Hopkins and East Anglian Witch Hunt: 1645-1647

Question 1

Civil War

Answer 1

Civil war considered to be a cause of the East Anglian hunts:
England had been Protestant until Charles married a catholic and began to re-implement elements of Catholicism into society. People angry and accused hi of being a Catholic sympathiser and Parliament sympathetic to Protestants

• 1642: Charles and Parliament at odds, Civil war taking over for next 4 yrs
• By 1640s, many clerics feared Devil was everywhere and some believed Charles was Satan’s agent
• Civil war saw a collapse of traditional authority, Parliament acting without royal assent, Iconoclasm, Church Courts dismantled
• East Anglia extremely Puritan and had felt strains of war e.g. high taxation, inflation, high food prices and pillaging by soldiers

Question 2

Witch Hunts in Essex

Answer 2

Beginning:

• 1645: John Rivet accused Elizabeth Clarke of being a witch
• Clarke had freely confessed to John Stearne, man substituting for local JP, Stearne sent confession to local magistrate Grimston
• Clarke confessed to making a pact with Devil- Diabloical element not normally a part of witch trials (usually only for Maleficarum)
• Grimston issued warrant allowing Stearne to investigate names of other witches
• Mathew Hopkins, son of Puritan clergyman, wanted to root out witchcraft and asked to help
• Clarke deprived of sleep (resembling torture), named Anne and Rebecca West and others as witches
• Women arrested, more women in Colchester area being accused

Summer 1645:
- At least 30 women imprisoned in Colchester by June

Chelmsford Trials:

• July 1645: women accused were tried at Chelmsford
• Disruption caused by civil war meant trial heard by Earl of Warwick rather than judge
• Most found guilty, only 1 acquitted
• 15 of condemned executed at Chelmsford, 4 other hanged at Manningtree

Question 3

Witch Hunts in Suffolk

Answer 3

1645:

• Hopkins and Stearne went to towns to root out witches, usually more Protestant areas
• 150 men and women from 50 small towns and villages identified as witches

Confessions:

• Suspects deprived of sleep, isolated and intimidated; resembling torture (although torture illegal in England)
• Sleep deprivation created dream-like state where people couldn’t separate dream from reality and didn’t know what they were admitting to
• Searchers looking for witches marks gathered further evidence, Witches wouldn’t bleed so Hopkins used blunt knife to test them

Suffolk Trials:

• 90 suspected witches detained at Bury St Edmunds, 60 approved for trial
• Half of cases at trial sentenced to death

Hunting Continued:

• 1646: Hopkins and Stearne travelled around eastern counties e.g. Norfolk and Bedfordshire
• January 1646: 7 women tried in Aldeburgh, all hanged

Question 4

Opposition to Witch Finders
and
Defence of Hopkins and Stearne

Answer 4

Opposition:

• 1645: Report sent to Parliament concerned about number of confessed witches in Suffolk
• 1646: Parliament pardoned 9 Essex witches
• John Gaule launched campaign against witch-finders, Norfolk Assizes went on to question H and S methods of interrogation

Defence of H and S:

• Both published books in defence of their actions
• Both insisted that witches posed a real threat to society and had only conducted investigations in areas they had been invited to
• Historian Gaskill says H and S merely catalysts, only confirmed accusers suspicions- didn’t start accusations

Conclusion:

• 1645-1647: at least 250 people accused and at least 100 killed
• Diabolic pact and presence of Devil were new to England, not usually a part of trials