by Bob Curran
The sisters were not at liberty for long. On the orders of the prosecutor they were picked up and taken to Voorne. Part of their witchcraft charge involved drawing the energies from their neighbors for their own benefit. The charge against Nijinge is dated July 10th, 1584, and was based on the testimony of Leunis Corneliszoon, then six years old, which had been given against Nijinge. He was also her grandson. The child stated that on several occasions he had seen his grandmother consort with a little old man dressed in red clothes who had given her a silver vial to drink from. The boy was sure that the little man had cloven feet and that what his grandmother had been drinking was blood. Strangely, even when faced with this evidence, the prosecutor didn’t act immediately (perhaps because the boy was very young). However, on June 29th, 1585, Nijinge was arrested, along with neighbor Willemgen Jansdochter, on suspicion of witchcraft. The arrests came about because Lenaert Jacobszoon Leerecop had renewed his accusation in front of two prosecutor’s assistants from Voorne. It was decided that, for administrative reasons, the trial would be held in Goedereede—the first time such a trial would be held in such a relatively minor town. The mayor and the local officials had no experience of dealing with such trials, so they hired a Flemish lawyer, Fransinus Zoetius, who had a great deal of experience in Belgian witch trials, as an advisor. His arrival placed a different emphasis on the case. He assisted the local magistrates at their questioning, and the woman denied everything. She denied cursing the neighbor and a number of other charges that were put to her. She did, however, admit to casting a spell against her own son and another relative, but later would retract the confession, saying that she had been confused.
The magistrates were still not satisfied and became even more alarmed when several other people came forward to say that they had experience disturbed sleep and had awoken exhausted and ill after dreaming of Nijinge during the night. They had no doubt that she was a Waalridder, and that they had been visited by her malicious spirit as they slept. The woman was a vampire of sorts and could torment them even without her physical body leaving her house. The advisor Zoetius now recommended that she be questioned under torture, an executioner was brought from Dordrecht to assist in the questioning. The torture involved both Nijinge and her sister being hoisted on a paleye. The women were also deprived of sleep. However, neither of them confessed.
More people came forward accusing Nijinge of being a vampire and a nachtmerrie. Nijinge’s body was shaved and she was given loose clothing—the reason for this being that it was impossible for the Devil to stand next to her or to hold onto her. Because there had been little evidence against her, Leene had been released, but under intensified torture Nijinge confessed to witchcraft and implicated her as well; she was subsequently rearrested. On January 12th, 1586, Nijinge was subjected to more torture and confessed to cursing certain neighbors. It is not known if she was questioned further. Her son Peter visited her shortly after she had been tortured on January 12th, but what passed between them in unknown. Nijinge Dimmensdr and Willemgen Jansdochter were both burned at the stake for witchcraft on January 22nd, 1586.
As for Leene, torture was once again threatened, but was not necessary, as Leene quickly and willingly confessed, stating that the Devil or his representative had visited her roughly two years after her husband’s death and had proposed to her. He promised her great power over her neighbors, saying that she could enjoy their health and energy as she saw fit. At first she refused, but he returned the following month to see if she’d changed her mind. Although greatly frightened, she didn’t ask him to leave right away, but asked him his name. He replied that his name was Jacob and that he came from Sommelsdijk. After much discussion, they finally agreed that they would live together, and the man drew a mark in blood on her forehead to seal the agreement. This scared her so much that she turned away and asked him to leave. However, within the month, he returned and said that he wished to sleep with her. She agreed to this. The following morning Jacob gave her a magic powder that she could use to gain access to her neighbors’ houses without their knowing and to turn herself into a cat. Leene said that she had tried the powder several times and had entered the houses of neighbors with whom she had a dispute and had drawn off their energies. She had also gone around for eight weeks in the form of a cat terrorizing them all. The confession was a damning one, and there was no doubt in the magistrates’ minds that she was a witch. The prospect of being burnt scared Leene greatly, and before the sentence could be carried out, she managed to escape from prison. Making her way to the harbor point in Goedereede, she drowned herself in the water.
There was also a third sister. Although Eeuwoot Dimmens had only been peripherally named in some of the accusations against the other two, she was still under suspicion by the authorities. And once the suspicion had been planted, there were soon other accusations directly concerning her, although no evidence was ever presented. Nevertheless, in May 1592, when Eeuwoot was 67 and crippled, she was arrested and charged with witchcraft, coupled with an accusation of being a nachtmerrie. A judge arrived from Voorne on July 29th to conduct a preliminary trial and the accusations were named, one being that she had drawn the “goodness” from the house of her neighbor. The old lady replied that she was confused and that she couldn’t really remember anything regarding the accusations. There was no firm evidence against her and she didn’t confess, but she was put back in prison until the prosecutor could decide what to do. She remained in prison for four months and the confinement was having an effect on her rather fragile health.
The prosecutor now applied to use torture, but this was rejected because of her general physical condition (she might die before she was able to confess), and second on the lack of evidence against her. Even from her prison cell, a semblance of Eeuwoot had been able to torment some of her neighbors, appearing in their bedrooms at night in order to draw their energies from them and leave them exhausted in the morning. But the evidence was shaky and the authorities were not able to proceed to a full trial. Eeuwoot continued to languish in prison while the prosecutor looked around for more compelling evidence of witchcraft. Finally, on April 22nd, 1593, 11 months after she’d been first incarcerated, several more accusers were brought forward. There was no new evidence though, just accusations that were probably motivated by petty disagreements and dislike. Eeuwoot’s husband, Marinus Faeszoon, now petitioned the authorities to have his wife released.
In his petition, Faeszoon stated that his wife had always been a quiet woman and that she had been a good mother and had raised a respectable family. There was no evidence against her except that of malicious gossip. The magistrates agreed, and said that if no evidence were produced, Eeuwoot should be freed. Sensing that the judiciary was moving against him, Prosecutor Aertsz renewed his application for torture, only this time he applied only to the local authorities. Eventually this was granted, and the executioner was brought once again. Before he subjected her to the rack, he kept her awake for nine days and nine nights and then she was questioned again. She did not, of course, divulge much information. However, she did admit to associating with the Devil or his agent. Nevertheless, there was not enough evidence to hold her, and with her husband applying once more for her release, she was freed.
Although Eeuwoot had been freed, Prosecutor Aertsz was not done with the family just yet. A half-sister named Joosgen Dircx Costers lived nearby and had been implicated in the alleged witchcraft and nocturnal vampirism of her relatives. The prosecutor now suspected her of being a witch as well. However, her husband was Adriaen Corniliszoon Clerck, an important man in the local community. As well as being a former mayor of Goedereede, he was also serving as the town clerk at the time the prosecutor made his accusations. As the number of stories about her alleged witchcraft and about her being a nachtmerrie began to grow, Joosgen became worried—after all, she had seen the fate of her two half-sisters. Like Eeuwoot, she appealed directly to Prince Mauritz, who directed that she be cleared of all the accusations against
her. The prosecutor was, however, determined to press ahead and placed the accusations before the local authorities in Goedereede himself. They came to the conclusion that the accusations had no basis and that the defendant was innocent of all charges. Joosgen’s good name was reinstated and the case against the family came to an end.
The case had important ramifications for witchcraft and nachtmerrie cases in the Netherlands. From late 1592 onward, it was almost impossible to get anyone convicted simply on the accusations of neighbors—the accused had to admit diabolic involvement freely and willingly (without the use of torture). This was the decision of Hof Van Holland, and it was perhaps in response to the petitions had been laid before it. It is worth noting that both Eeuwoot and Joosgen had husbands of some standing in the community who were able to plead for them, whereas Leene and Nijinge were both widows and fared less well in the face of accusations—even in places like the Netherlands survival depended on a male protector as far as witchcraft accusations were concerned. Also, there had been a recent witch trial in the town of Schiedem where torture had been used, leading to some questionable evidence, and Hof Van Holland didn’t want a repeat of that. But just because the law had changed it didn’t mean that people’s perceptions were any different. They still believed in nachtmerrie and vampire kind and still took folkloric protections against them.
From 1613, the position concerning witch trials took on a new element in the Netherlands. As Protestantism began to spread, those who still practiced Catholicism or took a different view to the accepted line were counted as witches and night visitors. Their accusers were no longer their neighbors, but the authorities themselves.
We only know of the second major witch trial in the history of the Netherlands because of a pamphlet. All records of the proceedings have been lost. The trials took place in Roermond, a city that stands on the lower Roer and on the eastern bank of the Meuse River. In 1613, roughly 64 persons were arrested on suspicion of being witches and nachtmerrie. The first was Tryntjen van Zittaert, a local woman who, together with her daughter, had boasted that they could enter the bedrooms of several children and cause them to die by “drawing the breath” from them. The boasting took place at an unfortunate time—there had been a spate of bad harvest, blighted crops, diseases in animals and fish, human miscarriages, and widespread unemployment in the surrounding countryside. It was said that the miscarriages were the work of nachtmerrie, who had “drawn the good” out of unborn children. The boasting was initially done to some children with whom Tryntjen’s daughter had been playing, and on hearing of it, the children’s parents made a formal complaint to the church, who immediately raised the matter with the authorities. Charges were brought and the affair assumed the status of a full inquisition. Under questioning with torture, Tryntjen and her daughter made a full confession and began to implicate others in their witchcraft. More arrests quickly followed. It is possible that some of those arrested were of a slightly different religion than the growing Protestant faith, or of no religion at all, and that the arrests were religiously motivated. While in prison, Tryntjen’s daughter (then 12 years old) allegedly made things, such as coins, appear from her mouth at will. There was little doubt that the child was skilled, but it was taken as evidence of witchcraft. When tortured, Tryntjen confessed to having killed at least 41 children and a number of adults by drawing the goodness from them as a nachtmerrie and of blighting a number of crops and animals as a witch. She also implicated several other people including a local doctor, Jan van Ool. While van Ool and 10 others were being arrested, Tryntjen and her daughter were brought to trial. Both were found guilty; the mother was burned, and the daughter locked in a convent for the rest of her life.
Jan van Ool was tortured and finally confessed to being a witch. He stated that he had killed his wife because she had refused to agree to a pact with Satan, and that he cut her up into small pieces and had thrown her down a well. He also claimed that he was forced by the Devil to extract the life out of one person for each 10 that he healed. In the years that he had practiced as a doctor, he had gradually drawn the goodness (and the life) out of 150 people in total. He was burnt alive, but not before he had accused at least 41 other witches and nachtmerrie. All of them were submitted to torture and every one of them confessed. They had inflicted disease and taken the good from many people, including their own families.
The witch hunt then moved slightly across the German border. In the municipality of Straelen in the district of Cleves, a woman named Entjen Gilles was arrested and confessed to having “drawn the good” from the unborn fetuses of pregnant woman, causing them to be stillborn. She had also magically damaged the wombs of many women, leaving them sterile. She was burnt alive.
In total, there were more than 63 witches and nachtmerrie brought to trial, all of them found guilty and condemned to death. At one point, two people were being burnt every day, as their cases were rushed through in the minimum amount time. It is said that more than 600 small and unborn children were destroyed by the nachtmerrie and that 400 adults and more than 6,000 animals were killed through witchcraft.
What brought about the end to the persecutions is largely unknown. Perhaps the social and economic climate changed; perhaps the Dutch judiciary took a wider view and limited the powers of the church and certain social authorities. But, like the accusations in Goedereede, their effect was devastating. Some of those who fled started to settle elsewhere, somewhere they were not known and could perhaps start a new life, far beyond the gaze of the authorities. Somewhere like the New Netherlands.
Ever since the English explorer Henry Hudson had reported to the Amsterdam authorities in 1609 that he had found fertile land on the East Coast of the New World, Dutch colonial interest there had been piqued. It was further stimulated by the publication of his report in 1612 by the Dutch Consul in London, Emanuel Van Meteren. Similar to many of his Dutch contemporaries, Van Meteren saw immense commercial and traditional opportunities in such an area, and the merchants of Amsterdam were determined to exploit these. Between 1611 and 1612, the Admiralty of Amsterdam sent two secret expeditions to what is now the New England coast in order to see if a way could be found to reach China by following some of the rivers. Between 1611 and 1614, the region between Maryland and Massachusetts had also been mapped and assessed by explorers such as Adriaen Block, Hendrick Christiaensen, and Cornelius Jacobsen Mey. However, the British were also showing an interest in what is now the American East Coast, and it was essential that the Dutch laid claim to the area and established settlements there as quickly as possible. Speedily, the Dutch West India Company assumed jurisdiction in the region and began shipping settlers there. Emigration to the New World was encouraged in the Netherlands, as Dutch merchants strove to formalize a trading presence there.
It has been noted elsewhere in this book that suspicious Dutch immigrants were still arriving in America as late as the 1800s. In the port of Charleston, South Carolina, the curious house occupied by the Black Constable, John Domingo, had formerly been owned by a Dutchman who had run a shop there. Both the man and the place had a sinister reputation, and it was rumored that the Dutchman had been forced to flee the Netherlands for some unspecified reason, perhaps religious persecution (although this description could cover a number of reasons). Might someone similar have been buried beneath the foundations of the house in Schenectady in an earlier time? Someone who might have been a witch and a nachtmerrie? All the symptoms that affected the people in the building—tiredness, evil dreams, illness, and loss of energy—would seem to correspond to those earlier cases detailed in the Netherlands.
There is no exact identification of a possible individual who might have been buried in the old Dutch graveyard on which the house had been built, but there are legends. It has to be said, however, that some of these tales may have been made up for various reasons. The British who took over the area may have wished to discredit the Dutch who had been buried there, and they may have been circulated by different landlo
rds within the city who were competing for tenants. Nevertheless, the stories may have some validity and certainly assume a rather sinister tone.
The stories concern Zwarte Piet, also known as “Black Peter.” Peter van Lind arrived in the area around New Amsterdam sometime during the Directorship of Willem Verhulst or of Peter Minuit when the Eighty Years War was at its height. He supposedly came from a village somewhere near Amsterdam and was supposed to have a dubious background. It is alleged that he was accused of witchcraft and of causing stillbirths. He was also accused of summoning and of consorting with demons over which he had dominion and which he sent to do evil against his neighbors. No one knows what profession he followed, but he was also known to have alchemical skills.
His evil ways did stop when he came to the New World, for he terrified the settlers with alleged magical practices. According to some accounts, he lived in one of the new Dutch villages along the Hudson Valley, while others say he lived in a small cabin well away from the settlement. It is also said that he worked as a hunter and traded among the local Indians and learned their ways.
Van Lind supposedly consorted with Lenape shamans, and from them he learned the secret of sending his dark spirit out for mischievous purposes (although some argue that he already knew how to do this). And he was supposed to be able to draw down old gods that the Indians had worshipped for his own benefit. It is said that he was almost a law unto himself in the developing colony, and that even the authorities there were fearful of him.
There are various accounts of how Peter van Lind met his end. Some say his body was found in the deep woods (it was said that he had been frequenting very ancient and pagan altars there) and that the body was marked with great slashes. Had he encountered something among the remote forest tracks that had torn at him with ravening talons, eventually killing him? Others say that he died in his cabin while trying to summon something using magical incantations. Others say that he died of perfectly natural causes. No one can say exactly where he is buried, but it is widely believed that he was given a Christian burial. Could it be that he was buried in an unmarked plot in some ancient Dutch graveyard in what is now Schenectady? Certainly he was suspected of being a nachtmerrie and of drawing energies from some of the other colonists. Even after death, his influence may have been supernaturally felt in the immediate environs of his grave, and the fungal outline on the floor of the cellar may have identified his last resting place.