Matthew Hopkins
Encyclopedia
English Civil War
The English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists...
. He claimed to hold the office of Witchfinder General, although that title was never bestowed by Parliament
Parliament of England
The Parliament of England was the legislature of the Kingdom of England. In 1066, William of Normandy introduced a feudal system, by which he sought the advice of a council of tenants-in-chief and ecclesiastics before making laws...
. His witchhunts mainly took place in the eastern counties of Suffolk
Suffolk
Suffolk is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in East Anglia, England. It has borders with Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south. The North Sea lies to the east...
, Essex, Norfolk
Norfolk
Norfolk is a low-lying county in the East of England. It has borders with Lincolnshire to the west, Cambridgeshire to the west and southwest and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the North Sea coast and to the north-west the county is bordered by The Wash. The county...
, and occasionally in Cambridgeshire
Cambridgeshire
Cambridgeshire is a county in England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the northeast, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire to the west...
, Northamptonshire
Northamptonshire
Northamptonshire is a landlocked county in the English East Midlands, with a population of 629,676 as at the 2001 census. It has boundaries with the ceremonial counties of Warwickshire to the west, Leicestershire and Rutland to the north, Cambridgeshire to the east, Bedfordshire to the south-east,...
, Bedfordshire
Bedfordshire
Bedfordshire is a ceremonial county of historic origin in England that forms part of the East of England region.It borders Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Northamptonshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the west and Hertfordshire to the south-east....
, and Huntingdonshire
Huntingdonshire
Huntingdonshire is a local government district of Cambridgeshire, covering the area around Huntingdon. Traditionally it is a county in its own right...
.
Hopkins' witch-finding career began in March 1645 and lasted until his retirement in 1647. 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. He is believed to have been responsible for the deaths of 300 women between the years 1644 and 1646. It has been estimated that all of the English witch trials between the early 15th and late 18th centuries resulted in fewer than 500 executions for witchcraft. Therefore, presuming the number executed as a result of investigations by Hopkins and his colleague John Stearne is at the lower end of the various estimates, their efforts accounted for about 40 per cent of the total; in the 14 months of their crusade Hopkins and Stearne sent to the gallows more people than all the other witchhunters in the 160 years of persecution in England.
Early life
Very little is known of Matthew Hopkins before 1644, and there are no surviving contemporary documents concerning him or his family. He was born in Great WenhamWenham Magna
Wenham Magna, also known as Great Wenham, is a village and a civil parish in the Babergh district of Suffolk in eastern England. The parish also contains the hamlets of Vauxhall and Wenham Hill. In 2005 it had a population of 150.-References:...
, Suffolk. He was the fourth son, and one of six children. His father, James Hopkins, was a Puritan clergy
Clergy
Clergy is the generic term used to describe the formal religious leadership within a given religion. A clergyman, churchman or cleric is a member of the clergy, especially one who is a priest, preacher, pastor, or other religious professional....
man and vicar of St John's of Great Wenham, in Suffolk. The family were at one point landowners "to lands and tenements in Framlingham
Framlingham Castle
Framlingham Castle is a castle in the market town of Framlingham in Suffolk in England. An early motte and bailey or ringwork Norman castle was built on the Framlingham site by 1148, but this was destroyed by Henry II of England in the aftermath of the revolt of 1173-4...
'at the castle. His father was popular with his parishioners, one of whom in 1619 left money to purchase Bibles for his then three children James, John and Thomas. Thus Hopkins could not have been born before 1619, and could not have been older than 28 when he died, but he may have been as young as 25. Although James Hopkins had died in 1634, when William Dowsing
William Dowsing
William Dowsing was an English iconoclast who operated at the time of the English Civil War. Dowsing was a puritan soldier who was born in Laxfield, Suffolk...
, commissioned in 1643 by the Parliamentarians
Roundhead
"Roundhead" was the nickname given to the supporters of the Parliament during the English Civil War. Also known as Parliamentarians, they fought against King Charles I and his supporters, the Cavaliers , who claimed absolute power and the divine right of kings...
in Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
"for the destruction of monuments of idolatry and superstition", visited the parish
Parish
A parish is a territorial unit historically under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of one parish priest, who might be assisted in his pastoral duties by a curate or curates - also priests but not the parish priest - from a more or less central parish church with its associated organization...
in 1645 he noted that "there was nothing to reform". Hopkins' brother John became Minister of South Fambridge
South Fambridge
South Fambridge is a village in Essex, England. It is located about 300 yards from the River Crouch. The village lies within the Rochford district and the parliamentary constituency of Rayleigh...
in 1645 but was removed from the post one year later for neglecting his work.
Hopkins states in his book The Discovery of Witches that he "never travelled far ... to gain his experience".
In the early 1640s Hopkins moved to Manningtree
Manningtree
Manningtree is a town and civil parish in the Tendring district of Essex, England, which lies on the River Stour. It adjoins built-up areas of Lawford to the west and Mistley to the east and the three parishes together are sometimes referred to as "Manningtree".Manningtree is a claimant for the...
, Essex, a town across the River Stour
River Stour, Suffolk
The River Stour is a river in East Anglia, England. It is 76 km long and forms most of the county boundary between Suffolk to the north, and Essex to the south. It rises in eastern Cambridgeshire, passes to the east of Haverhill, through Cavendish, Sudbury and the Dedham Vale, and joins the...
from Colchester, about 9 miles (14.5 km) from Wenham. According to tradition Hopkins used his recently acquired inheritance of a hundred marks to establish himself as a gentleman
Gentleman
The term gentleman , in its original and strict signification, denoted a well-educated man of good family and distinction, analogous to the Latin generosus...
and buy the Thorn Inn in Mistley
Mistley
Mistley is a large village and civil parish in the Tendring district of northeast Essex. It is around 11 miles northeast of Colchester and is east of, and almost contiguous with, Manningtree. The parish consists of Mistley and New Mistley, both lying beside the Stour Estuary, and Mistley Heath a...
. From the way that he presented evidence in trials, Hopkins is commonly thought to have been trained as a lawyer
Lawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...
, but there is scant evidence to suggest this was the case.
Witch hunting
Following the Lancaster Witch Trial of 1634, William HarveyWilliam Harvey
William Harvey was an English physician who was the first person to describe completely and in detail the systemic circulation and properties of blood being pumped to the body by the heart...
, physician to King Charles I of England
Charles I of England
Charles I was King of England, King of Scotland, and King of Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. Charles engaged in a struggle for power with the Parliament of England, attempting to obtain royal revenue whilst Parliament sought to curb his Royal prerogative which Charles...
, had been ordered to examine the four women accused, and from this there came a requirement to have material proof of being a witch. The work of Hopkins and Stearne was not necessarily to prove any of the accused had committed acts of maleficium
Maleficium (sorcery)
Maleficium is a Latin term meaning "wrongdoing" or "mischief" and is used to describe malevolent, dangerous, or harmful magic, "evildoing" or "malevolent sorcery"...
but the fact they had made a covenant with the Devil
Devil
The Devil is believed in many religions and cultures to be a powerful, supernatural entity that is the personification of evil and the enemy of God and humankind. The nature of the role varies greatly...
. Prior to this point, any malicious acts on the part of witches were treated identically to those of other criminals, until it was seen that they owed their powers to a deliberate act of their choosing. Witches then became heretics to Christianity, which became the greatest of their crimes and sins. Within continental and Roman Law witchcraft was crimen excepta: a crime so foul that all normal legal procedures were superseded. Because the Devil was not going to "confess", it was necessary to gain a confession from the human involved.
The witch hunts undertaken by Stearne and Hopkins extended throughout the area of strongest Puritan and Parliamentarian influences which formed the powerful and influential Eastern Association
Eastern Association
The Eastern Association of counties was a Parliamentarian or 'Roundhead' army during the English Civil War. It was formed from a number of pro-Parliamentary militias in the east of England in 1642, including a troop of cavalry led by Oliver Cromwell...
from 1644 to 1647, centred on Essex. Both Hopkins and Stearne would have required some form of letters of safe conduct to be able to travel throughout the counties.
According to his book The Discovery of Witches, Hopkins began his career as a witch-finder after he overheard various women discussing their meetings with the Devil in March 1644 in Manningtree
Manningtree
Manningtree is a town and civil parish in the Tendring district of Essex, England, which lies on the River Stour. It adjoins built-up areas of Lawford to the west and Mistley to the east and the three parishes together are sometimes referred to as "Manningtree".Manningtree is a claimant for the...
. In fact, the first accusations were made by John Stearne
John Stearne
John Stearne was an associate of Matthew Hopkins, a witchhunter active during the English Civil War. Stearne was known at various times as the witch–hunter, and "witch pricker". A family man and land owner from Lawshall near Bury St Edmunds, Stearne was 10 years older than Hopkins. He met...
and Hopkins was appointed as his assistant. Twenty-three women were accused of witchcraft, tried at Chelmsford
Chelmsford
Chelmsford is the county town of Essex, England and the principal settlement of the borough of Chelmsford. It is located in the London commuter belt, approximately northeast of Charing Cross, London, and approximately the same distance from the once provincial Roman capital at Colchester...
in 1645. With the English Civil War
English Civil War
The English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists...
under way, this trial was conducted not by justices of assize
Assizes (England and Wales)
The Courts of Assize, or Assizes, were periodic criminal courts held around England and Wales until 1972, when together with the Quarter Sessions they were abolished by the Courts Act 1971 and replaced by a single permanent Crown Court...
, but by Justice of the peace
Justice of the Peace
A justice of the peace is a puisne judicial officer elected or appointed by means of a commission to keep the peace. Depending on the jurisdiction, they might dispense summary justice or merely deal with local administrative applications in common law jurisdictions...
presided over by the Earl of Warwick. Four died in prison and nineteen were convicted and hanged. During this period, excepting Middlesex
Middlesex
Middlesex is one of the historic counties of England and the second smallest by area. The low-lying county contained the wealthy and politically independent City of London on its southern boundary and was dominated by it from a very early time...
and chartered towns, no records show any person charged of witchcraft being sentenced to death other than by the judges of the assizes.
Hopkins and Stearne, accompanied by the women who performed the pricking, were soon travelling over eastern England, claiming to be officially commissioned by Parliament
Parliament of England
The Parliament of England was the legislature of the Kingdom of England. In 1066, William of Normandy introduced a feudal system, by which he sought the advice of a council of tenants-in-chief and ecclesiastics before making laws...
to uncover and prosecute witches. Together with their female assistants, they were well paid for their work, and it has been suggested that this was a motivation for his actions. Hopkins states that "his fees were to maintain his company with three horses", and that he took "twenty shillings a town". The records at Stowmarket
Stowmarket
-See also:* Stowmarket Town F.C.* Stowmarket High School-External links:* * * * *...
show their costs to the town to have been £23 (£ as of ) plus his travelling expenses. The expenses to the local community of Hopkins' and his company costs were such that in Ipswich
Ipswich
Ipswich is a large town and a non-metropolitan district. It is the county town of Suffolk, England. Ipswich is located on the estuary of the River Orwell...
a special local tax rate had to be levied in 1645. Parliament was well aware of Hopkins and his team's activities, as shown by the concerned reports of the Bury St Edmunds witch trials of 1645
Bury St. Edmunds witch trials
The Bury St Edmunds witch trials were a series of trials conducted intermittently between the years 1599 and 1694 in the town of Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk, England....
. Before the trial, a report was carried to the Parliament "as if some busie men had made use of some ill Arts to extort such confession" that a special Commission of Oyer and Terminer
Oyer and terminer
In English law, Oyer and terminer was the Law French name, meaning "to hear and determine", for one of the commissions by which a judge of assize sat...
was granted for the trial of these witches. After the trial and execution the Moderate Intelligencer
Gilbert Mabbot
Gilbert Mabbot, alternately Mabbott , was the official licenser of the press from 1647 to 1649 and himself a pioneering journalist and publisher of newsbooks during the English Civil War period.-Background:...
, a parliamentary paper published during the English Civil War, in an editorial of 4–11 September 1645 expressed unease with the affairs in Bury.
Methods of investigation
Although tortureTorture
Torture is the act of inflicting severe pain as a means of punishment, revenge, forcing information or a confession, or simply as an act of cruelty. Throughout history, torture has often been used as a method of political re-education, interrogation, punishment, and coercion...
was unlawful in England, Hopkins often used techniques such as sleep deprivation
Sleep deprivation
Sleep deprivation is the condition of not having enough sleep; it can be either chronic or acute. A chronic sleep-restricted state can cause fatigue, daytime sleepiness, clumsiness and weight loss or weight gain. It adversely affects the brain and cognitive function. Few studies have compared the...
to extract confessions from his victims. He would also cut the arm of the accused with a blunt knife, and if she did not bleed, she was said to be a witch. Another of his methods was the swimming
Dunking
Dunking is a form of torture and punishment that was applied to scolds and supposed witches.-As torture:In a trial by ordeal, supposed witches were immersed into a vat of water or pond, and taken out after some time, thus and given the opportunity to confess...
test, based on the idea that as witches had renounced their baptism
Baptism
In Christianity, baptism is for the majority the rite of admission , almost invariably with the use of water, into the Christian Church generally and also membership of a particular church tradition...
, water would reject them. Suspects were tied to a chair and thrown into water: all those who floated were considered to be witches. Hopkins was warned against the use of "swimming" without receiving the victim's permission first. This led to the "legal" abandonment of the test by the end of 1645. Hopkins and his assistants also looked for the Devil's mark
Witches' mark
According to witch-hunters during the height of the witch trials , the witches’ mark indicated that an individual was a witch. The witches' mark and the devil's mark are all terms applied to essentially the same mark. The beliefs about the mark differ depending on the trial location and the...
. This was a mark that all witches or sorcerers were supposed to possess that was said to be dead to all feeling and would not bleed – although in reality it was usually a mole, birthmark or an extra nipple
Supernumerary nipple
A supernumerary nipple is an additional nipple occurring in mammals, including humans...
or breast
Accessory breast
Accessory breasts, also known as polymastia, supernumerary breasts, or mammae erraticae, is the condition of having an additional breast...
. If the suspected witch had no such visible marks, invisible ones could be discovered by pricking, therefore employed "witch prickers" pricked
Pricking
This article is about the 16th and 17th century practice of 'pricking' witches. For other uses of the word, see prick.During the height of the witch trials of the 16th and 17th centuries, common belief held that a witch could be discovered through the process of pricking their skin with needles,...
the accused with knives and special needles, looking for such marks, normally after the suspect had been shaved of all body hair. It was believed that the witch's familiar
Familiar spirit
In European folklore and folk-belief of the Medieval and Early Modern periods, familiar spirits were supernatural entities believed to assist witches and cunning folk in their practice of magic...
, an animal such as a cat or dog, would drink the witch's blood from the mark, as a baby drinks milk from the nipple.
Opposition
Hopkins and his company ran into opposition very soon after the start of their work, but one of his main antagonists was a Reverend John Gaule, vicar of Great StaughtonGreat Staughton
Great Staughton – in Huntingdonshire , England – is a village near Perry west of St Neots.The village has two pubs The White Hart and The Snooty Tavern, a post office and a butcher. The village is also home to the current holder of the newly founded annual Griffin Award.Great Staughton...
. Gaule had attended a woman from St Neots
St Neots
St Neots is a town and civil parish with a population of 26,356 people. It lies on the River Great Ouse in Huntingdonshire District, approximately north of central London, and is the largest town in Cambridgeshire . The town is named after the Cornish monk St...
who was held in jail charged with witchcraft until such time that Hopkins could attend. Upon hearing that the woman had been interviewed, Hopkins wrote a letter to a contact asking whether he would be given a "good welcome". Gaule hearing of this letter wrote his publication Select Cases of Conscience touching Witches and Witchcrafts; London, (1646) dedicated to Colonel Walton of the House of Commons
Valentine Walton
Valentine Walton was one of the regicides of King Charles I of England.Walton was of very ancient, and knightly family of Great Staughton, in Huntingdonshire. Upon a vacancy he was returned a member of the Long Parliament for the county of Huntingdon...
and began a programme of Sunday sermons to suppress witchhunting. In Norfolk both Hopkins and Stearne were questioned by justices of the assizes, about the torturing and fees. Hopkins was asked if methods of investigation did not make the finders themselves witches, and if with all his knowledge did he not also have a secret, or had used "unlawful courses of torture". By the time this court session resumed in 1647 Stearne and Hopkins had retired, Hopkins to Manningtree and Stearne to Bury St Edmunds.
Colonial impact
Hopkins' witch hunting methods were outlined in his book The Discovery of Witches, which was published in 1647. These practices were recommended in law books. During the year following the publication of Hopkins' book, trials and executions for witchcraft began in the New EnglandNew England
New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...
colonies with the conviction of Margaret Jones
Margaret Jones (Puritan midwife)
Margaret Jones was the first person to be executed for witchcraft in Massachusetts Bay Colony during a witch-hunt that lasted from 1648 to 1663. About eighty people throughout New England were accused of practicing witchcraft during that period. Thirteen women and two men were executed...
. As described in the journal of Governor John Winthrop
John Winthrop
John Winthrop was a wealthy English Puritan lawyer, and one of the leading figures in the founding of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the first major settlement in New England after Plymouth Colony. Winthrop led the first large wave of migrants from England in 1630, and served as governor for 12 of...
, the evidence assembled against Margaret Jones was gathered by the use of Hopkins' techniques of "searching" and "watching". Jones' execution was the first in a witch-hunt
Witch-hunt
A witch-hunt is a search for witches or evidence of witchcraft, often involving moral panic, mass hysteria and lynching, but in historical instances also legally sanctioned and involving official witchcraft trials...
that lasted in New England from 1648 until 1663. About eighty people throughout New England were accused of practising witchcraft during that period, of whom 15 women and 2 men were executed. Some of Hopkins' methods were once again employed during the Salem Witch Trials
Salem witch trials
The Salem witch trials were a series of hearings before county court trials to prosecute people accused of witchcraft in the counties of Essex, Suffolk, and Middlesex in colonial Massachusetts, between February 1692 and May 1693...
, which occurred primarily in Salem, Massachusetts
Salem, Massachusetts
Salem is a city in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 40,407 at the 2000 census. It and Lawrence are the county seats of Essex County...
in 1692–93. These trials resulted in 19 executions for witchcraft, one man, Giles Corey
Giles Corey
Giles Corey was a prosperous farmer and full member of the church in early colonial America who died under judicial torture during the Salem witch trials. Corey refused to enter a plea, and was crushed to death by stone weights in an attempt to force him to do so...
, pressed to death for refusing to plead, and 150 imprisonments.
Death and legacy
Matthew Hopkins died at his home in ManningtreeManningtree
Manningtree is a town and civil parish in the Tendring district of Essex, England, which lies on the River Stour. It adjoins built-up areas of Lawford to the west and Mistley to the east and the three parishes together are sometimes referred to as "Manningtree".Manningtree is a claimant for the...
, Essex, on 12 August 1647, probably of pleural tuberculosis
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
. He was buried a few hours after his death in the graveyard of the Church of St Mary at Mistley Heath. In the words of historian Malcolm Gaskill, Matthew Hopkins "lives on as an anti-hero and bogeyman utterly ethereal, endlessly malleable". According to fellow historian Rossell Hope Robbins, Hopkins "acquired an evil reputation which in later days made his name synonymous with fingerman or informer
Common Informers Act 1951
The Common Informers Act 1951 is an Act of the United Kingdom Parliament that abolishes the principle of, and procedures concerning a common informer.-Background:...
paid by authorities to commit perjury".
What historian James Sharpe has characterised as a "pleasing legend" grew up around the circumstances of Hopkins' death, according to which he was subjected to his own swimming test and executed as a witch, but the parish registry at Mistley confirms his burial there.