Interesting Personalities of British Demonology

The history of British witchcraft has been written by C. L'Estrange Ewen, Christina Hole, and many others. From the mass of colorful characters some are mentioned below:

Agnes, wife of Ode	freed (1209) after passing the red-hot-iron test for witchcraft. She carried a red-hot bar of iron and was not seared.
Sir James Altham	one of the judges who condemned 19 witches at a stroke at Assizes at the Castle of Lancaster, August 1612.
Roger Bacon	(1214-1294) was scientist and occultist. He was confined by his Franciscan order 1257-1267 and 1278-1292 for magic and heresy. Centuries later he was still so alive in folklore that one of the University wits of Shakespeare's time (Robert Greene) put him on the stage in Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay. He introduced the Arab gown Academe.
Agnes Browne, Mary Barber, Johan Vaughn, Helen Jenkenson and Arthur Bill	all executed at Northampton in July 1612 as 'the Northamptonshire Witches.'
Jane Clarke of Wigston (Leicestershire) and her son & daughter	were 'swum' for witchcraft in Leicester in 1717, but the grand jury threw out the indictment that followed the 25 witnesses ready to testify.
Eleanor Cobham, Duchess of Glouchester	(d. 1446?), was accused of treason and being his accomplice in black magic by one Roger Bolingbroke and was imprisoned for about the last 5 years of her life.
Margaret Cooper of Somerset	(1594) was dispossessed of a demon in the form of a bear with no head.
Nathaniel Crouch	(1632-1728) wrote The Kingdom of Darkness (1688) under a pseudonym, dealing with demons and witches.
John Darrel	(fl. 1562-1602) was an unpopular exorcist who caused the Anglican Church to forbid exorcism under Cannon 72 (1603).
Annis Dell and her son George Dell	were executed at Hartford on 4 August 1606 for 'cruel and bloody murder' by witchcraft of 'a childe called Anthony James.'
Joyce Devey	was 'possest with the devill' at Bewdley, near Worcester, in 1647.
Giles Fenderlyn	confessed to having 'made a covenant with the devil for 14 years' and he 'afterwards killed his wife,' London circa 1652.
Sir Robert Fillmer	(d. 1653) introduced some sense into witchhunts with his Warning to English Judges concerning Sorceresses. A lawyer and shrewd politician, he found the flaws in the 'proofs' of William Perkins.
Alice Goodrich	died in prison at Derby after she was falsely accused by a boy called Thomas Darling of being a witch. Samuel Harsnett discussed the fraud in a book (1603). Shakespeare consulted the book for names of demons in King Lear.
John Hammond	published A most Certain Strange and True Discovery of a Witch, Being Overtaken by Some of the Parliament Forces (1643). She was shot by a soldier who saw her surfing on the river at Newbury, using a 'plank.'
Archbishop Samuel Harsnett	(1561-1631) studied the exorcisms of John Darrel and wrote an exposé of him (1509) and A Declaration of Egregious Popish Impostures on the subject of freeing people of bewitchments (1603).
Mary Hicks and her daughter Elizabeth Hicks (aged 9)	were executed for witchcraft at Huntingdon, July 1716. Executing children was rare.
Bishop Francis Hutchinson	(1660-1739) wrote An Historical Essay concerning Witchcraft (1718) which introduced more responsible methods into witchcraft inquiries.
Abraham Joiner	a teenager living in Shadwell who, having spent all his money on a woman, said he didn't know where he could get any more unless The Devil gave him some, The Devil appeared and did, etc. (1721).
Alice Kyteler	was accused (1324) by an Irish bishop, Richard of Ledrede, of witchcraft, murder of 3 husbands, and sex with demons, but she escaped to England. Several of her accomplices were caught and punished in Ireland.
John Lamb	(d. 1628), an astrologer and suspected of dealing with demons, was killed by a mob which identified him as 'the Duke (of Buckingham's) Devil.'
Andrew Mackie of Ring Croft, Stocking, Scotland	had a house with 'an apparition, expressions and actings, of a spirit' haunting it (1696).
Mary, Queen of Scots	(1542-1587) did not, as was rumored, agree to supporters' attempting to kill her rival Elizabeth by witchcraft. Indeed, Mary made witchcraft a capital offense in Scotland (1563, repealed 1736). Her son was a strong opponent of witchcraft (James VI of Scotland, James I of the United Kingdom).
Merlin of the Matter of Britain	was the legendary magician of the King Arthur stories. Wales recognizes two Merlins, Myrddin Emrys (Merlin Ambrosius, who persuaded Aurelius to bring Stonehenge from Ireland and used magic to effect that) and Myrddin Wyllt (Merlin Silvester, who after the Battle of Aderydd in 573 AD retired to the woods).
Patrick Morton	a boy who lied about witchcraft as Pittenween in Scotland, and 3 people died before he confessed. Beatrice Laing, whom he identified as bewitching him, was released.
The Osbornes, husband and wife of Tring	were lynched by the mob that accused them of witchcraft (1751).
William Perkins	(1555-1602), Puritan divine, author of a Discourse of the Damned Art of Witchcraft (1608) discussing The Devil's Mark, deals with demons, proofs of witchcraft, etc. Considered authoritative in his time.
Joan Peterson	was tried for poisoning Lady Powel(l) at Chelsea and for witchcraft (1652).
Michael Scott	(1175?-1234?), whose supposed descendant Sir Walter Scott also wrote about witchcraft, served royal personages as physician and magician on The Continent. He was credited with a demon horse, a demon ship, and various miracles. He was astrologer, alchemist, scholar of Aristotle and Avicenna, medical expert, much more.
Jane Wenham	'the Wise Woman of Wakerene,' was exonerated in Hertfordshire in what has often been said to be the last witchcraft trial in England (1712).
Christina Wilson	was convicted and executed as a witch (Dailkeith, 1551) when she failed a crucial test: When she touched a corpse, it bled, proving her guilt as a witch.