The Evening Wolf Series by Amelia Moore - A History

It all began with a visit to a reference library in town.

I was doing some research into the local history surrounding the village where I live and came across an article in an old newspaper cutting, which talked of the village pond being used for ducking witches, back in to 1600s. The pond is fairly shallow now but back then, it was reportedly much bigger (which I knew from old maps), and also, much deeper.

I looked for more information about this but couldn’t locate any. During my search however, I found a number of accounts describing the trials and executions of witches across the county. I sat mesmerised, and then appalled, as I read these reports. The events were recorded so matter-of-factly and yet they involved hundreds of poor souls who suffered dreadful deaths; mostly women, a few men, and even children.

Most of the victims were hanged but some were burnt to death, no doubt after horrendous torture, including being crushed by stones or ducked … this often causing death by drowning anyway. I left the library that day feeling rather depressed.

I have been interested in the obsessive witch-hunting that occurred right across Europe during the 1600, 1700, and even into the 1800s for many years, but reading these accounts brought the reality of it all to me, and not in a pleasant way. It also got me thinking about a story that had been swirling around in my head for some time, so I decided to get on and write it. That was ‘Elizabeth’.

I enjoyed writing this book and also doing the research for it. I am not a native of Yorkshire, which is where the story is located but I have visited it a few times. I did a fair bit of reading to find out more about the region and also the dialect in Yorkshire in the 1950s. ‘Elizabeth’ is set during this time.

I chose to place the story in Yorkshire for a number of reasons. My ancestors came from there; my paternal family name being from the region and also, even in the 1950s, there were still some very remote villages and communities where the happenings in my book might well have occurred.

Elizabeth was only intended to be fairly short, one-off story but my daughter liked it so much, she wanted more. So the ‘Evening Wolves’ series was born and I began to write the prequels; we decided that my books should go back in time to where it all began. The write-up for the book gives more of an outline to the story, so I will not set it out here.

In Elizabeth, there is the first mention of the rich and powerful Addington family, as they are known in later books. The lives of this dynasty are intrinsically entwined to hers and to those of her ancestors throughout the following stories in the Evening Wolves series. Toby, a son from this family, is Elizabeth’s first love but their relationship is doomed and short-lived. Why this ended as it did is revealed in ‘Eve’s’ story, which is the next book in the series.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Elizabeth-Evening-Wolf-Stories-Book-ebook/dp/B006P2O37S

‘Eve’ is the story of Elizabeth’s grandmother (Mother Eve). I enjoyed writing Elizabeth and did a fair bit of research for it but I had to do much more for Eve. Her story spans almost 100 years and some very dramatic events in history. I wanted to get my facts straight to sensibly incorporate them into the book. I wrote the whole story in about 6 months, even though it is 3 times larger than Elizabeth. I am a quick writer and the narrative flowed fairly easily. I have to say, I got thoroughly immersed in this book and found it difficult to put the writing of it down from the very first page.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Eve-Evening-Wolf-Stories-Book-ebook/dp/B008RZD63I

I do not do much pre-planning for my books. I have a rough idea of a story, but I let the direction develop as I am writing it. I know the end ... that’s about it really. I let the characters pop up, introduce themselves to me and if I think they belong in the story, I include them. I rarely change much in a chapter once I have written it, although of course I do editing after it is finished. At this point, I might remove or change sentences or add more. This is probably normal for other writers, I do not know, as I have never studied what anyone else does. I have my own way of doing things and stick to it. I am also a fairly lazy author, as I should write down all the dates, characters, their details and actions etc., and most of the time, I do not. I rely on my memory, which is rubbish at times. I am trying to do more recording of details with the books I am currently writing though, as I am sure it must save time not having to keep looking back and refreshing my mind on names, dates and story lines. I also, in each book, set the scene for the one that follows. Because they are prequels, this can be a bit tricky. As I am writing a book, I have to consider the main character and some content of the next one in the series. It is a challenge but interesting, all the same.

The book I wrote after Eve is almost ready to be published. I finished it earlier this year but have had a lot of things to deal with in my life, so publishing has been delayed. It is called ‘Elisa’. She is Eve’s grandmother … yes, there is a theme happening here. I am going back to grandmothers each time I tell a story in this series. This usually takes me back quite a few decades, which is important for the stories and also creates a fairly large time gap. I am now dealing with periods where there actually wasn’t a great deal of change in the communities or even in the world at large, apart from during Eve’s time, and keeping the story alive is not always easy.

The other challenge in using a lineage of females is changing the ‘characters’ of the characters, so to speak. Making Eve different to Elizabeth was easy, as the changes in the world from the middle 1800s to the 1950s were huge and thus affected the people’s lives in the stories quite dramatically. Women in the late 1800s would have had a very different education, family role and other expectations from those in the 1900s. That period saw vast changes across all aspects of life and of those living through that time, my characters included.

Making the character of Elisa significantly different from Eve’s required some thought. I had created Eve as a strong, virtuous woman; an almost saintly type of a character. I decided therefore to make Elisa less virtuous and certainly not as ‘good’ as her granddaughter. She is still strong but in a different way to Eve. She is also more ruthless. Going further back in time again, required deeper research. Elisa is born in 1813 into a very different world to that of her granddaughter, Eve. My story had to reflect this. Life was simpler but harder, darker and more fragile. My research unearthed some pitiful aspects of living in this time and I incorporated them into my story. I enjoyed writing Elisa and developing a slightly more sinister main character. It was fun.

I am currently working on the prequel to Elisa, called ‘Elyse’. She is a different character again from her granddaughter and as this story begins in 1746, the world she inhabits is unlike Elisa’s in many aspects, although there are of course similar threads of existence that run through the 1700 and 1800s. Even greater historical research is required for this story. I am currently on chapter eleven and I have no idea how large this book will be, just as I did not plan the size of the others in this series. I just tell a story and it finishes where it ends. Like all the main characters in the Evening Wolves books, Elyse faces her own difficulties and traumas. She is a gentler female than her granddaughter, Elisa, and not so ruthless. However, she is just as powerful.

I am taking longer to write this than the other three books, as there is still a lot going on in my life and I have not been able to put the time in on this novel. Because I had to put the work down for a while, I am currently re-reading it to pick up the story so far. However, I hope to finish chapter eleven this week and begin writing in earnest from now on.

I will let you know how I get on.

The Bideford Witches

Amelia Moore is an author who writes fictional stories surrounding the topic of witchcraft. All set in the past, her narratives draw on historical facts. Using her background in research, she studies the witch-hunting obsession across Europe during the 1600s, 1700s and 1800s. Amelia uses this material to support the characters and events in her tales. For her reader’s interest, she writes articles on the witchcraft trials and their tragic consequences. She believes that we must not forget these terrible episodes in our past as they can still tell us much about humanity, even today.

This is the story of the Bideford Witches

On the 25^th August 1682, three women were hanged for witchcraft at Heavitree gallows, in Bideford, North Devon. The women became known as The Bideford Witches. Their names were Temperance Floyd, Susanna Edwards and Mary (Floyd) Trembles. They were reportedly the last known people to be executed for witchcraft in England, although there are reliable accounts of executions happening around the country much later than this date.

wikipedia

There is a memorial tablet in the gatehouse of Rougemont Castle, Exeter, marking this dreadful event and on it there mentions a fourth woman, Alice Molland. It is not clear if Alice was actually put on trial and executed at the same time as the other three women or, as has been suggested in some writings, she was tried and sentenced to death for witchcraft some 3 years later. There has been no record found of what actually happened to her.

The story of this trial is preserved in The Book of Bideford, which was written in 1792 by John Watkins, a local historian of that area. It is the first historical account of the Bideford witchcraft trials of 1682. He maintained that these unfortunate women were the victims of ignorance and hatred and the evidence against them was no more than malicious rumour and hearsay. Watkins wrote, “there was always some poor devil, either on account of an unlucky visage, sour temper, or wretched poverty, set up as the object of terror and universal hatred.”

After the 1600’s witch-hunting craze in England had somewhat abated, most witch trials actually ended in acquittal. The Bideford trials were therefore exceptional, and on two counts. Bideford was a reasonably cultured town, not some isolated, rural village where ignorance and superstition had seen most of the witchcraft ‘events’ occurring. Secondly, these trials ended in execution.

So how did this tragedy happen?

It all began one Saturday in July 1682, with a local shopkeeper by the name of Thomas Eastchurch. He informed the town’s constables that he suspected Temperance Floyd of using witchcraft on Grace Thomas, another local, causing her to become sick. Why he did this is not known. The accusation made against Temperance was that she used magical arts upon the person of Grace Thomas. She was arrested and charged with this offence, plus another of communicating with the Devil in the shape of a black man.

Following Eastchurch’s accusation, other people in the community came forward and added more to the list. One in particular came from Anne Wakely, who reported that she had seen a magpie fly into Grace Thomas's bedroom window. She said that Temperance had previously told her that she was sometimes visited by a bird, which changed into the likeness of a black man. Eastchurch then added that he heard Temperance confess once that a black man had persuaded her to go to Grace’s house to 'pinch and prick' her.

Grace then claimed that on the night of the 1^st June, she suffered:

“Sticking and pricking pains, as though pins and awls had been thrust into her body, from the crown of her head to the soles of her feet, and she lay as though it had been upon a rack.”

Grace claimed to have suffered a further attack on the 30^th June and not long after, saw a cat go into Eastchurch's shop; the cat being another manifestation of the Devil.

At first, Temperance denied using witchcraft to harm anyone. However, when Grace insisted she had marks of nine pin pricks in her knee, it is recorded that Temperance became confused. No doubt this was more terror than confusion but none-the-less, she apparently admitted to driving a pin into a piece of leather nine times. Two more women then came forward, Grace Barnes and Dorcas Coleman, also claiming to have suffered at the hands of Temperance and her magic. The wretched woman eventually admitted to all of these charges. She also admitted to causing the deaths of three other inhabitants of Bideford and blinding another in one of their eyes. Temperance Lloyd was subsequently sent to Exeter gaol on the 8^th July 1682.

Two more local women, Mary (Floyd) Trembles and Susanna Edwards were then denounced by their neighbours. It was reported that they had both been seen in the company of Temperance, begging for food in the town. So, they too were arrested and incarcerated, with her, on the 19^th July.

By the time the justices arrived at Exeter, the whole city was gripped with curiosity about the so-called witches, and tales of their magical acts and Devilish goings-on abounded. By the time the trial began, the good people of Exeter were almost hysterical and ridiculous claims of what the women had done whipped up a fanatical resolve in seeing them punished by death. The brother of Lord North, the presiding judge at the trial, claimed that, “the country people would have committed some disorder if they (the women) were acquitted.”

With this ominous backdrop, the trial of the three accused took place on 19^th August. Like all witchcraft trials in England, it was not conducted in the usual legalistic manner. Witchcraft was considered to be a crime apart from all others and suspicion alone was adequate grounds for accusation and charging. Being absent from the scene of the crime was not considered to be an alibi and even children were allowed to act as witnesses for the prosecution. All that was required for a conviction was ‘proof’ of some kind, such as an unnatural mark on the suspect's body, an accusation being made by another witch, or testimonies from those who had witnessed the suspect making a pact with the Devil. (The latter could be in the form of a simple encounter with an animal).

All of these factors were put forward in the trial of the Bideford women as evidence of their guilt. Temperence was accused of having unnatural teats on her body for the Devil to suckle. This was not required to be proven however, as she, like the other two women, admitted their guilt. Sir Thomas Raymond, one of judges sitting, actually allowed these ludicrous accusations and guilty statements to stand in his court and raised no objection to the jury finding the suspects guilty of all charges made against them. What is disturbing about this account is that none of the women even attempted to deny the charges made against them. Instead, according to Watkin’s writings, they seemed somewhat weary of the whole episode and resigned to their fate. No doubt they were terrified and possibly, in their ignorance, actually began to believe they were indeed witches. Whatever was the case, Roger North, the judge’s brother, commentated, “they (the women) had a great skill to convict themselves. Their description of the sucking devils with saucer-eyes was as natural that the jury could not choose but believe them.”

Any possibility of a reprieve was also quashed. Lord North wrote to the Secretary of State, who had the power to save the lives of the three women, and advised him to rule that the executions go ahead. He warned him that if they did not, there might actually be a public uprising. There was also the law to consider. If these women were not executed, then the judiciary could be accused themselves of denying the existence of witches. This might then give rise to the old practice of illegal witch-hunts. So the State, for political reasons, allowed these poor, ignorant women to be put to death.

Their executions took place on 25^th August 1682. As they stood next to the gallows, each woman denied all of the charges made against them. It was as if they suddenly found their voices. Nothing was going to prevent their dying so horribly however.

Susanna Edwards was the first to be hanged, followed by Mary (Floyd) Trembles and then Temperance Floyd.

May their souls be at peace for this grave injustice made against them.

References

John Watkins - The Book of Bideford (1792)

Devon Life - The Bideford Witches of North Devon, Devon's fascinating history (2010)

Devon History Society - Bideford: Watkins and witches (2014)

Nicky Joy (2011)