It’s the Month of Halloween …. let’s reflect on East Anglia’s Witch-hunting past

Now, before we delve into the bloody and fearful reign of witch-hunting terror that engulfed East Anglia in 1645-46, let’s examine what was happening during the previous century.

 The 1542 Witchcraft Act made sorcery punishable by death. A further act of 1563 outlawed “conjurations, enchantments and witchcrafts”. It promised to put to death anyone found using magic for evil purposes.

Then came King James IV. After enduring “an enchantment” on a sea voyage, he ordered witch trials in North Berwick, Scotland, in 1590. This resulted in over 100 people being accused, imprisoned, and tortured.

In 1599, the King then wrote “Daemonologie” in which he highlighted the need for persecutions of witches. Five years later, the Witchcraft Act was expanded. It included anyone found communicating with a demonic familiar.

In the Spring of 1645, the Puritan/Cromwellian Revolution caused turmoil. During this time, the lives of ordinary folk were in a state of chaos. Two obscure gentlemen from a remote corner of Essex began to examine women suspected of witchcraft. This was the start of the most brutal and tragic witch-hunt in English History. The two men’s names were Matthew Hopkins and John Stearne. Soon, they began their terror campaign beyond Essex. It spread into Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, and Norfolk. Driven by godly zeal they became responsible for scores of executions. They interrogated and tortured their terrified prisoners until they confessed to consorting with Satan and his demonic spirits. Hopkins became known as the ‘Witchfinder General’.

Matthew Hopkins was born into a devout Puritan family. During the revolution of the 1640s, civil war raged. The established legal systems broke down. Schisms grew between Puritan factions. Crops failed due to terrible weather. Inflation impoverished many. The country was looking for answers as to why life was so terribly hard. Their answer was: witchcraft.

In 1644, Hopkins met John Stearne, a fellow Puritan. Stearne claimed he had discovered a set of witches in Manningtree, Essex. Thus, the hunt began. With religious zeal, Hopkins tore through East Anglia invited by various town councils to purge their streets of witches. One can imagine the fear that spread across East Anglia as the stories of torture and persecution spread.

For fourteen terrifying months Hopkins travelled throughout East Anglia charging fees to local councils for “clearing towns of witches”.

At Bury St Edmunds, Hopkins accused Reverend John Lowes. Lowes was an 80-year-old minister who was unpopular in the town. As such, he was a prime target for interrogation. Lowes was tortured, poked and prodded. They found “teats” on his head and beneath his tongue. These spots, probably due to age, were enough to see the Reverend endure “swimming”¹, at Framlingham Castle, Suffolk. During his interrogation, the terrified man was near to drowning. He admitted to having six imp familiars. He had ordered them to sink a ship, killing 14 men. The Reverend later retracted his admission. But it was too late; he was hanged on August 27, 1645 along with further 17 accused.

Hopkins was invited by the mayor of King’s Lynn to assist in the interrogation and bear witness against nine accused witches. King’s Lynn was a town with a long-standing preoccupation with witches. There were pillories and whipping posts in both market squares, with Tuesday Market Place the preferred place for public executions. At Purfleet Quay, there was a ducking stool for punishing women who were scolds. There was also a gibbet for displaying the bodies of the executed. So, with some fanfare and a drummer escort, Matthew Hopkins entered Lynn on  September 2, 1646. It was agreed that he be paid £15. This fee was later increased to £20, “for his pains and in full discharge of his demands”. However, this time the Witchfinder was not totally successful. Of the seven terrified people who were brought to trial, just one, Grace Wright (widow)², was found guilty and hanged. Thomas Dempster (labourer), Cicily Taylor (widow), Dorothy Griffin, Katherine Bankes (widow) and Emma Godfrey (widow) were all found not guilty. The trial of the widow Lidiah Browne was postponed as she was adjudged to be “not of sound mind”. There are, however, reports that a Dorothy Lee was hanged in 1646, and a Dorothy Floyd or Lloyd was hanged in 1650. Both executions reportedly due to the efforts of the Witchfinder General. In 1651, the parish registers of St Margaret’s, King’s Lynn, show a burial. They record a Dorothy Hellhouse being ‘executed for a witch’.

Before traveling to Lynn, Hopkins went to Upwell. There, he investigated accusations against Ellen Garrison. She had been suspected of witchcraft for two decades. Ellen faced constant interrogation. She was subjected to strip searches to look for signs of the devil. Persistent night-time observation also occurred. Eventually, Ellen was tried and imprisoned in Ely goal.

Before too long, there grew widespread condemnation of Hopkins’ methods, and he was made to stop his “swimming” activities. By 1646, a Puritan cleric, Reverend John Gaule wrote: “Every old woman with a wrinkled face, a furrowed brow, a hairy lip, a robber tooth, a squint eye, a squeaking voice or scolding tongue, having a rugged coat on her back, a skull cap on her head, a spindle in her hand and a dog or cat by her side, is not only suspect but pronounced for a witch”. Gaule also preached that Hopkins himself might be in cahoots with Satan.

Hopkins’ fall was astonishingly fast: he returned to Manningtree in Essex where he wrote a pamphlet defending his actions. When he died he was aged just 27. His reign of terror had seen almost 300 women and men sent to trial as witches. This accounted for 60% of all witch trials between the early 15th and late 18th century. More people died due to unjust accusations of witchcraft during his 18-month reign than in the entire previous century. His short period of terror caused more deaths than the prior 100 years.

The 1735 Witchcraft Act marked a complete reversal in attitudes. Penalties for the practice of witchcraft were replaced by penalties for the pretence of witchcraft. A person who claimed to have the power to call up spirits, foretell the future, or cast spells was to be punished. The same applied to those claiming to discover the whereabouts of stolen goods. They were punished as vagrants and con-artists, subject to fines and imprisonment. But accusations of witchcraft and the torture of accused witches continued for many years after 1725.

An example from our region occurred in Essex in 1863 with the case of,  ‘Dummy’ the Witch of Sible Hedingham. ‘Dummy’ was an old man who was described as a deaf-mute but who never-the-less made his living by fortune telling. He found himself accused of cursing a Emma Smith in the village of Ridegewell. He was taken by a drunken mob to a nearby brook and “swum” before being severely beaten with sticks. He was later taken to a local workhouse where he died of pneumonia. After an investigation, Emma Smith, and her friend Samuel Stammers were charged with his death. They were tried, and sentenced to six months of hard labour.

When you go out this Halloween dressed as a witch, be cautious. There may be a Hopkins around!

Footnotes

1. The terms ‘swimming’ and ‘swam’ refer to what we would now call water-boarding torture. ↩︎
2. Although men were also accused of witchcraft, about 75% to 80% of those executed during the witch-hunts were women.
   Women were seen as being mentally weaker than men and thus more susceptible to superstition. Eve’s succumbing to the temptation of the Devil exemplified this weakness.
   A significant number of accused women were single or widowed. The number also included those who’s existence delayed full inheritance of property by male heirs. 
   Accusing a single or widowed woman of being a witch was an easy way to remove an unwanted bar to inherited wealth and land.
   Women who were from the poorest, marginalised sections of society were also easy prey for any accusers. ↩︎

Sources used:

• Witchfinders, a seventeenth-century English tragedy, Malcolm Gaskill, Pub, John Murray, 2005 (we hold a copy of this book in our History Archive)
• Norfolk Record Office Blog: https://norfolkrecordofficeblog.org/2018/10/31/the-witches-of-lynn/
• East Anglia and the Hopkins Trials, 1645-1647: a County Guide, http://practitioners.exeter.ac.uk