![Matthew Hopkins, Witch-finder](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c7/Matthew_Hopkins%2C_Witch-finder._Wellcome_L0000812.jpg)
Matthew Hopkins ( 1620 – 12 August 1647) was an English
witch-hunt
A witch-hunt, or a witch purge, is a search for people who have been labeled witches or a search for evidence of witchcraft. The Witch trials in the early modern period, classical period of witch-hunts in Early Modern Europe and European Colon ...
er whose career flourished during the
English Civil War
The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians (" Roundheads") and Royalists led by Charles I ("Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of England's governance and issues of re ...
. He claimed to hold the office of Witchfinder General, although that title was never bestowed by
Parliament
In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...
, and was mainly active in
East Anglia
East Anglia is an area in the East of England, often defined as including the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire. The name derives from the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the East Angles, a people whose name originated in Anglia, in ...
.
The son of a
Puritan
The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to purify the Church of England of Catholic Church, Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should become m ...
minister, Hopkins' career as a witch-finder began in March 1644 and lasted until his retirement in 1647. He and his associates were responsible for more people being
hanged
Hanging is the suspension of a person by a noose or ligature around the neck.Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed. Hanging as method of execution is unknown, as method of suicide from 1325. The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' states that hanging i ...
for
witchcraft
Witchcraft traditionally means the use of magic or supernatural powers to harm others. A practitioner is a witch. In medieval and early modern Europe, where the term originated, accused witches were usually women who were believed to have us ...
than in the previous 100 years, and were solely responsible for the increase in witch trials during those years. He is believed to have been responsible for the executions of over 100 alleged witches between the years 1644 and 1646. Hopkins and his colleague
John Stearne sent more accused people to the
gallows
A gallows (or scaffold) is a frame or elevated beam, typically wooden, from which objects can be suspended (i.e., hung) or "weighed". Gallows were thus widely used to suspend public weighing scales for large and heavy objects such as sacks ...
than all the other witch-hunters in England of the previous 160 years.
Early life
Little is known of Matthew Hopkins before 1644, and there are no surviving contemporary documents concerning him or his family. He was born in
Great Wenham
Wenham Magna, also known as Great Wenham, is a village and a civil parish in the Babergh district of Suffolk in eastern England.
The parish also contains the hamlets of Gipsy Row, Vauxhall and Wenham Hill. In 2005 it had a population of 150, i ...
, Suffolk
[ Gaskill 2005: p. 9
][
Deacon 1976: p. 13
] and was the fourth son
of six children. His father, James Hopkins, was a
Puritan
The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to purify the Church of England of Catholic Church, Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should become m ...
clergy
Clergy are formal leaders within established religions. Their roles and functions vary in different religious traditions, but usually involve presiding over specific rituals and teaching their religion's doctrines and practices. Some of the ter ...
man and
vicar
A vicar (; Latin: ''vicarius'') is a representative, deputy or substitute; anyone acting "in the person of" or agent for a superior (compare "vicarious" in the sense of "at second hand"). Linguistically, ''vicar'' is cognate with the English pref ...
of St John's of Great Wenham, in Suffolk.
The family at one point held title "to lands and tenements in
Framlingham
Framlingham is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in Suffolk, England. Of Anglo-Saxons, Anglo-Saxon origin, it appears in the 1086 Domesday Book. The parish had a population of 3,342 at the 2011 Census and an estimated 4, ...
'at the castle. His father was popular with his parishioners, one of whom in 1619 left money to purchase Bibles for his then three children James, John and Thomas.
Thus Matthew Hopkins could not have been born before 1619, and could not have been older than 28 when he died, but he may have been as young as 25. Although James Hopkins had died in 1634,
when the iconoclast
William Dowsing
William Dowsing (1596–1668), also known as "Smasher Dowsing", was an English puritan, and was a particularly notable iconoclast at the time of the English Civil War.G. Goodwin, 'Dowsing, William (?1596-?1679), iconoclast', ''Dictionary of Natio ...
, commissioned in 1643 by the
Parliamentarian Earl of Manchester
Duke of Manchester is a title in the Peerage of Great Britain, and the current senior title of the House of Montagu. It was created in 1719 for the politician Charles Montagu, 4th Earl of Manchester. Manchester Parish in Jamaica was named af ...
"for the destruction of monuments of idolatry and superstition", visited the
parish
A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or m ...
in 1645 he observed that "there was nothing to reform". Hopkins' brother John became
Minister of
South Fambridge
South Fambridge is a village in Essex, England. It is located about 300 yards (0.17 miles) from the River Crouch. The village lies within the Rochford district and the parliamentary constituency of Rayleigh. Surrounded by farmland, it ...
in 1645 but was removed from the post a year later for neglecting his work. Hopkins states in his book ''The Discovery of Witches'' (1647)
[The Discovery of Witches – In Answer to Several Queries, Lately Delivered to the Judges of Assize for the County of Norfolk; London; 1647] that he "never travelled far ... to gain his experience".
In the early 1640s, Hopkins moved to
Manningtree
Manningtree is a town and civil parish in the Tendring district of Essex, England, which lies on the River Stour. It is part of the Suffolk Coast and Heaths Area of Natural Beauty.
Smallest town claim
Manningtree has traditionally claimed to b ...
, Essex, a town on the
River Stour, about from Wenham. According to tradition, Hopkins used his recently acquired inheritance of a hundred
marks
Marks may refer to:
Business
* Mark's, a Canadian retail chain
* Marks & Spencer, a British retail chain
* Collective trade marks, trademarks owned by an organisation for the benefit of its members
* Marks & Co, the inspiration for the novel ...
to establish himself as a
gentleman
A gentleman (Old French: ''gentilz hom'', gentle + man) is any man of good and courteous conduct. Originally, ''gentleman'' was the lowest rank of the landed gentry of England, ranking below an esquire and above a yeoman; by definition, the ra ...
and to buy the Thorn Inn in
Mistley
Mistley is a large village and civil parish in the Tendring district of northeast Essex, England. It is around 11 miles northeast of Colchester and is east of, and almost contiguous with, Manningtree. The parish consists of Mistley and New Mist ...
. From the way that he presented evidence in trials, Hopkins is commonly thought to have been trained as a
lawyer
A lawyer is a person who practices law. The role of a lawyer varies greatly across different legal jurisdictions. A lawyer can be classified as an advocate, attorney, barrister, canon lawyer, civil law notary, counsel, counselor, solic ...
, but there is scant evidence to suggest this was the case.
Witch-hunting
![Matthewhopkins](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5b/Matthewhopkins.png)
Following the Lancaster Witch Trials (1612–1634),
William Harvey
William Harvey (1 April 1578 – 3 June 1657) was an English physician who made influential contributions in anatomy and physiology. He was the first known physician to describe completely, and in detail, the systemic circulation and proper ...
, physician to King
Charles I of England
Charles I (19 November 1600 – 30 January 1649) was King of England, Scotland, and Ireland from 27 March 1625 until Execution of Charles I, his execution in 1649. He was born into the House of Stuart as the second son of King James VI of ...
, had been ordered to examine the four women accused, and from this there came a requirement to have material proof of being a witch. The work of Hopkins and
John Stearne was not necessarily to prove any of the accused had committed acts of
maleficium, but to prove that they had made a covenant with the
Devil
A devil is the personification of evil as it is conceived in various cultures and religious traditions. It is seen as the objectification of a hostile and destructive force. Jeffrey Burton Russell states that the different conceptions of t ...
. Before this point, any malicious acts on the part of witches were treated identically to those of other criminals, until it was seen that, according to the then-current beliefs about the structure of witchcraft, they owed their powers to a deliberate act of their choosing.
Witches then became heretics to Christianity, which became the greatest of their crimes and sins. Within continental and Roman Law witchcraft was ''crimen exceptum'': a crime so foul that all normal legal procedures were superseded. Because the Devil was not going to "confess", it was necessary to gain a confession from the human involved.
The witch-hunts undertaken by Stearne and Hopkins mainly took place in
East Anglia
East Anglia is an area in the East of England, often defined as including the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire. The name derives from the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the East Angles, a people whose name originated in Anglia, in ...
, in the counties of
Suffolk
Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include Lowes ...
,
Essex
Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...
,
Norfolk
Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...
,
Cambridgeshire
Cambridgeshire (abbreviated Cambs.) is a Counties of England, county in the East of England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the north-east, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and North ...
and
Huntingdonshire
Huntingdonshire (; abbreviated Hunts) is a non-metropolitan district of Cambridgeshire and a historic county of England. The district council is based in Huntingdon. Other towns include St Ives, Godmanchester, St Neots and Ramsey. The popul ...
, with a few in the counties of
Northamptonshire
Northamptonshire (; abbreviated Northants.) is a county in the East Midlands of England. In 2015, it had a population of 723,000. The county is administered by
two unitary authorities: North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire. It is ...
and
Bedfordshire
Bedfordshire (; abbreviated Beds) is a ceremonial county in the East of England. The county has been administered by three unitary authorities, Borough of Bedford, Central Bedfordshire and Borough of Luton, since Bedfordshire County Council wa ...
.
They extended throughout the area of strongest Puritan and Parliamentarian influences which formed the powerful and influential
Eastern Association
The Eastern Association of counties was an administrative organisation set up by Parliament in the early years of the First English Civil War. Its main function was to finance and support an army which became a mainstay of the Parliamentarian mi ...
from 1644 to 1647, which was centred on Essex. Both Hopkins and Stearne would have required some form of letters of safe conduct to be able to travel throughout the counties.
According to his book ''The Discovery of Witches'',
Hopkins began his career as a witch-finder after he overheard women discussing their meetings with the Devil in March 1644 in
Manningtree
Manningtree is a town and civil parish in the Tendring district of Essex, England, which lies on the River Stour. It is part of the Suffolk Coast and Heaths Area of Natural Beauty.
Smallest town claim
Manningtree has traditionally claimed to b ...
. In fact, the first accusations were made by Stearne, and Hopkins was appointed as his assistant. Twenty-three women were accused of witchcraft and were tried at
Chelmsford
Chelmsford () is a city in the City of Chelmsford district in the county of Essex, England. It is the county town of Essex and one of three cities in the county, along with Southend-on-Sea and Colchester. It is located north-east of London a ...
in 1645. As the
English Civil War
The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians (" Roundheads") and Royalists led by Charles I ("Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of England's governance and issues of re ...
was in progress, the trial was conducted not by
justices of assize, but by
justices of the peace
A justice of the peace (JP) is a judicial officer of a lower or ''puisne'' court, elected or appointed by means of a commission ( letters patent) to keep the peace. In past centuries the term commissioner of the peace was often used with the sa ...
presided over by the
Earl of Warwick
Earl of Warwick is one of the most prestigious titles in the peerages of the United Kingdom. The title has been created four times in English history, and the name refers to Warwick Castle and the town of Warwick.
Overview
The first creation c ...
.
[ Thomas 1971: p. 545] Four died in prison and nineteen were convicted and hanged. During this period, excepting
Middlesex
Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a Historic counties of England, historic county in South East England, southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the Ceremonial counties of ...
and
chartered towns, no records show any person charged of witchcraft being sentenced to death other than by the judges of the assizes.
Hopkins and Stearne, accompanied by the women who performed the
pricking
During the height of the witch trials of the 16th and 17th centuries, common belief held that a witch could be discovered through the process of pricking their skin with needles, pins and bodkins – daggerlike instruments for drawing rib ...
, were soon travelling over eastern England, claiming to be officially commissioned by
Parliament
In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...
to uncover and prosecute witches. Together with their female assistants, they were well paid for their work, and it has been suggested that this was a motivation for his actions. Hopkins stated
that "his fees were to maintain his company with three horses",
[ Notestein 1911: p. 193] and that he took "twenty
shillings
The shilling is a historical coin, and the name of a unit of modern currencies formerly used in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, other British Commonwealth countries and Ireland, where they were generally equivalent to 12 pence or ...
a town".
The records at
Stowmarket
Stowmarket ( ) is a market town in Suffolk, England,OS Explorer map 211: Bury St.Edmunds and Stowmarket
Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher:Ordnance Survey – Southampton A2 edition. Publishing Date:2008. on the busy A14 road (Great Britain), A14 trunk ...
show their costs to the town to have been £23 () plus his travelling expenses.
The cost to the local community of Hopkins and his company were such that, in 1645, a special local tax rate had to be levied 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 ...
. Parliament was well aware of Hopkins and his team's activities, as shown by the concerned reports of the
Bury St Edmunds witch trials of 1645. Before the trial, a report was carried to the Parliament"as if some busie men had made use of some ill Arts to extort such confession"
[ Notestein 1911: p. 178]that a special
Commission of Oyer and Terminer was granted for the trial of these witches.
After the trial and execution the
''Moderate Intelligencer'', a parliamentary paper published during the English Civil War, in an editorial of 4–11 September 1645 expressed unease with the affairs in Bury.
Methods of investigation
Methods of investigating witchcraft drew heavy inspiration from the ''
Daemonologie
''Daemonologie''—in full ''Daemonologie, In Forme of a Dialogue, Divided into three Books: By the High and Mighty Prince, James &c.''—was first published in 1597 by King James VI of Scotland (later also James I of England) as a philosophi ...
'' of
King James, which was directly cited in Hopkins' ''The Discovery of Witches''. Although
torture
Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons such as punishment, extracting a confession, interrogation for information, or intimidating third parties. Some definitions are restricted to acts c ...
was nominally unlawful in England, Hopkins often used techniques such as
sleep deprivation
Sleep deprivation, also known as sleep insufficiency or sleeplessness, is the condition of not having adequate duration and/or quality of sleep to support decent alertness, performance, and health. It can be either chronic or acute and may vary ...
to extract confessions from his victims. He would also cut the arm of the accused with a blunt knife, and if she did not bleed, she was said to be a witch. Another of his methods was the
swimming test, based on the idea that as witches had renounced their
baptism
Baptism (from grc-x-koine, βάπτισμα, váptisma) is a form of ritual purification—a characteristic of many religions throughout time and geography. In Christianity, it is a Christian sacrament of initiation and adoption, almost inv ...
, water would reject them. Suspects were tied to a chair and thrown into water: all those who "swam" (floated) were considered to be witches. Hopkins was warned against the use of "swimming" without receiving the victim's permission first.
[ Cabell 2006: p. 22] This led to the legal abandonment of the test by the end of 1645.
Hopkins and his assistants also looked for the
Devil's mark. This was a mark that all witches or
sorcerers were thought to possess that was said to be dead to all feeling and would not bleed – although it was sometimes a
mole
Mole (or Molé) may refer to:
Animals
* Mole (animal) or "true mole", mammals in the family Talpidae, found in Eurasia and North America
* Golden moles, southern African mammals in the family Chrysochloridae, similar to but unrelated to Talpida ...
, birthmark or an
extra nipple or
breast
The breast is one of two prominences located on the upper ventral region of a primate's torso. Both females and males develop breasts from the same embryological tissues.
In females, it serves as the mammary gland, which produces and secret ...
. If the suspected witch had no such visible marks invisible ones could be discovered by pricking. Therefore, "witch prickers" were employed, who
pricked the accused with knives and special needles looking for such marks, normally after the suspect had been shaved of all body hair. It was believed that the witch's
familiar
In European folklore of the medieval and early modern periods, familiars (sometimes referred to as familiar spirits) were believed to be supernatural entities that would assist witches and cunning folk in their practice of magic. According to r ...
, an animal such as a cat or dog, would drink the witch's blood from the mark, as a baby drinks milk from the nipple.
Opposition
Hopkins and his company quickly ran into opposition after their work began,
but one of his main antagonists was
John Gaule
John Gaule (1603? – 1687) was an English Puritan cleric, now remembered for his partially sceptical views on astrology, witchcraft and hermetic philosophy.
Life
He studied at both Oxford and Cambridge, graduating B.A. at Magdalene College, Ca ...
, vicar of
Great Staughton
Great Staughton is a village and civil parishes in England, civil parish in Cambridgeshire, England. Great Staughton lies approximately south-west of Huntingdon. Great Staughton is situated within Huntingdonshire which is a non-metropolitan dis ...
in
Huntingdonshire
Huntingdonshire (; abbreviated Hunts) is a non-metropolitan district of Cambridgeshire and a historic county of England. The district council is based in Huntingdon. Other towns include St Ives, Godmanchester, St Neots and Ramsey. The popul ...
.
[ Notestein 1911: p. 187] Gaule had attended a woman from
St Neots
St NeotsPronunciation of the town name: Most commonly, but variations that ''saint'' is said as in most English non-georeferencing speech, the ''t'' is by a small minority of the British pronounced and higher traces of in the final syllable ...
who was held in gaol charged with witchcraft until such time as Hopkins could attend. Upon hearing that the woman had been interviewed, Hopkins wrote a letter
[ Gaskill 2005: p. 220] to a contact asking whether he would be given a "good welcome". Gaule hearing of this letter wrote his publication ''Select Cases of Conscience touching Witches and Witchcrafts''; London, (1646)dedicated to
Colonel Walton of the House of Commonsand began a programme of Sunday sermons to suppress witch-hunting.
In Norfolk, both Hopkins and Stearne were questioned by justices of the assizes about the torturing and fees. Hopkins was asked if methods of investigation did not make the finders themselves witches, and if with all his knowledge did he not also have a secret,
[ Gaskill 2005: p. 238] or had used "unlawful courses of torture".
By the time this court session resumed in 1647, Stearne and Hopkins had retired, Hopkins to
Manningtree
Manningtree is a town and civil parish in the Tendring district of Essex, England, which lies on the River Stour. It is part of the Suffolk Coast and Heaths Area of Natural Beauty.
Smallest town claim
Manningtree has traditionally claimed to b ...
and Stearne to
Bury St Edmunds
Bury St Edmunds (), commonly referred to locally as Bury, is a historic market town, market, cathedral town and civil parish in Suffolk, England.OS Explorer map 211: Bury St.Edmunds and Stowmarket Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher:Ordnance Survey – ...
.
Colonial impact
Hopkins' witch-hunting methods were outlined in his book ''The Discovery of Witches,'' which was published in 1647. These practices were recommended in law books.
[Jewett, Clarence F. The memorial history of Boston: including Suffolk County, Massachusetts. 1630–1880. Ticknor and Company. 1881 Pgs. 133–137] During the year following the publication of Hopkins' book, trials and executions for witchcraft began in the
New England
New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...
colonies with the hanging of
Alse Young
Alse Young (1615 – 26 May 1647) of Windsor, Connecticut — sometimes Achsah Young or Alice Young — was the first recorded instance of execution for witchcraft in the thirteen American colonies. She had one child, Alice Beamon (Young), b ...
of Windsor, Connecticut on May 26, 1647, followed by the conviction of
Margaret Jones. As described in the journal of Governor
John Winthrop
John Winthrop (January 12, 1587/88 – March 26, 1649) was an English Puritan lawyer and one of the leading figures in founding the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the second major settlement in New England following Plymouth Colony. Winthrop led t ...
, the evidence assembled against Margaret Jones was gathered by the use of Hopkins' techniques of "searching" and "watching".
Jones' execution was the first in a
witch-hunt
A witch-hunt, or a witch purge, is a search for people who have been labeled witches or a search for evidence of witchcraft. The Witch trials in the early modern period, classical period of witch-hunts in Early Modern Europe and European Colon ...
that lasted in New England from 1648 until 1663.
[Fraden, Judith Bloom, Dennis Brindell Fraden. ''The Salem Witch Trials''. Marshall Cavendish. 2008. Pg. 15] About eighty people throughout New England were accused of practising witchcraft during that period, of whom fifteen women and two men were executed.
Some of Hopkins' methods were employed during the
Salem Witch Trials
The Salem witch trials were a series of hearings and prosecutions of people accused of witchcraft in colonial Massachusetts between February 1692 and May 1693. More than 200 people were accused. Thirty people were found guilty, 19 of whom w ...
,
which occurred primarily in
Salem, Massachusetts in 1692–93. These trials resulted in 19 executions for witchcraft, one man,
Giles Corey
Giles Corey ( August 1611 – September 19, 1692) was an English-born American farmer who was accused of witchcraft along with his wife Martha Corey during the Salem witch trials. After being arrested, Corey refused to enter a plea of guilty or ...
,
pressed to death for refusing to plead, and 150 imprisonments.
Death and legacy
Matthew Hopkins died at his home in
Manningtree
Manningtree is a town and civil parish in the Tendring district of Essex, England, which lies on the River Stour. It is part of the Suffolk Coast and Heaths Area of Natural Beauty.
Smallest town claim
Manningtree has traditionally claimed to b ...
, Essex, on 12 August 1647, probably of pleural
tuberculosis
Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in ...
. He was buried a few hours after his death in the graveyard of the Church of St Mary at
Mistley Heath. In the words of historian
Malcolm Gaskill
Malcolm John Gaskill FRHistS (born 22 April 1967) is an English academic historian and writer on crime, magic, witchcraft, spiritualism, and the supernatural. Gaskill was a professor in the history department of the University of East Anglia fr ...
, Matthew Hopkins "lives on as an anti-hero and bogeyman – utterly ethereal, endlessly malleable". According to historian
Rossell Hope Robbins
Rossell () is a surname of Catalan
Catalan may refer to:
Catalonia
From, or related to Catalonia:
* Catalan language, a Romance language
* Catalans, an ethnic group formed by the people from, or with origins in, Northern or southern Catalonia
...
, Hopkins "acquired an evil reputation which in later days made his name synonymous with fingerman or
informer
An informant (also called an informer or, as a slang term, a “snitch”) is a person who provides privileged information about a person or organization to an agency. The term is usually used within the law-enforcement world, where informan ...
paid by authorities to commit perjury".
[ Robbins 1959: p. 248]
What historian
James Sharpe has characterised as a "pleasing legend" grew up around the circumstances of Hopkins' death, according to which he was subjected to his own swimming test and executed as a witch, but the parish registry at Mistley confirms his burial there.
References
Notes
Footnotes
Bibliography
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Further reading
*
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External links
*
**
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Animated/Audio Story of Hopkins and his demiseHistory of the Essex Witch TrialsDiary of Witchfinder General trials published online
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hopkins, Matthew
1647 deaths
17th-century deaths from tuberculosis
People from Babergh District
Witch hunters
Year of birth uncertain
Year of birth unknown
Tuberculosis deaths in England
Witch trials in England