Category: Witch Trials – Witch Hunts

Many human cultures have imposed legal penalties on people practicing unpopular ritual practices, and inevitably these have now and then been inflicted on innocent people.…

Kempe, Ursula (d. 1582) English witch brought to trial and executed for harming others. Her CORPSE was staked like a VAMPIRE. Ursula Kempe was accused…

Webster, Mary (d. 1696) Massachusetts woman accused of bewitching a man to cause him ill health. Mary Webster was indicted and acquitted at trial, but…

Warboys Witches : The story of the Throckmorton (also Throgmorton) children in Huntington, Essex, England, in 1589, is the first well-known case of allegedly possessed…

trials by ordeal methods used in trials, including witchcraft trials, to determine guilt or innocence. Trials by ordeal involve a physical test. In England, such…

Dietrich Flade (?–1589). Probably the highest-ranking victim of any witch-hunt in European history, Flade was a prominent citizen of Trier, an archbishopric and also at…

ABSALON, ANNA PEDERSDOTTER (?–1590). The victim of perhaps the single most famous witchcraft accusation made in Scandinavia, Anna was the wife of the Lutheran minister…

North Berwick Witches An alleged Coven of wItches exposed in 1590–91, providing Scotland with its most celebrated witch trials and executions. king James VI (who…

Newbury Witch (?–1763) An old woman, probably harmless, who was executed as a witch in 1763 by Cromwell’s soldiers, near Newbury in Berkshire. The soldiers…

Newton, Florence (ca. mid-17th century) One of the most important witch trials of Ireland was that of Florence Newton, the “Witch of Youghal,” who was…