Manningtree: In Remembrance
August 1645.
On August 1, 1645, four women were brought to Manningtree to be executed as witches by hanging.
Two of these women were local — Helen Clarke of Manningtree and Anne West of Lawford. The other two women, Marion Hockett and Anne Cooper, were from other Essex villages.
Another fourteen Essex women had been executed almost two weeks prior on July 18 at Chelmsford following trials held there the previous day. An additional woman had been set to hang, but died enroute to the gallows. This was at the time the largest mass execution of witches in England, a grim record that would be beaten in Bury St Edmunds later that same year.
Elizabeth Clarke, a disabled poor woman from Manningtree (no known relation to Helen Clarke), had been the first woman investigated as a witch in the East Anglian trials. She was executed on July 18 in Chelmsford. Among other crimes, she was accused of killing the Chief Constable of Tendring Hundred’s infant son.
Anne West had been accused by her own daughter, Rebecca West, who had been coerced into confessing to witchcraft and denouncing others as witches. Rebecca had been further interrogated by Matthew Hopkins, a burgeoning witchfinder, while imprisoned in Colchester Castle and subsequently turned witness for the prosecution. Unusually for a criminal proceeding, one of the prosecuting Justices of the Peace, Sir Thomas Bowes, testified against Anne West. Bowes evidently had a vendetta against Anne West, as he had previously prosecuted her for witchcraft in 1642, though that had ended in Anne being released. Anne would not be so lucky again.
Nine more Essex women died of disease in Colchester Castle’s prisons and six were still imprisoned there in 1648. Another nine women were convicted, but reprieved. One was acquitted.
Rebecca West was not required to stand trial and was released on account of her testimony for the prosecution. Elizabeth Clarke had an illegitimate daughter, Jane Clarke, who would have been two or three years old at the time of her mother’s execution. It is unknown what became of Rebecca West or Jane Clarke.
Today.
Recent efforts in Manningtree have sought to remember the women wrongfully executed as witches. The latest commemoration was unveiled in 2025 as part of the Tendring Witch Heritage Trail that seeks to explore the stories of those impacted by witch trials in Essex.
Elizabeth Clarke Bench - Manningtree
This beautifully sculpted bench takes inspiration from the imaginary scene of Elizabeth Clarke’s kitchen and her imps. It also features an information board and augmented reality storytelling experience.
Located in front of Kiln Lane Car Park.
Manningtree Town Sign — Manningtree
The town sign features a number of images associated with Manningtree, including a woodcut of the infamous ‘Witchfinder General’ Matthew Hopkins. Hopkins lived in nearby Mistley and was one of the men who questioned Elizabeth Clarke. He and his fellow witchfinder John Stearne would prove instrumental to the spread of the witch-hunt beyond Essex through East Anglia.
Across from Kiln Lane Car Park.
Mistley Heath — Mistley
Nothing remains of Mistley Church and it’s graveyard that once stood upon Mistley Heath. Matthew Hopkins is buried somewhere here. He died in 1647 of tuberculosis around the age of twenty-seven. There is a popular legend that he was ‘swum’ or executed as a witch, but this is not true.
Located approximately ten minutes’ walk from Mistley train station.
Memorial Plaque - Manningtree
Plaque commemorating eight local women executed for witchcraft.
Corner of High St and South St, beneath the ‘Manningtree Ox’ art installation.
Village Green — Manningtree
It is unclear where the four women executed on August 1, 1645 would have been killed and buried, but Alison Rowlands with the University of Essex and other historians have speculated that this may have been the execution site.
South St near Red Lion pub.
For more places to visit in Manningtree and the surrounding area, click here.
Further Reading
C.L’Estrange Ewen, Witch Hunting and Witch Trials (London, 1929)
Malcolm Gaskill, Witchfinders: A Seventeenth-Century English Tragedy (Harvard University Press, 2005)
Marion Gibson, Witchcraft: A History in Thirteen Trials, (Simon & Schuster UK, 2024), ch 5