Poor Alice wasn’t a witch. She was a recusant Roman Catholic when it was dangerous to be such. She couldn’t tell where she had been because it would have endangered others. She was reported as a witch because she refused to marry someone who wanted her estate. She owned a prosperous farm from the death of her husband.
What stands out is not the belief in witchcraft itself, but how easily fear was turned into a legal mechanism.
The trials reveal less about “witches” and more about a society searching for control in uncertain times—where accusation became evidence, and vulnerability became guilt.
Alice Nutter is an ancestress of mine.
Ah, so on the other side of the coin! Did she hang??
Yes, she was.
Poor Alice wasn’t a witch. She was a recusant Roman Catholic when it was dangerous to be such. She couldn’t tell where she had been because it would have endangered others. She was reported as a witch because she refused to marry someone who wanted her estate. She owned a prosperous farm from the death of her husband.
No, I’m Anglican.
What stands out is not the belief in witchcraft itself, but how easily fear was turned into a legal mechanism.
The trials reveal less about “witches” and more about a society searching for control in uncertain times—where accusation became evidence, and vulnerability became guilt.