Grace Webb (1821 - 1893)

Born 6 Dec 1821 in Crewkerne, Somerset, England, United Kingdom

Ancestors

Died 14 Dec 1893 at age 72 in Blue Mountains, Grey, Ontario, Canada

Biography

Grace Webb was born on 6 December 1821 in Crewkerne, Somerset. She was the daughter of Samuel Webb and Ann (Furzer) Webb. She was christened on 13 Jan 1822 in Crewkerne.

Grace's father died in December 1835 in Crewkerne; Grace was thirteen years old.

By June 6th 1841, Grace and seven brothers and sisters were living with their mother Ann in South Street, Crewkerne.

By March 30th 1851, Grace was still single and living with her mother, along with just two brothers. There was also a lodger in the household, Eli Dement, a young man from the local area. Grace was employed as a handloom girth web weaver, as were her brothers John and Simon. The lodger was a sawer. Grace's mother wasn't doing paid work.

In February 1852, Grace attacked her aunt Charity Furzer, scratched her arm and drew blood. She believed that her aunt was "hag-riding" her using witchcraft, and that making her bleed would free Grace of the curse. Grace had been having great difficulty sleeping at night, was very tired which made it almost impossible to walk to church, and sometimes felt a weight on her chest or stomach as if her aunt were sitting on it, and believed that she saw her aunt come into her room every night.

Charity brought a legal case against her niece for assault - perhaps to clear her name. In the course of the trial, Grace testified that two of her uncles had claimed on their death beds that Charity had caused their deaths by witchcraft. Grace also said that after drawing her aunt's blood she felt well again and was able to walk to church. Her mother backed up her testimony in general, but made it clear she had never actually seen Charity in her daughter's room as Grace claimed to have done. Charity testified to her own innocence, with tears running down her face.

The Bench lectured the defendant on the foolishness of believing in witchcraft, and ordered her to pay the court costs; no further sentence was imposed though she was "advised to shake hands with her aunt".

By April 7th 1861, Grace and her brother John were still living with their mother in South Street, Crewkerne. Grace was still a handloom weaver; their mother was now 73.

Grace's mother died in 1866.

By 1871, Grace was living in Uxbridge, North Ontario, Canada with her brother Thomas and his wife Mary. Thomas was farming there; all three gave their religion as "I Meth E" - Independent Methodist?

By 1881, Mary had died, and Grace was in King, York North, Ontario with Thomas; Thomas was now a labourer. Both were Canadian Methodists. Grace's ancestry is given as Scottish, probably an error by the enumerator.

Grace died on 14 December 1893 in Grey, Ontario, Canada. Her memorial inscription gives her death date, and her age as 72 years and [8?] days. Commemorated on other sides of the same memorial are Lizzie Grace Proctor (who died 18 Apr 1884, aged 18 years 1 month and 23 days old) and a Proctor couple whose inscription isn't very legible in the photo. Thomas' daughter Ann was married to Charles Proctor, so probably it's their gravestone.

Hag Riding

Grace's experiences of "hag-riding" probably correspond to what is now called "sleep paralysis". Being half-awake as we wake up or fall asleep can produce a "hypnogogic state" where very vivid visual images appear before our inner eye. Sometimes it also results in hallucinations, either visual or auditory, in the first brief interval after waking, and in "sleep paralysis", again, in the short period after waking. For a detailed but easy read on sleep paralysis and hallucinations, see Hallucinations by Oliver Sacks (2012).

Research Notes

It's unclear where Grace was in 1891, but she doesn't appear to have been with Charles Proctor and his family.^[1]

Sources

1. ↑ https://central.bac-lac.gc.ca/.item/?app=Census1891&op=img&id=30953_148160-00647 and https://central.bac-lac.gc.ca/.item/?app=Census1891&op=img&id=30953_148160-00648

• Baptism "England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:J315-ZVS : 21 March 2020), Grace Webb, 1822.

• Burialhttps://billiongraves.com/grave/GRACE-WEBB/13107143

• "England and Wales Census, 1841," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MQ14-VS5 : 24 May 2019), Grace Webb in household of Ann Webb, Crewkerne, Somerset, England, United Kingdom; from "1841 England, Scotland and Wales census," database and images, findmypast (http://www.findmypast.com : n.d.); citing PRO HO 107, The National Archives, Kew, Surrey.

• "England and Wales Census, 1851," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:SGPM-L9C : 11 September 2019), Grace Webb in household of Ann Webb, Crewkerne, Somerset, England; citing Crewkerne, Somerset, England, p. 26, from "1851 England, Scotland and Wales census," database and images, findmypast (http://www.findmypast.com : n.d.); citing PRO HO 107, The National Archives of the UK, Kew, Surrey.

• "England and Wales Census, 1861," database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M76B-C3F : 6 August 2020), Grace Webb in household of Anne Webb, Crewkerne, Somerset, England, United Kingdom; from "1861 England, Scotland and Wales census," database and images, findmypast (http://www.findmypast.com : n.d.); citing PRO RG 9, The National Archives, Kew, Surrey.

• "Canada Census, 1871," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M4QD-K6C : 24 October 2018), Grace Webb in household of Thomas Webb, Ontario, Ontario, Canada; citing 1871; citing National Archives of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario. Image link https://central.bac-lac.gc.ca/.item/?app=Census1871&op=img&id=4396345_00316

• "Canada Census, 1881," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MVF4-9K4 : 20 May 2019), Grace Webb in household of Thomas Webb, King, South Riding, York, Ontario, Canada; from "1881 Canadian Census." Database with images. Ancestry. (www.ancestry.com : 2008); citing Thomas Webb, citing Library and Archives Canada, Ottawa, Ontario. Image link https://central.bac-lac.gc.ca/.item/?app=Census1881&op=img&id=e008184310

• Davies, Owen. A People Bewitched: Witchcraft and Magic in Nineteenth-Century Somerset, 2012, p. 2

See also:

• FamilySearch tree entry https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/LCJZ-99R