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Witches of the West
Real case studies from history…
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Who were vulnerable to
accusations of witchcraft?
• Mostly women
• People considered to be ‘above themselves’ • Those who didn’t fit into the current status
quo, e.g. Quakers, non-conformists, rebels,
• Possibly some people who believed theycould actually perform magic and didn’t
hide it
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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 expertiseat the trials
• Witches could be scapegoats for, e.g. masculine
insecurities ( Malleus Maleficarum)
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An Elizabethan woodcut shows witches worshipping Satan, cooking
children, raising storms, flying on familiars and behaving lewdly with
demons.
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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and had several repeals and revisions.• Witchcraft Act completely repealed in 1735, to be replaced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 herof the doings of another witch was allowed.
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• Physical evidence against the accused included:
• Having a familiar, a witch’s teat, a Devil’s mark (insensitive to pain and found by pricking) an
inability to say the Lord’s Prayer correctly in
English, the swimming test whereby sinking
meant innocence, floating meant God’s 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.
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The ‘swimming test’
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John Walshe
• A suspected wizard from Cornwall. Wizards wereconsidered 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
wasn’t a secular trial. The trial was obviously anti-Catholic, with reference to ‘fat belly-fed monks,
flattering friars and idle lusty priests’.
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A wizard and witches performing ‘Satan’s kiss’- a
typical accusation in witchcraft trials.
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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 thosewho 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.
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Anne Jeffries and the fairies (from a 19th
century source)
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‘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’
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Anna / Hannah Trapnel
• Anna was arrested at Truro for ‘prophesying’ • She was a literate and independent woman whotravelled across the UK in the 1650s, preachingand condemning Cromwell’s government. This led
to her being accused of being a witch andconsorting with the Devil.
• The only account of Anna’s trial is, unusually, her own. She published a pamphlet titled ‘ Anna
Trapnel’s Report and Plea’ in 1654.• In the following illustration, we see the sexual
innuendo with the devil behind her, and theQuaker’s hat becomes suspiciously witch-like !
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A witch from Looe• An unnamed woman from Looe was accused of
witchcraft on a large scale. No mere pettymaleficium – she was accused of treason and themurder 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 apresbyterian or baptist. Anyone apart from the
established church could be seen as rebels and itmight be a short jump to an accusation of witchcraft.
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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 betweenthe witch and the devil
• They were thought to suckle ( blood) at an
extra teat located on the witch’s body.• They had names.
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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.
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Familiars from frontispiece of Matthew Hopkins’
‘ Discoverie of Witches’ 1647
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The Bideford Witches
• 3 women were accused, tried and hanged
for witchcraft at Exeter. Much of theevidence 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 againsther, including those of inflicting death, and
said she was under the ‘black man’s protection’ – e.g. the Devil.
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• Mary Trembles and Susannah Edwards
were accused of harming people andSusannah, 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 beingamong the last people to be executed in
England for practicing witchcraft.
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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 prov’d guilty of witchcraft werecondemn’d to be hanged which was
accordingly executed in the view of many
spectators whose strange, and much to belamented impudence, is never to be
forgotten.
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Also, how they confessed what mischiefs
they had done by the assistance of the Devilwho lay with the above named Temperance
Floyd nine nights together. Also how they
squeezed one Hannah Thomas to death intheir 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
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Hanging of 3 women at Chelmsford in 1589, found
guilty of witchcraft
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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 hewould not get better until he vomits
"Nutshels Pins and nails.“
• He believed her to be in league with theDevil
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Soon after, Tonken is said to have vomitedpins, nails, walnut shells and straw. The fitsof vomiting strange objects continue, as dothe apparitions of the woman, andsometimes that of a cat, whom Two women
were arrested on suspicion of witchcraftfollowing his testimony, Jane Noal (aliasNickless) and Betty Seeze.
The detailed description of the suspect
probably shows a particular woman wasscapegoated from the start. Probablythought of as a trouble-maker.
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John Tonken pamphlet, 1686
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Preface to John Tonken’s pamphlet
• A true account of a strange and wonderfulrelation of one John Tonken of Pensans inCornwall, said to be bewitched by somewomen; two of whom are committed to
prison. He vomiting up several pins, piecesof walnut shells, an ear of rye, with a strawto it half a yard long and rushes of the samelength; which are kept to be shown at thenext assizes for the said county.
• Printed in London 1686
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• Local people, including the Mayor, would gatherat John’s bedside, to witness the pins, needles etc
appearing from his mouth.
• During these episodes, John underwent fits, whichsometimes involved him springing 3 or 4 feet intothe 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 littleMonetary pleasure or to fulfil their own Lustshere’
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Joanna Southcott
• Born in 1750. Became a servant in Exeter. Inabout 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 thedue date she died.
• She published over 60 works,
• She had a huge following ( known asSouthcottians’, over 100,000 people. She went
into trances where she communed with God.
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• Joanna’s followers believed she would risefrom the dead, and would not release thebody until it started to decay
• She left a legacy – known as Joanna
Southcott's Box, with the instruction that itbe opened only at a time of national crisis.Eventually in 1927 it was opened but it wasfound to contain only a few oddments andunimportant papers, among them a lotteryticket and a horse-pistol.
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Joanna Southcott
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Joanna’s infamous box of
prophesies
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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 knownas the college or society of Aunts.
• People travelled from as far as London to
stroke Sarah’s beard, which was believed to
have healing properties.
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• 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).’
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• She was thought to be able to cure sick cattle, andforesee the future, especially in terms of describing the prospective husbands of local girls,who paid her.
• She could detect ill-wishers’ and remove cursesplaced by black witches.
• After she and her husband were estranged, he wascharged with sleeping with those who werebewitched, (the sleeping being necessary for theremoval of the curse…). His clients were alwaysyoung sailors and miners. He received moneyannually for keeping witchcraft from vesselssailing out of Hayle. A contemporary West Briton report calls this practice ‘gross superstition’
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Thomasina / Tammy Blight
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• 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 orfood.
• We must remember that there was little privacy in
small villages or towns, and little distinction
between public and private behaviour.