Matthew Hopkins is the most notorious name in the history of English witchcraft, and was more commonly known as "The Witch-Finder General". Throughout his reign of terror, 1644-1646, he was responsible for the executions of some 230 alleged witches, more than all the other witch-hunters put together during the 160-year peak of the country's witchcraft hysteria.

Great Yarmouth, which severely persecuted its witches in the latter part of the 16th and first half of the 17th centuries, sent for Hopkins early in 1645, when he already had over 100 hangings to his name.

Witch-Finder General Matthew Hopkins.

Hopkins appears to have been too busy to give much attention to Yarmouth, but he paid speedy visits to the town in September and December, and, at his suggestion, a small group of local women were appointed to keep an eye on suspects. Elizabeth Harward, a woman of unique experience in dealing with the supernatural, was appointed to take charge, and was requested to choose three underlings.

As a result of these investigations Hopkins claimed that 16 witches were hanged at Yarmouth, but the records, which may, of course, be incomplete, only name seven.

Six reputed Yarmouth witches, when appeared before a jury toward the end of 1645, were found guilty, and were sentenced to be suspended by the neck until they were dead, but only five of these were eventually hanged. The charge against one of them, Elizabeth Bradwell, was of practising witchcraft, and of having diabolically and feloniously used, practised and exercised the same art upon and against John Moulton, the infant son of Henry Moulton. The same old woman was further charged with similar practices on Elizabeth Linstead.

For a male to be charged with witchcraft was rare, but Mark Prince was indicted at Yarmouth in 1645 for using "both witchcraft and enchantment," having declared to one Ann Cann where she could find a certain cushion she had lost. He was further charged with using witchcraft to enable him to inform John Ringer what had become of certain of his money which had disappeared. Prince was indeed a lucky man to have been found not guilty. Had he been an ugly old woman, his fate would surely have been sealed.

The torture which these Yarmouth witches underwent at the hands of Hopkins and his accomplices was unbelievably terrible. After suspected witches had had their bodies thoroughly examined for the devil's marks, they were placed cross-legged on a stool or table in the middle of a closed room, the door of which had a small hole through it to allow the devil's imps to come, provided, of course, that the witch-hunters were not too scared to permit this.

Accused persons were often kept in this position for as long as two days, during which they were allowed neither sleep nor food. If this system failed to produce confessions, then the accused were walked about and even whipped until they could, in nine cases out of 10, bear their plight no longer.

The pond at Mistley Place Park where witches were ducked and drowned by Matthew Hopkins, who is said to be buried in the mound.

In cases where the torture failed, Hopkins resorted to "swimming." The thumbs and great toes of were fastened together, and, "with a roape tyed about their middles," they were thrown into a river. If a body sank it was a sign of innocence, but to float took one well on the way to the gibbet, for it proved that one had rejected the sacramental layer of baptism, so now the water refused to receive the body.

Pricking was another method used to discover witches. If a person is turned upside down and a pin is stuck into them there is frequently found to be no bleeding. In Hopkins' day this was accepted as absolute proof that a person was a witch.

At last a country gentleman, shrewder than his contemporaries, managed to capture Hopkins and serve him as he had treated so many women. With his thumbs and toes tied together, the "witchfinder general" actually contrived to float - which certainly saved his life, though it spoiled his practice. Thereafter Matthew Hopkins was not heard of again.

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