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Matthew Hopkins

Matthew Hopkins from the Manningtree area was born in 1620 who gave himself the title of 'Witch Hunter General'. His career as a witch hunter began in 1644.
He was mostly known for his witch hunting capabilities in East Anglia, where it's thought he prosecuted over 300 women between 1644 and 1646.
Hopkins had an accomplice; John Stearne. Between them, it's thought that they were responsible for over 60% of all the trials between the early 15th to late 18th century.

It's thought that Hopkins was from a very puritan family. When Charles came into power and introduced a less modern form of Protestantism, restoring and bring back the pre-reformation days. Puritan communities were not happy about this because all they held pure would be desecrated, their work undone.
In 'Witchfinders; a Seventeenth Century English Tragedy' it says 'if there was one aspect of his (Hopkins') childhood more likely than any other to have initiated and inspired Matthew's career as a witchfinder, it was this'

Hopkins always looked for 'The Devil's Mark', supposedly a mark on a woman that indicated that she was a witch, which has no feeling and wouldn't bleed. He often used sleep deprivation methods and the swimming witches method in order to

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