Matthew Hopkins: Witch finder general

by Richard Deacon

Matthew Witch Finder General

224 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1976

About the author

George Donald King McCormick (11 December 1911 – 2 January 1998) was a British journalist and popular historian, who also wrote under the pseudonym Richard Deacon.

Reviews

[AndrewP · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is one of those non fiction books that attempts to pull together bits of historical record and present the known facts with a lot of conjecture to fill in the gaps. That Matthew Hopkins was a real person is not in dispute, it's just his history and details of all the witch trials and hangings that is a bit sketchy. I find it hard to believe that there were so many mistakes in the surviving records regarding names, places and events. Many accounts were written years later from second or third hand witnesses so more errors would creep in there.

An interesting account of the tyranny of the puritan Christians during and just after the Civil War, but not one to read unless you have some particular interest in the subject.

[Dan R. Celhay · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was not going to write a review because this book is out of print now. I was curious to read it though. The self-appointed Witch Finder made his way slowly though Essex and Suffolk for a couple of years gaining followers and feeding the witch hysteria, until brought to trial.

Here is a better review: http://winsham.blogspot.com/2015/06/r...

Unfortunately some of the author's information is based on the "Tendring Witchcraft Revelations", a document that does not exist. I still need to watch Vincent Price as Mathew Hopkins in the 1968 movie