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Whilst researching her non-fi ction book
Oundle: Memories and Moments published
in 2018, author Anna Fernyhough was
intrigued by a scant story of the two Oundle
women she discovered. Anna’s fortuitous
discovery of an ancient pamphlet - a reprint
of a publication by F. Thorn from 1705,
“An account of the tryals, examination
and condemnation of Elinor Shaw, and
Mary Philips (two notorious witches),
at Northampton Assizes …’, (London
1705 was reprinted by J. Taylor & Son
of Northampton in 1866 and again by a
Kettering publisher in 1900) proved its worth
as the nucleus of a story that consists of a
small rural community living together. With
little education, residents found their trust
displaced as superstition and suspicions
evolved.

The tale is strung with kernels of recorded
history and fi ction. Artisans of the late
1600s share little similarity with the people
of the town of today. Indeed, housing has
grown beyond the imagination of those from
300 years ago. With just 365 houses, the
townsfolk who fell afoul of the wealthy (and
subsequently the law) had little chance to
battle against the whispers of the locals.

Yet, many people today can appreciate
former notions of ‘magic’ that germinated
when conditions were at their harshest and
their beliefs in sorcery that were nurtured by
the fears associated with Matthew Hopkins,
the self-appointed witch-fi nder general
alongside the ongoing sickness and
death of the era.

Two stocking makers stood in the
blustery winds of the small town as the
crowds called out a variety of rebukes
and chastisements. Mary Phillips and
Elinor Shaw knew their own town had
turned against them. Here, in the small
town of Oundle, things were afoot to
change their destinies. The women were
arrested and, after a short local trial, held
in Northampton gaol. There seemed only
one outcome after the whispers of the
town.

Mary Phillips and Elinor Shaw are seen
as the last witches tried for witchcraft in
England. As beliefs in witchery gradually
subsided and as suspicion and superstition
diminished with growth and interest in
technology and science, Mary Philips and
Elinor Shaw travelled from Oundle to the
Northamptonshire Assizes in March 1705
– with fear and jealousy dogging them
every step of the way. The Witchcraft Act
was repealed in 1735. Was this too late for
these young women of Oundle?

A Whisper of Witches (a story of Oundle
witchcraft) - ISBN 978-178456-648-7 - is
available from Oundle Bookshop, Amazon
and other on-line books sellers