Eggert Family Genealogy

♂ Peter Drescher

Birth:        about 1556
Death:        4 Feb 1630 Markelsheim, Württemberg, Germany, age listed as 75y


Married(1) 

Married(2) Margaretha Schenck (⚰︎1623 Markelsheim, Württemberg, Germany)
	     1 Aug 1605 Markelsheim, Württemberg, Germany
Children:
    1. Drescher (⚰︎1608 Markelsheim, Württemberg, Germany)

Married(3) Catharina Kerk (*c1588 ✝︎1629 Markelsheim, Württemberg, Germany)
	     1 Aug 1623 Markelsheim, Württemberg, Germany

Married(4) Anna Barthel (~1605 Bütthard, Unterfranken, Bayern, Germany)
	     7 Aug 1629 Markelsheim, Württemberg, Germany

Notes:
Peter was a gunsmith (Büchsenschmied) by trade. He was arrested for witchcraft on 23 January 1630, having been accused by five witnesses, all women: Tobias Lang’s wife Margaretha, Anna Freyin (revoked, executed 17 May 1629), Lorenz Weit’s widow Ursula (also executed 17 May 1629), Jost Staiger’s wife Apell (also executed 17 May 1629), and Hans Wolff Pfeifer’s wife Magdalena (executed 28 Nov 1629). At his hearing on the same day, he twice denied knowing anything about witchcraft, saying that if he were such a person, he would rip out his own tongue. He was tortured on the rack, by suspension for eight minutes, by suspension with weight for three-quarters of an hour, and on the torture chair and stock for three hours, but always denied the charges, in the end smiling mockingly. He was confronted by witnesses on 24 January, denied everything, and was tortured again by suspension with weight for an hour, then finally confessed. He said that a year earlier, when his wife (since burned for witchcraft) was out, the devil came to him in bed, appearing as his wife, and lay with him. Though the devil was hairy like a sow, he was perceived as a woman. After the act, Peter cut into his thumbs and signed in blood that he wanted to belong to the devil, swearing that God was not God, rather Machakh was god and had the crown. He danced in the night with the devil. Peter named 20 accomplices, some already arrested or executed. He repeated his confession on 28, 29, 30 January, and 1 February, though he tried once to feign idiocy or blindness. He was burned at the stake on 4 February 1630.

According to the “Bericht über deren 4. Februarÿ Ao. 1630 zu Marckelsheim hingerichten 4 Hexen Persohnen ufgerichter Ehepacten”, he was married four times, with no surviving children from any wife. With his first three wives he had made no marriage contract. But with his fourth wife he did, about six or seven weeks before his execution (so in the second half of December 1629) in the chancellery in Mergentheim, according to which she and the illegitimate child she brought to their marriage were to inherit all his possessions.

Testibus (1629): Hans Bauer Beck, Georg Krieger, et Wendel Droewar[?]

Sources: MARKLSHK(⚭1605/Aug1, and here), MARKLSHK(⚭1629/Aug7, and here), MARKLSHK(⚭1632/Feb17 (widow Anna), and here), FSWRTTK(Digital Folder: 008086331, Image: 00212, Record: 31), FSWRTTK(Digital Folder: 008086331, Image: 00217, Record: 41), FSWRTTK(Digital Folder: 008086331, Image: 00221, Record: 48), HEXUM(Page: 23, 67-68. 76, 89, 491-495, 559), HEXUMB262Bü93(ID: 3), MERGENTHEX(Page: 113, ID: 123)
UUID: 1c12f74b-2f06-4d3e-999c-c96dd1d033b2
Last changed: 26 Jun 2024