We place some essential cookies on your device to make this website work. We'd like to use additional cookies to remember your settings and understand how you use our services. This information will help us make improvements to the website. This document collection includes various documents relating to the witch craze in 17th century England. It allows students and teachers to develop their own questions and lines of historical enquiry on the nature of beliefs and behaviours, the role of the authorities and legal restraint, attitudes of communities or the role of women in society.
Through the documents students could explore questions such as how the persecution of witches was instigated, encouraged or enabled by the authorities or communities. How was the church involved? What type of people experienced persecution? Were some people pretending to be witches and why? Were both men and women involved? What was the possible impact of printed material on the witch craze?
What general conclusions can students draw from considering this group of documents as a whole? How could study of the topic be extended?
It is hoped that these documents will offer students a chance to develop their powers of evaluation and analysis concerning aspects of popular culture and the witch craze in the 17th century and beyond. They might consider how these aspects have been interpreted in debates between historians and social scientists. Taking it further students could be encouraged to find out more about the legacy of medieval and 15 th century attitudes, beliefs and reactions to heresy, demonology and witches e.
Please note that some sources contain sensitive material so use with care. Transcripts have been modernised in terms of spelling, with some additional punctuation added, some words have been defined within the text using square brackets.
The lines in the transcripts are numbered to help users find their place when using to the original document. In early modern society there was a genuine fear of witchcraft and those suspected of consorting with the Devil could be put on trial and executed, occasionally in large numbers. What sorts of people were accused of witchcraft? And what evidence was required for somebody to be executed? This resource helps to highlight some of the reasons why people were accused of witchcraft, who they were, and what happened to them as a result.
The fear of witches, witchcraft, and bewitchment originated in the medieval period when the Roman Catholic Church taught the dangers of witchcraft and printed texts, such as Malleus Maleficarum, illustrated the horrors of witchcraft.
Witchcraft remained within the popular imagination into the early modern period, and after the Reformation it was still perceived to be a threat to the church and a well-ordered society.
In times of uncertainty and upheaval witchcraft accusations would increase, and so there were often more witchcraft accusations during times of war and famine. General fears of witchcraft within society could also feed into specific accusations that originated within local community so that somebody disliked by their neighbours might be more vulnerable to being accused.
In this resource there are lots of examples of ordinary people being accused of witchcraft by their neighbours.
For example, Joan Guppie, whose neighbours believed her to be a witch and who took it upon themselves to try to punish her. Two female skeletons were found in a garden, pinned into unmarked graves and with iron rivets driven through their joints. This was to make sure a witch could not return from the grave. Hopkins was responsible for over executions. Mother Shipton is remembered still in Knaresborough , Yorkshire. Although called a witch, she is more famous for her predictions about the future.
She apparently foresaw cars, trains, planes and the telegraph. Her cave and the Dripping Well , where objects hung under the dripping water become like stone, are a popular site to visit today in Knaresborough. In August , the Pendle Witches , three generations of one family, were marched through the crowded streets of Lancaster and hanged. Though many of the Acts against witchcraft were repealed in , witch hunting still went on.
In , an alleged male witch was drowned in a pond in Headingham, Essex and in the body of an elderly farm labourer was found near the village of Meon Hill in Warwickshire. His throat had been cut and his corpse was pinned to the earth with a pitchfork. The murder remains unsolved, however the man was reputed, locally, to be a wizard. Mother Ludlam was a white witch who kindly lent objects to people with the proviso that the item should be…. In , as a result of some wild stories told by a 16 year old boy, three people died and others were cruelly tortured.
Matthew Hopkins, Witch-Finder General. He and his associates are believed to have been responsible for the deaths of women, accused of witchcraft, between and From a broadside published by Hopkins before There were other tests for witches. It seems that belief in witchcraft has not entirely died out. Related articles. The Pittenweem Witch Trials. The Pendle Witches. The notorious 17th century witch trial of the Pendle Witches.
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