Witch · St Osyth
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A healer, three small spirits, and a confession that hanged a village.
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St Osyth, 1582: a village healer confessed to keeping a cat, a toad and a lamb as spirits, and hanged for it.
In 1582 Ursley Kemp of St Osyth was a midwife and healer who 'unwitched' sick children. A quarrel with a mother whose child she had nursed led to an accusation, and the justice Brian Darcy questioned her. Her young son described her spirits, a grey cat, a white lamb and a black toad among them, and Kemp confessed and named others. Accusations spread to neighbouring villages, and women were tried at Chelmsford. Kemp was hanged. Accounts disagree on how many others died: Wikipedia gives ten hanged, while Marion Gibson counts at least two executions and four deaths in prison. A printed pamphlet made the case one of the best-documented Elizabethan trials.