WHICH WITCH(CRAFT ACT) IS

WHICH?
mcmahonp (https://archives.blog.parliament.uk/author/mcmahonp/), 28
October 2020 -
History (https://archives.blog.parliament.uk/category/history/)
This blog was written by Nicole Hartland, Archive Assistant (Graduate
Trainee).
WITCHCRAFT, MAGIC AND DIVINATION IN THE ARCHIVES
This blog post will explore the many acts which tried to define and
control the practices of witchcraft, magic and divination from 1541 to
today. The history of magic and witchcraft is an ancient, complex and
emotive one and, unfortunately, the Witchcraft Acts can only tell us part
of the story. Here, we’ll trace the general trends in attitudes towards the
‘occult arts’ through the original acts held at the Parliamentary Archives.
BAD MAGIC BEFORE 1603
Before the famous Witchcraft Act of 1603, there was a patchwork of
legislation across England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland which sought to
control magic and witchcraft.
The first was An Act against Conjurations, Witchcrafts, Sorcery and
Inchantments
(https://archives.parliament.uk/collections/getrecord/GB61_HL_PO_PU_1_1541_3
3H8n8) passed by Henry VIII in 1541. In this act, magical practices which
were disruptive or caused harm to the realm and its subjects were
‘demyde accepted and adjuged Felonye’, a crime punishable by death
and forfeiture of goods and chattels. This Act aimed to outlaw magic
with ‘unlawfull intente or purpose’ and the named examples in the Act
show this, such as to ‘waste consume or destroy any person’ or ‘provoke
any persone to unlawfull love’.
In this period, the issue was not with all types of magic, just the spiteful,
disruptive and damaging sort. ‘Cunning folk’ were an important part of,
especially rural, communities – helping people find lost items, remedy
marital issues or healing common ailments affecting people and
animals. These people fulfilled an important role in the absence of the
local police, doctors or counsellors of today, but utilising somewhat
more ‘magical’ methods such as spoken charms, herbal remedies or
talismans. It was not this kind of magic authorities sought to control, but
the sort of ill-intended charms which harmed neighbours or their
animals, stealing money with help from the spirits or any other forms of
supernatural spite.

(https://archives.blog.parliament.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2020/10/1541-
Halloween-Act.jpg)
An Act against Conjurations, Witchcrafts, Sorcery and Inchantments, 1541.                  
                 Parliamentary Archives                                                                                            
                                HL/PO/PU/1/1541/33H8n8

The 1541 Act was repealed by Henry’s son Edward VI in 1547, and there
would be no further legislation until 1562 during Elizabeth I’s reign. The
1562 Act against Conjurations, Enchantments and Witchcrafts
(https://archives.parliament.uk/collections/getrecord/GB61_HL_PO_PU_1_1562_5
Eliz1n14) and the famous 1603 Witchcraft Act, moved witch trials away
from church courts into ordinary courts. The 1562 act also amended the
terms of punishments to distinguish between minor and capital
offences and introduced a two-strikes-and-you’re-out system. For
someone’s first or only minor offence, they would face a year’s
imprisonment without bail, and a quarterly public humiliation in the
market square – 6 hours in a pillory to ‘openly confesse his or her
Erroure and Offence’.
Two minor offences or any major offence, such as serious harm or
murder caused by witchcraft, resulted in ‘Deathe as a Felon’. Records of
‘murder by witchcraft’ begin to emerge following this 1562 Act. Similar
acts were also passed in Ireland, An Act against Witchcraft and Sorcerie
(1586) (http://statutes.org.uk/site/the-statutes/irish-laws/1586-28-elizabth-1-c-2-
witchcraft/) and Scotland, Anetis Witchcraft (1563)
(http://statutes.org.uk/site/the-statutes/scottish-laws/1563-mary-c-73-anentis-
witchcraft/). The Scottish Anetis Witchcraft Act is much more sceptical
about witchcraft, repeatedly referring to the old-fashioned superstition
of witchcraft, ‘credence gevin thairto in tymes bygane’. Aiming to quell
superstition, as opposed to increasing witchcraft accusations (minor or
otherwise), the Scottish act made any practice of witchcraft, or
consultation with witches, punishable by death.

DAEMONOLOGIE, JAMES I & THE WITCH TRIALS

 (https://archives.blog.parliament.uk/wp-
content/uploads/sites/4/2020/10/HL_PO_
PU_1_1603_1J1n12.jpg)
An Act against Conjuration, Witchcraft,
and dealing with evil and wicked Spirits,
1603. Parliamentary Archives                          
HL/PO/PU/1/1603/1J1n12

James I’s 1603 Act against Conjuration, Witchcraft, and dealing with evil
and wicked Spirits
(https://archives.parliament.uk/collections/getrecord/GB61_HL_PO_PU_1_1603_1
J1n12) clearly defined witchcraft, and its relationship to the devil, in order
to determine what it actually is and a suitable punishment, a 'better
restraining of said offences, and more severe punishing the same'.
The Act kept the Elizabethan distinction between minor and major
offences, focussing on harmful and disruptive magic, but with a real
focus on the demonic and evil nature of witchcraft as we can see here:
‘use, practise, or exercise any invocation or conjuration of any evil and
wicked spirit: or shall consult, covenant with, entertaine, imploy, feed, or
reward any evil and wicked spirit, to or for any intent or purpose; or take
up any dead man, woman, or child, out of his, her, or their grave,… to be
imployed, or used in any manner of Witchcraft, Sorcery, Charme, or
Inchantment,’
This focus on demons, evil and defining what witchcraft really is makes
much more sense when we understand James I’s level of personal
interest in the subject. James I’s Daeomonologie was a culmination of
this, printed in 1597, which included an in-depth look at magic and
necromancy (part 1), witchcraft and sorcery (part 2) and spirits, ghosts
and spectres (part 3).

(https://archives.blog.parliament.uk/w
p-
content/uploads/sites/4/2020/10/Dae
monology-James-I-British-Library.jpg)
 Dæmonologie, in forme of a dialogue,
divided into three Bookes, 1597.
Digitised book available via the British
Library

This book was part of a larger debate around the existence of witchcraft,
opposing more sceptical texts such as Reginald Scot’s 1584 book The
Discovery of Witchcraft. (https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/the-discovery-of-
witchcraft-by-reginald-scot-1584) The 1603 Witchcraft Act is the most well-
known because of its relationship to the European witch-hunts
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7x5KesH3dzM). The clear and specific
way this act defined witchcraft, and its punishment, supported harsh
enforcement by the well-known ‘Witchfinder General’ Matthew Hopkins,
amongst others.
Countless lives were lost during the witch trials and, despite our cultural
perceptions, most were hanged as opposed to burnt at the stake. The
terror of this period remains, the term ‘witch-hunt’ now synonymous
with moral panic and unfounded blame.
Dæmonologie, in forme of a dialogue, divided into three Bookes, 1597.
Digitised book available via the British Library.
(https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/king-james-vi-and-is-demonology-1597)
 (https://archives.blog.parliament.uk/wp-
content/uploads/sites/4/2020/10/Witches-Sabbath-Wellcome-
Collectionsmall.png)
Witches and the devil at a Witches’ Sabbath License: Attribution
4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) Wellcome Collection

1735: THE END OF MAGIC?

Until this point, witchcraft was seen a legitimate threat – a force with the
ability to cause harm to people, property and societies which should be
controlled by the law. The 1735 Witchcraft Act
(https://archives.parliament.uk/collections/getrecord/GB61_HL_PO_PU_1_1735_9
G2n6) repealed all the acts we’ve discussed so far in this blog post for
England and Scotland, however the Irish acts were not repealed until
later in 1821.
(https://archives.parliament.uk/collections/getrecord/GB61_HL_PO_PU_1_1821_1
and2G4n34) All magic, witchcraft and fortune-telling was now fraudulent,
and the practitioners marked as con artists and vagrants.
These two passages from the Witchcraft Act 1735 summarise two major
changes. The much broader definition of bad magic, now ‘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’ and the false and fraudulent nature of magical practices,
‘any Pretences to such Arts or Powers as are before mentioned,
whereby ignorant Persons are frequently deluded and defrauded’. The
last person to be legally executed for witchcraft in the British Isles was
Scottish woman Janet Horne in 1727. Under this new act, the accused
would face imprisonment for 1 year per offence, replacing the execution
as in the previous legislation.
This major shift in the legislation can be explained, in part, by reactions
to the horror of the witch hunts in Europe. Also, the Enlightenment
period saw many scientific discoveries and promoted the idea of the
modern, rational and scientific man. Acts certainly can’t tell us
everything about attitudes to the occult. Many famous figures of the
Enlightenment had a keen interest in the ‘occult and crafty Sciences’,
such as Isaac Newton who wrote extensively on alchemy
(http://webapp1.dlib.indiana.edu/newton/). Thinking about who was
punished under these Acts, and why, tells us a lot about power, status
and the law in this period.
COATHANGER PHANTOMS & THE FRAUDULENT MEDIUMS ACT
Helen Duncan was a Scottish spirit medium, famed for her production of
ectoplasm (exteriorized spiritual energy) during séances, and the last
person to be imprisoned under the 1735 Witchcraft Act in 1944. The
Spiritualists’ National Union (SNU), led by prominent spiritualist and
Labour MP Thomas Brookes, had been campaigning for less heavy-
handed policing under the 1735 Act throughout 1943, but Duncan’s
arrest in 1944 prompted calls for significant changes to the law.
 (https://archives.blog.parliament.uk/wp-
content/uploads/sites/4/2020/10/Helen-
Duncan-seance.png)
Helen Duncan’s ‘coat-hanger phantoms’,
Leaves from a Psychist’s Case-Book by Harry
Price. (Victor Gollancz Ltd, 1933)

Throughout the Victorian period and the two World Wars, Spiritualism
and spirit mediums saw a meteoric rise in popularity as they were able
to channel messages from spirits. As with anything so popular, there
were bound to be a few bad eggs. Mediums who deliberately swindled
their customers, used cheap tricks for theatrical displays or whose
practices were publicly debunked tainted public perceptions of
Spiritualism. The 1824 Vagrancy Act named fortune-telling, astrology
and spiritualism as punishable offences, showing how big this issue had
become.
As Thomas Brookes and the SNU campaigned however, not all mediums
were fraudulent and duping their clients for profit as the 1735 Act
suggests. The Fraudulent Mediums Act (1951)
(https://archives.parliament.uk/collections/getrecord/GB61_HL_PO_PU_1_1951_1
4and15G6c33) addressed this issue of deception and fraud and ensured
people could only be convinced when ‘it is proved that he acted for
reward’ i.e. operated for-profit and not in a spiritual capacity. This put an
end to convictions based on hearsay, with the addition of an interesting
clause: (5) Nothing in subsection (1) of this section shall apply to
anything done solely for the purpose of entertainment.
This clause about entertainment has made its mark on modern spiritual
and neopagan practices such as tarot reading and clairvoyance, whose
practitioners are able to avoid prosecution in a for-profit scenario. Such
matters remain a contentious issue, with fervent supporters on both
sides. Below is a passionate letter from Arthur Conan Doyle from our
archives, in which he defends his devotion to Spiritualism, ‘This subject
is infinitely the most important in the world, and surely deserves more
serious treatment.’ Any letter that begins ‘Frankness begets frankness’ is
sure to be a great read.

(https://archives.blog.parliament.uk/wp-
 content/uploads/sites/4/2020/10/STR_33_
5_63-Conan-Doyle-to-Strachey-small.png)
Letter from Arthur Conan Doyle to
Strachey, 6th July 1926, Parliamentary
Archives, STR/33/5/63

The 1951 Fraudulent Mediums Act has since been repealed by the
Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008
(https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2008/1277/contents/made), however the
debate around mediumship and the law remains. The history of
witchcraft and the law is a complex, disturbing and rather emotive one.
Since 1541, these Witchcraft Acts have aimed to protect vulnerable
people, communities and property but all those wrongly accused and
tried should not be forgotten.

Selected further reading:

Museum of Witchcraft and Magic
(https://museumofwitchcraftandmagic.co.uk/)

Witchcraft, UK Parliament Living Heritage

(https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/transformingsociety/private-
lives/religion/overview/witchcraft/)

British History Online, Statues Project: Witchcraft Acts

(https://statutes.org.uk/site/witchcraft-acts/)

Ronald Hutton, The Witch: A History of Fear, from Ancient Times to the
Present
Early Modern Witch Trials, The National Archives
(https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/resources/early-modern-witch-
trials/)
Tags: Halloween (https://archives.blog.parliament.uk/tag/halloween/)

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