The Largest Witch Trial in English History

Up until this date, the largest British witch trial had been the Pendle Witch Child case in Lancaster in 1612 where a young child had accused her whole family of witchcraft and caused the deaths of 11 of them.

The trial was instigated by Matthew Hopkins, the self-proclaimed Witchfinder General, who with John Stearne interrogated hundreds of people, and conducted at a special court under John Godbolt. News of the trial was eagerly awaited with eye-witness accounts and copies of the Suffolk confessions shared.

On the first day the Grand Jury in Bury St Edmunds heard ninety cases, spending only a few minutes on each one. Sixty cases were approved for trial and by the end of the day half had been tried, resulting in 16 women and 2 men being sentenced to death. They were hanged the following day on August 27 1645.

The trial was interrupted by the advance of Royalist troops from the north, leaving about 120 people still awaiting trial.

A pamphlet was written by John Hammond, a London-based religious and political writer. Alongside accounts of some of the individual cases it included information on how to watch out for suspected witches. This type of publishing helped to promote fear of witches. You can read the full text of the pamphlet on the University of Michigan Library website.

In London several pamphlets on the trial were produced, The list of those 18 people who were hanged the day after the trial can be found in John Hammond's pamphlet 'A True Relation of the Arraignment of eighteene Witches' , they are listed as:

John Lowes
Thomas Everard
Mary Everard
Mary Bacon
Anne Alderman
Rebecca Morris
Mary Fuller
Mary Clowes
Margery Sparham
Katherine Tooly
Sarah Spinlow
Jane Linstead
Anne Wright
Mary Smith
Jane Rivet
Susan Manners
Mary Skipper
Anne Leech

Much is not known about these poor individuals and in some cases why they were accused of witchcraft.

However there are details in Professor Malcolm Gaskill's book 'Witchfinders: a 17th Century English Tragedy' and more detail on the Rev John Lowes case, and those of Thomas and Mary Everard and Mary Bacon.

While the accusations and confessions may seem ludicrous stories of fantasy now, this was a time when superstition, fear, greed, power and ignorance collided with horrific consequences.

The first person named on the list of those who were hanged the next day is John Lowes, parson of Brandeston, near Framlingham. He had been vicar there for about 50 years. He had a reputation for being argumentative and had been twice accused of witchcraft previously.

The pamphlet tells us that he had been accused of bewitching a ship near Harwich, causing it to be swept away by stormy seas, along with ‘many other most hanous, wicked, and accursed acts, by the help of six Impes’.

After being arrested by Hopkins, Lowes was stripped and his body searched for marks where he suckled his imps. According to Brandeston parish records (FC105/D1/1), Lowes was kept awake, and walked backwards and forwards for several days and nights, “until he was weary of life, and was scarce sensible of what he said or did.”

Still not confessing, Lowes was taken to Framlingham Castle to be swum in the moat. He floated in the stagnant waters, proving to the Witchfinders and spectators his guilt. After these ordeals John Lowes slowly began to confess. From gaol in Ipswich, Lowes was taken to the assizes at Bury St Edmunds, where he was tried and found guilty.

Thomas Everard, a cooper, and his wife Mary Everard, who were employed at the Brewhouse at Halesworth had confessed that they had bewitched beer in the Brewhouse, and that the stink and taste of it was so intolerable that many people died among other 'crimes'.

In Professor Malcolm Gaskill's book it says that Witchfinder General Matthew Hopkins met Mary Bacon and her husband Nathaniel at Chattisham. Nathaniel confessed that he had made a blood pact with a dog-like devil that promised him an annual income of £14 and that Mary Skipper had supplied him with his imps. Mary Skipper confessed she had entertained three imps. Nathaniel's wife Mary confessed that she had been a witch for 8 years and had received her imps from a witch called Mother Cortnell. The Bacons, together with Ann Alderman, were committed by a magistrate, and Hopkins undertook to back the case against Mary Bacon personally. Mary Bacon is among the names of the 18 hanged the next day but her husband Nathaniel is not. Within a few months, another Nathaniel Bacon – an adolescent from nearby Bramford and possibly the Bacons’ son – fled England for Connecticut, never to return.

Anne Alderman, of Chattisham, confessed to have had a finger twisted off by the devil, invited the devil into her bed and used an imp to kill her daughter before unleashing it on her grandchild, while Susan Manners, of Copdock, blamed her grandmother for destroying her selfe and all her kindred.

Margery Sparham, of Mendham, confessed that when she was unmarried an imp attached itself to her but claimed she had sent him to sea. She had married but her husband had gone to the war so she sent two blackbirds 'Will' and 'Tom' to protect her husband in battle. Anne Leech, a poor widow, an outsider from Suffolk, who confessed that she had attacked the horses of a prosperous neighbour because his wife had called her 'a naughty woman'. Evicted from her farm, Leech was alleged to have killed the new occupant's daughter; another woman had died after refusing to give her a linen bonnet.

Katherine Tooley admitted sending an imp to steal money from Sir Robert Brooks, Lord of the Manor and had also tried to harm her minister.

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.

The number of people in Suffolk accused of witchcraft varies but it is thought to be between 150 and 200. Find out more about the Bury St Edmunds Witch Trials in our guide and how a Bury St Edmunds trial of two elderly widows in Lowestoft inspired the infamous Salem Witch Trials.

Witchfinders A Seventeenth Century English Tragedy by Malcolm Gaskill

A Trial of Witches - a Seventeenth-century Witchcraft Prosecution by Ivan Bunn and Gilbert Geis