The Bakewell Witches
Modern-day Bakewell, Derbyshire.
Nowadays we perhaps take our scientific knowledge for granted but this was not always the case. While we may have a passing awareness of the superstitious beliefs of hundreds of years ago, we may not be aware of the very real consequences those beliefs had for some people.
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For example, when it came to those unfortunate women accused of witchcraft, those beliefs often had deadly consequences for those found guilty.
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In 1590-91, four witches of North Berwick were burnt at the stake in Edinburgh after being convicted of conspiring to murder King James VI, (later to become James I of Great Britain), and his queen Anne of Denmark. It is doubtful, of course, that any trial these four unfortunate women received would have been fair, but James himself was a firm believer in witchcraft. He even wrote a tract on ‘Demonologie’ which he claimed provided evidence to demonstrate the reality of witches.
Consequently, when he became King of England in 1603, he persuaded Parliament to pass an Act against “Conjuration, Witchcraft and Dealing with Evil and Wicked Spirits.”
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A short time later, c.1607, a certain Mrs. Stafford and another female, possibly either her friend or sister with whom she lived, would tragically fall victim to the hysteria and superstitions that were widespread at the time. These superstitions were so widespread in fact, that it is estimated that in England alone, between 500 and 1,000 people were executed after being accused of witchcraft and 90 percent of those were women.
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Mrs. Stafford, a milliner, lived with a female companion in Bakewell. To supplement her income, she would take in lodgers from time to time. On one occasion a travelling Scotsman had taken his lodgings in her home. Falling behind on his rent he was evicted and Mrs. Stafford kept his belongings in lieu of his debt. This was to prove very costly to both her and her companion.
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The former lodger turned up next, when a watchman discovered him dressed in rags and hiding in a London cellar. He was arrested for being in an unoccupied house with felonious intent and brought before the magistrates in London.
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The accused man told the magistrate that he had arrived in London 'by magic’. Claiming his innocence, he explained that he had been awoken in his room in Bakewell by a bright light shining through the gaps in the floorboards. Peeking through the gaps, he claimed to have seen Mrs. Stafford and her companion dressed in outdoor clothes and chanting a spell:
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“Over thick, over thin,
“Now Devil, to the cellar in Lunnon.”
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​According to his incredulous claims, he found himself repeating the lines, at which point he was immediately caught up in a hurricane and whirled away until he found himself in his ragged nightshirt by the side of the witches in a cellar lit by a dim lamp. The ‘witches’, he claimed, were busy tying up parcels of silks and other goods which he assumed they had ‘lifted’ from shops that they had passed on their hurricane-fuelled flight to London.
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He further claimed that he had fallen unconscious after drinking wine which had been given to him by Mrs. Stafford. His excuse for his ragged attire was that his clothes were still in Mrs. Stafford’s house in Bakewell – which, as she had kept his belongings, was undoubtedly true.
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It is obvious looking back, that the accused man was up to no good and that the two women were simply, and callously, the scapegoats of the man. However, in those times such fanciful accusations were taken very seriously, and the magistrate, agreeing that this was a case of witchcraft, ordered that the justices of Derbyshire were to be provided with the information.
The falsely accused women were apprehended, tried and executed.
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It seems barely credible nowadays that such a claim would be believed but these were very different times indeed.