October 29, 2025 • 13 mins
Is your cat the devil in disguise? Probably not, although they may act like it sometimes! But once upon a time, they would have been accused of luring you into witchcraft.
In Britain in the 16th and 17th centuries witch hunting became an obsession and supposed ‘witches’ were put on trial, and some were even sentenced to death.
Being an animal lover was considered a sure sign that someone was practicing witchcraft. Friendliness towards cats, rabbits or dogs could lead to accusations of witchcraft, as these animals, known as familiars, were suspected of working for the devil.
One of those accused of witchcraft and seen with familiars was Elizabeth Clarke, a poor, disabled woman from Essex.
Join Rosie and historian Dr Romany Reagan as they uncover Elizabeth’s story and the strange tale of the witches’ familiars.
[Ad] Wild Tales is sponsored by Cotswold Outdoor, your outside retailer and epic guides to adventure. Quick breathers, calming walks or heart-pounding hikes. We feel better when we get out more. Find quality kit and 50 years of outdoor wisdom. Plus, supporters save 15% in-store and online. Feel in your element, in the elements, at Cotswold Outdoor. https://www.cotswoldoutdoor.com/
Production:
Host: Rosie Holdsworth
Producers: Rosie Toy and Katy Kelly
Sound Editor: Jesus Gomez
Contributor: Dr Romany Reagan
Discover More:
Find out more about witchcraft:
https://essexwitchmuseum.co.uk
Uncover folklore, legends, myths and lost histories from the British Isles with Dr Romany Reagan:
https://blackthornandstone.com
Watch a video of this podcast on the National Trust’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@nationaltrustcharity/podcasts
If you’d like to get in touch with feedback or a story idea you can contact us at podcasts@nationaltrust.org.uk
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
DR. ROMANY REAGAN (00:35):
Elizabeth Clarke says that he was lucky
that he hadn't leapt onto hisface, squeezed down his throat
and deposited a feast of toadsin his belly. I can feel this is
a woman at the end of her rope.She's been kept up for four
days. She's elderly. She has oneleg. She's poor. She probably
just wants all this to be over.And I don't like to think about
where she'd gone psychologicallyto get to that point.
ROSIE HOLDSWORTH (01:03):
In the UK, more than half of us own a pet,
and I've got a dog, Scout. Wefeed them, speak to them and
keep them safe. But 400 yearsago, doing any one of these
things could have led to yourdeath. We're taking you back to
the 1600s, when keeping a petcould have got you accused of
witchcraft. I'm Ranger RosieHoldsworth. Welcome to the Wild
(01:26):
Tale of Witches' Familiars.
Life's hard for regular peoplein the 1640s. There's political
(01:47):
instability, the English CivilWar is raging and communities
are poor.
Life's even harder for olderpeople, particularly if you're a
woman. Because of your age, youmight have lost your husband and
live alone. You might find ithard to make friends, so poor
and alone you befriend a straycat.
You offer it scraps and perhapsgive it a safe place to sleep in
(02:11):
exchange for comfort andcompany. And the next thing you
know, your neighbours areaccusing you of witchcraft. And
if you're found guilty, you'llhang.
Situations like this are not souncommon. Women who are already
outliers in society aresuspected of witchcraft if
(02:32):
they're seen to do anything thatisn't the norm, which could just
be feeding a cat. But why isthis the case? And why are cats
and other animals so linked towitchcraft? Well. To understand
that, we first need to know whythe hunt for witches began.
DR. ROMANY REAGAN (02:50):
My name is Dr. Romany Reagan. I'm a scholar
of what I like to call darkheritage and feminist stories,
untold stories and hiddenhistories. The stereotypical
idea we have today of a witch isusually of a woman. She's quite
evil. She's on the fringes ofsociety. She isn't very
attractive. She's old. And thatis something that was born out
of the later witch trials.
(03:11):
If we look at the long 400 yearhistory, of the witch trials.
Originally it was for acts ofheresy. So to be accused of
witchcraft was actually to beagainst the church using magic
in some sort of way. Whereaslater definitions of witchcraft
then became more personal andmore against women specifically.
People were losing theirchildren, their crops were
(03:33):
failing. There was politicalinstability. People needed a
reason. And it's much easier tobelieve that there's someone
inflicting this pain on you thanto think that you're out of
control in your life.
Then you get the neighborsaccusing their neighbors, and
that was usually the mostvulnerable members of society,
which would have been the olderwomen. It's quite sad when you
consider that the people thatthey were launching all these
(03:55):
complaints against were the oneswho had no one to advocate for
them.
ROSIE HOLDSWORTH (04:00):
Between 1542 and 1736, approximately 1,000
people are killed for beingso-called witches. Belief in
witchcraft and accusations of itfluctuate in popularity. But
during the height of witchcrafthysteria, self-appointed witch
hunters look for telltale signsof witchery.
(04:27):
One of the signs that someonemight be a witch is if they had
an unexpected relationship withan animal, as animals with no
obvious use are suspected ofbeing the devil in disguise,
luring people into the realm ofblack magic.
DR. ROMANY REAGAN (04:42):
We love our pets so much, it's really hard
to think of and cast our mindback to what society thought of
animals at that time. Animalsbelonged in barns, they belonged
in fields, they could not bekept close to humans. When it
comes specifically to the ideaof the animal familiar, was this
idea that...
These people being on thefringes of society, they didn't
have friends. They weren't, theydidn't have any kind of
opportunity for closeness andcompanionship. The animal must
(05:05):
be working for you. And if thatjob isn't necessarily obvious,
then maybe it's somethingsecretive and it's scandalous
and it's probably even satanic.
And especially too, if somebodyis seen speaking to these
animals well, the idea ofsomebody just having a lovely
conversation with their pet cat,which now today we think of as
quite normal, this would be no,no. What was specific about,
(05:29):
about the idea of keeping afamiliar was that Satan would
usually come in different forms.
And so he would often appear asanimals because the idea was
that in order to seal a pactwith a familiar, you would be
feeding them blood to have themperform the evil deeds. But no
one actually saw this. And ifsomething's done in secret, how
can you prove that it is orisn't done?
ROSIE HOLDSWORTH (05:51):
What's interesting about the idea of
animal familiars at this time isthat it's uniquely English. And
this is because ofProtestantism.
Witchcraft and religious beliefsare closely entwined, and you
can see this reflected in theway witchcraft was thought to
take place. In Europe, wheremany people have Catholic
(06:11):
beliefs, witches are thought togo to a specific place to meet
with a familiar and speak withthe devil.
This is in parallel with howpeople would go to church and
meet with a priest and talk toGod. In England, where many
people now have Protestantbeliefs, the devil is believed
to come to a witch's home in theform of a familiar. In the same
(06:31):
way that regular people mightpray to God at home.
So how do animals like cats getpeople into trouble?
(06:52):
One of the most well-documentedcases is that of Elizabeth
Clarke. Who is the first womanto be persecuted by the
self-proclaimed witchfindergeneral Matthew Hopkins and his
associate John Stern.
At a time of heightened paranoiaabout witchcraft, Hopkins claims
to have been officiallycommissioned by Parliament to
(07:14):
uncover and prosecute witches.He and Stern are the driving
force for the witch huntsbetween 1645 and 1647. Elizabeth
Clarke herself is believed to befrom a family of witches. So
when a woman in the villagebecomes unwell, her husband
blames Elizabeth.
DR. ROMANY REAGAN (07:35):
She was very elderly, very poor, and she was
living on parish charity. He wasthe first to accuse her, and the
rest of the community were veryquick to fall on board as well
in any kind of grievances theycould think of. They harassed
her so much that she actuallyconfessed to it.
She said, yes, absolutely, Ihave had dealings with the devil
and many witches besides, butshe refused to name any of these
witches. I think she was justkind of talking a bit of trash,
(07:57):
actually, just to get them offher lawn. That's what I think.
But they took this and they ranwith it.
They took what Stern had writtenof her supposed confession,
which to me is just a womanyelling on her porch, and from
there they got a warrant. Andthis warrant allowed them to
gather the searcher to come andsearch her. And with them,
Matthew Hopkins and John Sternwere able to also watch her.
ROSIE HOLDSWORTH (08:18):
When someone is accused of witchcraft,
they're tortured until theyreveal their otherworldly
powers. They're pricked withneedles to see if they bleed.
They're stripped naked andsearched for a witch's mark. And
they're kept awake and watchedintently.
DR. ROMANY REAGAN (08:38):
So yeah the prickers and the watchers who
would corral this woman in herhome.
For four days and four nightsand they sat her on a stool and
they just stared at herbasically and they just made
sure that she couldn't sleep youcan see the fever dream aspect
of it you've been up for daysand you are expecting
malfeasance you know she's awitch you're just waiting for
that proof and she lasted outfor two days before she started
(09:00):
to name names then she startedto discuss her familiars and you
can understand this now as akind of fever dream she talks
about the animals that come toher and what their names are.
And you can almost envision hermaking them up on the spot
because they're bizarre nameslike Vinegar Tom or Sack and
Sugar. And so eventually when asmall cat comes into the house,
(09:22):
oh my gosh, finally, this is thefamiliar. And so there was a
cat, there was a, there wasn't acat and there was a dog that, oh
no, it wasn't a dog.
And then eventually there was a,there was a rabbit that came in
and this was, this was Sack andSugar. And this is when we get a
quote from, from ElizabethClarke herself. Stern is, is, is
kind of making a joke saying,oh, this, this is your, this is
you're grand familiar. And shesays that he was lucky that he
(09:44):
hadn't leapt onto his face,squeezed down his throat, and
deposited a feast of toads inhis belly.
I can feel this is a woman atthe end of her rope. She's been
kept up for four days. She'selderly. She has one leg. She's
poor. She probably just wantsall- this to be over. And I
don't like to think about whereshe'd gone psychologically to
(10:05):
get to that point. And withregards to her supposed
familiars, we have a small whitecat, we have a fat white dog,
then we have a tall, skinnierdog, and then we have a rabbit.
That's it. Maybe they made allthis up. But it does seem like
perhaps these animals genuinelywere in her house. But it also
(10:25):
seems to me that if you are anelderly woman who's cast, you're
an absolute cast away from yoursociety. You don't have an
opportunity for love andcompanionship, but you do have a
dog, you have a cat, and youhave a rabbit.
And that's that. And that wasenough to have her marked for
execution, which she was laterthat year, so it was quite
swift. And she was hanged forwitchcraft in 1645.
ROSIE HOLDSWORTH (10:51):
Elizabeth Clarke isn't the only woman to
be accused of witchcraft, partlybecause she kept pets. But her
story is one of the mostwell-documented at the time.
Having said that, familiars areactually more popular in
witch-hunt propaganda than theyare in the trials themselves.
The mystery and intriguesurrounding their supposed
relationships with witchesfascinates the general public,
(11:15):
which is perhaps why we socommonly see witches with an
animal sidekick in fictionalstories today. Cats, owls,
toads, bats and rats are allsome of the familiar characters
we see in fiction like HarryPotter, The Worst Witch and
Halloween celebrations.
But behind the folklore andfiction is a much darker truth.
(11:43):
In reality, people are lookingfor someone to blame for their
hardships. So the truth istwisted to fit a narrative and
explain their misfortunes.Anything seen as out of the norm
can be used against you. Andultimately, if you have the
misfortune of being an animallover who's seen as an outsider,
you're an easy target for anaccusation of witchcraft.
(12:18):
If you'd like to explore objectsand links to witches at National
Trust places, head tonationaltrust.org.uk where
you'll also find Halloweenevents and activities for the
whole family. Thanks forlistening to this episode of
Wild Tales. If you've enjoyedit, make sure you follow, rate
and review us on your favouritepodcast app. We'll be back in
two weeks with another story.See you next time.
Elizabeth Clarke says that he was lucky
that he hadn't leapt onto hisface, squeezed down his throat
and deposited a feast of toadsin his belly. I can feel this is
a woman at the end of her rope.She's been kept up for four
days. She's elderly. She has oneleg. She's poor. She probably
just wants all this to be over.And I don't like to think about
where she'd gone psychologicallyto get to that point.
ROSIE HOLDSWORTH (01:03):
In the UK, more than half of us own a pet,
and I've got a dog, Scout. Wefeed them, speak to them and
keep them safe. But 400 yearsago, doing any one of these
things could have led to yourdeath. We're taking you back to
the 1600s, when keeping a petcould have got you accused of
witchcraft. I'm Ranger RosieHoldsworth. Welcome to the Wild
(01:26):
Tale of Witches' Familiars.
Life's hard for regular peoplein the 1640s. There's political
(01:47):
instability, the English CivilWar is raging and communities
are poor.
Life's even harder for olderpeople, particularly if you're a
woman. Because of your age, youmight have lost your husband and
live alone. You might find ithard to make friends, so poor
and alone you befriend a straycat.
You offer it scraps and perhapsgive it a safe place to sleep in
(02:11):
exchange for comfort andcompany. And the next thing you
know, your neighbours areaccusing you of witchcraft. And
if you're found guilty, you'llhang.
Situations like this are not souncommon. Women who are already
outliers in society aresuspected of witchcraft if
(02:32):
they're seen to do anything thatisn't the norm, which could just
be feeding a cat. But why isthis the case? And why are cats
and other animals so linked towitchcraft? Well. To understand
that, we first need to know whythe hunt for witches began.
DR. ROMANY REAGAN (02:50):
My name is Dr. Romany Reagan. I'm a scholar
of what I like to call darkheritage and feminist stories,
untold stories and hiddenhistories. The stereotypical
idea we have today of a witch isusually of a woman. She's quite
evil. She's on the fringes ofsociety. She isn't very
attractive. She's old. And thatis something that was born out
of the later witch trials.
(03:11):
If we look at the long 400 yearhistory, of the witch trials.
Originally it was for acts ofheresy. So to be accused of
witchcraft was actually to beagainst the church using magic
in some sort of way. Whereaslater definitions of witchcraft
then became more personal andmore against women specifically.
People were losing theirchildren, their crops were
(03:33):
failing. There was politicalinstability. People needed a
reason. And it's much easier tobelieve that there's someone
inflicting this pain on you thanto think that you're out of
control in your life.
Then you get the neighborsaccusing their neighbors, and
that was usually the mostvulnerable members of society,
which would have been the olderwomen. It's quite sad when you
consider that the people thatthey were launching all these
(03:55):
complaints against were the oneswho had no one to advocate for
them.
ROSIE HOLDSWORTH (04:00):
Between 1542 and 1736, approximately 1,000
people are killed for beingso-called witches. Belief in
witchcraft and accusations of itfluctuate in popularity. But
during the height of witchcrafthysteria, self-appointed witch
hunters look for telltale signsof witchery.
(04:27):
One of the signs that someonemight be a witch is if they had
an unexpected relationship withan animal, as animals with no
obvious use are suspected ofbeing the devil in disguise,
luring people into the realm ofblack magic.
DR. ROMANY REAGAN (04:42):
We love our pets so much, it's really hard
to think of and cast our mindback to what society thought of
animals at that time. Animalsbelonged in barns, they belonged
in fields, they could not bekept close to humans. When it
comes specifically to the ideaof the animal familiar, was this
idea that...
These people being on thefringes of society, they didn't
have friends. They weren't, theydidn't have any kind of
opportunity for closeness andcompanionship. The animal must
(05:05):
be working for you. And if thatjob isn't necessarily obvious,
then maybe it's somethingsecretive and it's scandalous
and it's probably even satanic.
And especially too, if somebodyis seen speaking to these
animals well, the idea ofsomebody just having a lovely
conversation with their pet cat,which now today we think of as
quite normal, this would be no,no. What was specific about,
(05:29):
about the idea of keeping afamiliar was that Satan would
usually come in different forms.
And so he would often appear asanimals because the idea was
that in order to seal a pactwith a familiar, you would be
feeding them blood to have themperform the evil deeds. But no
one actually saw this. And ifsomething's done in secret, how
can you prove that it is orisn't done?
ROSIE HOLDSWORTH (05:51):
What's interesting about the idea of
animal familiars at this time isthat it's uniquely English. And
this is because ofProtestantism.
Witchcraft and religious beliefsare closely entwined, and you
can see this reflected in theway witchcraft was thought to
take place. In Europe, wheremany people have Catholic
(06:11):
beliefs, witches are thought togo to a specific place to meet
with a familiar and speak withthe devil.
This is in parallel with howpeople would go to church and
meet with a priest and talk toGod. In England, where many
people now have Protestantbeliefs, the devil is believed
to come to a witch's home in theform of a familiar. In the same
(06:31):
way that regular people mightpray to God at home.
So how do animals like cats getpeople into trouble?
(06:52):
One of the most well-documentedcases is that of Elizabeth
Clarke. Who is the first womanto be persecuted by the
self-proclaimed witchfindergeneral Matthew Hopkins and his
associate John Stern.
At a time of heightened paranoiaabout witchcraft, Hopkins claims
to have been officiallycommissioned by Parliament to
(07:14):
uncover and prosecute witches.He and Stern are the driving
force for the witch huntsbetween 1645 and 1647. Elizabeth
Clarke herself is believed to befrom a family of witches. So
when a woman in the villagebecomes unwell, her husband
blames Elizabeth.
DR. ROMANY REAGAN (07:35):
She was very elderly, very poor, and she was
living on parish charity. He wasthe first to accuse her, and the
rest of the community were veryquick to fall on board as well
in any kind of grievances theycould think of. They harassed
her so much that she actuallyconfessed to it.
She said, yes, absolutely, Ihave had dealings with the devil
and many witches besides, butshe refused to name any of these
witches. I think she was justkind of talking a bit of trash,
(07:57):
actually, just to get them offher lawn. That's what I think.
But they took this and they ranwith it.
They took what Stern had writtenof her supposed confession,
which to me is just a womanyelling on her porch, and from
there they got a warrant. Andthis warrant allowed them to
gather the searcher to come andsearch her. And with them,
Matthew Hopkins and John Sternwere able to also watch her.
ROSIE HOLDSWORTH (08:18):
When someone is accused of witchcraft,
they're tortured until theyreveal their otherworldly
powers. They're pricked withneedles to see if they bleed.
They're stripped naked andsearched for a witch's mark. And
they're kept awake and watchedintently.
DR. ROMANY REAGAN (08:38):
So yeah the prickers and the watchers who
would corral this woman in herhome.
For four days and four nightsand they sat her on a stool and
they just stared at herbasically and they just made
sure that she couldn't sleep youcan see the fever dream aspect
of it you've been up for daysand you are expecting
malfeasance you know she's awitch you're just waiting for
that proof and she lasted outfor two days before she started
(09:00):
to name names then she startedto discuss her familiars and you
can understand this now as akind of fever dream she talks
about the animals that come toher and what their names are.
And you can almost envision hermaking them up on the spot
because they're bizarre nameslike Vinegar Tom or Sack and
Sugar. And so eventually when asmall cat comes into the house,
(09:22):
oh my gosh, finally, this is thefamiliar. And so there was a
cat, there was a, there wasn't acat and there was a dog that, oh
no, it wasn't a dog.
And then eventually there was a,there was a rabbit that came in
and this was, this was Sack andSugar. And this is when we get a
quote from, from ElizabethClarke herself. Stern is, is, is
kind of making a joke saying,oh, this, this is your, this is
you're grand familiar. And shesays that he was lucky that he
(09:44):
hadn't leapt onto his face,squeezed down his throat, and
deposited a feast of toads inhis belly.
I can feel this is a woman atthe end of her rope. She's been
kept up for four days. She'selderly. She has one leg. She's
poor. She probably just wantsall- this to be over. And I
don't like to think about whereshe'd gone psychologically to
(10:05):
get to that point. And withregards to her supposed
familiars, we have a small whitecat, we have a fat white dog,
then we have a tall, skinnierdog, and then we have a rabbit.
That's it. Maybe they made allthis up. But it does seem like
perhaps these animals genuinelywere in her house. But it also
(10:25):
seems to me that if you are anelderly woman who's cast, you're
an absolute cast away from yoursociety. You don't have an
opportunity for love andcompanionship, but you do have a
dog, you have a cat, and youhave a rabbit.
And that's that. And that wasenough to have her marked for
execution, which she was laterthat year, so it was quite
swift. And she was hanged forwitchcraft in 1645.
ROSIE HOLDSWORTH (10:51):
Elizabeth Clarke isn't the only woman to
be accused of witchcraft, partlybecause she kept pets. But her
story is one of the mostwell-documented at the time.
Having said that, familiars areactually more popular in
witch-hunt propaganda than theyare in the trials themselves.
The mystery and intriguesurrounding their supposed
relationships with witchesfascinates the general public,
(11:15):
which is perhaps why we socommonly see witches with an
animal sidekick in fictionalstories today. Cats, owls,
toads, bats and rats are allsome of the familiar characters
we see in fiction like HarryPotter, The Worst Witch and
Halloween celebrations.
But behind the folklore andfiction is a much darker truth.
(11:43):
In reality, people are lookingfor someone to blame for their
hardships. So the truth istwisted to fit a narrative and
explain their misfortunes.Anything seen as out of the norm
can be used against you. Andultimately, if you have the
misfortune of being an animallover who's seen as an outsider,
you're an easy target for anaccusation of witchcraft.
(12:18):
If you'd like to explore objectsand links to witches at National
Trust places, head tonationaltrust.org.uk where
you'll also find Halloweenevents and activities for the
whole family. Thanks forlistening to this episode of
Wild Tales. If you've enjoyedit, make sure you follow, rate
and review us on your favouritepodcast app. We'll be back in
two weeks with another story.See you next time.
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