EAST ANGLIA 1645-47
Causes:
1642 Civil war starts
1646 harsh winter and plague
The assize courts were unable to function normally during the war and so justice was
often decided by local magistrates or individuals with minimal legal experience
Charles unpopular taxes e.g. ‘Ship Money’
1646 crop failure and disease at its peak
Price of wheat rose by 20%
Price of livestock increases by 12%
1643, parliament introduced a new tax to meet costs of war which was 12 times
higher than the loathed ‘Ship Money’ tax of 1630s
20% of men gone off to fight in war
East Anglia was riddled with political and economic crisis
Events:
Elizabeth Clarke first accused
Rebecca West given freedom in return for confession and naming others
Hopkins ‘The discovery of Witches’ published in May 1647
20% of accused witches were charged with harming or killing children
94% almost certainly illiterate in Ely of those accused
Hopkins claim he paid 20 shillings
Decline:
Ipswich witches cost £50 to keep
Hopkins and Stearne fee around £23
John Gaule published ‘select cases of conscience touching witches and witchcrafts’ in
1646
Causes:
1642 Civil war starts
1646 harsh winter and plague
The assize courts were unable to function normally during the war and so justice was
often decided by local magistrates or individuals with minimal legal experience
Charles unpopular taxes e.g. ‘Ship Money’
1646 crop failure and disease at its peak
Price of wheat rose by 20%
Price of livestock increases by 12%
1643, parliament introduced a new tax to meet costs of war which was 12 times
higher than the loathed ‘Ship Money’ tax of 1630s
20% of men gone off to fight in war
East Anglia was riddled with political and economic crisis
Events:
Elizabeth Clarke first accused
Rebecca West given freedom in return for confession and naming others
Hopkins ‘The discovery of Witches’ published in May 1647
20% of accused witches were charged with harming or killing children
94% almost certainly illiterate in Ely of those accused
Hopkins claim he paid 20 shillings
Decline:
Ipswich witches cost £50 to keep
Hopkins and Stearne fee around £23
John Gaule published ‘select cases of conscience touching witches and witchcrafts’ in
1646
