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Witches of Essex (2025) Season 1 Episode 3 - Manningtree
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FunTranscript
00:00I've always been interested in history, and I am fascinated by the supernatural.
00:05But I had no idea that Essex is steeped in horrific stories of persecution and death.
00:12All down to the pursuit of witches.
00:15What? Did the devil come on?
00:18I've teamed up with anthropologist Professor Alice Roberts to investigate what happened and why.
00:26I mean, it's almost like the thought place, isn't it?
00:28Yeah, it's very Orwellian.
00:30During the 16th and 17th centuries, hundreds of women were tried and executed for witchcraft.
00:37What is wrong with these men?
00:39I couldn't tell you.
00:40Essex became known as the Witch County, home to some of the most notorious witch trials in England.
00:46We want to know, how did these witch trials come about?
00:49Who or what was the driving force behind them?
00:51And how Essex's dark past is still linked to the present.
00:55In this episode, we jump forward to the mid-17th century and the time of England's Civil War.
01:04What are you doing? Get off me!
01:06We investigate the rise of Matthew Hopkins, the infamous self-styled Witchfinder General.
01:13Hold her still.
01:14In our incident room, we'll put the pieces of the puzzle together.
01:19And reveal how Hopkins will do whatever it takes to rid Essex of witches.
01:25We should root out these women until every last one is swinging from the gallows.
01:28Our cold case is now open.
01:41This time, our investigation is centred on the town of Manningtree.
01:45This old trading port is located in the north-east of Essex and sits on the banks of the River Stour.
01:51Today, it's a quaint little commuter bolt hole, but this sleepy town has a dark past.
01:58So, welcome to gorgeous Manningtree.
02:00Thank you. It is really lovely. It's pretty.
02:02It is. It's a very pretty town.
02:04Once actually claimed to be the smallest town, though we can't uphold those claims.
02:08And a little fun fact for you, this is where Margaret Thatcher lived when she was a chemist before she was Prime Minister.
02:13Oh, I've got another fun fact for you.
02:15Of course you have.
02:16In the 17th century, it was home to Matthew Hopkins,
02:19who started one of the most infamous witch hunts and witch trials in history.
02:25Really? Yeah.
02:26Let's go find out more.
02:29This witch hunt dates back to 1645, during the height of England's bloody Civil War.
02:38Chaos reigns and communities are torn apart as sides are chosen between the King, Charles I, and Oliver Cromwell's parliamentarians.
02:51The English Civil War has been raging for three years and has torn the country up.
02:56War triggers paranoia. It triggers anxiety.
02:59Every town, every settlement is constantly worrying about people among their own who might be on the enemy side.
03:11The parliamentary calls are being led by Puritans, who were extraordinarily religious, extraordinarily suspicious, and they were very concerned about witchcraft and rooting out the devil.
03:26Into this hotbed of paranoia steps 25-year-old Matthew Hopkins and his associate, John Stern.
03:35Both are hardline followers of witch-finding manuals, obsessed with macabre methods of identifying witches.
03:42John, John, listen to this part. God has appointed that water shall refuse to receive them into her bosom.
03:49A witch denies their baptism when they covenant with the devil.
03:53Don't you see? We can reveal a witch by swimming. A water trial, if you like.
03:59They'd be bound?
04:00Of course. Wrist angles. If they sink, they're innocent. And should they drown, they will pass on to heaven.
04:09And if they float, they're being rejected by the water. This proves they're a witch.
04:14Sink or swim.
04:15It's perfect. Trial by divine intervention.
04:19Hopkin's favourite witch-finding guide is called Demonology, written nearly 50 years prior, at the turn of the century, by the king's father, James I.
04:32The fact that A. King wrote a book about witch-hunting is really useful for future witch-hunters like Matthew Hopkins.
04:38It urges on good Christians to hunt witches, and it provides hot tips on ways in which to do it, including the swimming test.
04:50Matthew uses the book of demonology as a blueprint to both find and discover witches, but also to then persecute them.
04:59In our incident room, we're investigating how an impressionable young man became the deadliest witch-hunter in English history.
05:10So, Alice, I'd like you to meet Matthew Hopkins.
05:1425-year-old. He's the son of a Puritan preacher.
05:17So, religion plays heavily in his life.
05:20Yeah.
05:21He's quite well off. He's got an inheritance.
05:23You know, I wouldn't say he's poor by any means, but I wouldn't say he's ultra-rich.
05:27Now, this is his friend, John Stern.
05:31These two young men seem to have a bit of time on their hands.
05:34They do, and not only do they have a bit of time on their hands, they've got a little bit of, I think it's safe to say, an obsession.
05:40Yeah.
05:41With a certain publication, which I think you'll be familiar with.
05:44Yeah, so this is demonology. This is James I's book about how to spot a witch and what to do when you find one.
05:51Well, we've already seen him expressing an interest in testing witches.
05:56I shouldn't say witches, I should say testing women suspected of witchcraft by throwing them into water.
06:02If you sink, oh, she weren't a witch, she's gone to heaven, what a shame.
06:06If you do actually float, off to the hanging.
06:10So we're talking about women being tortured and killed. This is what these two are talking about?
06:15Absolutely.
06:16What is wrong with these men?
06:17I couldn't tell you.
06:19Matthew is raised to be an avid Puritan Christian.
06:23His dad dies, his mum remarries another country clergyman.
06:28Following a family tragedy, Hopkins starts putting his witch-hunting studies into practice.
06:35When his stepsister Susan suffers the loss of her baby son, he rushes to comfort his grieving brother-in-law, Richard Edwards.
06:44I grieve for your loss. Who is my sister?
06:50As expected.
06:52Be consoled that your son John is now with our Lord God in heaven.
06:58Fire burnt within him. Strange fits.
07:01I will pray for his soul.
07:04But I am troubled.
07:08First your cows, then your horse, and now there's despair.
07:13Could there be more at play here? More that is unseen.
07:18Who was the babe's wet-nurse?
07:20Good wife Wiles.
07:21Godly woman.
07:23Does she not live near that cripple best club?
07:26She does.
07:27There are rumours.
07:30Wasn't her mother tried for witchcraft?
07:32Oh.
07:33Perhaps there's more to this mother, Clarke, than meets the eye.
07:39So we're starting to find out a little bit more about Matthew's character.
07:43This is his stepsister, Susan.
07:46OK.
07:47So she's married to Richard Edwards.
07:54They've actually lost four children now.
07:57And so we see Matthew potentially starting to come up with an explanation for why they're losing so many babies.
08:04He's sort of saying, not just this has happened to your children, but things have happened to your animals, to your family.
08:09Yeah.
08:10Maybe it could be something else at work.
08:11There could be something supernatural happening.
08:13Infant mortality is rampant at the time, but even by the standards of the age, this looks unusual.
08:21It must have been upsetting to see the baby fall ill and die and to see the grief of Richard and Susan.
08:27And I think he probably felt unabound to help the people his family he joined.
08:34In the taverns of Manningtree, Hopkins starts to listen in to conversations.
08:40He's increasingly interested in Elizabeth Clarke, known as Bess, a single mother with one leg, and her young friend, Rebecca West.
08:53Oh, Rivet's wife called me a whore.
08:55I'll pay her back for that.
08:58Your vinegar time would help.
09:00I feed him on milk pottage.
09:02Just a drop of blood.
09:07He comes to me as a right proper gentleman.
09:09I must lie with you, he says.
09:16Well, that Richard Edwards thinks he's Lord of the Bloody Manor.
09:20I curse that William Cole's wife.
09:23Mouth like a privy.
09:25Old sack and sugar would sort her out.
09:31There's definitely something creepy about young Matthew Hopkins.
09:35He's an eavesdropper.
09:37And he especially seems to eavesdrop on women.
09:41He is energised by hearing village women discussing animals.
09:46And he becomes convinced that these animals are no less than demonic familiars.
09:51A witch's familiar is usually the devil in the shape of an animal.
09:55So, quite commonly, they are cats or toads or dogs.
09:59And the witch is thought to be able to send them to his or her neighbours in order to hurt them.
10:04Matthew Hopkins seems to be working up to witchcraft accusations, keeping score, taking notes.
10:10Hopkins local, the Red Lion, is still standing today.
10:17And it'd be rude not to pop in for a glass of vino.
10:20It's so strange to think we're sat here in the same type of setting, having a conversation.
10:28And if we were two women back then...
10:30He could have been sitting there listening.
10:32Literally right behind us, writing down everything we're saying.
10:35Well, he's coming to a place where people are letting down their guard.
10:38I mean, that's what people do. They come for a drink, they come to relax, let your hair down.
10:43That's exactly what's happening now.
10:44I've been through a similar thing where I've been on a night out, enjoying myself with my friends.
10:48And I get a phone call the following week that I'm going to be the front page of the paper on Sunday.
10:53No, no.
10:54Because they've got a story made from a joke I said whilst out with my friends.
10:58It's awful. Yeah.
11:00What is bad is the rumour. Yeah.
11:02The rumour and the gossip.
11:04Once someone says it and it starts spreading, there's no control in it.
11:07I mean, how did he get away with it?
11:09I have no idea, but we need to find out.
11:11How does he become so influential?
11:12I have no idea, but we need to find out.
11:14And why here in Essex?
11:15I have no idea, but we need to find out.
11:18Why does it happen here?
11:20If we were looking at a young man like this today, who is fiercely, fiercely misogynistic,
11:30we'd be talking about incel culture.
11:33Is there anything like this that could be going on with Matthew Hopkins?
11:36When you look at incel culture, there's some indication that some of these men were quite fearful of women
11:43and felt like a little bit of a victim kind of compared to women.
11:46There's nothing about victimhood at all when you look at this character.
11:49Absolutely not.
11:50Nothing at all. It's complete opposite.
11:52Oh, he's main character. He's very much in control of what he's doing.
11:56There's something called the dark triad, and that's definitely coming through as well.
12:00What's the dark triad?
12:01So narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism, which would really fit with his character.
12:06So that's someone who's really deceitful for their personal gain.
12:09So it's a very clever, very complex kind of personality.
12:13Really manipulative.
12:14Really manipulative.
12:15Really highly manipulative.
12:16And only 25.
12:17And he just seems to me like a really nasty piece of work.
12:21In the shadow of England's deadly civil war, Vickers' son and Puritan fanatic Matthew Hopkins
12:34is convinced there are witches in Manningtree.
12:38So we see him then in The Red Lion.
12:41And he's listening in to conversations, private conversations in the pub.
12:46And the people he's particularly listening to are this woman here.
12:51So this is Bess Clark.
12:53So Bess Clark, she's a local woman, she's got a disability, she's got one leg.
12:57She has, we see her with her crutches.
12:59And she's talking to Rebecca West.
13:02And this is just one of her friends?
13:03Yeah.
13:04A younger woman.
13:05These women are poor relative to him.
13:09And he is already suspicious about Bess Clark.
13:13He's got ideas about her.
13:14And it doesn't help because they're obviously having a bit of a girl's chit chat, chatting
13:18away just amongst themselves.
13:20And there's certain lines that he's hearing and sort of picking up on.
13:23Vinegar Tom, sack and sugar.
13:25He's adding two and two and getting five.
13:26And he's sort of creating this dossier, isn't he?
13:29Because what he thinks he's doing is collecting evidence against them.
13:33Hopkins isn't the only one with suspicions.
13:36Bess also comes to the attention of local tailor, John Rivett.
13:41Rivett's wife gets sick.
13:44And Rivett consults a cunning woman or wise woman.
13:48And the cunning person says, yes, your wife's been bewitched by two witches,
13:53one of whom lives uphill from you and the other downhill.
13:57Now, unfortunately for Bessie, she lives uphill from the afflicted household.
14:04We think we know where this all played out.
14:07We've come back to the Red Lion pub, which sits in South Street, the oldest road in Manningtree,
14:13which happens to run up a hill.
14:15It's likely that both the tailor and Bess Clark lived here.
14:21So John Rivett, whose wife had fallen ill, goes to that cunning woman.
14:26She accuses or says you should be suspicious about these two women who live above and below you.
14:32So, I mean, it does sound like it all took place right here.
14:35I genuinely think that because they mentioned about above and below.
14:38Yeah.
14:39It goes down that way and it goes a bit more up there.
14:41Crazy, isn't it?
14:42It's the flimsiest, flimsiest bit of evidence.
14:45It's all hearsay, isn't it?
14:46I want a trusted cunning woman.
14:48Above and below, give me names, darling, give me names.
14:51On the basis of this dubious accusation, Hopkins has all the evidence he needs.
14:57He convinces the magistrate to issue a warrant for the arrest of Bess Clark.
15:08Bess Clark!
15:09What are you doing? Get off me!
15:11His Majesty's Justice of the Peace grants warrant to arrest you and the charge of witchcraft.
15:16Leave her alone! Can't you see she's crippled?
15:19Rebecca West, daughter of Anne West.
15:21Yes?
15:22Take her as well.
15:23No! No!
15:24Wait!
15:25No!
15:26No! No!
15:28No!
15:29So we see Bess Clark get arrested.
15:31Rebecca's caught up in this as well.
15:33And they're arrested by Matthew.
15:35It's very, very odd.
15:36Let's have a little look at this.
15:37This is a court account.
15:38It's a publication.
15:39So this is a write-up of what was said in court.
15:43Okay.
15:44This pamphlet gives us a blow-by-blow report of Hopkins' investigation and the charges against Bess Clark.
15:53It's so tenuous.
15:54There is no evidence.
15:55There's no evidence.
15:56There's no evidence whatsoever.
15:57And he's behaving like some kind of vigilante.
16:00Yeah.
16:01It feels to me like he's reaching for status in this community.
16:05I think that's probably a good way to look at it.
16:08It also feels very dangerous at this point because his odd ideas are starting to have a real-life impact.
16:15Very much real.
16:16Hmm.
16:17The more I learn about this man, in modern times I would just sit there and say he's a serial killer via proxy.
16:27It's a really interesting point.
16:28So from a pure perspective, we couldn't call him a serial killer because he's not killing anyone himself.
16:33For me, you're looking at someone who has the key components of a cult leader.
16:38A cult leader.
16:39So the key traits that I think you see when you look at him are narcissism and grandiosity and also that authoritarian manner.
16:48Mm.
16:49And they're the key components of that cult leadership.
16:51Because, remember, this isn't someone who's just attacking people.
16:54This is someone who has to be quite charming and convince people to follow him and to do what he wants them to do.
17:00Yeah.
17:01Because he gets people to do his bidding.
17:03He's also feeding into that paranoia that's already there, and that's what people like him do.
17:08People with that authority can start to otherise people and make them feel like they need to follow him to feel safe.
17:16The Manningtree locals are being influenced by a cold-blooded narcissist convinced he's doing God's work.
17:24But why aren't the authorities stepping in?
17:27Hopkins is not a figure who could have held his own and wielded as much power as he did as a young man in his early 20s
17:37if there weren't a complete legal breakdown within the state.
17:42In 1645, there's no more law. The entire criminal justice system is suspended. So you have a complete legal vacuum.
17:53With the country in turmoil, Hopkins manipulates the legal process and gets put in charge of the Manningtree investigation.
18:04He starts by interrogating Rebecca West.
18:07Mistress West, what do you know of a secret meeting of women?
18:18My Ma said not to speak of it. I made an oath.
18:23Your Ma's life, and that your friend Bess Clark, may won't depend on you breaking that oath.
18:29It would be to your favour to speak openly.
18:39We met at Bess Clark's house.
18:41We?
18:42Widow Anne Leach, her daughter Helen Clark, Mother Gooding, my Ma and me. And Bess.
18:48And?
18:49Bess had a book, and we said prayers, and then these animals came, like kitlins.
18:58Devil's prayers.
18:59These imps, these satanic familiars, and what charge were they sent?
19:05Speak! Girls!
19:06I don't know. They were just kitlins. Bess said something about Mr. Edward's horse, and Helen wanted to hurt someone's hogs.
19:14What else? What revenge did you command?
19:17I...
19:21I wished ill on Prudent's heart.
19:23Who then suffered the loss of her unborn child.
19:26The Manningtree conceals a coven of witches, which root out these women till every last one is swinging from the gallows.
19:35It's heavy to think about, you know, all these guys around this young girl.
19:41She must have felt very caged in at that point.
19:44I mean, what's she admitting to? She's saying, yeah, we get together in each other's homes.
19:48And what?
19:49It's just a group of women talking.
19:51Possibly a prayer group, actually, because they've got a book.
19:54However, she does mention something that really pricks his ears up.
19:59I think it's when she mentions animals.
20:01Yeah.
20:02So she mentions these kitlings, these kittens, cats.
20:05I mean, they could be, they probably are, real cats.
20:09But he is starting to believe that actually this is evidence of supernatural phenomena.
20:16Spirits, demons.
20:17Yeah.
20:18And this is the law that pertains at the time.
20:20So this is the 1604 act that James I brought in.
20:25And under this act, in fact, you didn't have to harm anyone to be punished for witchcraft.
20:31You just had to do it.
20:32I mean, it's almost like the thought police, isn't it?
20:34Yeah, it's very Orwellian.
20:35It's almost like, if you're thinking of witchcraft, we're going to get you.
20:40James passed an act to Parliament which made witchcraft and witchery a felony.
20:46Effectively, he is saying that if you are accused of witchery, you must be a witch because nobody would accuse you if you weren't guilty.
20:55There is no doubt that the ordinary people who bring the accusations are lashing out in a frenzy of hatred and grief and fear.
21:05And what the acts do is give them a framework within which they can make these fears effective.
21:11This fear of witches wasn't just driven by an act of Parliament.
21:17It was spread throughout the land as part of entertainment.
21:21And one particular playwright had a lot to answer for.
21:25Oh, I've got goosebumps. This is amazing.
21:28We've come to the Globe Theatre to meet Shakespeare expert Dr Will Tosh to learn more.
21:33So this is an accurate reconstruction of the Globe Theatre that was built in 1599 by Shakespeare and his theatre company.
21:39We're obviously talking about witches and understanding witchcraft.
21:42There's a very famous play, isn't there, that William Shakespeare wrote.
21:46Are we allowed to say the name?
21:47I think you should say it because I don't want to be cursed.
21:49Macbeth.
21:50It's Macbeth.
21:51There it is.
21:52Yeah.
21:53It's a story about a medieval Scottish king who receives a prophecy from three witches that he will be king and goes on a kind of killing spree.
22:01Back then there were a lot of people, they were illiterate, they didn't read.
22:04So all of this stuff that was going on about witch trials, this would have been basically some people's news.
22:11In Shakespeare's time, 3,000 could squeeze in. London is only 200,000 people at this point.
22:17Oh my goodness.
22:18Up to tens of thousands of people per week could go to the theatre.
22:22So this was really speaking to the masses?
22:24This is completely speaking to the masses.
22:26The kind of witch element seems to be Shakespeare's innovation and so that later iconography of witchcraft is very much kind of drawing on what we see in The Three Witches in Macbeth.
22:37What I'm left thinking is Shakespeare part of the problem.
22:42He's feeding people back what they want to see, what they want to hear.
22:46You could go away from this play thinking old women could be malevolent forces.
22:51Yeah.
22:52Well I know a couple.
22:56The witches seen in Macbeth forever linked the supernatural with dark ambition.
23:02And amid the paranoia of a deeply divided nation, it fanned the flames of witch hysteria.
23:09Yeah, this is meant to be really frightening.
23:11You are meant to be scaring people.
23:12This is alarming.
23:13I should have come with no makeup.
23:15Oh, the arms already started.
23:17Look.
23:18It's like you're going skiing.
23:19Round about the cauldron go in the poisoned entrails through.
23:25Double, double toil and trouble.
23:28Fire burn and cauldron bubble.
23:32Excellent.
23:34I'm frightened myself.
23:35Really terrified.
23:36Properly terrified.
23:37I'm actually frightened myself.
23:38The image of a witch as a woman who is physically different has endured through the centuries.
23:45From children's story books to feature films.
23:50But in the 17th century, these portrayals had dangerous consequences for anyone who stood out.
23:57Especially Bess Clark, who had one leg.
24:00Deformity was always seen as a sign of sin.
24:04The fact that she's not only a woman, but a deformed woman, means that her sin is really, literally almost, inscribed for people to decode and see.
24:16It's right in front of their eyes.
24:18And remember that she is a vulnerable, impoverished, overawed person to begin with, who's used to deferring to authority.
24:28She doesn't stand a chance.
24:37In Manning Tree, witch finder Matthew Hopkins has taken disabled suspect Bess Clark into custody.
24:45Rather than using the swimming test, he moved straight to a deeply invasive process called searching.
24:52He enlists the help of local midwife, Mary Phillips.
24:56You're a vile witch, Bess Clark.
24:59We know your demonic familiars.
25:01Mary, search her.
25:03We need to find the devil, Marks, where she suckles her ribs.
25:06Get off me!
25:08Leave me alone!
25:10Hold her still!
25:11There, Master Hopkins.
25:14Leave me alone!
25:15Teats between her legs.
25:16I see them.
25:17Hidden so carefully.
25:18I'll get the pins for pricking.
25:19Thank you, good wife Mary.
25:20Of both children.
25:21It is natural.
25:22Bastard children.
25:23Your body betrays you, Mother Clark.
25:25The truth is plain to see in your devil's teats.
25:27Now, our watch begins.
25:29No.
25:30No.
25:31No.
25:32No.
25:33No.
25:34No!
25:35No!
25:36No!
25:37No!
25:38No!
25:39No!
25:40No!
25:41No!
25:42No!
25:43No!
25:44No!
25:45No!
25:46No, no, no!
25:47No!
25:48No!
25:49No!
25:50No!
25:51No!
25:52Now, this is so dark.
25:54But what Bess is put through is abhorrent.
25:58It's disgusting. It's horrendous.
26:01And that's where we meet this person, Mary Phillips.
26:05And Mary does confirm that she's found something in Bess's groin area.
26:09They find what they're allegedly looking for.
26:11So, I mean, she's a piece of work, this woman, as well.
26:14Yeah, I don't think we can blame her.
26:16I mean, you know, it's the men, isn't it?
26:18Well, of course it is.
26:19She's doing what they're asking her to do.
26:22It's all horrendous. It's all horrendous.
26:27So, Jonathan, Bess Clark has been incredibly violated.
26:31What on earth are they looking for?
26:33So, essentially, they're looking for something that looks like a nipple.
26:37And they go around the body looking for these protuberances,
26:42anything that looks abnormal,
26:44that could potentially suckle one of the imps.
26:48There's a huge range of normal anatomy.
26:51There's a huge range.
26:52But there's also lots and lots of pathology that could have been there.
26:55Yes.
26:56So, hemorrhoids are one thing.
26:57Prolapse.
26:58Prolapse.
26:59Yeah.
27:00Which is a horrible condition.
27:01And often these areas were said to be in sense that you couldn't feel them.
27:06And sometimes they'd say, well, they wouldn't bleed.
27:09So, what they would also do is they would go around the body and stick a pin into different parts of the body to see if the woman screamed or not.
27:20This is the sort of thing...
27:21Oh, stop it.
27:22...that they would use.
27:24These are not witch pins.
27:25These are 19th century medical instruments.
27:27But these were stuck into the witch's body all around.
27:31And we're talking intimate areas.
27:33Absolutely.
27:34All areas.
27:35After someone's done that so many times, you get to the point where you don't scream anymore.
27:41No.
27:42Oh, awful.
27:43And then...
27:44Exactly.
27:45This is torture.
27:46This is not torture.
27:48This is witch pricking.
27:50What is it?
27:51What if it's not physical torture?
27:52Well, we'd call it that.
27:53We'd call it that.
27:54Back then they...
27:55Back then, remember, physical torture was, you know, on the rack and thumb screws.
28:00This was just an inspection to them.
28:03Matthew Hopkins is going right to the edge of what is considered to be acceptable in his treatment of these women.
28:10He knows where the line is, doesn't he?
28:12Yes.
28:13He knows that he's not allowed to officially torture them.
28:16Yes.
28:17But that is what he's doing.
28:23This is thought of as a godly experiment in how to get people to confess to being witches and to find out the truth.
28:29Matthew's justification was that the crime of witchery was so inhuman, so wicked, so evil,
28:37that rooting out required all the practices available to man.
28:42Hopkins' brutal interrogation methods knew no bounds,
28:46and the dungeons at Colchester Castle provided a suitably nasty environment.
28:52I brought Alice to the cells, which still exist today.
28:56Oh, Ben, this is grim.
29:01So this is the regional jail.
29:03Okay.
29:04So before you face trial, you are sent to jail.
29:06And the main reason Colchester Castle was chosen by Matthew Hopkins was because of its reputation.
29:11It was known to be so horrific that they brought them specifically here so that they would confess.
29:17And what was the conditions like in here?
29:18Absolutely atrocious.
29:19Really?
29:20So even now you can see how bare they are.
29:22Yeah.
29:23So no sanitation whatsoever.
29:24You'd have just gone in the corner.
29:26And all sorts of horrible diseases and infections would have been rife because of the sanitation,
29:31but also starvation and malnutrition.
29:34And how many people do you think would have been in a cell of this size?
29:38So in a cell like this, we know at its maximum, you could have possibly had at least 30 to 35 people.
29:44Really?
29:45So he loved the fact that this place was so horrific for people.
29:47Yeah, he came here first, realised what the jail was like,
29:50and decided that this was going to be his base of operations.
29:54Hopkins' torture of Bess Clark is relentless.
29:58He's kept her awake and walking for two days.
30:02A technique called watching.
30:05She's close to breaking.
30:08Oh, please.
30:11Let me sleep.
30:13We have been charged by the justice of the peace to watch you for the better discovery of your wicked practices.
30:20What do you want from me?
30:23It's simple.
30:24Call your imps.
30:26I don't have these imps you speak of.
30:28Imps, familiars, devil spirits.
30:30Call them to your aid and we will let you sleep.
30:33Bell Dame, Anne West.
30:34She has beasts.
30:35Sent, sent one to William Cowell.
30:36She did.
30:37She tormented Robert Oakes' wife.
30:38And the clothier's child.
30:39And what of Richard Edwards?
30:40Did you send your spirits to kill his baby son?
30:42What did the devil command?
30:43What did the devil come on?
30:45What did the devil come on?
30:46What did God use?
31:12The devil! The devil!
31:15Let me lie, please!
31:17She confesses.
31:19She admits to laying with the devil.
31:30Witch-hunting vigilante Matthew Hopkins
31:32has been using sleep deprivation to torment disabled woman, Bess Clark.
31:38Under extreme duress, she gives up names of other women
31:42to be added to Hopkins' growing list.
31:46Bess, remember, she's got one leg.
31:49She's been forced to walk for three days, no sleep,
31:53getting her to a point of absolute exhaustion.
31:57She names Anne West, doesn't it?
32:00This is Rebecca's mum.
32:02So perhaps she's trying to deflect onto somebody else
32:05just to, you know, encourage Matthew Hopkins to look elsewhere.
32:10He's not allowed to be doing this.
32:12But this, technically, not torture.
32:15Oh.
32:16And at the end of that, he's actually getting testimony
32:20which should not be admissible in court.
32:23And he's getting away with it.
32:24So what's your take on Matthew Hopkins?
32:27He is someone who made his name
32:29by being the worst possible guy
32:32and destroying other people's lives.
32:33Yeah.
32:34Do I think that he believed these people were witches?
32:37Sure.
32:38But I also don't fundamentally care
32:40because he went out of his way
32:42to find these women and destroy them,
32:46destroy their community.
32:47Like, he could have just gone and been a vicar.
32:49Calm down.
32:50You could save souls that way.
32:51And so this is a moral panic
32:53that spreads as a result of, you know,
32:55some guy not getting any play.
32:57Why didn't someone stop him?
32:59Well, it was very, very difficult to stop him
33:00because what do you say in this situation?
33:03Oh, well, that guy who's being very holy isn't, right?
33:06That makes sense to us now.
33:08But when you've got a bandwagon rolling like that,
33:11it's very difficult to stop.
33:14Convinced of the righteousness of his cause,
33:17Hopkins wants one more piece of evidence for his case.
33:20He wants best to summon her familiars.
33:23Animal familiars are never real.
33:27They're never put on trial themselves.
33:29They're never found.
33:31They only occur in stories.
33:33What Matthew Hopkins is doing throughout this period
33:36is creating evidence or an evidence trail for the trials.
33:41He is trying to create moments
33:43where the witches will haul on their familiars.
33:47Three days into her interrogation,
33:50Bess is finally broken by Hopkins' extreme methods.
33:55Confess, Mother Clark.
33:57Summon your imps.
34:01If you just let me sit,
34:05if you do me no further hurt,
34:08I will call him.
34:10Mary, bring her soon.
34:11There's a kit, Len.
34:31Named Holt.
34:36A greyhound.
34:37He's Vinegar Tom.
34:43Another dog.
34:46Jamara.
34:51There's a polecat.
34:54One more.
34:57A rabbit.
35:00Name of Sac and Sugar.
35:04John, do you see what I see?
35:08Oh, dear.
35:10We must all report to the judge
35:13what we have witnessed this night.
35:17And may God protect us all.
35:23Matthew's broken her.
35:24I mean, it's understandable.
35:26She's been effectively tortured for three days.
35:29She's sleep-deprived.
35:31She's probably delirious.
35:33She will say or do anything
35:34just to try and feel some type of comfortable.
35:37Yeah.
35:38He's leading her to do this.
35:40Tell us their names.
35:41So she does.
35:42She says there's a cat called Holt.
35:46There's a greyhound called Vinegar Tom.
35:49Another dog called Jamara.
35:51A polecat.
35:52Yeah.
35:53A rabbit.
35:53She says the rabbit's called Sac and Sugar.
35:55It does sound like delirium.
35:57It sounds like she is just making it up in the moment.
36:00And she doesn't know what else to do at this point.
36:02This is understandable.
36:03Yeah.
36:03That I can get on board with in her current state.
36:06Yeah, absolutely.
36:07But something I don't understand
36:08is how Matthew and these people
36:11believe that they've seen these familiars being conjured up.
36:16It might be that what we're seeing is a type of delusion.
36:21So again, if the narrative at the time
36:23was that witches really existed,
36:26it would only take one person to suggest that they see it
36:30for the other people to then be convinced
36:34that they could also see the same thing.
36:36And we know delusions happen.
36:37And we know that you can also prime people to see something.
36:42And we're also talking about a space
36:45where there would have been shadows,
36:47perhaps some strange noises.
36:49And so if people are expecting there to be supernatural phenomena,
36:55expecting there to be animals coming out of the shadows.
36:57They're almost creative.
36:58I did see a shadow, but actually I didn't...
37:01Now you say that, maybe, yeah,
37:02it did look like a little bit of a cat.
37:03It's that sort of connection that you have with someone.
37:07Yeah, and I love the language that they're using.
37:09They're like, I saw that, did you see that?
37:10So that kind of discourse is really important.
37:12It builds it, doesn't it?
37:13And it kind of makes it more real for you.
37:15And it's like now that shared experience.
37:17So that's why you have mass delusion that can happen.
37:20But people are en masse,
37:22a group can be deluded that they see the same thing.
37:26Convinced he's seen Bess Clark's demonic familiars,
37:30Hopkins continues to collect evidence.
37:33He turns his attention back to Rebecca West.
37:37She's been rotting in Colchester jail for a month,
37:40suffering starvation and torture.
37:45Master Hopkins!
37:47Master Hopkins!
37:50Master Hopkins!
37:51Please, please, Master Hopkins,
37:53do you have any bread?
37:55Any crust?
37:56Do you have more to tell?
38:08Speak, girl, and I'll bring you something for the hunger.
38:11I've told you of the meeting and the Kitlins.
38:14I broke my oath.
38:15What else is left?
38:17The devil, he came to you.
38:19What did he say?
38:21What promises were made?
38:24Speak, girl!
38:27After that prayer meeting,
38:29the devil did come to me.
38:31As beast or a man?
38:37He was a handsome man.
38:40He kissed me,
38:42led me by the hand,
38:43and said he would marry me,
38:44protect me,
38:45defend me from all harm.
38:47So long as you deny God and Christ Jesus.
38:49Did you lie with him?
38:55I couldn't deny him.
38:58I'm sorry.
38:59I confess it.
39:00I confess it all.
39:02With the civil war raging,
39:05the law courts are in disarray.
39:08It would be a further three months
39:10until the women's trial.
39:11The Matthew Hopkins witch trials
39:14are not conducted by professional judges.
39:17They're conducted by blundering local bigwigs
39:20to put on trial the growing number of people
39:24whom Hopkins is landing in jail.
39:26When the trial is finally held,
39:28Rebecca West is granted her freedom
39:30in exchange for testimony
39:31that condemned five other Manning Tree women,
39:35including her own mother, Anne West.
39:37Also among them was her friend, Bess Clark,
39:40found guilty of the death of Hopkins' nephew,
39:42the baby son of Richard and Susan Edwards.
39:47On the 18th of July, 1645,
39:51Bess is the first to be executed.
39:55A witch denies their baptism
39:57when they cover the devil.
40:00Manning Tree conceals a covenant of witches.
40:02We should root out these women
40:03until every last one is swinging from the gallows.
40:05What do you want from me?
40:12You're a vile witch, Bess Clark.
40:33She dresses.
40:34She admits to laying with the devil.
40:43So this poor woman from Manning Tree
40:46has been executed for witchcraft.
40:49But Rebecca acquitted.
40:52He's only just got started.
40:53Over the next 14 months,
40:56he and John will visit seven counties,
40:59and this ends up with more than 200 women
41:04being executed for witchcraft.
41:07It's incredible to think that this man
41:12took this all into his own hands
41:14and got away with it.
41:16And not only that,
41:18he titled himself the Witchfinder General.
41:21This title wasn't given to him.
41:23He just made it up himself.
41:25And that's what people knew him as.
41:26He sort of created his own character.
41:30He's a psychopath,
41:31but he's a psychopath
41:32who is being allowed
41:36to cause this damage.
41:38Society is enabling him.
41:42By 1647, Matthew and his barbarous methods
41:48start to face criticism.
41:50So he fights back,
41:53now suffering from TB.
41:55He pens a book,
41:57The Discovery of Witches.
41:59Thou shall not suffer a witch to live.
42:02The night she is watched,
42:04keep her walking.
42:05Witches deny their baptism
42:06when they covenant with the devil.
42:09Hopkins died in August 1647,
42:12but the discovery of witches
42:14would inspire future witch hunters
42:16across the world,
42:17including a small town in America
42:19called Salem.
42:21It's a very,
42:23almost poetic story,
42:26the fact that this guy
42:27becomes obsessed with a book
42:28written by a king
42:29and then a town in the States
42:32become obsessed with a book
42:34written by Matthew.
42:36And that's where we get
42:37the Salem witch trials
42:39because they looked up to this guy.
42:42So witch hunting is exported
42:44from Essex to the world.
42:49Our investigation has revealed
42:51a fanatical cult leader
42:53intent on torturing
42:54and destroying those on the margins.
42:57All to elevate himself
42:58in a society divided
43:00by suspicion and grief
43:01and leave a legacy of fear
43:04that would spread far beyond
43:05the witch county of Essex.
43:08The kink of the recruit
43:12from the
43:35history of the
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