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Witchcraft in Early Modern England: History
Witchcraft was a serious social problem in early modern England. It was classified as a capital offence, punishable by death. However, how the punishment was executed depended on a number of things, including the individual's status in the society. This text analyzes witchcraft as a crime in early modern England. It illustrates among other things, how the punishment was implemented. The documents are intended to provide insight to history students, scholars, authors in the field of history, and anyone else interested in understanding how the legal system in early modern England operated.
Crime and Punishment in England
Queen Elizabeth 1, on assuming the throne of England in 1558, inherited a number of things, including a judicial system that stretched back to the Anglo-Saxon error. Capital punishment was common at the time, and justice was brutal and swift. Crime and punishment were intertwined with the localized nature of social relations. Criminality could not be disconnected from who the individual was, their social status, their community, or relations to their family. Thus, criminal law violation was seen as a violation of localized norms of social obligation, kinship, and blood. This text analyzes witchcraft as a crime in early modern England within the context of Ken Macmillan's 'Stories of True Crime in Tudor and Stuart England'.
The Documents
The two documents selected for analysis are the 'Confession of Joan Williford' and the 'Examination of Joan Carriden'. The documents were originally written by an unknown author, and published by J. G Publishers in 1645 in a book titled, 'The Examination, Confession and Trial of Joan Williford, Joan Carriden and Jane Hott ... Confession of Elizabeth Harris, Not Yet Executed'. Ken Macmillan reprints the documents in his book 'Stories of True Crime'. The two documents present the confessions,
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The documents are focused on witchcraft as a crime punishable by death. The principle people involved in both cases are the self-confessed witch (examinant), Robert Greenstreet (then mayor of Faversham), and jurors (tasked with listening to the case and proclaiming judgment). The documents, however, exhibit one form of bias: selectivity/imbalance. They present only one interpretation of a situation -- confession -- leaving a lot to desire in relation to what happens when an accused person fails to confess to the crime.
Judging from the tone of the documents, one would suppose that the authors' intention was to get their audience to perceive the seriousness associated with crime in early modern England. The author makes reference to God multiple times, and seems to be associating crime with sin -- he creates a somber mood geared at showing the audience that in the society in question, wrongs committed against a fellow human being were just as serious as those committed against God.
The four-sentence plot can be presented as:
Witchcraft was considered a serious crime in early modern England, punishable by death. Joan Williford and Joan Carriden were both witches, who confessed to their crime and were executed before Mayor Greenstreet and other jurors in 1645.[footnoteRef:2] In their confessions, the witches alleged that they engaged in the vice to gain wealth and get revenge on their enemies.[footnoteRef:3] They accused the devil of lying to them, and considered themselves worthy of death for having forsaken God.[footnoteRef:4] [2: Witches of Faversham, (London, 1659), cited in K. Macmillan, ed. Stories of True Crime in Tudor and Stuart England (London: Routledge, 2015): 123] [3: Ibid., 123-124] [4: Ibid. 123]
Purposes of the Early Modern Penal System
The documents reveal crucial insights about the purposes of the legal system in early modern English society. Judging from the witch trials described in the selected…
Bibliography
Briggs, John, Harrison Christopher, Mclnnes Angus, and Vincent David. Crime and Punishment in England: An Introductory History. London: UCL Press, 2005.
Macmillan, Ken (Ed.). "Witches of Faversham" cited in K. Macmillan, ed. Stories of True Crime in Tudor and Stuart England. London: Routledge, 2015.
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