On April
7, 1593, the
entire Samuel family of Warbois, Huntingdon,
England, was executed on charges of witchcraft.
It was during the reign of Elizabeth
I (1558
- 1603)
and
witch
mania was rife. The most important form of evidence in many of
the witch trials was attained by ‘ordeal’.
These efforts included torture of the most horrific nature including
hot pincers, the thumbscrew,
the iron
maiden, and many other such methods. These torture methods
varied by region and the person carrying out the ordeal.
In
Warbois, an imaginative and depressive girl named Joan Throgmorton,
whose head was filled with stories of ghosts and witches, happened
to pass the cottage of a physically unattractive and mentally
backward old woman known as Mother Samuel. The old woman was sitting
at her door, with a black cap upon her head, and, looking up from
her knitting, she looked intently at Joan. The impressionable girl
immediately fancied that she felt sudden pains in her arms and legs,
and from that day on told her family and friends that Mother Samuel
had bewitched her. Her sisters took up the cry, and actually
frightened themselves into fits whenever they passed within sight of
the unfortunate old woman.
Mr and
Mrs Throgmorton, just as ignorant as their children, believed all
the absurd tales they had been told; and Lady Cromwell, who used to
gossip with Mrs Throgmorton determined to denounce the ‘witch’.
Lady Cromwell’s husband Sir Samuel soon joined in the plot.
Encouraged by adult complicity, the children gave loose reins to
their imaginations and soon invented a whole host of evil spirits,
which, they said, were sent by Mother Samuel to torment them
continually. 'First Smack', 'Second Smack', 'Third Smack', 'Blue',
'Catch', 'Hardname' and ‘Pluck’ were the imaginative names of
the worst of the spirits which, the girls alleged, were raised from
hell by wicked Mother Samuel to throw them into fits; and as the
children were actually subject to fits, the adults gave the more
credit to the story.
The
adults marched to the old woman’s home and dragged her back into
the Throgmorton’s yard where Lady Cromwell tore the old woman's
cap off her head, and plucking out a handful of her grey hair, gave
it to Mrs Throgmorton to burn, as a charm which would preserve them
all from her future wicked doings. Unsurprisingly, poor old Mrs
Samuel let loose an involuntary curse upon her persecutors, and her
curse was never forgotten. For more than a year, the families of
Cromwell and Throgmorton continued to persecute her, alleging that
her evil spirits afflicted them with pains and fits, turned the milk
sour in their pans, and prevented their cows and ewes from bearing.
Then, when Lady Cromwell was taken ill and died, it was remembered
that her death had taken place exactly a year and a quarter since
she was cursed by Mother Samuel, and that on several occasions she
had dreamed of the witch and a black cat.
By
now the whole neighbourhood had taken up the cry of witchcraft
against Mother Samuel; her personal appearance, unfortunately for
her, was the very ideal of what a witch ought to be, and increased
the local fears and hatred. It seems that the accusations and the
madness and superstition of the times combined to convince Mother
Samuel that she was, after all, an evil witch. When Joan Throgmorton
was in one of her by now frequent hysterical moods, the ‘old
hag’ was commanded by her father and Sir Samuel Cromwell to expel
the devil from the young lady. She was told to repeat her exorcism,
and to add, “as I am a witch, and the causer of Lady Cromwell's
death, I charge thee, fiend, to come out of her!” She did as was
required of her, and moreover confessed that her husband and
daughter were inleague
with her in witchcraft, and had, like her, sold their souls to the
devil. All the members of Mother Samuel’s family were immediately
arrested, and sent to Huntingdon to prison.
The
‘witches’ appeared before Mr Justice Fenner, and all the crazy
girls of Mr Throgmorton's family gave evidence against Mother Samuel
and her family, all three of whom were put to the ‘ordeal’.
Unsurprisingly, the old woman confessed that she was a witch, that
she had cast spells upon the young women, and that she had caused
the death of Lady Cromwell. Mr Samuel and a daughter, stronger than
Mother Samuel, refused to confess anything, and asserted their
innocence despite the cruelties inflicted on them. All three
condemned to be hanged, and their bodies burned. The daughter, who
was young and attractive, gained the pity of many people, and she
was advised to plead pregnancy, so that she might be spared at least
for a while. The virgin indignantly refused, on the ground that she
would not be accused of a slut as well as a witch. Her half-witted
old mother grabbed at the idea of a few weeks’ longer life, and
asserted that she herself was pregnant. The court was convulsed with
laughter, in which the wretched victim herself joined, which was
considered an additional proof that she was a witch. Mother Samuel,
her husband and daughter were executed on this day.
In
the witch mania days, many cases of this kind were initiated by hysterical
people. Mass
hysteria is often associated with social phenomena like the Salem
Witch Trials, McCarthyism
and the War
on Terror. However,
records show that many factors including financial incentive might
have played as much a part in the witchhunts
as excited imaginations and pure malice. For example Sir Samuel
Cromwell, as lord of the manor, received out of the confiscated
property of the Samuels the sum of 40 pounds, which he turned into a
rent-charge of 40 shillings annually, for the endowment of an annual
sermon or lecture upon the wickedness of witchcraft, and on the
‘Witches of Warbois’ case in particular. It was to be preached
by a doctor or bachelor of divinity of Queen's College, Cambridge
and appears to have been preached as late as 1718.
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In
Warbois, an imaginative and depressive girl named Joan Throgmorton,
whose head was filled with stories of ghosts and witches, happened
to pass the cottage of a physically unattractive and mentally
backward old woman known as Mother Samuel. The old woman was sitting
at her door, with a black cap upon her head, and, looking up from
her knitting, she looked intently at Joan. The impressionable girl
immediately fancied that she felt sudden pains in her arms and legs,
and from that day on told her family and friends that Mother Samuel
had bewitched her. Her sisters took up the cry, and actually
frightened themselves into fits whenever they passed within sight of
the unfortunate old woman.
By
now the whole neighbourhood had taken up the cry of witchcraft
against Mother Samuel; her personal appearance, unfortunately for
her, was the very ideal of what a witch ought to be, and increased
the local fears and hatred. It seems that the accusations and the
madness and superstition of the times combined to convince Mother
Samuel that she was, after all, an evil witch. When Joan Throgmorton
was in one of her by now frequent hysterical moods, the ‘old
hag’ was commanded by her father and Sir Samuel Cromwell to expel
the devil from the young lady. She was told to repeat her exorcism,
and to add, “as I am a witch, and the causer of Lady Cromwell's
death, I charge thee, fiend, to come out of her!” She did as was
required of her, and moreover confessed that her husband and
daughter were in
