Bury St Edmunds Witch Trials

As in Arthur Miller’s famous play, The Crucible, which give a dramatized version of the Salem Witch Trials in America where evidence from hysterical neighbours was used to send many innocent people to their graves, similar events happened in Suffolk but started much earlier.

East Anglia became synonymous with witch hunts due to the presence of one of medieval history’s most notorious figures Matthew Hopkins - the self-styled 'Witchfinder General'.

From each town he visited he received ample pay (his services in Stowmarket, Suffolk alone earned him over £3,300 in today’s money). The more witches he rooted out, tried and executed on the flimsiest of evidence, the more Hopkins grew rich. It's estimated Hopkins' work lead to around 100 executions across East Anglia.

Lesser known was his accomplice John Stearne. Stearne was known at various times as the witch-hunter, and "witch pricker". Stearne was born in Suffolk and later became a land owner at Lawshall near Bury St Edmunds. Within a year of the death of Matthew Hopkins, John Stearne retired to his farm and wrote A Confirmation and Discovery of Witchcraft. He died in 1670.

Hopkins and Stearne's activities were heavily fictionalized in the 1968 horror film Witchfinder-General which was filmed in Lavenham among other locations in East Anglia.

The number of people in Suffolk accused of witchcraft varies but it is thought to be between 150 and 200.

Agnes Waterhouse was the first recorded woman to be executed for witchcraft in England in 1566. The first recorded account of a witch trial at Bury St Edmunds was in 1599 when Jone Jordan of Shadbrook (Stradbroke) and Joane Nayler were tried, but there is no record of the charges or verdicts. In the same year, Oliffe Bartham of Shadbrook was executed for "sending three toads to destroy the rest (sleep) of Joan Jordan".

The town's goal in those days was situated on the corner of Woolhall Street and Cornhill (where Paddy Power is today) and the trials were held at the Assizes in Raingate Street, in a building long since gone which is now the site of the Old Shire Hall and former Magistrate's Court near to the town's Premier Inn.

The executions were held on unconsecrated ground outside of the town at Thingoe Hill. Previous to this the place of execution in medieval times was at the Tay Fen, today's Tayfen.

Two trials in Bury St Edmunds became historically well known.

In 1645, 16 women (Anne Alderman, Rebecca Morris, Mary Bacon, Mary Clowes, Sarah Spindler, Jane Linstead, Mary Everard, Mary Fuller, Susan Manners, Jane Rivet, Mary Skipper, Mary Smith, Margery Sparham, Katherine Tooly, Anne Leech and Anne Wright) and 2 men (Thomas Everard and John Lowes, the Vicar of Brandeston) were found guilty of witchcraft, all of them were from villages in the surrounding area.

The trial, facilitated by Witchfinder General Matthew Hopkins, saw around 140 people from all over Suffolk brought by cart to Bury St Edmunds for trial and 18 executed in one day on August 27 1645. It is thought to be England's largest witch trial. Up until then the biggest legal case had been the 1612 Pendle Hill witches resulting in the execution of 10 people (8 women, 2 men) by hanging on August 20 at the gallows on the moors above the town.

Accused 'witches' in Bury St Edmunds were taken to a building where The Nutshell pub is today and had their nails cut or locks of hair. The nails and hair were stored in brown jars in the basement as it was thought that if you were not whole when you died, you wouldn’t be able to come back as a whole witch in the next life!

Mummified cats, like the one you can see hanging above the bar in The Nutshell found during building work in 1935, were buried in the walls and roof cavities of houses during this time to ward off witches and evil spirits and if you find one, it’s meant to be bad luck to remove it.

In 1662, two elderly widows, Rose Cullender and Amy Denny, both from the nearby town of Lowestoft, were accused of witchcraft by their neighbours. Amy Denny’s surname was incorrectly recorded as ‘Duny’ in the printed account of the trial; research by local historian Ivan Bunn established Denny as her correct surname.

They were accused of causing a toad to fall out of a child’s blanket and then vanish with a hiss in the fire. Once suspicion of witchraft began, they were then accused of making Samuel Pacey’s children vomit pins and nails after he refused to sell them herrings; they were also “credited” with infesting another man with lice, causing a cart to collapse and a chimney to fall down, not to mention causing the deaths of local pigs, cattle and horses.

They were tried on 10 March 1662 at the Assizes at Bury St. Edmunds by one of England's most eminent judges of the time, the Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer, Sir Matthew Hale, and the jury found them guilty on thirteen charges of using malevolent witchcraft.

The testimony of the philosopher, physician and author, Thomas Browne, probably helped in the conviction. They were sentenced to death and were hanged a week later on March 17 1662.

An account of the proceedings, A Tryal of Witches, was originally published in in the 1680s and later reprinted in 1716. A rare copy of the 1716 edition is now on display at Moyse’s Hall Museum in Bury St Edmunds. The book is thought to be one of the most detailed surviving accounts of an English witch trial.

The 1662 trial of Amy Denny and Rose Cullender in Bury St Edmunds has an important connection with the Salem Witch Trials in Massachusetts in 1692. The Bury St Edmunds trial was later cited as a precedent during the Salem trials, and A Tryal of Witches, the published account of the case, was known and consulted in the context of the Salem proceedings. 

In the years following the trial, clergyman John Hale recorded that those involved in the Salem proceedings had consulted precedents and writings on witchcraft, including Sir Matthew Hale’s A Tryal of Witches, the published account of the 1662 Bury St Edmunds trial.

Historian Ivan Bunn highlights the significance of this connection, suggesting that the Salem trials might not have taken place had it not been for the earlier Bury St Edmunds trial.

The case is significant because A Tryal of Witches is thought to be one of the most detailed surviving accounts of an English witch trial. Presided over by Sir Matthew Hale—who later became Lord Chief Justice of England—the trial is a chilling example of how deeply ingrained superstitions and, by modern reckoning, practices that would be regarded as deeply flawed by modern legal standards contributed to the convictions and executions. Historian Ivan Bunn argues that, despite being a respected legal figure, Hale ignored evidence of fraud, accepted hearsay testimony from young children, and allowed “spectral evidence” from single witnesses.

The last witch trial at Bury St. Edmunds was in 1694, when Lord Chief Justice Sir John Holt forced the acquittal of Mother Munnings of Hartis (Hartest) on charges of prognostications causing death. The chief charge was 17 years old, and the second was brought by a man on his way home from an alehouse.

After just three years, Matthew Hopkins retired as Witchfinder General. He moved back to Manningtree, and before the year ended had died of supposed tuberculosis. But his disturbing legacy lived on with his book ‘The Discovery of Witches’ providing a blueprint for further persecution of witches over the next hundred years. Hopkins has seeped into popular culture in the form of numerous heavy metal songs and the 1968 Hammer movie Witchfinder General which was filmed in Suffolk including Lavenham and starred Vincent Price.

One common misconception about the English witch trials is that people accused of witchcraft were burned at the stake. In England, those convicted of witchcraft were generally hanged, rather than burned.

There was, however, an unusual exception in Suffolk. In 1645, Mary Lakeland was convicted at Ipswich of using witchcraft to murder her husband and was burned at the stake. She was not burned as a punishment for witchcraft itself, but for petty treason – the legal offence of a wife murdering her husband – which at the time carried the death penalty by burning for women.

So while the image of the witch being burned at the stake is familiar, it was not the usual punishment for witchcraft in England.

To discover more about the Bury St Edmunds Witch Trials, and the superstitions and beliefs that shaped life in the town and across East Anglia, visit Moyse’s Hall Museum.

The museum is currently home to a rare copy of A Tryal of Witches, the published account of the 1662 trial of Rose Cullender and Amy Denny. Originally published in 1682 and reprinted in 1716, it is thought to be one of the most detailed surviving accounts of an English witch trial.

Housed in a beautiful medieval landmark dating from the 12th century, Moyse’s Hall has a rich and varied history. The building has served as the town's Bridewell, workhouse and police station, and first opened as a museum in 1899.

Its fascinating collection of witchcraft artefacts includes a rare 17th-century Elder Wand, a witch’s poppet, mummified cats, and child and adult shoes that were hidden in the walls of Suffolk properties as protective measures against witches and evil spirits.

If you enjoy Horrible Histories, Moyse’s Hall Museum is a must-visit. Its Terrible Tales theme features stories written by Horrible Histories author Terry Deary, bringing some of Bury St Edmunds’ more gruesome tales to life, especially for younger visitors.

Discover more about Moyse’s Hall Museum.

The 1968 film 'The Witchfinder General', starring film legend Vincent Price was shot in and around Suffolk.

Set in the English Civil War, it follows the self-appointed Witchfinder General, Mathew Hopkins, as he accuses and persecutes innocent women of being witches in a heavily fictionalised account.

The film directed by Michael Reeves on a budget of under £100,000 eventually became a cult film hit.

Scenes from 'The Witchfinder General' were filmed at Lavenham Market Square outside the Lavenham Guildhall, Little Hall in Lavenham and Kentwell Hall in Long Melford. The interiors were filmed in two specially converted aircraft hangars near Bury St Edmunds and the cast and crew stayed at The Angel Hotel.