31/03/2023
Witchfinders tells the true and terrible story of Matthew Hopkins and his horrifying crusade as witch-hunting fever gripped the country. Malcolm Gaskill uses his great story-telling talents to bring mid-seventeenth century alive.
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Matthew Hopkins moved to Manningtree in the early 1640s. In the spring of 1645, at the height of the English Civil War, Matthew Hopkins initiated the most savage witch-hunt in English history. By the autumn of 1647 at least 250 East Anglian innocents - most of them women - had been captured, interrogated and hauled before the courts. More than a hundred were convicted, condemned and hanged. A plaque has been erected in Manningtree to remember those women and all people who have suffered intolerance and persecution on account of their gender, religion, ethnicity or social standing.