The English historian and antiquary Thomas Wright (1810–70) co-founded and joined a number of antiquarian and literary societies. He was greatly interested in Old English, Middle English and Anglo-Norman texts, and in the 1840s and 1850s he published widely within these areas. Gradually his focus shifted to the archaeology of Roman Britain and to Anglo-Saxon cemeteries. Although much of Wright's research has been completely superseded, his work is still considered worth consulting, as he collected material not readily available elsewhere. This two-volume 1851 publication is testimony to Wright's interest in folklore, sorcery and legend. In Volume 2, he maintains a broad perspective while surveying instances of witchcraft in the seventeenth century. Wright writes about such famous cases as the Earl of Somerset, the Ursuline nuns of Loudun, and the Mohra witches in Sweden, to whom the Devil appeared with a red beard and a high-crowned hat.
Contents
18. Adventures of Doctor Torralva; 19. Trial of the Earl and Countess of Somerset; 20. La maréchale d'Ancre; 21. Louis Gaufridi; 22. The Ursulines of Loudun; 23. The Lancashire witches; 24. Witchcraft in England during the earlier part of the seventeenth century; 25. Witchcraft under the Commonwealth. Matthew Hopkins the Witch-finder; 26. Witchcraft in Germany, in the earlier part of the seventeenth-century; 27. The witches of Scotland under King James after his accession to the English throne; 28. Confessions of Isobel Gowdie; 29. The witches of Mohra in Sweden; 30. Sir Matthew Hale and Chief Justice Holt; 31. The doings of Satan in New England; 32. Conclusion.
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