What drove the witch-hunters’ cruel crusade?

Once every six weeks during the winter of 1644, a young man from Manningtree in Essex woke up in terror in the night. It was always on a Friday, and his terror quickly turned to irritation. Somewhere outside, he could hear people talking. He began to listen carefully, and one night he heard a female voice speaking about her familiar spirits – devils in animal form. Clearly a “horrible sect of witches” was active in Manningtree. This must be, the young man thought, “their meeting”, and they must be holding “solemn sacrifices there offered to the devil”.

The man listened as the Friday night reveller told her pet spirits that they must go to the house of Bess Clarke, who lived close by. Bess Clarke was already suspected of witchcraft by several townspeople as well as by the wakeful young man. And in March 1644 she was arrested by the local magistrate after these accusers reported her to him as a witch.

It was decided that the best way to obtain a confession from Clarke was to “keep her from sleep two or three nights” by walking her up and down, and employ a team of people to watch her. And on the fourth night,