Witch Hunts and the Little Ice Age

 I have a new article, co-authored with Karin Helmstaedt, published this week in Family Tree (UK) magazine titled Witch Hunts during the Little Ice Age. The piece summarizes the persecution of individuals for witch craft, events that escalated during that cool period due to challenging living conditions.

We have compiled a long list of references about the subject including articles, books, websites and videos but did not have the space in the magazine to include them. They are shown below and include not only the ones quoted in the article but many others we think readers may be interested in.

We hope you will be able to obtain a copy of the article and enjoy reading about the events. For subscription information contact the publisher at www.family-tree.co.uk

 

Witch Hunts and the Little Ice Age

Selected References & Further Reading

Baker, Emerson W. (2015). A Storm of Witchcraft: The Salem Trials and the American Experience. Oxford University Press. 398 pp.

Behringer, Wolfgang. (1995). Weather, Hunger and Fear: Origins of the European Witch-Hunts in Climate, Society and Mentality. German History, 13(1), pp. 1-27. https://www.uni-saarland.de/fileadmin/upload/lehrstuhl/behringer/PDF/weather.pdf

Behringer, Wolfgang. (1999). Climatic Change and Witch-Hunting: The impact of the Little Ice Age on mentalities. Climatic Change, 43, pp. 335-351. [important article for old treatises references] file:///F:/Downloads/Climatic_Change_and_Witch_Hunting%20(2).pdf

Behringer, Wolfgang. (2004). Witches and Witch-Hunts: A global history. Wiley, 320 pp.

Behringer, Wolfgang. (2010). A Cultural History of Climate. (published in German in 2007 as Kulturgeschichte des Klimas by C. H. Beck; translated by Patrick Camiller). Cambridge: Polity Press. 295 pp.

Boyer, Paul & Stephen Nissenbaum (Eds.). (1977). The Salem Witchcraft Papers: Verbatim transcriptions of the court records, in three volumes. De Capo Press. https://salem.lib.virginia.edu/category/swp.html

Clayton, John A. (2007). The Lancashire Witch Conspiracy: A History of Pendle Forest and the Pendle Witch Trials. Barrowford Press, 302 pp.

Dillinger, Johannes. (2019). The Routledge History of Witchcraft. Routledge, 422 pp.

Drake, Frederick C. (1968). Witchcraft in the American Colonies, 1647-62. American Quarterly, 20(4), pp. 694-725.

Gent, Frank J. (2017). The Trial of the Bideford Witches. Independently Published, 78 pp.

Godbeer, Richard. (1993). The Devil’s Dominion: Magic and Religion in Early New England. Cambridge University Press, 268 pp. [search on Ancestry.com; browse on Internet Archive https://archive.org/details/devilsdominionma0000godb_p8m2]

Goodare, Julian, Rita Voltmer & Liv Helene Willumsen (Eds.). (2020). Demonology and Witch-Hunting in Early Modern Europe. Routledge, 402 pp.

Helmstaedt, Karin. (2023). Remembering my ancestor who was burned as a witch. Deutsche Welle, Culture / Germany, 30 April 2023. https://www.dw.com/en/a-witch-in-the-family/a-65447802

Hudson, Chris. (2016). Witch Trials: Discontent in Early Modern Europe. Working Paper No. HEIDWP11-2016, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, International Economics Department, Working Paper Series. https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/156127/1/871678241.pdf

Kieckhefer, Richard. (1976). European Witch Trials: Their foundations in popular and learned culture 1300-1500. University of California Press, 181 pp.

Lamb, Hubert H. (1977). Climate: Present, Past and Future, Volume 2 – Climatic History and the Future. Methuen & Co. Ltd., 835 pp.

Leeson, Peter R. & Jacob W. Russ. (2017). Witch Trials. The Economic Journal, August, pp. 2066-2105. https://www.peterleeson.com/Witch_Trials.pdf

Levack, Brian P. (2013). The Oxford Handbook of Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe and Colonial America. Oxford University Press, 644 pp.

Maxwell-Stuart, Peter G. (2011). Witch Beliefs and Witch Trials in the Middle Ages: Documents and readings. Continuum International Publishing Group, 228 pp.

Miguel, E. (2005). Poverty and Witch Killing. The Review of Economic Studies, 72(4), 1153-1172. http://emiguel.econ.berkeley.edu/assets/miguel_research/45/_Paper__Poverty_and_Witch_Killing.pdf

Oster, Emily. (2004). Witchcraft, Weather and Economic Growth in Renaissance Europe. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 18(1), pp. 215-228. https://www.sfu.ca/~poitras/jpe_witches_04.pdf

Pfister, Ulrich. (2010). Consumer Prices and Wages in Germany, 1500-1850. Center for quantitative Economics. 45 pp. https://www.wiwi.uni-muenster.de/cqe/sites/cqe/files/CQE_Paper/CQE_WP_15_2010.pdf

Potts, Thomas. (1613). The Wonderfull Discoverie of Witches in the Countie of Lancaster (Reproduced as Potts’s Discovery of Witches, introduction by James Crossley, 1845. https://archive.org/details/pottsdiscoveryw01pottgoog/page/n9/mode/2up)

Rummel, Walter. (1991). Bauern, Herren, und Hexen. Kritische Studien zur Geschichtswissenschaft 94, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 424 pp.

Scott, Susan & Christopher J. Duncan. (1997). The mortality crisis of 1623 in north-west England. Local Population Studies, 58(Spring), pp. 14-25.    http://www.localpopulationstudies.org.uk/PDF/LPS58/LPS58_1997_14-25.pdf

Shepheard, W. Wayne. (2018). Surviving Mother Nature’s Tests: The effects climate change and other natural phenomena have had on the lives of our ancestors. Unlock the Past, 179 pp.

Shepheard, Wayne. (2023). Genealogy and the Little Ice Age. Unlock the Past, 82 pp.

Voltmer, Rita. (2008). Hexen: Wissen was stimmt. Verlag Herder, 128 pp.

Zarrillo, Dominick. (2018). The Icelandic Witch Craze of the Seventeenth Century. The College of New Jersey. file:///F:/Downloads/The_Icelandic_Witch_Craze_of_the_Sevente%20(2).pdf

Old Treatises

Kramer, Heinrich & Jakob Sprenger. (1486). Malleus Maleficarum (Hammer of Witches - English Translation by Montague Summers) https://ia803003.us.archive.org/13/items/b31349717/b31349717.pdf

Molitor, Ulrich. (1489). Opusculum de sagis maleficis. (Concerning Witches and Sorceresses) https://ia601600.us.archive.org/25/items/de-lamiis-et-pythonicis-mulieribus/De%20Lamiis%20et%20Pythonicis%20Mulieribus.pdf

Plantsch, Martin. (1507). Opusculum de sagis maleficis. [in Latin] (A treatise on witchcraft) https://books.google.ca/books?id=CqpSAAAAcAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_atb&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false

Scot, Reginald. (1584) The Discoverie of Witchcraft https://ia800201.us.archive.org/32/items/discoverieofwitc00scot/discoverieofwitc00scot.pdf

Roberts, Alexander. (1616). A Treatise of Witchraft. https://archive.org/details/b30333416

Bragge, Francis. (1712). Witchcraft Farther Display’d. https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/pdf/b30545158

Boulton, Richard. (1722). The Possibility and Reality of Magick, Sorcery, and Witchcraft, demonstrated, or a Vindication of a Compleat History of Magick, Sorcery, and Witchcraft. https://archive.org/details/possibilityreali00boul/page/n3/mode/2up

Websites & Online References

Boston Public Library: Salem Witch Trials https://guides.bpl.org/salemwitchtrials/home

Cornell University Witchcraft Collection https://rmc.library.cornell.edu/witchcraftcoll/

Early Modern Witch Trials https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/resources/early-modern-witch-trials/

Germanna Foundation newsletter, Spring 2016 https://germanna.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Germanna-Foundation-Newsletter-Spring-2016-web.pdf

Lancashire County Online Parish Clerk pages https://www.lan-opc.org.uk/

Pendle Witches https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pendle_witches

Wellcome Collection: Names of the Witches (in Scotland) 1658 [search on Ancestry.com] https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/pdf/b19111319

Witches and Witchcraft on The Online Books Page begin: https://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/browse?type=subject&index=185238&key=wit%20and%20humor%20african%20american&c=c

Witchcraft Bibliography https://libguides.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/ld.php?content_id=32757238

Witchcraft & the law in early modern Europe & USA: Home https://libguides.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/law-witch

Witchfinder General Project (Scotland) http://witches.is.ed.ac.uk/death/

Videos

1612: The Disturbing Witch Trial That Shook Britain | The Pendle Witch Child | Chronicle https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQrva6RAkak

Dark Age Britain’s War with Witchcraft: A century of murder https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBBHfZwjxYY

Death in the Dark Country: the Pendle Witch Trials https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wegs_uHDZiE

Witches – A century of murder https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rpic8sIh2JM

The Evil Career of Matthew Hopkins the Witchfinder General https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvVm29b1EP4

Why Witch Hunts are not just a Dark Chapter from the Past  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2Q1Vo9kduo

 

Remembering my mother

Today is the 50^th anniversary of the death of my mother, Norma Mabel (Miller) Shepheard (1917-1974). It has been a long time, but she is still part of our fondest memories. She died way to young but in her short time on Earth she had a major impact on all those around her, especially her children.

Curiously I read something in the comic pages this past week (Pearls Before Swine, 26 September 2024) that so clearly describes how we might feel about losing someone close. Sometimes you find perception in the strangest places:

A main character asked a local seer: “Oh, Wise Ass, when a magician makes himself disappear, is he really gone?”

The seer replied, “No, he’s just somewhere else that you can’t see.”

The character then commented, “So it’s sort of like when someone you love dies. It might look like they’re gone but really, they’re just somewhere else, like in your heart. And that’s its own form of magic.”

The seer’s comment, “Sometimes there’s nothing I can add.”

I can add nothing either. She’ll forever be in my heart.

The care and selflessness of mothers, grandmothers, sisters and aunts

We have more than a few stories about mothers, grandmothers, sisters and aunts in past family lines who made special efforts to care for their children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews.

I was reminded of such events by discussions this past week with a friend and her recent experience with illness in her family and the support she has been able to offer as a mother and grandmother.

My 2^nd great grandmother, Susanna Pearson (nee Davis), was shown on the (April) 1891 census in the Torquay, Devon home of her daughter, my great-grandmother, Mary Elizabeth Shepheard, where one month old grandson, my grandfather James, also resided. Susanna moved from her home in Leamington, Warwickshire, to look after Mary (and James of course) who was ill and probably bedridden. Great-grandfather James was in service and was required to live in the home of his employer elsewhere in Torquay. Mary died in October so it would not surprise me if her mother stayed until the end. Susanna and my 2^nd great-grandfather, Charles, took the little boy into their care in their Leamington, Warwickshire home. He was there for about a year, until they could no longer look after him because of their own failing health.

A 3^rd great-grandmother, Ann Shepheard (nee Symons), along with one of her daughters, Jane, came from Cornwood, Devon to the home of a brother-in-law in Plymouth, to care for him and his three-month-old daughter when sister-in-law, Thomasin Short (nee Shepheard) fell ill. Ann was shown there at the time of the (June) 1841 census just after the new mother died. No doubt she had arrived before the woman was incapacitated and stayed to care for the family. Baby Thomasin ended up living with another aunt for several years. She also received financial support from other relatives.

Coincidentally both young women died of phthisis (tuberculosis), 50 years apart.

My wife was very involved in the well being of her mother in the latter’s late life visiting her regularly and taking care of her needs, in her apartment while she could live on her own, and later in the care home before where she spent her last days.

One of my sisters lived with our mother for several months before Mom moved from the city of Calgary to a new home in British Columbia. Mom became ill with what we knew only later was the early stages cancer. My sister cared for her immediate needs and provided much needed companionship while our dad was setting up a new business.

These are just a few stories I have uncovered so far through my family history research that show the love and support family members had for each other, perhaps especially the mothers, grandmothers, sisters and aunts who primarily took on the direct supporting roles. 

In most families I believe it generally is the females in families that provide for the assistance and ease of the burdens of older or sick relatives. While my wife and I are not unable to fend for ourselves, our daughter and daughter-in-law both go out of their way to do things for us whenever they can. Not that men don’t care or offer whatever help they can. But it’s different.