Dr Kat and "The Last Witch"

hello and welcome back to the channel if you're new here hi you're very welcome this is reading the past and I'm dr. Kat now I've been thinking a lot recently about witch hunts perhaps because that term has been badged about far more frequently than it deserve to have been and I got to thinking well what about our real witch hunts so today's video is going to talk about the last person to be tried convicted and punished under witchcraft statute in this country England now do you know what date that happened if you do or you folks having a guess please pop it in the comment section down below I understand if you want to hold fire and see if you were right if you were right or if you were wrong about your guests then perhaps you want to leave that in the comment section down below let's go [Music] [Music] I'm feeling pretty frisky today so I decided that I'm not going to give you that date at the top of the video instead I'm going to give you a series of dates and events that relate to witchcraft acts and the punishment of witches in England perhaps if you don't already know the date of the event that I'm talking about you might feel more comfortable having a guess with this information in hand for many centuries accusations of witchcraft were thought of as ecclesiastical crimes best dealt with by the church courts the church may recommend confession penance public recantation maybe even excommunication in the most extreme cases perhaps as somebody who has been convicted or confessed to witchcraft who then relapses the church may recommend they are punished as a relapsed heretic which isn't very pleasant however this is because of a marked shift that occurred in medieval Christianity the early Christian Church viewed witchcraft and witch hunts as pagan superstition they didn't think it was possible that a human being could garner such supernatural skills however following we believe the writings of st. Thomas Aquinas in the 13th century the church's opinion began to shift they began to think that maybe it might be possible and therefore they took an interest in pursuing and prosecuting for it however accusations of witchcraft did not remain in the church courts forever in England in 1542 Henry the eighth perhaps inspired by his new role as head of the Church of England has his Parliament right in act where for the first time witchcraft is defined as a crime punishable by death in 1547 Edward the sixth repeals his father's Act in 1563 Elizabeth the first restores the act albeit in a gentler form she only demands death if harm has been done to another person in 1604 James the first exceeds the English throne and with his government he sees that Elizabeth act is expanded to send us a person to death for invoking evil spirits or communicating with familiar spirits in addition in the King James version of the Bible Exodus 20 to 18 is translated as thou shalt not suffer a witch to live it is relevant I think that this is argued to have been a mistranslation and which could in fact also mean poisoner herbalist or a person who uses magic for evil both Elizabeth act of 1563 and James sacked the 1604 transfer Witchcraft Trials from the church to ordinary courts in 1735 there is a shift george ii parliament repeals the laws against witchcraft however the act of 1735 sets down that fines or imprisonment should be used against those who claimed to be able to use magical powers in 1824 the vagrancy Act makes fortune-telling astrology and spiritualism punishable offenses in 1951 the 1735 act by georgia seconds government is repealed and replaced in favor of the fraudulent mediums Act it is not until 2008 that all acts relating to witchcraft are finally repealed well that is the timeline for witchcraft acts in England bearing that in mind where do you think would be the most appropriate place for us to put the last person to be tried convicted and punished for a witchcraft related offense in England what year would you be surprised if I told you it was 1944 well let's find out more about the person who suffered this penalty Helen Duncan was born in Scotland in 1897 as Victoria Helen McFarlane on the 27th of May 1916 she marries Henry Duncan and he would be beside her as she develops her career and reputation as a psychic and medium she was both fated and discredited with seemingly equal vehement s' on either side during world war ii the Duncans moved from scott and to Portsmouth which was the headquarters of the Royal Navy Home Fleet so there were lots of family members around who were incredibly worried about what was happening to their loved ones at one seance that she hosted in Portsmouth she had a sailor appear that sailor apparently announced that he had sunk with the HMS Boram this sinking occurred on the 23rd of November 1941 the Boram was sunk by a German submarine and the whole 849 crew members were lost the problem with this was that the sinking of the Boram was not public information and it remains unclear how Helen Duncan found it out some believe although it has not been fully confirmed that the powers-that-be had decided that the way Helen Duncan found this out was because she had communication with the enemy that she was somehow an agent working for Germany three years later on the 19th of January 1944 police raided another seance that has been hosted by Helen Duncan she and her three audience members were charged under the 1824 vagrancy Act she was however indicted under the 1735 act are from eight-day trial during which the defense offered for Helen Duncan to host a seance in the courtroom that request was denied she was found guilty and sentenced to nine months in prison in the end she served six of those nine months so why does the British state come down so hard on Helen Duncan why are they seemingly making an example of her in 1944 well I think to explain that we need to go back to what she did in 1941 when she shares her knowledge of the sinking of the HMS Boram that's got to be a cause for concern there is no legitimate or explainable way that she could have had that information when she did so either she is a real psychic and clairvoyant who doesn't know when to not share information or she is getting that information from somewhere that she shouldn't perhaps from the enemy state of Germany and if information is coming in to Great Britain in a way that can't be traced by British government then potentially it could be leaving in a similar fashion with d-day on the horizon and her living in Portsmouth the headquarters of the home fleet of the British Navy there is no way that the British government is going to tolerate the potential that she could be in contact with Germany it's also possible that they wanted to stop her from hosting seances at which she would charge people to speak to their deceased loved ones some of whom may have been lost in World War two these were people that had already lost enough and maybe the government saw that Helen Duncan was attempting to profit off of their misery but I'd love to know what you think of Helen Duncan and her case so let me know in the comment section down below or come and find me over on my social media I'll be leaving the links in the description box you can follow me there and we can continue the conversation I hope you've enjoyed this video and found it useful if you did please let me know by clicking the like button please also subscribe to my channel and click the bellow icon so that YouTube tells you when I've next uploaded I hope you're gonna have a great day whatever your doing and I look forward to speaking to all in my next video take care of yourselves bye bye for now [Music] [Music]

Channel: Reading the Past

Views: 15,847

Keywords: Witchcraft Act, Education, Literature, Culture, History, Early Modern, Renaissance, WW2, Helen Duncan

Id: IQdKjLvKe5Q

Length: 9min 8sec (548 seconds)

Published: Fri May 17 2019