Bateman Byre

Mary Bateman, the famous Yorkshire witch was born Mary Harker in Asenby, 1768 and from an early age was a thief and a liar. As well as working as a domestic, she made extra money as a fortune teller preying on people who believed she had supernatural powers. Later she moved to Leeds and became a dressmaker as she had been sacked from so many jobs in her local area and no one would trust or employ her. Aged 24, Mary married John Bateman, a wheelwright. They moved around a lot as her schemes were becoming so prevalent, her victims grew wise to her thievery.

During 1806 Mary met a married couple, William & Rebecca Perigo. Rebecca had complained of chest pains and thought a curse had been put on her and hoped Mary could help with her ‘supernatural powers’. Taking advantage of this, Mary swindled the Perigo's out of a large amount of money in a very short space of time. Convincing them that she was in the service of an oracle called Mrs Blythe, who possessed the power to see into the Perigos future. Mary began to poison the Perigos with mercury chloride. She told William & Rebecca that Mrs Blythe had sent a letter, via Mary, instructing them to eat a certain pudding for several days, so on the 11th May, Mary started to feed them her deadly concoction. Rebecca ate all the pudding, as instructed, but William could only eat half and soon they both became extremely ill. Mary then gave them an antidote, but unfortunately for the couple, this turned out to be arsenic. As William hadn't eaten a lot of the pudding he slowly recovered but Rebecca became gravely ill and eventually died on 24th May 1806.

Mary Bateman was ultimately caught via her web of treachery and schemes. Mr Perigo had contacted a local constable who then arrested her based mostly on her reputation. She was convicted of murder and sentenced to hang on 20th March 1809.