Bury St. Edmunds witch trials
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The Bury St Edmunds witch trials were a series of trials conducted in the town of Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk, England intermittently between the years 1599 and 1694.
Two specific trials in 1645 and 1662 became historically well known.The judgment by the future Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales Sir Matthew Hale in the 1662 trial acted as a powerful influence on the continuing persecution of witches in England and similar persecutions in the American colonies.[1]
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[edit] Jurisdiction
As well as being the seat of county assizes, Bury St Edmunds had been a site for both Piepowder Courts and court assizes, the latter since the Abbey was awarded the Liberty of Saint Edmund.[2][3][4] For the purposes of civil government the town and the remainder (or "body") of the county were quite distinct, each providing a separate grand jury to the assizes.[5]
[edit] The trials
The first recorded account of a witch trial at Bury St Edmunds Suffolk was held in 1599 when Jone Jordan of Shadbrook (possibly Stradbroke) and Joane Nayler were tried, but there is no record of the charges or verdicts. In the same year, Oliffe Bartham of Shadbrook was executed.[1]
[edit] The 1645 trial
On the 27 August 1645, no less than 18 "witches" were hanged at Bury St. Edmunds.[1] These trials were held by Matthew Hopkins, the self-proclaimed Witchfinder General. They were:
- Anne Alderman, Rebecca Morris and Mary Bacon of Chattisham
- Mary Clowes of Yoxford
- Sarah Spindler, Jane Linstead, Thomas Everard (cooper) and his wife Mary of Halesworth
- Mary Fuller of Combs, near Stowmarket
- John Lowes, Vicar of Brandeston
- Susan Manners, Jane Rivet and Mary Skipper of Copdock, near Ipswich
- Mary Smith of Glemham
- Margery Sparham of Mendham
- Katherine Tooly of Westleton.
- Anne Leech and Anne Wright of unknown.[1][6]
According to John Stearn(e)[7] the witch-hunter,[8][1] assistant to Matthew Hopkins, in his book A Confirmation and Discovery of Witchcraft there were one hundred and twenty others in gaol awaiting trial. Following a three-week adjournment made necessary by the advancing King's Army, the second sitting of the court resulted in 68 other 'condemnations'.[9][1] Both Hopkins and Stearne treated the search for, and trials of, witches as military campaigns, as shown in their choice of language in both seeking support for and reporting their endeavours.[10] There was much to keep the minds of Parliamentarians busy at this time with the Royalist Army heading towards Cambridgeshire but concern about the events unfolding were being voiced. The Moderate Intelligencer, a parliamentary paper published during the English Civil War, in an editorial of September 4 -11th 1645 expressed unease with the affairs in Bury:
- But whence is it that Devils should choose to be conversant with silly Women that know not their right hands from their left, is the great wonder … The(y) will meddle with none but poore old women: as appears by what we receive this day from Bury… Divers[11] are condemned and some executed and more like to be. Life is precious and there is need of great inquisition before it is taken away.[1]
[edit] The 1662 trial
This took place in 1662, when two elderly women, Rose Cullender and Amy Deny (Duny), living in Lowestoft, were accused of witchcraft by their neighbours. They were tried at the Assize held in Bury St. Edmunds by one of England's most eminent judges of the time and Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer Sir Matthew Hale. The jury found them guilty on thirteen charges of using malevolent witchcraft and the judge sentenced them to death. They were hanged in the town on March 17, 1662.
Thomas Browne, the philosopher, physician and author, attended the trial.[12] The reporting of similar events that had occurred in Denmark by someone as eminent as Browne seemed to confirm the guilt of the accused.[13] He had expressed his belief in the existence of witches, and that only: "they that doubt of these, do not only deny them, but spirits; and are obliquely, and upon consequence a sort not of infidels, but atheists."[14] in his work Religio Medici published in 1643:
...how so many learned heads should so farre forget their Metaphysicks, and destroy the ladder and scale of creatures, as to question the existence of Spirits: for my part, I have ever beleeved,and doe now know, that there are Witches; — — how so many learned heads should so far forget their metaphysics, and destroy the ladder and scale of creatures, as to question the existence of spirits. For my part, I have ever believed, and do now know, that there are witches;[14]
The booklet A Tryal of Witches taken from a contemporary report of the proceedings erroneously dates the trial as March 1664, both on the front page and introduction. Original documents in the Public Record Office[15] and other contemporary records clearly states it took place in the 14th year of the reign of Charles II (30 January 1662 to 29 January 1663).[16][17]
This case became a model for, and was referenced in, the Salem Witch Trials in Massachusetts, when the magistrates were looking for proof that spectral evidence could be used in a court of law.[6][18][19] Cotton Mather in his 1693 book The Wonders of the Invisible World, concerning the Salem Witch Trials specifically draws attention to the Suffolk trial and the Judge stated that while spectral evidence should be allowed in order to begin investigations, it should not be admitted as evidence to decide a case.[20]
[edit] Later trials
The next recorded trial was in 1655 when a mother and daughter by the name of Boram were tried and said to be hanged. The last was in 1694 when 'Mother Munnings' of Hartis (possibly Hartest) was acquitted.[1]
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d e f g h Notestein, Wallace (1911). A History of Witchcraft In England from 1558 to 1718. New York: American Historical Association 1911 (reissued 1965) New York Russell & Russell. ISBN L.C. Catalogue Card No: 65-18824.
- ^ East Anglian, Daily Times. Days when the monks held all the aces.. Retrieved on 2007-12-20.
- ^ Knott, Simon. Suffolk Churches.. Retrieved on 2007-12-15.
- ^ St Edmundsbury, Borough Council. The history of Bury St Edmunds markets. Retrieved on 2007-12-15.
- ^ British History, On Line. Houses of Benedictine monks; Abbey of Bury St Edmunds. Retrieved on 2007-12-15.
- ^ a b Geis, Gilbert; Bunn Ivan.; … (1997). A Trial of Witches: A Seventeenth-century Witchcraft Prosecution.. New York: Routledge.
- ^ A detailed account of Hopkins and his fellow witchfinder John Stearne can be found in Malcolm Gaskill's Witchfinders: A Seventeenth Century English Tragedy (Harvard, 2005). The duo's activities were portrayed, unreliably but entertainingly, in the 1968 cult classic Witchfinder-General (US: Conqueror Worm).
- ^ St Edmundsbury, Borough Council. Reformation and Civil War 1539-1699. Retrieved on 2007-12-15.
- ^ Essex Witch Trials. A Confirmation and Discovery of Witchcraft John Stearne 1648. Retrieved on 2008-03-15.
- ^ Purkiss, Diane. Desire and Its Deformities: Fantasies of Witchcraft in the English Civil War. Retrieved on 2007-12-20.
- ^ divers is an adjective meaning "diverse, various" or "many and varied", in older English usage:- see divers
- ^ Bunn, Ivan. The Lowestoft Witches. Retrieved on 2007-12-29.
- ^ Thomas, Keith (1971). Religion and the Decline of Magic. London: Penguin Books. ISBN 0140137440.
- ^ a b Sir Thomas Browne. Retrieved on 2007-12-15.
- ^ (ASSI/16/4/1)see[1]
- ^ reign = actual: 29 May 1660 – 6 February 1685 but according to royalists de jure from 30 January 1649 the day of execution of his father. At this time the new year did not occur until March, so the father's death (and Charles II succession) would have been recorded as 1648. Further clarification if required
- ^ Bunn, Ivan. The Lowestoft Witches. Retrieved on 2007-12-15.
- ^ Jensen, Gary F. (2006). The Path of the Devil: Early Modern Witch Hunts.. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield.
- ^ Bunn, Ivan. The Lowestoft Witches. Retrieved on 2007-12-15.
- ^ Libraries at University, of Nebraska - Lincoln. The Wonders of the Invisible World. Observations as Well Historical as Theological, upon the Nature, the Number, and the Operations of the Devils (1693).. Retrieved on 2008-03-15.
[edit] External links
[edit] Further reading
- Geis, Gilbert, and Bunn Ivan. A Trial of Witches: A Seventeenth-century Witchcraft Prosecution. Routledge: New York, 1997.ISBN 0415171091
- Jensen Gary F. The Path of the Devil: Early Modern Witch Hunts. Rowman & Littlefield 2006 Lanham ISBN 0742546977
- Notestein, Wallace A History of Witchcraft In England from 1558 to 1718 Kessinger Publishing: United States of America 2003 ISBN 0766179184
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