Florence Newton (died 1661) was an alleged Irish witch, known as the "Witch of Youghal", who died during what St John Seymour as one of the most important examples of Irish witch trials.

Witch trial

Florence Newton was described as an old beggar woman in the town of Youghal. She was arrested and imprisoned on 24 March 1661. She was put on trial on 11 September 1661 at the summer

Assizes The courts of assize, or assizes (), were periodic courts held around England and Wales until 1972, when together with the quarter sessions they were abolished by the Courts Act 1971 and replaced by a single permanent Crown Court. The assizes e ...

for County Cork held in Cork city, for two offences under the

Witchcraft Act 1586 In England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland, and the British colonies, there has historically been a succession of Witchcraft Acts governing witchcraft and providing penalties for its practice, or—in later years—rather for pretending to practise ...

. Newton was accused of having enchanted Mary Longdon and employing sorcery to cause the death of David Jones. The presiding judge was Sir

William Aston Sir William John Aston, KCMG (19 September 1916 – 21 May 1997) was an Australian politician. Born in Sydney, he attended state schools before becoming an accountant and company director. He served in World War II from 1942 to 1944, and was in ...

, whose transcript of the trial survives and is the primary source for the affair. The Crown appears to have regarded the trial as one of some importance, as evidenced by the fact that Sir

William Domville William Domville (or Domvile) (1609–1689) was a leading Irish politician, barrister and Constitutional writer of the Restoration (1660), Restoration era. Due to the great trust which the English Crown had in him, he served as Attorney General ...

, the Attorney General for Ireland, travelled from Dublin to Cork to prosecute her in person. Witch trials were not common in Ireland: when Newton was put on trial, no witch trial had taken place in southern Ireland since the execution of two women in

Kilkenny Kilkenny (). is a city in County Kilkenny, Ireland. It is located in the South-East Region and in the province of Leinster. It is built on both banks of the River Nore. The 2016 census gave the total population of Kilkenny as 26,512. Kilken ...

in 1578. According to accounts of her trial, in Christmas of 1660, Newton was heard to mumble curses after she was denied a piece of beef at the house of John Pyne. Afterwards, she met an employee of Pyne, the maidservant Mary Longdon, on the street and "violently" kissed her. Longdon then became sick, and experienced fits, cramps, and visions. Sorcery was suspected, and a

coven A coven () is a group or gathering of witches. The word "coven" (from Anglo-Norman ''covent, cuvent'', from Old French ''covent'', from Latin ''conventum'' = convention) remained largely unused in English until 1921 when Margaret Murray promote ...

of witches was claimed to exist in the area. Longdon claimed that Newton was responsible for her illness. Newton was also accused of causing the death of her gaoler, David Jones, by sorcery. At Newton's trial, Jones' widow said that Newton had kissed the hand of Jones through the bars of a prison gate, and afterwards, he had become sick and died after having screamed the name of Newton on his death bed. While Seymour in 1913 believed Newton had probably been convicted and executed, Andrew Sneddon in 2019 published proof that she had in fact died before the trial could be concluded.

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Newton, Florence 1661 deaths People from Youghal 17th-century Irish people 17th-century Irish women People accused of witchcraft Beggars

Witch trial

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