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Hopkins, Matthew (d. 1647)

The infamous English "witchfinder" who, with his accomplices, persecuted, imprisoned, tortured, or killed hundreds of unfortunate individuals he believed to be involved in the horrors of witchcraft. Given the amount of damage he accomplished, it is difficult to realize he operated for only 14 months. The English philosopher and writer William Godwin commented:

"Nothing can place the credulity of the English nation on the subject of witchcraft in a more striking point of view, than the history of Matthew Hopkins, who, in a pamphlet published in 1647 in his own vindication, assumes to himself the surname of the Witchfinder. He fell by accident, in his native county of Suffolk, into contact with one or two reputed witches, and, being a man of an observing turn and an ingenious invention, struck out for himself a trade, which brought him such moderate returns as sufficed to maintain him, and at the same time gratified his ambition by making him a terror to many, and the object of admiration and gratitude to more, who felt themselves indebted to him for ridding them of secret and intestine enemies, against whom, as long as they proceeded in ways that left no footsteps behind, they felt they had no possibility of guarding themselves."

Hopkins began to operate as a witchfinder in March 1645. He had as a text King James I's book Demonology. After two or three successful experiments, Hopkins engaged in a regular tour of the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, and Hunting-donshire. One of his confederates was a man named John Stern. They visited every town in their route that invited them and were paid 20 shillings and their expenses, as well as whatever they received from the spontaneous gratitude of those who deemed themselves indebted to Hopkins and his gang.

By this expedient they won a favorable reception and a set of credulous persons who would listen to their dictates as if they were oracles. They were able to play the game into one another's hands and were sufficiently strong to overcome all timid and irresolute opposition. In every town they visited they inquired for reputed witches. Having taken them into custody the witchfinders could be sure of a certain number of zealous abettors and obtained a clear stage for their experiments.

They subdued their victims with a certain air of authority, as if they had received a commission from heaven for the discovery of misdeeds. They assailed them with a multitude of artfully constructed questions. They stripped them naked in search of the "devil's marks" on different parts of their bodies, which they ascertained by running pins into those parts, saying that if they were genuine marks the "witches" would feel no pain.

They threw their victims into rivers and ponds, declaring that, if the persons accused were true witches, the water (which was the symbol of admission into the Christian Church) would not receive them.

If the persons examined remained obstinate, Hopkins and his men seated them in constrained and uncomfortable positions, occasionally binding them with cords, and compelled them to remain so without food or sleep for 24 hours. They walked the person up and down a room, one taking him or her under each arm, till the accused dropped down with fatigue. They carefully swept the room in which the experiment was made so that they might keep away spiders and flies, which were supposed to be devils or their imps in disguise.

The inquisition of Hopkins and his confederates culminated in 1646. So many persons had been committed to prison on suspicion of witchcraft that the government was compelled to take the affair in hand. The rural magistrates before whom Hopkins and his confederates brought their victims were obliged, willingly or unwillingly, to commit those accused for trial. To defend himself, Hopkins published and wrote The Discovery of Witches, which detailed the symptoms of witchery and the techniques to find them.

A commission was granted to the earl of Warwick and others to hold a session of jail delivery against them. Lord Warwick was, at the time, the most popular nobleman in England. Dr. Calamy, the most eminent divine of the period of the Commonwealth, was sent with him to see (according to Richard Baxter) that no fraud was committed or wrong done to the parties accused.

Warwick sat on the bench with the judges and participated in their deliberations. As a result of this inquisition, 16 persons were hanged at Yarmouth in Norfolk, 15 at Chelmsford, and 60 at various places in the county of Suffolk. Bulstrode Whitelocke in his Memorials of English Affairs (1649) writes of many witches being apprehended around Newcastle on information from a person he calls "the Witch-finder"—very likely Hopkins. In 1652 and 1653 the same author spoke of women in Scotland who were put to incredible torture to extort from them confessions of witchcraft.

The fate of Hopkins was such as might be expected. The multitude were at first horrified at the monstrous charges that were advanced against him. But, after a time, they began to reflect and saw that they had acted with too much haste. The man who they at first hailed as a public benefactor they came to regard as a cunning impostor, dealing in cold blood for personal gain and the lure of short-lived fame. The multitude rose up against Hopkins and resolved to subject him to one of his own tests, which were detailed in his own book, The Discovery of Witches. They dragged him to a pond and threw him into the water as a witch. It seems he floated on the surface, as a witch ought to do. They then pursued him and drove him into obscurity and disgrace. Whether this story is true or not, Hopkins retired to Manningtree, Essex, in 1646 and died of tuberculosis within a year.