With no legal representation, all but Rebecca were found guilty, and a total of 19 women – including Clarke – went to the gallows. ‘As soon as her confession was fully ended she found her contience so satisfied and disburdened of all tortures she thought herself the happiest creature in the world.’ Wallington writes: ‘When she looked upon the ground she saw herself encompassed in flames of fire and as soon as she was separated from her mother the tortures and the flames began to cease.
#A DIARLY OF WITCHES TRIAL#
Rebecca’s dramatic account was given at their trial in Chelmsford in July 1645. They were already being blamed for deaths of two children. Tortured at Colchester Castle, Rebecca broke down and named several other women, including Anne West and her daughter Rebecca. She was also examined for ‘devil’s marks’ like warts or moles. Suspicion had fallen on villager Elizabeth Clarke and Hopkins was appointed to question her in March 1645. The trials in Manningtree – Hopkins’ home village are among the most notorious of his brutal campaign. He is believed to have been responsible for the deaths of 300 women between the years 16. During that period, he and his associates were responsible for more people being hanged for witchcraft than in the previous 100 years, and were solely responsible for the increase in witch trials during those years. Hopkins’ witch-finding career began in March 1644 and lasted until his retirement in 1647. The work of Matthew Hopkins resulted in the execution of scores of innocent village women for allegedly consorting with the Devil. He claimed to hold the office of Witchfinder General, although that title was never bestowed by Parliament. 1620 – 12 August 1647) was an English witch-hunter whose career flourished during the time of the English Civil War. Frontispiece from Matthew Hopkins’ The Discovery of Witches (1647) The confession, by a young Essex girl named Rebecca West, implicated her mother, Anne, in witchcraft – saving her own life but condemning her mother to hang. It tells the story of a girl who had apparently admitted to ‘carnal copulation with the Devil’ after he’d appeared in her bedroom in the shape of a young man. The diary is written by Puritan Nehemiah Wallington, who tells how a supposed coven of witches was found in the village of Manningtree in the 1640s.
This smart, sophisticated story harks back to the novels of Anne Rice, but it is as contemporary and sensual as the Twilight series-with an extra serving of historical realism.Between 16, historians believe the self-styled Witchfinder General’s bloody crusade across East Anglia resulted in the executions of more than 100 women.
Diana is a bold heroine who meets her equal in vampire geneticist Matthew Clairmont, and gradually warms up to him as their alliance deepens into an intimacy that violates age-old taboos. Diana has stumbled upon a coveted treasure lost for centuries-and she is the only creature who can break its spell.ĭebut novelist Deborah Harkness has crafted a mesmerizing and addictive read, equal parts history and magic, romance and suspense.
But her discovery sets a fantastical underworld stirring, and a horde of daemons, witches, and vampires soon descends upon the library. Descended from an old and distinguished line of witches, Diana wants nothing to do with sorcery so after a furtive glance and a few notes, she banishes the book to the stacks. A richly inventive novel about a centuries-old vampire, a spellbound witch, and the mysterious manuscript that draws them together.ĭeep in the stacks of Oxford’s Bodleian Library, young scholar Diana Bishop unwittingly calls up a bewitched alchemical manuscript in the course of her research.
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