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It was a common belief that witches' children inherited witchcraft from their parents. It was often the practice to charge a whole family of witchcraft, even if only one individual was suspected. Accused witches who confessed often claimed that they learned witchcraft from a parent. Pierre de Lancre and Francesco Maria Guazzo believed that it ...
Agnes Waterhouse (c. 1503 – 29 July 1566), also known as Mother Waterhouse, was one of the first women executed for witchcraft in England. [1] In 1566, she was accused of witchcraft along with two other women: Elizabeth Francis and Joan Waterhouse. [2] All three women were from the same village, Hatfield Peverel. [2]
If accused of witchcraft, the accused was forced to confess, even if they were innocent, through brutal torture, just to in the end be killed for their crimes. In certain instances, the clergy became truly concerned about the souls they were executing. Therefore, they decided to burn the accused witches alive in order to "save them". [16]
This description reflects the phenomenon that women were more likely to be accused of witchcraft if they deviated from the societal acceptance of being young, beautiful, and involved in society life. When looking at other interpretations of witches, forms of the arts are how early depictions of literature showcased what a witch would look like. [5]
The latest effort comes from a group dedicated to clearing the names of all those accused, arrested or indicted for witchcraft in Massachusetts, whether or not the accusations ended in ha ...
On August 29, 1957, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts voted to wipe from the books the convictions of six women that had been unjustly accused of being witches 265 years earlier. Gov. Foster Furcolo signed the legislation that intended to clear Susannah Martin, as well as Ann Pudeator, Bridget Bishop, Alice Parker, Margaret Scott and Wilmot ...
POINT PLEASANT - A Municipal Court hearing into a charge that Mrs. Jesse Bishoff has cast an evil spell on a neighbor, was postponed last night by Magistrate Mortimer A. Rogers to Nov. 5.
When powerful men cry witch, they’re generally not talking about green-faced women wearing pointy hats. They are, presumably, referring to the Salem witch trials, when 19 people in 17th-century M