The Devil's Neighbours: Fear, Betrayal and the Witchfinder General

He was never appointed. He was never paid a salary by anyone but the villages that hired him. In two years, Matthew Hopkins and John Stearne helped send roughly a hundred people to the gallows across five English counties.

The Devil's Neighbours tells the true story of the East Anglian witch-hunt of 1645–1647, the largest of its kind England ever saw at a single sitting. It is a narrative history first, built around named individuals rather than statistics: Elizabeth Clarke, an older disabled woman accused after a neighbour's grudge; the vicar who finally stood up to Hopkins in print; the judges who quietly let the hunt run out of road.

You will know Hopkins as the Witchfinder General. That title was invented in 1968 by a film. This book explains where the myth came from, and what actually happened instead.

What you will find inside:

• The documented story of Hopkins and Stearne: who they really were, how an ordinary Puritan and a Suffolk landowner with no legal office between them came to run England's deadliest witch-hunt
• Why a wartime collapse in local justice, not sorcery, let the accusations spread from one Essex village into Suffolk, Norfolk, the Isle of Ely and Huntingdonshire
• Who the accused actually were: overwhelmingly poor women, often already isolated by their own community, named and followed individually rather than reduced to a body count
• How local magistrates, clergy and neighbours let it happen, and exactly what Hopkins and Stearne were paid, parish by parish
• John Gaule, the vicar of Great Staughton whose sermons and determined book helped turn the legal tide against the hunt
• The real, quiet story of Hopkins's death in 1647, and why the popular legend that he was swum and hanged as a witch himself is false

Tailored to your exam:

The back matter includes a dedicated mapping to Edexcel A-level History Option 33 (The Witch Craze in Britain, Europe and North America), a timeline, cast of characters, essay-practice questions with guidance, and a section for GCSE Crime and Punishment students, for whom Hopkins is a named case study.

Author: Simon A. Williams. Histories and Castles produces independent history books and articles for students, teachers and general readers.

How you receive it: You will be taken to Amazon.co.uk, where you can choose between instant ebook delivery or a printed paperback. All links are secure and direct you to Amazon UK.

Why this book: While other witch trial histories focus on a single location (Salem, Pendle) or compress the story into a textbook format, The Devil's Neighbours spans five counties and traces the real, named people involved; accused, accusers, and the magistrates who allowed it. Unlike popular adaptations, this book separates the 1960s film myth from what Hopkins and Stearne actually did.

Matthew Hopkins: Frequently Asked Questions

What happened to Matthew Hopkins?

Hopkins died in the summer of 1647, only two years after his witch hunting career began. He was probably in his mid to late twenties. The most likely cause of death was tuberculosis, then known as consumption, and he is thought to have died at home in the Manningtree area of Essex. The popular story that he was accused of witchcraft himself, put through his own swimming test and hanged is a later legend. It first appears in the eighteenth century and has no support in the surviving evidence.

His career was short but devastating. Working with John Stearne from 1645, he took part in the East Anglian witch hunt that began at Manningtree and spread across Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk and neighbouring counties. Dozens of people were hanged, and the total is often put at around 100 or more. By 1647 local opposition and legal scepticism were growing, and he published The Discovery of Witches to defend his methods shortly before he died.

Where is Matthew Hopkins' grave?

Hopkins was buried at Mistley in Essex, and the parish register records his burial in August 1647. The exact location of the grave is not known. The medieval church at Mistley was demolished in the eighteenth century and later rebuilt, so any marker that existed has long since vanished. There is no genuine memorial to him, and claims about a specific grave site should be treated with caution.

What did Matthew Hopkins call himself?

Hopkins styled himself a witchfinder. The grander title "Witchfinder General" is how he is remembered today, and it appears in writing from his own time. However, there is no evidence that he ever held an official commission from Parliament or the courts. His authority came from local complaints, the willingness of towns to hire him and the backing of magistrates, not from any formal appointment. The title therefore says more about his reputation, and how he was perceived, than about any legal status.

How much money did Matthew Hopkins make?

No complete set of accounts survives, so any total is an estimate. Surviving town records show that communities paid for his services. Stowmarket is recorded as paying £23, King's Lynn £15 and Aldeburgh £6, which were substantial sums in the 1640s. Hopkins defended himself against accusations of profiteering by claiming that he charged only twenty shillings per town to cover his expenses. The payments recorded in the town accounts suggest that claim was untrue, or at least misleading. Larger figures are sometimes quoted, but they are not firmly documented. What is clear is that witchfinding was profitable for him, and that critics at the time were already questioning his motives.