List of people executed for witchcraft
This is a list of people executed for witchcraft, many of whom were executed during organized witch-hunts, particularly during the 15th–18th centuries. Large numbers of people were prosecuted for witchcraft in Europe between 1560 and 1630.[1]
Background
Until around 1440, witchcraft-related prosecutions in Europe centered on maleficium, the concept of using supernatural powers specifically to harm others. Cases came about from accusations of the use of ritual magic to damage rivals.[1] Until the early 15th century, there was little association of witchcraft with Satan.[2] From that time organized witch-hunts increased, as did individual accusations of sorcery. The nature of the charges brought changed as more cases were linked to diabolism. Throughout the century, several treatises were published that helped to establish a stereotype of the witch, particularly the Satanic connection. During the 16th century, witchcraft prosecutions stabilized and even declined in some areas.[2] Witch-hunts increased again in the 17th century. The witch trials in Early Modern Europe included the Basque witch trials in Spain, the Fulda witch trials in Germany, the North Berwick witch trials in Scotland, and the Torsåker witch trials in Sweden.
There were also witch-hunts during the 17th century in the American colonies. These were particularly common in the colonies of Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New Haven. The myth of the witch had a strong cultural presence in 17th century New England and, as in Europe, witchcraft was strongly associated with devil-worship.[3] About eighty people were accused of practicing witchcraft in a witch-hunt that lasted throughout New England from 1647 to 1663. Thirteen women and two men were executed.[4] The Salem witch trials followed in 1692–93, culminating in the executions of 20 people. Five others died in jail.
It has been estimated that tens of thousands of people were executed for witchcraft in Europe and the American colonies over several hundred years. The exact number is unknown, but modern conservative scholars estimate around 40,000–50,000.[A] Scholar Carlo Ginzburg of the University of Bologna, in his work Night Battles, estimates the number between 3-4 million people. Common methods of execution for convicted witches were hanging, drowning and burning. Burning was often favored, particularly in Europe, as it was considered a more painful way to die.[5] Prosecutors in the American colonies generally preferred hanging in cases of witchcraft.[5]
List of people executed for witchcraft
Name | Lifetime | Nationality | Death |
---|---|---|---|
Theoris of Lemnos | before 323 BC | Ancient Greece (Lemnos) | Unknown. |
Liu Ju | d. 91 BC | Han Dynasty | Committed suicide after rebelling against Emperor Wu of Han in the midst of a witch hunt. His father later realized he had been wrong. |
Petronilla de Meath | c. 1300–1324 | Ireland | Burned to death. |
Stedelen | d. c. 1400 | Switzerland | Confessed under torture to summoning demons; burned to death and beheaded. |
Kolgrim | c. d. 1407 | Norwegian Greenland | Burned to death. |
Veronika of Desenice | d. 1425 | Slovenia | Veronika was minor nobility and Frederick's father Hermann II was greatly opposed to the marriage. The chronicles of the Counts of Celje suggest he had his son arrested and, while holding him prisoner, initiated a trial against Veronika accusing her of witchcraft. She was acquitted by the court. Despite the court's ruling, she was incarcerated in Ojstrica Castle near Tabor and murdered (supposedly on the orders of Hermann II) by being drowned in 1425. She was buried in Braslovče and a few years later Frederick arranged for her remains to be reburied at the Carthusian monastery at Jurklošter and in her memory also made an endowment to the monastery at Bistra.[6] |
Matteuccia de Francesco | d. 1428 | Papal States | Confessed to having flown on the back of a demon; burned to death. |
Agnes Bernauer | c. 1410–1435 | Bavaria | Convicted of witchcraft and thrown in the Danube to drown, following accusations by her father-in-law Ernest, Duke of Bavaria. |
Guirandana de Lay | d. 1461 | Aragon | Woman accused of witchcraft; burned at the stake. |
Gentile Budrioli | d. 1498, 14 July | Italy | Tortured and burned on the stake in Bologna. |
Narbona Dacal | d. 1498 | Spain | Accused of witchcraft during the trial by the Inquisition. Burned at the stake. |
Janet, Lady Glamis | d. 1537 | Scotland | Accused of witchcraft by King James V; burned to death. |
Gyde Spandemager | d. 1543 | Denmark | Burned to death. |
Lasses Birgitta | d. 1550 | Sweden | The first woman executed for witchcraft in Sweden; beheaded. |
Agnes Waterhouse | c. 1503–1566 | England | The first woman executed for witchcraft in England; hanged. |
Polissena of San Macario | d. 1571 | Lucca | Burned to death. |
Janet Boyman | d. 1572 | Scotland | Executed in 1572 for witchcraft |
Gilles Garnier | d. 1573 | France | Serial child murderer; convicted of witchcraft and lycanthropy, and burned to death. |
Soulmother of Küssnacht | d. 1577 | Switzerland | Burned to death. |
Violet Mar | d. 1577 | Scotland | The trial of Violet Mar is believed to have influenced the views on witchcraft held by James VI of Scotland |
Thomas Doughty | d. 1578 | England | Nobleman and explorer accused by Sir Francis Drake of witchcraft, mutiny and treason; beheaded |
Ursula Kemp | c. 1525–1582 | England | Confessed to witchcraft and hanged. |
Elisabeth Plainacher | 1513–1583 | Austria | Only person to be executed for witchcraft in Vienna; burned to death. |
Walpurga Hausmannin | d. 1587 | Bavaria | Midwife who confessed to child murder, witchcraft and vampirism; burned to death. |
Anna Koldings | d. 1590 | Denmark-Norway | Burned to death. |
Rebecca Lemp | d. 1590 | Bavaria | One of 32 women convicted of witchcraft in a witch hunt in Nördlingen, burnt at the stake.[7] |
Anne Pedersdotter | d. 1590 | Denmark-Norway | Burned to death. |
Kerstin Gabrielsdotter | d. 1590 | Sweden | The only member of Swedish nobility to be charged with witchcraft; Unknown.[8] |
Agnes Sampson | d. 1591 | Scotland | Midwife, garrotted and burned to death during the North Berwick witch trials. |
Marigje Arriens | c. 1520–1591 | Dutch Republic | Burned to death for sorcery. |
Witches of Warboys | d. 1593 | England | Alice Samuel and her family; hanged. |
Allison Balfour | d. 1594 | Scotland | Executed in Kirkwall |
Jean Delvaux | d. 1595 | Liège | Roman Catholic monk; beheaded |
Andrew Man | d. 1598 | Scotland | Tried and burnt[9][10] |
Pappenheimer Family | d. 1600 | Bavaria | Tortured and burned to death. |
Mary Pannal | d.1603 | England | Unknown. |
Merga Bien | 1560s–1603 | Hesse | Convicted as part of the Fulda witch trials and burned to death. |
Mechteld ten Ham | d. 1605 | Dutch Republic | Confessed under torture and was burned to death. |
Nyzette Cheveron | d. 1605 | Spanish Netherlands | Confessed to being a witch; was strangled and burned to death; Led to the execution of Anne Nouville. |
Franziska Soder | d. 1606, October 8 | Rheinfelden, Switzerland | Burned as a witch. Her husband paid 320 Gulden as "confiscation" to the Gentlemen' Chamber in Rheinfelden.[11] |
Elin i Horsnäs | d. 1611 | Sweden | Beheaded after her second trial for witchcraft. |
Alice Nutter | d. 1612 | England | Hanged during Pendle witches hunt |
Pendle witches | d. 1612 | England | Unknown. |
Evaline Gill | d. 1616 | Scotland | Strangled; burned to death survived by 2 children moved to Singer Louisiana – Still living witch's Scalloway |
Elspeth Reoch | d. 1616 | Scotland | Executed in Kirkwall |
Margaret Quaine | d. 1617 | Isle of Man | Executed in Castletown, Isle of Man with her son, John Cubbon. Margaret's mother was also accused of Witchcraft several decades prior. Wiccan Priest Gerald Gardner erected a plaque in their memory on the Smelt Monument in Castletown Square. |
Witches of Belvoir | d. 1618 | England | A mother and two daughters, the daughters were hanged. |
Sidonia von Borcke | 1548–1620 | Pomerania | Confessed to murder and witchcraft under torture; beheaded, corpse burned. |
Christenze Kruckow | 1558–1621 | Denmark-Norway | Noblewoman who confessed to cursing the marital bed of a rival; beheaded. |
Elizabeth Sawyer | 1572-1621 | England | Poor woman executed at Tyburn. |
Anne de Chantraine | 1601–1622 | France | Strangled and then burned at the stake. |
Jón Rögnvaldsson | d. 1625 | Iceland under Danish rule | Burned to death. |
Katharina Henot | 1570–1627 | Cologne | Postmistress; burned to death. |
Johannes Junius | 1573–1628 | Holy Roman Empire | Tortured, burned to death during the Bamberg witch trials |
Urbain Grandier | 1590–1634 | France | Convicted following the Loudun possessions and burned to death. |
Johann Albrecht Adelgrief | d. 1636 | Royal Prussia | Executed after claiming to be a prophet.[12] |
Maren Spliid | c. 1600–1641 | Denmark | Burned to death. |
Elizabeth Clarke | c. 1565–1645 | England | The first woman persecuted by the Witchfinder General, Matthew Hopkins; hanged. |
Adrienne d'Heur | 1585–1646 | France | Burned to death. |
Alse Young | c. 1600–1647 | Connecticut Colony | The first person recorded to have been executed for witchcraft in the American colonies; hanged. |
Margaret Jones | d. 1648 | Massachusetts Bay Colony | The first person to be executed for witchcraft in Massachusetts Bay Colony; hanged. |
Mary Barnes | c. 1631-Jan 1663 | Connecticut Colony | The last person to be executed for witchcraft, along with Nathaniel and Rebecca Elson Greensmith, in Hartford, CT |
Alse Young | c. 1600–1647 | Connecticut Colony | The first person recorded to have been executed for witchcraft in the American colonies; hanged. |
Alice Lake[13] | 1620–c. 1650 | Massachusetts Bay Colony | Wife of Henry Lake; hanged in Massachusetts. |
Mrs. Kendall[13] | c. 1650 | Massachusetts Bay Colony | Hanged at Cambridge, Massachusetts. |
Elizabeth Bassett[13] | born. 1651 | Massachusetts Bay Colony | Accused but not executed because she was pregnant. (Husband John Proctor Jr was executed for being a Witch) Elizabeth died sometime after 1703. The cause is unknown but not from Witch trials. |
Jeane Gardiner | d. 1651 | Bermuda | Executed in Bermuda. |
Michée Chauderon | d. 1652 | Switzerland | Confessed under torture to summoning demons and was the last person executed for sorcery in Geneva.[14] |
Goodwife Knapp[15] | d. 1653 | Massachusetts Bay Colony | Hanged at Fairfield, Connecticut. |
Katherine Grady | d. 1654 | England | Accused of being a witch, tried, found guilty, and hanged aboard an English ship en route to Virginia from England. |
Ann Hibbins | d. 1656 | Massachusetts Bay Colony | The fourth person executed for witchcraft in Massachusetts Bay Colony; hanged on Boston Common |
Marketta Punasuomalainen | 1600s–1658 | Swedish Finland | Cunning woman, burned to death. |
Ursula Corbet | d. March 14th 1661 | England Worcester | Accused of being a witch, tried, found guilty of poisoning her husband of three weeks. Known as the white witch of Worcester who lived at Defford, near Pershore. |
Daniel Vuil | d. 1661 | New France | Shot with muskets on October 7, 1661, accused of causing the demonic possession of a girl, although his Protestantism and selling alcohol to the indigenous people were also factors. The only person to be executed for witchcraft in New France.[16] |
Anna Roleffes | c. 1600-1663 | Brunswick-Lüneburg | Decapitated and burned on December 30, 1663. She was one of the last witches to be executed in Braunschweig, Germany and the complete account of her trial still exists. She is better known as Tempel Anneke. |
Goodwife Greensmith[13] | d. 1663 | Connecticut Colony | Hanged at Hartford, Connecticut |
Isabella Rigby | d. 1666 | England | Believed to be the last person hanged for witchcraft in Lancashire. |
Lisbeth Nypan | c. 1610–1670 | Denmark-Norway | Cunning woman accused of making people sick to earn money; burned to death. |
Thomas Weir | 1599–1670 | Scotland | Strangled and burned to death. |
Märet Jonsdotter | 1644–1672 | Sweden | Beheaded |
Anna Zippel | d. 1676 | Sweden | Beheaded for abducting children. |
Brita Zippel | d. 1676 | Sweden | Beheaded for sorcery. |
Malin Matsdotter | 1613–1676 | Sweden | Burned to death. |
Anne Løset | d. 1679 | Denmark-Norway | Burned to death. |
Peronne Goguillon | d. 1679 | France | Burned to death; one of the last women to be executed for witchcraft in France. |
Catherine Deshayes | c. 1640–1680 | France | Also known as La Voisin; burned to death following the Affair of the Poisons |
Antti Tokoi | d.1682 | Swedish Finland | Accused and convicted of witchcraft, blasphemy, disgracing priests, and healing. |
Ann Glover | d. 1688 | Massachusetts Bay Colony | Last person hanged for witchcraft in Boston. |
Alice Parker | d. 1692 | Massachusetts Bay Colony | Hanged during the Salem witch trials. |
Ann Pudeator | d. 1692 | Massachusetts Bay Colony | Hanged during the Salem witch trials. |
Bridget Bishop | c. 1632–1692 | Massachusetts Bay Colony | The first person to be tried and executed during the Salem witch trials.[17] |
Elizabeth Howe | 1635–1692 | Massachusetts Bay Colony | Hanged during the Salem witch trials. |
George Burroughs | c. 1650–1692 | Massachusetts Bay Colony | Congregational pastor, executed as part of the Salem witch trials.[18] |
George Jacobs | 1620–1692 | Massachusetts Bay Colony | Hanged during the Salem witch trials. |
Giles Corey | c. 1611–1692 | Massachusetts Bay Colony | Crushed to death for refusing to plea during the Salem witch trials. This method is also known as pressing. His last words were "more weight please". |
John Proctor | c. 1632–1692 | Massachusetts Bay Colony | Hanged during the Salem witch trials. |
John Willard | c. 1672–1692 | Massachusetts Bay Colony | Hanged during the Salem witch trials. |
Margaret Scott | d. 1692 | Massachusetts Bay Colony | Hanged during the Salem witch trials. |
Martha Carrier | d. 1692, August 19 | Massachusetts Bay Colony | Hanged during the Salem witch trials; her children had claimed she was a witch while undergoing torture. |
Martha Corey | 1620s–1692 | Massachusetts Bay Colony | Hanged during the Salem witch trials |
Mary Eastey | 1634–1692 | Massachusetts Bay Colony | Hanged during the Salem witch trials |
Mary Parker | d. 1692 | Massachusetts Bay Colony | Hanged during the Salem witch trials. |
Rebecca Nurse | 1621–1692 | Massachusetts Bay Colony | Hanged during the Salem witch trials |
Sarah Good | 1655–1692 | Massachusetts Bay Colony | One of the first to be convicted in the Salem witch trials. |
Samuel Wardwell | 1643–1692 | Massachusetts Bay Colony | Hanged during the Salem witch trials. |
Sarah Wildes | 1627–1692 | Massachusetts Bay Colony | Hanged during the Salem witch trials. |
Susannah Martin | 1621–1692 | Massachusetts Bay Colony | Executed during the Salem witch trials. |
Wilmot Redd | 1600s–1692 | Massachusetts Bay Colony | Hanged during the Salem witch trials. |
Mima Renard | d. 1692 | Portuguese Brazil | Prostitute, was accused by popular belief to bewitch men; burned to death. |
Anne Palles | 1619–1693 | Denmark-Norway | The last person officially executed for witchcraft in Denmark; beheaded. |
Viola Cantini | 1668–1693 | Italy | Burned to death on May 10, 1693, after caught performing vampirism on her dying son and cursing members of the village. |
Paisley witches | d. 1697 | Scotland | Also known as the Bargarran witches, the last mass execution for witchcraft in western Europe.[19] |
Elspeth McEwen | d. 1698 | Scotland | Burned to death. |
Anna Eriksdotter | 1624–1704 | Sweden | The last person executed for sorcery in Sweden. |
Laurien Magee | 1689-1710 | Ireland | Burnt at the stake as part of the Islandmagee witch trial.[20] |
Mary Hicks | d. 1716 | Great Britain | Mary and her daughter Elizabeth were to be the last Witches executed in England in Huntingdon.[21] |
Janet Horne | d. 1727 | Great Britain | Last British person to be executed for sorcery; burned to death. |
Catherine Repond | 1662–1731 | Switzerland | Strangled and burned to death. |
Helena Curtens | 1722–1738 | Electoral Palatinate | One of the last people to be executed for witchcraft in Germany. |
Bertrand Guilladot | d. 1742 | France | Priest who confessed to having made a pact with the devil |
Maria Renata Saenger von Mossau | 1680–1749 | Bavaria | One of the last to be executed for witchcraft in Germany. |
Maria Pauer | 1730s–1750 | Austria | Last person executed for witchcraft in Austria; beheaded. |
Ruth Osborne | 1680–1751 | England | Murdered by an unruly mob during a "trial by ducking". |
Ursulina de Jesus | d. 1754 | Portuguese Brazil | Accused of removing her husband's virility to avoid having children; burned to death. |
Anna Göldi | d. 1782 | Switzerland | Beheaded; last person to be executed for witchcraft in Europe[22] |
Maria da Conceição | d. 1798 | Portuguese Brazil | Accused and convicted of witchcraft to produce medicines and potions to attract men. |
Leatherlips | 1732–1810 | Wyandot people | Native American leader who was sentenced to death for witchcraft and executed with a tomahawk.[23] |
Barbara Zdunk | 1769–1811 | Prussian Poland | Burned to death. |
Ngema Makhemu | d. 2000, October | South Africa | Burned to death. Victims: Makhemu Ngema (65), Mbhejile Sibiya (28), Hlengiwe Ntuli (20), Samukelisiwe Masikane (7), Khanyisane Ngema (6) and Siyabonga Masikane (3). [24] |
Ama Hemmah | d. 2010 | Ghana | Accused of being a witch; burned to death. |
Amina bint Abdulhalim Nassar | d. 2011, December | Saudi Arabia | Public execution by beheading[25] |
Muree bin Ali Al Asiri | d. 2012, June | Saudi Arabia | Public execution by beheading[26] |
Ahmed Kusane Hassan | d. 2020, September | Somalia | Public execution by firing squad[27][28] |
Sangweni Jostina | d. 2021, April | South Africa | Brutally beaten and burned alive. (3). [24] |
Images
- Agnes Bernauer, executed in 1435
- Catherine Deshayes aka La Voisin, executed in 1680
- Urbain Grandier, executed in 1634
- Execution of Ann Hibbins on Boston Common, June 19, 1656. Sketch by F.T. Merril, 1886
- Giles Corey being crushed to death, 1692
- Martha Corey was executed in 1692
- The Trial of George Jacobs who was executed in 1692. Painting by Thompkins Matteson, 1855
- Agnes Waterhouse was executed in Chelmsford, England in 1566
Notes
- ^ According to Kors & Peters, modern scholars place the number of executions for witchcraft at no greater than 50,000.[29] According to Merriman, some estimates are higher.[30] Levack multiplied the number of known European witch trials by the average rate of conviction and execution, to arrive at a figure of around 60,000 deaths.[31] Barstow adjusted Levack's estimate to account for lost records, estimating 100,000 deaths. Many were burned by the stake, decapitated, and tortured in various ways.[32] Hutton argues that Levack's estimate had already been adjusted for these, and revises the figure to approximately 40,000.[33]
References
- Footnotes
- Levack, p. 204
- Levack, p. 205
- Hall, p. 4
- Fradin, Judith Bloom, Dennis Brindell Fradin. The Salem Witch Trials. Marshall Cavendish. 2008, pg. 15
- Stack, p. 20
- "Veronika of Desenice".
- Guiley, Rosemary Ellen (2008). "Lemp, Rebecca (d. 1590)". The Encyclopedia of Witches, Witchcraft and Wicca (3rd ed.). New York: Facts On File. p. 206. ISBN 978-1-4381-2684-5.
- Almquist, Joh. Ax (1931). Frälsegodsen i Sverige under storhetstiden : med särskild hänsyn till proveniens och säteribildning. Stockholm: P.A. Norstedt. ISBN 91-38-03119-1. OCLC 2677928.
- Natasha Sheldon (18 November 2017), The Devil's Disciples: Twelve Male Witch Trials You Haven't Heard Of, History Collection
- Goodare, Julian (21 September 2002), The Scottish Witch-Hunt in Context, Manchester University Press, pp. 83–84, ISBN 9780719060243
- Schaeppi, Kathrin. (2000). Reunion: Schaeppi of Horgen: Family Chronicle. Basel: Gremper. Aus der Gemeindechronik Alte Bürgergeschlechter: Soder. p. 164.
- Ripley, George; Dana, Charles Anderson (1859). The New American Cyclopaedia. D. Appleton and Company. p. 122.
- Jewett, Clarence F. The memorial history of Boston: including Suffolk County, Massachusetts. 1630–1880. Vol 2. Ticknor and Company, 1881. pp. 138–141
- Lea, Henry Charles (2004). Materials Toward a History of Witchcraft. Kessinger Publishing. p. 1118. ISBN 0-7661-8359-9.
- "Profile of Goodwife Knapp". Archived from the original on 2018-10-02. Retrieved 2013-06-21.
- Henneton & Roper 2016, p. 56
- Upham, Caroline E. (2003). Salem Witchcraft in Outline. Kessinger Publishing. p. 88. ISBN 0-7661-3900-X.
- Burr, George Lincoln (2003). Narratives of the Witchcraft Cases 1648 to 1706. Kessinger Publishing. p. 215. ISBN 0-7661-5773-3.
- Burns, William E. (2003), Witch hunts in Europe and America: an encyclopedia, Greenwood Publishing Group, p. 3, ISBN 978-0-313-32142-9
- Islandmagee witch trial
- "Mary Hicks". earlymidernmedicine.com. 11 April 2018. Retrieved 5 September 2019.
- "The abolition of capital punishment in Europe". capitalpunishmentuk.org.
- Carpenter, William Henry; Arthur, Timothy Shay (1854). The History of Ohio: From its Earliest Settlement to the Present Time. Lippincott, Grambo & Co. p. 209.
- "Remember there names". paganrightsalliance.org/remember-their-names/. 26 June 2023.
- "Executions in December 2011". capitalpunishmentuk.org.
- "Executions in June 2012". capitalpunishmentuk.org.
- "Somalia: Alshabab Executes Man for 'Witchcraft' in Somalia". 25 September 2020.
- "AL Shabaab executes man accused of sorcery in Middle Jubba". 24 September 2020.
- Kors, Alan Charles; Peters, Edward (2001). Witchcraft in Europe, 400–1700: A Documentary History. University of Pennsylvania Press. p. 17. ISBN 0-8122-1751-9.
- Merriman, Scott A. (2007). Religion and the Law in America. Vol. 1. ABC-CLIO. p. 527. ISBN 978-1-85109-863-7.
- Levack
- Barstow
- Hutton
- Sources
- Barstow, Anne Llewellyn (1994). Witchcraze: A New History of the European Witch Hunts. Pandora. ISBN 0-06-250049-X.
- Hall, David D. (2005). Witch-Hunting in Seventeenth-Century New England: A Documentary History 1638-1693. Duke University Press. ISBN 0-8223-3613-8.
- Henneton, Lauric; Roper, Louis (2016). Fear and the Shaping of Early American Societies. Leiden NL: Boston MA: Brill; Lam edition. ISBN 978-9004314733.
- Hutton, Ronald (2001). The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-285449-6.
- Levack, Brian P. (2006). The Witch-Hunt in Early Modern Europe. Pearson Education. ISBN 0-582-41901-8.
- Stack, Richard A. (2006). Dead wrong: violence, vengeance, and the victims of capital punishment. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 0-275-99221-7.