Witchcraft executions.

England and Wales.

Writing in 2018, some 400 years later, it is hard to take some of the accusations made against, usually defenceless and poor old women, seriously. I do not therefore propose to offer any judgement about the validity or fairness of the trials or the confessions that so many of the convictions were based upon. Nor do I seek to explain why certain areas of the country, particularly Devon, Essex and East Anglia had so many more of cases than other areas. It is thought that there were just five witch hangings in Wales in the 17th century.
Throughout Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries, particularly, people certainly did believe in the power of witchcraft and this belief continued into the 19th century. Witch persecutions were prevalent at this time, especially in Germany, France and Scotland.

Even in the early 19th century, after witchcraft had been effectively decriminalised, many still believed in its existence. Some thought that Mary Bateman, the murderous “Yorkshire Witch” would be able to save herself from the gallows at York in 1809. The people of Leeds had not wished to report her criminal activities to the authorities in case she put a spell on them.

Witchcraft was a convenient scapegoat to blame for unexplained illness and sudden deaths amongst people and livestock at a time when the medical profession of the day did not have the knowledge or resources to ascertain the proper causes of these as they would now.

It is estimated that less than 500 people were executed in England for witchcraft between 1566 and 1684 and that just six were put to death between 1066 and 1560. Of these six, only one is confirmed as having been burned at the stake, this being Margery Jordemaine on 27 October 1441. Margaret was know as the "The Witch of Eye" and was convicted of treason for using sorcery to attempt to cause the death of Henry VI. She was executed at London’s Smithfield. Three weeks later Roger Bolingbroke was executed for the same offence, by hanging, drawing and quartering at Tyburn, these being the normal punishments for treason.

Henry VIII introduced a Witchcraft Act in 1542 which defined witchcraft as felony rather than a religious offence. It was to be tried by the normal assize courts and was punishable, like all other felonies of the time, with a maximum penalty of death by hanging.

The Act stated : "It shall be felony to practise, or cause to be practised conjuration, witchcraft, enchantment or sorcery, to get money; or to consume any person in his body, members or goods; or to provoke any person to unlawful love; or for the despight of Christ, or lucre of money, to pull down any Cross; or to declare where goods stolen be."

Burning at the stake was not permitted by this Act, although it was under Scottish law and was widely used on the continent. Torture to obtain confession was also prohibited.

Henry’s statute was abolished just five years later by his son Edward VI and it is unclear whether anybody was actually executed in the intervening period. Elizabeth I passed a new Witchcraft Act in 1563 which came into force on June the 1st of that year. This Act specified a year’s imprisonment plus pillorying on four occasions during the year for a first offence with death by hanging for a second offence unless the person was convicted of murder by witchcraft, in which case the death sentence was mandatory.

The first recorded person to suffer under this Act was 64 year old Agnes Waterhouse from the village of Hatfield Peverel, near Chelmsford in Essex, who confessed to murder by witchcraft. Agnes was tried at Chelmsford Assizes on 26 July 1566, along with her eighteen year old daughter Joan and one Elizabeth Francis. Agnes confessed to the murder of her husband by bewitching, Joan was acquitted and Elizabeth convicted, being sentenced to one year in prison with pillorying. She was duly released but arrested and charged with witchcraft again in 1579. As it was her second conviction she was hanged.

There were 22 witchcraft trials at Chelmsford in 1579. One of the accused was Elizabeth Francis (see above) who confessed to being a witch and witching Alice Poole. Ellen Smith (or Smyth) from Malden was convicted of bewitching a four year old child to death and was also hanged. A third woman to suffer was Alice Nokes of Lambourne who had been convicted of witching to death Elizabeth Barsett (or Barfoot). Richard and Joan Prestmary from Great Dunmow were convicted and condemned but it seems that their sentences were not carried out.

The trial of the St. Osyth witches was held at Chelmsford in 1582. St. Osyth is a village near Brightlingsea, Essex. Fourteen women from the village were charged with witchcraft, of whom ten were charged with the capital felony of bewitching to death.

Of these fourteen, two were not indicted, two were remanded to prison to face other charges, four were acquitted, four were convicted and sentenced to death but later reprieved. Just two of the defendants were to hang, they were Ursula Kempe and Elizabeth Bennet. They were duly executed at Chelmsford and their bodies returned to St. Osyth for burial. In 1921 two female skeletons were discovered there who had had metal nails driven into their elbow and knee joints. This was believed at the time to be a way of preventing witches rising from the grave. Whether these were the skeletons of Ursula Kempe and Elizabeth Bennet is open to question.

In the year 1589 thirty one women and six men were tried for witchcraft at Chelmsford assizes.

A triple hanging took place at Primrose Hill, Rainsford Lane, Chelmsford when Joan Coney, Joan Upney (also given as Uptney) and Joan Prentice were executed a mere two hours after sentence. Joan Coney from Stisted was convicted of one murder by witching plus three instances where her victim became seriously ill. Joan Upney from Dagenham was convicted of the murders through bewitching of Joan Harwood and Alice Foster.

Joan Prentice from Sible Hedingham confessed to consorting the devil, in the form of a ferret, which she had commanded to nip Sara Glascock who later died.

This woodcut picture shows the three women hanging side by side from a simple gallows surrounded by cats or ferrets. It is unclear whether they were turned off ladders or the back of a cart.

An amazing total of some 290 witchcraft trials took place in the county of Essex between 1560 and 1675. Some resulted in executions, some of the accused died in gaol whilst others received prison sentences or were acquitted.

In 1603 King James VI of Scotland became James I of England on the death of Elizabeth I, thus uniting the kingdoms of England and Scotland. King James was very interested witchcraft and took part in witch trials in Scotland. His statute of 1604 strengthened the law in England and made hanging mandatory for those convicted of witchcraft where the supposed victim was only injured rather than died. Strangely he did not introduce burning at the stake as was the Scottish practice.

The "Witch-Finder General".

Matthew Hopkins was the best known witch finder in England. The self appointed "Witch-Finder General" lived at Manningtree in Essex and in the two year period from 1645 to 1647 set out to eradicate witchcraft in East Anglia with great zeal. He was assisted in this by John Stearne (or Sterne) and Mary Phillips. Estimates vary as to the number of witches that Hopkins and Stearne “discovered”, from between 200 and 300. It is thought that Hopkins was born around 1620 and was the son of a church minister. He was an educated man who had some grasp of the law.

Hopkins started his career in his home town of Manningtree, accusing an elderly spinster called Elizabeth Clarke of witchcraft.

Thirty people, including those from Manningtree were arraigned for this offence at the 1645 Essex Assizes at Chelmsford. Fourteen were to hang at Chelmsford on Friday 25 July. They were a Mrs. Wayt, Jane Brigs, Jane Browne, Rachel Flower, Mary Greene, Mary Foster, Frances Jones, Mary Rhodes, Anne West, Mother Forman, Mother Clarke, Mother Miller, Mother Benefield and Mother Goodwin. The other five women were to be returned to Manningtree for execution and the hanging is thought to have taken place on the South Street Green there on 29 July 1645. In fact only four were to hang because Margaret Moone collapsed on the way to the gallows and is reputed to have cried out that the “Devil had often told her she should never be hanged” with her dying breath.

Hopkins brought another group of witches to trial at the Suffolk Assizes at Bury St. Edmunds the following month resulting in the executions of sixteen women and two men. His campaign continued into Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, Huntingdonshire, Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire.

Obtaining confessions by torture was illegal in England at this time so Hopkins and Stearne had to resort to other methods that were at least semi-legal and did not involve blood-shed. One was watching. The accused was striped naked, examined for “witch marks”, such as a third nipple, usually by Mary Phillips and then dressed in a loose shift and made to sit on a stool in the middle of the room watched round the clock to see if their familiars or imps would come and suckle blood from them. When the victim dozed off their watchers would immediately rouse them and walk them around the room (walking) till they were fully awake again. This watching and walking could go on for several days and the victims became absolutely exhausted from sleep deprivation and would often confess. Another method used was swimming. The accused was trussed up with the left thumb tied to the right big toe and right thumb to the left big toe and then lowered into water. If the person floated they were guilty because the Devil had saved them, whereas if they sank they were innocent. The small problem of their drowning didn’t seem to bother Hopkins because he knew that the person would go straight to Heaven. Another method used in interrogation was pricking of the body to try and find any area of skin that did not cause the person to cry out. This area was where the witch’s familiars sucked their blood from, according to Hopkins.

Hopkins earned 20 shillings (£1) per witch so he had a very lucrative business for the time. In 1647, shortly before his death, he published a pamphlet titled the “The Discovery of Witches”,. He is thought to have died of tuberculosis later that year.

Although the persecution of witches was most widespread in East Anglia it occurred in other parts of the country as well. One of the most famous cases being that of the Pendle Witches in Lancashire. A group of thirteen people living in and around the Forest of Pendle were accused of the murder by witching of ten people. Twelve were tried at the Lancashire Assizes at Lancaster Castle between 17 and 19 August 1612. Of these, ten were to be hanged on Lancaster Moor on 20 August. They were : Elizabeth Device, her son James and daughter Alison (also Alizon), Anne Whittle, (aka Chattox), Anne Redferne, Alice Nutter, Katherine Hewitt, Jane Bulcock, her son John Bulcock and Isobel Robey. Elizabeth Southerns who was also known as Old Demdike and was considered originally to be the ring leader of the group, died in prison. A thirteenth member of the group, Janet Preston was tried and hanged at York and Margaret Pearson was given a one year prison sentence. Much of the evidence against them was given by nine year old Jennet Device who was later to be tried and imprisoned for witchcraft. The Clerk of the Court, Thomas Potts recorded the proceedings and later published a book on the case, titled “The Wonderful Discoverie of Witches in the Countie of Lancaster.”

Witch-mania also spread to other parts of the country.

In Kent Joan Cariden, Jane Holt and Joan Williford were hanged at Faversham on 29 September 1645.

A further seven women were to hang for witchcraft at Penenden Heath near Maidstone in Kent on 30 July 1652. They were Mildred Wright, Anne Wilson, Mary Reade, Anne Ashby, Anne Martyn, Mary Browne and Elizabeth Hynes.

The number of trials and executions began to decline after the Restoration of the Monarchy in 1660.

However people were still charged with the offence. Jane Wenham of Walkern in Herefordshire was convicted of witchcraft in England in 1712. She was condemned to death but reprieved. Jane Clerk or Clark together with her son and daughter were charged with witchcraft at Leicester in 1717 but the case against them was thrown out by the judge.

Alice Molland was to hang for witchcraft at Heavitree near Exeter in 1684. The last confirmed executions there were those of the “Bideford Witches” on 25 August 1682. They were three old women called Temperance Lloyd, Susannah Edwards and Mary Trembles. They had been convicted of bringing illness upon their neighbours.

Here is a broadside published on the case.
The last witch hanging in England was carried out on Saturday the 28th of July 1716 at Huntingdon, the accused being Mary Hicks (or Hickes) and her 9 year old daughter Elizabeth.

In 1736 a new Witchcraft Act was introduced in the reign of George II that read as follows :

"An Act to repeal the Statute made in the First Year of the Reign of King James the First, intituled, An Act against Conjuration, Witchcraft, and dealing with evil and wicked Spirits, except so much thereof as repeals an Act of the Fifth Year of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth, Against Conjurations, Inchantments, and Witchcrafts, and to repeal an Act passed in the Parliament of Scotland in the Ninth Parliament of Queen Mary, intituled, Anentis Witchcrafts, and for punishing such Persons as pretend to exercise or use any kind of Witchcraft, Sorcery, Inchantment, or Conjuration.”

This Act, which came into force on 24 June 1736, was aimed at those who pretended to be able to procure spirits, in other words, charlatans such as some fortune tellers and mediums. The punishment, upon conviction was one year in prison plus quarterly exposure in the pillory for one hour on each occasion.

Scotland.

The situation in Scotland was different to that in England because witchcraft was deemed to be a quasi religious crime, more akin to heresy, rather than an ordinary felony.

Although the population of Scotland was far smaller, over 3,800 people were tried for witchcraft and as many as 1,500 people put to death between 1537 and 1722, compared to less than 500 executions in England.

A new Witchcraft Act was introduced in Scotland on 4 June 1563 in the reign of Mary Queen of Scots and remained in force until abolished by the 1736 Act (see above). Being a witch or consorting with witches was proscribed by this Act. Mary perceived witchcraft as a from of religious heresy and thus the punishment was strangulation at the stake followed by burning of the unconscious or dead body for both sexes. However burning alive, without strangulation could be ordered and there are credible records of this occurring. Additionally three people were beheaded for witchcraft, a man in 1613 and two women in 1614 and one or two cases where the person is recorded as being hanged only.

There were three major witch hunt periods in Scotland. These were in the 1590’s, under King James IV, in the 1640’s and finally in the 1660’s. The last execution (see later) was carried out in 1727, some 43 years after the last English one.

Burning at the stake was a rather expensive punishment as it required a considerable amount of materials that by definition could not be re-used. Accounts exist to show that a burning could cost five to six pounds in the seventeenth century. Tar barrels were often used to place the unfortunate victim in and aid combustion. These are mentioned in some of the costed accounts.

One of the first recorded witch burnings took place at Castle Hill, Edinburgh in 1479. King James III’s brother, the Earl of Mar was accused of treason and sorcery against the king and was killed in his home, without a trial. Twelve female witches and four male wizards were then hastily convicted and burned for their alleged parts in the conspiracy.

The next documented burning took place on 17 July 1537 when Janet Douglas, Lady Glamis, was put to death on Castle Hill, Edinburgh, having been convicted of conspiring to poison King James V. The charges against Janet, her husband and her son were trumped up for political reasons by the King. Her servants were tortured into giving incriminating evidence against them. Janet is still said to haunt Glamis Castle and her ghost is known as the “Grey Lady”.

The records of the High Court of Justiciary show that one Janet Bowman was burned at Edinburgh in 1572 and a Bessie Dunlop four years later.

In all some 300 women shared Janet’s fate on Edinburgh’s Castle Hill and there is an iron fountain, the “Witches Well” at the entrance to the Castle Esplanade commemorating their grisly fate.

One of the most famous Scottish cases was the North Berwickshire witch trials took place in 1590/1. David Seaton, a deputy bailiff at Tranent, a small town near Edinburgh, suspected one of his servants, a young girl called Gellie Duncan, of witchcraft. Gellie claimed to have some healing powers which certainly cast suspicion on her in the minds of some. Under questioning, she implicated many others and in all some seventy people were accused, including Francis, Earl of Bothwell, Dame Euphemia Macalzean (also given as McLean), who was the daughter of Lord Cliftonhall, a Dr. John Fian (aka Cunningham), Richard Graham, Barbara Napier and Agnes Sampson. King James actually took part in the interrogation of the suspects and Agnes Sampson was questioned by him at Holyrood.

The Earl of Bothwell managed to flee the country and Barbara Napier, although condemned, pleaded her belly (i.e. pregnancy) thus saving herself from the stake. The others were executed. Euphemia Macalzean was burned alive, without the mercy of strangulation, on the express order of the King on 25 June 1591. She was quite a wealthy woman and her estate was confiscated by the Crown.

It is claimed by some writers that Gellie was hanged rather than burned at the stake, although in reality she was probably hanged and then burned.

The alleged crime committed by the North Berwickshire Witches was that they had conspired to cause the wreck of the ship bringing King James back from Denmark with his new bride to be, Anne, a Danish princess. The couple had by all accounts a very rough crossing from Denmark but did survive the voyage.

King James IV became obsessed by witchcraft and wrote a book on the subject, entitled “Daemonologie” in 1599.

The period from February 1597 to April 1597 saw the Aberdeen witch trials which resulted in the executions of twenty three women and one man at Heading Hill by hanging and then burning. One of these women was Janet Wishart, “Old Janet” who was convicted of the witching murder of James Lowe who had refused Janet the use of some of his barn. He accused Janet of killing him on his death bed.

On 18 May 1671 Janet McMuldroche and Elspeth Thompson were strangled and burned at Dumfries. The following are the words of the warrant for their execution, dated two days earlier : “Forsamuch as in ane court of Justiciarie holden be us within the Tolbuithe of drumfreis vpon the fyftein day of May instant Jonet McMuldroche and Elspeth Thomsone were found guiltie be ane ascyse of the se[ver]all articles of witchcraft spe[cif]it in the verdict given againest them theiranent Were decerned and adjudged be us the Lords Commissioners of Justiciarie to be tane vpon thursday next the eighteen day of May instant Betuixt tuo and foure houres in the afernoone to the ordinare place of executione the toune of drumfreis And their to be wirried at ane stake till they be dead And theirafter their bodies to be brunt to ashes And all their moveable goods and geir to be escheat.

Note : (wirried means strangled and escheat means confiscated)

The last person to be burned as a witch in Scotland was Janet Horne at Dornoch in Ross shire in 1727. Janet had been accused of witching her daughter to make her hands and feet grow into horses hooves, so that she could ride her. The daughter had a deformed hand, due to being “shod by the Devil”! She was also tried but acquitted. She later had a child who exhibited the same kind of congenital hand deformity.

A stone at the place of execution commemorates her death.

Witch-finders were also active in Scotland. John Kincaid, John Bain, John Dick and James Welsh were four of the most notable ones. They were known as “common prickers” and would search women for the Devil’s marks and prove their guilt by pricking the suspect mark. If the woman showed no reaction to the pin piercing her skin and the wound did not bleed she was guilty. John Dick and John Kincaid were later convicted of fraud and deceit and James Welsh was flogged in Edinburgh for making a false accusation.

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