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The St. Osyth Witch Trials Part 4
Priory Education Centre
Perhaps from fear, or promise of a lighter sentence or maybe because of past grudges, Ursula accused other local women of being involved in the witchcraft, they in turn accused more. Brain thoroughly investigated each accusation until the trial included 13 women and 1 man from St. Osyth and local villages. It is hard to know what motivated Brian to pursue these cases with such zeal. It could have been that religion played a key part.
The St. Osyth Witch Trials Part 3
Priory Education Centre
Brian Darcy seemed to be proud of how he held the investigation and employed a scribe about whom only the initials are known ‘W.W.’ to record the events. This he published in a pamphlet only a month after the trials took place. For several of the accused he questioned their young children. It must have been incredibly frightening to stand in the hall at St. Clere’s surrounded by well-to-do adults as a poor, unschooled, 8 year old child.
The St. Osyth Witch Trials Part 2
Priory Education Centre
The Witch Trails began in a cold winter of 1582. Europe had been experiencing a mini ice-age with temperatures in England 2 degrees cooler. Crops and livestock suffered and increasing rainfall ruined harvests. St. Osyth was a harsh marsh land to scrape a living. The accusations made during the witch trials show the depth of the poverty the community was experiencing with people accusing others over crimes for which the punishment was death over small things like some cheese or a cup of yeast.
