Mary Baguley (died 1675) was an English woman from Wildboarclough, Cheshire, accused of having bewitched the schoolteacher Robert Hall living in the nearby village of Wincle, and causing his death by the use of magic.[1] Hall’s wife reported that her husband told her one night that Mary Baguley was “witching him to death”, and had “crushed his heart in pieces”. During the following last ten days and nights of his life, she could only look on as he spat blood and suffered fits of trembling, constantly bathed in sweat.[2]
Mary was tried and found guilty at Chester Assizes, and executed by hanging.[1]
Witch trials in Cheshire were at their height during the 1650s and 1660s, during which time 32 people were tried for witchcraft in the county.[3][a]Thirty women and two men.[3] Mary was perhaps the last person to be executed for witchcraft in Cheshire, but the last person to have been executed for witchcraft in England is generally considered to be Alice Molland
Pehaps the last person to be executed for witchcraft in England., in 1685.[4]
See also
- Witch trials in early modern EnglandHistory of witch trials in England from the 15th to the 18th century.