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40 Real People Executed for Witchcraft

Tim Flight October 15, 2019 27 min

11. Sharp-tongued Jeane Gardiner hanged for witchcraft in colonial Bermuda

The sea around St George, Bermuda, looks idyllic, but Jeane Gardiner was ducked here in 1651. UNESCO

Another settler in the New World found herself out of luck in 1651. Jeane Gardiner left Britain to start a new life in Bermuda. Gardiner quarreled with other women on the island, and threatened to punish them, and some later suffered unrelated misfortune. Witch-mania followed the British wherever they settled, and so soon people whispered she was a witch. A jury of women searched Gardiner for a witch’s mark (made by the devil, like a cattle-branding). Twice they threw her into the sea off St George, and she floated. This unequivocally proved her guilt, and she was hanged.

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