Witchcraft Act 1735
Repealed by | Fraudulent Mediums Act 1951 |
---|---|
Relates to | Vagrancy Act 1824 s. 4 |
Status: Repealed | |
Text of statute as originally enacted |
The Witchcraft Act 1735 (
It thus marks the end point of the
The law was a reversion to the view of the primitive and the medieval Church, expressed from at least the 8th century, at the Council of Paderborn, but contested by witch-phobic Dominican Inquisitors beginning in the mid 15th century, with some success in forwarding a new doctrine among the popes, as seen in the papal bull Summis desiderantes affectibus (1484), but with far less success among the bishops. Thus the Act of 1735 reflected the general trend in Europe, where after a peak around 1600, and a series of outbursts in the late 17th century, witch-trials quickly subsided after 1700. The last person executed for witchcraft in Great Britain was Janet Horne in 1727.
History
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6e/James_Erskine.jpg/150px-James_Erskine.jpg)
Initially presented to the House of Commons on 27 January 1735/6 by John Conduitt, Sir John Crosse and George Heathcote, the Act received royal assent on 24 March and came into effect on 24 June.[4] In the words of Davies (1999), the new law meant that witchcraft was "no longer to be considered a criminal act, but rather an offence against the country's newly enlightened state".[4] Up until 1772, it was illegal for the newspapers to report on parliamentary debates, meaning that there is a lack of archival material on the parliamentary debate on the implementation of the Act.[4] According to Davies, it appears that the Act "generated only a modicum of debate" within Parliament, with several amendments being suggested in both the House of Commons and the House of Lords.[4]
The only figure to offer significant opposition to the Act was James Erskine, Lord Grange. Erskine not only fervently believed in the existence of witchcraft, but, it has been argued, also held beliefs that were deeply rooted in "Scottish political and religious considerations" and which caused him to reject the Act.[5] His objection to the Act "marked him out as an eccentric verging on the insane" among Members of Parliament, and in turn his political opponents would use it against him; one of his staunchest critics, Robert Walpole, who was then the de facto prime minister of the country, allegedly stated that he no longer considered Erskine to be a serious political threat as a result of his embarrassing opposition to the Act.[4]
The Witchcraft Act 1735 was frequently invoked in the early years of the 19th century in an attempt by the political elite to root out "ignorance, superstition, criminality and insurrection" among the general populace, and even more so under the Vagrancy Act 1824, one purpose of which was to reinforce the 1735 Act.[6]
Modern history
In September 1943,
Another candidate for the last person convicted under the Act was
The last threatened use of the Act against a medium was in 1950.[citation needed]
In 1951, the Witchcraft Act 1735 was repealed with the enactment of the
The South African
References
Footnotes
- short title was authorised by the Short Titles Act 1896, section 1 and the first schedule. Due to the repeal of those provisions it is now authorised by section 19(2) of the Interpretation Act 1978.
- ISBN 978-0-19-820744-3.
- ^ Sir John Holt. National Portrait Gallery.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-7190-5656-7., was nothing but a mere impostor. The fight was now not against the evil of witchcraft, but, instead, against the evil influence which such 'ignorant' and 'superstitious delusions' had on the minds of the uneducated masses.
"The responsibility of all men of authority was reversed. Instead of instigating the scratching or swimming of a witch, the justice of the peace now turned to censuring those who took it upon themselves to perform such actions. Instead of overseeing the weighing of witches against the church Bible, Anglican clergyman now preached that the mother of all witches, the Witch of Endor
- ^ Newton & Bath 2008, pp. 224–225.
- ^ "In Owen Davies's reconstruction of events, a change in attitudes occurred at the opening of the nineteenth century, as members of the social elite came to perceive that a faith in magic seemed to be as prevalent among the populace as it had been a hundred years before, even while a growing political turbulence among commoners gave their rulers a new interest in the idea of education and civility as stabilizing forces. Ignorance, superstition, criminality and insurrection seemed increasingly to make up a single package, and one result of this realization was a growing number of prosecutions under the 1735 Act and then considerably more under a new statute which was brought in to reinforce it in 1824." Hutton. p. 107.
- ^ ""Witchcraft Act charges". The Times. London. 27 September 1944. p. 2.
- ^ Chambers, Vanessa (24 January 2007), "The Witchcraft Act wasn't about women on brooms", The Guardian, London, retrieved 29 October 2010
- ^ "Obituary of Thomas Brooks". The Times. London. 17 February 1958.
- ^ "The 1957 Witchcraft Act". Quackdown. 29 August 2011. Retrieved 19 October 2015.
Bibliography
- Beit-Hallahmi, Benjamin (1992). Despair and Deliverance: Private Salvation in Contemporary Israel. SUNY Press. ISBN 0-7914-0999-6.
- Cox, David J (2014). Crime in England 1688-1815. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-50183-5.
- Gibson, Marion (2006). Witchcraft and Society in England and America, 1550-1750. A&C Black. ISBN 0-8264-6142-5.
- Guiley, Rosemary (2008). Duncan, Helen (The Encyclopedia of Witches, Witchcraft and Wicca ed.). Infobase Publishing. ISBN 9781438126845.
- Newton, John; Bath, Jo (2008). Witchcraft and the Act of 1604. BRILL. ISBN 978-90-04-16528-1.
External links
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