The Bottesford Witches

One earl, two children, three witches

The stroll down the path from the railway station into the heart of Bottesford is a delight, with the church of St Mary the Virgin standing in a loop of the River Devon, a rippling stream flanked by weeping willows and copper beeches.The setting is glorious, and so is the church’s medieval steeple, which soars high above the parapets and pinnacles of the nave. Inside, it’s the tombs of the chancel that catch the eye: after the Reformation, the Rutlands colonised the chancel and a gang of them are entombed here. They are large and imposing tombs for sure, but perhaps the most unusual is an Elizabethan alabaster extravagance in which the second earl and his wife are laid out beneath a dining table representing an altar.

The most interesting tomb is that of Francis Manners, 6th Earl of Rutland (1578–1632), shown with one wife slightly above, the other slightly below him. A wordy inscription extols the earl’s virtues, and asserts that two of his children ‘died in their infancy by wicked practises and sorcerye’; the children are at his feet, carrying skulls. Francis certainly believed their deaths were untoward, but quite why or how he fastened on three local women – Joan Flower and her daughters Margaret and Philippa – to accuse of witchcraft is impossible to say.

Predictably, given those superstitious times, the investigation the earl ordered stumbled into a stew of rumour and allegation, with the net of sorcery spreading out of control. In the event, Joan died on her way to trial, which at least gave a terrified Margaret the chance to blame her mother from the dock: Margaret said Joan had harmed the earl’s son by stroking ‘Rutterkin her cat [and familiar] with the boy’s glove, after it was dipt in hot water’. The trial was the talk of the Jacobean court. Margaret was hanged, but Philippa managed to escape in mysterious circumstances: some thought she had bewitched her guards, others suggested she had drugged them.

Address St Mary the Virgin, Rectory Lane, Bottesford, Leicestershire, NG13 0DA, www.stmarysbottesford.co.uk | Getting there Train to Bottesford, then a five-minute walk; by car, it’s an 18-mile drive from Nottingham to Bottesford via the A 52 | Hours St Mary the Virgin open daily 9am – 5pm | Tip For a coffee or a snack, make your way to Bottesford Coffee Shop, just a five-minute walk from St Mary, at 12 Queen Street.