East Anglia witch craze and Matthew Hopkins, 1645-1647

How many people were Hopkins and Stearne responsible for executing?

400 people across East Anglia, more than double in the preceding century

How much could be charged by witchfinders for a couple of days work?

£23 from each town, claimed they only claimed 20 shillings per town in their defence

What was on the front of Hopkins book ‘The Discovery of Witches’?

‘Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live’, Exodus 22.18, used Biblical justifications to carry out investigation

How religious was Hopkins before the witch craze?

Although his father was a Puritan minister, he wasn’t particularly fanatical

What event was tearing the country apart during the witch craze?

Civil War

What political group was East Anglia part of?

Eastern Association, provided significant contribution to Parliamentarian - mostly Puritan and pockets of Catholicism being rooted out in mid-1640s

Why was there tension between Crown and Parliament?

1625, Charles 1 became King due to Henry dying, parliament increased in power

Began to make and amend laws with the approval of the monarch and collect regular taxation, tension increased in late 1620s

1629, dissolved parliament and ruled alone until 1640 - needed funds to fight war with the Scots

Charles’ religious policy was largely Catholic despite leading MPs being Puritan, collected Ship Money - taxes raised to provide for the fleet of ships, extended tax to entire country, financial demands for inland gentry

January 1642, Charles arrested 5 leading MPs but they fled and Charles raised an army

August 1642, Charles begun the Civil War in Nottingham

October 1642, Edgehill battle regarded as a draw

What did Parliament create in 1645?

New Model Army, core of soldiers taken from the Eastern Association

What did it contribute heavily towards?

Mortality rates high, already strained existence

Suffolk served as parliament’s man recruiting ground, epicentre of the hunts

Opportunity for long held suspicions to be brought to the surface

How much fighting was there in East Anglia?

Little actual fighting - felt detached from the war

What % of men may have left towns and villages to fight?

20%

What appeared to driven Margery Sparham to engage in witchcraft?

Her husband had left to fight in the war so she was alone and vulnerable - confessed to entertaining imps (mole and 2 blackbirds)

What radical belief did the witches of Wingfield hold?

Connected to radical Puritan sects, women should be viewed spiritually and socially the same as men

What happened to the authority of the church in Puritan areas?

Undermined, undesirable ministers were replaced by Puritans

Symbols of continuity and power in the region

What happened to the authority of the gentry?

Undermined, left their estates to fight and Royalist sympathies faced arrest/confiscation of their estates

Fears of ‘enemies within‘, ministers warned of Royalists, Catholic allies and Parliamentarian spies

What pamphlet reinforces the idea of the prevalence of societal chaos in England?

‘The world turn’d upside down‘ (1647) by John Taylor

Which aspect of the legal system failed to function effectively?

Assize courts, fragile legal structures in E. Anglia were further threatened - too dangerous for assize judges to journey from London

Give specific examples of how events of the civil war impacted the functioning of the courts.

June 1645, victory at Naseby in Northamptonshire confirmed the power of the New Model Army followed a victory in Somerset in July - East Anglian gentry returned to their estates

Prince Super advised Charles to renew peace - felt fighting in E. Anglia was inevitable

July 1645, Earl of Warwick was commissioned to oversee the Essex assize, sentenced 19 women to hang and had little experience

Assizes at Bury St Edmund were suspended and prisoners either immediately executed or sent back to cells due to fighting in Cambridge - overseen by John Godbolt (barrister)

What did Hopkins and Stearne appear to provide in this atmosphere of chaos?

Legitimate legal knowledge and efficiency, able to interrogate suspects and collect evidence

What was their conviction rate?

42%

Give two reasons Burns argues that witch hunting was relatively rare in the British Isles.

Absence of Inquisitorial trial procedure made chain hunts based on confessions rare

High degree of centralisation (until central authority collapsed)

Why were the 1640’s so bad for farmers?

Wet summers and freezing winters

1646, disease affected livestock and crops - ergot

October 1645 and 1646, heavy rain caused rot and mud

What happened to food prices?

Rose dramatically, seed-corn had to be consumed which threatened harvest for the following years

What happened to the price of wheat specifically?

Wheat rose by 20%

What did contemporaries think of the weather?

Most extreme wet weather

How did many puritan preachers interpret the extreme weather?

Sign from God, punishment for the fighting and that Charles shouldn’t return to the throne - easy to blame witches for midfortunes

What was happening to common land that lead to more inequality and poverty?

Increasing enclosure of common land

Rich were able to acquire more land to feed cattle, increasingly tempted to evict tenants as landowners to focus on particular agricultural product

Poor felt shut out, increased begging and charity was rare, defended right to stay on land as tenants

What did many Puritan’s believe that seemed to affect social harmony?

Idleness was a sign of sinfulness

What three actions did Sir Miles Sandys perform that lead to riots?

Acted as an aggressive landlord

1620s, enclosed 4,000 acres of common land - 30 families were evicted, Sutton inhabitants presented petition of 100 signatures to the Court of Chancery - it failed

How were they connected to the witch trials?

1647, Ely - multiple witches who faced trials were previously involved with unrest over enclosure

How did the war affect the price of livestock and grain?

Livestock increased by 12% and grain increased by 15% - due to huge resources required by the armies

What else increased the cost of living?

1643, new tax was devised by Parliament to meet the cost of war - 12x higher than the Ship Money in Eastern Association counties

How were wage increases affected?

Did not increase

How did increased costs affect Magaret Moone?

Thorpe-le-Soken, fell into poverty and evicted from cottage when man offered to pay her landlord 10 shillings more per year - began begging and was blamed for death of livestock, crop failure and murder of a child

How many witches were accused during the craze?

700, began Essex but spread to Suffolk, Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, Huntingdonshire, Northamptonshire and Bedfordshire

How many were executed?

300-400

Why did Hopkins apparently become interested in witchcraft?

1644, kept awake at night due to witches meeting in Manningtree

What political affiliation did Grimston have?

March 1645, Hopkins and Stearne presented accusations to local magistrates (Grimston)

Many witches originally accuse lived on his estate or were tenants

What were his religious sympathies?

Puritan and MP who resisted Charles’ policies

What was found on Elizabeth Clark?

Devil’s Mark and 3 teats - long suspected of being a witch

July, trials at Chelmsford and 20 found guilty - including Clark

What appeared to visit her?

Watched by neighbours and officials, several familiars appeared to her - referred to by their names

Who did she name as a witch?

Rebecca West - admitted to suckling imps

What did West do to gain immunity?

Turned witness for the Crown, published in an anonymous pamphlet

Why might people have disliked John Lowes politically?

80yrs old Royalist clergyman, antagonised parishioners at Brandeston - defended Ann Annson who had been accused, interpreted as a confession of guilt

What did Hopkins use to extract a confession?

Swimming test in Framlingham Castle moat - confessed to making a pact and sinking boat off Harwich port (killed 14 people)

What did Hopkins get from each local council?

Took a fee from Yarmouth, Aldeburgh, Yoxford, Westleton and Dunwich

What seemed to cause a lot of accusations of witchcraft?

1645 Norfolk assize, 40 women were tried

1646 Huntingdon, 8 women were tried

Kimbolton and St Neots - accusations previously made but not followed by legal action

What action had been taken prior to Hopkins arrival?

Resident of the old priory already accused of killing livestock

Who objected to Hopkins in their community?

John Gaule, local clergyman

What surprised Hopkins in the Norfolk assizes?

Spring 1647, subjected to hostile questioning about activities by suspicious officials - followed available money in resentful communities with suspicion at their fringes

Stearne preoccupied with investigating Ely

How did he respond?

The Discovery of Witches, published May 1647

How does Louise Jackson interpret the driving force behind the witch trials?

Organised and deliberate violence, exclusively carried out against women - 124 confirmed suspects from Suffolk

Especially due the agricultural-domestic sphere women were vulnerable

How does she account for the fact that 20% of the accused were men?

Already associated with a female witch

What area did Hopkins seen especially keen to find evidence of?

Sexual activity with the Devil and suckling imps, e.g. Margaret Baytes and Good Smith

What were about 20% of witches accused of?

Harming or killing children, e.g. Prissilla Collit confessed

Susanna Stegold guilt of murdering her husband

What evidence is used to assess the literacy and thus class of victims?

Court records, signing their names - wide variety of backgrounds/occupations

How does the class of the victims compare to those of the hunters?

Often similar, victims more likely to leave a signed name or mark however this may be due to gender (men more likely to be educated)

Ely, all searchers were illiterate (often neighbours of accused) - witnesses likely to be literate as often landowners, clergy or Hopkins/Stearne

What title did Hopkins give himself?

Witchfinder General

How closely involved were Hopkins and Stearne in trials?

Often followed the same procedures and were uniform, carried out interrogations themselves but often with other local magistrates/officials

Stayed to set legal proceedings in motion then left others to take the cases to trial

What four signs of witchcraft did Hopkins and Stearne focus on?

Relationship between witch and the Devil, how they first came into contact

Marks that could be associated with witchcraft

Imps or familiars given by the Devil or other witches

Other witches/members of covens

What four techniques did they use to extract confessions?

Isolate the suspect - disorientate them and make them likely to confess, done in their own homes, search-women employed to find evidence of a Devil’s mark

Watching - deprived of sleep and watched, 1647 Hopkins insisted thar sleep deprivation wasn’t used and watching was essential

Torture - intimidation and physical violence, Wattisham woman received injuries when imps threw her chair at her

Walking - constant movement increased exhaustion and willingness to confess

What test did they frequently use?

Swimming test - e.g. John Lowes in Suffolk

Where had it been justified previously?

James 1 - Daemonologie

How reliable was the test considered to be by magistrates?

Often sceptical and cases not taken straight to trial

Why would Hopkins background have lead to him being trusted?

Son of Puritan clergyman and good social standing, enthusiastic and acted as a ‘saviour‘

Father was minister of Great Wenham - raised children in strict godliness

Why would Hopkins need a career that provide an income?

Youngest of 3 brothers, wouldn’t inherit family estate, able to establish himself as a gentleman in Manningtree - able to make neutral judgement

What did many believe about the formal roles of Hopkins and Stearne?

They were officially commissioned to discover witches, had letters of safe-passage to avoid being apprehended

Whose journey did Hopkins and Stearne shadow?

William Dowsing

What was his position?

Iconoclast General, Parliamentarian soldier

Mapped areas that would be less likely to encounter resistance

What in Stearne’s background may have contributed to his desire to hunt witches?

Puritan and had good knowledge of the scripture

Initially received warrant to search witches from Grimston and Sir Thomas Bowes when engaged with some business, acted as facilitators who assisted accusers and gave confidence to pursue suspects

How much did it cost to keep a witch in jail for a day?

3 pence per prisoner per day

Why was the jailer at Ipswich complaining?

Cost £50 to keep until assize court, he suffered financially as the money collected wasn’t enough

What other aspect of prisoner maintenance was costing the authorities money?

Feeding witches - Bury St Edmunds, officer appointed to collect bread-money, taken from watchers of John Lowes execution

How much did Judge John Godbold cost the court in expenses?

Assize courts were expensive, invoiced for £130 - covered funds, accommodation for him and his assistants - included a full ‘meat list‘

How much did Mary Lakelands execution cost?

£3, burned for murdering her husband

How was money raised to cover it?

Suffolk, churchwardens and overseers of the poor collected new levy

What about Hopkins and Stearne became controversial?

Claimed that they were only paid 20 shillings - even though they had to travel many miles between cases and just doing their jobs incurred expenses

How much did the Aldeburgh witch hunt cost?

£40 total, £6 for Mary Phillips (search-woman), £2 for gaoler, £15 for local innkeeper, £1 or carpenter, 11 shillings for executioner

How much of the towns entire budget was this?

1/7, special tax raised

What evidence is there that Stearne’s fees were becoming a significant factor in witch hunts?

1647, Stearne returned home and judges/juries thought the cost was too high to warrant further investigations - funds still required to finance the war

Debts never called in, futile to pursue

What crucial event happened in May 1646?

Charles surrendered to the Scots at Newark

What started to happen in witches trials by late summer of 1646?

More suspected witches began to be acquitted as East Anglia began receiving assize judges regularly

Puritan dominated pursuit was being disturbed by Royalist gentry returning and the previously established authority

What happened in the Kings Lynn and Ely trials that showed a decreased appetite for witch hunts?

24th September 1646, King’s Lynn Hopkins gave evidence against 9 witches under Miles Corbett (judge joined by JPs and mayor/aldermen) - 7 acquitted and 2 convicted

26th September 1646, Ely John Godbold acquitted 3 women

What evidence is there that this wasn’t simply due to different judges?

He had previous experience as was at Bury St Edmunds, changed views

Who created a list of sceptical questions presented to judges at the Norfolk Assizes, 1647?

Leading gentry - influenced by John Gaule, Hopkins responded in Discovery of Witches

Which questions show that growing naturalism lead to an end to witch hunts?

Began questioning why people were condemned for marks when they could be explained naturally, unreasonable methods of investigation (inc. illegal swimming test)

What evidence shows religious influence in ending witch hunts?

How does the Devil suck blood if he is a spirit, belief of witches suggests a lack of faith in God, did Hopkins meet with the Devil (able to know all witches)

What book did Gaule write?

Select Cases of Conscience touching Witches and Witchcraft, 1646

He was the minister of Great-Staughton, visited the witch-finders in Huntingdon but wasn’t convinced that their work was legitimate

What were his three criticisms of Hopkins?

Criticised methods however affirmed existence of witches and approved witch-hunting

Pleaded for restraint in following up accusation, should be carried out in meticulous/cautious way

Alleged it was becoming idolatrous, praised more than God

To what extent are Gaule’s objections religious rather than scientific or economic?

He was conservative and was angry that the episcopacy (hierarchy of bishops in CofE) was eroded, aggrieved that they assumed authority when they had none in reality

Launched campaign in Great Staughton against them, interviewed imprisoned witches and parishioners - evaluation should be carried out by magistrates