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Matthew Hopkins (c. 1620 – 12 August 1647) was an English witch-hunter whose career flourished during the English Civil War. He was mainly active in East Anglia and claimed to hold the office of Witchfinder General, although that title was never bestowed by Parliament .
Of the twenty-three women accused of witchcraft, four were said to have died in prison with nineteen later convicted and hanged. Hopkins appears to have assumed the title of Witch-Finder General in 1645, claiming to be officially commissioned by Parliament with the brief to uncover and prosecute witches.
Matthew Hopkins was an English witch-hunter during a witchcraft craze of the English Civil Wars. Little is known of Hopkins before 1644, but apparently he had been a lawyer, practicing in Essex. In March 1644 he alleged his first discovery of witches—six of them, in Manningtree, who he claimed.
In reality, the fearsome Matthew Hopkins was nothing more than an opportunist who used the suspicions of others and the torture of innocents to make himself a very rich man.
Matthew Hopkins, a lawyer and the self-proclaimed Witchfinder General, was at the centre of these accusations. Hopkins began searching for witches in East Anglia in 1645 alongside his...
Aug 17, 2023 · Matthew Hopkins, known infamously as the “Witchfinder General,” would come to define a period rife with paranoia and persecution. He was a man driven by a belief system that today seems strange and abhorrent, but in his time, he was viewed by many as a hero.
Sep 12, 2022 · Unremarkable in death but terrifying in life, Matthew Hopkins grew up in a God-fearing household in Great Wenham, Suffolk, to become Britain’s self-styled Witchfinder General. He believed in a Christian-driven mission to find women feared as witches and provide proof of their witchcraft to send them to trial.
