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Witchfinders: A Seventeenth-century English Tragedy
A popular history about Matthew Hopkins and the Great English Witchhunt.
445 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2005
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About the author
Malcolm Gaskill
11 books65 followersMalcolm Gaskill is Professor of Early Modern History at the University of East Anglia.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 158 reviews
November 7, 2012
Please ignore the reviews that say this is a boring book, it is not. In fact it is the banal details which make the witch hunting craze of the 1640s so chilling. In a world torn apart by a war that would kill almost 4% of the population, amidst famine and repeated poor harvests the removal of the traditional support structures helped create a world where tensions led to accusations of witchcraft across east anglia. Traditionally faith had put the emphasis on atonement of sins through charity and good works, but the growth and divisions of the various extreme protestant sects instead focused on the concept of predestination, a concept explored in the novel Confessions of a Justified Sinner, this left the population of those who were already saved and those who were automatically damned. In this climate with charity becoming increasingly important, and seemingly increasingly rare, malicious comments or even thoughts could have fatal consequences. Sexual fantasy, keeping of pets, any general eccentricity could lead even the accused themselves to believe they genuinely were witches. The dreadful fact is that witch finders still operate in many areas of the world playing on the exact same fears as their seventeenth century predecessors. Then and now criticism of the practices of these people, who at least in the case of Stearne and Hopkins genuinely believed they were doing good work merely led to further accusations. Something I found interesting reading the 'confessions' of intercourse with devils (either sexual fantasies, dreams, or invention to prevent further questioning) was the frequency that 17th century east anglian women thought about inter racial sex! Reading this you will wonder how people could be so credulous, and also how they could be so malicious. A very very sad period in English history.
November 19, 2017
Interesting glimpse into the insane filthiness of 1600s witch-hunting crisis of the United Kingdom during its Civil War. These people all seemed bat-shit insane, paranoid, and with highly debatable concepts of personal cleanliness. I've never seen the word "teets" thrown around with so much disregard in one book as I have in this one, and half of the time that's not even referring to those found on an animal, much less on a woman at that. Whether or not they found these various nipples where witches suckled their Imps with bizarre names like Nicodemus Dingle The Poppet Ferret or Raquel The Piggy-Faced Suckling Swine, it worries me that people had so many "growths" that could be consider "teet-like" or with "various nipples."
People in the 1600s were disgusting.
People in the 1600s were disgusting.
August 2, 2021
Ok so this grabbed me for the first 50 pages or so and then I was done. It gets so repetitive and believe it or not the descriptions of the devils imps suckling on various women’s ‘teets’ get dull very quickly.
There is an engaging story in here somewhere and I get that we are dealing with non-fiction here, but there is no need for it to be so dry.
There are times when the author makes an attempt at a narrative, but it is so chopped up by the introduction of case after case of witchcraft that, it be end get very same-y very quickly.
I didn’t really get a full sense of the scale of the Witchfinders and really what they did until the end when it was explained, but even then I didn’t feel the weight of it. And I get it, it’s hard to bring these characters to life when there isn’t much to go on, but sometimes there needs to be some razzle dazzle, because it just gets boring.
I think, perhaps what my issue was is that, I knew about the witch hunts and the political tensions surrounding it, and I just wanted to learn more I guess and all I got was a very repetitive book.
It kind of annoyed me how little he spoke about how terrible this was in terms of violence against women ( I know not all ‘witches’ tried were women…but the majority were). He kind of brushes it off at the end saying ‘this was a tragedy, but not half as much of a tragedy as the amount of men killed in the civil wars’… I don’t known it just irked me a bit.
Overall this was a massive let down for me. Didn’t really say anything new, interesting or engaging.
There is an engaging story in here somewhere and I get that we are dealing with non-fiction here, but there is no need for it to be so dry.
There are times when the author makes an attempt at a narrative, but it is so chopped up by the introduction of case after case of witchcraft that, it be end get very same-y very quickly.
I didn’t really get a full sense of the scale of the Witchfinders and really what they did until the end when it was explained, but even then I didn’t feel the weight of it. And I get it, it’s hard to bring these characters to life when there isn’t much to go on, but sometimes there needs to be some razzle dazzle, because it just gets boring.
I think, perhaps what my issue was is that, I knew about the witch hunts and the political tensions surrounding it, and I just wanted to learn more I guess and all I got was a very repetitive book.
It kind of annoyed me how little he spoke about how terrible this was in terms of violence against women ( I know not all ‘witches’ tried were women…but the majority were). He kind of brushes it off at the end saying ‘this was a tragedy, but not half as much of a tragedy as the amount of men killed in the civil wars’… I don’t known it just irked me a bit.
Overall this was a massive let down for me. Didn’t really say anything new, interesting or engaging.
October 9, 2021
'Witchfinders' Malcolm Gaskill's (2005) account of the 17th century witchfindings, subsequent trials and executions initially instigated by self appointed and so-called 'Witchfinder General' Matthew Hopkins along with John Stearne.
These particular trials eminated initially from Hopkins adopted hometown of Manningtree North Essex, where he owned a public house (The Thorn) and where this particular blend of paranoia, hysteria and hatred for the so-called witches first began.
Whilst Manningtree was certainly the epicentre of the witch trial industry created here by Hopkins and Stearne, their work and trials eminated more widely across many of the Eastern counties.
Set against the backdrop of the English civil war, the subsequent interregnum - a choatic mix of widespread poverty, civil war, and eventual loss and absence of a king, plague,
poverty (for many) civil unrest, infighting amongst religious schools of thought/factions and a generally and truly chaotic society - Gaskill attempts to tell us the story of Hopkins, Stearne and others and their seemingly never ending and fanatical quest to purge the godly of the perceived epidemic of witches.
This was potentially a fascinating story and one which I was looking forward to reading. I've visited the historic and lovely town of Manningtree and have recently read the excellent fictionalised/dramatised account 'The Manningtree Witches' (A. K. Blakemore).
However, 'Witchfinders' dissapointingly provides us with very limited sociological context and no attempt at meaningful historical explanation of any depth - for certainly the first third of Gaskill's book, all we really get is a catalogue of the names, accusations and supposed misdemeanours of the accused - it proves an almost never ending and tedious list.
There's so much in the subject matter here to potentially unpick, analyse and deconstruct - the religious fervour, patriarchal control, punishment, blame and extermination of largely poor and ill educated women, the financial industry created and the income generated for the witchfinders, a hugely superstitious, literally God-fearing, financially poor, local population.... 'If you're not with us, then you're against us' , the risk of discent being viewed as, interpreted as siding with devil and the witches - the archetypal witchhunt, a real and tangeable belief in and fear of God, Satan and the apocalypse or armagedon, the fact that petty often financial disagreements, morphed into feuds and subsequent accusations of witchcraft, the manufactured wave of panic and hysteria, along with issues concerning the relief budget claimed by older, more unproductive women - the financial drain and the perception of and dealing with a supposed plague of witches being convenient and supposedly financially prudential (investigation, trial and incarceration costs not considered and notwithstanding), the fact that confessions were often extracted by mental and physical torture, the nurturing of religious fervour, the concept of a diabolical saviour vs the damnation God, the revenge fantasies of the accused and the need to feel special and powerful - I could go on...
It is only really in the closing pages and epilogue of 'Witchfinders' that Gaskill provides us with an albeit brief, but something approaching meaningful analysis and interesting thoughts concerning contemporary societies and belief in/accusations of witchcraft which are still with us today.
So what I was hoping was going to be a fascinating companion piece to Blakemore's 'Manningtree Witches' - sadly just doesn't deliver. 'Witchfinders' - whilst clearly meticulously researched, is poorly ordered and edited, overlong and dense.
In summation then, a hugely disappointing missed opportunity.
These particular trials eminated initially from Hopkins adopted hometown of Manningtree North Essex, where he owned a public house (The Thorn) and where this particular blend of paranoia, hysteria and hatred for the so-called witches first began.
Whilst Manningtree was certainly the epicentre of the witch trial industry created here by Hopkins and Stearne, their work and trials eminated more widely across many of the Eastern counties.
Set against the backdrop of the English civil war, the subsequent interregnum - a choatic mix of widespread poverty, civil war, and eventual loss and absence of a king, plague,
poverty (for many) civil unrest, infighting amongst religious schools of thought/factions and a generally and truly chaotic society - Gaskill attempts to tell us the story of Hopkins, Stearne and others and their seemingly never ending and fanatical quest to purge the godly of the perceived epidemic of witches.
This was potentially a fascinating story and one which I was looking forward to reading. I've visited the historic and lovely town of Manningtree and have recently read the excellent fictionalised/dramatised account 'The Manningtree Witches' (A. K. Blakemore).
However, 'Witchfinders' dissapointingly provides us with very limited sociological context and no attempt at meaningful historical explanation of any depth - for certainly the first third of Gaskill's book, all we really get is a catalogue of the names, accusations and supposed misdemeanours of the accused - it proves an almost never ending and tedious list.
There's so much in the subject matter here to potentially unpick, analyse and deconstruct - the religious fervour, patriarchal control, punishment, blame and extermination of largely poor and ill educated women, the financial industry created and the income generated for the witchfinders, a hugely superstitious, literally God-fearing, financially poor, local population.... 'If you're not with us, then you're against us' , the risk of discent being viewed as, interpreted as siding with devil and the witches - the archetypal witchhunt, a real and tangeable belief in and fear of God, Satan and the apocalypse or armagedon, the fact that petty often financial disagreements, morphed into feuds and subsequent accusations of witchcraft, the manufactured wave of panic and hysteria, along with issues concerning the relief budget claimed by older, more unproductive women - the financial drain and the perception of and dealing with a supposed plague of witches being convenient and supposedly financially prudential (investigation, trial and incarceration costs not considered and notwithstanding), the fact that confessions were often extracted by mental and physical torture, the nurturing of religious fervour, the concept of a diabolical saviour vs the damnation God, the revenge fantasies of the accused and the need to feel special and powerful - I could go on...
It is only really in the closing pages and epilogue of 'Witchfinders' that Gaskill provides us with an albeit brief, but something approaching meaningful analysis and interesting thoughts concerning contemporary societies and belief in/accusations of witchcraft which are still with us today.
So what I was hoping was going to be a fascinating companion piece to Blakemore's 'Manningtree Witches' - sadly just doesn't deliver. 'Witchfinders' - whilst clearly meticulously researched, is poorly ordered and edited, overlong and dense.
In summation then, a hugely disappointing missed opportunity.
February 27, 2019
This is what happens when you get a fascinating subject that gives insight into, not only the dubious power struggles going on in the 17th century, and the horror of the sanctioned killing of women that went on, but also an insight into what it means to be human, and it's handled by someone who can't write compelling copy.
Sounds harsh, but it felt like I was reading his dissertation. It's just so dry. I can look up lists of names and where their teats were (so many teats) myself. I was looking for insight and spark, the kind of writing that brings it alive. It wasn't there. Genuinely really disappointed, I didn't gain anything from reading it somehow, even though it's very detailed in the minutiae of (again) teats and searchings etc.
Sounds harsh, but it felt like I was reading his dissertation. It's just so dry. I can look up lists of names and where their teats were (so many teats) myself. I was looking for insight and spark, the kind of writing that brings it alive. It wasn't there. Genuinely really disappointed, I didn't gain anything from reading it somehow, even though it's very detailed in the minutiae of (again) teats and searchings etc.
February 11, 2023
The lack of source analysis would have got me a failing grade at uni.
August 6, 2019
This was a very accurate and detailed book. It was very thorough but still very pleasant to read and easy to follow. But then, it also goes through A LOT of cases, and ends up being a bit of a catalogue: many, many tales of Goodwife This who is accused of witchcraft and is definitely guilty because marks are found on her body, she owns a rabbit and, also, she confesses to having wished Farmer Whatever that his horses would die (and they did!!) because he refused to give her a piece of bread and she was starving.
The reasons given to the craze are not only religious, they are also political and economical. I only wished that Malcolm Gaskill wrote more about the overwhelming fact that most witches happened to be women, and most of them widows or spinsters - women without men.
Many are also old and poor, depending on the parish to give them a bit of cash to survive. In a time of poverty and political unrest, it's a massive burden on any parish - hence why it makes sense to get rid of them, or hence why a lot of these cases sound like a bad episode of The Nightmare Neighbour Next Door - old Jimmy, who lost his crop this year, saw you talk to your cat and now you're being hanged for witchcraft and for ruining Jimmy's wheat.
It was refreshing as well to get a more balanced view: despite Matthew Hopkins and John Stearne witch-hunting and putting hundreds of (mostly) women on trial, people had doubts. Other religious leaders had doubts. Villagers had doubts.
And it was expensive to feed prisonners, pay the witchfinders, pay the searchers and execute people. £40 to build a gibbet! That's £1,500 in today's money! You could buy six horses with that!
The book does a great job at explaining the economical facts behind the trials, and the same factors that ultimately made it too expensive to keep going. I only wished it focused more on why those affected were mostly women, and mostly elderly (i.e not very productive, economically speaking).
Definitely would recommend to anyone interested in history and in witchcraft - it's gripping and very detailed.
The reasons given to the craze are not only religious, they are also political and economical. I only wished that Malcolm Gaskill wrote more about the overwhelming fact that most witches happened to be women, and most of them widows or spinsters - women without men.
Many are also old and poor, depending on the parish to give them a bit of cash to survive. In a time of poverty and political unrest, it's a massive burden on any parish - hence why it makes sense to get rid of them, or hence why a lot of these cases sound like a bad episode of The Nightmare Neighbour Next Door - old Jimmy, who lost his crop this year, saw you talk to your cat and now you're being hanged for witchcraft and for ruining Jimmy's wheat.
It was refreshing as well to get a more balanced view: despite Matthew Hopkins and John Stearne witch-hunting and putting hundreds of (mostly) women on trial, people had doubts. Other religious leaders had doubts. Villagers had doubts.
And it was expensive to feed prisonners, pay the witchfinders, pay the searchers and execute people. £40 to build a gibbet! That's £1,500 in today's money! You could buy six horses with that!
The book does a great job at explaining the economical facts behind the trials, and the same factors that ultimately made it too expensive to keep going. I only wished it focused more on why those affected were mostly women, and mostly elderly (i.e not very productive, economically speaking).
Definitely would recommend to anyone interested in history and in witchcraft - it's gripping and very detailed.
July 17, 2019
This was a pretty decent book about witchcraft trials of the 17th century. I was drawn to it because of its focus on East Anglia (my home region) and it was incredibly interesting to learn about the horrific events that went on here several centuries ago! However, unfortunately the book never really caught me totally and was a slog to read at points, particularly because many of the trials were very similar and so blended together. The book is well written though and gives a very detailed outline of the witch hunts and the witchfinders Mathew Hopkins and John Stearns. All in all, though not the most compelling read, the book is solid and would be enjoyable for anyone wanting to really get into the realities of English witch hunts!
October 22, 2023
If you took a shot every time Malcolm wrote teets in this book you would need your stomach pumped after the third chapter… yh…
I mean it was very interesting- but simultaneously so depressing. Men do be menning in this book- you know holding vulnerable women hostage and starving them, and exhausting them will probs get them to confess to anything. So yhhhhh- this book is less about witches and more about how witch finders abused their power to fulfill their own need for self- righteousness. I would have given it more stars but sheesh has it taken me long to read- thats more of a me problem though
I mean it was very interesting- but simultaneously so depressing. Men do be menning in this book- you know holding vulnerable women hostage and starving them, and exhausting them will probs get them to confess to anything. So yhhhhh- this book is less about witches and more about how witch finders abused their power to fulfill their own need for self- righteousness. I would have given it more stars but sheesh has it taken me long to read- thats more of a me problem though
August 27, 2024
Before this book, I only knew what Horrible Histories taught me when I was 10, so it was incredibly enlightening to read in depth about the crusade the Witchfinders took across England.
With prose that looks briefly into the mentalities of the Witchfinders and “Witches” alike, the story sounds almost fictional, bringing us into the depths of the 17th century trials.
Not focusing on telling us in depth how immoral the trials were - not insulting the reader’s intelligence - but merely stating what occurred in a detached manner helps emphasise the moments wherein the narrator does explain how they would probably have been feeling.
I think my only personal criticism is including quotes directly from documents written in the 17th century. I never am a fan of when authors do this in prose (ahem, Agnes Grey, Wuthering Heights) where they write the dialect of a character as they hear it to show the difference in accent - I find it difficult to read sometimes, and it breaks the flow of the book. I found it not as extreme in this case, but by the final two chapters it got a little tedious - but that’s just my preference, others may enjoy that!
I do admit it got a little tedious in some area, and I understand why people who already know about the witch trials got bored - it’s a good book for an introduction to witch trials, perhaps not for someone who knows about it already.
If you’re interested in The Witch Trials, I recommend this book highly!
With prose that looks briefly into the mentalities of the Witchfinders and “Witches” alike, the story sounds almost fictional, bringing us into the depths of the 17th century trials.
Not focusing on telling us in depth how immoral the trials were - not insulting the reader’s intelligence - but merely stating what occurred in a detached manner helps emphasise the moments wherein the narrator does explain how they would probably have been feeling.
I think my only personal criticism is including quotes directly from documents written in the 17th century. I never am a fan of when authors do this in prose (ahem, Agnes Grey, Wuthering Heights) where they write the dialect of a character as they hear it to show the difference in accent - I find it difficult to read sometimes, and it breaks the flow of the book. I found it not as extreme in this case, but by the final two chapters it got a little tedious - but that’s just my preference, others may enjoy that!
I do admit it got a little tedious in some area, and I understand why people who already know about the witch trials got bored - it’s a good book for an introduction to witch trials, perhaps not for someone who knows about it already.
If you’re interested in The Witch Trials, I recommend this book highly!
March 18, 2024
An interesting look into a side of British history that I was less aware of. It felt repetitive for large parts of the book, but it was describing a series of witch investigations that shared a common procedure, so of course it was going to be procedural. It presented an insightful explanation of the ways in which the larger crisis of the First English Civil War and religious/political turmoil spawned a substantial increase in trials.
May 16, 2024
Dull procession of names, dates and places unfortunately
March 23, 2025
The description of this book is waaaaayyyyyy different than what it’s actually about. The description made it sound like it was more about the corrupt actions of witch hunters, when in reality it was more an account of MANY witch confessions that were basically all about the same thing. Very misleading (and boring!)
April 7, 2008
I was very much looking forward to reading this book as it was written by an Oxbridge don and I hold those guys in high esteem when it comes to books they have written. However, I found this a very meandering read, and it didn't seem to move anywhere until the final tenth of the book. It seemed to me that we would simply read of accounts of people discovering a witch, over and over again. As there is little surviving written evidence, it would usually be along the lines of "Goodwife Joan... widow in penury... signed covenant in blood with Satan... imp called Little Chuckle" and then "Goodwife Sarah... widow in penury... signed covenant in blood with Satan, and had sex with him.... imp called Liberace" and really it just went on and on in this vein. We did read about the background that the war and the anti-Catholic fears played in this witch-fever, and also about the prisons and the judicial system as it related to the trial of witches, but this was looked at and then flitted away from, here and there, and didn't seem very structured to me. However, in my non-defence, I might have been looking for some sort of school text book here, and didn't find it.
My main issue with this book, however, might be controverisal, although I don't see that it should be. Basically, Gaskill approaches this subject on the flat assumption that witches do not exist. I don't agree with this, and therefore was frustrated when he didn't question the possibility that these women actually DID meet in covens, DID hope for an enemy's cattle to die, DID pray and offer their soul to Satan in return for earthly power. I'm not saying that Satan's power could effect this, or that magic did happen, but I don't see why, if so many 'normal' citizens of the Fens believed in the power of witchcraft at that time, why those subsequently accused of witchcraft didn't also believe in it. In which case it is not altogether faciful to believe that some lonely and disabused old women at that time did group together to try and gain themselves some strength, influence and support in those troubled times. And therefore, I don't think that it is altogether to be dismissed out of hand that these people had reason to accuse and fear these women: technically if they had been doing this, they would have been breaking governmental, religious and social laws.
I think the difference nowadays, and why there are no longer any statutes relating to witchcraft(?), is the belief that anyone practising witchcraft would be going through the motions, and would have no power to actually effect anything - any so-called witch would be impotent. However back in the 1600s Christian belief and in all of its accretions was a given, and therefore anyone who had chosen to be Satan's servant on earth was viewed as a highly dangerous vessel. Anyway, as I say, Gaskill only examined this as a possibility right at the end of his book, which kind of irritated me as I saw it as a fundamental question in this huge situation. I think it was certainly an erudite and thorough book, but utterly biased against the witchfinders, and it tended to turn its back entirely on empathising with them and the village peasants who, to be fair, in these times of turmoil and famine, when they had a woman curse them, and then a few days later their baby die of illness, could have had a valid if misguided point in wanting these women out of their lives.
My main issue with this book, however, might be controverisal, although I don't see that it should be. Basically, Gaskill approaches this subject on the flat assumption that witches do not exist. I don't agree with this, and therefore was frustrated when he didn't question the possibility that these women actually DID meet in covens, DID hope for an enemy's cattle to die, DID pray and offer their soul to Satan in return for earthly power. I'm not saying that Satan's power could effect this, or that magic did happen, but I don't see why, if so many 'normal' citizens of the Fens believed in the power of witchcraft at that time, why those subsequently accused of witchcraft didn't also believe in it. In which case it is not altogether faciful to believe that some lonely and disabused old women at that time did group together to try and gain themselves some strength, influence and support in those troubled times. And therefore, I don't think that it is altogether to be dismissed out of hand that these people had reason to accuse and fear these women: technically if they had been doing this, they would have been breaking governmental, religious and social laws.
I think the difference nowadays, and why there are no longer any statutes relating to witchcraft(?), is the belief that anyone practising witchcraft would be going through the motions, and would have no power to actually effect anything - any so-called witch would be impotent. However back in the 1600s Christian belief and in all of its accretions was a given, and therefore anyone who had chosen to be Satan's servant on earth was viewed as a highly dangerous vessel. Anyway, as I say, Gaskill only examined this as a possibility right at the end of his book, which kind of irritated me as I saw it as a fundamental question in this huge situation. I think it was certainly an erudite and thorough book, but utterly biased against the witchfinders, and it tended to turn its back entirely on empathising with them and the village peasants who, to be fair, in these times of turmoil and famine, when they had a woman curse them, and then a few days later their baby die of illness, could have had a valid if misguided point in wanting these women out of their lives.
May 15, 2016
Dry and hard to read. Some good lessons though.
September 11, 2018
An excellent and thorough history of a dark period of political, social and spiritual upheaval and the horrors and myths that sprang from it.
February 9, 2021
I had a difficult time getting into this one at the beginning. I tried too hard to memorize all the people involved, refer back to every footnote, and let every bit of information sink in.
This was a mistake.
Once I was able to let go of trying to absorb every little detail, I was able to finally make sense of and learn from the content.
I do still feel that the writing was a bit disorganized, but it wasn't too much work to decipher and comprehend. By the end of the book, I felt like I truly learned a significant amount- and more importantly, that it will stick.
I was particularly impressed with the depth of thought put into the analysis regarding the environmental, economical and cultural components that played a role into why and how things ended up so bad during this time. It was the perfect mix of civil, political, religious, economical and status-driven unrest that, when folded in together, primed the environment for this unheard of level of instability which ultimately resulted in the mass witch hunts of the 17th century England.
What a remarkable and horrific part of history. It is not a stretch to presume we could fall right back into it if the pieces aligned again if we are not careful. Let's hope we can learn from it.
This was a mistake.
Once I was able to let go of trying to absorb every little detail, I was able to finally make sense of and learn from the content.
I do still feel that the writing was a bit disorganized, but it wasn't too much work to decipher and comprehend. By the end of the book, I felt like I truly learned a significant amount- and more importantly, that it will stick.
I was particularly impressed with the depth of thought put into the analysis regarding the environmental, economical and cultural components that played a role into why and how things ended up so bad during this time. It was the perfect mix of civil, political, religious, economical and status-driven unrest that, when folded in together, primed the environment for this unheard of level of instability which ultimately resulted in the mass witch hunts of the 17th century England.
What a remarkable and horrific part of history. It is not a stretch to presume we could fall right back into it if the pieces aligned again if we are not careful. Let's hope we can learn from it.
February 16, 2022
The details of this book are important. It is the overwhelming amount of detail that makes this so harrowing. However, this was not an easy, or interesting read for most of that because of the detail. This delivery, although well done in what he was aiming for, did not work for me. I learnt a lot but I lost a lot of the detail as I read further.
Very informative. But, too detailed to hold my attention for long.
October 30, 2024
Serious, thoughtful and careful, but also reluctant, for serious, thoughtful, careful reasons, to editorialise or make suppositions, except very occasionally, which meant that it was hard to follow and not always as illuminating as I wanted. Not the book's fault, a case of me not having enough background knowledge and wanting a little more pop in my history. The epilogue pulled it all together movingly and meaningfully, I just wish Gaskill had done more of that throughout the book.
April 21, 2022
A good point of view of how witches got treated back then. And it’s amazing how much peoples point of view on specific groups has changed over time. But it is honestly disgusting how they got treated back then. Would 100% recommend this book to anyone who is fascinated by the era or witches in fact.
April 12, 2019
Very detailed yet ultimately not particularly gripping or fulfilling read.
Gave up with it halfway through.
Gave up with it halfway through.
January 12, 2025
3.5
Interesting and readable but not as good as his more recent book, The Ruin of All Witches
Interesting and readable but not as good as his more recent book, The Ruin of All Witches
October 13, 2025
Really interesting read but unfortunately I found it super repetitive. There are some really interesting facts in here, but it’s not one I’d read again and I’d be hesitant to recommend it
October 1, 2018
A useful insight into the insanity that gripped parts of Britain during the English Civil War. How fear, prejudice and delusion led to the execution of innocent women and men.
December 13, 2025
enjoyed this book and how it kinda didn't comment on stuff that much. resulted in me being in conversation with the connections i found!
April 26, 2024
I found this a really frustrating read. In places when it explored the history, it was fascinating,but 90% of it seemed to just be listing cases and it became really boring, hence the low rating...
June 29, 2022
Pretty good.
August 2, 2019
Interesting, insightful, thought provoking, infuriating and perhaps most of all chillingly sobering when, as the author concludes ...
"how different are we in mentality from our seventeenth century ancestors if 'seventeenth century ancestors' is replaced with 'fellow human beings in Africa and India'?" - pg 286
A bit dry and meandering, overlong and arguably repetitive; having read the first 15 or so accounts of how the poor individuals deemed witches (rather curiously I thought there was never any assumption that any of them were in fact witches who may well have met in covens, the author seemingly of the opinion that witches did not/do not exist) were watched, interrogated and finally convicted it all became a bit, well, samey.
As for the execution ... I thought the formatting could have been better; the paragraphs better spaced, the pen and ink illustrations perhaps larger and most of all - why oh why such minute print? - the typeface made bigger, much bigger.
Other than that ...
Largely following the witch hunt of 1645 - 1647 instigated by the infamous Matthew Hopkins into whom we are given an adequate though what I felt to be a typical insight (interestingly enough there is more actual information given about his father and siblings) and the lesser known John Stearne for whom no history prior to 1645 is given ... most likely because its non-existent ... until the death of the former and the disappearance into oblivion of the latter.
What I really liked about the book however was the indepth look at how the political climate of the time, the religious issues, the social upheavel all would have contributed to the superstition, the prejudice, the fear, the intolerance that led to the execution of these men, women and, yes, children.
"how different are we in mentality from our seventeenth century ancestors if 'seventeenth century ancestors' is replaced with 'fellow human beings in Africa and India'?" - pg 286
A bit dry and meandering, overlong and arguably repetitive; having read the first 15 or so accounts of how the poor individuals deemed witches (rather curiously I thought there was never any assumption that any of them were in fact witches who may well have met in covens, the author seemingly of the opinion that witches did not/do not exist) were watched, interrogated and finally convicted it all became a bit, well, samey.
As for the execution ... I thought the formatting could have been better; the paragraphs better spaced, the pen and ink illustrations perhaps larger and most of all - why oh why such minute print? - the typeface made bigger, much bigger.
Other than that ...
Largely following the witch hunt of 1645 - 1647 instigated by the infamous Matthew Hopkins into whom we are given an adequate though what I felt to be a typical insight (interestingly enough there is more actual information given about his father and siblings) and the lesser known John Stearne for whom no history prior to 1645 is given ... most likely because its non-existent ... until the death of the former and the disappearance into oblivion of the latter.
What I really liked about the book however was the indepth look at how the political climate of the time, the religious issues, the social upheavel all would have contributed to the superstition, the prejudice, the fear, the intolerance that led to the execution of these men, women and, yes, children.
January 15, 2026
This accessible monograph is a valuable contextualisation of the 1645-47 East Anglian witch hunts with a clear linear narrative that places these events within the particular historical dynamic provided by the material and psychological disturbances of civil war and the ideology of Calvinist Puritanism with its edicts upon the self-justifying elect to search out evil within themselves and their communities and to punish those deemed in concert with the Devil, a tangible real presence, consorting at will with those who have entered into his covenant, thereby dangerous neighbours to the godly.
Witch hunting was clearly a product of ideology, but as with all popular delusions and persecution mania, its prevalence and outbreaks within the European early modern period, whatever the ideological and theological justifications, must be related to the particular material context. This, most especially in still predominantly agricultural societies, meant the economic dislocations due to, in the longer term, rising population at a time of climatic hardship and poor harvests, with their consequent poverty and vagrancy providing a poor, outsider underclass within rural settlements, and, in the particular, the resultant dislocations in land and property ownership, exacerbated in England by enclosure and in America, as settlements expanded, by the increased farming of marginal lands, creating not only outsider groups excluded from prosperity, seen as a measure of godliness, but also internal and external migration within communities structured upon kinship relations..
It was these material pressures upon local rural communities which provided the underlying hostility between neighbours, particularly between those above and those below subsistence levels, which the social dislocation of the Civil War magnified, not only undermining the traditional governing structures of towns and villages and questioning previously accepted authority, but also imposing additional financial and manpower burdens that these communities struggled to bear, particularly in East Anglia, the heart of parliamentary recruitment, where male population numbers declined in proportion to female and where a consequent re-gendering of economic roles necessarily occurred. However, for these pressures to manifest in witch persecutions they required an ideological spark, and that was provided by the Civil War and the threat of the royalist enemy, a constant psychological pressure, which was internalised as a fear of an enemy within, the fear of the Devil and his agents, the witches. Civil strife provided both the opportunity and ideological justification for witch hunting, but as this book shows, at the local and individual level, those who were the victims of the witchfinders were predominantly those economically marginalised or whose unorthodox behaviour conditioned concern from more respectable neighbours, and, importantly, had previously clashed with other villagers over property, livestock, or agricultural products. As Malcolm Gaskill details, in many cases the witchcraft accusation had its origin in a previous clash over a material dispute between a more prosperous villager and an indignant neighbour, where the latter, usually the loser from the exchange, was perceived to have sought to restructure the power imbalance by the casting of malicious threats. It is also not surprising that often those ascribed as witches were poor widows, women regarded both as an economic burden upon a community and as having no further biological or economic purpose, and so a suitable object against whom internalised fears, ideological nostrums, and theological worries could be directed and personalised. In an age of high early mortality, where the loss of livestock or a poor harvest could cast the respectable into overnight poverty, and where empirical observation and scientific reasoning were still in their infancy, an explanation for calamity or loss by those deemed by themselves godly needed to be found, and this was provided by the diabolic, whose agents were the malevolent witches, paupers, miscreants, and scolds, who could be identified as ungodly.
The 'othering' of witchfinding was therefore ideological in its framework, conditioned by the abstract and Biblical belief in witches, but its realisation was due to the dislocation of civil war and an undermining of political and social authority, and its impetus in all cases was the social and economic crises of the seventeenth century, climatic, demographic, and agricultural in origin.
Witches were a conceptualisation and reification of evil at a time of unsettling political, social, and economic disturbances, upon which a psychologically pressurised community could focus their fears and the hope that their expiration would bring relief from palpably malignant perceived threats. In this sense, the witch mania and witchfinding were not aberrations, but normative responses within highly idealised, religious communities to fear and threat, given an opportunity to manifest themselves when the witchfinder rode into the village with his searchers, allowing previously suppressed fear and hatred of the Other, and fear and resentment of the marginalised poor, to burst out into the open. Witch mania was not a hysteria, but a rationalised although unreasonable outburst given its head by the dislocations of civil war and internal communal threats, and provided space by the material context of people living within economically marginalised communities at a time of environmental, socio-economic, and political and military stress. Witch persecutions were a doomed attempt to personalise and realise fears engendered by forces outside the control or even understanding of those subject to them at a time when ideology, theology, and psychology combined to cast the internal village outsider, pauper, and nonconformist, as the physical representation of evil and the visible manifestation of fear to be not just shunned but positively confronted when the witchfinder provided the catalyst, and by whose death it was hoped peace and prosperity would be restored to a community whose cohesion would thereby be restored.
But, it was the specific circumstances of the mid-1640s that gave Matthew Hopkins and John Stearne the chance to operate as roving witchfinders, and to bring to light the malevolent persons to be found in every rural community, and with their searching, watching, walking, and swimming of suspects to legitimise previously inchoate allegations of witchcraft and actualise rumour, gossip, rancour, and fear into criminal processes. There is no doubt of the widespread belief in witchcraft or that Hopkins and Strearne believed in the righteousness of their quest, even if they accrued financial benefits by the way, and criticism was directed more at their methods than their purpose, but it was the unique historical dispensation provided by the hardships and confusions of the last year of the first Civil War which allowed them the space to go about their persecutory work. The basis for persecution lay in the socio-economic factors within local communities, but it still required the presence and actions of highly motivated men of ideological certainty to turn dormant fear into persecution mania, a dynamic to be observed regularly throughout the past where dislocation and fear bring about unreasoned attacks upon minority and marginalised groups, not because they provided a threat, but because they were so weak as to make them viable subjects to be persecuted. Where there is fear of the Other, social uncertainty, and men and women motivated to search out those identified as non-conformist and socially excluded, persecution will surely follow.
Witch hunting was clearly a product of ideology, but as with all popular delusions and persecution mania, its prevalence and outbreaks within the European early modern period, whatever the ideological and theological justifications, must be related to the particular material context. This, most especially in still predominantly agricultural societies, meant the economic dislocations due to, in the longer term, rising population at a time of climatic hardship and poor harvests, with their consequent poverty and vagrancy providing a poor, outsider underclass within rural settlements, and, in the particular, the resultant dislocations in land and property ownership, exacerbated in England by enclosure and in America, as settlements expanded, by the increased farming of marginal lands, creating not only outsider groups excluded from prosperity, seen as a measure of godliness, but also internal and external migration within communities structured upon kinship relations..
It was these material pressures upon local rural communities which provided the underlying hostility between neighbours, particularly between those above and those below subsistence levels, which the social dislocation of the Civil War magnified, not only undermining the traditional governing structures of towns and villages and questioning previously accepted authority, but also imposing additional financial and manpower burdens that these communities struggled to bear, particularly in East Anglia, the heart of parliamentary recruitment, where male population numbers declined in proportion to female and where a consequent re-gendering of economic roles necessarily occurred. However, for these pressures to manifest in witch persecutions they required an ideological spark, and that was provided by the Civil War and the threat of the royalist enemy, a constant psychological pressure, which was internalised as a fear of an enemy within, the fear of the Devil and his agents, the witches. Civil strife provided both the opportunity and ideological justification for witch hunting, but as this book shows, at the local and individual level, those who were the victims of the witchfinders were predominantly those economically marginalised or whose unorthodox behaviour conditioned concern from more respectable neighbours, and, importantly, had previously clashed with other villagers over property, livestock, or agricultural products. As Malcolm Gaskill details, in many cases the witchcraft accusation had its origin in a previous clash over a material dispute between a more prosperous villager and an indignant neighbour, where the latter, usually the loser from the exchange, was perceived to have sought to restructure the power imbalance by the casting of malicious threats. It is also not surprising that often those ascribed as witches were poor widows, women regarded both as an economic burden upon a community and as having no further biological or economic purpose, and so a suitable object against whom internalised fears, ideological nostrums, and theological worries could be directed and personalised. In an age of high early mortality, where the loss of livestock or a poor harvest could cast the respectable into overnight poverty, and where empirical observation and scientific reasoning were still in their infancy, an explanation for calamity or loss by those deemed by themselves godly needed to be found, and this was provided by the diabolic, whose agents were the malevolent witches, paupers, miscreants, and scolds, who could be identified as ungodly.
The 'othering' of witchfinding was therefore ideological in its framework, conditioned by the abstract and Biblical belief in witches, but its realisation was due to the dislocation of civil war and an undermining of political and social authority, and its impetus in all cases was the social and economic crises of the seventeenth century, climatic, demographic, and agricultural in origin.
Witches were a conceptualisation and reification of evil at a time of unsettling political, social, and economic disturbances, upon which a psychologically pressurised community could focus their fears and the hope that their expiration would bring relief from palpably malignant perceived threats. In this sense, the witch mania and witchfinding were not aberrations, but normative responses within highly idealised, religious communities to fear and threat, given an opportunity to manifest themselves when the witchfinder rode into the village with his searchers, allowing previously suppressed fear and hatred of the Other, and fear and resentment of the marginalised poor, to burst out into the open. Witch mania was not a hysteria, but a rationalised although unreasonable outburst given its head by the dislocations of civil war and internal communal threats, and provided space by the material context of people living within economically marginalised communities at a time of environmental, socio-economic, and political and military stress. Witch persecutions were a doomed attempt to personalise and realise fears engendered by forces outside the control or even understanding of those subject to them at a time when ideology, theology, and psychology combined to cast the internal village outsider, pauper, and nonconformist, as the physical representation of evil and the visible manifestation of fear to be not just shunned but positively confronted when the witchfinder provided the catalyst, and by whose death it was hoped peace and prosperity would be restored to a community whose cohesion would thereby be restored.
But, it was the specific circumstances of the mid-1640s that gave Matthew Hopkins and John Stearne the chance to operate as roving witchfinders, and to bring to light the malevolent persons to be found in every rural community, and with their searching, watching, walking, and swimming of suspects to legitimise previously inchoate allegations of witchcraft and actualise rumour, gossip, rancour, and fear into criminal processes. There is no doubt of the widespread belief in witchcraft or that Hopkins and Strearne believed in the righteousness of their quest, even if they accrued financial benefits by the way, and criticism was directed more at their methods than their purpose, but it was the unique historical dispensation provided by the hardships and confusions of the last year of the first Civil War which allowed them the space to go about their persecutory work. The basis for persecution lay in the socio-economic factors within local communities, but it still required the presence and actions of highly motivated men of ideological certainty to turn dormant fear into persecution mania, a dynamic to be observed regularly throughout the past where dislocation and fear bring about unreasoned attacks upon minority and marginalised groups, not because they provided a threat, but because they were so weak as to make them viable subjects to be persecuted. Where there is fear of the Other, social uncertainty, and men and women motivated to search out those identified as non-conformist and socially excluded, persecution will surely follow.
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