Depth Study 2) Hopkins and the witch-hunt of 1645-7

Debate 1: religious, political, social, economic background. Debate 2: reasons for persecution. Debate 3: frequency, nature, geography of the persecutions. Debate 4: response of the authorities, impact on society.

how many witches executed in England 1500-1700

around 500 (comparatively not many eg Scotland = 2,000 in around 100yrs)

how many deaths were Hopkins and Stearne responsible for

400 (ish)

possible motives

financial- sometimes paid £23 for a few days’ work

religious- both puritan, hopkins quoted Exodus 22.18 on the cover of his book

civil war dates

1642-46

1542 act

capital offence to practice witchcraft

no evidence it was enforced - repealed in 1547

1563

killing people by witchcraft a capital offence

1604 act

injuring people by witchcraft a capital offence

using dead bodies for sorcery a capital offence

first english witch trial resulting in a hanging

1566, Chelmsford, Essex

plot to kill Queen E and 2 advisors by witchcraft discovered

1578

ABC executed for treason (name and date)

William Laud, 1645

parliament’s main recruiting ground for civil war soldiers

Suffolk

what percent of their population did some towns and villages lose for civil war

as much as 20%

margery sparham

confessed to meeting with imps in the shape of a mole and 2 blackbirds

witches arrested in 3 suffolk towns appeared to have connections with…

a radical sect of Puritans that believed women to be socially and spiritually equal to men

what provided an opportunity for long-held suspicions to be brought to the surface

the chaos of war

examples of stories about strange occurrences reaching East Anglia in 1645

a Royalist woman from Lancashire was reported to have given birth to a headless child

across the region women were beginning to drink and swear like men

decline in power of what two traditional symbols of continuity and power

church - authority undermined, undesirable ministers removed and replaced by puritans

gentry - often left their estates to fight, those with royalist sympathies faced arrest and confiscation of their properties

fears grew in absence of…

traditional authorities

implications of the civil war (4)

* puritans believed king Charles I was an agent of Satan because of his alleged Catholicism
* puritans believed elements of popery in the CofE had allowed witchcraft to take over the country
* east anglia was parliamentary-controlled, and a heartland of puritanism
* air of heightened religious morality - those who crossed the line were easily identifiable

when did the outcome of the civil war become certain

battle of **Naseby, June 1645** - parliamentarians defeated the king’s forces

3 factors that encouraged suspicion

poor harvests

changing land use

impact of the civil war itself

summer of 1646

especially wet - disease affected livestock and crops

price of meat and cheese rose by…

20%

octobers of 1645 and 1646

wettest on record

puritans saw disease as

a punishment from God, and a sign that king charles must be defeated

process of enclosure resulted in

more land in the hands of private owners:

* often required less labour, so increasing rural poverty
* new class of land-owners, often less charitable

many puritans saw the poor as

lazy, so avoided paying poor rates

inflation rates

livestock up by 12%, grain by 15%

tax to meet the costs of war

1643, the Weekly Assessment

Margaret Moore case (link between poverty and accusations)

1647

one of the first to be accused - fell into poverty and turned to begging, later blamed for the deaths of livestock, crop faliures, death of a child

why were the assize courts disrupted

considered too dangerous for judges to leave London

who oversaw the July 1645 assizes at Chelmsford

the earl of Warwick, who had no legal training

H + S acted as

interrogators and evidence-collectors

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conviction rate in england

42%

historian William Burns viewpoint

british isles had comparitively low persecution - essex saw the most persecution of any area in england

effect of the civil war in east anglia (4)

* created a tense atmosphere, so some began to blame misfortunes on witches
* assize court couldn’t meet
* local administration was more concerned with maintaining the war effort
* men such as hopkins and stearne, and local magistrates such as harbottle grimstone, gathered power over witchcraft cases with minimal effort

puritan ministers and parliamentary propaganda stressed the threat of _ to _ in their preaching

the devil

a godly commonwealth

what happened to clergy sympathetic to the royalist cause, and how did the puritan clergy justify it?

removed and replaced with puritans

puritan clergy reasoned that royalists=catholics=superstitious=witches

e.g the ABC was executed in 1645

the role of individuals - hopkins and grimstone

hopkin:

devout puritan, became interested in with-hunting after overhearing a group of women discussing the devil in 1644

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grimstone:

local jp who assissted h and s by touring his estantes to find witches amongst his tennants

what % of those arrested and executed in essex were women, and how many in england overall

over 90% essex

80% overall

relative pattern of the accused

poor

old

lived alone

fringes of society (sometimes literally on the edges)

often dependant on others eg beggars

were there any male witches

some, but tended to be relatives of the female witches first accused e.g. John Lowes stood up for Ann Annson and was accused of being a witch himself

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in _ (date) h and s offered their services to local magistrate _ , before beginning to offer their services as witch-finders to _ for a fee

1645

sir Harbottle Grimston

local parishes and towns

first women to be accused - location, name, details

manningtree

Elizabeth Clarke

old woman, one leg

what happened with elizabeth clarke after her accusation

* four search women found three teats on her
* watched for several nights by various officials and sleep deprived
* eventually several familiars began to appear (vinegar tom!!)

Rebecca West

* implicated by Elizabeth Clarke
* turned witness to the crown, gaining immunity from prosecution

her confession was published in an **anonymous pamphlet of 1645** → which was widely read, and became one of the reasons h and s were so widely known

where did h and s go after manningtree

other parishes in Essex and into Suffolk, then to Chelmsford where the first trials were held in July - 20 were found guilty, including elizabeth clarke

where did h and s go after chelmsford

spent much of the next 2 years apart, operating across the whole of east anglia

how many suspects were examined in suffolk

over 120

John Lowes

defended accused witch Ann Annson by claiming he was as much a witch as she was - and then was tried himself

hopkins subjected him to a swimming test at Framlingham castle, where he floated (meaning he was guilty)

following intense interrogation, Lowes admitted to making a pact with the devil and of keeping several familiars, and of sinking a ship off the port of Harwich, killing 14 people

after leaving suffolk, where did Hopkins go

he was invited to Yarmouth (on the Norfolk coast) where he oversaw the arrest, questioning and conviction of several women, before moving on to further Norfolk towns, taking a fee from each local council

how many women were tried at the Norfolk assizes of 1645

40

where did h and s go after the norfolk assizes of 1646

huntingdonshire and cambridgeshire, 1646

kimbolton women accused

1646

notorious for her swearing and cursing, accused of killing horses and cattle

accused by a local in conflict with her (shows local rivalries)

what was h and s’s first serious setback

local clergyman John Gaule objected to their presence in his parish

by 1647 where were they?

H had accepted an invitation to work in the port of King’s Lynn, while S was working at Ely

in spring 1647 hopkins attended the assizes at _ where he was subjected to…

Norfolk

hostile questioning about his methods by local officials

what was Hopkins' book called and when was it published

‘the discovery of witches’

may 1647

was there a geographical pattern to h and s’s operations

no - they seem to have gone where requested and followed the money

how uniform were their investigations?

remarkably uniform - tended to follow the same procedures

their roes were vague - neither had any qualifications or official documents we have found (h gave himself the title ‘witchfinder general’)

most of the communities they visited were noted for their…

‘godly enthusiasm’ - ie they were puritan, often with recent evidence of iconoclasm (destroying church images)

how long did they usually stay in one place

long enough to set legal proceedings in motion - hard to tell whether they remained for the trials, but would have moved on before the executions

how many people tried and executed between 1645-7

sources differ, but at least 250 tried, and more than 100 executed

what % of the population was killed in the civial war

3\.7%

frequency of the persecutions in england

rose from 1560s

peaked in 1580s

gradual decline

only 23 executed in 1630s

rose again 1645-7 (this period accounts for 20% of the total killed in england 1500s - 1700s

why did the craze end (6)

* **cost** of imprisonment, assizes and executions, and fees of h and s (no money from civil war)
* restoration of **traditional authority**
* return of **royalist** gentry and clergy, after the civil war and restoration, who **challenged the puritan-dominated pursuit of witches** in suffolk
* the **death** of Hopkins
* a **report to parliament** that expressed concern about the number of confessed witches in suffolk
* a **preaching campaign** against the witchfinders in huntingdonshire

example of chain-reaction hunt

the arrest of Elizabeth Clarke resulted in the arrests of 5 others - Annie West, her daughter Rebecca West, Anne Leech, Rebecca Clarke (no relation)

historian Louise Jackson view

examined the 124 confirmed cases from suffolk - concluded that witch trials can be seen as organised and deliberate violence carried out against women (men followed on from already-accused women)

across east anglia, poor women were involved in _ farming, meaning they were _

dairy

vulnerable to being accused when things went wrong e.g. cream curdling

(however this was not specific to women)

hopkins was especially keen to find evidence of _ which were more associated with women

sexual activity with the devil and the suckling of imps

example - confessed to feeding imps from her teats

good smith

suffolk

example - murder of a husband

susan stegold

unhappy marriage which almost certainly involved domestic abuse

example - killing her children

what % of accused witches were charged with harming or killling children?

priscilla collit, who confesed to this after sleep deprivation

about 20% of accused witches

what % of the Ely witches were illiterate? how can we tell?

94% (all but one)

they only left a mark instead of giving a signiture

which group/s (accused, accusers, victims, witnesses) were more likely to be literate? why?

victims - probably better-off than the accused, reflects the fact accusations often stemmed from charity being refused

witnesses - often local landowners, clergy, or h and s themselves

_ of the _ at chelmsford were acquitted

9

25

what did h and s aim to uncover

* evidence of a **relationship with the devil**
* any **marks** that might be associated with witchcraft
* **other witches** known to the accused
* **imps or familiars** - specific to england

what methods did h and s use to find ‘evidence’ (5)

* suspects would be isolated for as long as possible to disorientate them and make them more likely to confess - e.g. elizabeth clarke
* search-women to find evidence of the ‘devil’s mark’ - this evidence was used in court
* sleep deprivation (a grey-area in england despite torture being illegal)
* ‘walking’ - forcing a suspect to walk continuously around a room, while sleep-deprived and being watched
* swimming e.g. john lowes - endorsed by james I in daemonologie

example - locals taking matters into their own hands

a woman in **St Neots**

* thrown from a bridge by a mob to test her, floated, so was guilty.
* magistrates reluctant to use this as evidence.
* locals went to her house and carried out their own search of her body
* no teats were found, but her fate is unknown

other forms of witch-identification used by h and s (3)

* cutting the accused with a blunt knife - no blood = witch
* possession of dolls/poppets
* inability to recite the lord’s prayer without faltering

what town paid 1/7 of its annual income to h and s

Aldeburgh

how many hanged at chelmsford, suffolk, and aldeburgh

19, 18, and 7 respectively

a key reason why locals grew less enthusiastic - the cost of the hunts. what expenses did this include? (5+examples)

* imprisonment - the witches imprisoned at **ipswich cost up to £50**, some of which came out of the jailor’s own pocket
* food - at **Bury St Edmunds** an official was appointed to collect bread-money for the witches
* judges - at Bury St Edmunds in **1645** judge **John Godbold** sent an invoice for **£130** for his services
* execution - hanging a witch cost about £1, burning cost about £3
* h and s were expensive to employ - hopkins claimed he was paid only 20 shillings a week, evidence from **aldeburgh** shows he was paid about £6

opposition to h and s emerging at the top level (4)

* parliamentary newspaper ‘the moderate intelligencer’ (1645) raised concerns about the two
* parliament produced a pardon in march 1646(?) for 2 individuals who had been arrested on the basis of little evidence
* John Gaule, minister of Great Staughton (huntingdon), claimed that h and s were no better than the continental catholic inquisitors who sent many to their deaths
* some questioned whether h and s were ministers themselves, or in league with the devil, because of how quick and prolific they were

the war ended in _, resulting in _. the majority of fighting ended when _ at _(place) in _(date), and east anglia was safe enough to recieve the assize judges more regularly

1646

the restoration of traditional authority (the commonwealth)

king charles surrendered to the scots

newark

may 1646

case study - restoration of traditional authority

Ely, sept 1646: 3 tried but judge John Godbold directed the jury to acquit all 3

at the _ the presiding judges were given a list of questions written by local gentry designed to undermine the work of H and S. give some examples.

Norfolk assizes of 1647

questions generally sceptical of hopkins and the whole affair, including:

* was hopkins himself a witch, because he had a great knowledge of sorcery?
* did hopkins meet with the devil and recieve the devil’s book, which included a list of all the witches in england?
* why are so many people condemned for having strage marks on their bodies, when most of these marks can be explained naturally?