The Ultimate Vampire Resource and Directory

Salem witch craft trial

The salem witch craft troubles all began in New England in the winter of 1692, a year of political uncertainty throughout the Massachusetts Bay Colony.



In the kitchen of the Salem parsonage, a West Indian slave named Tituba amused the minister's 9 year old daughter, Elizabeth Parris and her 11 year old cousin, Abigail, with witch craft, tricksand spells and tales of the occult. Sometimes Tituba told fortunes by studying patterns of egg whites in a glass, a pastime that to the 17th century Puritan was devilry, but one that captivated the adolescent neighbour girls who visited Tituba's kitchen.



As winter wore on, the girls began to behave bizarrely. When the village doctor called and could find nothing physically wrong with the girls, he concluded that the evil hand is on them.



Mr. Parris begged the afflicted girls to name the witches, and so Elizabeth blurted out the name of Tituba and other names such as Sarah Good, a despised pipe-smoking beggar, and Sarah Osborne, who had scandalized the village by living openly with a man before marriage. At a hearing in early March the Salem witch craft trial began. Tituba confessed that she was indeed a witch. She also claimed that she was one of many witches in the village and that a tall man from Boston had shown her a book listing all the witches in the colony.



With that, the salem witch craft trial began.

In seven months time, seven men and thirteen women were executed for practicing witch craft, many on the basis of the testimony of ghosts and specters. Those who would not confess were killed and Tituba was spared and sold by the Parrises.



When the frenzied accusations reached the apex of colonial society, public opinion turned. Within 18 months, Governor William Phips had pardoned all suspected witches who had not been executed, even the executed were exonerated, though the name Salem endures as a symbol of societal madness.

Legendary and Folk Witches



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Toad-Witch these are self-initiated witch in English folklore who are accredited with possessing the power to overlook or cast the evil-eye over a person. They were powerful and most feared. They had powers also over horses, pigs and men. It was considered dangerous being a Toad-Witch as one was likely to go insane because of the supernatural powers possessed and usually died a violent death.

Witch of Endor was accredited with raising of the spirit of Samuel at the request of King Saul of Israel. In the bible it is said Saul wished to find out whether he should fight the Philistine Army. Some say that the witch was a fake and that she threw her voice to sound like Samuel when in fact she lied about seeing god or angels, about incantations. Some believed that their may have been a spirit conjured but that it was more likely to have been the Devil but some believed that it was not the Devil as he would have been repelled by the word God or Jehovah and that the Devil would not have punished someone but would have encouraged them to do more evil.



Joan Wytte 1775-1813. Cornish woman also known by the name of the Fighting Fairy Woman of Bodmin. She was said to be clairvoyant and that people would seek her services as a seer, diviner and healer. She was known to visit a holy well where she tied clouties (a charm that is a strip of cloth taken from a sick person. This would decay and was suppose to heal the person in a magical way. Still done today.) On the branches of trees.



Later on as a result of a tooth abscess she became very ill-tempered and would shout at people. She became involved in a large fight with people where she used her remarkable strength and bashed people and threw them across a room. She was arrested and sent to jail where she died as a result of the poor conditions. When she died her body was dissected and the skeleton was placed in a coffin, later on it was recovered and used as a joke in a séance which went wrong as it was alleged the lid of the coffin in which the skeletal remains was placed, flew open and started going around and assaulting the people taking part in the séance. After this the bones were to pass onto an antique dealer, and later on a founder of a Museum of Witchcraft. It was later said that while on display in the museum they started to experience poltergeist at which a witch was bought in to consult them of what to do and it was said that Wytte's spirit said that she wished to be laid in a proper burial.

Legendary and Folk Witches

Legendary and Folk Witches



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Isobel Goldie ?-1662. It is said that she had wild sexual escapades with the devil who had initiated her into the art of witchcraft. She confessed this several times but many thought that it was just a story she had made up and that it was just a game that had gotten out of hand. There are no records as to what had happened to her or other people she confessed to being witches as well. In all likelihood they were all hung as her confessions were so obscene for the time.

Joan of Arc 1412-1431. She was not charged as most people have said for practicing witchcraft but for being a relapsed heretic who denied the authority of the church.



Margaret Jones ?-1648. The first witch to be executed in Massachusetts Bay Colony, she was accused of being a witch after patients under her care as their physician had gotten sicker. The reason why many patients got worse was because they refused to take medicines prescribed for them.



Lady Alice Kyteler ?-1324. Lady Alice was a wealthy woman from Ireland who was accused of witchcraft as a result of the fact that her fourth husband and his family believed she had lured him into marrying her more money. These charges were dropped and later she moved to England were she lived in luxury until her death.



Marie Laveau 1794?-1881 and 1827-1897. The most renowned voodoo queen in North America was actually a mother and daughter. Their appeal was their magical powers, control of one’s lovers and enemies, and sex. Marie I was a most powerful women who was told all the secrets by women and was able to use these to increase her powers. Marie II was feared more and inspired subservience.



Florence Newton mid 17th Century. A trial most famous in Ireland was that of Florence Newton also known as "the Witch of Youghal". She was accused of bewitching people into fits and of killing them with these fits. Her trial unlike most trials involved no torture. One young lady who was bewitched by her went through fits of which many things were vomited up by her and many different things were thrown at her. If Florence Newton was left unhand cuffed the young lady would have fits and fall ill but if handcuffed would remain calm and have no fits.



Dolly Pentreath 1692-1777. Was born in Cornwall, England. Never married but had a son. She was accredited with the knowledge of astrology and possessed magical powers which people would come and use her for. She was able to use her powers for good and bad.



Elisabeth Sawyer ?-1621. Elisabeth Sawyer also Known as "Witch of Edmonton" was accused of bewitching her neighbors children and cattle because they refused to buy her brooms. When she was being harassed she finally confessed to being a witch. She was hanged for confessing to be a witch.





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Isobel Goldie ?-1662. It is said that she had wild sexual escapades with the devil who had initiated her into the art of witchcraft. She confessed this several times but many thought that it was just a story she had made up and that it was just a game that had gotten out of hand. There are no records as to what had happened to her or other people she confessed to being witches as well. In all likelihood they were all hung as her confessions were so obscene for the time.

Joan of Arc 1412-1431. She was not charged as most people have said for practicing witchcraft but for being a relapsed heretic who denied the authority of the church.



Margaret Jones ?-1648. The first witch to be executed in Massachusetts Bay Colony, she was accused of being a witch after patients under her care as their physician had gotten sicker. The reason why many patients got worse was because they refused to take medicines prescribed for them.



Lady Alice Kyteler ?-1324. Lady Alice was a wealthy woman from Ireland who was accused of witchcraft as a result of the fact that her fourth husband and his family believed she had lured him into marrying her more money. These charges were dropped and later she moved to England were she lived in luxury until her death.



Marie Laveau 1794?-1881 and 1827-1897. The most renowned voodoo queen in North America was actually a mother and daughter. Their appeal was their magical powers, control of one’s lovers and enemies, and sex. Marie I was a most powerful women who was told all the secrets by women and was able to use these to increase her powers. Marie II was feared more and inspired subservience.



Florence Newton mid 17th Century. A trial most famous in Ireland was that of Florence Newton also known as "the Witch of Youghal". She was accused of bewitching people into fits and of killing them with these fits. Her trial unlike most trials involved no torture. One young lady who was bewitched by her went through fits of which many things were vomited up by her and many different things were thrown at her. If Florence Newton was left unhand cuffed the young lady would have fits and fall ill but if handcuffed would remain calm and have no fits.



Dolly Pentreath 1692-1777. Was born in Cornwall, England. Never married but had a son. She was accredited with the knowledge of astrology and possessed magical powers which people would come and use her for. She was able to use her powers for good and bad.



Elisabeth Sawyer ?-1621. Elisabeth Sawyer also Known as "Witch of Edmonton" was accused of bewitching her neighbors children and cattle because they refused to buy her brooms. When she was being harassed she finally confessed to being a witch. She was hanged for confessing to be a witch.

Legendary and Folk Witches



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Joan of Navarre 1370-1437. Duchess of Brittany who was the wife of King Henry IV of England was accused of being a witch and wanting to bring down the king. Later she was pardoned and reinstated.

Mother Shipton a 15th Century Yorkshire witch. She was said to have powers of healing and spell-casting, and her prophecies about modern time such as those of airplanes and cars has come true. Also scientific inventions, new technology, wars and politics.



Anne Boleyn 1507-1536, she was the second wife of King Henry VIII of England was beheaded and her reputation was smeared due to the fact she was unable to bear her husband a child so he claimed she was a witch. She had a sixth finger on one hand which was believed to be a sign that the young lady was a witch.



Caroline of Brunswick 1768-1821 she was Queen to King George IV of England. It is told that she felt she was constantly being neglected by her husband and she decided to make a wax effigy of him and stick pins and thorns into it and then melt in a palace fireplace.



the North Berwick Witches a group of men and women who were accused of witchcraft in Scotland in the 16th century. On minimal evidence they were condemned and tortured and burnt. They were supposed to have created a storm to the drown the King James 1.



Tamsin Blight 1798-1856. Famous English witch healer and a person who is able to remove curses or spells from a person. She was also said to have put spells on those who did not please her. Also known as Tammy Blee and Tamson.



Mary Butters late 18th century-early 19th century. She is known as the Carmoney Witch and narrowly escaped trial for the killing of a cow and three people. She claimed at her inquest she saw a black man who killed the three people and that she was knocked unconscious causing the ingredients to become toxic. The incident was made into a humorous ballad.



Old Dorothy Clutterbuck 1880-1951. Clutterbuck was allegedly the high priestess of a coven of witches and was suppose to have initiated Gerald B. Gardner into witchcraft. It also said that Clutterbuck was actually not the high priestess but a protector of the high priestess that the real high priestess was a woman by the name of Dafo. She was a woman of high respect and wealth. When she died she left a hefty amount of money more than 60,000 pounds.

History of Witchcraft



In general witchcraft is sorcery, the magical manipulation of the supernormal forces through the use of spells, and the conjuring or invoking of spirits.

Anthropologists refer to witchcraft as the use of malevolent powers by psychic means without the need for ritual or charm. This is so for the days of the Inquisition but not for the contemporary western world where witches work magic through spells.



Witchcraft involves the use of supernormal powers such as shape-shifting, clairvoyance, invisibility, flying, the ability to kill at a distance and astral projection.



During the middle ages and the renaissance, it was defined as evil magic, heresy and devil-worship. Contemporary witchcraft has redefined it as a reconstructed form of Pagan religion that worships the Goddess and horned god and has no connection with Christianity or the devil. It also only used for good rather than for harmful use.



The inquisition was not a persecution of witches as believed by contemporary popular belief it was actually the persecution of heretics and enemies of the church.