The famous 1692 witch trials of Salem inspired a play by Arthur Miller and subsequent Hollywood movie, however public hysteria stirred up by religious clergy and situations that were scientifically inexplicable at the time (hallucinations, mental illness) were not limited to small towns in the US. Here in London numerous innocent women and men were prosecuted and brought to their deaths for practising witchcraft, particularly in the 15th and 16th centuries. The vast majority of those convicted were women, most of whom were old and often socially outcast – many were widows who had no family around to support them. According to Malleus Maleficarum, the 1486 book written by two Inquisitors for the Catholic Church about what methods should be employed to identify and question witches, women “know no moderation in goodness or vice; when they are governed by a good spirit, they are most excellent in virtue; but when they are governed by an evil spirit, they indulge the worst possible vices”. Hence the fate of the accused women would be sealed.
Early Witch Hunts
Although witch hunts didn’t gain momentum in England till Henry VIII passed the first Witchcraft Act in 1541, one of the earliest recorded witch hunts occurred in London in the 10th century. A woman and her son were tried for supposedly driving stakes into a man’s image; she was drowned in the Thames near London Bridge, while her son managed to escape, becoming an outlaw.
In 1371 a man was tried in Southwark for practising spells, but despite being found in possession of a skull and the head of a corpse, he was released upon condition that he would not attempt to perform magic again. In 1390 a Mr John Berking was arrested for attempting to tell the future; so serious was this crime - and such a big threat to the clergy - that he was condemned to two weeks in prison, an hour in the pillory (a wooden device with holes for the head, hands and feet, used for public punishment) and to leave the city of London forever.
A preferred method to tell whether someone was a witch or not was to tie them up, right thumb to left toe, and push them into water; if they floated on the surface they were a witch. Due to the position in which they were tied and the fact that they would often be dressed in loose-fitting, flowing clothing, it wasn’t unusual for them to initially float. In the case of those convicted, sometimes iron rivets would be driven into their knees to prevent them from rising up from their grave after their inevitable execution. \n\nMargery Jourdaine
Witches were not burnt at the stake in England, however there was one exception. Margery Jourdaine was a well known fortune teller known as ‘The Witch of Eye’, who was arrested in 1432 with two priests for her divination rituals, however charges were dropped and she was released on bail. Nine years later, in 1441, she was arrested again for her involvement in a plot to kill Henry VI by using witchcraft, along with four other people. This time she wasn’t so lucky; treason was the worst possible crime she could have committed, leading to her being burnt at the stake at Smithfield, a well known execution spot and where the wholesale meat market is today. One of her accomplices, Roger Bolingbroke, was hung and quartered (head cut off, body divided into four quarters) at Tyburn, near Marble Arch. This chain of events was immortalised by Shakespeare in his play about Henry VI.
Public perception
Public executions and punishments were the norm, as opinion amongst the public was stirred in favour of the Church, leading to mob violence in some cases. In 1628, astrologer John Lambe was pelted to death with stones by an angry crowd near St. Paul’s Cathedral following his conviction for raping an 11 year old young girl and the postponing of his execution. Rumours had been circulating for years regarding his ability to invoke demons and cause men to become impotent. Years later his former servant, Anne Bodenham, was hanged for witchcraft, after making a living finding lost property. Both Lambe and Bodenham were in their 80s when they died.
\n\nIt wasn’t only black magic that witches were tried for. Women were arrested for casting spells to find new husbands for widowers, for ‘love magic’ and ‘weather magic’, the latter being a method of telling the future according to the meteorological conditions. Anything out of the ordinary or ‘paranormal’ was generally feared, a feeling instilled by the Church and the ruling monarchs, who worried about the stability of their own power. In the 15th century, not believing in witchcraft was considered heresy, therefore adding further fervour to the quest for finding and prosecuting witches.
The treatment the accused received while being interrogated and tried was far from cosy, as a read of Malleus Maleficarum will reveal. In 1652, Joan Peterson of Wapping was accused of murdering Lady Powell, the wealthy owner of a large estate. She had been known to administer cures for migraines and other small ailments, giving those who she fell out with a reason to suspect her. She was apprehended and strip-searched, and made to plea her innocence to the court while on her knees. Those who knew her protested her innocence and a doctor was summoned who claimed Lady Powell must have died of one of the several (in those days) incurable diseases she had contracted. Despite all evidence to the contrary she was hanged at Tyburn, and became known thereafter as ‘The Witch of Wapping’.
The last witches
A new act was passed in 1735 that decreed being a witch was no longer a crime, however posing as one was. Somewhat preposterously two women were convicted under this act during World War II, although thankfully the barbaric death sentence wasn’t applied. The last conviction was Jane Rebecca Yorke from East London, who was arrested and found guilty on seven counts, seemingly because of her extensive knowledge of war affairs, proving that the power of witches was still feared by the government.
