The St Osyth Witches is a common reference to the convictions for

witchcraft Witchcraft traditionally means the use of magic or supernatural powers to harm others. A practitioner is a witch. In medieval and early modern Europe, where the term originated, accused witches were usually women who were believed to have ...

near

Essex Essex () is a Ceremonial counties of England, county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the Riv ...

in 1582. A village near

Brightlingsea Brightlingsea is a coastal town and an electoral ward in the Tendring district of Essex, England. It is situated between Colchester and Clacton-on-Sea, at the mouth of the River Colne, on Brightlingsea Creek. At the 2011 Census, it had a pop ...

in Essex,

St Osyth St Osyth is an English village and civil parish in the Tendring District of north-east Essex, about west of Clacton-on-Sea and south-east of Colchester. It lies on the B1027, Colchester–Clacton road. The village is named after Osgyth, a ...

was home to fourteen women who were put on trial for witchcraft, some of whom were duly convicted according to law.

Ursula Kemp

The first to be accused was a woman called

Ursula Kemp Ursula Kemp or Ursley Kempe alias Grey (ca. 1525 – 1582) was an English cunning woman and midwife who in 1582 was tried for witchcraft and hanged. Kemp was accused of (and apparently confessed to) using familiars to kill and bring sickness ...

. It was through her reputation of being able to undo

curse A curse (also called an imprecation, malediction, execration, malison, anathema, or commination) is any expressed wish that some form of adversity or misfortune will befall or attach to one or more persons, a place, or an object. In particula ...

s that had been placed upon people by the means of witchcraft that led to her own accusation of witchcraft by Grace Thurlowe.

Trial

The testimony of Ursula Kemp's eight-year-old son helped to secure a conviction: partly because of her son's

evidence Evidence for a proposition is what supports this proposition. It is usually understood as an indication that the supported proposition is true. What role evidence plays and how it is conceived varies from field to field. In epistemology, evidenc ...

and partly because of the court's promise to treat her with

clemency A pardon is a government decision to allow a person to be relieved of some or all of the legal consequences resulting from a criminal conviction. A pardon may be granted before or after conviction for the crime, depending on the laws of the j ...

, she confessed to the art of witchcraft, and in this confession (as was often the case) she implicated others that she knew. The charges brought against Kemp ranged from preventing

beer Beer is one of the oldest and the most widely consumed type of alcoholic drink in the world, and the third most popular drink overall after water and tea. It is produced by the brewing and fermentation of starches, mainly derived from ce ...

from brewing to causing a death through the means of sorcery, the punishment for which was

execution Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that ...

. When the trial ended Kemp was executed by

hanging Hanging is the suspension of a person by a noose or ligature around the neck.Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed. Hanging as method of execution is unknown, as method of suicide from 1325. The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' states that hanging ...

along with Elizabeth Bennet, who was found guilty of

murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification or valid excuse, especially the unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought. ("The killing of another person without justification or excuse, especially the ...

ing four people through witchcraft and confessed to having two

familiars In European folklore of the medieval and early modern periods, familiars (sometimes referred to as familiar spirits) were believed to be supernatural entities that would assist witches and cunning folk in their practice of magic. According to r ...

References

External links

*http://www.witchtrials.co.uk/1582.html *http://www.bloodylexicon.com/monsters/ursula-kemp-and-the-st-osyth-witches/ *http://uk.prweb.com/releases/2011/11/prweb8974277.htm {{Witch Hunt 1582 in law 1582 in England 16th-century trials Witch trials in England St Osyth

Ursula Kemp

Trial

See also

Further reading

References

External links