The Last Witches of England

Dan Snow's History Hit

History Hit

History

4.7 • 12.9K Ratings

🗓️ 27 September 2021

⏱️ 33 minutes

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Summary

In 1682 three women, Temperance Lloyd, Mary Trembles and Susannah Edwards, from the town of Bideford were tried and hanged as witches. They were convicted on flimsy evidence, including an incident where a magpie, supposedly a symbol of the devil, had spooked the wife of a local merchant. Indeed, the authorities at the time cynically allowed the trial to go ahead to avoid invoking the ire of the local population. The three women would be the last people to be executed for witchcraft in England and their deaths are an illustration of the swirling religious, political, class and social tensions of the seventeenth century. John Callow joins Dan for this episode of the podcast to tell the tale of the Bideford Witches and their fate. They discuss why accusations of witchcraft were so prevalent in this period, why women were the primary targets and what changed legally and socially in the following years that meant that these were the last women executed for witchcraft.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Everybody welcome to Dance Know's history hit. In 1682 at the Exeter Assizes in the
0:08.2	West country of England there were witch trials, the Bitterfoot witch trials. They resulted
0:15.0	in hangings for three women, temperate sloit, married trumbles and Susanna Edwards. Needless
0:21.9	to say folks, the evidence against them was pretty hazy. In fact, it was pretty much
0:27.6	non-existent. It involved an Ijouk-U-Nars. The widow of a prosperous Devon merchant
0:33.7	being frightened by a magpie appearing at the window of her house and assuming that it was an
0:39.8	emissary of the devil sent by one of her neighbours. Yep, well weeks later those neighbours were dead.
0:46.9	They were the last women that we think that last well-documented cases of women being executed
0:52.9	for witchcraft in England. It is a wild sorry. What was going on the 17th century with witches
1:00.0	and witchcraft trials? I've talked to a Cizana Lipscomb in other than the past about this
1:04.1	upsurge of witchcraft accusations in this period, but it's down to the very brilliant John
1:09.8	Callow who's written really widely on witchcraft. He's the perfect guide to take us through this
1:15.4	bizarre subject. If you wish to listen to his other podcast without the ads, that's the good
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1:56.2	But in the meantime, everybody, here is John Callow telling us about the last witch trial. Enjoy.
	...

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