In the year 1645 the biggest witch-hunt in English history got underway and East Anglia was at its grim centre. Hundreds of people were hanged in East Anglia during the following few years after being put on trial for alleged crimes of witchcraft. However, one woman named Mary Lackland who lived in Ipswich was sentenced to the especially extreme sentence of being burned for her purported crimes.

In this episode of the podcast I speak to David Jones about his book The Ipswich Witch, Mary Lackland and the Suffolk Witch Hunts.

We talk about what life would have been like for people living in 17th century Ipswich, David's ideas about what may have led to Mary Lackland's trial and execution, methods used by witch-finders to test for the innocence or guilt of the accused, and what might have been behind the emergence of witch-trials at such an extreme level during the 1640s.

Interviewee

David Jones

Podcast Artwork

Kelly Wadsworth

Music

Caleb Howgego

Here's a link to David Jones' book The Ipswich Witch, Mary Lackland and the Suffolk Witch Hunts

www.amazon.co.uk/Ipswich-Witch-David-L-Jones/dp/0752480529

For more local history visit

www.ipswichhistory.com