in the cellar of Betty Wilson’s old house there was buried a witch’s bottle that would bring bad luck to whoever walked out with Samuel Bottomley. However, Nancy didn’t keep her promise and immediately told everyone she knew around Old Bank about the cursed bottle.
A man called John Lister was employed to dig up the cellar and he did indeed uncover a buried bottle, bottom up under the flag. The bottle was made of stone with flat sides and had a cork in the top. Unfortunately, Lister damaged the bottle when he was digging and a ‘bottle imp’ flew out and disappeared leaving a noxious smell behind it.
Nancy produced the broken bottle (sadly without the imp) for the inspection of the gathered journalists and assured them that now the charm was broken and that young Mary Baxendale was on the road to recovery.
But that’s not the end of the story. The newspaper did some digging of its own and found that the bottle was actually buried by one Mrs Sutcliffe, the sister of Mary Wilson, Samuel’s first lost love. At the time Mary (number one) was suffering from Tuberculosis and her sister suspected that she had been bewitched. To try and cure Mary, Mrs Sutcliffe had contacted ‘an old hag of a fortune teller’ named Jenny Jardine for help. The fortune teller said that Mary must fill the witch’s bottle with a liquid (the report is coy, but we may assume that she was told to urinate in the bottle). Then the bottle must be buried bottom up and parts of the Bible recited with one foot touching the bottle.
‘So much for the age we live in,’ was the reporter’s conclusion to this strange tale.
For more true tales of Calderdale witchcraft, demonic possession, ghosts, UFOs, vampires, murders and mass hysteria see my book Weird Calderdale.
[i] Halifax Guardian and Huddersfield and Bradford Advertiser 10 February 1844
Image: Mal Corvus Witchcraft & Folklore artefact private collection owned by Malcolm Lidbury (aka Pink Pasty) Witchcraft Tools
Paul Weatherhead 