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Witches

Agnes Sampson

Scottish midwife, cunning woman and healer; central figure in the North Berwick witch trials

Agnes Waterhouse, witch

Elderly Essex woman convicted and hanged for witchcraft at Chelmsford in 1566.

Alice Nutter

Alice Nutter was one of the 11 men and women found guilty
of causing harm by witchcraft in the Pendle witch trials of 1612. She was unique among the accused in being a respectable wealthy widow.

Alison Pearson, witch

Scottish woman found guilty of sorcery, witchcraft and invoking the spirits of the Devil in 1588, then strangled and burned

Allison Balfour

The 1594 trial of alleged witch Allison Balfour is one of the most frequently cited Scottish witchcraft cases.

Barbara Napier or sometimes Barbara Naper (c. 1554 – sometime between 1592 to 1600) was an Edinburgh woman accused of witchcraft and conspiracy to murder in the series of trials from 1590 until 1592 that become known as the North Berwick witch trials.

Bute witches

Six Scottish women accused of witchcraft on Bute during the Great Scottish Witch Hunt of 1661–62.

Chelmsford witches

Redirected to Agnes Waterhouse, witch.

Edmund Hartley

Edmund Hartley, (died March 1597), the Tyldesley witch, was a cunning man who was alleged to have practised witchcraft at Cleworth Hall in Tyldesley, Lancashire for a year in 1595–96. Hartley was hanged, twice, after a trial at Lancaster Assizes in March 1597. Part of the evidence against him was that under interrogation he was unable to recite the Lord’s Prayer.

Elizabeth Francis, witch

Elizabeth Francis was an English woman tried three times for witchcraft and hanged in 1579.

Elizabeth Mortlock, witch

Elizabeth Mortlock was a woman from the small farming village of Pampisford, in Cambridgeshire, convicted of witchcraft in an ecclestiastical court in Ely in 1566.

Elleine Smithe, witch

Essex woman convicted and hanged for witchcraft in 1579

Elspeth Reoch

Scottish woman who confessed to witchcraft and deceiving islanders by pretending she was mute

Euphame MacCalzean

Wealthy Scottish heiress and member of the gentry convicted of witchcraft. A key figure in the North Berwick witchcraft trials of 1590–1591.

Geillis Duncan, witch

Geillis Duncan, also known as Gillie Duncan, a young Scottish maidservant, was suspected of witchcraft by her employer, David Seton, in November 1590. After being tortured, the initial testimony she gave led to the start of the North Berwick witch trials.

Isobel Gowdie

Isobel Gowdie was accused of witchcraft in 1662; she was likely executed although that is uncertain. Her detailed testimony provides one of the most comprehensive insights into European witchcraft folklore at the end of the era of witch-hunts.

Jane Wenham

Jane Wenham was the last person to be condemned for witchcraft in an English court, when she was found guilty at Hertford in 1712.

Janet Boyman

A Scottish woman found guilty and executed for witchcraft and associating with fairies.

Janet Kennedy, visionary

Janet or Jonet Kennedy from Redden or Reydon was a Scottish visionary involved in the North Berwick witch trials of 1590–1593.

Jean Maxwell, sorceress

A Scottish cunning woman convicted of pretending to practise witchcraft

Jinney Bingham, Mother Damnable

17th-century woman, also known as Mother Red Cap and the Shrew of Kentish Town, suspected of being a witch, a murderer and poisoner.

John Fian

School teacher convicted of witchcraft in 1590, a central figure in the North Berwick witch trials

Lilias Adie, witch

Lilias Adie was an elderly Torryburn woman who died after confessing to witchcraft; her face was reconstructed from photos of her skull.

Margaret Aitken, the great witch of Balwearie

Margaret Aitken or Atkin (died Fife c. August 1597), known as the great witch of Balwearie, was a pivotal figure in the great Scottish witchcraft panic of 1597.

Margaretha Horn, witch

Woman arrested on suspicion of witchcraft in Rothenburg in 1652, who despite being tortured, vigorously protested her innocence

Mother Haggy

Witch of St. Albans, best-known for her salve to restore the hymen.

Padiham witch

Margaret Pearson was a convicted witch who escaped the death penalty because she had caused no harm to anyone.

Paisley witches

The Paisley witches, also known as the Bargarran witches or the Renfrewshire witches, were tried in Paisley, Renfrewshire, central Scotland, in 1697.

Pendle witches

The trials of the Pendle witches in 1612 are among the most famous witch trials in English history, and some of the best recorded of the 17th century.

Pittenweem witches

Five Scottish women accused of witchcraft in the small fishing village of Pittenweem in Fife on the east coast of Scotland in 1704

Richard Graham

Richard Graham, sometimes Ritchie Graham or Rychie Grahame, was a sorcerer, necromancer and wizard. Executed on the last day of February 1592 as part of the North Berwick witch trials, he was an associate of Francis Stewart, fifth Earl of Bothwell.

Robert Grierson, witchcraft

Named by several accused of witchcraft during the North Berwick witch trials, Grierson died whilst being tortured during his interrogation.

Samlesbury witches

The Samlesbury witches were three women from the Lancashire village of Samlesbury – Jane Southworth, Jennet Bierley, and Ellen Bierley – accused by a 14-year-old girl, Grace Sowerbutts, of practising witchcraft. Their trial at Lancaster Assizes in England on 19 August 1612 was one in a series of witch trials held there over two days. All three women were acquitted.