Get Lost, Mr. Anachronistic Witchfinder General

 

I have just read on the Lancashire Telegraph website (12^th January 2012) that a sculpture trail is to be set up at Aitken Wood near Barley to celebrate the witches’ anniversary. 

 

 I thought this was a lovely idea until I went on to read that one of the sculptures will apparently portray a Witchfinder General.  This information caused my hackles to rise immediately.  Witchfinder General was a very specific title assumed and invented by Matthew Hopkins, a disgusting and pathetic excuse for a human being, who – along with his colleague John Stearne - was responsible for the torture and death of numerous  ‘witches’ in and around East Anglia in the mid 1600s. He was famously portrayed by Vincent Price in the film Witchfinder General in 1968 - one of the few occasions when I felt no inclination to laugh along with the wonderful Price's performance.  Hopkins had nothing whatsoever to do with the Lancashire witches of 1612 – all long dead by his time. 

 

Vincent Price as Matthew Hopkins, the Witchfinder General

1. http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?q=matthew+hopkins&hl=en&biw=1366&bih=642&tbm=isch&tbnid=W4XNe8OLMoFm9M:&imgrefurl=http://beautyandterrordance.tumblr.com/post/270813575&docid=ec9TFvRkmh1FoM&imgurl=http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ku7aa8Lo4w1qaun7do1_500.jpg&w=500&h=329&ei=OTIVT7m6AsWwhAfE5uSfAg&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=484&vpy=286&dur=279&hovh=182&hovw=277&tx=125&ty=125&sig=113496791261492495512&page=2&tbnh=135&tbnw=180&start=24&ndsp=24&ved=1t:429,r:10,s:24

1.  

 

This man was such a horrifying and compelling character that he has become something of a gift for storytellers, the result being that people cannot seem to resist inserting him into any tale involving witches – however anachronistic.  R.T. Gunton, for example, was guilty of inveigling the horrid creature into his comic opera “The Lancashire Witches: Or King James’ Frolic”, written in 1879.

 

2012, however, is supposed to be all about the Lancashire witches of 1612.  Matthew Hopkins, Witchfinder General, has no place in their story.  There was NO “witchfinder general” in the Lancashire case – just local Justices of the Peace and that other piece of work Thomas Covell, the gaoler of Lancaster Castle.  And he didn’t hunt witches (as far as we are aware) – he just dealt with them once he had got his vicious hands on them.  Therefore, please let’s NOT use Hopkins' made-up title to describe ANYONE  in the Lancashire witch case of 1612.  The lazy and loose use of such terms is most misleading.

This man has NOTHING TO DO WITH THE LANCASHIRE WITCHES!

 

Jennie, exasperated again

Lancashire Witches - 400th Anniversary

1. 2012 - 400th Anniversary of the Lancashire Witch Trials

So it's finally here - the year Lancashire witchcraft scholars and self-styled experts alike have been awaiting with bated breath!  Hopefully the world has begun to forget the ridiculous 'mummified cat' in Pendle cottage story which recently infested our TV sets, newspapers and PCs.  How very embarrassing it was to be made  to look globally stupid by a certain local tour guide in a top hat, who described the find to an agog world as of similar importance to the discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb.  The find of the cat's body (actually a skeleton, not a dried specimen) was indeed a fab find in the annals of Lancashire's archaeology of ritual and magic, but let's not go overboard with the hype!

Unfortunately, I fear we are in for a lot more of the same ill-informed garbage this year.  In the course of 2012 I am intending to comment here on any particularly ridiculous, precious, pretentious or just plain wrong information about the witches circulating the web and appearing in the media generally.  I will also be taking the opportunity to publish small articles on various aspects of the Lancashire witch case.  In preparation is a small piece on the Samlesbury witches who tend to be ignored, but it's a great anti-Catholic propaganda story, probably grafted onto a genuine complaint made by yet another adolescent witness who had been pestered by pesky 'witches'. Let's not forget that it's their anniversary too...

In the meantime, check out my new book, The Lure of the Lancashire Witches (Carnegie Publishing), which examines the execution and burial of the witches, their role in popular culture to the present day, and how people protected their homes and farm buildings against their maleficia.  And finally, if you want to know anything about Lancashire witchcraft through the ages, (and want ACCURATE information, not fairy tales) feel free to ask - if I don't know the answer I will almost certainly know someone who does. (I am a graduate archaeologist and historian, and have been researching witchcraft and the archaeology of ritual and magic for the past 25 years or so in case you're wondering about my own credentials!) And do  let me know what you think of the anniversary celebrations as they unfold throughout the year.

Have an excellent 2012
Jennie.