The Final Executions for Witchcraft in Early 18th‑Century Britain

The episode traces how witch trials lingered into the early eighteenth century, spotlighting two landmark cases—the 1710 trial of Jane Wenham and the 1727 execution of Janet Horne—and explains how Parliament’s Witchcraft Acts ultimately ended state‐sanctioned persecution. It examines surviving court records, contemporary commentary, and later scholarship to separate historical fact from myth, while exploring how these events reshaped legal practice and popular folklore. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices