"She no witch ever: just a widow, but wise.

Some took against her, now all pay the price" 'Longtown Witch', The Mighty Collider ...........

Now that the comparatively benign pagan elements of the Celtic festival of Samhain have been near-fatally smothered under thousands of tonnes of plastic novelties, it might just be the time to lift the shroud on rank injustice - a dark and often forgotten aspect of that Halloween mainstay: The witch.

It could be very dangerous indeed to be mistaken for a witch in Merry Olde England. In the 16th century - just as this country was still absorbing the fallout from its messy divorce from Rome- both Henry VIII and latterly his daughter, Elizabeth, still both found the time to pass acts of parliament 'against Conjurations, Enchantments and Witchcrafts', which made such powers illegal and punishable by death.

Queen Elizabeth's 1563 legislation was considered to be more lenient than her late fathers act of 1542, as the sentence of 'death by hanging' was now only to be used if 'harm had been caused to others or their animals by sorcery'.

The strange tale of Agnes Waterhouse Lesser charges could still result in just imprisonment, but in Elizabethan times this too could also been considered a death sentence, albeit more slowly executed. Contemporary court records show that one of the first so-called witches to be tried under the later act was Agnes Waterhouse of Hatfield Peverel, Essex. In 1566 she was accused of using witchcraft to murder her husband, cause fatal illness to another man as well as killing local geese and cattle. The relationship she shared with her 'witches' familiar'- a talking cat called Satan, no less- featured prominently in the court proceedings, as did the accusatory testimony of her ungrateful daughter, Joan.

Once found guilty, she was duly hanged.

Bewitched

A few years later in 1579, the Hertfordshire Session Rolls detail the trial of a Hitchin spinster, Joan Danne, for being a 'common sorceress and enchantress'. Danne, according to the charges, 'bewitched and enchanted' local Hitchin yeoman John Sympson, who 'languished' for three months, but who didn't die. Although found guilty, she escaped the gallows.

Europe's 'Great' Witchhunt

Now, it is perhaps easy for us to scoff at a legal system that allowed such charges to even have been brought, but the fear that drove these accusations was genuine to many ordinary citizens, who no doubt demanded protection. It is estimated that in Europe's 'Great Hunt', between 1560 and 1630, there were over 80,000 individual accusations of witchcraft, resulting in c40,000 deaths: 90% of these were women.

However, in many witch trials - as we can see in the two local 'Joan' examples above - the evidence was often flimsy at best and in both these cases a woman was accused by men and tried by men for acts of sorcery that resulted in men getting ill. This was, of course, during a time when life expectancy was short and general health and sanitation poor. It's comforting to think that here in the modern world, no one can now be singled-out for harsh treatment due to gender, lifestyle, belief, eccentricities and then tried on the basis of hearsay by a gang of medievalist theocrats, isn't it?

Matthew Hopkins Reign of Terror

Many horror fans will be familiar with Vincent Price's portrayal of Matthew Hopkins, the sinister 'Witchfinder General' in the titular 1958 film. And despite Price's rather moustache- twiddling performance, there was very little to laugh at in the real Hopkins' reign of terror. Appointed to the role by Oliver Cromwell during the English Civil War, Hopkins exploited his considerable powers to the full, using his thugs to act upon information supplied by spiteful local informants to seize local women believed to be witches. He was legally allowed to collect a bounty for every confession gained, by both fair means and foul, but mainly foul: this man's reward package incentivised mass arrest and torture.

Witchfinder General

His short career as Witchfinder General only lasted from 1644 to 1647 during which his nefarious activities were mainly focused on East Anglia as he was based in Manningtree, Essex. Record-keeping was poor, but at least 500 to 2000 people were put to death for being witches in England between the 15th and 18th centuries and in just three years Hopkins and his henchmen were apparently responsible for at least 20% of this total. Once again, the vast majority of victims were women. According to local folklore expert Doris Jones-Baker ('The Folklore of Hertfordshire' pub. 1977), we here in Hertfordshire somehow managed to escape his attentions, despite him living in our neighbouring county; Bedfordshire, Essex and Cambridgeshire were not to be so lucky. The last woman to be tried for witchcraft in England was also a relatively local lass: Jane Wenham was accused of 'having a conversation with a cat' amongst other things and was sentenced to death by a Hertford magistrate in 1711.

The sentence, however, was never carried out and she continued to live in her Hertfordingbury cottage until her death in 1730. But the times they were a 'changing, and the seemingly unjust case of Jane Wenham fed the already growing clamour to end trials for crimes such as sorcery and enchantment and the Witchcraft Act of 1736 finally put an end to such official persecution.

Some experts are now suggesting that everyone historically accused of witchcraft should now be pardoned and their reputations restored, mainly due to such wholesale miscarriages of justice. I mean, who hasn't had an ill neighbour and a conversation with a cat at least once in their lives?

Witch-killing stakes

And before we move on to briefly consider ghosts, evidence has emerged recently that such historical witch-hunts may have also been motivated by money. Economists Peter Leeson and Jacob Russ (George Mason University, 2018) suggest that the peaks of anti-witch sentiment in Europe often tied-in with periods of schism within the church, in addition to unrest, famine and war.

Put simply, both the Catholic and Protestant hierarchies would try and outdo each other in the witch-killing stakes as evidence of their superior piety in a crude and murderous attempt to woo even more supporters. This would lead, inevitably, to an increase in their churches' income and wealth.

Wasn't it the Bible that said, 'for the love of money is the root of all evil'? They would know. And finally, there is a stand of trees known as Hollowdane Spring within Brimstone Wood in nearby Ayot St Lawrence. It was here that a witch was apparently burned alive in the early 17th century.

According to local legend this place still has an unpleasant atmosphere, haunted as it is by her tortured, restless spirit. You can get near it using some nearby pblic footpaths, but beware, as the legend also states that bad luck will follow anyone who enters this particular clump of trees.

You have been warned. Oh, and happy Halloween.

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