Agnes Waterhouse and the Cat Called Sathan

Hatfield Peverel ahead, home in 1566 of Agnes Waterhouse and a cat she called Sathan.

In 1566 three women from Hatfield Peverel were tried for witchcraft at Chelmsford: Agnes Waterhouse, her daughter Joan, and Elizabeth Francis. Elizabeth said her grandmother, Mother Eve, had taught her witchcraft and given her a white spotted cat called Sathan. She claimed it spoke in a strange hollow voice and did her bidding in return for drops of blood. After many years she passed the cat to Agnes, who confessed that she had used it against neighbours and livestock and that it later turned into a toad. Agnes was hanged, one of the first women executed under the Witchcraft Act of 1562. Joan was acquitted.