Marion Gibson explores what a 1580s witchcraft trial can reveal about poverty, social tensions and ordinary life in early modern England
In the 1580s, the remote Essex village of St Osyth was beset by poverty and social tensions – and when a servant accused her neighbour of witchcraft, it sparked a crisis that engulfed the entire community. Speaking with Charlotte Hodgman, Marion Gibson explores what this late 16th-century witchcraft trial can tell us about life in early modern England.
Marion Gibson is the author of The Witches of St Osyth: Persecution, Betrayal and Murder in Elizabethan England (Cambridge University Press, 2022)