Witches of the West Real case studies from history

Who were vulnerable to accusations of witchcraft?

Mostly women People considered to be above themselves Those who didnt fit into the current status quo, e.g. Quakers, non-conformists, rebels, Possibly some people who believed they could actually perform magic and didnt hide it

Is there one reason for witchcraft accusations ?

Almost certainly no ! Many explanations have been offered, these are just a small selection: A local trial brought the community together Trials ( especially the more fantastical ones) excited the interest of the press ( nothing changes !) Clerics, doctors and lawyers could show off their expertise at the trials Witches could be scapegoats for, e.g. masculine insecurities ( Malleus Maleficarum)

An Elizabethan woodcut shows witches worshipping Satan, cooking children, raising storms, flying on familiars and behaving lewdly with demons.

Witchcraft and the Law

1st secular law against witchcraft was in 1542 (Henry VIII) and had several repeals and revisions. Witchcraft Act completely repealed in 1735, to be replaced by pretence of witchcraft. Witnesses should have been 14 years or over ( the age of reason) but were often younger and hearsay was allowed Visions of witches were treated as circumstantial evidence Enormous significance was attached to confession, and usually was regarded as absolute proof The account by one witch of what her familiar had told her of the doings of another witch was allowed.

 Physical evidence against the accused included: Having a familiar, a witchs teat, a Devils mark (insensitive to pain and found by pricking) an inability to say the Lords Prayer correctly in English, the swimming test whereby sinking meant innocence, floating meant Gods creature (water) rejected her therefore guilt, weighing (weighed against the Bible if lighter then guilty), an inability to weep in court, and the behaviour of the supposed bewitched when confronted by the witch.

The swimming test

John Walshe
A suspected wizard from Cornwall. Wizards were considered more elite than mere witches, as they used Latin, mathematics, spells etc. Sent to trial in 1566 ( outcome unknown) at Exeter accused of sorcery, magic, healing and the invocation of spirits. He appeared before the Bishop of Exeter, so this wasnt a secular trial. The trial was obviously antiCatholic, with reference to fat belly-fed monks, flattering friars and idle lusty priests.

A wizard and witches performing Satans kiss- a typical accusation in witchcraft trials.

Anne Jeffries and the Fairies

Anne ( born in 1626) came from St Teath and was thought to be able to heal people with a little help from the fairies. She came to the knowledge of the authorities, however, when she started saying her fairy friends could also cause harm to those who thwarted her. Anne was supposedly able to go without human food, saying she was fed by the fairies . Anne may have felt superior to others, because of her ability to converse with these fairies.

Anne Jeffries and the fairies (from a 19th century source)

Fasting maids became known in the mid 17th c, and were often linked with the gifts of prophecy. This is Eva Vliege, another fasting maid

Anna / Hannah Trapnel

Anna was arrested at Truro for prophesying She was a literate and independent woman who travelled across the UK in the 1650s, preaching and condemning Cromwells government. This led to her being accused of being a witch and consorting with the Devil. The only account of Annas trial is, unusually, her own. She published a pamphlet titled Anna Trapnels Report and Plea in 1654. In the following illustration, we see the sexual innuendo with the devil behind her, and the Quakers hat becomes suspiciously witch-like !

A witch from Looe

An unnamed woman from Looe was accused of witchcraft on a large scale. No mere petty maleficium she was accused of treason and the murder of a local M.P. Holden wrote the case up for the State papers, and mentions her familiarity with familiars. She was committed to prison but the outcome of her trial is unknown. She was thought to be a presbyterian or baptist. Anyone apart from the established church could be seen as rebels and it might be a short jump to an accusation of witchcraft.

Getting familiar with familiars

They were sometimes called imps. They mostly took the shape of dogs or cats, but could also be toads, rabbits or birds. They were thought to act as a link between the witch and the devil They were thought to suckle ( blood) at an extra teat located on the witchs body. They had names.

Recorded popular names of familiars

Ball, Bid, Bun, Dick, Catch, Fancy, Hiss, Hardname, Jack, Jill, Jennie, Liard, Mercury, Ned, Nicholas, Philip, Pluck, Pretty, Puppet, Puss, Satan, Suckin, Spirit, Smack, Tibb, Tiffin, Tom, Titty, White, William.

Familiars from frontispiece of Matthew Hopkins

Discoverie of Witches 1647

The Bideford Witches

3 women were accused, tried and hanged for witchcraft at Exeter. Much of the evidence was hearsay. Their names were: Temperance Lloyd, Mary Trembles and Susannah Edwards. Lloyd supposedly had 2 teats in her secret parts. She confessed to all charges against her, including those of inflicting death, and said she was under the black mans protection e.g. the Devil.

 Mary Trembles and Susannah Edwards were accused of harming people and Susannah, of having carnal knowledge of the Devil and of letting him suck her in secret places The sentence of hanging was carried out on Friday 25 August 1682 at Heavitree in Exeter before a large crowd they being among the last people to be executed in England for practicing witchcraft.

Frontispiece of Bideford pamphlet The tryal, condemnation and execution of three witches viz Temperance Floyd, Mary Floyd and Susanna Edwards who were arraigned at Exeter on the 18th August 1682 and being provd guilty of witchcraft were condemnd to be hanged which was accordingly executed in the view of many spectators whose strange, and much to be lamented impudence, is never to be forgotten.

Also, how they confessed what mischiefs they had done by the assistance of the Devil who lay with the above named Temperance Floyd nine nights together. Also how they squeezed one Hannah Thomas to death in their arms. How they also caused several ships to be call away causing a boy to fall from the top of a main mast into the sea. With many wonderful things worth your reading

Hanging of 3 women at Chelmsford in 1589, found guilty of witchcraft

John Tonken, possession at Penzance

A 15 year old boy from Penzance apparently became possessed after an unfamiliar woman appeared to him. wearing a "blue Jerkin and Red Petticoat, with Yellow and Green patches" who told him he would not get better until he vomits "Nutshels Pins and nails. He believed her to be in league with the Devil

Soon after, Tonken is said to have vomited pins, nails, walnut shells and straw. The fits of vomiting strange objects continue, as do the apparitions of the woman, and sometimes that of a cat, whom Two women were arrested on suspicion of witchcraft following his testimony, Jane Noal (alias Nickless) and Betty Seeze. The detailed description of the suspect probably shows a particular woman was scapegoated from the start. Probably thought of as a trouble-maker.

John Tonken pamphlet, 1686

Preface to John Tonkens pamphlet

A true account of a strange and wonderful relation of one John Tonken of Pensans in Cornwall, said to be bewitched by some women; two of whom are committed to prison. He vomiting up several pins, pieces of walnut shells, an ear of rye, with a straw to it half a yard long and rushes of the same length; which are kept to be shown at the next assizes for the said county. Printed in London 1686

 Local people, including the Mayor, would gather at Johns bedside, to witness the pins, needles etc appearing from his mouth. During these episodes, John underwent fits, which sometimes involved him springing 3 or 4 feet into the air. Although this was quite a tame English account of witchcraft and possession, the preamble to the pamphlet is quite dramatic and racy: the women sell their Souls to Eternal punishment for a little Monetary pleasure or to fulfil their own Lusts here

Joanna Southcott
Born in 1750. Became a servant in Exeter. In about 1792, she believed herself a prophetess, and when she was 64, believed herself pregnant (immaculate conception) with the new messiah. The baby failed to arrive, and 2 months after the due date she died. She published over 60 works, She had a huge following ( known as Southcottians, over 100,000 people. She went into trances where she communed with God.

 Joannas followers believed she would rise from the dead, and would not release the body until it started to decay She left a legacy known as Joanna Southcott's Box, with the instruction that it be opened only at a time of national crisis. Eventually in 1927 it was opened but it was found to contain only a few oddments and unimportant papers, among them a lottery ticket and a horse-pistol.

Joanna Southcott

Joannas infamous box of prophesies

The Bearded Lady.

In 1750, Robert Heath ( published a book Account of the Isles of Scilly Sarah Jenkins lived on the Isles of Scilly in the 1750, and led a group of women known as the college or society of Aunts. People travelled from as far as London to stroke Sarahs beard, which was believed to have healing properties.

 Heath was obviously impressed by these Aunts:

Their Systems and Hypotheses are to help those in distress for Pity's sake rather than for Profit. They have no Ambition to be thought sagacious as Conjurors, by significant nods, shrewd looks and mysterious hard words, nor do they assume an Air of Importance for the sake of a Fee. Their whole Art is delivered in Plain and Intelligible English... and their sole view is to remove Pain and procure Ease, a sick Stranger or Islander of Circumstance, can seldom prevail with them to accept of any Present till the Cure is performed. (completed).

Tamson Blight (1798-1856)

Known as the white witch of Helston, also a hedgewitch ( healer). In 1835, she married a known conjurer James Thomas. She was accused of raising a spirit of a recently deceased man in Stithians graveyard, in order to discover where the deceased had hidden his money !

 She was thought to be able to cure sick cattle, and foresee the future, especially in terms of describing the prospective husbands of local girls, who paid her. She could detect ill-wishers and remove curses placed by black witches. After she and her husband were estranged, he was charged with sleeping with those who were bewitched, (the sleeping being necessary for the removal of the curse). His clients were always young sailors and miners. He received money annually for keeping witchcraft from vessels sailing out of Hayle. A contemporary West Briton report calls this practice gross superstition

Thomasina / Tammy Blight

 There are many more witchcraft trials for which we only have sparse information, such as the 1575 account of Nicholas Simcox from Morwenstow, who was accused of having a pact with the Devil because he sometimes disappeared into the woods with a man, and later reappeared with money or food. We must remember that there was little privacy in small villages or towns, and little distinction between public and private behaviour.