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00:00I've always been interested in history and I am fascinated by the supernatural but I had no idea
00:12that Essex is steeped in horrific stories of persecution and death all down to the pursuit
00:18of witches. Let me go there's nothing wrong. I've teamed up with anthropologist Professor Alice
00:25Roberts to investigate what happened and why. She would have been terrified. Of course she would
00:31have. During the 16th and 17th centuries hundreds of women were tried and executed for witchcraft.
00:39Essex became known as the witch county home to some of the most infamous witch trials in England.
00:44We want to know how did these witch trials come about who or what was the driving force behind
00:49them and how Essex's dark past is still linked to the present. The evidence is all here. In this
00:55episode state sponsored violence sweeps through Elizabethan England. What a pestilent people
01:00witches are. In a small town in Essex a feud between two peasant women grows to engulf an
01:07entire village. In our incident room we'll put the pieces of the puzzle together. It's getting
01:13out of control. People are going to die. And reveal the shocking truth behind this dark time
01:20in Essex history. You murdered my baby. Our cold case is now open.
01:34In 1581 this small village in Essex became the focus for one of the largest witch hunts ever seen
01:40in British history. St. Osef is located in the east of Essex, just five miles from Clacton-on-Sea.
01:48We've come to the scene of the crime but this cold case begins with a more recent and rather unusual
01:54discovery. This is St. Osef. It's very pretty. It's gorgeous and just up the road, about 10 minutes
02:01away, you've got Clacton and Jaywick and Seawick. Yeah. And as a kid I remember sometimes we would go up
02:07there growing up in London, go down the seaside, stay in a caravan and it was really exciting as a kid
02:12but I've never really spent time here and I'm not too sure why you want to come here today.
02:18Actually this is a really historic area. It's named after this Anglo-Saxon Mercian princess and
02:24abbess. There's a lovely priory just over there. I've dug out a story from the 1920s and this is about
02:33somebody digging in their back garden. One of those houses just over there. Okay.
02:38This man called Mr. Brooker found a skeleton and Mr. Brooker basically had this in his garden as a
02:45tourist attraction. That's a little bit odd isn't it? Well look I've actually got the newspaper
02:50cuttings from... Of course you have. So St. Osef, a discovery of very great interest was made on
02:57Thursday May the 19th, very specific. Very. By Mr. Brooker. Here we go. He was digging for sand at the
03:02rear of a cottage just there on Mill Street digging up a skeleton lying about five feet beneath the
03:08surface. Look, it's a woman who was probably put to death as a witch in the 17th century. Okay well
03:14that's odd. Yeah. But how does that mean that that's a witch? Was there like a brim stick in a hat or
03:19something? I think we need to find out more about this. Okay well should we go dig in for
03:24want of a better term? Yeah I think we should. I'm just a little bit suspicious about this whole
03:28story. I'm not suspicious about a lot of things. When the St. Osef witch hunt took place England was
03:35decades into the iron rule of Queen Elizabeth I. So what else was happening in the village and the
03:41nation at that time? England is reeling from multiple shocks in the 1580s. This is not a happy
03:49time for either Elizabeth or for the country. Elizabeth had been excommunicated by the Pope
03:56which meant that the Church of England was now entirely separate from the Catholic Church. There is a
04:05radical break in terms of all kinds of relationship, intellectual, business, mercantile links with
04:12continental Europe. There were plots, plots and assassination attempts on Elizabeth I's life.
04:18This was a period of extraordinary mistrust and fear. She decides that her realm may possibly be
04:27full of witches and she introduces a number of punishments for these people, one of which is death.
04:35In 1563 Elizabeth passed an act of parliament establishing witchcraft as a criminal offence
04:45carrying the maximum penalty of death by hanging. The case of the St. Osef witch trials begins 18 years
04:53later in 1581 with two neighbours, Ursley Kemp and Grace Thurlow. When Grace's son
05:04Davy falls sick, in her desperation she employs Ursley, a local healer.
05:11Good child, how art thou loaden? Good child, how art thou loaden? Good child, how art thou loaden?
05:21Good child, how art thou loaden?
05:23You'll be fine now. I've lifted the curse.
05:25God be thanked.
05:35You'll be needing a nursemaid for the new babe, what with you working up the priory?
05:39Hmm. We'll see.
05:41That leg's still giving you bother. Why don't you let me treat it? I've got Hogston, Chervil,
05:49St. John's Wort. You'll feel better in no time. Shall we say a shilling?
05:53A desperate mother, a village healer and a mysterious skeleton. Are the three linked? And if so,
06:06how are they connected to the witch trials?
06:10In our incident room, we review the first clues of the cold case.
06:15We know this is Ursley. Yeah. All right, we know that.
06:19She's our main character in the cold case. She is. Main character energy. Now, in the 1920s,
06:26this skeleton was found in a garden in St. Ose. And there's a possible link that people believe
06:34that this could be Ursley. Yeah, I'm very intrigued but quite sceptical about this link,
06:39but let's put it in as a suggestion. This is Grace. Grace is a friend of Ursley,
06:46and Grace employed Ursley to help her with her sick son, Davy. Ursley Kemp is a healer,
06:54also known as a cunning woman, with a reputation for treating sickness and removing curses.
07:01A cunning woman is somebody who does magical healing. She will come to you and she'll maybe
07:08say a spell or a charm or a prayer over you. Maybe she'll give you some medicine,
07:12some ointment to rub on your body, something to eat or drink, and she'll carry away your disease.
07:20Herbal medicine is still practiced today, so can a modern day herbalist provide any clues to how
07:27and why the cunning folk were effective healers? They were people who supported their community's
07:34health, working with herbal medicine by making remedies to address ailments. They would have
07:39been a known character, a known member of their community, but there is this idea that the healer
07:45in many cultures has been located at the edge of the ecosystem. That everyone knows about them.
07:49Yeah, and that you might go to them at a certain time. I think the term today sounds kind of sinister
07:55because of cunning and what we think of the term cunning, but actually it just means knowledge,
08:00doesn't it? It's a wise person. I know, and it's a distortion, I think, that reflects how people
08:07who practice those kinds of healing modalities have also been discredited through the ages. People
08:13who were cunning women tended to be people that were more voiceless, that had less power in the
08:18hierarchy of the community, being older women, perhaps being widowed. But in old English, the word
08:26root means to have power, to have knowledge. And still using plants, fungi, all of those kind of
08:32natural origins. The way that plants work, we metabolise and we've evolved to break them down,
08:37and they do amazing things in our bodies. The famous example is the white willow bark.
08:42Yeah, salicylic acid. Aspirin, basically. Yeah. Which is the isolated constituent of the plant.
08:49See, this is where we're very different. The first thing when she hears salicylic acid, she says,
08:53Aspirin, I think cosmetics. Oh, really? Yeah, I think skincare.
08:57Yeah. Well, there's always been an association between medicine and cosmetics as well, hasn't
09:01there? As well, definitely. Because you're talking about things which have been tried and tested
09:06over generations. Yeah, yeah. Some of them have passed into modern medicine and become part of our
09:14part of our pharmacology today. The cunning folk were skilled practitioners.
09:19They couldn't afford to work for free, and so Oursley expected her due payment.
09:24Morning, Grace. See that leg looks better. Yeah, it's been fine these last few weeks.
09:31Might you have that shilling in payment for the healing? Come now, Oursley. I'm a poor and needy
09:37woman. I don't have the money. Oh. Well, I about caught that and could cheese your hand.
09:43I've got nothing to give. Please, let me get on. So will that lameness don't come back,
09:49or that son of yours fall sick again then, eh? Threats, is it? Someone might think you're cursing me.
09:56What are you talking about? Should I or my boy fall sick again? I'll report you to the magistrate.
10:03Charge a witchcraft, I think. Cunning people walked a fine line in their community because,
10:10on the one hand, they were thought to be helpful. On the other hand, if something went wrong,
10:15they could be accused of being a witch. The relationship between these two women
10:21is breaking down. Grace is saying no. It's because she don't want to pay.
10:25She pleads a little bit of poverty. Oursley then says to her, well, I hope your son don't get sick
10:29again. Grace then flips. And she's just reminding her about the payment. Exactly. Well,
10:35she promised her a shilling. That's all she wanted. Yeah. But what's really interesting,
10:39I think, is the fact that Grace is then actually threatening Oursley and saying, watch out,
10:46don't keep asking me for this money because I might say that you're a witch. And this isn't an
10:50empty threat. It's majorly serious. These women know what happened to women that are accused of
10:54witchcraft. 1581. In the village of St. Oseth, East Essex, Oursley Kemp and Grace Thurlow have come to
11:08blows over a disputed payment. We know that cunning women are providing the service for their communities,
11:15that they're acting as healers. They're using herbs. But they do also seem to be treading quite
11:21a difficult line. Obviously, if you are a cunning woman like Oursley, that is something that you're
11:28trying to portray as being good. But if somebody takes against you, doesn't like you, then that can
11:35always be changed into an accusation of malevolent magic. And that's the problem. Yeah. But these people
11:41around that time, the cunning folk, they're choosing to do this with their life. Why do you think they
11:46were happy to tread that line? A lot of them don't have very much of a choice. Not a whole
11:50lot of jobs available to women at the time. So there's this sense that a woman can maybe only
11:56have this knowledge if she's in league with the devil. This is something that women struggle with
12:02in general. Like the very first woman, Eve, gets all of her knowledge by being in league with the
12:07devil. Right? So if you are one of these women who has access to something that is seen as supernatural,
12:14maybe you were drawing on this ancient feminine tradition of being particularly evil and loving
12:18to talk to snakes. I mean, it is baked in misogyny running through societies. Absolutely. I mean,
12:25nothing new under the sun, babe. It's not just a throwaway comment when when Grace accuses
12:30Ursley of being a witch, is it? No, it's not going to be gossip. That is something that can get you killed.
12:39In October, 1581, Grace Thurlow's six month old baby dies in mysterious circumstances.
12:45The stage is now set for an explosive reckoning between Grace and Ursley.
12:50I came as soon as I heard. Oh, that poor babe.
13:01I told you to take me on as nursemaid. The band would never have fallen if I were looking after her.
13:07It was you. You did this. I'd have prevented this. If I were looking after her, the babe would
13:16still be in your arms. You cursed her. I couldn't pay you, so you cursed my baby. I didn't curse anyone.
13:25I protect babes. I thought we was friends. And you murdered my baby. Just go.
13:35I'll see you hang for this.
13:37Grace loses her little girl. And this tragic event causes her to accuse Ursley Kemp of having attacked
13:52the child. This idea of blaming was strongly connected to the misunderstanding of what causes
14:00sickness. At a time of crisis, the society could be brought together by attaching a blame to a human
14:07being, to a person. Once it's attached, they are in extraordinary danger.
14:18Grace makes good on her threat and later reports Ursley to the authorities. A warrant is issued for her arrest.
14:30Max III wants a word with you. What are you doing? Let me go. I ain't done nothing wrong.
14:36Ursley is thrown into the village lockup known as the cage.
14:42It's thought part of the jail still stands within this house,
14:46now considered to be one of the most haunted buildings in England. I love a good ghost story.
14:52You are obviously very spiritual. Yeah.
14:54I can see just by looking around your house. What's your take on witchcraft?
14:57So I'm supposed to spiritually. So I believe in what kind of fits well with me. You know,
15:02the first ghost I saw in there, I was sitting in the front room on the floor and she was carrying
15:08a bowl. And in it was something like papyri or leaves. I don't know. I couldn't properly see into
15:14it. And she just sprinkled them over my head as I'm sitting on the floor. And then she disappeared.
15:19Do you think there's any way that this is in you? Do you think that this is,
15:22how do you know that those phenomena are outside you rather than being a hallucination?
15:27No, you know what a hallucination is. What you try and do is rationalise it and say,
15:32OK, right, because you want it to be the mice in the attic. You want it to be that the windows left
15:37open. You want it to be imagination. So for people who maybe don't believe what you're saying,
15:43how did you feel living in that house? Yeah. I felt literally like I had become
15:49the prisoner in my own home. I had the vicar in. I had the local vicar in. I tried everything I knew.
15:54I mean, I do believe in stuff like this. I think there's a rational explanation.
15:58I know you do, but that's why we work. This woman then that you say you saw
16:03coming and sprinkling leaves or whatever it was over you, do you think that was her? Do you think
16:07that was Ursley? I don't know because she never said her name, but I think that in some kind of
16:12way that was some sort of protection. That's obviously something I'm appreciative of. I had
16:18great empathy for her, her situation and how I would feel as if that was me, you know, as a single
16:26parent. How would you feel? What could you do? Witches had no say, did they? Once they were accused of it,
16:34that was that. It's a horrendous story, isn't it? Ursley's situation is about to take a turn for the
16:40worse. St. Osif's ambitious local magistrate, Brian Darcy, is keen to make a name for himself. He's
16:48poised to capitalise on the anti-witch hysteria. We have to diminish the multitude of wicked people
16:56to reform detestable abusers and secret offenders and withdraw honest natures from the corruption of
17:07evil company. Sorcerers, wizards, witches, wise women for so they will be named, will be rigorously punished.
17:21Rigorously say I. It is too mild a term. I should have said, most cruelly executed. For all men must
17:32know what a pestilent people witches are. Unworthy to live in our christian commonwealth.
17:41We know about Darcy's anti-witch zealotry thanks to a key piece of evidence, a pamphlet or chapbook
17:47published soon after the trial. This claim to give a true and full account of the investigations and
17:53subsequent confessions. I think the chapbook is largely Brian's work. It's essentially a kind
17:58of autobiography. It's about him as a witch hunter and his witch trial. We can tell reading between the
18:05lines of the papers that he's commonly well read. He's clearly read a quite recent book by a hugely famous
18:16French intellectual called Jean Baudin, not only urging magistrates across Europe to hunt witches,
18:26but also giving them some remarkably frank advice on how to do so. And Darcy has now read the theory.
18:34He's avid for the practice. So here's where we are in the story. Oursley is arrested and we saw the
18:43local politician, the local magistrate getting involved. So this is Brian Darcy. He is clearly
18:50interested in witches. He's got his own agenda. I mean, he's a politician identifying an enemy and
18:59saying to this society, this community, I can sort this enemy out. He can gain some political capital
19:05from this. This is what it is with him, isn't it? It's just all about furthering his own career.
19:09There's also a connection with the grandest house in St. Osis. The Priory. Now, this is where the
19:16Lord of the Manor lives. And guess what? Brian Darcy is his cousin. Oh, so the cousin is the Lord of the
19:22Manor. Yep. Right. So there's a connection. And Grace works at the Priory. Right. So we've got a bit
19:30of a double connection stacking up against Oursley. Yeah. And we know all of this because actually we
19:36have transcripts from the court. This is known as a chapbook and they're probably heavily biased,
19:42but it's the best evidence that we've got here. So we know from this, Brian Darcy is going to get
19:47even more involved with this case. Darcy's next step is to bring Oursley in for pre-trial questioning.
19:59You are Oursley Kemp, also known as Grey? I am. Sit.
20:09You've been accused by Grace Thurlow, wife of John,
20:13testified under oath. You bewitched both her and her son, causing lameness. And you,
20:22dear God,
20:25that you murdered her infant daughter.
20:28I did none of those things. I'm a healer, one of the cunning folk. I'm not a witch.
20:34I have a second accusation, brought to me only yesterday,
20:38by Annis Leatherdoll, wife of Richard. Says you sent your bastard son Thomas begging for some
20:44scouring sand, but she'd none to give. You were then heard cursing her infant daughter, Elizabeth.
20:52A murmuring and a muttering it was. A child has since taken ill.
20:58I lay my life on it. I never curse that child. I undo cursings and bewitchings.
21:02Mistress Leatherdoll says she called on a cunning woman of high regard, who confirmed it was you
21:08who bewitched the child. It's not true. The infant now suffers such piteous issue and
21:13swellings of her privy parts. She is unlikely to live.
21:21And by the law of our sovereign queen, these wicked acts of sorcery make this a hanging offence.
21:32St. Osith Magistrate Brian Darcy continues to interrogate Ursley. He pushes her to admit to
21:42keeping demonic animal spirits, otherwise known as familiars. Ursley is buckling under the pressure.
21:49If you deal plainly with me, and confess the truth of your wicked acts, I could save you from the gallows.
21:57Confess. Confess. And this will all go away.
22:09But I'm not a witch. A cunning woman, yes. A healer, but not a witch.
22:14And yet the evidence is all here. I even have testimony from your bastard son Thomas.
22:21You told me. If you're devil spirits, confess plainly the truth.
22:30But Thomas is only a child.
22:33These spirits! What forms do they take? What colours? What are their names?
22:39There are four of them. Two cats. One grey, one black. A dark coloured toad.
22:49And a white lamb. And a white lamb.
22:51And which did you send Othurlough's wife?
22:59Confess.
23:02It will be in your favour.
23:06It was a grey cat that ate Grey's Thurlough.
23:10And the toad that punished Othurl's daughter.
23:19And it was the white lamb, the grey dog, that killed Grey's baby.
23:27God forgive me.
23:28It's not really clear why Oursley confesses.
23:37She might feel that she just needs to go along with the magistrate's bullying and say what is necessary.
23:44There's no sign that Brian Darcy uses physical torture, but in a profound sense he doesn't need to.
23:51Because he is the absolute master of the leading question.
23:55He is resentful, he's ambitious, he's anxious to rise in society and make himself known.
24:02He wants to encourage his suspects to confess.
24:05And he also wants to reduce them to a state of submission to him.
24:10I think he bullies them.
24:12Although Oursley confesses, thinking she'll be released,
24:15with more and more people now accusing her, her life still hangs in the balance.
24:21So this is Annis Leatherdale.
24:23Now, Annis has also claimed that Oursley has killed slash cursed one of her own children as well.
24:29So this is two people now that have come forward to say that Oursley is a witch,
24:33or accusing her of some form of witchcraft.
24:35Now, when you're in that situation, she's been in the cage,
24:39she obviously just wants to get back to her normal life.
24:41She doesn't want to be trolled.
24:42She would have been terrified.
24:43Of course she would have, of course she would have.
24:45Yeah.
24:46She ends up admitting to having familiars.
24:50To discover more about these familiars, we seek out a modern day witch.
24:56A witch is someone who tries to marry the mesh of the universe
25:02and distill it into their own lives and to everybody else's lives.
25:06And to walk gently upon the earth and to be a decent human being.
25:12And in terms of the ideology, I mean, would you describe it as a religion?
25:15It is a religion. It has a beating sacred heart to it.
25:19One thing that we've been learning about as well is familiars.
25:22Mm-hmm.
25:22Can you explain to me what a familiar is?
25:24It's like a well-trained pet that you don't have to talk to.
25:27Right.
25:28That just sounds like a long marriage to me.
25:31Yeah!
25:40Don't, I'm a woman who just...
25:41Familiars are... Traditionally, they are animals that do your bidding.
25:48And they can go and spy on neighbours or they can go and turn milk sour.
25:52Well, you know, if a cat pees in a bucket of milk, then it's going to go sour.
25:56Yeah.
25:57And so, but your cat would then get the blame
26:00because you were the person that nobody liked in the village.
26:02Right.
26:03And these stories, which are started by, you know, rumours,
26:07it seems to be that it's ramped up into this frenzy.
26:10Yes, yes. But again, it's unfair.
26:14Did Ursley truly believe she possessed demonic familiars
26:17or was she simply submitting to Darcy?
26:20Now, familiars are like these animals that people believe are sort of spiritual
26:24and supernatural and can do the devil's work on your behalf.
26:29She has two cats.
26:30But, you know, we're saying these are familiars.
26:32Is it... Are they just animals?
26:34Well, of course they could be because then she throws in a toad.
26:37They're not kind of fantastical animals.
26:39We're not talking unicorns here.
26:41But this one is really interesting.
26:43A lamb.
26:44And what Ursley goes on to admit
26:47is that this lamb basically did her bidding for her.
26:50Yeah, but do you believe that she really confessed to that?
26:53Because we don't know what... Absolutely not.
26:55We don't know what Brian's asking you.
26:56We don't know if you were saying, have you seen any animals around?
26:59No.
26:59She mentions a lamb and he says, could the lamb have gone into Grace's house?
27:04Could the lamb have tipped the cot?
27:05All she's got to say is, maybe.
27:08Whatever drove Ursley to confess, she remains imprisoned.
27:13In an attempt to deflect attention away from herself,
27:16she starts pointing the finger of blame at other women.
27:24The constable says you have more to confess.
27:28The knight in the cage loosened your tongue in.
27:34Perhaps you have the names of other witchers in St. Lucis.
27:36My offer of clemency still stands.
27:43It wasn't me that sent those beasts.
27:48They were taken from me.
27:50By Alice Newman.
27:51And?
27:52And it was she that sent them to Grace Thurlow and Leatherdall's daughter.
27:57So you're in league with Mother Newman.
28:00No, no, we ain't friends.
28:03She also cursed Master Johnson, who collects for the poor.
28:08And send the imps to plague Edna Stratton.
28:11Any others?
28:19Ursley spends a night in the lock-up and the next morning she comes out saying not necessarily that
28:26she's primarily responsible for all of these witchcraft crimes, but that maybe other people are.
28:32When you put on the pressure cooker effect, then the cracks are really going to show.
28:37And so every rift in the community is going to gape wide open.
28:43And the names of the accused are going to start tumbling out.
28:46It ruptures the village.
28:48There's no way that previous relations can go back to normal.
28:52Accusations fly as the village starts to rip itself apart.
28:57No one is safe.
29:02Following Ursley's confession, which local magistrate Brian Darcy assured would save her,
29:10her plight has worsened.
29:12Ursley is unravelling.
29:15And Grace Thurlow continues to stir up trouble.
29:21Magistrate. Magistrate.
29:23What news of Mother Kemp?
29:25She currently resides at Colchester Castle.
29:28Awaiting trial at the Springer's Eyes.
29:29She's, with some persuasion, she has confessed to all charges.
29:35There's more witches in St. Osa than just Ursley Kemp, you know.
29:39Go on.
29:39I heard Annis Glasgow bewitched the child of Mitchell, the shoemaker.
29:44And then Alice Hunt told me that Joan Peachey cursed Master Johnson.
29:49Mother Kemp has said as much.
29:52Then there's Elizabeth Bennet.
29:53They say, dear God, the devil makes her have unnatural, carnal tendencies.
30:10Anyone is turning on anyone now.
30:12So Ursley is accusing Alice Newman of taking over her familiars for being the actual malevolent
30:19force in the village and sending these animals out to do their evil work.
30:23There's Annis Glascock, there's another Alice, Alice Hunt, and there's Joan Peachey.
30:31All these women in St. Osa being accused of witchcraft.
30:35I mean, you've clearly got people who are scared and they think they can deflect blame onto others.
30:41What Brian Darcy is doing is stoking that.
30:44100%.
30:45He's stirring that pot.
30:46Whatever his motives are, whatever he's got in mind, it's getting out of control and people are going to die.
30:56We know there was this fear of witches and witchcraft and supernatural, but do you think there were
31:03any hidden motives behind the whole witch trials?
31:05Oh God, yeah.
31:06It could just be something like you owe money to someone who is accused of witchcraft and you
31:11don't feel like paying it, right?
31:13Great way to get out of paying your bills.
31:15It could be sometimes that a woman kind of owns a lot of land and you've got your eye on it.
31:20Oh, accuser of being a witch.
31:21Look, it's for sale.
31:23It's also a way of making yourself a bit of a celebrity.
31:26Yeah, it's interesting, isn't it?
31:27Because there's not a one-size-fits-all.
31:28There could be lots of different motives.
31:30But what you've got around it is this...
31:34It's this state-sanctioned approach and the fact that it's written into law.
31:40Yeah, so that always gives you a framework to fall back on.
31:44And the more law you have, the more this is written about, the more ways there are to exploit it.
31:50Backed by the state, the St. Osith witch hunt intensifies.
31:55Darcy now has his sights set on another villager, Elizabeth Bennet.
32:00But this time, he takes a more aggressive approach.
32:03We have testimony of your devil spirits.
32:10Sucking and leered, is it?
32:11I know you sent them to torment the wife of William Wiles and Mistress Fortune.
32:18You're also accused of using them to kill William and Joan Byatt.
32:22It says who?
32:23I bet it was that telltale, Ursley.
32:27I also have testimony from Master William Bonner.
32:33He says you used your devil powers to seduce his godly wife.
32:38And that you had unnatural relations with her.
32:41Bonner says, Lars Candlemus, you were seen kissing his wife on her mouth.
32:48Whereupon her lips swelled, her eyes sunk, and she has not spoken since.
32:53No, it's lies. I wouldn't hurt her.
32:56You're sexually bewitched and cursed a devout Christian woman and godly wife.
33:03This is witchcraft of the basest kind.
33:07Confess or I'll see you hanged and burned.
33:17Elizabeth Bennet resists Brian Darcy because she won't confess.
33:20He bullies Elizabeth by saying he's going to hang and burn her if she's found to be a witch.
33:27He can't actually do that.
33:29Witches are not burned to death in England.
33:31They are hanged if they're found guilty.
33:34He's refining his technique and using verbal terrorism
33:39as a way of breaking the person in front of him.
33:43One name that keeps popping up is Elizabeth Bennet.
33:46There she is.
33:47So we've had Oursley already say, yeah, she's a witch, you know, she's this, she's that.
33:53But then there's another accusation that comes in.
33:55Yeah.
33:56William Bonner.
33:58He's basically saying that this Elizabeth is a lesbian and is having some type of relation with his wife.
34:04And back then, what you need to remember is anything out of the ordinary when it comes down to sexuality was seen as the doing of the devil.
34:13And what's quite sad to think about, there are certain parts of the world, certain religions that also believe in this day and age.
34:19Yeah.
34:20That's something that Elizabeth may or may not have been.
34:22We don't know that.
34:24That sexuality is sinful.
34:26Yeah.
34:27Yeah.
34:31Am I right in saying that the sort of sexuality side of stuff and witchcraft are pretty much grouped together in this instance?
34:37You are bang on.
34:39So the first ever witch hunting manual that is written, which is called the Malleus Maleficarum, specifically says that the reason there are more women witches than men is because women are more sexual.
34:49And the idea here is that to become a witch, you shag the devil.
34:54No.
34:54Not a euphemism, just full on going at it.
34:58And that witches get together and they have big old orgies with the devil and each other.
35:03So if you are actually queer and out in the world, then the idea is, oh, well, you shag women, you shag the devil.
35:10So you must be a witch as well.
35:11Exactly.
35:12Do you think people actually believe that the devil is involved here just because somebody isn't heterosexual?
35:18Incredibly, the first time this ever happens, when the first book comes out, everyone says, you are crazy, this makes no sense.
35:24A hundred years later, when we get Protestants and Catholics, yep, apparently they just think to be a witch is to be kind of gay, to be kind of gay is to be a witch.
35:33Yeah, and it's about controlling people, but in terms of actually controlling their bodies.
35:38And if you think about it, it is really threatening to society to have a woman who is this out of control by men.
35:45So if you are only attracted to women, you're having sex with other women, well, where are the men in here to tell you what to do?
35:51You're not answering to a man, are you?
35:52Exactly.
35:53She's outside the patriarchy.
35:55And that has to be stopped.
35:57With Elizabeth and many others being swept up in the witch hunt, a desperate Oursley is still stuck behind bars.
36:06Now, even her own brother turns against her.
36:10Master Darcy!
36:12Master Darcy!
36:13Master Darcy!
36:18I told you everything.
36:20You promised me favour if I did.
36:24Your confessions have proved useful.
36:27I now have 14 persons to put before the Azores.
36:31Please, can I go on?
36:33Tell me, what of your sister-in-law?
36:43We weren't on good terms, I admit that.
36:48We came to blows on Elliot's Eve a while back.
36:52Just today, your own brother, Lawrence, came to me and told me of the curse you put on his wife.
37:00That's not true.
37:03She fell sick.
37:04I was trying to help her.
37:06He says his wife languished in agony for nine months and then breathed her last.
37:15You, Oursley Ken, killed her with wicked sorcery.
37:23You must hang for your crimes.
37:30Brian Darcy wanted to be famous.
37:36He does go down in English history as one of the very first English witch hunters.
37:42This witch hunt expands right across Essex and by the time it's finished,
37:45a large number of people have been accused and they're taken for trial at Chelmsford.
37:51Oursley goes to court but was she sentenced to death?
37:55And was it her skeleton that was unearthed?
37:58To finally identify the Mill Street remains, we head to the St. Osef Social Club to meet with
38:04retired police inspector turned local historian, John Morland.
38:08So we've seen this photograph which was said to be that of Oursley or Ursula Kemp.
38:13I should have mentioned, I also found there was evidence of a nail through the bone as well.
38:17Okay, so this is interesting.
38:18Yeah.
38:19So this is an iron nail piercing through the bone.
38:22I can't see it in this picture.
38:24It's not there.
38:25The hole here doesn't look like a hole that's been made when that bone is fresh and green.
38:31So hold up.
38:33This skeleton's found, dug up by Mr. Brooker.
38:38There's photo evidence of the skeleton being dug up.
38:42But there's no nails.
38:43I mean, I'm no detective, but a bit suspect, isn't it?
38:50Exactly.
38:51It's all been done very, very quickly after the remains have been uncovered.
38:56Yeah.
38:57Just going back to these pictures, I was immediately suspicious.
39:01For a number of reasons.
39:02I mean, I'm worried about the date of it.
39:04St. Osef is well known for its Anglo-Saxon history.
39:08It's named after an Anglo-Saxon princess.
39:10This could just be an Anglo-Saxon burial ground.
39:13I mean, one of the things, surely, that you can do is look for a date.
39:18Absolutely.
39:19And that's exactly what I did.
39:21Had carbon dating done, and...
39:24So before you show us...
39:25Yes.
39:26I'm going to say it's a thousand years old.
39:28Okay.
39:32It's 1600s.
39:34There we go.
39:35Okay, so my hypothesis is wrong.
39:37Still looking at a skeleton, which is the right age.
39:41It's in the right area.
39:42Yeah, the right...
39:43So it's Ursley?
39:43The right antiquity.
39:44No, it means we haven't disproven that it's her.
39:47Okay, well, I'm fine with that.
39:49Is this where I can put a spoiler in or not?
39:52Well, I...
39:52Do you know, I think I can throw a spoiler in.
39:55Go for it.
39:55Because that does not look like a female skeleton to me.
39:59You're absolutely right.
40:01It's a man.
40:02Oh, for...
40:03What?
40:08Well, this was a waste of time.
40:10And I think everybody locally wanted it to be Ursley.
40:13What's happened to the bones now, then?
40:15The bones, I'm pleased to say the executors said,
40:19I can take the remains and rebury them with some dignity
40:22in unconsecrated land as originally found.
40:25Where they're meant to be.
40:26So the Mill Street skeleton is not Ursley.
40:32But at the end of March, 1582,
40:35Ursley, along with Elizabeth Bennet,
40:37are both convicted of witchcraft and led to the gallows.
40:42We have to diminish the multitude of wicked people.
40:54For all men must know what a pestilent people witches are.
41:01Unworthy to live in our Christian Commonwealth.
41:05I'm a healer, one of the cunning folk.
41:07I'm not a witch.
41:19Confess, or I'll see you hanged and burnt.
41:24I'm not a witch.
41:25I'm not a witch.
41:27I'm not a witch.
41:29He's not a witch.
41:30I'm not a witch in German and contraindrician.
41:32But I can take a few more stories
41:32in the world of sheep.
41:33I don't know what a name is Owen such as a mess.
41:36I want a man to protect them.
41:37So the mystery of Mother is a witch,
41:38and it'll be all that lust is being said.
41:40Oh, I don't know what a mystery of her.
41:40It's a witch.
41:41I think there are millenaries in the world of others.
41:42It's been a witch that has been a witch.
41:43It's been a witch which has been a witch.
41:45It's a witch in her mother.
41:47She's not a witch in her village.
41:49She's not a witch.
41:50But I'm so happy that she's a witch her witch.
41:51I think there are malevolent forces at work in 16th century St. Osis, but I don't think it's
42:00witchcraft. I think it is self-interest, rumor, coercion. I think you're absolutely right.
42:10Brian Darcy played his part really well because what he then went on to be was promoted. He moved
42:16up in the world. He got what he really wanted. And unfortunately, two women lost their lives.
42:24It's really sad. It's desperately sad, but I think also it contains many lessons of how
42:33power can be misused and abused, how people in positions of power can be believed and can
42:42cause greater rifts in society. And it's so damaging.
42:50In the end, through the needless victimization of women like Oursley and Elizabeth, state
42:56suppression reigned supreme. Social control was achieved.
43:01Next time on Witches of Essex. Self-styled witch finder general Matthew Hopkins begins his reign
43:08of terror. What do you want from me? With the torture and execution of Manningtree's most
43:14vulnerable women. We should root out these women until every last one is swinging from
43:18the gallows.
43:48Alleluia.
43:50Thank you,hen.
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