Trial of Witches

In 1662, Amy Denny and Rose Cullender were accused of witchcraft, and, in one of the most important of such cases in England, stood trial and were hanged in Lowestoft. This text is an in-depth study of this trial, and an analysis of the court procedures, and the larger social, cultural and political concerns of the period. In a critique of the official process, the book details how the erroneous conclusions of the trial were achieved. The authors consider the participants in the case, their institutional importance (the presiding judge was Matthew Hale, whose work is still cited in English case law and the verifying doctor was the prominent Sir Thomas Browne), their part in the fate of the women and their future careers. The Lowestoft trial was cited at the Salem trials against those who lost their lives there. Through detailed research of primary sources, the authors explore the important implications of this case for the understanding of hysteria, group mentality, social forces and the witchcraft phenomenon as a whole.