Witches in Yorkshire

This is a list of Yorkshire witches known between 1500's to the 1800's in the Yorkshire area. During this time witchcraft was punishable by death, usually by fire or hanging, and so is know as the Burning Times. I present this list as a historical reference but also as a memorial to all the witches that were killed during those horrible years.

Mabel Brigge - Executed in York - 1538

Mabel Brigge was executed in 1538 for carrying out a black fast against the king and the duke of Norfolk. In the retelling, a delicate web of local politics emerges. Brigge was apparently hired by Isabel Buck to perform a fast. The two women asserted that its purpose was the recovery of money which Buck had lost. Fasting was a common religious activity in early modern England, often publicly prescribed by religious authorities as evidence of contrition. However, according to two witnesses, Mabel Brigge's fast was not penitential but depraved. A black fast was a witch's tool to injure another. Mabel Brigge, therefore, was accused of treasonous witchcraft. Despite her protestations of innocence and some corroborating testimony, she was quickly sentenced and executed. Interestingly enough, Jansen notes that her employer, Isabel Buck, was reprieved. As with Wood's case, the context of Brigge's conviction is provided in a host of similar examples of disorderly conduct or suspect religious activities.

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Mother Shipton (Ursula Sonthiel Shipton) - 1488 to 1561

Ursula Southeil (c. 1488 - 1561) (possibly Ursula Sonthiel), better known as Mother Shipton, was an English soothsayer and prophetess who is said to have made dozens of unusually accurate predictions, including the Great Plague of London, the Spanish Armada, and the Great Fire of London.

It is a subject of debate that Mother Shipton was largely a myth, and that many of her prophecies were composed by others after her death, and after the events they 'predicted'. Her prophecies were apparently recorded in a series of diaries but the first published book of her work did not appear until 1641 and the most noted work, by Richard Head, came out in 1684. Head later admitted to inventing almost all Shipton's biographical details.

The details of her life as recorded by Head state that she was born in Knaresborough, Yorkshire, and was reputedly hideously ugly - supposedly because she was fathered by the Devil. She married Toby Shipton, a local carpenter, near York in 1512 and is said to have told fortunes and made predictions throughout her life.

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Mary Pannel - Exectued in Yorkshire - 1603

Mary Pannel or Pannell was a maid at Ledston Hall towards the end of the 16th century. She, like many others, had a knowledge of 'old' medicines and prepared a lotion to be rubbed upon the chest of the young son of the house, one Master William Witham Esq. who was suffering from a chill. His mother mistakenly gave it to the lad to drink and poisoned him. She blamed Mary and accused her of being a witch. This was in May 1593. Mary was tried in 1603 at York and convicted. She was burned to death on the hill that bares her name that same year. Local tales tell that she haunts the hill and its Roman road leading a horse. Anyone who witnesses the apparition will have a death in the family soon after.

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Jannet Preston - Executed in York - 27th July 1612

Jannet Preston became the first of the "Malkin Tower" Witches to be hanged. She was hanged for the death of Thomas Lister of Westby Hall. Janet Preston was born on 1 Sep 1588 and her parents were Adam Preston and Isobel Braithwaite.

"Old Wife Green" - Burned in Pocklington - 1630

“Old Wife Green” was lynched and burnt alive by a mob in Pocklington. Pocklington claim this to be the last witch buring in England. (Very little information available. More would be appreciated.)

Isabella Billington (and her Husband) - Hanged and Burned in York - 1650

The town's most notorious resident Isabella Bilington aged 32 was sentenced to death at York Assizes for crucifying her mother at Pocklington. After the killing she burnt a calf and a cock as a sacrifice. Her husband too was hanged as an accomplice.

Mary Bateman - Executed in Yorkshire - 20th March 1808

41 year old Mary Bateman had been convicted of the murder by poisoning in May 1808, of Rebecca Perigo. Mary had been a criminal since childhood and in later years began duping people with her self proclaimed supernatural powers. In 1806, William and Rebecca Perigo approached Mary asking for her help as they suspected that they had been put under a spell. Mary saw a great opportunity here to bleed the Perigo's of their money before killing them when they became suspicious of her activities. She didn’t manage to kill William however, as he wouldn’t eat the poison she had prepared for them. Mary Bateman was hanged alongside two men and after execution her body was displayed in public and thousands paid to view it, with the proceeds going to charity. Strips of her skin were sold as charms to ward off evil.

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