Talk:Jane Wenham

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Don't normally do this kind of thing, but just to correct an error on this page which has now made it onto the main page "Did You Know" section:-

"Jane Wenham (d. 1730) was the subject of the last witch trial in England"

This isn't the case. CF. Helen Duncan, a Spiritualist medium from Edinburgh who in 1944 was first charged with Vagrancy, then Conspiracy and then Witchcraft under the 1735 Witchcraft Act, more specifically accused of pretending "to exercise or use human conjuration that through the agency of Helen Duncan spirits of deceased dead persons should appear to be present."

Churchill himself intervened but was unable to prevent her from going to prison. However on his return to power in 1951 this was one of the things that prompted him to repeal the Witchcraft act.

There has been a quite interesting documentary on this on Channel 4 in the UK and you can find more details if you look around.

A good starting place is http://www.parascope.com/articles/slips/fs23_1.htm

Keep up the good work,

Carnaaki

Thanks. This whole subject of "last" is amazingly gnarled. It gets like "first telephone." I believe some of the confusion comes from "last tried" and "last convicted" and "last executed." I think that Wenham was the last convicted, but not necessarily the last tried...unsure, as different dates pop up...and I suppose one can argue about whether being tried for being a witch and servant of Satan is the same as being tried for charlatanism, which is apparently what the 1735 Act attempted to criminalize. The 1735 Act was, I think, an attempt at getting rid of the "burn 'er!" witchcraft act by cleverly saying that it wasn't the communicating with Satan that was the crime, but the claim of supernatural powers. I.e. the 1735 Act was an attempt to put a stop to witch trials, I think. The subject is endlessly complex, and, had I not had the DNB and Ox. Dict. Christian Church both saying that this was the last "trial" (last conviction, I think), I'd never have gotten into superlatives. Geogre 11:41, 25 October 2005 (UTC)

Also, I should point out that the 1712, 1716 difference is also one of those technicalities. The controversy (arrest and hearing) was 1712, but I run into 1716 for dispensation of the case. Staying in detention for four years while the case goes forward is a bit unusual even in the 18th c., but it's not impossible. I hope someone with more interest and knowledge of the case improves it, as I came to it mainly to document Edmund Curll's involvement in making money off her misfortune. Geogre 11:41, 25 October 2005 (UTC)

I rewrote the first sentence, because when I first read it I thought that it indicated that she was not the subject of a witch trial at all, not that the error was about whether it was the last one. If I've made it even more confusing, feel free to revert, or better, reword it again. Chick Bowen 00:43, 26 October 2005 (UTC)