Mary Lakeland also known as Mother Lakeland and the “Ipswich Witch” (d. 9 September 1645), was an English woman executed for witchcraft in
Ipswich
Ipswich () is a port town and borough in Suffolk, England, of which it is the county town. The town is located in East Anglia about away from the mouth of the River Orwell and the North Sea. Ipswich is both on the Great Eastern Main Line r ...
. She belonged to the few people in England to have been executed by burning after a conviction of witchcraft. She was the last person executed for witchcraft in the town of Ipswich.
Mary Lakeland was the widow of the barber John Lakeland. She confessed to have made a devil's pact, to have employed familiars,
imp
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s, who sucked the blood from an injury on her hand created by the Devil, and who had injured and killed people on her orders. She confessed to sending a familiar to torment and kill Mrs. Jenings, after she refused to lend Lakeland a pin; to sending one of her familiars that appears in the shape of a dog to torment Mr. Lawrence and his child;
She confessed to having killed her late spouse by use of witchcraft.
Mary Lakeland was executed by being burned alive at the stake. However, she was not given this method of execution because she was convicted of witchcraft. Normally, peopled sentenced for witchcraft in England was executed by hanging. However, women sentenced for murdering their husbands were judged for
petty treason
Petty treason or petit treason was an offence under the common law of England in which a person killed or otherwise violated the authority of a social superior, other than the king. In England and Wales, petty treason ceased to be a distinct offen ...
, and the execution method for petty treason was burning at the stake. Since Mary Lakeland was judged for having murdered her husband by use of witchcraft, she was executed by burning, since that was the punishment for petty treason. The same method of execution was used for a few other witchcraft cases, such as that of Margaret Read of
King's Lynn
King's Lynn, known until 1537 as Bishop's Lynn and colloquially as Lynn, is a port and market town in the borough of King's Lynn and West Norfolk in the county of Norfolk, England. It is located north of London, north-east of Peterborough, no ...
in 1590 and Mary Oliver of Norwich in 1659, for the same reason.
[Rossell Hope Robbins ]
The Encyclopedia Of Witchcraft & Demonology
'
Her case was the subject of a contemporary pamphlet treatise, ''The Laws Against Witches and Conjuration. London: 1645, 8''.
References
* Willow Winsham:
Accused: British Witches throughout History'
* Carole Levin, Anna Riehl Bertolet, Jo Eldridge Carney:
A Biographical Encyclopedia of Early Modern Englishwomen: Exemplary Lives'
* Francis Young:
Magic as a Political Crime in Medieval and Early Modern England: A History '
* David L. Jones
The Ipswich Witch: Mary Lackland and the Suffolk Witch Hunts'
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lakeland, Mary
1645 deaths
17th-century English women
English women executed for witchcraft
People executed by Stuart England
People executed by England by burning
Imps