The Context of Witchcraft: The Case of Jane Wenham (1712)

Abstract

THE LAST PERSON to suffer death for the crime of witchcraft in England was hanged in 1684, and although records are not complete, there seem to have been no guilty verdicts for nearly three decades after that, until the case of Jane Wenham, an old woman of Walkern, Hertfordshire, in March 1712. Not only did this case cause tremendous excitement in the immediate area, it also provoked an extensive pamphlet controversy that debated not just the facts, but such varied issues as the accuracy of biblical translations, contemporary increase in atheism, principles of scientific evidence and the conduct of valid experiments, questions of religious freedom, medical concepts of hysteria, and the function of ministers of the Church of England. Many of these issues were especially pertinent in the climate of religious and political tension that was the aftermath of the Sacheverell affair in 1710. Those involved in the trial were not just superstitious and illiterate villagers; among the prosecution witnesses were two local clergymen, the wife of one, and the son and grandson of the well-known antiquarian and historian of Hertfordshire, Sir Henry Chauncy. The judge of the trial, Sir John Powell, is said to have taken the case to Queen Anne personally and obtained a pardon. How did the case arise, and why did it make such a furor? This paper attempts to explore the context of the Jane Wenham case, the last trial for witchcraft in England, by looking at the social structure of the village, the individuals involved, the pamphlets on