The Bury St Edmunds Witch Trial That Influenced the Salem Witch Trials

The story of Amy Denny and Rose Cullender, of Lowestoft, and how they came to be accused, tried and executed for 'witchcraft' can be understood through a monograph published 20 years after their execution which gives a detailed look at their trial and local and national records which enabled author Ivan Bunn and criminologist Dr Gilbert Geis to write A Trial of Witches: A Seventeenth Century Witchcraft Prosecution.

Rose Cullender was born Rose Hicks. She married William Cullender on April 18 1625 at St Margaret's Church. They had nine children, five of whom died before the age of ten during a period of plague. After purchasing a house in Swan Lane William Cullender died. As a women Rose could not inherit the house in her own right, the house was put in trust for her eldest son Thomas, who was just 14. It is in this home in her sixties that Rose was accused of witchcraft.

The report of the trial refers to Amy Denny incorrectly as Amy Duny, a surname common in Lowestoft. Very little is known about Amy as there are no records except the baptism of her son Samuel in 1651 which records her husband's name as John. In Ivan Bunn's book A Return to Haunted Lowestoft he states that there is a possibility that Amy and her husband originated from Beccles as the parish registers recorded the marriage of John Denny to Emma Heckleton (Amy was short for Emmy). John and Amy had three children baptised in Beccles. John Denny appears frequently in the Manor Court Books as a defendant. Amy rented a house at the southern end of Lowestoft.

In 1662 when Amy and Rose's story took place, the belief in the existence of witches was strong but declining. To bring an accused witch to trial a process was followed. If you thought your neighbour was a witch you had to get a warrant for their arrest by providing evidence before a magistrate who would decide if the warrant was needed.

Samuel Pacy sought and obtained a warrant for the arrest of Rose Cullender and Amy Denny and the Magistrate who issued the warrant was Sir Edmund Bacon, 4th Baronet of Redgrave and Premier Baronet of England. Sir Edmund Bacon was the last Baronet Bacon of Redgrave to reside primarily at Redgrave Hall, Suffolk, the seat of the family since it was acquired and rebuilt about 1545 by Sir Nicholas Bacon, Lord Keeper of the Great Seal (and the second son of Robert Bacon, sheep-reeve of the Abbey of St Edmund in Bury St Edmunds).

The trial took place at Shirehall in Bury St Edmunds from March 10 to March 13 1662 and was presided over by Sir Matthew Hale, Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench. Rose and Amy were transported to Bury Gaol and then on to Shirehall. There were 14 charges against them and they pleaded not guilty.

Sum up here the accusations, why Samuel Pacy went after them and the 'spectral evidence'

There was no counsel for the defence and the accused were not permitted to give evidence although the accused were usually asked if they wanted to say something before he summed-up.

Rose and Amy were hanged on Monday 17 March 1662. Their execution was probably carried out at Thingoe Hill or the burial mound on Shirehouse Heath outside the North Gate of Bury St Edmunds.

The trial of Amy Denny and Rose Cullender, and subsequent publication of the trial report 'A Tryal of Witches', is said to have provided a legal precedent for the infamous Salem Witch Trials in America in 1692.

Indeed, Ivan Bunn in his book A Return to Haunted Lowestoft, states that 'the Salem trials might not have taken place had it not been for the trial of the Lowestoft Witches'.

The Salem judges had to look at the same spectral evidence as put forward at the Bury witch trials. Ivan writes that an account shortly after the Salem trials notes that 'the judges there made a conscientious endeavour to do the thing that was right. And to that end they consulted presidents (precedents) of former times & precepts laid down by learned writers about witchcraft ... (including) Sir Matthew Hale's Tryal of Witches...'. Another Salem writer, who was present at the Salem trials, referenced excerpts from the pamphlet in a book published in 1693.

A new memorial stone has been unveiled in Lowestoft by Lowestoft Town Council honoring the lives of Amy Denny and Rose Cullender.

It is not know where Amy and Rose were finally laid to rest, so Lowestoft author and historian, Ivan Bunn, has worked tirelessly to preserve the memory of the two women.

Ivan wrote 'A Trial of Witches - a Seventeenth-century Witchcraft Prosecution', which has been hailed a 'seminal work', with American criminologist Gilbert Geis. It is an almost blow by blow account of the trial.

The new memorial can be found near to the so-called Witches in Belle Vue Park, Lowestoft.