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Britain 1500–1750

Superstition and Witchcraft, Part 2Witch Trials

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How fair were witch trials?

In 1604, James I and Parliament passed a law that allowed witches to be put on trial in court.

The last execution for witchcraft in Britain was in 1722.

After this law was passed, there were more witchcraft cases in the Essex courts than of any other crime, apart from theft!

Hundreds of witches were put on trial and executed all over Britain. Most were hanged or burnt at the stake.

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Witch trials

The vast majority of witch trials were started by accusations made by a neighbour.

Alleged witches were usually accused of having caused harm to a neighbour, their family or their livestock by cursing them.

You cursed my goat!

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How fair were witch trials?

Why would this be unacceptable in a modern court?

He laid her body naked to the waist, with her clothes over her head. He ran a pin into her thigh, and suddenly let her clothes fall and asked her why she did not bleed. Then he took out the pin and set her aside as a child of the devil.

Witness at a Newcastle witch trial, 1649 

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How fair were witch trials?

In the countryside very few cases ever got to court.

This involved tying up the suspect and throwing them into the river to see if they could float.

Many villagers preferred to take the law into their own hands and put suspected witches through an ordeal of water.

If the suspect floated, the devil had saved their life,

so they were a witch.

If not, the suspect often

drowned.

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Case Study: The Trial of Ursula Kemp

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