Witchcraft trials Council seeks pardon for seven women hanged in 1652

On 30 July 1652, seven women were hanged on Penenden Heath in Maidstone, Kent. Witch trials and executions were far from unusual at the time, but rarely were so many convicted at once.

- Esther Addley

Anne Ashby, Mary Brown, Anne Martyn, Mildred Wright, Susan Pickenden, Anne Wilson and Mary Reade had been accused by neighbours of terrible acts including “bewitching to death” a 10-day-old baby. Several were claimed to have “carnally known” the devil in exchange for their “monstrous” powers.

In the centuries since, the names of the seven women, like those of the many hundreds of others executed for the same crime, have slipped from popular memory.

Now, however, the town in which they were sentenced wants to right a 373-year-old wrong.

The leader of Maidstone council has written to the home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, calling for new laws to pardon the Penenden Heath women and all others convicted of witchcraft. “These historic acts of murder cannot be undone but those women could be granted a general pardon,” wrote Stuart Jeffery, head of the Liberal Democrat and Green-led council.