Bio 04a John Darrell Exorcist

Cleworth Hall

Recent studies of my own have brought to light the name of John Darrell (c1562-1607). In the ODNB, Thomas S Freeman describes him as 'the most spectacularly successful and celebrated (or notorious) of the Puritan exorcists, who included Edward Nyndge, John Foxe, Richard Rothwell and Robert Balsom. His career, and the difficulty Bancroft had in ending it, largely inspired the canon 72, which forbids exorcism without episcopal permission.'

Others describe Darrell as a godly Protestant who acquired a reputation as an exorcist quite unwillingly. They point out that 'his preferred method of ridding the possessed of their demons was to prescribe fasting and prayer and to leave them to their fate.' They suggest that it was his apparent successes that made him enemies and led to his imprisonment. What follows is based largely on Freeman's article but I have consulted other articles available online.

John Foxe

Foxe (1516-1587) and his brush with demon possession is another story, though it is fair to say that he 'remained the standard by which Protestant dispossessors of demons measured themselves'. Darrell himself cites Foxe as the most authoritative Protestant cleric on the authenticity of possession and includes him in his list of clerics who asserted that casting out devils was natural rather than miraculous. Darrell claimed to surpass Foxe's expertise by faulting his credulity and lack of skill. Darrell's associate, George More, asserted that he and Darrell were divinely inspired to discern possession directly because it had pleased God to imbue them with an immediate spiritual perception of demonic presence while Foxe had been able to discern possession only indirectly, through his intellect. Darrell, on the other hand, wrote that ‘The expulsion of Satan by prayer, or fasting and prayer is no miracle, because it is brought to pass by means ordained to that end.’ Prayer and fasting ‘is as effectual through the blessing of God upon this his ordinance to cast Satan forth of those he possesses as the best medicine we have is to cure any natural disease’.

Origins

Darrell was born in Nottinghamshire, probably in the Mansfield area, the son of one Henry Darrell. He became a sizar of Queens' College, Cambridge, in June 1575, graduating BA in 1579. He subsequently left Cambridge and studied law at an inn of court in London before returning to home to take up farming. He married at some stage. His wife's name is unknown.

His reputation as an exorcist must have begun before 1586 but it was in that year that he was asked to deal with a reputed demoniac, Katherine Wright. According to Samuel Harsnett, who was to become Darrell's chief adversary, he was already known as ‘a man of hope, for the releeving of those that were distressed in this sort’. After two sessions with Wright, held several weeks apart, Darrell was credited with having expelled her demons. He also attempted to prosecute a local woman whom Wright accused of bewitching her. According to Harsnett this led to a confrontation with local magistrate Geoffrey Fouljambe. If so, it is remarkable that the magistrate's wife, Isabel, was sent a written account of the exorcism by Darrell himself. Isabel Fouljambe (nee Wray, later Bowes, then Darcy) was a patron to later Puritan preachers such as Richard Bernard and Richard Rothwell and was closely associated with a group of Puritan clergy led by Arthur Hildersham centred in Ashby-de-la-Zouch. These Puritans were to become Darrell's most important supporters. It is likely that Isabel introduced Darrell to them.

Thomas Darling

Some time after the Wright exorcism, Darrell moved first to Bulwell, near Nottingham, then to Ashby, where he settled. He was an enthusiastic participant in godly exercises throughout the Midlands and is known to have preached at Ashby. During this period he led an exemplary life and later produced testimonials to his good character from the people of the places where he lived. Even Abraham Hartwell, who later attacked Darrell, had to acknowledge his ‘Stoicall conversation and holy life’.

Darrell's rise to more than local fame began with his exorcism of Thomas Darling, an adolescent demoniac of Burton upon Trent, on 28 May 1596. Darling was said to have seen green angels and demonic cats, as well as having extended dramatic conversations with a duo of devils and Jesus Christ. As in Wright's case, a local woman was accused of causing possession by means of witchcraft. This time the accused was convicted and died in prison, though there is no evidence Darrell had anything to do with her prosecution.

Cleworth Hall

Darrell, along with George More, capped this by exorcising some seven demoniacs in the household of Nicholas Starkey, a Lancashire gentleman at Cleworth hall, Tyldesley, on 17 and 18 March, 1597. Starkey had consulted the celebrated John Dee, alchemist and astronomer, about the behaviour of a number of people in his household, all of whom showed signs of possession. Dee advised him to seek the help of godly preachers and to engage in prayer and fasting. Only one person, a Jane Ashton, was able to resist Darrell and More. More put this down to the interference of Catholic priests.

To be continued