On an October’s day in 1594, Gwen ferch Ellis used to be resulted in the gallows in the midst of Denbigh the city sq. in north Wales, and hanged. She used to be the primary recorded lady in Wales to be performed on fees of witchcraft.
Her dying stands proud within the context of Eu historical past. Whilst 1000’s of girls – and a few males – had been performed for witchcraft throughout Scotland, England and mainland Europe between the fifteenth and 18th centuries, simplest 5 executions happened in Wales. Surviving information checklist simply 35 witchcraft trials within the nation, making Gwen’s case remarkable.
Little is understood about Gwen’s early lifestyles, however courtroom information paint an image of a girl who can have stood out. In her 40s, two times widowed and childless, she used to be described in her indictment as a “spinster”, indicating that she made her residing via spinning yarn.
Like many early fashionable girls, she additionally offered salves, had a name for therapeutic and fascinating, and had accomplished monetary independence via those method.
The curse
Gwen’s downfall started with a discovery at Gloddaith, the house of Sir Thomas Mostyn, a formidable landowner and justice of the peace. A allure used to be discovered written backwards and used to be as a result believed to have damaging moderately than protecting makes use of.
Mostyn had not too long ago quarrelled with Jane Conwy, a gentry lady who counted Gwen as a pal. Gossip temporarily hooked up the 2, suggesting Gwen have been employed to position the allure on Mostyn’s family.
As suspicion round her grew, pals prompt Gwen to run, however she refused to take action, insisting she had accomplished not anything unsuitable. Whether or not this used to be pleasure or out of place agree with within the regulation, it could end up deadly.
As soon as suspicion took grasp, a number of other folks got here ahead with damning tales. This enabled magistrates to construct a case towards her, with testimony suggesting that she used to be liable for the illness and maiming of other folks in her group.
3 formal indictments had been laid towards her. Gwen used to be accused of “bewitching Robert Evans by breaking his arm”, of “bewitching Lowri ferch John ap Ieuan … who had lost use of her limbs”, and of “murdering Lewis ap John by witchcraft”.
Mockingly, the unique allure that sparked the investigation by no means seemed as proof, but it surely had already accomplished its harm. It used to be sufficient to protected a responsible verdict which resulted in her judicial homicide. Gwen used to be performed at a gallows erected at the spot the place Denbigh library now stands.
How Denbigh the city sq. seems to be these days.
Wozzie/Shutterstock
The demon fly
Some years ahead of her arrest, Gwen have been visited at house through bailiffs who insisted they’d observed an enormous black fly soaring on most sensible of a drink of ale she had given them. The lads had been adamant this fly used to be Gwen’s satan or acquainted spirit, a supernatural being which used to be believed to give protection to witches. This, they claimed, used to be evidence she used to be a witch. Despite the fact that acquainted spirits the place now not a massively distinguished idea in Wales, they did start to go into the general public awareness across the time of Gwen’s arrest.
Even so, witchcraft in Wales didn’t agree to the idea that of a devil-worshipping anti-religion observed somewhere else. As an alternative, it used to be grounded in an intrinsic trust in fascinating, cursing, soothsaying and magic, and the power of this stuff to hurt and to heal.
However as a lay healer, together with her personal supply of source of revenue, Gwen used to be, however, a main candidate for accusations of witchcraft. Accusations had been additional supported when Catholic relics had been present in her house, regardless of the Protestant church’s makes an attempt to reform faith in Wales.
Whilst Gwen’s case proves that Welsh juries had been ready to convict accused witches, the development used to be actually remarkable.
Cursing used to be most deadly when crossing limitations of age, gender or standing. It used to be ceaselessly a weapon of the bodily or socially weaker celebration. Ladies laid curses towards males, the deficient laid curses towards those that had been extra smartly off.
Gwen’s misfortune used to be to go a social boundary. She had, allegedly, left a allure in the home of a distinguished landowner and justice of the peace, moderately than confining her actions to the farmers, craftsmen and yeomen of her neighbourhood.
Court docket information counsel the grand jury used to be uneasy. The indictment used to be marked as a “true bill”, permitting the trial to continue. However the faint phrase “ignoramus” – which means “we are ignorant of this bill” – used to be additionally scrawled on it, hinting at hesitation.
Despite this, the Elizabethan Witchcraft Act of 1562 had made dying through witchcraft a capital offence, and prosecutors had been decided to set an instance. Sadly for Gwen, her destiny used to be sealed. Her tale stands as an extraordinary however chilling bankruptcy in Welsh historical past.
