Speaker 1: Welcome to Criminalia, a production of Shonda Land Audio in
Speaker 1: partnership with I Heart Radio. Welcome to Criminalia. This season,
Speaker 1: we're talking about the stories of people accused of practicing magic, sorcery, witchcraft,
Speaker 1: in alchemy. The history here is complex, and the stories
Speaker 1: will be telling aren't going to be just about the
Speaker 1: dark arts. They'll also be about the torture and executions
Speaker 1: of those who were accused, guilty or not. And on
Speaker 1: that note, I'm Maria Schmrqui. I don't know if you're
Speaker 1: saying that you're guilty or not, but we're going to
Speaker 1: keep going. I'm Polly Fry. Agnes Waterhouse was known as
Speaker 1: Mother water House in the village of Hatfield, Peverell. She
Speaker 1: was a widow who was raising a daughter named Joan,
Speaker 1: and in fifteen sixty six, at the age of sixty three,
Speaker 1: she was accused of bewitching to death a man named
Speaker 1: William Fine, who died in November of of teen sixty five.
Speaker 1: In the bigger picture, she was accused of using witchcraft
Speaker 1: to cause harm, and her daughter, who was just eight team,
Speaker 1: was accused of the same crime. We probably wouldn't actually
Speaker 1: know who Agnes Waterhouse was except that Her name appears
Speaker 1: on a list of accused felons held by the Essex
Speaker 1: Record Office among their court records. The felony in this
Speaker 1: case was suspicion of practicing witchcraft. That was a really
Speaker 1: serious crime that was punishable by death during this time
Speaker 1: and place. Agnes was tried in Comstort, about twelve miles
Speaker 1: away from Hatfield, Peverell, in the summer of fifteen sixty six,
Speaker 1: which made her the first person who can be verified
Speaker 1: as being executed by hanging after being accused of witchcraft.
Speaker 1: Sure there were others before her, but her trial and
Speaker 1: death are part of the historical record, and what we
Speaker 1: do know about her life and death may best be
Speaker 1: told through the records of her trial and the testimonies
Speaker 1: that were given during it. Agnes Waterhouse was accused of
Speaker 1: and confessed to practicing black magic. That's the basic gist
Speaker 1: of it. Her case first passed through the lower court
Speaker 1: of quarter Sessions, which were local courts that held trials
Speaker 1: four times each year. This is where the details of
Speaker 1: Agnes's case would have been heard by a Justice of
Speaker 1: the peace. It would then go on to the Assizes,
Speaker 1: the court where she would be tried and sentenced it's
Speaker 1: different than what we know now, but it was normal
Speaker 1: then in fifteen sixty six. There were two stages involved
Speaker 1: in criminal prosecution. The Justice of the Peace would perform
Speaker 1: the examination and committal. This is where Agnes was charged,
Speaker 1: and that was followed by her arraignment and trial in
Speaker 1: the courts of assize, where she would face a jury.
Speaker 1: The assizes were held periodically by a higher court in
Speaker 1: each county. Accusations of witchcraft certainly pre date Agnes, and
Speaker 1: the crime did appear before the courts fairly regularly. Assizes
Speaker 1: can mean a few times a year to administer both
Speaker 1: civil and criminal law, and were presided over by visiting
Speaker 1: judges from higher courts, such as those in London. They
Speaker 1: were held as far back as the Middle Ages and
Speaker 1: continued to be a type of court of justice in
Speaker 1: England all the way up until the early nineteen seventies,
Speaker 1: when they were combined with the Quarter sessions to become
Speaker 1: a single permanent Crown court. So you know that we
Speaker 1: know how the court system worked during her trial. Let's
Speaker 1: talk about the law. Over the years, various acts of
Speaker 1: Parliament were specifically designed to punish anyone accused of engaging
Speaker 1: in any form of what was considered to be witchcraft.
Speaker 1: Not long before Agnes was accused. The Witchcraft Act of
Speaker 1: fifteen forty two was enacted as England's first anti witchcraft law,
Speaker 1: partly in reaction to the growing religious tensions in England
Speaker 1: during the sixteenth century, but also partly to address the
Speaker 1: growing hysteria and fear about the power of witches. The
Speaker 1: Act was made law during Henry the Eighth's reign and
Speaker 1: defined witchcraft as using invocations or other magical acts to
Speaker 1: cause injury, get money, or to behave badly towards Christianity.
Speaker 1: It did not mention a pact with the devil as
Speaker 1: a way of identifying a witch, as was the case
Speaker 1: in different times throughout history. The Act didn't just define witchcraft,
Speaker 1: it also established penalties for practicing these perceived indiscretions. Witchcraft
Speaker 1: became a crime that could be punished by forfeiture of
Speaker 1: one's belongings, but depending on the nature of the crime,
Speaker 1: it could also be punished by death. The Act was
Speaker 1: overturned in fifteen forty seven as the king overhauled the
Speaker 1: legal code, but he died that year and left unfinished business.
Speaker 1: As a result, there were really no laws against witchcraft
Speaker 1: on the books in England between the years of fifteen
Speaker 1: forty seven and fifteen sixty three. But enter Elizabeth the First. Queen.
Speaker 1: Elizabeth the First rose to the throne in fifteen fifty eight,
Speaker 1: and under her reign and just three years before Agnes's trial,
Speaker 1: the Act against Conjurations, Enchantments and Witchcrafts was enacted. Under
Speaker 1: this new law, the f penalty was to be applied
Speaker 1: only when harm had been caused, and that crime was
Speaker 1: considered a felony. Harm as it was defined in this case,
Speaker 1: was anyone who quote, used, practiced, or exercised any witchcraft, enchantment, charm,
Speaker 1: or sorcery whereby any person shall happen to be killed
Speaker 1: or destroyed. The statute also was the first to legally
Speaker 1: link witchcraft with the devil and devil worship. So we're
Speaker 1: gonna take a break for a word from our sponsor,
Speaker 1: but when we return, we'll talk a little bit more
Speaker 1: about anti witchcraft laws and of course Agnes's trial. Welcome
Speaker 1: back to Criminalia. Let's get started with Agnes's trial and
Speaker 1: just why it was such a sensational story. Under the
Speaker 1: Act against Conjurations, Enchantments and Witchcrafts, those who were accused
Speaker 1: of black magic were a rested and put on trial
Speaker 1: for committing a criminal offense. Those offenses were broken into
Speaker 1: two branches. Lesser offenses, such as accusations of spreading illness
Speaker 1: among livestock or turning butter rancid, were sentenced to one
Speaker 1: year in prison and maybe time in the stocks, but
Speaker 1: those accused and convicted of major offenses such as murder,
Speaker 1: were executed by hanging. At the same time. Records show
Speaker 1: that indictments for murder caused by witchcraft begin to appear
Speaker 1: in the historical record almost immediately following the implementation of
Speaker 1: the fifteen sixty three anti witchcraft law. Agnes's trial, held
Speaker 1: just after the law was in place, ended up setting
Speaker 1: the stage for subsequent witchcraft trials across England. There are
Speaker 1: various estimates, some conservative and some quite wild, given of
Speaker 1: the number of people who were executed for allegedly practicing
Speaker 1: witchcraft between fifteen forty two and seventeen thirty six, but
Speaker 1: it probably hovers around a thousand people in the area
Speaker 1: where Agnes lived, Many of the accused and executed were women.
Speaker 1: Agnes was scheduled to appear at the Midsummer Assize in
Speaker 1: Chelmsford at the Market cross House. Essex historian Hill Degrieve
Speaker 1: wrote of the Market Cross Houses being noisy and very
Speaker 1: public overall a building totally unsuitable as a courtroom. She
Speaker 1: described it as, and we quote, an open sided building
Speaker 1: with eight oak columns supporting upper galleries in a tiled roof.
Speaker 1: The galleries, which overlooked the open piazza below, were lit
Speaker 1: by three dormer windows in the roof. The magistrates and
Speaker 1: justices sat in open court, which measured only by four ft,
Speaker 1: with the officers of the law, counsel and clerks, plaintiffs
Speaker 1: and defendants, jurors, witnesses and prisoners before and around them,
Speaker 1: while spectators, hangers on and those awaiting their turn crowded
Speaker 1: into the galleries above and thronged the street outside. Because
Speaker 1: the trial was scheduled to be held during the summer months,
Speaker 1: some of the top judges in London, in an effort
Speaker 1: to escape the heat, often set in judgment over these courts.
Speaker 1: Agnes sat before prestigious agents of the law, including Justice Southcote,
Speaker 1: a Justice of the Queen's Bench, Reverend Thomas Cole, who
Speaker 1: was rector of a church near Chelmsford, Sir John Fortescue,
Speaker 1: who later became Chancellor of Her Majesty's Exchequer, and Sir
Speaker 1: Gilbert Gerrard, Attorney General. Her trial turned out to be
Speaker 1: the hottest ticket in town, and the daily details of
Speaker 1: the proceedings were recorded and distributed as pamphlets, which became
Speaker 1: popular reading like reading TMZ or US weekly. Someone would
Speaker 1: tip off a London publisher about statements made in the courtroom.
Speaker 1: The publisher would then add eyewitness accounts and eyewitness here,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna air quote of the scene inside the courtroom.
Speaker 1: Sometimes they would add poems, but the description of the
Speaker 1: execution was what was the star of the show. Loving
Speaker 1: a sensational story, the editors gobbled it all up and
Speaker 1: pamphlets were in man. Agnes wasn't the only woman on trial.
Speaker 1: Three women, Agnes, her daughter Joan, and a woman named
Speaker 1: Elizabeth Francis, who was assumed to be Agnes's sister, were
Speaker 1: all accused of practicing witchcraft. And at the center of
Speaker 1: this trial was a cat. So we're going to begin
Speaker 1: with Elizabeth, who was the first to own this cat.
Speaker 1: She was arrested after Agnes confessed that Elizabeth had given
Speaker 1: her a cat named Satan in exchange for a cake.
Speaker 1: Elizabeth told pre trial questioners that when she was twelve
Speaker 1: years old, she was given this cat named Satan as
Speaker 1: a gift from her grandmother. Her story goes on that
Speaker 1: she then fed her blood to the cat and renounced God.
Speaker 1: The cat named Satan became her familiar, her witch's companion.
Speaker 1: There are pieces of Elizabeth's story that describe how she
Speaker 1: used this cat named Satan, which included asking her cat
Speaker 1: for certain things like to bring her sheep to help
Speaker 1: her find a husband, which is a story that ended
Speaker 1: up turning into her having sex out of wedlock, certainly
Speaker 1: a no no under religious rules and social moray's of
Speaker 1: the time. Elizabeth got pregnant during an affair, but with
Speaker 1: the help of her cat, she did marry the child's father,
Speaker 1: that was a man named Christopher Francis. But this story
Speaker 1: does not have a happy ending. During a period of
Speaker 1: quote marital unhappiness, Elizabeth killed their child, or she was
Speaker 1: accused of doing so. At this time in history, as
Speaker 1: we've said many times, the infant mortality rate was very
Speaker 1: high and there could have been any number of a
Speaker 1: lot of other reasons for the baby's death. Her story
Speaker 1: was printed in the Examination and Confession of certain Witches
Speaker 1: at Kentsford in the County of Essex in fifteen sixty
Speaker 1: six because her alleged sexual improprieties were not a felony,
Speaker 1: Though she was sentenced to one year in prison with
Speaker 1: four instances where she would be placed in the stocks,
Speaker 1: there is no mention in historical records that we could
Speaker 1: locate of any punishment for her child's death. Thirteen years later, though,
Speaker 1: she was tried, convicted, and hanged for the murder of
Speaker 1: a neighbor named Alice Poole by witchcraft, specifically by using
Speaker 1: an enchanted black dog. We'll get to that enchanted black
Speaker 1: dog in a minute, but let's get back to Satan
Speaker 1: the cat. The cat was allegedly a demonic spirit, and
Speaker 1: under Agnes's care, it was used to kill. She confessed
Speaker 1: she had used Satan to kill cows, pigs, and geese,
Speaker 1: and to harm brewing and other productions such as dairying.
Speaker 1: Though she was accused of hexing her neighbor, a tailor
Speaker 1: named Wardoll, Agnes reported that Satan the cat told her
Speaker 1: Wardoll's faith was so great he could not be harmed.
Speaker 1: She had set him against villagers who angered her. She
Speaker 1: claimed including the murder of a neighbor and nine years
Speaker 1: prior the murder of her husband. But in court there
Speaker 1: was no mention about the murder of a neighbor William Fine,
Speaker 1: no mention of the murder of her husband, and no
Speaker 1: mention of the confession she made about harming livestock and property.
Speaker 1: The defense was that the cat had done all the
Speaker 1: crimes at which Agnes stood accused. Despite all of the
Speaker 1: accusations we've just listed, we haven't actually gotten to the
Speaker 1: damning accusation yet. So Maria has talked a lot about
Speaker 1: these confessions, and Agnes did confess to many things. While
Speaker 1: some sources disagree, this was all likely done under torture.
Speaker 1: Don't jump to the torture techniques from times like the Inquisition, though,
Speaker 1: torture at this time would have included slightly different tactics
Speaker 1: such as sleep deprivation, or in some cases, the accused
Speaker 1: would be bound and thrown into water. And then you've
Speaker 1: probably heard this story of the person sank. It meant
Speaker 1: they were cleansed and innocent, but if they floated, it
Speaker 1: meant the water had rejected them and they were considered guilty.
Speaker 1: The reality, though, was that many women were accused of
Speaker 1: witchcraft because of their appears. The presence of moles or
Speaker 1: simply signs of old age were enough to make a
Speaker 1: person at target, And if a woman had a companion animal,
Speaker 1: it was surely her devil driven familiar. I feel like
Speaker 1: we would all be in a lot of trouble if
Speaker 1: this were the case. My cats and my fine lines
Speaker 1: and wrinkles, sure they would put me at risk, Like
Speaker 1: who protect fgitties? Those practicing there are in the same
Speaker 1: area as Agnes lived are known to us because of
Speaker 1: four remaining pamphlets that were published between fifteen sixty six
Speaker 1: and fifteen eighty nine. These pamphlets described the lives and
Speaker 1: in some cases the depths, of thirty women and one
Speaker 1: man who were accused and prosecuted under the Witchcraft Act
Speaker 1: of fifteen sixty three. Prosecutions peaked between fifteen eighty and
Speaker 1: fifteen eighty nine, so decades after Agnes, but nearly nine
Speaker 1: of them were women. Some of the accused confessed that
Speaker 1: they did do whatever it was they were accused of doing,
Speaker 1: some amitted that they only practiced healing spells, and some
Speaker 1: outright denied at all. Accusers as recorded in the trial
Speaker 1: records from the time, we're often likely to create narratives
Speaker 1: that were kind of a jumble of unverifiable things about,
Speaker 1: which is with descriptions of illogical or fictional events surrounding
Speaker 1: the alleged which what was real and what was not
Speaker 1: wasn't always easy to ascertain. But these types of testimonies
Speaker 1: were exactly the kind of thing that onlookers wanted to
Speaker 1: hear and read about in those prolific pamphlets. We're going
Speaker 1: to take a break for a word from our sponsor.
Speaker 1: When we're back, and after all these accusations, will finally
Speaker 1: get to what was considered to be the incriminating evidence
Speaker 1: against Agnes. Welcome back to Criminalia Satan. The cat was
Speaker 1: not the only important piece of the trial. There is
Speaker 1: also a girl named Agnes Brown. Before we get to
Speaker 1: Agnes Brown, let's jump for a minute to Agnes's daughter, Joan.
Speaker 1: Her crime was bewitching another girl, the waterhouse's neighbor, who
Speaker 1: happened to be twelve year old Agnes Brown. In court,
Speaker 1: Joan testified against her mother, strategy reportedly done in an
Speaker 1: effort to save herself from execution. At first, she denied
Speaker 1: any knowledge of witchcraft, but did admit that her mother
Speaker 1: had attempted to teach her quote this art, but then
Speaker 1: she started to talk. She confessed she had tried to
Speaker 1: use her mother's familiar, the cat named Satan, to punish
Speaker 1: her neighbor, Agnes Brown, for basically bullying her. In the end,
Speaker 1: Joan was not sentenced, she was acquitted. So we have murder,
Speaker 1: we have animal cruelty, we have property damage in the mix,
Speaker 1: and among the dead we have Agnes's husband. Agnes's husband
Speaker 1: died in fifty seven. After living we quote somewhat un
Speaker 1: it lead together. Agnes was accused of murdering him. In part,
Speaker 1: the authorities argued to get out of her marriage and,
Speaker 1: as they thought, live life with freedoms that came with
Speaker 1: being a widow. Agnes, once again under torture, confessed to
Speaker 1: her husband's murder. But the bulk of the evidence against Agnes, though,
Speaker 1: had nothing to do with any of these crimes. The
Speaker 1: incriminating testimony came from Agnes Brown. Because two agnes Is
Speaker 1: here are going to get confusing. For the moment, let's
Speaker 1: refer to them by their full names. Agnes Brown was
Speaker 1: counseled by clergy before and during her testimony and her
Speaker 1: statements appeared in the examination and confession. Her testimony is
Speaker 1: considered to be the primary reason these women were put
Speaker 1: on trial. Agnes Brown testified that Agnes Waterhouse kept a demon,
Speaker 1: not the cat, but this time in the form of
Speaker 1: a black dog with a short tail with a chain
Speaker 1: and silver whistle around its neck. To that description, she
Speaker 1: added that the dog had a pair of horns on
Speaker 1: its head. She told a story about how that dog
Speaker 1: had spoiled the family's butter, and she also told that
Speaker 1: the dog threatened to kill her with a dagger. Specifically,
Speaker 1: we quote a Sweet Dame's knife. But the piece of
Speaker 1: damning evidence against Agnes Waterhouse in this testimony was this.
Speaker 1: Agnes Brown claimed that when she asked the dog who
Speaker 1: its master was, the dog turned its head toward the
Speaker 1: Waterhouse home. Agnes Waterhouse, though, countered that Agnes Brown was
Speaker 1: making this entire story up, saying to her quote thou
Speaker 1: liest and that she Agnes Waterhouse didn't even own a dagger.
Speaker 1: While some of the details of the trial may or
Speaker 1: may not be exaggerated, it is believed that the older
Speaker 1: Agnes did confront the younger Agnes over being dishonest. After
Speaker 1: Agnes Brown's testimony unfolded Agnes Waterhouses wrong doings. Agnes Waterhouse
Speaker 1: pleaded guilty to practicing witchcraft. If you're wondering why she'd
Speaker 1: do that, so do many historians, but many conclude that
Speaker 1: she probably did that guilty ply in an effort to
Speaker 1: save Joan from execution, the same reason Joan had testified
Speaker 1: against her mother. So based primarily on the story of
Speaker 1: a preteen girl, which involved the head turn of a
Speaker 1: dog as the keystone to the whole portfolio of alleged evidence.
Speaker 1: On July fifteen, sixty six, Agnes Waterhouse was executed by
Speaker 1: hanging in front of a crowd gathered at the gallows
Speaker 1: in Chelmsford. As she stood in front of the large crowd,
Speaker 1: Agnes gave her confession again, this time repenting and asking
Speaker 1: for God's forgiveness. She again claimed that she had never
Speaker 1: stopped praying and that she prayed often, but that she
Speaker 1: always prayed in Latin because her cat forbade her from
Speaker 1: praying in her native tongue English. Agnes's trial really emphasized
Speaker 1: this cat and she continued that she we quote repented
Speaker 1: earnestly and unfeignedly, and desired Almighty God's forgiveness. And that
Speaker 1: she had abused His most holy name by her devilish
Speaker 1: practices and trusted to be saved by his most unspeakable mercy.
Speaker 1: Other witchcraft cases in the summer of fifteen sixty six
Speaker 1: went largely unreported, but of course they were happening. Into
Speaker 1: the eighteenth century, accusations of witchcraft and the practice of
Speaker 1: witch hunting continued to grow into a frenzy. It wouldn't
Speaker 1: be until the British Witchcraft Act of seventy five that
Speaker 1: would formally end which trials across England, Scotland and Wales.
Speaker 1: So Holly, Yes, come into the cauldron. Yes, please join
Speaker 1: me by the cauldron. Yes, a charm of powerful trouble
Speaker 1: is waiting up. Listen. We can't have an entire episode
Speaker 1: where we talked about a black cat over and over
Speaker 1: and not have that be the theme of the drink.
Speaker 1: But that's true on I'm a crazy cat lady. So
Speaker 1: there are a number of different cocktails that are called
Speaker 1: black cats because with a great image and people love
Speaker 1: to make them like a Halloween and one mine share
Speaker 1: some DNA with some of those, but it's a little
Speaker 1: bit different, and I'm calling it the Feline Devil and
Speaker 1: it does turn black, which is a delight. This is
Speaker 1: a super easy one to throw together too. It's just
Speaker 1: an ounce of vodka, an ounce of blue curos out.
Speaker 1: This is a subout because a lot of the recipes
Speaker 1: for black cats you see would put cherry brandy with
Speaker 1: the vodka, or even some other kind of brandy sometimes,
Speaker 1: but blue curos out, and then three ounces of cranberry juice,
Speaker 1: and then three ounces of the cola of your choice,
Speaker 1: like I did a diet coke. It turns black. It's
Speaker 1: a really unique flavor because you get a lot of
Speaker 1: citrus notes, and you know there is a little bit
Speaker 1: of a citrus note in most cola, and the blue
Speaker 1: currous ow pulls that out and kind of like amplifies
Speaker 1: it a little bit. So it's interesting because it looks
Speaker 1: very dark, but it has a very summary taste to it.
Speaker 1: So it does a nice little trick in your mind,
Speaker 1: much the way an animal making butter rance and doing
Speaker 1: a trick on how that works. The mock tail for
Speaker 1: this one is also easy as pie. You're just gonna
Speaker 1: leave out the vodka and you're gonna bump up the
Speaker 1: cranberry juice to four ounces, add an ounce of I
Speaker 1: would do an orange syrup. If you're really pressed, you
Speaker 1: can do an orange juice. It just depends. I am
Speaker 1: not the biggest fan of orange juice, which is why
Speaker 1: I skipped it. Um and then your three ounces of cola,
Speaker 1: and you'll still get it won't be quite as dark
Speaker 1: as if you have that that blue color of a
Speaker 1: blue curros. How so you can drop a little food
Speaker 1: color in there if you're really going for it. Similarly,
Speaker 1: it looks dark autumnal and HALLOWEENI and then you're like, oh,
Speaker 1: but it tastes like summer of a little weird trick
Speaker 1: to yourself. I will probably make lots of these in
Speaker 1: the coming year because I really like them. It's very
Speaker 1: unlike smooth the ingredients that you've used in the path,
Speaker 1: so I'm curious to see what it tastes like. I
Speaker 1: don't do a lot of cola in cocktails because most
Speaker 1: people just mix like a thing with cola, Like you know,
Speaker 1: you have been around me a lot. But I'll just
Speaker 1: get a vodka and diet coke. That's been my drink
Speaker 1: for decades, literal decades. That's always my go to. If
Speaker 1: you're in a place where like it is not going
Speaker 1: to be a mixed drink like a you know, any
Speaker 1: kind of craft cocktail situation. Great, but I don't tend
Speaker 1: to use it very much in cocktails for reasons. I
Speaker 1: don't have I shy away from it because everybody kind
Speaker 1: of just does a rum and coke, or a vodka
Speaker 1: and coke or whatever. Sometimes a whiskey and coke, so
Speaker 1: you can you can throw that in. Delightful. It does
Speaker 1: sound delightful. I look forward to it. It's a bunch
Speaker 1: of ingredients that you don't put together, and I like it. Listen,
Speaker 1: it's a feline devil. You can cheers to any cats
Speaker 1: running around your house, but don't share it with them.
Speaker 1: That's not cool or safe for them. No, although I
Speaker 1: have one that will stick her face right in it.
Speaker 1: A well, maybe she's a feline devil. Is if you
Speaker 1: have a feline devil in your life. We welcome you
Speaker 1: to our club ay and we're thankful for everybody that
Speaker 1: spent time with us this week. We will be right
Speaker 1: back here next week when more stories of witchcraft, some
Speaker 1: of which are infuriating, but we hope you have a
Speaker 1: good time with us exploring this history. Criminalia is a
Speaker 1: production of Shonda land Audio in partnership with I heart Radio.
Speaker 1: For more podcasts from Shonda land Audio, please visit the
Speaker 1: I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
Speaker 1: to your favorite shows.