ABSTRACT
Previous chapters have discussed the location and distribution of witchcraft prosecutions throughout Essex. Many of the most important problems facing the historian of witchcraft can, however, only be solved after very intensive research. Such research is only possible at the village level, because the task of discovering everything about the social background to witchcraft accusations necessitates detailed local knowledge. Among the questions that such a study would hope to answer, a few may be singled out as illustrations: the proportion of all misfortunes in a village which were attributed to witches; the frequency with which suspected witches were also suspected of other offences-for instance, adultery or scolding; whether people were believed to bewitch their relations by blood or marriage or non-relatives; to what extent accusations were confined to groups of neighbours living in the same street or the same manor. A detailed analysis of three villages within which there were a number of witchcraft accusations has been undertaken. The results of this analysis will be incorporated in subsequent chapters on specific problems. In this chapter the sources and methods of study will be outlined and the villages will be described generally.
