The 1735 Witchcraft Act was an important piece of legislation in England that aimed to address the issue of witchcraft and sorcery. It was enacted during the reign of King George II and replaced the previous laws that governed witchcraft trials and punishments. Under this act, any person who claimed to have magical powers or practiced witchcraft with the intent to harm others could be arrested and tried for their actions. However, the burden of proof was now placed on the prosecution to prove that the accused was engaging in harmful witchcraft. This was a significant departure from the previous laws, which presumed guilt and often relied on unreliable evidence and confessions obtained through torture. The 1735 Witchcraft Act also abolished the practice of using swimming or dunking as a means of determining guilt.
Witchcraft Act 1735
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The Witchcraft Act of 1735 (9 Geo. 2 c. 5) marked a complete reversal in attitudes. Penalties for the practice of witchcraft as traditionally constited, which by that time was considered by many influential figures to be an impossible crime, were replaced by penalties for the pretence of witchcraft. A person who claimed to have the power to call up spirits, or foretell the future, or cast spells, or discover the whereabouts of stolen goods, was to be punished as a vagrant and a con artist, subject to fines and imprisonment. The Act applied to the whole of Great Britain, repealing both the 1563 Scottish Act and the 1604 English one.
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788827 Witchcraft Act 1735 1735An Act to repeal the statute made in the first year of the reign of King James the First, intitutled, An Act against conjuration, witchcraft, and dealing with evil and wicked spirits, except so much thereof as repeals an Act of the fifth year of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, Against conjurations, inchantments and witchcrafts, and to repeal, an Act passed in the parliament of Scotland in the ninth parliament of Queen Mary, intituled, Anentis witchcrafts, and for punishing such persons as pretend to exercise or use any kind of witchcraft, sorcery, inchantment, or conjuration.
Be it enacted by the King's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the Authority of the same, That the Statute made in the First Year of the Reign of King James the First, intituled, An Act against Conjuration, Witchcaft, and dealing with evil and wicked Spirits, shall, from the Twenty-fourth Day of June next, be repealed and utterly void, and of none effect (except so much thereof as repeals the Statute made in the Fifth Year of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth intituled, An Act against Conjurations, Inchantments, and Witchcrafts).
Ⅱ. And be it further enacted by the Authority aforesaid, That from and after the said Twenty-fourth Day of June, the Act passed in the Parliament of Scotland, in the Ninth Parliament of Queen Mary, intituled, Anentis Witchcrafts, shall be, and is hereby repealed.
Ⅲ. And be it further enacted, That from and after the said Twenty-fourth Day of June, no Prosecution, Suit, or Proceeding, shall be commenced or carried on against any Person or Persons for Witchcraft, Sorcery, Inchantment, or Conjuration, or for charging another with any such Offence, in any Court whatsoever in Great Britain.
Ⅳ. And for the more effectual preventing and punishing of any Pretences to such Arts or Powers as are before mentioned, whereby ignorant Persons are frequently deluded and defrauded; be it further enacted by the Authority aforesaid, That if any Person shall, from and after the said Twenty-fourth Day of June, pretend to exercise or use any kind of Witchcraft, Sorcery, Inchantment, or Conjuration, or undertake to tell Fortunes, or pretend, from his or her Skill or Knowledge in any occult or crafty Science, to discover where or in what manner any Goods or Chattels, supposed to have been stolen or lost, may be found, every Person, so offending, being thereof lawfully convicted on Indictment or Information in that part of Great Britain called England, or on Indictment or Libel in that part of Great Britain called Scotland, shall, for every such Offence, suffer Imprisonment by the Space of one whole Year without Bail or Mainprize, and once in every Quarter of the said Year, in some Market Town of the proper County, upon the Market Day, there stand openly on the Pillory by the Space of One Hour, and also shall (if the Court by which such Judgement shall be given shall think fit) be obliged to give Sureties for his or her good Behaviour, in such Sum, and for such Time, as the said Court shall judge proper according to the Circumstances of the Offence, and in such case shall be further imprisoned until such Sureties be given.
The Witchcraft Act wasn't about women on brooms
S everin Carrell's article discussed the prosecution and imprisonment of Helen Duncan in 1944 under the archaic Witchcraft Act of 1735 (Campaign to pardon the last witch, jailed as a threat to Britain at war, January 13).
Duncan, the article claimed, was branded "a witch and spy guilty of revealing wartime secrets" by an Old Bailey jury because of potentially sensitive information that she disclosed - "allegedly via contacts with the spirit world". Consequently, she received a nine-month prison sentence. Duncan's granddaughter, Mary Martin, has clearly suffered from the stigma this brought upon her family and is campaigning for a posthumous pardon, terming the conviction "ludicrous".
I have researched this case for my PhD on popular belief and British society, and, while I believe it highly unlikely that Churchill and George VI were among Duncan's clients, as has been rumoured, her trial was certainly sensationalised by the popular press, with headlines such as "Story of ghost that did not like lipstick" (Daily Express) and cartoons of hags riding broomsticks through the night sky.
The general public and the media tend to associate prosecutions under the act with actual witchcraft, but historian Owen Davies has pointed out that, in fact, the Witchcraft Act strove to eradicate the belief in witchcraft once and for all among educated people, the judiciary and the Anglican church. Its passage meant that it was no longer possible to be prosecuted as a witch in an English or Scottish court. It was, however, possible to be prosecuted for pretending to "exercise or use any kind of witchcraft, sorcery, enchantment, or conjuration, or undertake to tell fortunes". Supposed contact with spirits fell into this category. Some 200 years later, when it was finally repealed, it was pronounced to have been "a most enlightened measure, well in advance of public opinion" by the then home secretary, James Ede.
Duncan is often dubbed the last person to be prosecuted under the Witchcraft Act, but six months after her trial, in September 1944, 72-year-old Jane Yorke was also prosecuted successfully. Yorke was found guilty on seven counts and was bound over in the sum of £5 to be on good behaviour for three years. The Witchcraft Act was invoked as late as December 1944 when police warned Emily Johnson, the president of the Redhill Spiritualist Church, that if her activities continued she would be liable to prosecution.
Most prosecutions for fortune-telling, astrology and spiritualism had been under section 4 of the Vagrancy Act (1824), but there had been other prosecutions under the Witchcraft Act in the first half of the 20th century. Both of these acts embody a long history of attempts by the authorities to protect the public from being duped by tricksters and fraudsters. There were various vigorous campaigns and petitions to repeal them during the 19th century and the first half of the 20th, led by such advocates of spiritualism as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, but despite those it was not until 1951 that the Witchcraft Act was finally repealed and replaced by the Fraudulent Mediums Act.
The Witchcraft Act and its Impact in Scotland, 1563-1736
June marks the passing of the Witchcraft Act of 1563. The Act resulted in a century and a half of witch hunts throughout Scotland. Thousands of people died as the Witchcraft Act called for the death penalty for all offences. Not much is known about the fate of accused witches, but these are some of the stories of the people who were charged under the Witchcraft Act.
In 1560, Scotland’s parliament had made Protestantism the official religion, and morality was high on the agenda. The government and the Church wanted to enforce godliness among the people. They thought that the whole country would suffer if there were malevolent elements within it that they believed to be in league with the Devil. This is the setting in which the Witchcraft Act came into existence.
A pact with the Devil
People believed that the Devil left a mark on his followers when they made a pact with him. So-called ‘witch prickers’ were brought in to prick the accused person with needles numerous times and in intimate places in search of this mark. People believed that the mark would turn the area on the body invulnerable so it couldn’t bleed or feel pain. Often it would have been a birthmark, wart, mole or scar.
© Courtesy of the Trustees of Burns Monument and Burns Cottage. Licensor www.scran.ac.uk
The aim of the torturous method was to get the accused to give in and confess to the alleged crimes. Other evidence used in trials were neighbours’ testimonies. These could come about after quarrels with other accused witches. They would often name the person that had crossed them as their ‘accomplices’ which could land the troubling neighbour in court as well.
Most of the accused and prosecuted were women. The popular belief was that women were ‘weak willed’ and their intellect inferior to that of men. This supposedly allowed the Devil to influence them more easily.
The Witchcraft Act in practice
Curiously, the Witchcraft Act is brief and does not clarify what a witch is and what constitutes witchcraft. Yet, people were able to identify witches within their communities and bring cases against them.
“…na maner of persoun nor persounis of quhatsumever estate, degre or conditioun thay be of tak upone hand in ony tymes heirefter to use ony maner of witchcraftis, sorsarie or necromancie…”
“…no manner of person or persons of whatsoever estate, degree or condition they be of take upon hand in any time hereafter to use any manner of witchcraft, sorcery or necromancy…”
Most accused witches were ordinary people but the one thing they were thought to have in common was ‘smeddum’ – spirit, mettle, resourcefulness and quarrelsomeness – qualities which went against the ideals of femininity.
A family of witches
In 1597, a whole family was embroiled in a witch hunt. It started with the mother, Johnnet Wischert, who faced accusations of witchcraft by her neighbours, servants and even her son-in-law. The accusations covered decades of believed wrongdoings, misfortune, and even described shapeshifting!
Her son, Thomas Leyis, also faced accusations which focussed on the witches’ sabbath: a gathering of witches in which they worshipped the Devil. Other witches, in their confessions, named him as the leader of a sabbath held at Aberdeen’s Mercat Cross. He was also branded as an active accomplice of his mother, and both were burned.
© Robert Gordon University. Licensor www.scran.ac.uk
Johnnet’s husband, a stabler called John Leyis, and their three daughters, Elspet, Janet and Violet Leyis, also faced accusations. However, they were only convicted of associating with known witches – namely their own family members – and were banished from Aberdeen.
Why would people confess to practising witchcraft?
Investigators usually tried to get confessions from witches that would prove interaction with the Devil. This was of importance to the court. To get confessions witches were routinely tortured – often with sleep deprivation, but also with physical torture.
In 1616, Elspeth Reoch was tried in Orkney as a witch. For a while, she was mute and suffered beatings from her brother to encourage her to speak again.
In her confession, she claimed to have the ‘second sight’ and to have had interactions with fairies since she was 12 years old. She was found guilty and was consequently executed.
Visiting wells and springs for healing is recorded in kirk session records, which deemed the practice against the teachings of the Protestant Church.
In 1623, an Issobell Haldane confessed that she had gone to the well of Ruthven to fetch water to use to wash a sick child.The child later died and Issobell admitted to consorting with fairies. She was imprisoned and interrogated at the Tolbooth in Perth, convicted of witchcraft and executed.
Innocent until found a witch
Issobell Fergussone, who was married and lived in Newbattle, was pricked by a professional witch pricker in July 1661. She maintained her innocence and denied all accusations against her.
It seems that she asked to be pricked, probably to prove her innocence. However, the witch pricker was successful in finding the Devil’s mark and she subsequently confessed to a pact and interactions with the Devil. She was tried in August 1661 and eventually executed.
The fate of most accused witches is unknown. The Survey of Scottish Witchcraft estimates that about two-thirds were executed. Most witches were strangled and then their dead body was burned.
Only a very small number are known to have been burned alive. But the experience of being interrogated, possibly tortured then executed would still have been extremely invasive, frightening and painful.
Formal repeal of the Witchcraft Act
The last prosecution for witchcraft was in 1727. In Dornoch Janet Horne’s daughter was allegedly “transformed into a pony and shod by the Devil, which made the girl ever after lame both in hands and feet”, and that Janet rode her daughter like a pony.
Both were imprisoned, tried, and condemned, but the daughter escaped. Janet was the last person in the British Isles to be executed for witchcraft.
By the eighteenth century, there was growing scepticism among the authorities about witchcraft, and prosecutions were less likely to result in execution.
Evidence which before had been essential for conviction – including pricking – was now considered unreliable. In 1736 the British parliament repealed both the Scottish Witchcraft Act of 1563 and the parallel English act.
In 2022 Nicola Sturgeon, the first minister, issued an apology for the historic persecution and execution of accused witches, describing it as “injustice on a colossal scale”.
The Church of Scotland then also recognised the terrible harm caused to the thousands of people – mostly women – who had been accused.
The 1735 Witchcraft Act also abolished the practice of using swimming or dunking as a means of determining guilt. This method involved tying the accused person to a chair and then immersing them in water. If they floated, it was believed to be proof of their guilt, as it was thought that witches could not sink.
About the Authors
Ruth Schieferstein, Nikki Moran and Morvern French work together in the Cultural Resources Team, which researches and interprets the history and archaeology of Historic Environment Scotland’s properties in care. With the increasing attention on Scotland’s history of witchcraft accusations, and the anniversary of the Witchcraft Act on 4 June, we wanted to remember the thousands of people and their lives which the Act impacted.
This practice was deemed inhumane and unreliable, and it was finally abandoned under the new act. Although the act represented progress in the treatment of accused witches, it did not completely eliminate the belief in witchcraft. The act still allowed for the punishment of individuals who claimed to have the ability to invoke spirits or perform magical spells for malicious purposes. However, the act lessened the severity of punishment for these offenses. Instead of facing the death penalty, those found guilty of witchcraft were now subject to lesser punishments, such as imprisonment or fines. The 1735 Witchcraft Act remained in effect until it was repealed and replaced by the Fraudulent Mediums Act of 1951. This act shifted the focus from witchcraft to fraudulent mediums who claimed to communicate with the dead. However, it was not until the Witchcraft Act of 1951 that the crime of witchcraft was finally abolished in England. The 1735 Witchcraft Act was a significant moment in the history of witchcraft trials and punishments in England. It marked a shift towards a more rational and evidence-driven approach, and it contributed to the eventual demise of witch-hunting in the country..
Reviews for "The Influence of the 1735 Witchcraft Act on Witchcraft Persecution in the British Colonies"
1. John - 1/5 stars - The 1735 witchcraft act is one of the most absurd and unjust laws of its time. It was a product of fear and prejudice, targeting innocent people and causing immense suffering. The act allowed for the prosecution of individuals based on mere suspicion of practicing witchcraft, without any solid evidence. This led to countless innocent people being accused, persecuted, and even executed for crimes they did not commit. It is a dark stain on our history and a reminder of the dangers of blind hysteria and ignorance.
2. Sarah - 2/5 stars - While the intentions behind the 1735 witchcraft act may have been to protect society from supernatural threats, its execution was flawed and unjust. The act allowed for the prosecution of individuals based on unsupported accusations and superstitions. This led to chaos and fear within communities, as people lived in constant suspicion and paranoia. Innocent individuals were wrongly accused, and lives were destroyed in the process. The witch hunts fueled by this act were a tragic example of the dangers of prejudice and the lack of a fair justice system.
3. Michael - 1/5 stars - The 1735 witchcraft act was a clear violation of basic human rights and a mockery of justice. It allowed for the persecution and conviction of innocent individuals based on superstitious beliefs and hearsay. The act ignored the principles of evidence and due process, leading to the trial and execution of many innocent lives. It is a shameful reminder of the dark ages of ignorance and fear, and we should learn from it to ensure such injustices never happen again.
4. Elizabeth - 1/5 stars - The 1735 witchcraft act was a horrifying display of ignorance and prejudice. It allowed for the prosecution of individuals merely on the suspicion of being involved in witchcraft, without any concrete evidence or fair trial. Innocent people suffered terribly due to this act, with many losing their lives unjustly. It is a symbol of a society plagued by fear and superstition, where reason and justice were abandoned for irrational beliefs. We must never forget the injustices caused by this act and work towards a more enlightened and fair society.
5. James - 2/5 stars - The 1735 witchcraft act was a misguided attempt to combat superstition and protect society from perceived supernatural threats. However, it failed in its execution and caused more harm than good. Innocent individuals were subjected to unjust accusations and persecution, with little to no evidence supporting their guilt. The act perpetuated a climate of fear and paranoia, as anyone could be accused without any proper investigation or defense. It is a sad reminder of the dangers of unchecked power and the need for a fair justice system.