NEN Gallery

Matthew Hopkins, the Witch-finder General, travelled over Eastern England from 1644-46, hunting out and prosecuting witches. Hopkins used a "swimming" test to see if the accused would float or sink in water. The theory being that witches had renounced their baptism, hence the water would supernaturally reject them. If they floated they were hanged. He eventually arrived at Mistley where legend has it that disgruntled villagers caught Hopkins and subjected him to his own "swimming" test: he floated, and therefore was hanged for witchcraft himself.