Hertfordshire ‘witch’ Jane Wenham was perhaps the most fortunate victim of the English witch trials. She was accused and sentenced to death at a time when enlightened minds were beginning to tire of the witch hunt hysteria. Although she escaped the gallows, however, the story of the ‘witch of Walkern’ remains a chilling one…
“Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.” Eight words from the bible which helped to fuel the torrent of terror known as the English witch hunts. Eight words which led to countless cases of torture, hanging and the burning alive of suspected witches during the bloodthirsty persecutions which plagued Europe and then later, America hundreds of years ago.
From 1484 until around 1750 some 200,000 ‘witches’ were tortured, burnt, and hanged in Western Europe. In the UK around 500 mostly women (but some men) were slaughtered as ‘witch fever’ spread through the country, especially during the English Civil War (1641-1651) and the tyrannical Puritan era which followed.
This notorious episode from history continues to both frighten and fascinate us. We’ve been saturated with films, plays and documentaries about the massacres while TV franchises like ‘The Good Witch’, ‘A Discovery of Witches’, ‘Salem’ and ‘American Horror Story’ prove that all things ‘witchery’ still capture the interest.
The cold hard reality, however, for those accused of being witches is more terrifying than anything Hollywood filmmakers could imagine.
Agnes Waterhouse, also known as Mother Waterhouse, from just across the border in Hatfield Peverel, Essex, was one of the first women executed for witchcraft in England. She was accused in the year 1566. Agnes was hung in Chelmsford before a baying crowd, jeering and jostling for a better position to see the poor woman’s final moments.
Then there was Ursula Kemp, an English cunning woman and midwife from St Osyth in Essex, who in 1582, was tried for witchcraft and hanged. Kemp was accused of using supernatural powers to kill her neighbour.
Along with increasingly hysterical outbursts from the church over witches, which took the ‘thou shalt not’ quote from the Book of Exodus very seriously, the witch hunt pandemonium was bolstered by the publication of one of history’s most wicked books- The Malleus Maleficarum, (the Hammer of Witches).
Written by German Catholic clergyman, Heinrich Kramer, the treatise became a fifteenth- century go to guide on how to hunt, torture and kill women who didn’t quite fit the mould, who stood out for the wrong reasons or who dared to question the strict doctrine of the age.
The book led to the rise of self-appointed witch hunters in England, including the infamous ‘Witchfinder General’ Matthew Hopkins who came from Suffolk. Hopkins appointed himself as the top dog when it came to rooting out ‘those in league with the devil’ and he spent a lot of time focusing on suspected witches from East Anglia.
His first victim was one legged Elizabeth Clarke from Manningtree who was accused of witchcraft by local tailor. She was deprived of sleep and tortured until she confessed and was hung.
Rarely did a woman accused of witchcraft come out the other side with their mind and body intact, but Hertfordshire’s Jane Wenham was the rare exception.
Jane was one of the last people to be sentenced to death for witchcraft in England. She became a household name in her time and was known as ‘the witch of Walkern’ after she miraculously escaped the noose, despite being condemned to execution.
Jane, of Church End, Walkern, near Stevenage, was well known in her village for being a wise woman. She was about 70, lived alone, had a haggard appearance and was poor. She ticked every box when it came to the attributes possessed by the ‘typical witch’. When a local farmer, John Chapman began labelling her a witch after his livestock kept dying, she complained to a magistrate about the affront.
The judge drafted in the parish priest, the Rector of Walkern, the reverend Godfrey Gardiner to mediate between Jane and the farmer. Revd Gardiner ordered that Chapman should pay Jane one shilling in compensation for the insult.
Here’s where Jane probably made things worse for herself. She was not content with the pay out of one shilling and she made her thoughts clear. Rumours began to spread in the village that she was using her magical powers to get revenge on rev Gardiner for his miserly judgement.
As Jane left the church rectory, via the kitchen, she passed 16-year-old Ann Thorn, the reverend’s servant girl. Soon after the encounter Ann began suffering from fits and bouts of speechlessness. This was soon put down to having had a curse placed upon her by Jane.
A warrant was issued for Jane’s arrest, and she locked herself inside her cottage. Bailiffs kicked down the door and dragged her out. While in prison four women searched Jane’s body for ‘witch’s teats’ or other ‘Devil’s marks’, but none were found.
A local minister tried to get Jane to recite the Lord’s Prayer as it was believed at the time that a witch would not be able to say the holy words. Although she knew most of the prayer, Jane stumbled upon one word when it came to the part of ‘lead us not into temptation’. Instead, she said: "lead us not into no temptation and evil”. The mistake was enough for the merciless mob to render her guilty.
Eventually, most likely after being starved of food and sleep and perhaps worse, Jane confessed to bewitching Anne and to entering a pact with the devil.
The trial by jury at the Hertford Assizes began on March 4, 1712, and a total of 16 witnesses – mostly Jane’s neighbours -gave evidence against her, blaming her for all sorts of dastardly deeds, including the deaths of two children and various cattle.
Another villager, James Burville, said he heard the noise of cats scratching outside and when he saw the cats one of them had a face like Jane Wenham.
Despite the damning testimony the judge, Justice Sir John Powell- a notable and respected politician, lawyer, and MP- was sceptical throughout the proceedings. He was by all accounts a decent man and was blessed with common sense. He ridiculed the whole idea of witchcraft.
When one of the witnesses accused Jane of being able to fly, he remarked: “there is no law against that” and in his summing up he invited the jury to acquit Jane. The all-male jurors, however, were out for blood. They deliberated for two hours before finding Jane guilty.
Justice Powell had no alternative but to sentence Jane to death, however he gave her a stay of execution while he attempted – and eventually succeeded- in gaining a royal pardon for Jane from Queen Anne who was the reigning monarch at the time.
The fact that Jane wasn’t dragged outside and immediately strung up angered many of her detractors, including Francis Bragge, the vicar of Hitchin, who was greatly angered by the judge’s decision not to carry out the punishment of death.
Bragge set to work witing a pamphlet entitled “A Full and Impartial Account of the discovery of sorcery and witchcraft, Practis’d by Jane Wenham of Walkerne”. Of course, the account was anything but impartial. It was a stinging attack on Jane’s character and accused her of everything from idleness to being a prostitute and a thief.
Bragge’s pamphlet was a best seller, but such was the nationwide interest in the case that something of a public relations war began. At least nine news pamphlets were written about the case – both for and against Jane. The public couldn’t get enough of the saga. In 1927 six pamphlets involved with the case would go on to be auctioned off at Sotheby’s in London for more than £5.
Although she had her freedom Jane was forced to leave the village of Walkern for her own safety. If she had stayed the villagers would likely have murdered her. Jane’s plight caught the attention of Captain John Plummer of Gilston Park, who took her under his protection and let her live in a cottage within the grounds of his estate in east Hertfordshire.
After he died, Jane moved to the estate of Earl Cowper at Hertingfordbury where she spent the rest of her days in relative peace. In her final years she was supported financially by Francis Hutchinson, a British minister from Bury-St-Edmunds who wrote a famous book debunking witchcraft prosecution.
Jane Wenham has gone down in history as the last person ever sentenced to death for witchcraft in England. Sadly, Janet Horne, from Dornoch, Scotland, wasn’t so fortunate. She was burned alive for witchcraft in 1727, making her the last person to be executed legally for witchcraft in the British Isles.
Although witch hunts officially came to an end with the implementation of a new law in 1735, people’s minds were slower to change, especially in Hertfordshire it seems. In 1751, Ruth Osborne, an impoverished old woman, just like Jane Wenham, was accused of witchcraft and attacked by a mob near her home in Tring.
She took refuge in a church but was dragged out of the vestry by angry villagers, stripped naked then thrown into a pond. She was then poked with a stick to keep her under the water, until she eventually choked to death on the mud. Thomas Colley, a chimney sweep, was found guilty of her murder- although many others had helped- and was hung at the spot where Ruth was killed.
