Name: Talk - Kent in Six Witch Trials
Start: 2025-11-07T19:30:00+00:00
Location: Meyrick Road, ME12 2NX Sheerness, United Kingdom

During the 17th century, the Assize Court Records for the county detail a number of bizarre cases which involve accusations of witchcraft, livestock killed by maleficium & children bewitched to death
Kent in Six Witch Trials - a talk by Wayne Perkins
One of the most infamous cases was the trial of the Faversham Witches, which led to the immediate execution of three women, with the fate of the fourth accused unknown
on an even larger scale was the case of the Maidstone Witches, which resulted in the execution of seven women. Charged with the ‘execrable & diabolical crime of witchcraft’ in 1652. witnesses claimed that they had bewitched a child to death & known the devil carnally
once feted as the ‘holy maid of Kent,’ Elizabeth Barton had ‘visions & portents’ Which ultimately led to her beheading on the orders of henry viii
Thomas Whiteling was accused of bewitching a child until she was, ‘greatly wasted, pined & consumed’
Joan Bydon was found guilty of bewitching both children & livestock to death
In the pamphlet, ‘the devil in Kent’ (published in 1647) Thomas Lipeatt of old sandwich claimed that he was visited by a ‘ball of fire’ & other apparitions
Tickets £5 on the door