Mary Kirk

Mary Hicks (also recorded as Hickes ) is a woman alleged to have been executed for witchcraft in Huntingdon in 1716, alongside her nine-year-old daughter, Elizabeth. If true, Mary and Elizabeth Hicks would have been the last people executed for witchcraft in England. But the case's veracity has been questioned by historians and other researchers since its publication, with most considering it to be fictional or a hoax. The only known document that purports to be a primary record of Mary Hicks' trial is one such pamphlet, dated 1716, written anonymously and published by W. Matthews of Long Acre, London.

Wilmot sentenced Mary and Elizabeth Hicks to death by hanging on 20 July 1716, described in the pamphlet as a Friday. However, efforts to investigate the case were complicated by the fact that few historians based their analysis of the Hicks case on the original pamphlet until 1916, instead depending upon second-hand accounts provided by Richard Gough. First compiled as one volume in 1768, the second edition was expanded into two volumes, published in 1770. Prior to 1770, Gough also printed a version of his essay on Huntingdonshire containing the story of Mary Hicks, naming the judge who condemned her as Powell. Norris visited the library and found the original pamphlet, then shared his findings in Notes and Queries.

Questions of historicity

Timing and independent corroboration Some scholars have expressed doubt that a witch trial and execution would have occurred in 1716. The last substantiated execution in England for witchcraft is the 1682 Bideford witch trial, and public and state support for witchcraft trials had largely waned in Europe by the 18th century.

Writing in 1852, author James Crossley compared the Hicks case's apparent timing to the trial of Jane Wenham. Wenham, convicted of witchcraft in Hertfordshire in 1712, was pardoned before she could be executed after her case caused a "sensation", attracting national media coverage and political attention. Crossley opined that the Hicks trial, occurring just four years later and involving the execution of a child, should have attracted as much "public attention" as the Wenham case.

Similarities with other accounts In 1911 Wallace Notestein observed that the acts of sorcery attributed to Mary and Elizabeth Hicks in the 1716 pamphlet resembled earlier cases. The 1716 pamphlet alleges that Elizabeth Hicks, too, attempted to sink a ship. Both accounts feature young girls who take a walk with their father, and offer to change the weather. Both editions include a chronology of major alleged witches in history; both editions dedicate a chapter to the case of Jane Wenham, and both describe the 1682 Bideford trial as the last executions of witches in England. Hutchinson also conducted personal research into alleged witches, and enlisted the help of judges, including John Powell.

Hutchinson's essay does not mention Mary or Elizabeth Hicks. The 1705 pamphlets were both written by an author identifying themselves as Ralph Davis.

Notestein, taking the view that all three were fictitious or hoaxes, opined that the three pamphlets were authored by the same person due to similarities in language. The pamphlet's days of the week subsequently contradict the Gregorian calendar.

Media reporting On the apparent absence of the Hicks story in newspaper archives, Frederick Inderwick suggested that censorship may have precluded major newspapers from reporting on the trial. Describing the Hicks pamphlet as "likely bogus", he related it to pamphlets that may have sought to present "familiar fictional stories of revenge". Indeed, the Hicks pamphlet begins with the author presenting scripture as evidence that sorcery exists.

Millar also identified eight pamphlets published in the 18th century, of which only two portray witchcraft as a "collaborative" activity, indicative of a conspiracy: the Hicks case, and a pamphlet by Ralph Davis. Notestein had earlier suggested that Davis was the author of both pamphlets. Millar suggested that, in the "religiously unstable climate" of the era, portraying witches as conspirators invited wider society to draw associations with minority religious groups such as Catholics or Quakers.