ESSEX
Manningtree and Mistley and Mathew Hopkins the Witch-finder General.
Manningtree, standing on the famous river Stour, it is a particularly lovely area to visit not least for its walks, shops and swans. With a very pretty quayside and good restaurants it has much history. Despite it’s pretty demeanour, in medieval times heretics were burned at the stake as this was the birthplace of the Witch-Finder General Mathew Hopkins. Failing all of this, Shakespeare himself speaks of a “roasted Manningtree ox with a pudding in its pouch” (Henry lV part 2). Interestingly Manningtree is the smallest town in England
With great architecture The Manningtree corn-exchange built in 1865; is of white brick, with stone dressings; has a front with tetrastyle Corinthian portico, and two circular-headed windows; contains thirty stands; and is used also for public meetings, lectures, and concerts. A new cattle-market, with sheds and pens, is in a back lane. The church was built in 1616, and enlarged in 1839; contains a monument to Thomas Osmond, who suffered Martyrdom in the town in 1515 for refusing the the holy sacrements
Matthew Hopkins, "The Celebrated Witch-finder" from the 1837 edition of The discovery of witches. Hopkins' witch-finding career began in March 1644 and lasted until his retirement in 1647. He and his associates were responsible for more people being hanged for witchcraft than in the previous 100 years and were solely responsible for the increase in witch trials during those years. He is believed to have been responsible for the deaths of 300 women between the years 1644 and 1646.It has been estimated that all of the English witch trials between the early 15th and late 18th centuries resulted in fewer than 500 executions. Therefore, presuming the number executed as a result of "investigations" by Hopkins and his colleague John Stearne is at the lower end of the various estimates, their efforts accounted for about 60 per cent of the total; in the 14 months of their crusade Hopkins and Stearne sent to the gallows more people than all the other witch-hunters in England of the previous 160 years. Beyond any doubt, the East Anglian outbreak of 1645-47 was the most dramatic and deadly cycle of witch-hunting ever undertaken in England. But Hopkins and his companion, John Stearne, were the symptoms of this canker rather than the cause. The collapse of traditional authority, a vacuum at the heart of the legal system, and an upsurge in popular fears about the efficacy of witchcraft created the climate in which Hopkins and Stearne might flourish. Certainly they were not the only witch-hunters operating during the period. The trials did not stop with Hopkins’ death in 1647 but radiated out to Kent in the 1650s. As late as the 1680s, the services of witchfinders were being sought and contracted by concerned citizens in the Devon boom-town of Bideford when accusations of witchcraft, once again, surfaced. It was not until the 18th century, with the acceptance of Cartesianism, a transcendent notion of God, and the rise of the philosophes that the devil was pushed to the margins and the witch was consigned to the pages of the story book.
Despite a gap of almost half a century, Puritanism, a society under considerable stress and a desire for religious conformity, provided common links between the largest witch-hunt in English history (in East Anglia in 1645-7) and in North America (at Salem in 1692). Furthermore, Massachusetts had been a magnet for settlers from the same Eastern counties in England that had been at the centre of the earlier trials. Ideas as well as commerce flowed freely, and surprisingly, freely between old and New England and figures, like John Hathorne (1641-1717) who presided over the Salem trials, spanned both lands and were rooted in a sense of an imminent, judgmental God and a prescient, corporeal evil that continually sought to undermine His world and work, through the devil and witches..
Mistley is famous for being the scene of a planned 18th Century salt-water spa development by Paymaster General Richard Rigby who enlisted Robert Adam for some of the designs. Almost all of the Georgian High Street and the Green behind the High Street were to be incorporated into the scheme. These remain virtually intact. However all that survives of the ambitious spa development are the Adam designed twin Mistley Towers of Mistley church and the Swan Basin located opposite The Thorn. The Mistley Thorn predates Rigby's grand plans having been built in 1723. It stands on the site of an older pub in which Matthew Hopkins, the notorious Witchfinder General tried and condemned to death dozens of local women during the English Civil War. with its stunning quay, it has been a trading port for many centuries. From the 18th Century it was the embarkation point for ships and barges taking grain to London. These vessels would return with horse manure used to fertilise the cereal crops – a good example of early recycling.
It was also a significant boat-building centre and during the late 18th and early 19th Centuries a dozen men-of-war were constructed including the 914 ton 32 gun Amphibian which was Lord Nelson's flagship for a time.
Later many of the famous Thames barges were built at Mistley, some of whom continue to operate as recreational sailing boats. During the summer they frequently dock at Mistley Quay.and speak to Select Events Planning as these events are great fun and we will be happy to arrange a cruise.