Anne Gunter

The case was championed by her father, Brian Gunter, who had previously killed two sons of the Gregory family during a game of football.

[1] Her father was the lay rector at North Moreton who fatally injured two yeoman named John and Richard Gregory during a football match in May 1598.

Brian Gunter reached over the shoulders of the struggling men and, struck the two Gregorys on the head with pommel of his dagger.

[5] The King referred the case to, Richard Bancroft, the Archbishop of Canterbury who gave the problem to Samuel Harsnett.

In 1606 Harsnett and Richard Neile, Dean of Westminster, and possibly Bancroft started a case in the influential Star Chamber against Anne and her father.

He had given her various liquids to drink including a mixture of sack (wine) and salad oil (sallet), as well as what was described as 'green water'[1] to his daughter to induce her to vomit to add to the evidence against Elizabeth Gregory and her two supposed partners.

It is thought that the case became so high-profile because the clergy involved wanted to discredit those who gained from the belief in demonic possession by performing exorcisms.

This seems to be confirmed, given that James I wrote in October 1605, that Anne had fallen in love with a servant of Archbishop Bancroft, Asheley, and that it was reciprocal.