When the Civil War Tore Britain Apart, People Started Hunting the Devil's Followers
The witch hunts of the 1640s were not embers of the Middle Ages but a fire lit by civil war, economic collapse and religious fear: most of the accused were poor women, and the witchfinders turned terror into a business by charging for their services.
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The argument · timestamps estimated from transcript position
The witchfinder recorded his victims as a joke
The starting point for Marion Gibson's book was finding the name of the baker Meggs in the account of the witchfinder Matthew Hopkins. Hopkins wrote scornfully that the man came forward voluntarily to be tested for witchcraft, so they hanged him — and mocked him for it. Gibson calls this "a terrible way to be remembered," so she set out to find the real Meggs (actually named Henry Maggs), to tell his story with dignity and respect, and to give him back his voice. She does the same thing throughout the book: starting from the perspective of the victims of the 1640s English witch trials, rather than adopting the sneering tone of the witchfinders.
— Marion GibsonCivil war turned England into a breeding ground for witch hunts
Gibson describes the backdrop: the civil war was raging, and England was tearing itself apart. Not just on the battlefield, but through economic dislocation, refugees on the move, and many people needing immediate relief. People were anxious, miserable and afraid, and all of those emotions fed into witchcraft accusations. At the same time, England was a deeply religious and deeply magical society; people firmly believed there were angels and devils in the world, and were used to thinking in binary terms: if you were not on God's side, you were on the devil's. This belief system made people predisposed to believe that a witch might be living right next door.
— Marion GibsonThe first case: soldiers saw a woman floating on the water
As witch hunting heated up in the 1640s, one of the earliest cases took place in 1643 on a civil war battlefield at Newbury in Berkshire. A group of soldiers foraging after a march saw a woman floating on a plank on a nearby river and thought: "She's walking on water — she must be a witch." They dragged her before their commander, and after interrogation he ordered her shot dead. Gibson says that after that, interest in witchcraft swept across England.
— Marion GibsonThey confessed not because they were guilty but because torture broke them
Many of the accused confessed. Gibson explains that beyond the physical search itself being an invasive, terrifying process, these people were also deprived of sleep and made to keep their balance on a stool for hours on end while being interrogated. She says these sound like torture methods, and they destroyed people's resistance. The social context played a part too: amid war and fear, local church ministers preached that the English must have sinned to bring such suffering upon themselves, that they must repent and be vigilant against the devil. Some of the accused may genuinely have used magic, perhaps healing rituals, but either way they tended to agree with the interrogating minister or magistrate, saying: "All right, yes, I suppose I am a witch."
— Marion GibsonHopkins and Stearne were self-appointed moral police
In 1645 witch hunting truly erupted in Essex. A young man from Manningtree, Matthew Hopkins, and his slightly older friend John Stearne began to suspect there were witches nearby. Hopkins was the son of a Suffolk minister; the family seems to have been plagued by illness, and his brother died very young, possibly of tuberculosis. Hopkins had a burning conviction that his destiny was to be a witchfinder. Stearne was also from Suffolk, married with a family, in many ways more conventional and seemingly more stable, but he too was excited by the idea that there were witches in the community. Neither man held official office, neither was recognized by the government; they were self-appointed moral police. Hopkins gave himself the title "Witchfinder General."
— Marion GibsonAbout three-quarters of the accused were women
Looking at the history of European witch trials from the 15th to the 18th century, about 75% of known accused were women. Gibson believes this seems to be because women were more easily associated with the devil, perhaps because Eve committed the first sin in the Bible. In the 1640s society was under enormous strain, and people reached for old beliefs, convinced that Satan must be the root of their problems, and so they went looking for the devil's followers. At the time almost everything was run by men, which made women vulnerable. In some towns, such as Framlingham in Suffolk, 100% of the accused were women. Many of the accused were also poor, not well educated, and had no influence in society.
— Marion GibsonWitchfinders charged for their services, until communities started doing the sums
The large-scale witch trials in the east and Midlands gradually subsided by the end of 1647, partly because people began to question the number of accused. In his 1648 account, Stearne wrote that he was responsible for putting about 200 people to death — an astonishing figure. If you count everyone accused, interrogated or prosecuted but not executed, it runs into the hundreds and hundreds. People who were not as convinced as Stearne and Hopkins that the world was full of witches began to ask: were all these people really witches? Could England possibly have that many? Doubts about the witchfinders' motives also emerged, especially Hopkins and Stearne, who charged for their services: they demanded lodging at inns, money to feed their horses and themselves, and funds to hire people to search for witch marks. The costs to the community kept piling up, and people looking at their tax bills began to think: maybe witch trials are not a good investment.
— Marion GibsonThe witch-hunting legacy crossed the Atlantic to Salem
The most famous are the Salem witch trials in Massachusetts in 1692 and 1693, where about 30 people were found guilty, 19 were hanged, and others died under torture or in prison. Events in England and Scotland had an influence more than 3,000 miles away. This is because colonists in the New World — many of them Puritans seeking religious freedom — came from English communities that had held witch trials earlier in the century. There are concrete examples showing that people from Framlingham and Great Yarmouth brought the idea that "the world is full of witches who need to be hunted" to New England. Connecticut and Virginia also held witch trials, where settlers or their descendants remembered witch stories heard from Suffolk, Essex, Northamptonshire, Newcastle or Cornwall.
— Marion GibsonIn their own words · checked verbatim
This man Meggs, a baker, voluntarily came to be tested for witchcraft, and we hanged him for his trouble – ha ha ha!
Marion Gibson0:00
She’s walking on water – she must be a witch.
Marion Gibson0:00
Well, yes, actually I think I am a witch.
Marion Gibson0:00
Well, yes, sir, if you say so I must be a witch.
Marion Gibson0:00
maybe a witch trial is not such a good investment.
Marion Gibson0:00
So I think we still live in a society where, in a sense, we hold witch trials.
Marion Gibson0:00
Figures
| Share of accused who were women in European witch trials | about 75% | 0:00 |
| Number Stearne claimed to have put to death | about 200 | 0:00 |
| Number found guilty in the Salem witch trials | about 30 | 0:00 |
| Number hanged in the Salem witch trials | 19 | 0:00 |
| Distance between England and Salem | more than 3,000 miles | 0:00 |
| Date John Lowes was hanged | 27 August 1645 | 0:00 |
Glossary
- Witchfinder General
- The title Matthew Hopkins gave himself; he held no official office, yet he led the 1645 Essex witch hunt.
- witch mark
- A mark believed to be left on the body by a contract with the devil, sought during interrogation by stripping and searching the accused.
- ducking
- Tying a suspect up and throwing them into water; if they floated they were pulled out for interrogation. John Stearne used this method habitually.
- familiar
- A minor demon believed to serve a witch, fed with blood by the witch to confirm her contract with the devil.
- assize court
- The periodic criminal court held in each English county, where witch trial cases were heard.
How to listen
Readers interested in early modern British history, the witch hunts, or the mechanics of social panic; anyone who wants to understand the English roots of the Salem witch trials.
The final section on modern analogies is fairly general and can be skipped.