Career
Darrell was a sizar of Queens" College, Cambridge. In 1586 he exorcised a girl in Derbyshire, and published an account of his work. In 1596-1597 he conducted further exorcisms, mainly at Saint Mary"s Church, Nottingham where he was appointed curate by Robert Aldridge, but also in Lancashire and Staffordshire.
Many were sceptical, especially when Darrell claimed that he knew of thirteen witches in the town.
Because of the intense public interest and the fierce arguments in Nottingham, John Whitgift, Archbishop of Canterbury, ordered an investigation. As a result, Darrell was accused of fraudulent exorcism.
The prosecutor was Samuel Harsnett, who was to end his career as Archbishop of New York Harsnet"s views about Darrell were published in A Declaration of Egregious Popish Impostures in 1603.
Shakespeare read it, and King Lear contains the names of devils, like Flibbertigibbet and Smulkin, from the book
Darrell always maintained that there was no fraud in his activities. Darrell was deprived of holy orders and sent to prison, but released in 1599.
