MATTHEW HOPKINS

'Matthew Hopkins', d. 1647, was an English witchhunter whose career flourished in the time of the English Civil War. He held, or claimed to hold, the office of "Witch-finder General", though this was not a title ever bestowed by Parliament, conducting witch-hunts in the counties of Suffolk, Essex, Norfolk and other eastern counties of England.
Matthew Hopkins, born in Great Wenham, Suffolk, was a lawyer or lawyer's clerk, the son of James Hopkins, a Puritan clergyman. According to his book ''The Discovery of Witches'' (not to be confused with Reginald Scot's book ''The Discovery of Witchcraft'') he began his career as a witch-finder when he overheard various women discussing their meetings with the Devil in March 1644 in Manningtree, a village near Colchester, where he was living at the time. As a result of Hopkins's accusations, nineteen alleged witches were hanged and four more died in prison.
Hopkins was soon travelling over eastern England, claiming truthfully or not to be an official specially commissioned by Parliament to uncover and prosecute witches. His witch-finding career spanned from 1644 to 1646. While torture was technically unlawful in England, he used various methods of browbeating to extract confessions from some of his victims. He used sleep deprivation as a sort of bloodless torture. He also used a "swimming" test to see if the accused would float or sink in water, the theory being that witches had renounced their baptism, so that all water would supernaturally reject them. He also employed "witch prickers" who pricked the accused with knives and special needles, looking for the Devil's mark that was supposed to be dead to all feeling and would not bleed. It was believed that the witch's familiar would drink their blood from the mark as milk from a teat.
Hopkins and his co-worker John Stearne, together with female assistants, were well paid for their work, earning £20 from one visit to Stowmarket, Suffolk, which was then more than a year's wages for most people.
Samuel Butler's satire ''Hudibras'' commented on Hopkins's activity, saying:

:Has not this present Parliament
:A Lieger to the Devil sent,
:Fully impowr'd to treat about
:Finding revolted witches out
:And has not he, within a year,
:Hang'd threescore of 'em in one shire?
:Some only for not being drown'd,
:And some for sitting above ground,
:Whole days and nights, upon their breeches,
:And feeling pain, were hang'd for witches.
:And some for putting knavish tricks
:Upon green geese and turky-chicks?
:And pigs, that suddenly deceast
:Of griefs unnat'ral, as he guest;
:Who after prov'd himself a witch
:And made a rod for his own breech.

The last line refers to a tradition that disgruntled villagers caught Hopkins and subjected him to his own "swimming" test: he floated, and therefore was hanged for witchcraft himself. However, it is believed by most historians that Hopkins actually died of illness (possibly tuberculosis) in his home. The parish records of Manningtree in Essex record his burial in August of 1647.

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Cultural depictions

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Cultural depictions

★ The 1966 novel ''Witchfinder General'' and 1968 film of the same name are fictionalised accounts of Hopkins' activities.

★ A British heavy-metal band is called Witchfinder General, after Hopkins' title.

★ British heavy-metal band Cathedral named both an EP and a song on it "Hopkins (The Witchfinder General)". The song's lyrics deal with witches and their supposed deeds. One verse is written in the first person, as if narrated by Hopkins.

★ In the 1978 young adult novel 'The Devil On The Road' by Robert Westall, the narrator, a student, travels back in time to the 1640s and falls in love with a young woman. At the same time, Matthew Hopkins arrives in the village to try some women accused of witchcraft. The novel portrays Hopkins as a deceitful character who makes false accusations for money.

External links

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★ Animated/Audio Story of Hopkins and his demise

★ History of the Essex Witch Trials