The Witch trials in England were conducted from the 15th century until the 18th century. They are estimated to have resulted in the death of perhaps 500 people, 90 percent of whom were women. The witch hunt was as its most intense stage 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 ...

(1642–1651) and the Puritan era of the mid-17th century.Ankarloo, Bengt & Henningsen, Gustav (red.), Skrifter. Bd 13, Häxornas Europa 1400-1700: historiska och antropologiska studier, Nerenius & Santérus, Stockholm, 1987

History

Chronology

Witch trials are known to have occurred in England during the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

. These cases were few, and mainly concerned cases toward people of the elite or with ties to the elite, often with a political purpose.William E. Burns: ''Witch Hunts in Europe and America: An Encyclopedia'' Examples of these were the trials against

Eleanor Cobham Eleanor Cobham (c.1400 – 7 July 1452) was an English noblewoman, first the mistress and then the second wife of Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, who in 1441 was forcibly divorced and sentenced to life imprisonment for treasonable necromancy, a ...

and

Margery Jourdemayne Margery Jourdemayne, "the Witch of Eye Next Westminster" (before 1415 – 27 October 1441) was an English woman who was accused of treasonable witchcraft and subsequently burned at the stake. Life Margery was married to William Jourdemayne. ...

in 1441, which resulted in lifetime imprisonment for the former, and an execution for

heresy Heresy is any belief or theory that is strongly at variance with established beliefs or customs, in particular the accepted beliefs of a church or religious organization. The term is usually used in reference to violations of important religi ...

for the latter. It was, however, not until the second half of the 16th century that a widescale witch hunt took place in England. The cases became more common in the end of the 16th century and the early 17th century, particularly since the succession of

James VI and I James VI and I (James Charles Stuart; 19 June 1566 – 27 March 1625) was King of Scotland as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the Scottish and English crowns on 24 March 1603 until ...

to the throne. King James had shown a great interest in witch trials since the

Copenhagen witch trials The Copenhagen witch trials of 1590 was the first major witch trial in Denmark. It resulted in the execution of seventeen people by burning. It was closely connected to the North Berwick witch trials in Scotland. Background In the winter of 15 ...

in 1589, which had inspired the

North Berwick witch trials The North Berwick witch trials were the trials in 1590 of a number of people from East Lothian, Scotland, accused of witchcraft in the St Andrew's Auld Kirk in North Berwick on Halloween night. They ran for two years, and implicated over seventy ...

in Scotland in 1590. When he succeeded to the English throne in 1603, he sharpened the English Witchcraft Act the following year. Witch trials were most frequent in England in the first half of the 17th century. They reached their most intense phase 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 ...

of the 1640s and the Puritan era of the 1650s. This was a period of intense witch hunts, known for witch hunters such as

Matthew Hopkins Matthew Hopkins ( 1620 – 12 August 1647) was an English witch-hunter whose career flourished during the English Civil War. He claimed to hold the office of Witchfinder General, although that title was never bestowed by Parliament, a ...

Legal situation

The Witchcraft Act 1542 was enacted in England; but was repealed in 1547. The Witchcraft Act 1563 introduced the death penalty for any sorcery used to cause someone's death. In 1604 the Witchcraft Act was reformed to include anyone to have made a Pact with Satan. Sir John Holt by Richard Van Bleeck

The witch trials

In England, it was not as common as in some other nations to be accused of having attended a

Witches' Sabbath A Witches' Sabbath is a purported gathering of those believed to practice witchcraft and other rituals. The phrase became popular in the 20th century. Origins In 1668, Johannes Praetorius published his literary work "Blockes-Berges Verrichtu ...

or having made a Pact with Satan. The typical victim of an English witch trial was a poor old woman with a bad reputation, who were accused by her neighbours of having a familiar and of having injured or caused harm to other people's livestock by use of sorcery. About 500 people are estimated to have been executed for witchcraft in England. Normally, people sentenced for witchcraft in England were executed by hanging. An exception was made when the person had committed another crime for which people were executed by burning at the stake. For example,

Mary Lakeland Mary Lakeland also known as Mother Lakeland and the “Ipswich Witch” (d. 9 September 1645), was an English woman executed for witchcraft in Ipswich. She belonged to the few people in England to have been executed by burning after a conviction of ...

was burned at the stake 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 ...

on 9 September 1645 after having been judged for witchcraft, but she was not burned for the crime of witchcraft, but because she had used witcraft to murder her husband, and the murder of a husband was defined as

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 ...

, for which the punishment was burning. That was also the reason to why 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 were also executed by burning after having been sentenced for witchcraft.Nigel Pennick: Secrets of East Anglian Magic. 1995

Political and Religious Influences

Historian John Callow argues in his 2022 book, ''The Last Witches of England'', that witchcraft trials and convictions were influenced by political and religious tension between

nonconformist Nonconformity or nonconformism may refer to: Culture and society * Insubordination, the act of willfully disobeying an order of one's superior *Dissent, a sentiment or philosophy of non-agreement or opposition to a prevailing idea or entity ** ...

Whigs, on the one hand, and the adherents of

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...

Toryism A Tory () is a person who holds a political philosophy known as Toryism, based on a British version of traditionalism and conservatism, which upholds the supremacy of social order as it has evolved in the English culture throughout history. The ...

, on the other hand, after the

End of witchcraft prosecutions

The 1682

Bideford witch trial The Bideford witch trial resulted in hangings for witchcraft in England. Temperance Lloyd, Mary Trembles and Susannah Edwards from the town of Bideford in Devon were tried in 1682 at the Exeter Assizes at Rougemont Castle. Much of the evidence a ...

resulted in the last people confirmed to have been executed for witchcraft in England, but the last person to be executed was probably Mary Hicks in 1716, whose story is recorded in an eight-page pamphlet published in the same year. Jane Wenham (died 1730) was one of the last people to be condemned to death for witchcraft in England, although her conviction was set aside. Her trial in 1712 is commonly but erroneously regarded as the last

witch trial 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 classical period of witch-hunts in Early Modern Europe and Colonial America took place in the Early Modern perio ...

in England. The

Witchcraft Act 1735 The Witchcraft Act 1735 (9 Geo. 2 c. 5) was an Act of Parliament, Act of the Parliament of Great Britain, Parliament of the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1735 which made it a crime for a person to claim that any human being had magical powers or wa ...

finally concluded prosecutions for alleged witchcraft in England after sceptical jurists, especially Sir John Holt (1642-1710), had already largely ended convictions of alleged witches under English law.

Colonies

Witch trials occurred also in the English colonies, where English law was applied. This was particularly the case in The Thirteen Colonies in North America. Examples of these were the

Connecticut Witch Trials The Connecticut Witch Trials, also sometimes referred to as the Hartford witch trials, occurred from 1647 to 1663. They were the first large-scale witch trials in the American colonies, predating the Salem Witch Trials by nearly thirty years. John M ...

from 1647 to 1663. The most famous of these trials were 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 ...

in 1692. Two women were acquitted of witchcraft charges in the

Province of Pennsylvania The Province of Pennsylvania, also known as the Pennsylvania Colony, was a British North American colony founded by William Penn after receiving a land grant from Charles II of England in 1681. The name Pennsylvania ("Penn's Woods") refers to W ...

in 1683 after a trial in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

before

William Penn William Penn ( – ) was an English writer and religious thinker belonging to the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), and founder of the Province of Pennsylvania, a North American colony of England. He was an early advocate of democracy a ...