Agnes Waterhouse. First Witch Execution in England

In the summer of 1566 in Chelmsford, one of the first English witch trials unfolded, ending with an execution. Three women from the small village of Hatfield Peverel sat in the dock, and key evidence came from children’s testimonies and stories about a cat named Sathan. Agnes Waterhouse, a sixty-four-year-old widow, was sentenced to hang, writing herself into the grim history of witch hunts.

The Cat That Changed Hands

It all began with Elizabeth Francis, the first to appear before the tribunal. She recounted an unusual story. She claimed to have received a white spotted cat from her grandmother, known as Mother Eve, when she was just twelve years old. Her grandmother had initiated her into the art of witchcraft. The cat allegedly spoke in a strange, hollow voice and carried out her every command in exchange for a drop of its owner’s blood.

Elizabeth Francis confessed to acts that were far beyond the judges’ imagination. By using the cat, she claimed, she stole sheep, killed people, and even got rid of a wealthy man who refused to marry her after she became pregnant by him. 

Moreover, she said she terminated an unwanted pregnancy at her family’s command and later caused the death of her own six-month-old daughter and the mutilation of her husband. These statements, though sounding like feverish ramblings, were admitted in court as evidence.

Elizabeth Francis gave her cat to Agnes Waterhouse in exchange for a piece of cake. This seemingly trivial gesture became the beginning of the end for the older woman. Along with the cat, Agnes supposedly received instructions for handling the demon, passed down like a family recipe from generation to generation.

A Neighborhood of Grievances

Agnes Waterhouse was a poor, ailing elderly woman. Her life was filled with petty neighborly quarrels which, during the witch trial, took on sinister importance. The court believed that every dispute with her neighbors ended with supernatural revenge. First a dead cow here, a dead goose there, and finally illness and death befalling the neighbors themselves.

According to the indictment, Agnes first ordered the cat to kill her own pig to see what it could do. Only later did she turn its powers on those who had crossed her. At one point, she decided to use the wool that lined the cat’s basket and allegedly turned the cat into a toad. Other sources claim the cat changed its form of its own will. No one questioned why a demon would agree to such an unfavorable transformation.

The most damning accusations involved the deaths of Agnes Waterhouse’s husband and William Fynne, who died in November 1565. Although Waterhouse denied ever having killed anyone with witchcraft, the tribunal did not believe her.

Testimonies That Killed

The testimonies of two girls played a crucial role in the trial. Eighteen-year-old Joan, Agnes Waterhouse’s daughter, stood accused of the same crimes as her mother. She confessed that while her mother was away, she tried to use the toad to frighten their neighbor, Agnes Brown, after being refused some bread and cheese. Joan testified that the toad demanded her soul in exchange, and she agreed. The demon then supposedly haunted young Agnes Brown in the form of a horned dog.

Twelve-year-old Agnes Brown provided the court with the most vivid descriptions of the demon. She spoke of a black dog with a monkey’s face, a short tail, horns on its head, and a chain with a silver whistle around its neck. The girl claimed that the creature demanded butter, and when she refused, it opened the pantry door itself with a key it possessed. On their final encounter, the demon allegedly threatened her with a knife, saying he would stab her in the heart.

But the most devastating detail was that when Agnes Brown asked the dog who its mistress was, it nodded its head toward Agnes Waterhouse’s house. That was enough to sentence her to death.

The Mechanics of Fear

The Chelmsford trial reveals the mechanisms that would fuel witch hunts throughout Europe for the next 150 years. Authorities used torture and psychological pressure to force confessions. Modern psychological studies show that even minor intimidation, paired with kindness and the promise of approval from an authority figure, is often enough to produce false confessions.

People in sixteenth-century England believed in the literal existence of the Devil and his minions. Their whole lives, they heard of witches, demons, familiars, and bloody pacts. Little Agnes Brown was not surprised when her neighbor supposedly sent a demon her way. She was terrified, but at the same time, it was what everyone around her said would happen.

An interesting clue is found in a later pamphlet from the 1579 trial, which reveals that Elizabeth Francis and Agnes Waterhouse were sisters. Elizabeth, who first accused Agnes, received a more lenient verdict but was ultimately hanged after another conviction thirteen years later. Blood ties did not protect against accusations of witchcraft; indeed, they could serve as further evidence of the familial transmission of devilish practices.

Agnes Waterhouse became one of the first women to be executed under the 1562 Witchcraft Act. The first was Elizabeth Lowys of Great Waltham in Essex. Both started a long list of victims who died not for real crimes but because their neighbors believed in demons.