Warboys
At the end of the sixteenth century, five sisters accuse their neighbors of witchcraft. In this episode, we examine the case against the witches of Warboys. How did a group of children gain the power to destroy an entire family, and could it happen again?
Researched, written, and produced by Corinne Wieben, with original music by Purple Planet.
Music
Purple Planet - Space Journey
Purple Planet - Creepy Hollow
Purple Planet - Harbinger of Doom
Purple Planet - Immuration
Purple Planet - Sense of Loss
Purple Planet - Shadowlands
Sources
Primary
Anon. The most Strange and Admirable Discouerie of the Three Witches of Warboys Arraigned, Conuicted and Executed at the Last Assises at Huntington, for the Bewitching of the Fiue Daughters of Robert Throckmorton Esquier, and Diuers Other Persons, with Sundrie Diuelish and Grieuous Torments. ; and also for the Bewitching to Death of the Lady Crumwell, the Like Hath Not Bene Heard of in this Age. London: Printed for Thomas Man and John Winnington, 1593.
Naylor, Martin Joseph. The Inantity [Sic] and Mischief of Vulgar Superstitions. Four Sermons, Preached at all-Saint’s Church, Huntingdon, on the 25th Day of March, in the Years 1792, 1793, 1794, 1795. by M. J. Naylor, to which is Added some Account of the Witches of Warboys. Cambridge: Printed by B. Flower, for J. Deighton, & W. H. Lunn, 1795
Shakespeare, William. The Life and Death of Richard III. The Complete Works of Shakespeare. MIT. 1993.
Secondary
Almond, Philip C. “The Witches of Warboys: A Bibliographical Note.” Notes and Queries 52, no. 2 (2005): 192-193.
Bayman, Anna. “Large Hands, Wide Eares, and Piercing Sights’: The ‘Discoveries’ of the Elizabethan and Jacobean Witch Pamphlets.” Literature and History 16, no. 1 (2007): 26-45.
Bonzol, Judith. “The Medical Diagnosis of Demonic Possession in an Early Modern English Community.” Parergon 26, no. 1 (2009): 115-139.
Darr, Orna Alyagon. “Experiments in the Courtroom: Social Dynamics and Spectacles of Proof in Early Modern English Witch Trials.” Law & Social Inquiry 39, no. 1 (2014): 152-175.
DeWindt, Anne Reiber. “Witchcraft and Conflicting Visions of the Ideal Village Community.” The Journal of British Studies 34, no. 4 (1995): 427-463.
Elmer, Peter. Witchcraft, Witch-Hunting, and Politics in Early Modern England. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016.
Fudge, Thomas A. “Traditions and Trajectories in the Historiography of European Witch Hunting.” History Compass 4, no. 3 (2006): 488-527.
Gasser, Erika. “Witchcraft, Possession, and the Unmaking of Women and Men: A Late-Sixteenth-Century English Case Study.” Magic, Ritual, and Witchcraft 11, no. 2 (2016): 151-175.
Holmes, Clive. “Women: Witnesses and Witches.” Past & Present 140, no. 1 (1993): 45-78.
McBride, Paula. “Witchcraft in the East Midlands 1517-1642.” Midland History 44, no. 2 (2019): 222-237.
Uszkalo, K. Bewitched and Bedeviled: A Cognitive Approach to Embodiment in Early English Possession. New York: Palgrave Macmillan US, 2015.
Willis, Deborah. “The Witch-Family in Elizabethan and Jacobean Print Culture.” Journal for Early Modern Cultural Studies 13, no. 1 (2013): 4-31.
Witmore, Michael. “The Lies Children Tell: Counterfeiting Victims and Witnesses in Early Modern English Witchcraft Trials and Possessions.” In Pretty Creatures, 171-212. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2019.
