British Witchcraft
What springs to mind when you hear the word ‘witchcraft’?
Do you think of one of the famous trials, such as Salem or Pendle? Perhaps you picture King James interrogating the North Berwick witches who attacked his ships with their magic. You may know a magical practitioner, or have heard a rock song which pays homage to the Great Beast Aleister Crowley.
You may not have thought immediately of the Victorian era.
Victorian Era Witchcraft
Recently, I’ve been undertaking research for a new book, and have spent a considerable time looking through old newspaper records from the late 1800s to see whether witchcraft ever featured and, if so, how frequently. In one publication alone, there are reports of dozens of court cases in which there is mention of witchcraft. Usually, these are either assault or fraud, although some are murder cases.
Fraud cases usually feature people who parted with money or goods after being told they had been bewitched. Sometimes, quite significant amounts are involved. Two women, for example, paid around £35 (over £2000 today) to a woman who claimed she could tell their futures and secure them a husband and a good work placement, and that they had both been bewitched, which she could also reverse with some counter-magic. To indicate just how much this sum was worth in 1860, the currency calculator on The National Archives’s website states that £35 would have bought you a couple of horses, or six cows, or paid a skilled tradesman’s wages for 175 days.
In this particular case, the magistrates appear to have been extremely scathing towards the two victims. The news report suggests that they referred to them as “the simpletons” and “simple-minded women”, a viewpoint which I have seen echoed in countless news reports of this kind. Similarly, a few years later, an alleged sorcerer was murdered by several women who believed he had bewitched them. During the trial, the reporter recorded the judge’s derision towards those with superstitious beliefs, which was in much the same vein as in the fraud case – there is always surprise that, in such enlightened times, people still clung to their ridiculous superstitions. Such cases are truly fascinating for the glimpses they provide into the temperature of society at the time, and this one spotlights the view that anyone claiming to practice “magic” was clearly a con artist, and while they were definitely evil for preying on the gullible, the evil came from within, not from “the devil”. Time and again, the news reports mention the magistrates’ incredulity that people still believe in witches and other forms of what is frequently referred to as “gross superstition”, but which remains, no matter how you regard it, a blatant form of victim-shaming.
As well as providing a window into the past, all these cases, with few, if any exceptions, could easily have come from a different century. Remove any mention of money, and our 1860 fraud case would be indistinguishable from one which took place in 1560 or 1660. The motives in these more recent cases, too, are still the same as they were in previous centuries, particularly assaults where the attacker wants to draw the victim’s blood in order to dispel the curse they believe the victim has laid on them. Despite these cases being heard during a period of enlightenment and learning, it is clear that belief in witches was far from being in decline.
– Tracey Norman
If you want to find out more take a look at Tracey’s course “Introduction to British Witchcraft” which includes the following:
- What is a witch?
- Witchcraft and the law
- The reformation and its consequences
- Healers and cunning people
- Witchcraft and royalty
- Folk medicine
- Cursing
- Protective magic
- Famous British witches
- Witchcraft trials
- Witches on your doorstep
- Witches in the media
- Modern witchcraft