If we look at the supposed crimes today we would find a logical explanation for every one of the crimes that were committed, for example John Law could have just simply have had a stroke. These fear based laws and persecutions led to the death of ten people for commenting crimes that no longer are accredited.
The Bideford Witches In 1862 three women were hanged after being found guilty of being witches in Bideford, North Devon England. These three women are the last three women to be executed after being convicted of witchcraft. The women hold this tragic name in history are Temperance Lloyd, Mary Trembles, and Susanna Edwards. The conviction and hanging of these women left the townspeople baffled. These women were not from a typical village where witches lived, instead they lived in an actual sophisticated town. John Watkins, a historian, wrote the story of the trail to preserve the story in 1792. Watkins did not agree with the conviction of these women. In fact he wrote this statement in his book about the trial, "there was always some poor devil, either on account of an unlucky visage, sour temper, or wretched poverty, set up as the object of terror and universal hatred." (Watkins 1993) The women were not convicted with any actual evidence instead, were convicted based on …show more content…
Edmunds witch trials were a series of trials that were led by the Witchfinder General, Matthew Hopkins. They occurred in the town of Bury St. Edmunds in Suffolk, England, sporadically between 1645 and 1694. Matthew Hopkins was able to convict and execute 18 people in one day. Matthew Hopkins had learned about witchcraft from the book demonology writien by King James the 1st. After beginning to go on his own witchcraft hunts he wrote his own pamphlet on the matter called ‘The Discovery of Witchcraft’ in 1647. Hopkins first witch was an old lady named Elizabeth Clarke. At the time of her arrest torture had been illegal in London. So Hopkins only interrogated her to find put the location of five other witches. Even though torture had become illegal, Elizabeth was stripped naked and searched for marking of witches. She was also kept with food for a number of days until she became defeated and confessed to being a witch. He treated many other witches with this same treatment to get them all to confess. Matthew Hopkins had found was to torture the accused witch was against the law by finding ways around it. During the Bury St. Edwards trails, Matthew Hopkins imprisoned Around 200 witches. His investigation lead to the discovery of eighteen witches, they were all executed by