Matthew Hopkins

Matthew Hopkins d. 1647 was appointed as Witch-finder General in 1644. Many witches hid from Hopkins in the village of Devil's End ("The Daemons").

Biography

Samuel Butler's satire Hudibras commented on Hopkins's activity, saying:

Has not this present Parliament

A Lieger to the Devil sent,

Fully impowr'd to treat about

Finding revolted witches out

And has not he, within a year,

Hang'd threescore of 'em in one shire?

Some only for not being drown'd,

And some for sitting above ground,

Whole days and nights, upon their breeches,

And feeling pain, were hang'd for witches.

And some for putting knavish tricks

Upon green geese and turky-chicks,

And pigs, that suddenly deceast

Of griefs unnat'ral, as he guest;

Who after prov'd himself a witch

And made a rod for his own breech.

The last line refers to a tradition that disgruntled villagers caught Hopkins and subjected him to his own "swimming" test: he floated, and therefore was hanged for witchcraft himself. However, it is believed by most historians that Hopkins actually died of illness (possibly tuberculosis) in his home. The parish records of Manningtree in Essex record his burial in August of 1647.