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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and had several repeals and revisions.• Witchcraft Act completely repealed in 1735, to be replaced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.