The First Witch?

Question:Does anyone know WHO was the first Witch to be burned at the stake and when?

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: Does anyone know WHO was the first Witch to be burned at the stake and when?

There's a documented list of witches that were executed (some burnt at the stake) and when here:

http://www.witchesway.net/links/burningt...

Although many people associate burning at the stake with witchcraft, very few "witches" in the UK were executed this way - they were usually hanged - burning was more popular on the continent - even the American Salem "witches" in 1692/93 were mostly hanged or crushed under stones.

Of the 32 women executed in this way in England between 1735 and 1789, all but four were accused of murdering their husbands - the other four for counterfeiting or coining offences, classed as High Treason.

The last person hanged for witchcraft in England is reckoned to be Alice Molland, at Exeter in 1686. The last recorded instance in Scotland, in 1722. The first case of a "witch" burnt at the stake is likely to be undocumented. I use the word witch in quotation marks because of course most were innocent and weren't really witches at all.

Without doing any research, the one furthest back in time that immediately comes to mind is Joan of Arc. Of course, there are NO witches......just accusations.

The first witch in Massachussetts to be punished was sentenced to hanging at the hanging tree in the North End of Boston in 1666. I don't remember the witchs name. The Salem witch trials came after that.

i'm not sure who the very first was but i know joan of ark did come before the salem witch trials. i'm not sure if anyone recorded the actual 1st because it was a semi common practice back then so no one may have recorded it as a historical event.

Rebecca Nurse.

Although most "witches" were hanged and not burned in the American colonies.

As far as the first burned elsewhere, that's an interesting question and if I find it, I'll repost and let you know!

I do know that in Wales that hundreds of women jumped off of the cliffs into the ocean to get away from the persecution and forced conversions back in the 10th century. They were all holding hands when they jumped and died.

I'm also pretty sure that some people later canonized as saints were burned earlier than Joan of Arc.

Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna. Look for him in a search.

You know most of the people accused of being "witches" during that time weren't actually what we would consider witches, right?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witch

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_wi...

Witchcraft wasn't a "crime" in Europe until the 7th century. But it is reported that certain Pagan groups had been hunting and killing "witches" for centuries.

The Salem Witch Trials didn't begin in the Americas until 1692. No one was burned at the stake in America. Nineteen were hanged, 1 crushed to death and 5 died in prison.

I guess one of the first European "witches" we know about was Agnes Sampson of Scotland:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agnes_Samps...

She was a midwife who "was fastened to the wall of her cell by a witch's bridle, an iron instrument with four sharp prongs forced into the mouth, so that two prongs pressed against the tongue, and the two others against the cheeks. She was kept without sleep, thrown with a rope around her head, and only after these ordeals did Agnes Sampson confess to the fifty-three indictments against her. She was finally strangled and burned as a witch. "

She was accused by Anne Koldings who was burned at the stake in 1590:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Koldin...

Anne Koldings in turn had been accused by "Karen the Weaver" after a storm almost sunk a ship carrying Princess Anne of Denmark:

"The authorities wanted to investigate the cause of the storm and accused the minister of finance, Christoffer Valkendorff, of having equipped the fleet so poorly that it was not able to withstand storm. He defended himself by saying that the storm had been caused by witches in the house of Karen the Weaver, who had sent little demons in empty barrows who had climbed up the keels of the ships and caused the storm; against such things, a minister of finance fought in vain. Karen was arrested in July and admitted having caused the storm with other women, whom she named, of which one was Anna Koldings.

During torture, Koldings named five other women participating in the meeting at Karen's house, where they had caused the storm by sending small devils up the keels of the princesse's ship's. She received several visits during her imprisonment, and confessed to two priests and three female visitors. She was considered as a very dangerous witch and nicknamed "The Devil's Mother". Among the women she named as witches was Malin, the wife of the mayor, and Margrethe Jakob Skrivers, whose husband unsuccessfully tried to defend her, and they were all arrested.

Anne Koldings was judged guilty and burned at the stake; twelve other women was burned at Kronborg in Copenhagen during this witch trial."

I'm writing an essay at the moment about witchcraft for my history degree. It's an enthralling subject. We can't know for sure when the 1st witch was burnt because of the low literacy levels throughout history until the 20th century. It may never have been recorded.
There are references to good and evil 'witches' in classical writings e.g. Greek and Roman and references to them in every century. I don't know the first reference to a witch being burnt but there were several histerias/crazes that occured mainly from the 11th century until the end of the 17th during civil strife or economic hardship. How else could you explain crop failure, disease in livestock or infant death without our modern scientific knowledge and instruments? It could hardly be the work of an all-loving God so it must be the work of an evil force - a witch doing the bidding of Satan.
Most accused witches weren't burned at the steak or hung - most were aquited or handed minor punishments. However, the stigma would have hung over the heads of the accused and their family for generations. Guilt by association.
It wasn't Rebecca Nurse as someone who has written you an answer has claimed. Her case is centuries too late to be the first.
Sorry to go on for ages, I just find witchcraft so interesting. I hope this helps you:-)

Your question came through to the genealogy forum,is that where you meant it to be.?.

I Don't know who the first Witch was... but I think I married her frigg!ng sister

Do you think that People are DELIBERATELY posting the wrong things in the wrong section on Yahoo??

Why is it you all have to come to the Genealogy section!!

I really think that Yahoo should have a Non specific section.