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40 Real People Executed for Witchcraft

Tim Flight October 15, 2019 27 min

24. The whole Samuel family hanged in 1593 for witchcraft on the testimony of children

Frontispiece of a pamphlet about the Witches of Warboys, London, 1593. Blogspot

In 1589, 10-year-old Jane Throckmorton suffered a series of (probably epileptic) fits. One day, a wealthy neighbour, Alice Samuel, visited the Throckmorton household during an episode of spasms. Jane screamed that the 76-year-old woman had bewitched her. Alice’s four siblings, aged between 9 and 15, backed her up, and promptly started having fits too. This carried on for years, and eventually, Alice ordered the girls to stop their nonsense. They actually did, and things took a sinister turn. Under interrogation, Alice confessed to all the Throckmortons’ ludicrous allegations, and she was hanged with her husband and daughter in 1593.

Written by

Tim Flight

I am a freelance historical and literary writer based in West Yorkshire, UK. I read for a funded PhD in English at the University of Oxford (Magdalen College) and graduated in 2016. I am a former lecturer in Medieval English Literature at Royal Holloway, University of London. My publications include peer-reviewed articles in academic publications, and pieces in mainstream magazines such as History Today and Fortean Times. For more information, please see www.drflight.co.uk