Matthew Hopkins; the Witchfinder General instigated a reign of terror over East Anglia between 1645 and 1647. Whilst there is little written evidence of his life; historians have pieced together some information about his terrifying crusade around the area.
Hopkins was brought up in the Puritan faith by his minister Father James Hopkins in the village of Great Wenham, Suffolk. On reaching adulthood it is believed that Hopkins trained to become a Lawyer. By 1644 he was living in Manningtree, Essex and the country as a whole was gripped in “Witch Fever”. Witchcraft laws had been passed in previous years which meant that anyone caught “Invoking evil spirits and using witchcraft, charms or sorcery” could be put to death. In 1645 having received authorisation to investigate an alleged witch; Hopkins joined forces with John Stearne.
Elizabeth Clarke was accused of witchcraft having apparently caused the convulsive illness and death of a local Manningtree woman. She confessed to the crime after three days and nights of sleep deprivation. It is believed that Hopkins used sleep deprivation as his primary investigative tool. To achieve this he would employ guards who would march the prisoner around and around their cell to keep them awake.
It is recorded that Clarke; a one legged widow, admitted to summoning familiars in spirit form. She claimed that the devil was their Father and that she used the spirits to hurt other people. Clarke also accused several other Manningtree women of witchcraft; exposing a coven that Hopkins claimed had induced a spirit to try and kill him.
Hopkins used several methods to identify witches; employing people in the form of midwives and “witch prickers” to help. Midwives would search the body of the accused for marks which were believed to be used for imps to suckle. Anne Leech, a widow from Mistley, was found to have several of these marks on her person and she admitted several offences on their discovery. “Witch Pricking” involved the use of a knife to prick the marks found. If the mark did not bleed it was said to prove guilt. It is believed that Hopkins made use of a retractable blade during witch pricking meaning an accusation of guilt was guaranteed.
By the end of Hopkins’ supremacy around 300 women had been accused of witchcraft and over one hundred were executed. It is understood that he had 68 people put to death in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk alone and 19 were hanged in Chelmsford, Essex in one day (those in Chelmsford included Elizabeth Clarke, Elizabeth Gooding and Anne Leache who were all women from the Mistley and Manningtree area). Helen Clark, Anne West, Anne Cooper and Marian Hocket were hanged at Manningtree later in the same year.
This multi-cache will take you to several locations where Matthew Hopkins is said to have been active. The first waypoint; The White Hart Inn is reputed to be a favourite drinking haunt of Hopkins. It is said today that you can sometimes hear him roaming the halls. The second waypoint; The Green is where the gibbet used to stand and where many convicted witches from the area were hanged.
The third waypoint; The Hopping Bridge is perhaps the most chilling of all the locations visited as part of this journey. It is from this bridge that Hopkins and his associates would "swim" suspected witches. They would have their thumbs tied to their toes so they were effectively helpless and before being thrown into the pond. If they sank, they were innocent (but usually died from drowning), if they floated, it was said that they were full of the devil's spirit and were condemned to death, usually by hanging. By the time many suspected witches were put through this torture, they were most likely begging for death anyway.
Finally, the fourth waypoint; The Thorn was apparently used by Hopkins at one time or another as his Headquarters. The phony psychic Derek Acorah once faked a possession by Hopkin's spirit whilst filming for the TV series "Most Haunted". Whilst he was exposed as a fake, many people report sightings of Hopkins roaming the halls of The Thorn. If you head around the corner into the road named The Green, you'll see on the wall of the pub some more information about Hopkins and his reign of terror.
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The White Hart - 01206 3927A8
The Green - Date on the bench; June 19B3
The Hopping Bridge - Stand on the bridge, overlooking the pond. How many gargoyles can you see on the church? Number of gargoyles + 3 = C (NB: the church is not particularly well lit, so be aware this may be harder in the dark!)
The Thorn - 01206 39?8?1 Add the ? numbers together = D
The final cache location is at:
N 51 56.AB0
E 01 04.C0D
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