THE LOWESTOFT WITCHES

 

DEBORAH PACY
aged 7
Daughter of Samuel and Elizabeth Pacy


 Deborah Pacy, the first and youngest of the Pacy sisters to be "bewitched"  was the third child of Samuel and Elizabeth Pacy.  She was baptised at Lowestoft on 12 April 1654, so in all probability, contrary to the report's statement that she was aged "nine or thereabouts", she was approaching her 8th birthday in March 1662.

Little or nothing is known about her either as a child or an adult.

She survived her travails as a "victim" of witchcraft and grew up to marry Joseph Pake, a Lowestoft doctor.  By 1680 Deborah and Joseph married by but no record of their wedding has yet been found.  It was in that year that Samuel, her father, died and left her a legacy of £150 to be used towards the purchase of "an Estate in London" which was part of the Agreement and Marriage Settlement with Joseph Pake.

Deborah had 5 children: Deborah (born 1681), Samuel (born 1684), Joseph (born 1688), Susan (born 1693) and Elizabeth (whose birth date is not known).  The family probably  lived in a large, freehold house at the North End of Lowestoft High Street.

Deborah died at Lowestoft in January 1696 and was buried beside her father in the chancel of St. Margaret's Church, Lowestoft.  She was 42 years old.

The inscription on her tombstone reads:
 
HERE LIETH THE BODY OF
DEBORAH PAKE THE WIFE OF IO-
SEPH PAKE AND DAVGHTER
OF SAMUEL AND ELIZABETH
PACY DECEASED WHO
DIED JANRY 23RD
1695/6 AGED
42 YEARS

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