The reasons behind the persecutions for witchcraft in the period termed the Early Modern Age are varied. Social changes were a factor; the problem associated with providing for the poorest and destitute in society was certainly a salient factor. Parishes increasingly regarded these individuals within their towns and villages as a burden. This in a time of economic change.

Religious differences were certainly a major factor. The Reformation caused division within European states. The Thirty Years' War in Europe between 1618 and 1648, in part due to the Catholic - Protestant divide and the English Civil War of 1642 - 51, were fundamental in the widespread belief that the Apocalypse was upon them all and that their century would witness the final battle between "good and evil".

Witchcraft persecutions transcended class but the majority of those tried were from the poorest in society and were usually, but not always, women. Women, for example were usually the healers in that stratum of society and when their "cures" were seen to fail they became somewhat unpopular. The impetus, though, came from above and the those below responded. This is not the only time in history where this has occured. For example, in 1930s Nazi Germany the seemingly omniscient and ubiquitous Gestapo and Police relied upon the reportage of people at the local level to inform on "undesirables". Homosexuals, for example, became "enemies of the state". In 17th Century England that very same process provided opportunities for folk to dispose of individuals they considered not to be conducive to their somewhat insular existence. Therefore and for example: single women were seen as a threat by married women; women who inherited property were perceived as a threat to men.

Harvest failures, death and disease - human and livestock - could be blamed on these unfortunate convenient "scapegoats". Not forgetting, of course, the Bubonic Plague and other pandemic events of that century.

In this region Matthew Hopkins, the "Witchfinder General" and his assizes held at "The Thorn" in Mistley are very well known. Charles I gave impetus to the exposure of alleged witchcraft activity within the area of strong Puritan and Parliamentary influence, the Eastern Association in Essex. The Eastern Association included a core of the Parliamentarian Army with Oliver Cromwell and his cavalry. The witch hunts in Essex during the English Civil War period, therefore, were a weapon used by Charles I against his enemy. Hopkins and his associate Stearne were later investigated by the Assizes for torture - unlawful in England - and fee-taking. By this time, as the Parliamentarians were winning the Civil War and more enlightened minds had intervened, persecution of these unfortunate wretches began to cease - at least to some extent, because there was still some, a few, persecutions for witchcraft in the 18th Century.

As for the work of the Witchfinders Pursuivant active in Harwich Town, the evidence thus far is as follows:

Of the 27 cases found in Harwich, in 1601 five women were accused of witchcraft and were found guilty and hanged. Four years later, in 1605, Mary Hart was found not guilty of "bewitching 7 lbs of meat which turned putrid". But she was found guilty and hanged the following year. From the records: "They keep a Sessions of the Peace at Anthony Seward's mansion house, commonly called the 3 Cupps, troubled with witchcraft. They condemn one Mary Hart for it to be hanged". Clearly the people of Harwich had it in for poor Mary Hart ! It should be noted that hangings were a public event attracting large numbers of people. Various vendors of food, entertainment, pamphlets etc. peddled their wares on such occasions.

In 1609, Thos. Barneby, Peter and Cecelia Wigborough were tried and found not guilty of "wizardry", the male equivalent of witches. As was the case in other regions, most individuals accused of witchcraft were elderly widows and spinsters. These women were thought to be descended from witches and potentially gave birth to witches. In other words hereditary. Three generations of alleged witches were accused in Harwich: Elizabeth Hanby was hanged in 1601; her daughter, Jane Prentice, was charged at the Essex Assizes in 1634 and again in 1638; her granddaughter, Susan Prentice, was also tried at the Assizes in 1638.

One Margaret Buller of Dovercourt was pronounced guilty of murder and witchcraft. her sister, Anne, was accused of bewitching and causing the death of 13 year old John Camper. He was apparently visited upon by one of Anne Buller's "familiars", a bird, and died soon after.

We know that during the period of Matthew Hopkins's witchfinding activities two other witchfinders, namely Grimston and Bowes, visited Alresford, Wivenhoe, Ramsey, Harwich, St. Osyth, Great Holland, Great Cacton, Little Clacton and Thorpe Le Soken. Apparently this occured during the period April/May 1645.

There was a familiar pattern with these cases. An old woman made threats after being refused a favour and sending her imps or familiars to the unfortunate individual. Allegedly, some calamity befell him or her and the old woman would be accused of "fidling".

One recorded case of witchcraft is worth relating in full:

There was the testimony of Thomasine, wife of Richard Hedge, against Jane Wiggins in 1634. Thomasine Hedge stated that Jane Wiggins told her "shee had latly bene to begg a billet (fish) or two of Anthony Payne being mr. (master) of a shippe belonging to Harwich, and that he denyed to give her any and therefore she told this examinate that Payne shoold not (being then redye to take his voyage to sea) return back in hast, in which voyage his ship with 16 persons weare cast away - That the said Jane Wiggins went to one John Hatch's house for fyer, thear being none but a girle about the age of 12 years in the house, whoe denyed that she should have anny because theare was but little fyer in the harth, whereupon she tould the child that she would fidle her for it, and immediately after the child was taken strangely sicke and hath continued languishinge and distracted ever since. And further this examinate saith that she was at the house of the said Jane Wiggins, who went presently out - after her running to fetch fyer, and was no sooner gon out of her house but thear came from under her bed three things much like Ratts only a little lesse with great staring eyes, and after a wyle gazine on this examinate they went away but what they weare the ex. knoweth not, nor did the same Jane tell her although she asked her. Further this ex. saith that about Christmas last she did see Jane Wiggins carry two imps lyke Ratts but somewhat bigger in a box, and then Jane Wiggins told this ex. that shee left one of them at the house of Edward Maiers and it should nip Edward to the hart, who died fower daies after". Jane Wiggins also sent one of her "familiars" "to terrify Margaret Garrettt with pains and lameness because the said Margaret would give her no starch". Jane was somewhat handy with her imps as she would send "two Black Birds aboute the bignes of two penny chikins" to strike Mr. Seaman's mare. Clearly Jane Wiggins was not the most popular person among the inhabitants of Harwich at that time. Clearly she was a nuisance ! Children, with or without the instructions of their elders, were often instrumental in pointing their fingers at particular individuals in their midst.

Witches on the Continent of Europe were far more illustrious. There, allegedly, they were able to fly and sail the seas in sieves ! Witches in Essex, as elsewhere in England, did not hold sabbaths, partake in orgies, or fornicate with the Devil. They had comparatively more mundane habits, for which they suffered ordeal by water ("ducking") and sleep deprivation. However, Hopkins was more sadistic. In some cases he would cut off the arm of a suspected witch and if she did not bleed, she was guilty ! He also used the "swimming test" whereby the suspect would be thrown into a river and if she floated it was an indication that she had renounced her baptism, but if she sunk she was innocent !

Physical evidence which might prove whether or not someone was a witch was the appearance of a "third nipple", in reality a mole ! The extra nipple was said to suckle the witches' imps with milk or blood. Sarah Barton was charged with Witchcraft in Harwich in 1645. Her sister, Marion Hockett, told the court that Sarah Barton "... had cut off her "bigs" (nipples and moles) whereby she might have been the more suspected to have been a witch, and laid plasters to those places. And the said Marion had given unto her, the said Sarah, 3 Imps that the said Marion called by the names of Littleman, Prettyman, and Dainty".

After 1647 witchcraft trials in England were less common. The bloodletting on the fields of Edgehill, Marston Moor and Naseby started to change peoples views in society and of course the Royalists were losing the War. And as stated above, more enlightened minds started to prevail. Bridget Weaver was the subject of the last recorded witch trial in Harwich in 1660. And the last case to be heard at the Essex Assizes was in 1675.

In Early Modern Europe, approximately the period 1450 to 1750, thousands of people, mostly women, were tried for witchcraft, although roughly half of these were actually executed. The historian Merry Wiesner has said, in a necessarily rough estimate for the whole of Europe, "...during the 16th and 17th Centuries somewhere between 100,000 and 200,000 people were officially tried and between 50,000 and 100,000 executed. Given the much smaller size of the European population in comparison with today, these are enormous numbers" (M.E. Wiesner, Women and Gender in Early Modern Europe, 1993).

The information in relation to witchcraft trials in Harwich was taken, on the whole, from Leonard Weaver's The Harwich Story, 1997.

Martin Wakley (copyright)