The Newcastle witch-pricker

On 26 March 1649 the townspeople of Newcastle petitioned the council about witches, and the magistrates sent to Scotland for a man who claimed to find them by pricking with pins, at twenty shillings for every one he condemned. The bellman cried through the streets for complaints, and women were brought to the Town Hall and tested. When he condemned a respectable-looking woman, Lieutenant Colonel Hobson showed his test was false and she was cleared. One man and fifteen women were executed for witchcraft in the town.