The Witches of Warboys: An Extraordinary Story of Sorcery, Sadism and Satanic Possession in Elizabethan England

This is the work of sheer academic brilliance, and not because it tells a harrowing story of false accusations and execution of the innocent family which still angers today, but because of how it is told, how every fact and event is placed in the context of the mentality of the time, its customs, prejudices and superstitions, all existing both in the minds of the uneducated masses in the form of folklore and outlined in the scholarly works on witchcraft and demonology only the elite could access. It doesn’t read as a flat and repetitive narrative, but explains exactly how and why such an atrocity was allowed to happen at all.An amateur posing as a historian would simply say that a child was unwell, parents sent the urine sample to the local doctor who suspected the worms, but the medicine proved ineffective. Proper researcher would explain that diagnosis by urine sample was a popular technique among the doctors of the time and was founded on 2nd century’s Greek physician Galen’s ideas of four bodily humours, the illness resulting from their imbalance, and more recent experimental methods of Paracelsus. He would tell what types of worms were believed to exist in human body and what symptom each type produced; what medicine was prescribed and how, after several failures, especially when a sample shows good health, a doctor would arrive at the last possible explanation: bewitchment. And this is what the author is doing: giving a detailed, but not excessive, background and thus bulks up the research into a compelling, vivid story-telling without dumbing it down or relying on hearsay.You’d learn who were most likely to accuse others of witchcraft and who were most likely to be accused; the differences in Continental and English demonology; the symptoms of the bewitching without the knowledge of which nobody would believe these vicious faking girls who accused their neighbours; the author would ask the same questions as you would as you go on reading and try to answer them from different perspectives and possibilities.One evening in November 1589, in a gentry’s house, one ill girl, 9 y.o. Jane Throckmorton, is possibly in a bad mood or bored by her illness, and shows lack of manners by calling a visiting elderly neighbour, Alice Samuel, a witch. The girl is told off and sent to bed, but, being of devious nature, doesn’t desist and just a month later her sisters join in, not wanting to miss out on the fun of the new game and adults’ attention. Jane’s symptoms - falling down, jerking, swelling of the stomach - are copied now with a new purpose: to convince the adults that Alice bewitched them all and wants their death.These girls were smart. They knew “proper” signs of bewitchment (from the Bible and folklore) and demonstrated the wide range of them: fits, trances, inability to eat, claiming to seeing Alice’s apparition (which, paradoxically, as unprovable as it is, was exactly the surest sign of bewitchment in the eyes on 16th century folk). Their performance was convincing for the adults. And three years of this tiring, exhausting nonsense - and the Samuel family was put to death.What went on in that house is, to a modern reader, a story of systematic, relentless bullying and intimidation of Alice and her daughter, of crimes committed both by children and parents, encompassing harassment of neighbours, unlawful entry into their house, abduction or keeping a neighbour at their house against their will, assault, emotional blackmail, forcing of a confession, slander and ultimately murder. All because the girls craftily manifested approved signs of bewitchment and were social “superiors” to the Samuels. And so, the entitled thugs of the girls’ uncles could harass Alice as she was going about her business in the village and had a nerve to examine her on her faith; mother and later daughter were browbeaten into coming to live with Throckmotrons and, once there, into repeating incriminating sentences - because the girls in their fits said that the spirits in them command the accused to do so to alleviate their suffering. The women were punished for thinking the girls fake, mother made to confess she is a witch several times. The poor women were allowed to be scratched till they bled by the bloodthirsty brats - the practice of the day supposedly allowing the bewitched to recover, which turned into a sheer blood sport and sadistic pleasure. Towards the end the accused daughter served as an entertainment for the visitors to the house. When residing at Throckmorton’s house, each woman in turn was isolated, under the surveillance of her tormentors, and without any single friend coming to her rescue. No one came to their defence in the court either, it was the Throckmorton mob who orchestrated everything and later left the record of the events in a form of good PR for their family. Apart from the broken old mother who confessed, father and daughter died denying their guilt.You can read this story in many ways. You can read it as a chilling reminder of what the world where every word in the Bible is believed and taken literally was like. You could see it as extreme example of social injustice and helplessness of the poor in the hands of the rich. You could see it as hate crime against “the other”, the war of godly Puritants, the Throckmortons, on those whom they saw as lesser beings, as a mere rabble of dubious moral standing. You could read it as a proof that bullying is not a modern crime; that just like some scum of today can drive their classmate to a suicide by cyber- and real life bullying, the vicious spoilt brats of the past could trap the innocent into accepting guilt and convince others to execute them. You could speculate on what’s going on in the mind which sets out to entertain itself by a pretence game and then, through sheer repetition, becomes infected and deranged; where play ends and illness begins, and how much culpability can be attributed to the perpetrator. You could examine this as case of false confession, of the mental state of the victim who buckled down under the barrage of systematic emotional and physical abuse. Whatever it is, it is a book which lets history come alive for a moment, through skilful, knowledgeable and compassionate story-telling.

Having read whatever locally produced material on this little known but significant history of the county in which I live, I purchased this book and read it cover to cover with much interest. It's certainly THE definitive report of events, well researched from available archives. Three innocent paupers get accused, over a period of time, of witchcraft by a number of brattish children belonging to local gentry connected with Cromwell ( murderer of Irish Catholics, celebrated English puritan type). It's 5 or 600 odd years old now, but this case of witchcraft actually set the precedent for the Salem witch trials later held in 'America' and famously made into a play called 'The Crucible' by Arthur Miller. I'd like to think Arthur had made himself familiar with our rich local history when researching his play, but I doubt it. Anyway, it's a truly sad story of ignorance, class, torture and execution. In a way, this kind of grim absurd crap still goes on today in various parts of the world. Great book for people with a fascination of this particular subject, and an excellent historical piece.

The Samuels family are our local heroes who sadly fell victim to the vagueries of the time, at the hands of a local rich, powerful & influencial family.The Throckmorton girls should have been reprimanded for their behaviour but sadly the class system & superstition ruled......

Bit hard going in places trying to keep up with who was who and relationaships, good book however, good price, recommend the supplier.

Takes a loooooong time to say little. OK at times.

Great book.

Still reading great book

have wanted to read this book for a while, as I have heard all about the story. A pretty well documented occurrence of the area I am living in. Lots of facts on the History of the area at this time.