St. Osyth Witches

Continuing on yesterday's theme, the village of St. Osyth is situated between Clacton

 

and Brightlingsea

 

St. Osyth suffered during the witchcraft hysteria that swept through East Anglia. Records which survive from the 1582 trial held in the County Town of Chelmsford show that fourteen women from St. Osyth were charged with Witchcraft.  Of these fourteen, ten were charged with "betwitching to death" and that carried the death penalty.

Here is the story.  The trial of these women seems to have been brought about by local quarrels and vendettas which was usually the way.  If you disliked a neighbour, had eyes on their property or land, had a quarrel with them or simply disliked them it was simple to accuse them of sorcery.  Of course, many of the women were old, ugly, deformed in some way or perhaps their minds were going.  Those were cruel times.

At the heart of this trial was one Ursula Kempe who was an impoverished local woman who made her living as a nursemaid and midwife.  She had a reputation for removing spells from those who thought they were being attacked by black magic.  Her trial was presided over by the the local magistrate, Bryan Darcy.  Witnesses swore that Ursula Kempe had cured Davy Thorlowe of illness using herbs and incantations but had later taken offence when the boy's mother, Grace Thorlowe, had then refused to use her as a nursemaid for her baby daughter.

When the baby somehow fell from her cot and broke her neck, Ursula Kempe was suspected of causing her death by witchcraft.  However, Grace Thorlowe, for her own ends, disregarded the rumours and approached Ursula Kempe for treatment for her arthritis.  Ursula suggested a method that she said she had learned from an old Wise Woman.  After treatment, Thorlowe refused to pay Ursula's charge of one shilling and a argument ensued.  Following this, Thorlowe's arthritis worsened.

So, Thorlowe decided to make a complaint to the authorities. Ursula Kempe was arrested, imprisoned and sent for trial.  During the trial, Bryan Darcy persuaded Ursula's illegitimate eight year old son, Thomas Rabbet, to testify against his mother and recount her activities as a witch.  Ursula was then offered clemency if she admitted her guilt.  Kempe was traumatised and scared so she accepted the offer and confirmed that her son had told the truth.

Ursula testified that she kept four "familiars" two cats called Titty and Jack, a toad called Piggin and a lamb called Tyffin. She claimed she fed them on white bread or cake and drops of her own blood. She stated that the black cat called Jack had caused the death of her own sister-in-law, while the lamb had caused the death of the Thorlowe baby and caused her to fall from her crib.  She was pushed and probably tortured, to name any other women that she knew to be witches.

She named Alice Hunt, Alice Newman, Elizabeth Bennet and Margery Sammon.  They were arrested and brought to court where they confessed to being witches as well and they, in turn, named Joan Pechey, Agnes Glascock, Cecily Jones, Joan Turner, Elizabeth Ewstace, Anis Herd, Alice Manfield, Margaret Grevell and Alice Hunt's sister, Anne Swallow.

Two of these women were not indicted, two were discharged as innocent of witchcraft but held on other charges, four were acquitted as innocent, four were found guilty but reprieved.  Only Ursula Kempe and Elizabeth Bennet were sentenced to hang, and hang they did.

In 1921, two female skeletons were unearthed at St. Osyth. What was remarkable about these remains was that they had iron rivets driven into their knees and elbows, effectively pinning them to the ground.  This was a very common method of stopping witches rising from the grave.  This was very strong evidence that these were the remains of Ursula Kempe and Elizabeth Bennet.

The county of Essex had the highest rate of witchcraft prosecutions anywhere in England due to one man, Matthew Hopkins, the notorious "Witchfinder General"

 

In less than one year, Hopkins was responsible for one hundred women being hanged. Chelmsford saw nineteen of them hanged on one day. It is estimated that between 1542-1736, one thousandpeople were executed for Witchcraft in England.  Although in films, witches are usually depicted as being burned at the stake, this was never the case in England where hanging was always the punishment.  Burning at the stake was usually reserved for heretics.

A startling fact is that Scotland, which only had a fifth of the population of England, saw four thousand executions placing it second only to Germany in witchcraft persecutions.