Blood Money – The Newcastle Witch Trials of 1650

In August 1650, forty years before the infamous Salem Witch Trials, Newcastle hosted one of the most shocking mass public executions of those accused of witchcraft.  And while the vast majority of those accused, imprisoned or executed for witchcraft were women, that April day also saw a lone male hung for the charge.

Illutration from Englands Grievance Discovered by Ralph Gardiner, 1655

The prelude to this event was an extension of the Witchcraft Act.  Brought in by Henry VIII around 100 years earlier in 1541, it was the first Act to define witchcraft as a felony and a crime punishable by death.  The extension, the Scottish Witchcraft Act 1649, extended previous Acts by stating that consulters of devils and familars were also guilty of a crime which brought a death sentence.

In the same year, in an age of continuing suspicion and superstition, magistrates in Newcastle sent representatives to Scotland to invite a Scottish witchfinder to try those accused of the crime.  With the request accepted, and upon the unnamed witchfinder’s arrival, a town crier was sent through the town.  The bias and misogyny clearly evidenced by his shouts of “all people that would bring any complaint against any woman for a witch, they should be sent for, and tried by the person appointed”- the person appointed of course being the unnamed Scottish witchfinder.

Thirty townsfolk were brought forward.  Stripped of clothes and stuck with pins, 27 were confirmed as witches by the witchfinder.  The accused were imprisoned, likely in either Newgate Goal or the Castle Keep, to await their sentence and fate.

Illutration from Englands Grievance Discovered by Ralph Gardiner, 1655

And so, on 21 August 1650, fifteen of the accused were to face public execution by hanging on Newcastle Town Moor.  On the gallows that day, fourteen women and one man were hung for witchcraft.  This was more executions in a single day than the more famous Salem Witch Trials, where 10 were hung.  Another woman was also hung at the same time on 21 August 1650, although not for witchcraft related crimes.  The offence which led to her execution?  Stealing silver spoons.

The most detailed account of this event comes from a book by North Sheilds merchant Ralph Gardiner in 1655.  His book, “England’s Grievance Discovered”, is a critique of the Hostmen, who exclusively controlled the export, prices and trade of coal in Newcastle.  However, pages 114-116 of the book detail the account of the Newcastle Witch Trials.  Gardiner is as critical of those involved in the Witch Trials as he is of those involved in the coal trade.  The book is available for free on various internet sources, including the Internet Archive, for those seeking this original source.

Interestingly, the chapter also notes that the Scottish witchfinder when paid for his time in Newcastle, travelled to Northumberland.  Here he intended to further try women for witchcraft – getting paid “three pounds a piece”.  However, it seems some suspicion fell on the witchfinder and he fled to Scotland before he was detained.  Gardiner notes “he would have made most of the women in the North, witches, for money”.  Confirming the objective and less superstitious view that many of the witch trials of the time were less about bad women, and more about blood money.