Witch Trials Series: pt 1

 

Hi Guys,

Well, we got a good response for our introduction to the witch trials, so I guess we have our work cut out for us with this series! Trying not to get angry will take some doing!

We are going to start local in Cornwall in the next instalment, then go on to individual cases throughout the world where documents allow us to research.

I have a list of people executed in the UK (and in the separate countries of the UK before Unification in 1707), although these are not the trials, just the deaths.

The first death of a UK based witch was in 1324, as mentioned in the introduction, and the last was an unofficial death in 1751. It was that of Ruth Osborne who was murdered by an unruly mob after a trial by ducking.

So, let's start with the punishments meted out to those accused:

• Torture
• Branding
• Hanging
• Banishment
• Imprisonment
• Burning
• Drowning
• Ducking
• Beheading
• Garrotted
• Strangulation
• Shot with Muskets
• Disembowelled and fed to pigs! (Poland)
• Impalement
• Pressing (crushed to death with large rocks placed on the chest)
• Executed with a tomahawk (Leatherlips of the Wyandot People - Native American)

As late as 2020, a public firing squad was used in Somalia to execute someone for sorcery.

This is just the tip of the iceberg, as it is estimated that some 60,000+ people have been tried for witchcraft, heresy and sorcery over the centuries. 

In 1580-1630, it is estimated that some nearly 50,000 people were executed in those 50 years alone. That's an average of 1,000 people a year, up to three people a day!

Here is a list of people tried for witchcraft in the UK alone between 1300 and 1751.

Petronilla deMeath – 1300-1324 – Ireland – burned to death

Janet, Lady Glamis – d1537 – Accused by James V of Scotland, burned to death

Agnes Waterhouse – 1503-1566 – Hanged. First woman executed in England

Janet Boyman – d 1572 – Scotland

Violet Mar – d1577 – Scotland trial is said to have influenced King James VI’s views

Thomas Doughty – d1578 – Nobleman, accused by Sir Fancis Drake of witchcraft, mutiny, treason – beheaded

Ursula Kemp – 1525- 1582 – confessed and hanged

Agnes Sampson – d1591 – Scotland garotted and burned to death during North Berwick Trials

Witches of Warboys – d1593 – Alice Samuel and family – hanged

Alison Balfour – d1594 – Scotland

Andrew Man – d1598 – Scotland – Tried and burnt

Mary Pannal – d1603

Alice Nutter – 1612 – Hanged during the Pendle trials

Pendle witches – 1612

Evaline Gill – d1616 – Scotland – Strangled burned to death – survived by 2 children

Elspeth Reoch – d1616 – Kirkwall in Scotland

Margaret Cubbon (or Ine Quaine) – d1617 Isle of Man. With her son, John. Mother has also been accused decades prior – Gerald Gardener erected a plaque.

Elizabeth Clarke – 1565-1645 – Hanged – first woman persecuted by Matthew Hopkins

Isabella Rigby – d 1666 – believed to be last hanged for witchcraft in Lancs

Thomas Wier – 1599-1670 – Scotland – Stangled and burned

Paisley Witches – d1697 – Scotland – aka Bargarran Witches – last mass execution of witches in Western Europe

Elspeth McEwen – d1698 – Scotland – Burned

Laurien Magee – 1689-1710 – Ireland – Burnt at the stake as part of the Islandmagee Witch Trial

Mary Hicks – d1716 and daughter Elizabeth

Janet Home – d 1727-  burned to death – last British person to be accused of sorcery

Ruth Osborne – 1680-1751 – Murdered by an unruly mob after a ‘trial by ducking’

 

I know that there were witch trials in both Cornwall and Wales that have not made it onto this list, so that will be part two!

I hope this has been enlightening.

Kerenza x

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