The Curse on James Phillip
James Phillip was steward to Henry, Lord Scrope, of Bolton,
in the reign of Henry VIII and in that capacity he appears
to have exercised his authority with a merciless hand.
He exacted forced loans from the tenants, and any refusal
was met by eviction. He was engaged in frequent litigation
and quarrels with his neighbours, and one of them, Avery
Uvedale, of Marrick, says, in his complaint against him
- "His extorcione is almost cryede owt apon in
everye poore widdowe's mowthe," and he "soo
vexithe many poore menne with proces and suits in the lawe,
that they be utterly undoone and almost readye to goo abowt
in the cuntrye on begging wt staff and pouke."
His doings seem to have engendered a fierce hatred in
someone for with this James Philip is associated a diabolical
tale. About the year 1789, two leaden tablets were found
concealed in a tumulus on Gaterley Moor. One side of each
tablet is divided by perpendicular and horizontal lines
into 81 small squares, and in each of these are figures
ranged in arithmetical proportion from 1 to 81, and so disposed
that the sum of each row - horizontally and diagonally,
as well as perpendicularly - is equal to 369.
Under one of these diagrams is J. Phillip. The other side
of each bears several astrological or magical characters,
and an inscription as follows:
"I do make this, that James Phillip, John Phillip
his son, Christopher Phillip and Thomas Phillip, his sons,
shall fle Richemondshire, and nothing prosper with any of
them in Richemondshire." - "I did make
this, that the father James Phillip, John Phillip, and all
kin of Phillip, and all the issue of them, shall come presently
to utter beggery, and nothinge joy or prosper with them
in Richemondshire."
Belief in witchcraft and other forms of sorcery was very
prevalent in that age, and probably these magical tables
were the work of some one who had suffered at the hands
of James Phillip, and had adopted this species of diableric
to bring down upon him and his kin the malediction of heaven.
Be this as it may, it is a curious coincidence that, after
the curse, no branch of the family flourished. All the sons
of James and their issue died out, and their sister Agnes
carried the representation of the Phillips to the Robinsons,
afterwards of Rokeby.
Jane Weston
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