The Witch-Finder of East Anglia

In 1542 Parliament passed The Witchcraft Act, making it a crime punishable by death. It was repealed five years later. However when King James the VI of Scotland became James I of England, the Witchcraft Statute was passed, again carrying the sentence of death.

King James himself was so fascinated with the occult that he wrote and published a best-selling book about it, Daemonologie. This tome explored witchcraft and demonic magic, making clear the King's recommendations for torture and execution of witches. Any 'invocation, conjuration or employment of any wicked spirit' became a hanging offence instead of imprisonment. All of which seems to have given free reign to Matthew Hopkins, son of a Puritan clergyman, who assumed for himself the title Witch-Finder General in 1645 during the troubled times of the English Civil War.

Claiming to be officially commissioned by Parliament, a booklet detailing his witch-hunting methods: ‘The Discovery of Witches’, published in 1647, was delivered to the Judges of Assize for the County of Norfolk 'for the benefit of the whole kingdome' and appears to have given him license to travel East Anglia, examining and trying women for witchcraft. It was very much in his interests to do so since he charged 'twenty shillings a town', with records showing that the small market town of Stowmarket in Suffolk, paid the equivalent in today's money of £3,300 for his services, plus travelling expenses at a time when the average farm worker’s wage was just 6 pence a day. The cost to the local community was such that, in 1645, a special local tax rate had to be levied in Ipswich.

Such was the fear and suspicion that abounded, anything out of the ordinary it seems could be attributed to witchcraft. Toads featured large should they appear nearby. Ailing or lice-ridden people and animals were clearly cursed. Curdling milk or falling chimneys all could be attributed to anyone unfortunate enough to be born with a birth mark, moles or other disfigurements or who had simply had an argument with a neighbour.

The methods used for deciding a witch were both brutal and bizarre. Hopkins and his assistants looked out for ''the Devil's mark', something all witches or sorcerers were supposed to possess. Said to be dead to all feeling, it would not bleed other than to suckle a witches's animal familiar with blood, such as a baby drinks milk from the nipple.

To make matters worse for the accused, if the suspect had no such visible marks, invisible ones could be 'discovered' by the hunters who shaved off the suspect's body hair, then pierced the skin with a needle or sliced her arm with a blunt knife for a convincing exhibition, for if she did not bleed she was said to be a witch.

Hopkins’ favoured method however was the 'swimming test' based on the idea that as witches had renounced their holy baptism, water would reject them. So the unfortunate suspect was tied to a chair and ducked in the river or the village pond. If she did not drown she faced trial as a witch. If she died, she would be declared innocent and received into heaven.

Thanks to Matthew Hopkins, the largest single witch trial in England took place in Bury St. Edmund in 1645 when 18 people were executed by hanging but not before they had had their nails cut and locks of hair shorn from their heads. These were stored in brown jars in the basement of the court in the belief that if you were not whole when you died, you would be unable to come back as a complete witch in the next life!

After just three years as Witch-finder General, Matthew Hopkins retired, moving back to Manningtree in Essex. Before the year ended he had died, supposedly of tuberculosis. Sadly, his book lived on to provide a blueprint for further persecution of witches over the next hundred years, the last being executed in Devon in March, 1684.

Alexanders

I bet you've never heard of Alexanders even if you do live in Norfolk! So it came as a great shock to the County when in 2002 it's favoured emblem of the blood-red field poppy was cheekily swapped by Plantsman magazine, and declared henceforth to be Alexanders!

Well, apparently horses like it! (Another name for it is Horse Parsley), and it prefers the coast... Apart from that it's pretty nondescript and indeed where I live in South Norfolk, not seen very frequently hereabouts.

It is an invasive herb plant principally of cliff-tops and hedgerows. Originally from the Mediterranean regions it doesn't much like the cold, so salty coastal regions with milder winters seem to suit it well.

It is a pretty unremarkable plant unless you were a medieval cook when you might have used it for culinary purposes. The 'pot herb of Alexandria' was brought here by the Romans and can often be found around the ruins of old priories.

All parts of the plant are edible and it is said to taste like a cross between celery and flat-leaved parsley both of which which it resembles with its yellowy-green tri-foliate leaves and umbels of cream flowers. It's seeds are black and peppery.

You can forage for Alexanders, treating tender stems like asparagus as well as roast roots like parsnips.

Flower-heads can be treated like broccoli or tossed and fried in a light batter while the seeds can be dried and used as a spice, a bit like black pepper.

Tender leaves can be picked at any time of year and used sparingly in salads or as greens.

Remember though to check you are not confusing the plant with similar but toxic varieties.

Plant and foraging expert Richard Mabey warns in his book Food for Free,

‘Indigestion brought on by uncertainty about whether you have done yourself in, can be just as uncomfortable as real food poisoning!’

Other Facts:

​In the past, Alexanders was used medically in treatments for asthma, menstrual problems and for healing wounds, though it is rarely used in medicine today.

Smyrnuim indicates the plants distinct myrrh-like aromatics. While Olusatrum comes from Olus meaning garden herb and Atrum from the Latin ater, atrum, adjective atro, meaning black or dark (in this case a reference to the mature black seeds).

The Black Seed Capsules of Alexanders

I am so glad that public opinion seems to have reinstated the beautiful red common poppy (Papaver rhoeas) as Norfolk's flower of choice. After all, poppies and *Poppyland are indelibly linked with our county.

*https://www.kittywitchdiaries.com/post/poppyland

Toadmen

March 2020

A toad on a rock, image credit: Bernard Supont

Now is the time of year when frogs and toads emerge from their winter hibernation, safe to live out their lives in marsh or garden without persecution, but there was a time, not long ago when certain of them were caught for witching purposes…

A witch's familiars, woodcut from 1579

Around the turn of the century, before large-scale farm mechanisation and in the time leading up to the First World War, horses were paramount. Farm-work and delivering of goods and people across the country very much depended on them. Therefore, to be a competent handler of those beasts, was to command a great deal of respect. In East Anglia, where the tradition of breeding horses had continued from the Iceni through to more recent times, heavy Suffolk Punches and lighter-framed Norfolk Trotters and Roadsters, were prized possessions. To know a Toadman or Toadwomen who could control them, was to have at hand the magical qualities of someone who had power over man or beast. As the title suggests, the process involved frogs or toads and the ritual associated with the calling depended on harvesting a particular bone taken from the skeleton of a toad - preferably one with a yellow collar or star upon its back. (In Norfolk we have Natterjack toads). The unfortunate creature, when caught was hung on a hawthorn spike for two days to dry, then buried in an anthill to be stripped of its flesh. The skeleton was then taken to a running stream preferably at midnight, on the Eve of St. Mark (24th April) where it was watched assiduously for the moment when the small pelvic bone detached and made its way against the water-flow, upstream. This was the time of torment for the would-be Toadman as he struggled against the temptation to draw the eye away. A report published in 1960 carries these words spoken by well-known Norfolk horseman Albert Love, born 1886. He calls the ritual ‘The Water of the Moon.’ ‘…But when you are watching it and these bones are parting, you’ll hear all the trees and all the noises that you can imagine, even as if buildings were falling down or a traction engine is running over you. But you still mustn’t take your eyes off, because that’s where you lose your power. Of course, the noises must be something to do with the Devil’s work in the middle of the night....’ It was imperative to keep watching and concentrating on the bone in order to overcome the power of evil, and when the bone detached and was successfully retrieved, the precious object became a potent amulet which conferred special powers on its owner. Several publications since the Country Horse-Doctor published in Swaffham in 1835 carry similar advice to Albert Love’s, that would enable the owner of the amulet or powdered bone to ‘… touch a Horse on the Shoulder to jade (stop) him and on the rump to draw (lead) him.’

Nowadays, such a person might be termed a horse whisperer. Suffolk blacksmith Hector Moore gave his only recorded interview in 1980 and when the interviewer, Paul Heiney, remarked that no-one would believe his tale, he replied: "'at don’t matter if they believe ya or not. That’s a wonderful old thing!" In world mythology and folklore, the connections between frogs and toads and magical practices are innumerable and ambiguous, as befits a creature that moves easily between the elements of earth and water. Thus, according to different beliefs, they can bring bad fortune or good. The word for ‘bewitchment’ in Norfolk vernacular was ‘tudding’, literally ‘toading’ and often Toadmanry ran in families. As to whether there are still people practicing such traditions today I don’t know, maybe you can tell me?

---

Pennick's book

In 2012, the well-known writer on folklore and magic, Nigel Pennick published 150 copies of his very special book called The Toadman, in which he explains other aspects of toad magic. But what is particularly significant is that 117 copies were bound in quarter toadskin and 33 in half toadskin. Nobody, of course, should harm our precious wildlife but for this purpose, Australian Cane toad was used, as it is a destructive, poisonous and invasive species on that continent, and for those wondering what toad-leather feels like: ‘It is very pliant, soft, and far thinner and delicate than standard leather. Its characteristic warty texture begs to be touched and understood, like some kind of witch-Braille.’