Witches of Essex 2025 Season 1 Episode 2
Five Minute Recap brings you quick 5-minute summaries of the latest news, movies, tech, and trends. Stay informed and entertained in minutes with clear, engaging recap perfect for busy people who want to learn fast and keep up with the world.
#FiveMinuteRecap #Recap #QuickNews #DailyUpdate #LearnFast
Five Minute Recap brings you quick 5-minute summaries of the latest news, movies, tech, and trends. Stay informed and entertained in minutes with clear, engaging recap perfect for busy people who want to learn fast and keep up with the world.
#FiveMinuteRecap #Recap #QuickNews #DailyUpdate #LearnFast
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:05i've always been interested in history and i am fascinated by the supernatural but i had no idea
00:12that essex is steeped in horrific stories of persecution and death all down to the pursuit
00:18of witches let me go i've got nothing wrong i've teamed up with anthropologist professor
00:24alice roberts to investigate what happened and why she would have been terrified she would have during
00:31the 16th and 17th centuries hundreds of women were tried and executed for witchcraft essex became known
00:40as the witch county home to some of the most infamous witch trials in england we want to know
00:45how did these witch trials come about who or what was the driving force behind them and how essex's
00:50dark past is still linked to the present the evidence is all here in this episode state
00:56sponsored violence sweeps through elizabethan england what a pestilent people witches are
01:01in a small town in essex a feud between two peasant women grows to engulf an entire village
01:09in our incident room we'll put the pieces of the puzzle together it's getting out of control
01:14people are going to die and reveal the shocking truth behind this dark time in essex history
01:21you murdered my baby our cold case is now open
01:34in 1581 this small village in essex became the focus for one of the largest witch hunts ever seen
01:40in british history saint osif is located in the east of essex just five miles from clacton on sea
01:48we've come to the scene of the crime but this cold case begins with a more recent and rather unusual
01:54discovery this is saint osif it's very pretty it's gorgeous and just up the road about 10 minutes away
02:01you've got clacton and jaywick and seaweed yeah and as a kid i remember sometimes we would go up there
02:07growing up in london go down the seaside stay in a caravan and it was really exciting as a kid
02:12but i've never really spent time here and i'm not too sure why you want to come here today
02:18actually this is a really historic area it's named after this anglo-saxon mercy and princess
02:24and abbess there's a lovely priory just over there
02:27coming i dug out a story from the 1920s and this is about somebody digging in their back garden
02:35one of those houses just over there okay this man called mr brooker found a skeleton and mr brooker
02:43basically had this in his garden as a tourist attraction that's a little bit odd isn't it
02:48well look i've actually got the newspaper cuttings from of course you have so saint oseth
02:55a discovery of very great interest was made on thursday may the 19th very specific very by mr
03:00brooker here we go he was digging for sand at the rear of a cottage uh just there on mill
03:05street
03:05digging up a skeleton lying about five feet beneath the surface look it's a woman who was probably put
03:11to death as a witch in the 17th century okay well that's odd yeah but how does that mean that
03:16that's a
03:16witch was there like a broomstick and a hat or something i think we need to find out more about
03:21this okay well should we go dig in for want of a better term yeah i think we should i'm
03:26just a
03:26little bit suspicious about this whole story i'm not suspicious about a lot of things
03:32when the saint oseth witch hunt took place england was decades into the iron rule of queen elizabeth
03:38the first so what else was happening in the village and the nation at that time england is reeling
03:45from multiple shocks in the 1580s this is not a happy time for either elizabeth or for the country
03:53elizabeth had been excommunicated by the pope which meant that the church of england was now
04:00entirely separate from the catholic church there is a radical break with in terms of all kinds of
04:08relationship intellectual business mercantile links with continental europe there were plots plots and
04:15assassination attempts on elizabeth the first life this was a period of extraordinary mistrust and
04:23fear she decides that her realm may possibly be full of witches and she introduces a number of
04:31punishments for these people one of which is death
04:38in 1563 elizabeth passed an act of parliament establishing witchcraft as a criminal offense
04:45carrying the maximum penalty of death by hanging the case of the saint oseth witch trials begins 18 years
04:53later in 1581 with two neighbors ersley kemp
05:00and grace thurlow
05:03when grace's son davy falls sick in her desperation she employs ersley a local healer
05:10good child how art thou load good child how art thou load good child how art thou load
05:30he'll be fine now i've lifted the curse oh god be thanked
05:36you'll be needing a nursemaid for the new babe what with you working up the priory
05:41we'll see
05:44that leg's still giving you bother why don't you let me treat it i've got hogs done chervil
05:50saint john's ward you'll feel better in no time shall we say a shilling
05:58a desperate mother a village healer and a mysterious skeleton are the three linked and if so how are
06:07they connected to the witch trials in our incident room we review the first clues of the cold case
06:17we know this is our main character in the cold case main character energy now in the 1920s this
06:26skeleton was found in a garden in saint oseth and there's a possible link that people believe that
06:34this could be ersley yeah i'm very intrigued but quite skeptical about this link but let's put it in as
06:40a
06:41suggestion this is grace grace is a friend of ersley and grace employed ersley to help her
06:49with her sick son davy ersley kemp is a healer also known as a cunning woman with a reputation for
06:58treating sickness and removing curses a cunning woman is somebody who does magical healing
07:06she will come to you and she'll maybe say a spell or a charm or a prayer over you maybe
07:11she'll give
07:12you some medicine some ointment to rub on your body something to eat or drink and she'll carry away your
07:17disease
07:20herbal medicine is still practiced today so can a modern day herbalist provide any clues to how
07:27and why the cunning folk were effective healers they were people who supported their community's
07:34health working with herbal medicine by making remedies to address ailments they would have been
07:40a known character a known member of their community but there is this idea that the healer in many
07:45cultures has been located at the edge everyone knows the system yeah and that you might go to them at
07:51a
07:51certain time i think the term today sounds kind of sinister because because of cunning and and what we
07:58think of the term cunning but actually it just means knowledge doesn't it why yeah wise person i know and
08:03it's a distortion i think that reflects how people who practice those kinds of um healing modalities
08:10have also been discredited through the ages people who were cunning women tended to be people that were
08:16more voiceless that had less power in the hierarchy of the community being older women um perhaps being
08:23widowed yeah but in old english the the word root means to have power to have knowledge and still using
08:30plants fungi all of those kind of um natural origins the way that plants work we metabolize and we've
08:35evolved to break them down and they do amazing things in our bodies the famous example is the the white
08:42willow bark yeah and salicylic acid aspirin basically yeah yeah which is the isolated constituent of the
08:48plant see this is where we're very different the first thing when she hears salicylic acid she says
08:53aspirin i think cosmetics oh really yeah i think skincare yeah well there's always been an association
08:59between medicine and cosmetics as well hasn't there as well definitely because you're talking about
09:04things which have been tried and tested yeah over over generations yeah some of them have passed into
09:11into modern medicine and become part of our part of our pharmacology today the cunning folk were
09:18skilled practitioners they couldn't afford to work for free and so ersley expected her due payment
09:27morning grace see that leg looks better yeah it's been fine these last few weeks
09:32might you have that shilling in payment for the healing come now ersley i'm a poor and needy woman
09:37i don't have the money oh well i about caught that good cheese your aunt i've got nothing to give
09:45now please let me get on so that lameness don't come back or that son of yours fall sick again
09:51then
09:51eh threats is it someone might think you're cursing me what are you talking about should i or my boy
09:59fall sick again i'll report you to the magistrate charge of witchcraft i think
10:06cunning people walked a fine line in their community because on the one hand they were
10:11thought to be helpful on the other hand if something went wrong they could be used to being a
10:16witch the relationship between these two women is breaking down grace is saying no it's because she
10:24don't want to pay she pleads a little bit of poverty ersley then says to her well i hope your
10:29son
10:29don't get sick again grace then flips and she's just reminding her literally payment exactly well
10:35she promised her a shilling that's all she wanted but what's really interesting i think is the the
10:40fact that grace is then actually threatening ersley and saying watch out don't keep asking me for this
10:47money because i might say that you're a witch and this isn't an empty threat it's majorly serious
10:52these women know what happened to women that accused of witchcraft
11:021581 in the village of saint oseth east essex ersley kemp and grace thurlow have come to blows
11:09over a disputed payment we know that cunning women are providing the service of their communities that
11:15they're acting as healers they're using herbs but they do also seem to be treading quite a difficult
11:23line obviously if you are a cunning woman like ersley that is something that you're trying to portray as
11:29being good but if somebody takes against you doesn't like you then that can always be changed into an
11:36accusation of malevolent magic and that's the problem yeah but these people around that time the cunning
11:42folk they're choosing to do this with their life why do you think they were happy to tread that line
11:47a lot of them don't have very much of a choice not a whole lot of jobs available to women
11:52at the
11:52time so there's this sense that a woman can maybe only have this knowledge if she's in league with the
11:59devil this is something that women struggle with in general like the very first woman eve gets all of her
12:05knowledge by being in league with the devil right so if you are one of these women who has access
12:11to
12:12something that is seen as supernatural maybe you were drawing on this ancient feminine tradition of
12:17being particularly evil and loving to talk to snakes i mean it is baked in misogyny running through
12:23society absolutely i mean nothing new under the sun babe it's not just a throwaway comment when when
12:29grace accuses ersley of being a witch is it no it's not going to be gossip that is something that
12:36can get
12:36you killed in october 1581 grace thurlow's six-month-old baby dies in mysterious circumstances
12:45the stage is now set for an explosive reckoning between grace and ersley
12:53i came as soon as i heard oh that poor babe
13:00i told you to take me on as nursemaid the band would never have fallen if i were looking after
13:06her
13:07it was you you did this i'd have prevented this if i were looking after her the babe would still
13:17be in
13:17your arms you cursed her i couldn't pay you so you cursed my baby i didn't curse anyone i'd protect
13:26babes i thought we was friends and you murdered my baby just go i'll see you hang for this
13:43grace loses her little girl and this tragic event causes her to accuse ersley kemp of having attacked
13:52the child this idea of blaming was strongly connected to the misunderstanding of what causes
14:00sickness at a time of crisis the society could be brought together by attaching a blame to a human
14:07being to a person once it's attached they are in extraordinary danger
14:18grace makes good on her threat and later reports ersley to the authorities a warrant is issued for her arrest
14:30match three wants a word with you what are you doing let me go i've done nothing wrong
14:36ersley is thrown into the village lockup known as the cage
14:42it's thought part of the jail still stands within this house now considered to be one of the most
14:47haunted buildings in england i love a good ghost story you are obviously very spiritual yeah i can see
14:55just by looking around your house what's your take on witchcraft so i'm supposed to spiritually so i
14:59believe in what kind of fits well with me you know the first ghost i saw in there i was
15:05sitting in the
15:06front room on the floor and she was carrying a bowl and in it was something like papyri or leaves
15:12i don't
15:12know i couldn't properly see into it and she just sprinkled them over my head as i'm sitting on the
15:17floor
15:17and then she disappeared do you think there's any way that this is in you do you think that this
15:22is
15:23how do you know that those phenomena are outside you rather than being a hallucination
15:27no you know what hallucination is what you try and do is rationalize it and say okay right because
15:33you want it to be the mice in the attic you want it to be that the window's left open
15:37you want it to
15:38be imagination so for people who maybe don't believe what you're saying how did you feel living in that
15:45house i felt literally like i had become the prisoner in my own home i had the vicar in i
15:52had the local
15:52vicar in i tried everything i knew i mean i do believe in stuff like this i think there's a
15:57rational explanation i know you do but that's why we work this woman then that you you say you saw
16:03yeah coming and sprinkling leaves or whatever it was over you do you think that was her do you think
16:07that was earthly i don't i don't know because she never said her name but i think that in some
16:12kind
16:12of way that was some sort of protection that's obviously something i'm appreciative of i had great
16:18empathy for her her situation and how i would feel as if that that was me what you know as
16:26a single
16:27parent how just how would you feel what could you do which she's had no no say did they once
16:33they're
16:33accused of it that was that it's a horrendous story isn't it ersley's situation is about to take
16:39a turn for the worse st osif's ambitious local magistrate brian darcy is keen to make a name for
16:47himself he's poised to capitalize on the anti-witch hysteria we have to diminish the multitude of wicked
16:56people to reform detestable abusers and secret offenders and withdraw honest natures from the
17:07corruption of corruption of evil company
17:13sorcerers wizards witches wise women for so they will be named will be rigorously punished rigorously say
17:24i it is too mild a term i should have said most cruelly executed for all men must know what
17:33a pestilent
17:34people witches are unworthy to live in our christian commonwealth
17:41we know about darcy's anti-witch zealotry thanks to a key piece of evidence a pamphlet or chat book
17:47published soon after the trial this claim to give a true and full account of the investigations and
17:53subsequent confessions i think the chat book is largely brian's work it's essentially a kind of
17:58autobiography it's it's about him as a witch hunter and his witch trial we can tell reading between the
18:05lines of the papers that he's commonly well read he's clearly read a quite recent book by a hugely famous
18:16french intellectual called jean bodin not only urging magistrates across europe to hunt witches but also
18:27giving them some remarkably frank advice on how to do so and darcy has now read the theory he's avid
18:35for
18:35the practice so here's where we are in the story ersley is arrested and we saw the local politician the
18:45local magistrate getting involved so this is brian darcy he is clearly interested in witches he's got his
18:54his own agenda i mean he's a politician identifying an enemy and saying to this society this community
19:01i can sort this enemy out he can gain some political capital from this this is what it is with
19:06him
19:07isn't it it's just all about furthering his own career there's also a connection with the grandest
19:11house in st asus the priory now this is where the lord of the manor lives and guess what brian
19:18darcy is his cousin oh so the cousin is the lord of the manor yeah right so there's a connection
19:25and grace works at the priory right so we've got a bit of a double connection stacking up against
19:32ersley yeah and we know all of this because actually we have transcripts from the court this
19:39is known as a chapbook and they're probably heavily biased but it's the best evidence that we've got here
19:45so we know from this brian darcy is going to get even more involved with this case
19:52darcy's next step is to bring ersley in for pre-trial questioning
19:59you are ersley kemp also known as gray i am sit
20:09you've been accused by grace thurlow wife of john testified under oath you bewitched both her and
20:18her son causing lameness and you dear god that you murdered her infant daughter
20:28i did none of those things i'm a healer one of the cunning folk i'm not a witch
20:34i have a second accusation brought to me only yesterday by annis leatherdoll wife of richard
20:41says you sent your bastard son thomas begging for some scouring sand but you'd none to give
20:47you were then heard cursing her infant daughter elizabeth a murmuring and a muttering it was
20:55the child has since taken ill i lay my life on it i never cursed that child i undo cursings
21:02and
21:02bewitchings mistress leatherdoll says she called on a cunning woman of high regard who confirmed it was
21:08you who bewitched the child it's not true the infant now suffers such piteous issue and
21:14swellings of her privy parts she is unlikely to live
21:21and by the law of our sovereign queen these wicked acts of sorcery make this a hanging offence
21:27i could save you from the gallows
21:36saint ozith magistrate brian darcy continues to interrogate ersley he pushes her to admit to
21:42keeping demonic animal spirits otherwise known as familiars ersley is buckling under the pressure
21:49if you deal plainly with me and confess the truth of your wicked acts
21:55i could save you from the gallows
22:00confess
22:03and this
22:06will all go away
22:09but i'm not a witch
22:11a cunning woman yes the healer but not a witch
22:14and yet the evidence is all here
22:17i even have testimony from your bastard son thomas
22:22he told me
22:25if your devil spirits
22:27confess
22:29plainly the truth
22:31thomas is only a child
22:33these spirits
22:34what forms do they take
22:37what colors
22:38what are their names
22:41they're a form of
22:44they're not
22:44two cats
22:45one gray one black
22:48a dark colored toe
22:50and a white lamb
22:51and which did you send a thurlow's wife
22:59confess
23:02it will be in your favor
23:06it was a great cat
23:08that hate
23:09grace thurlow
23:12and the
23:14toad that punished
23:15netherdoll's daughter
23:18and it was the white lamb
23:21to the cradle
23:22that killed grace's baby
23:27god forgive me
23:34it's not really clear why
23:36oarsley confesses
23:38she might feel that she just needs to go along with the magistrate's bullying
23:42and say what is necessary
23:44there's no sign that brian darcy uses physical torture but in a profound sense he doesn't need to
23:50because he is the absolute master of the leading question
23:55he is resentful he is ambitious he is anxious to rise in society and make himself known
24:02he wants to encourage his suspects to confess and he also wants to reduce them to a state of submission
24:09to him i think he bullies them
24:12although oarsley confesses thinking she'll be released with more and more people now accusing
24:17her her life still hangs in the balance
24:21so this is annis leveder now anis has also claimed that
24:24oarsley has killed slash cursed one of her own children as well so this is two people now that
24:31have come forward to say that oarsley is a witch or accusing her of some form of witchcraft now when
24:36you're in that situation she's been in the cage she obviously just wants to get back to
24:41her normal life she doesn't want to be trolled she would have been terrified of course she would
24:44have of course she would have yeah she ends up admitting to having familiars to discover more
24:51about these familiars we seek out a modern day witch a witch is someone who tries to marry the
25:00the mesh of the universe and distill it into their own lives into everybody else's lives and to walk
25:07gently upon the earth and to be a decent human being and in terms of the the ideology i mean
25:14would
25:14you describe it as a religion it is a religion it has a beating sacred heart to it one thing
25:20that we've
25:20been learning about as well as familiars can you explain to me what a familiar is it's like a
25:25well-trained pet that you don't have to talk to right you know it's um that just sounds like a
25:30long
25:31marriage to me
25:40don't i'm a woman because familiars are
25:45traditionally they are animals that do your bidding and they can go and spy on neighbors or they can
25:51go and turn milk sour well you know if a cat pees in a bucket of milk then it's going
25:56to go sour yeah
25:57and so but your cat would then get the blame because you were the person that nobody liked in
26:02the village right and these stories which are started by you know rumors it seems to be that
26:08it's ramped up into this frenzy yes yes but again it's unfair did ersley truly believe she possessed
26:16demonic familiars or was she simply submitting to darcy now familiars are like these animals that people
26:22believe are sort of spiritual and supernatural and can do the devil's work on your behalf she has two
26:30cats but you know we're saying these are familiars is it are they just animals well of course they
26:35could be because then she throws in a toad they're not kind of fantastical animals we're not talking
26:40unicorns here but this one is really interesting a lamb and what ersley goes on to admit is that this
26:47lamb
26:48basically did her bidding for her yeah but do you believe that she really confessed to that because
26:54we don't know we don't know what brian's asking you we don't know if you were saying have you seen
26:58any animals around no she mentions a lamb and he says could the lamb have gone into grace's house
27:04could the lamb have tipped the cot all she's got to say is maybe whatever drove ersley to confess
27:11she remains imprisoned in an attempt to deflect attention away from herself she starts pointing
27:17the finger of blame at other women
27:24the constable says you have more to confess night in the cage loosened your tongue
27:34perhaps you have the names of other witches in saint osis
27:41my offer of clemency still stands it wasn't me that sent those beasts
27:48they were taken from me by alice newman and and it was she that sent them to grace thurlow
27:56and let the daughter so you're in league with mother newman no no we ain't friends
28:03she also cursed master johnson who collects for the poor and send the imps to to plague edna stratton
28:14any others
28:19orsley spends a night in the lockup and the next morning she comes out saying not necessarily that
28:27she's primarily responsible for all of these witchcraft crimes but that maybe other people are
28:33when you put on the pressure cooker effect then the cracks are really going to show and so every rift
28:40in
28:40the community is going to gape wide open and the names of the accused are going to start tumbling out
28:46it ruptures the village there's no way that previous relations can go back to normal
28:52accusations fly as the village starts to rip itself apart no one is safe
29:04following ersley's confession which local magistrate brian darcy assured would save her
29:10her plight has worsened ersley is unraveling and grace thurlow continues to stir up trouble
29:21magister magister what news of mother kemp she currently resides at colchester castle awaiting trial
29:29at the springer's eyes with some persuasion she has confessed to all charges there's more witches
29:36in st osa than just ersley kemp you know go on i heard anna's glass cup bewitched the child of
29:43mitchell
29:43shoemaker and then alice hunt told me that joan peachey cursed master johnson mother kemp has said as
29:50much then there's elizabeth bennett they say dear god the devil makes her have unnatural carnal tendencies
30:10anyone is turning on anyone now so ersley is accusing alice newman of taking over her familiars
30:18for being the actual malevolent force in the village and sending these animals out to do their evil work
30:23there's anis glascock uh there's another alice alice hunt and there's joan peachey all these women
30:32in st o's life being accused of witchcraft i mean you've clearly got people who are scared and they
30:38think they can deflect blame onto onto others what brian darcy is doing is stoking that 100 he's stirring
30:46that pot whatever his motives are whatever he's got in mind it's getting out of control and people
30:54are going to die we know there was this fear of witches and witchcraft and supernatural but do you
31:02think there were any hidden motives behind the whole witch trials oh god yeah it could just be
31:07something like you owe money to someone who is accused of witchcraft and you don't feel like paying
31:12it right great way to get out of paying your bills it could be sometimes that a woman kind of
31:18owns a lot
31:18of land and you've got your eye on it oh accuser of being a witch look it's for sale it's
31:24also a way
31:24of making yourself a bit of a celebrity yeah it's interesting isn't it because there's not a one size
31:28fits all there could be lots of different motives but what you've got around it is this
31:34it's this state sanctioned uh approach and and the fact that it's written into law yeah so that
31:41always gives you a framework to fall back on and the more law you have the more this is written
31:47about
31:47the more ways there are to exploit it backed by the state the saint osith witch hunt intensifies
31:55darcy now has his sights set on another villager elizabeth bennett but this time he takes a more
32:02aggressive approach we have testimony of your devil spirits sucking and leered is it i know you sent them
32:14to torment the wife of william wiles and mistress fortune you're also accused of using them to kill
32:21william and joan by it says who bet it was that telltale earthly i also have testimony from master
32:30william bonner he says you used your devil powers to seduce his godly wife and that you had unnatural
32:40relations with her bonner says lars candlemas you were seen kissing his wife on her mouth
32:47whereupon her lips swelled her eyes sunk and she has not spoken since no it's life i wouldn't hurt you
32:57sexually bewitched and cursed a devout christian woman and goodly wife
33:03this is witchcraft of the basis kind confess or i'll see you hanged and burnt
33:17elizabeth bennett elizabeth bennett resists brian darcy because she won't confess he bullies elizabeth
33:22by saying he's going to hang and burn her if she's found to be a witch he can't actually do
33:29that which
33:29is a not burn to death in england they are hanged if they're found guilty he's refining his technique and
33:37using verbal terrorism as a way of breaking the person in front of him one name that keeps popping
33:44up is elizabeth bennett there she is so we've had oarsley already say yeah she's a witch you know
33:51she's there she's that but then there's another accusation that comes in yeah william bonner
33:58he's basically saying that this elizabeth is a lesbian and is having some type of relation with
34:04his wife and back then what you need to remember is anything out of the ordinary when it comes down
34:10to sexuality was seen as the doing of the devil and what's quite sad to think about there are certain
34:16parts of the world certain religions that also believe in this day and age yeah that something
34:21that elizabeth may or may not have been we don't know that that sexuality is sinful yeah yeah
34:31am i right in saying that the sort of sexuality side of stuff and witchcraft
34:36pretty much grouped together in this instance you are bang on so the first ever witch hunting manual
34:41that is written which is called the malleus maleficarum specifically says that the reason
34:45there are more women witches than men is because women are more sexual and the idea here is that to
34:51become a witch you shag the devil no not a euphemism just full on going at it and that witches
34:59get
34:59together and they have big old orgies with the devil and each other so if you are actually queer
35:05and out in the world then the idea is oh well you'd shag women you shag the devil so you
35:10must be a witch
35:11as well exactly do you think people actually believe that the devil is involved here just because
35:15somebody isn't heterosexual incredibly the first time this ever happens when the first book comes
35:21out everyone says you are crazy this makes no sense 100 years later when we get protestants and catholics
35:27yep apparently they just think to be a witch is to be kind of gay to be kind of gay
35:32is to be a witch
35:33yeah and it's and it's about controlling people but in terms of actually controlling their bodies
35:38and if you think about it it is really threatening to society to have a woman who is this out
35:44of control
35:44by men so if you are only attracted to women you're having sex with other women well where
35:50are the men in here to tell you what to do you're not answering to a man are you exactly
35:53she's outside
35:54the patriarchy and that has to be stopped with elizabeth and many others being swept up in the witch
36:01hunt a desperate ersley is still stuck behind bars now even her own brother turns against her
36:10master darcy master darcy
36:18i told you everything you promised me favor if i did your confessions have proved useful
36:27i now have 14 persons to put before the azores please can i go on
36:38tell me what of your sister-in-law we weren't on good terms i admit that
36:47we came to blows on elliott's eve a while back
36:52just today you own brother lawrence came to me and told me the curse you put on his wife
37:01that's not true she fell sick i was trying to help her he says his wife languished in agony for
37:08nine
37:09months and then breathed her last
37:15you earthly kin killed her with wicked sorcery
37:23you must hang for your crimes
37:33brian darcy wanted to be famous he does go down in english history as one of the very first english
37:40witch hunters this witch hunt expands right across essex and by the time it's finished a large number
37:46of people have been accused and they're taken for trial at chelmsford
37:51ersley goes to court but was she sentenced to death
37:55and was it her skeleton that was unearthed to finally identify the mill street remains
38:01we head to the saint osif social club to meet with retired police inspector turned local historian
38:07john morland so we've seen this photograph was said to be that of ersley or ursula kemp
38:12i should have mentioned also found there was evidence of a nail through the bone as well
38:17okay so this is interesting so this is an iron nail uh piercing through the bone i can't see it
38:23in
38:24this picture it's not there the hole here doesn't look like a hole that's been made when that bone is
38:30fresh and green so hold up this skeleton's found dug up by mr brooker there's photo evidence of the
38:39skeleton being dug up but there's no nails yeah so it's all i mean i'm not i'm no detective but
38:49it's suspect in it exactly it's all been done very very quickly after the the remains been uncovered
38:56yeah just going back to these pictures i was immediately suspicious for a number of reasons i
39:02mean i'm i'm i'm worried about the date of it st osith is you know well known for its anglo
39:07-saxon history
39:08it's named after an anglo-saxon princess this could just be an anglo-saxon burial ground i mean one
39:14of the things surely that you can do is look for a date absolutely and and that's exactly what i
39:20did
39:21had carbon dating done and so before you show us yes i'm gonna say it's a thousand years old okay
39:32it's 1600s there we go okay so my hypothesis is wrong still looking at a skeleton which is the
39:40right age area yeah so it's earthly the right antiquity no it means we haven't disproven that
39:47it's her okay well i'm fine with that is this where i can put a spoiler in or not well
39:52i do you know i
39:53think i can throw a spoiler in go because that does not look like a female skeleton to me you're
40:00absolutely you're right it's a man oh what oh this was a waste of time and i think everybody locally
40:11wanted it to be what's happened to the bones now then the bones i'm pleased to say the executors
40:18said i can take the remains and rebury them with some dignity in unconsecrated land as originally
40:24found where they're meant to be so the mill street skeleton is not ersley but at the end of march
40:331582
40:35ersley along with elizabeth bennett are both convicted of witchcraft and led to the gallows
40:50we have to diminish the multitude of wicked people
40:56for all men must know what a pestilent people witches are unworthy to live in our christian
41:04commonwealth i'm a healer one of the cunning folk i'm not a witch
41:18confess or i'll see you hanged and burnt
41:52i think there are malevolent forces at work in 16th century st osis but i don't think it's witchcraft
42:01i think it is self-interest rumor coercion i think you're absolutely right brian darcy played his part
42:12really well because what he then went on to be was promoted he moved up in the world he got
42:18what he
42:18really wanted and unfortunately two women lost their lives it's really sad it's desperately sad but i think
42:29also it contains many lessons of how power can be misused and abused how people in positions of power
42:39can be believed be believed and can cause greater rifts in society and it's so damaging
42:50in the end through the needless victimization of women like ersley and elizabeth
42:55state suppression reigned supreme social control was achieved next time on witches of essex self-styled
43:05witch finder general matthew hopkins begins his reign of terror what do you want from me with the
43:11torture and execution of manning tree's most vulnerable women we should root out these women
43:17until every last one is swinging from the gallows
43:19so
43:29so
43:31so
43:33so
43:33so
Comments