Kaite O’Reilly

“This shaded corner in the ruins of Rougemont Castle in Exeter resonates for me. The site of the trials in 1682 and 1685 of the so-called Devon Witches; Temperance Lloyd, Susannah Edwards, Mary Trembles and Alice Molland — the last people in England to be executed for witchcraft.

Information about the women is scarce, but they were “poor, abandoned, unmarried or widowed,” living off community funds having survived the plague and English Civil War. The late seventeenth century was a time of political and religious imbalance, of scarcity and social change. Such periods are notorious for “othering” — ostracising those who are different, who don’t necessarily fit in, for deciding who is included in a community — and if someone is excluded, do they deserve access to resources, or are they a threat to them?

We know that those exterminated during the so-called Witch Craze were predominantly women who were wise, knowledgeable in the healing arts or midwifery, and so powerful. They were unconventional, often living alone, sometimes with impairments or atypical embodiment. It is not by chance the accused were physically examined for ‘the mark of the devil’ — interpreted as any kind of difference.

The plaque was erected “in the hope of an end to persecution and intolerance.”

We can but hope — and continue to rage against injustice.”