ABSTRACT
The peak of England’s witch craze was in the mid-1640s, during which more than a dozen chapbooks about witchcraft were published. The increase in witchcraft persecutions was largely due to the work of Matthew Hopkins, the country’s self-proclaimed “witchfinder general”. Operating in East Anglia, and especially the counties of Essex and Suffolk, Hopkins and his numerous associates (termed “searchers” in this chapbook) brought about the execution of more than one hundred witches between 1644 and 1646, including the eighteen described in this story. Searchers were particularly skilled at extracting confessions from witches, using techniques such as sleep deprivation, the swimming test (described in Chapter 8), looking for the “Devil’s mark” – a mole, birthmark, or extra nipple from which a familiar could suckle – and pricking the suspected witch’s skin to see if she or he bled. Some of these techniques are described in detail in this story. This tale reveals the close relationship between contemporary historical events and alleged criminal activity; in this case, the upheaval of Civil War (1641–49), coupled with Puritan control of parliament – which was especially strong in the counties east of London – were both reasons why this period saw a massive increase in witchcraft accusations in East Anglia. This chapbook also exemplifies the use of witchcraft accusations as a means of explaining the many misfortunes that occurred in society. The St Edmundsbury witches allegedly caused a tempest that sunk a ship, poisoned beer, destroyed cattle and corn, drowned children, and perplexed families, in the process killing many people. As we have seen in earlier stories, it was common for a community’s misfortunes to be explained by witchcraft.
