The Last Witches of England: A Tragedy of Sorcery and Superstition by John Callow - #BookReview

 

On the morning of Thursday 29 June 1682, a magpie came rasping, rapping and tapping at the window of the house of Thomas Eastchurch. The busy quayside, well-stocked shops, and the patchwork of walled gardens and little orchards that backed onto many of the major properties in Bideford usually offered rich pickings for scavengers with a quick beak, a sharp eye and a fast wing. Yet that morning was different...

On the morning of Thursday 29 June 1682, a magpie came rasping, rapping and tapping at the window of a prosperous Devon merchant. Frightened by its appearance, his servants and members of his family had, within a matter of hours, convinced themselves that the bird was an emissary of the devil sent by witches to destroy the fabric of their lives. As the result of these allegations, three women of Bideford came to be forever defined as witches. A Secretary of State brushed aside their case and condemned them to the gallows; to hang as the last group of women to be executed in England for the crime. Yet, the hatred of their neighbours endured. For Bideford, it was said, was a place of witches.

Though 'pretty much worn away' the belief in witchcraft still lingered on for more than a century after their deaths. In turn, ignored, reviled, and extinguished but never more than half-forgotten, it seems that the memory of these three women - and of their deeds and sufferings, both real and imagined – was transformed from canker to regret, and from regret into celebration in our own age. Indeed, their example was cited during the final Parliamentary debates, in 1951, that saw the last of the witchcraft acts repealed, and their names were chanted, as both inspiration and incantation, by the women beyond the wire at Greenham Common.

In this book, John Callow explores this remarkable reversal of fate, and the remarkable tale of the Bideford Witches.

***

The extensive research that has gone into producing this book is excellent and the author details the religious, socio-economic and political background which existed in the community at this time.

I was astounded to learn that the last of the Witchcraft Acts was not repealed until 1951 when it was replaced by the Fraudulent Mediums Act, which in turn was repealed in 2008. One of the things that I admire greatly in Mr. Callow's work is that as well as his examination of the society these women lived in during the 17th century, he goes on to consider how they are viewed through a 21st-century lens, taking in the remaining three centuries sandwiched in between. 

It is an extensively detailed account presented in a thoroughly accessible and easy to read manner. I was engrossed from the beginning, and it made for fascinating reading.

What becomes abundantly clear throughout the book is that the three women were guilty of nothing more than vulnerability. Couple that with a society steeped in superstition and with an element of misogyny. The author has written an easy to understand and detailed volume of the story of these three innocent women lives.

I once visited Bideford and at the time I was completely unaware of the lives and fate of the three women featured in this book; Temperance Lloyd, Susanna Edwards and Mary Trembles. It has made me want to return to the town, and I would visit with quite different eyes now.

I highly recommend this book for anyone who is interested in history.

ISBN: 978 1788314398

Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic

About the Author:

John Callow is an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Suffolk, UK, who has written widely on early modern witchcraft, politics and popular culture. He is the author of The Making of King James II (2000) and Embracing the Darkness (2005, I.B. Tauris). He has appeared on the BBC Radio 4 documentary It Must be Witchcraft, and the series on the Salem Witches on the Discovery Channel.

(photo courtesy of University of Suffolk)

(bio info courtesy of Amazon)