TITLE: The Last Witches of England
AUTHOR: Dr John Callow
PUBLISHER: Bloomsbury Academic
ISBN: 9781788314398
PODCAST EPISODE: Episode 106
REVIEWER: Hilary Wilson
Thursday, June 29th, 1682 was a morning that changed everything in the town of Bideford. An opportunistic magpie managed to fly into the room of a wealthy Devon merchant and startle the women airing out the sheets. This not-too-rare occurrence was one in a string of small, strange events for that family and other townsfolk. A cat seen at the wrong moment, an unkind word said to a thieving child, and a myriad of other moments of sheer happenstance surrounded three elderly, widowed, and destitute women in the busy port town. These led to accusations of witchcraft and their eventual execution by hanging. Their names were Temperance Lloyd, Mary Trembles, and Susannah Edwards -- but they are better known to history as the Bideford Witches.
The Last Witches of England: A Tragedy of Sorcery and Superstition was released by Bloomsbury Academic earlier this year. In this book, John Callow sets about the monumental task of making sense out of tragedy. The Bideford Witches were the last group executed in England for the crime of witchcraft - and Callow is determined to tell their story. He painstakingly goes through the available writings on the trials, including later-released pamphlets and ballads composed to commemorate the dead. Through these disparate sources an unusual story rapidly emerges.
What drives a populace to accuse a person of witchcraft? Callow unravels the threads of this question and creates a compelling answer. By delving into the social context of Bideford during the late 1600s, he paints a picture of a thriving port town. The social pressures caused by widening class gaps, growing immigrant populations, and increasingly fractious political divides created a populace in need of a scapegoat. There were no more vulnerable targets in Bideford than these women who embodied the notion of the Outsider and had nobody to defend them.
Callow puts to rest the idea of misogyny being the true root of witch persecution, while also acknowledging the importance of that narrative for the time in which it emerged in the 70s and 80s and what symbols of empowerment the Bideford Witches have now become. More famous now in death than they ever were in life, the tragic story of their persecution has been reclaimed in more recent decades by varying groups. Were they truly witches put to death for their differing beliefs, or were they innocents worthy of pity?
The brilliance of Callow’s book is in the realization that these women occupy both spaces – as does Alice Molland, the woman executed a scant three years later who became (according to some) the last person put to death in England for witchcraft. I came away from this book shocked at how much of the political and social pressures that resulted in such dangerous prejudice as witch hunts are still present in the zeitgeist now. This riveting read is important albeit uncomfortable. In this book, Callow has allowed readers to look at their shared past unflinchingly so that we may go into a less tragic future.
AUTHOR: Dr John Callow
PUBLISHER: Bloomsbury Academic
ISBN: 9781788314398
PODCAST EPISODE: Episode 106
REVIEWER: Hilary Wilson
Thursday, June 29th, 1682 was a morning that changed everything in the town of Bideford. An opportunistic magpie managed to fly into the room of a wealthy Devon merchant and startle the women airing out the sheets. This not-too-rare occurrence was one in a string of small, strange events for that family and other townsfolk. A cat seen at the wrong moment, an unkind word said to a thieving child, and a myriad of other moments of sheer happenstance surrounded three elderly, widowed, and destitute women in the busy port town. These led to accusations of witchcraft and their eventual execution by hanging. Their names were Temperance Lloyd, Mary Trembles, and Susannah Edwards -- but they are better known to history as the Bideford Witches.
The Last Witches of England: A Tragedy of Sorcery and Superstition was released by Bloomsbury Academic earlier this year. In this book, John Callow sets about the monumental task of making sense out of tragedy. The Bideford Witches were the last group executed in England for the crime of witchcraft - and Callow is determined to tell their story. He painstakingly goes through the available writings on the trials, including later-released pamphlets and ballads composed to commemorate the dead. Through these disparate sources an unusual story rapidly emerges.
What drives a populace to accuse a person of witchcraft? Callow unravels the threads of this question and creates a compelling answer. By delving into the social context of Bideford during the late 1600s, he paints a picture of a thriving port town. The social pressures caused by widening class gaps, growing immigrant populations, and increasingly fractious political divides created a populace in need of a scapegoat. There were no more vulnerable targets in Bideford than these women who embodied the notion of the Outsider and had nobody to defend them.
Callow puts to rest the idea of misogyny being the true root of witch persecution, while also acknowledging the importance of that narrative for the time in which it emerged in the 70s and 80s and what symbols of empowerment the Bideford Witches have now become. More famous now in death than they ever were in life, the tragic story of their persecution has been reclaimed in more recent decades by varying groups. Were they truly witches put to death for their differing beliefs, or were they innocents worthy of pity?
The brilliance of Callow’s book is in the realization that these women occupy both spaces – as does Alice Molland, the woman executed a scant three years later who became (according to some) the last person put to death in England for witchcraft. I came away from this book shocked at how much of the political and social pressures that resulted in such dangerous prejudice as witch hunts are still present in the zeitgeist now. This riveting read is important albeit uncomfortable. In this book, Callow has allowed readers to look at their shared past unflinchingly so that we may go into a less tragic future.