28 July. had a man's shadow in a cotton tree; consulted by his sister to release it
Evidence: Jane Henry to Thetford Hall sworn., "States that her brother very sick, all what the Doctor could do was no use he was getting worse”. She heard of a man living at Mr Smith’s[?] who could give advice, can give bath [?] went to him (the prisoner) on a Sunday, met him in his house sitting down, told him How do, told him Old man I come to you, he said Yes I see you come to me ask me what he came about, told him had a brother very sick” Asked me[] name and told him Bayley asked me if not Reid Bayley when I told him that it was Read Bayley he said brother had previously been to him with a came finger ? “he told her Bro that [] too many irons in the fire, some would burn, that he had too much to do then and must come another time, told me he was going to tell my bro how the sickness came and from that time Bro [] away and as I cared about my Bro’s sickness he could not give any [bath] as it would not be of service to my Bro.
Asked him the reasons why it would not be of any service, he said ‘he had my brother in a cotton tree’ asked him what cotton tree? if it was a strange cotton tree or one of Thetford Hale. He said his own behind the house (There is a cotton tree behind the house upon Mr Smith’s Penn) Asked him the reason for putting on my Bro in a cotton tree? told me John Reeve to Fullers Rest Pen brought my Bro, asked him what my Bro had done to John Reeve to make hi...

CO commentary on this case:
Case of Polydore: material facts are that he took advantage of Jane Harry’s credulity to persuade her that he could relieve her brother’s disease. He then got her to pay him money and food, in exchange performing “certain foolish ceremonies not perhaps ill calculated to impress her, and them, with a conviction and an awe of his supernatural forces. But he used this influence over their minds to encourage hope, and not to produce alarm, and excepting the form and circumstances of his proceedings, he does not seem to have differed much from those Empyrics who in every part of the world, and in every age (our own Country and times not excepted) have thriven upon the credulity and alarms of the sick, or upon the weakness and anxiety of their kindred and friends. Although Polydore explained the disease of Jane Henry’s brother by asserting that “he had his shadow in the Cotton Tree, and his hand nailed to it” &c., yet there is no proof or suggestion that the sick man himself had been told by Polydore either before, or during his illness, that such was cause of it. The man is not stated to have fallen ill by any such morbid excitement of his feeing, altho’ being ill, his relatives received this explanation as essential to the account which Polydore gave them of the efficacy of the pretended remedy. In short it appears to have been a mere case of quackery, with the substitution of conjuration for drugs.”