Torture was an illegal practice in 1645, however, there were very few sympathisers with an accused witch, not least due to their initial unpopularity with the local population and besides, there was very little structured authority to uphold such laws anyway. Whilst there are no surviving documents concerning the man directly, there are enough periphery records that help us to flesh out who he was and divide the facts from the fiction. Free shipping . In the will of one Daniel Wyles, dated 1619 is the following entry: “James hopkins, preacher of the word of God at Great Wenham and to his wife, leaving 6s 8d each to their children, James, Thomas and John when able to read a chapter in the new testament, to buy a bible.”, From this we know that Matthew was not born by 1619, suggesting he would have been born in the following several years with most sources attributing his birth no later than 1620. Job titles were as diverse as today. for example, the Monks Eleigh Parish Register contains the following entry: 'December 19 1748. The 14th and 15th Centuries saw a slow ramping up of trials for heresy, which slowly evolved into a complicated hierarchical categorisation in law, one such category being the use of demonic sorcery, eventually spawning the Witchcraft Act in 1542, outlining the act of Witchcraft by name as a felony, punishable by death. He became known as the ‘Witchfinder General’ . Clearly sorcery was an epidemic, Stearne and Hopkins switched roles, Stearne became his assistant and second in command and they added three more members to their crack squad, Mary Phillips, whose speciality lye in finding Devils Marks, Edward Parsley and Frances Mills. A witch-hunt or a witch purge is a search for people who have been labeled witches or a search for evidence of witchcraft, and it often involves a moral panic or mass hysteria. This was a mood that would sharply change as the wars raged and society broke down in the hamlets and towns around England however, and the Pendle trials would plant violent seeds that would help lay the groundwork for what was to become the most brutal series of witch trials in European history, all of which would be headed by just one man, aided by an amended Witchcraft Act that very much played to his carefully crafted MO, Matthew Hopkins, the self-proclaimed Witchfinder General. Matthew Hopkins – On the Discovery of Witches – Matthew Hopkins published pamphlet regarding criticisms he received for his witch hunting. One of the most remarkable episodes to come out of the European witch craze was the panic that gripped East Anglia, England from 1645-1647. Records do not show how Enquiry:Why was Matthew Hopkins able to become so successful? Facts about Matthew Hopkins 6: Opposition. 17th century was deeply patriarchal and misogynistic so it was easy for men to blame women for problems and accuse them of witchery as an easy way to practice their prejudices. In the book, he wrote of the accused: “Every old woman with a wrinkled face, a furrowed brow, a hairy lip, a robber tooth, a squint eye, a squeaking voice or scolding tongue, having a rugged coat on her back, a skull cap on her head, a spindle in her hand & a dog or cat by her side, is not only suspect but pronounced for a witch”. They were the first of their kind in Scotland and saw over one hundred accused, imprisoned and tortured, leading to many confessions. He stood by Lowes as a Godly man and contested his innocence after his death. Still, there is no mention of what he did … $25.13. Certaine Queries answered, which have been and are likely to be … Together with his henchman and fellow ‘Witch-Pricker’ John Sterne, in just 14 months, Hopkins was responsible for the condemnations and executions of some 230 alleged witches, more than all the other witch-hunters that proliferated during the 160-year peak of the country’s witchcraft hysteria. At the top end of society, clerks, lawyers, wig makers and doctors paraded themselves boldly through the cobbled streets. There is reason to believe that this was the noted Matthew Hopkins, Witch Finder General to the associated counties, who had frequently been mentioned by various writers. In the 1600s there were many ways to make a living. Eight years later, in 1612, the pendle witches, 9 women and 2 men were held to trial under accusations of murder by witchcraft, witchcraft to cause harm to animals, witchcraft to cause sickness, cannibalism and child murder. In 1563, a second witchcraft act named “An act against conjurations, enchantments and witchcrafts” passed in England, which promised to put to death anyone who used magic to: “use, practise, or exercise any Witchcraft, Enchantment, Charm, or Sorcery, whereby any person shall happen to be killed or destroyed.”. The woman in the tale was Elizabeth Clarke, an old, poor widow with only one leg who lived in Manningtree. To us nowadays in the 21st Century this may seem all a bit silly, but let us not forget, people still do believe in witches and witchcraft, and in Africa people are still killed for such beliefs. The other was Sir Thomas Bowes. 1 pound in 1630 is worth approximately £2,370.00 today These trials were, up until Hopkins lifetime, the largest held in England and it seems unlikely to think that Hopkins would have had no knowledge of this local history. Matthew Hopkins, (born, Wenham, Suffolk, Eng.—died Aug. 12, 1647), English witch-hunter during a witchcraft craze of the English Civil Wars. Hopkins was born in Great Wenham, the county of Suffolk, England. Author: Matthew Hopkins. My next book features Matthew Hopkins, the self proclaimed Witchfinder General as the main baddie. He also visited Ipswich and shortly after Aldeburgh where he was paid £6 for his services, before moving on to Stowmarket where he charged £23. On August 27, 1645, the small town of Bury St Edmunds, England set a grisly record. He named himself "Witchfinder General" in 1645 Overwhelmingly, people with a modicum of wealth accused those poorer than themselves and who they felt had caused them some manner of local trouble. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org. They also relied upon villagers to identify witches in the first place, long… It was time for Hopkins to take this show on the road, for there were communities that needed saving and money to be earnt. See Article History. $25.13. JSTOR is part of ITHAKA, a not-for-profit organization helping the academic community use digital technologies to preserve the scholarly record and to advance research and teaching in sustainable ways. [7] One of them was Sir Harbottle Grimston, a baronet of Puritan ancestry, who had been active in the Long Parliament, but who as a "moderate man" fell now somewhat into the background. He was successful in his own mind, finding more than 300 women guilty of associating with the devil and seeing them hanged … 1 pound in 1630 is worth approximately £2,370.00 today I'm not sure where the number originated, but I assume it counts every tangential death, and many that couldn't be counted as witches by any standard. In his short career as witch hunter, spanning less than two years, Hopkins was responsible for between 200 and 300 women trialed as a witch, making up 60% of all witch trials between the early 15th Century and the late 18th Century. It was the single biggest mass-execution for witchcraft in English history, and it was all the work of one man. From 1645-7 two witch finders, Matthew Hopkins and John Stearne, swept through East Anglia discovering and trying suspected witches. The thirty year war raged across mainland Europe, devastating communities who were gripped by famine, sickness and fear. He later wrote an account of the discovery in his published pamphlet titled “Of the Discovery of Witches”. a) True b) False 3) How many women was Matthew Hopkins responsible for killing? The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Discovery of Witches, by Matthew Hopkins This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. A stylish serial killer with a swagger. Fitch of Ipswich refers to Matthew Hopkins as: Whilst this manuscript has never been found, in 1974, during his research efforts for his book “Matthew Hopkins: Witchfinder general” published in 1976, Richard Deacon put out an appeal for information regarding Hopkins early life. Whilst it is relatively unusual that it was the trial of a man and the vast majority of Hopkins witches were Female, it was not the gender of the victim that caused Hopkins reputation to suffer, but his social standing as a Reverend. Perhaps unsurprisingly given the misogyny of the time, one of the most well documented cases undertaken by Hopkins during his siege of Bury St. Edmunds and perhaps the most important in his undoing, was of a male witch, Reverend John Lowes, an 80 year old minister. Still, unconcerned with this, the crew maintained their high rate of accusations until the 27th of August, 1645, the date of the Bury St. Edmunds trials. In reality this had the knock on effect of working as a macabre form of promotion and these small towns queued up to pay him vast sums of money to clear out their witches. option. This is Dark Histories, where the facts are worse than fiction. Hopkins was asked if methods of investigation did not make the finders themselves witches, and if with all his knowledge did he not also have a secret, or had used “unlawful courses of torture”. Some years before he was born, in the 1590s, three people from Warboys were executed as witches. “Matthew Hopkins, son of Mr James Hopkins, Minister of Wenham, was buried at Mistley, August 12 th, 1647. When King James caught wind of the trials, back home in Scotland, he too ordered a trial to begin, later to become known as the “North Berwick Witch trials”. At a time when the average daily wage was 2.5 pence, these were extortionate sums. The devastating, drawn out and complicated years of turmoil created a vacuum at the heart of society as traditional hierarchies, cornerstones across communities and most importantly for today’s tale, legal systems crumbled. Traditional legal systems had broken down.The weather was noticeably poor all round with wet summers and cold winters bringing sickness and poor food production, whilst inflation eroded wealth. Folk belief and religious devotion created a heady mix and In 1582, Brian Darcy had overseen the St Osyth Witch Trials. That day, 18 men and women were hanged together as witches. The escorting fleets Admiral naturally blamed the storms on witchcraft and back in Denmark, several people were found guilty, after confession, of causing the storm using witchcraft along with casting out Imps to climb aboard the King’s ship. There are sites throughout East Anglia, but Jeremy and I are most familiar with those in Norwich as this is where we lived for many years. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org. A keen marketer, hangings were often dispersed throughout the region, often under the guise of a certain hamlet being home to either an accuser or an animal familiar. They would fly on a broomstick at night. Request Permissions. Until around 1440 witchcraft-related prosecutions in Europe centered on maleficium, the concept of using supernatural powers specifically to harm others. up to 20 shillings for each. Of the eleven who were to stand trial, nine were found guilty and sentenced to hanging, one was found not guilty and one died in prison whilst awaiting trial. His career in witch hunting are obscure, but it appears to have come about after he had moved to Essex in 1644. Matthew Hopkins, son of Mr James Hopkins, Minister of Wenham, was buried at Mistley, August 12 th, 1647 . Cheers! Rebecca asked him to kill John Hart, which was done accordingly. As the son of a Puritan vicar, he was very much raised in the church. Matthew Hopkins, assumed the title of Witch-finder General in 1645. Hopkins existed in a time when there was a considerable vacuum in law enforcement. As the dark nights drew in, Hopkins and Stearne arrived in Ipswich. “The Discoverer never travelled far for it, but in March 1644 he had some seven or eight of that horrible sect of Witches living in the Towne where he lived, a Towne in Essex called Maningtree, with divers other adjacent Witches of other towns, who every six weeks in the night (being alwayes on the Friday night) had their meeting close by his house and had their severall solemne sacrifices there offered to the Devill, … My Grandfather was a member of the Fitch family and he used to say that the phrase quoted in Notes and Queries was misleading. East Anglia and the Hopkins Trials, 1645-1647: a County Guide BEDFORDSHIRE TILBROOK While travelling along the border between Bedfordshire and Huntingdonshire in 1646, Stearne and Hopkins received reports of mass meetings of witches at ‘Trilbrook-bushes’, i.e.Tilbrook. Author: Matthew Hopkins. He detailed his first run in with witchcraft as such: “The Discoverer never travelled far for it, but in March 1644 he had some seven or eight of that horrible sect of Witches living in the Towne where he lived, a Towne in Essex called Maningtree, with divers other adjacent Witches of other towns, who every six weeks in the night (being alwayes on the Friday night) had their meeting close by his house and had their severall solemne sacrifices there offered to the Devill, one of which this discoverer heard speaking to her Imps one night, and bid them goe to another Witch, who was thereupon apprehended, and searched, by women who had for many yeares knowne the Devills marks, and found to have three teats about her, which honest women have not”. EXOD. Hopkins rode through East Anglia, clearing towns of witches wherever he was invited. He was present at many of the interrogations of the accused, some of which involved brutal tortures, and became convinced that not only was their witchcraft genuine, but that they had tried to kill him by sinking his ship on his return with his new bride from Denmark. Intro. (Witchfinder Fact 1) The activities of the Essex Witchfinders took place between 1645 and 1647. 1 Matthew Hopkins, The discovery of witches (1647), frontispiece. Catholics struggled to maintain their grip whilst protestant uprisings, driven by a core of Puritans fought for a simpler form of worship. In fact, in a document titled “Notes and queries of 16th November, 1850”, a manuscript belonging to one W.S. As established, the 17th Century was no stranger to strife and as such, a devoutly religious population began looking back at these old traditions steeped in folklore, seeking to find a comprehendable answer for complex problems. This is further backed by his first known job as a Clerk for a shipping company, where the language and knowledge gained from Europe would certainly have helped greatly. However, no further investigation was carried out. Free shipping . In 1735, the witchcraft act was replaced by a further amendment which instead charged witchcraft as a form of con-artistry, and labeled offenders as practicing the pretense of witchcraft rather than witchcraft proper. Matthew Hopkins claimed to have witnessed a witch call all of her familiars into the room. They kept Elizabeth for four days and four nights in a jail cell, and carried out a practice they called “watching”, an innocent enough title, however the reality was far more sinister. This was made all the easier, when using an instrument that was spring loaded, as Stearne was said to have used. He died on the 27th August, 1647, in his home in manningtree, Essex to Tuberculosis, aged at most 27 years old. Hopkins's methods and demonology, and the witch-hunt itself, have been described as an aberration in English witch prosecution, due to Hopkins's use of “continental” demonology and extreme measures. Marginalised groups made up the core of Hopkins “witches” with old women, widows, orphans, the poor and the homeless most often feeling the sharp stab, or perhaps blunted push, of Stearnes witch-pricker. Hopkins and his crew worked tirelessly, rounding up large numbers of the accused from the local population. Of these one hundred, thirty two were eventually found guilty. It really helps us out. The skeptical Canon Episcopi retained many ... James had developed a fear that witches planned to kill him after he suffered from storms while traveling to Denmark in order to claim his bride, Anne, earlier that year. If you enjoy the podcast, please consider leaving us a review over in itunes or your app of choice. He … There, they tried and … With religious schisms affecting many countries, as well as assorted territorial or dynastic wars, uncertainty and paranoia were rife within society, as was religious z… The Witchfinder – Matthew Hopkins An article by Douglas MacGowan 20th June 2019 • 4 min read. Title: The Discovery of Witches. It is here that the importance of the amendment to the Witchcraft Act in 1604 comes in to play. Close analysis of this tract shows that Hopkins's demonology is in fact part of mainstream English demonology, and that his methods were influenced by both elite and popular conceptions of the crime of witchcraft and of how to deal with accused witches. Select a purchase Sensing a losing battle, he retired to Manningtree, cutting his losses and wrote his pamphlet, in which he attempts to justify many of his actions as “the Witchfinder general”. Matthew Hopkins told an account of Rebecca claiming the devil would marry her, but then he killed her, but he was still her “loving husband” who would avenge her of her enemies. Cheers! Matthew Hopkins took a leading role in finding and prosecuting witches during the East Anglia trials of the 1640s. He believed that he found that there were seven or eight witches regularly practicing their dark arts close to his house. Firstly, Hopkins is not a good guy. All Rights Reserved. Hopkins is a man of mystery - barely any documentation exists to prove that he was ever born, or even died. Matthew Hopkins, the self-appointed Witchfinder General, was based in Manningtree & Mistley during a dark period of English history – the time of brutal witch-hunts. I’d like to share some of his story because it is fascinating and totally horrific (and you like that sort of thing). He found that rather than saviour of the people, he was now being viewed as suspicious in his own right and condemned by the men of power throughout the region. The impact of religious change in the 17th century The Stuart period. On the shores of England, society crumbled and further broke down with the outbreak of Civil War in 1642 that lasted until the beginning of the next decade and led to an almost complete collapse of traditional authority throughout the land. He was the 4th of six children. Throughout European history, superstitious fear had long held a grasp over societies and culture, often when traditional structures broke down in times of strife. Alice, the wife of Thomas Green, labourer, was swam, malicious and evil people having raised an ill-report of her for being a witch.' - HeritageDaily - Archaeology News Around 120 more were jailed in a pair of barns requisitioned as a jail and there is evidence that many more died in these two barns whilst they awaited trial. Free shipping . Home » History » The Witchfinder – Matthew Hopkins. The wars in England were revolutionary in nature with both nationalism and religion as driving forces. Hopkins gave himself the flamboyant and now infamous title of Witchfinder General and the crew worked on traditional methods of witch hunting that would cause a fine stir amongst the Hamlets and Towns across East Anglia. I imagine he was something of a clerk today. Part of the Pennsylvania State University and a division of the Penn State University Libraries and Scholarly Communications, Penn State University Press serves the University community, the citizens of Pennsylvania, and scholars worldwide by advancing scholarly communication in the core liberal arts disciplines of the humanities and social sciences. This allowed Hopkins and Stearne to carry out several practices to aid in gaining a confession. Very soon after Hopkins and his company regulate their works, one of the opposition came from Jhon Gaule, a vicar from Great Staughton. Hopkins educational records are equally sparse, though from his later writings, we know that he could both speak and write English and Latin with a degree of competency. Over the next 300 years, sporadic hangings and drownings were undertaken in the name of Heresy throughout Britain for misdemeanors as diverse as necromancy, stigmata and at times, straight murder, which whilst grotesque, as in the case of a Jewish murderer who wrapped one of his victims in a second victims skin in the 13th Century, had little to no supernatural leanings. His parents, James Hopkins and Marie Hopkins were both devoutly religious Puritans and his father worked as the minister for St. Johns church of great Wenham. Wherever they went, fear and apprehension followed and the accusations rolled in. While researching the last six months or so I’ve read an awful lot about this conman, serial killer and utter shitbag. Nationally in this period, 112 people were hanged for witchcraft – 82 coming from Essex. As 1646 began to draw to a close, The reverend John Gaule, a Puritan cleric of Great Staughton preached openly about Hopkins actions and even begun to associate Hopkins himself with demonic actions. It has been estimated that tens of thousands of people were executed for witchcraft in Europe and the American colonies over several hundred years. Suffolk itself was a Puritan stronghold and heavily backed the parliamentarians during the civil war. It seems fair to assume that his family would have been fairly well off and that he would have had a religious Puritan upbringing. It was rumoured that Matthew Hopkins had ‘The Devils Book’, a directory of all the witches in England. In the handful of cases when the accused passed Hopkins tests, all accusations were dropped immediately and simple death was not a driving force, for if a victim died during the tests and interrogations, hopkins risked the law turning upon himself and would equally lose money he otherwise would have gained from a successful guilty sentence. of Contents. The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Discovery of Witches, by Matthew Hopkins This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. King James then went on to write “Demanlogie” in 1597, detailing extensively procedures and justifications for persecuting witchcraft from a Christian perspective. a) 200 b) 300 c) 500 4) How did Matthew Hopkins torture his victims? Witches were believed to fornicate with the devil, kill babies, drink blood, desecrate the cross and conjure demons. 20 shillings are 1 pound. Pendle was infamous and though at the time, it caused fear, this gave way in time to satire, dramatisations and eventually even comic caricature. His mother, Marie Hopkins was born to a Huguenot family who had left france in 1572, when 40 thousand Huguenots left france following the St. Bartholomew’s day Massacre and settled in East Anglia, the region of England encompassing Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire. This is a list of people executed for witchcraft, many of whom were executed during organized witch-hunts, particularly during the 15th–18th centuries.Large numbers of people were prosecuted for witchcraft in Europe between 1560 and 1630. Little is known of Hopkins before 1644, but apparently he had been a lawyer, practicing in Essex. Matthew Hopkins was an infamous witch-hunter during the 17th century, who published “The Discovery of Witches” in 1647, and whose witch-hunting methods were applied during the notorious Salem Witch Trials in colonial Massachusetts. At the same time, she named five other witches from the village, Anne West and her Daughter Rebecca West, Anne Leech, Helen Clarke and Elizabeth Gooding. When Matthew was young, he met a woman named Blanca. The Discovery of Witches, by Matthew Hopkins THE DISCOVERY OF WITCHES IN Answer to severall QUERIES, LATELY Delivered to the Judges of Assize for the County of NORFOLK And now published by MATTHEW HOPKINS, Witch-finder FOR the Benefit of the whole KINGDOME M. DC. Discovery of Witches : Contemporary Account, 1647, Paperback by Hopkins, Matt... $9.48. In 1604, the witchcraft act was amended once again, this time it remained, for the most part unchanged, however it was broadened to include the commune of a person with a demonic familiar, or invocation of evil spirits. Within the space of a few months, Hopkins had over 200 alleged witches awaiting trial locked up in jails throughout East Anglia. up to 20 shillings for each. Therefore, he could accuse many to profit, and people would thus be panicked and more witches were spotted. Elizabeth Clarke was placed in Jail and Hopkins and Stearne went about the business of coaxing a confession from her. Matthew Hopkins was aged between 22 and 25 years old and he had a plan. Royalist figures, such as Prince Rupert of the Rhine, who had gained notoriety through rumour and hearsay for their warring ruthlessness were charicutured into demonic forces and as the imagery persisted, so to the superstitions grew. He laterly justified the extortiante expense to the local populations in his pamphlet as such: “He never went to any towne or place, but they rode, writ, or sent often for him, and were (for ought he knew) glad of him.”. Agricultural professions thrived in the rural areas, skilled craftsman were plenty with every town and hamlet boasting blacksmiths, gunsmiths, tailors and weavers. Of the suspects Matthew Hopkins managed to convict, 100 witches were from the eastern counties. It was, in fact, less so in Britain than in mainland Europe, though the lore was still strong and seeded the mind with enough common belief that in 1590, even the King himself fell foul to what he labelled as witchcraft in a tale that was never questioned as a fiction. Access supplemental materials and multimedia. After struggling to have children for many years, she gave birth to a son named Lucas. He hailed from a Puritan, East Anglian background, an area of England that would later see heavy emigration to America and a people that would carry their beliefs into the Salem Witch Trials. Preternature: Critical and Historical Studies on the Preternatural, Published By: Penn State University Press, https://doi.org/10.5325/preternature.5.1.0029, Access everything in the JPASS collection, Download up to 10 article PDFs to save and keep, Download up to 120 article PDFs to save and keep. I am a Christian hetero, I do not believe in burning witches. In fact, the illustration provided at the beginning of The Discovery of Witches portrays Hopkins standing in a room with two witches and a number of their familiars (see the next page). The 17th Century was a turbulent period of great upheaval. Public opinion at this point disintegrated for Hopkins at a rapid rate. $30.16. Obviously, this book is not intended to be entertaining, but is simply a transcript of an interrogation by judges of Hopkins, with these notes being taken down by Hopkins himself. Witches killed children and used their fat to make up magic potions. In September of 1645, the Witchfinder General committed his most notorious act. Matthew Hopkins early life is one steeped in obscurity and myth. Hopkins life was as short as his career and despite modern legend that he was captured and hanged for witchcraft himself, the reality of his death was much simpler. They set about Manningtree and the surrounding area interviewing over one hundred people accused in one manner or another of witchcraft and demonic communions. This could help explain many of the accusations of witches in the county of Essex as the region looked to move in a new direction. How did the Catholic Church Help Kick Start the Witch Craze? Matthew Hopkins was considered to be part of this pro-parliament movement and would have have support in his push for social reform. When James became king of England upon the death of Elizabeth I in 1603 he was shocked to discover that many of his subjects were more sceptical than he was about the power of witches. If you enjoy the podcast, please consider leaving us a review over in itunes or your app of choice. He caused the suffering and death of many. Five others died in jail. For everyone else, a years imprisonment was deemed punishment enough. Actually they didn't. 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