In 1642, Anne King was hired in Exeter to investigate the theft of a purse containing 13 shillings and sixpence. Using a sieve and shears, she whispered the names of possible suspects. According to surviving evidence, the sieve moved when she said Marie Matthews’ name, leading King to identify Matthews as the thief.
The investigation soon turned against King. She was reported, arrested and tried for witchcraft, although she was eventually released on bail and apparently escaped with a warning.
Her case reflects Exeter’s unusually severe attitude toward magic. By the 1640s, prosecutions for witchcraft had become uncommon across much of England, as the Crown and senior judges grew more skeptical and lenient. Exeter, however, continued prosecuting alleged witches and carried out executions into the 1680s.
Historian Mark Stoyle’s archival research examines the city’s treatment of so-called “service magicians” or “cunning folk.” These individuals used magical practices for relatively ordinary purposes, such as finding lost property or identifying suspects in minor thefts. Stoyle says that, in the absence of private investigators, people could turn to them when they believed someone had stolen their belongings.
Another Exeter case involved Christabel Robyns, a widow tried for witchcraft in 1629 after using magic to search for missing spoons and a pewter jug. She avoided prosecution only after the chief justice of the Court of the King’s Bench intervened and moved the case to a higher court outside Exeter.
Men could also be targeted. John Blachett, a service magician, was accused after telling a client that a missing hood was in a neighbor’s house. When a search found nothing, the client reported him. Blachett faced charges involving “devilish and hateful arts” associated with witchcraft, enchantment, charms and sorcery, but a jury did not convict him.
Stoyle’s research draws on court records, manuscripts, certificates and other primary sources to document Exeter’s hostility toward magic during the 16th and 17th centuries. He identifies the city as the site of both England’s first and last witch executions, in the 1560s and 1680s.
The broader European witch trials killed tens of thousands of people between the 15th and 18th centuries. In England, most of those accused and executed were women. Historians have linked this vulnerability partly to women’s frequent work in community settings and across multiple households, including childcare, food preparation and care for the sick. Such roles placed them near many everyday misfortunes and exposed them to accusations.
Exeter magistrate Ignatius Jurdain, described as deeply religious and uncompromising, represented the city’s hard-line approach. According to Stoyle, local authorities continued to banish, imprison and execute accused men and women even as attitudes elsewhere in England changed. The prosecution of service magicians shows that Exeter’s opposition extended beyond alleged harmful witchcraft to practices used for investigating petty crimes and recovering lost goods.
Sources: Smithsonian Magazine.