After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds & the Paranormal

Episode: Essex's Darkest Witch Hunt

Date: January 29, 2026
Host(s): Maddie Pelling & Anthony Delaney
Guest: Professor Marion Gibson (University of Exeter)

Overview

This episode explores the notorious witch hunt that gripped the village of St. Osyth (pronounced “Osyth”) in Essex in 1582. Historians Maddie and Anthony are joined by witchcraft expert Professor Marion Gibson, who recounts the descent of this small, marshy community into suspicion, paranoia, and ultimately deadly accusations. The story centers on Ursley Kemp, a “cunning woman” accused of witchcraft, and reveals what her case tells us about gender, power, and belief in early modern England.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Setting the Scene: St. Osyth & Its People (03:31–05:04)

• Location and Atmosphere:

  • St. Osyth was “a tiny little town on the Essex coast, up a muddy creek, and it's very flat there, so it's kind of marshy.” (Prof. Gibson, 03:48)
  • “It feels, I think, probably like the end of the earth in those days.” (Prof. Gibson, 03:53)
  • The grand Darcy manor stood in stark contrast to local poverty, highlighting the region’s extreme social disparity.

• Societal Tension:

  • “There’s a sort of disconnect between the poverty in the village and the wealth outside…a power dynamic is going to come into play.” (Maddie, 04:19)
  • The end of the priory’s role in local life post-Henry VIII left the town “on the down.”

2. Witchcraft in Context: Law, Belief, and Practitioners (05:04–09:03)

• Legal Changes:

  • Witchcraft Act of 1563 made the practice a crime, leading to a rise in accusations in the 1570s and ‘80s.

• Service Magicians & Cunning Folk:

  • “If you’re a poor person…you’re not going to call a physician…you go to somebody who is some kind of medical, magical practitioner.” (Prof. Gibson, 07:37)
  • These practitioners—a mix of men and women—held an odd authority, existing between religion and folk belief.

• Gender Dynamics:

  • “There is also a layer of misogyny here. Women are not supposed to have authority.” (Prof. Gibson, 08:23)

3. The Accusation: Ursley Kemp, Social Marginality & the Trigger Event (09:03–15:20)

• Who was Ursley Kemp?

  • “A really interesting...cunning woman…she advertises herself as she’s a cunning woman.” (Prof. Gibson, 09:35)
  • Ursley’s precarious position: “looking for work in her community, but…people are becoming suspicious…starting to think…she is in fact a witch.” (Prof. Gibson, 09:55)

• Relations with Grace Thurlow:

  • Ursley attempts to heal Grace’s child and assist with her pregnancy, but suspicion grows when illness—and later, tragedy—strike Grace’s family (14:16).

• Tragic Event:

  • “Joan falls out of her cradle…breaks her neck and the baby dies. And it's just this horrible tragedy.” (Prof. Gibson, 14:16)
  • This loss cements Grace’s suspicion that Ursley—rebuffed as a would-be midwife—has harmed her by supernatural means.

4. The Machine of Accusation: Power and Procedure (15:41–18:19)

• The Role of the Darcys:

  • “She [Grace] is in an excellent position…to share them [suspicions] with people who can do something about witches…” (Prof. Gibson, 15:41)
  • Brian Darcy, local magistrate, is “very, very excited…by what Grace is saying, and he wants to get Ursley in and question her. The whole thing starts to spiral from there.” (Prof. Gibson, 21:11)

• Power Hierarchy:

  • “These are the Lords Darcy. You don’t get much higher than that, not in that part of the world.” (Prof. Gibson, 16:44–17:04)

5. Interrogation & Manipulation: The Innovative “Soft” Techniques (21:11–25:25)

• Questioning Strategy:

  • Darcy adopts new “gentle” strategies from French demonology texts: “He paid attention to how he was…going to approach this case…one thing he thought was, well, I can question the children of the accused people.” (Prof. Gibson, 22:19)
  • “You can say, well, you know, if you tell me the truth, it’ll be absolutely fine…Just go along with what I say” (Prof. Gibson, 23:03)

• Emotional and Psychological Coercion:

  • “To use her own child against her, I mean, that is a form of torture. It’s so dark and it’s so underhand and it’s frightening.” (Maddie, 24:52)
  • “He is lying and he knows he’s lying…wants to tell other people so that they too…can use these techniques.” (Prof. Gibson, 24:52)

6. The Confessions: The Role of Children, Familiars, and Community Spread (25:25–29:10)

• Evidence from Ursley’s Son:

  • Under pressure, Ursley’s 8-year-old son claimed she “got four animal familiars…called Titty and Tiffin and Sucking and Jack.” (Prof. Gibson, 26:09)

• Domino Effect:

  • He implicates not only his mother, but her neighbors: “She works with other women to do this…so Ursula’s neighbor, Alice Newman is drawn in and things start to spread from there.” (Prof. Gibson, 26:09)

• Ursley’s Own Interrogation:

  • Ultimately, “she breaks down in tears during the course of the discussion…She corroborates the child’s evidence…goes whole kind of private demonology…she’s confessed.” (Prof. Gibson, 28:00)

7. Cunning Practice vs. Witchcraft: Understanding the Line (29:10–33:25)

• Religion, Tradition, and the Law:

  • “People tell the magistrate all about the magical skills that they have, and they often see them in a religious light.” (Prof. Gibson, 30:04)
  • “I don’t think people realize…the church has moved on in its position…They think it’s all demonic.” (Prof. Gibson, 30:55)

• Actual Spells Revealed:

  • Ursley’s charm against lameness: mixing hog’s dung and chervil, stabbing it, burning it, and drinking herbal ale (31:36).

“She’s pricked the…ball…of hogstung and chervil with the knife, and then she throws that into the fire and she sticks the knife under the table…then she says, take three leaves of sage and…the same of herb John…put them in ale and drink it…”
— Professor Marion Gibson (31:36)

• Blurring Boundaries:
  • “What strikes me…is that it’s so close to the kind of religious practice that they would have seen in church…the repetition of things, especially in threes, the transformative power…” (Maddie, 33:25)

8. The Accused Network & Gaps in History (33:25–36:33)

• Networked Suspicion:
  • “It starts with Ursley, the cunning woman, but it does spread out into a much wider group of people…” (Prof. Gibson, 35:03)
• Unanswered Questions:
  • “You can almost be plonked down in that village, but not quite.” (Maddie, 35:30)
  • “In some cases, you just got no idea. People live in the same village. That’s about what you know of them.” (Prof. Gibson, 36:29)

9. Outcome: Trial, Punishment, & Aftermath (37:45–43:01)

• Executions:
  • “Those two are, I’m afraid, executed. So Ursley is executed partly on the evidence of her own child…Elizabeth Bennett…is also accused…she is executed.” (Prof. Gibson, 39:04)
• Other Accused:
  • Some acquitted, others died in jail—one family, the Sells, “kept in prison…and they die in jail…of some sort of plague or epidemic.” (Prof. Gibson, 39:55)

“It’s just hideous, isn’t it?...There, there are inquest documents for them and they seem to have died…as people very often did in jail.”
— Professor Marion Gibson (40:53)

• The Stigma Lingers:
  • Even for survivors: “Are you able to assimilate? Or do you just…up and leave and go somewhere else and start again?” (Maddie, 41:47)
  • Some, like Alice Newman, spent years in jail due to inability to pay fees and were “released under a general pardon…years after she was in prison.” (Prof. Gibson, 42:23)

10. Reflections: Human Nature, Power, and Legacy (43:01–49:00)

• Universal Human Drama:

  • “This is a very human drama, not necessarily a magical one. Even if there's magical practice and belief…it's the human beings and their gripes and their frustrations that lead this forward.” (Maddie, 44:06)

• Belief and Identity:

  • “It's not that I'm magic, necessarily. It's that I have this skill…I've said the right words in the right order. And I’ve done the right ritual actions.” (Anthony & Prof. Gibson, 44:46–45:10)

• Significance of the St. Osyth Case:

  • “It’s important because Brian Darcy writes that book about it…It’s a really, really influential trial because of print…Both skeptics and witch hunters get something out of it.” (Prof. Gibson, 45:29–47:13)
  • The case resonates through history via Darcy’s publication, influencing both witch hunters and skeptics like Reginald Scot, and even feeding motifs into Shakespeare’s Macbeth.

• Atmospheric Pilgrimage:

  • “It’s a really atmospheric place…if you go in the depths of winter…there is this tremendous sense of bleakness and isolation…when you're there, I think you can feel something of the world that these people lived in.” (Prof. Gibson, 47:21)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “Fear had found a name. And as it so often is, it was a woman’s.”
  — Matt Lewis (01:01)

• “To use her own child against her, I mean, that is a form of torture. It's so dark and it's so underhand and it's frightening.”
  — Maddie (24:52)

• “He is lying and he knows he's lying. And he records that in the pamphlet that he subsequently has published about these events…”
  — Prof. Gibson (24:52)

• “It's not that I'm magic, necessarily. It's that I have this skill.”
  — Anthony Delaney (44:46)

• “It's a very human drama, not necessarily a magical one.”
  — Maddie (44:06)

Structure & Flow

The episode is structured as an accessible narrative, blending vivid historical re-imagining, detailed expert discussion, and thoughtful reflection. The hosts employ a conversational, curious tone, with Professor Gibson providing both granular detail and historiographical context.

Recommended Reading & Final Thoughts (48:23)

• Professor Gibson’s works:
  • The Witches of St. Osyth (focuses on the case itself)
  • Witchcraft: A History in 13 Trials (wider European perspective)
• Witchcraft accusations are “such good stories,” but are just as much about power, gender, and scapegoating as about magic.

For listeners:

This episode offers a moving and often chilling look at how fear, poverty, and power can devastate a small community. Its lessons about scapegoating, belief, and social division remain deeply relevant today.

Key Timestamps

• 03:31 – Describing St. Osyth and its atmosphere
• 07:37 – Role of cunning folk and service magicians
• 09:35 – Introduction of Ursley Kemp
• 14:16 – Joan Thurlow’s death
• 21:11 – Brian Darcy’s approach to witchcraft accusations
• 24:52 – Emotional coercion and manipulation in interrogations
• 26:09 – Content of Ursley’s son’s testimony about familiars
• 31:36 – Ursley’s spell described in detail
• 39:04 – Outcome: executions and imprisonment
• 44:06 – Reflection: human nature and community conflict
• 45:29 – The case’s historical significance and influence
• 47:21 – Visiting St. Osyth today
• 48:23 – Further reading