second session was held. Of the proceedings there is no exact record, but it seems probable that some forty or fifty witches were then condemned and doubtless hanged in due course, which means a pretty speedy execution. With regard to the rest their fate is unknown.
Before July 26th, owing to the activities of Hopkins, at least twenty witches were executed in the county of Norfolk, and on account of their great admiration of his energies the Corporation of Yarmouth, on August 15th, decided to summon him to their assistance, voting him full fees for his work. Yarmouth he visited twice, once in September and once in December. Six women were condemned, but of these one was respited. Later three women and one man were charged, but it does not appear that they were convicted. From Yarmouth he hurried to Ipswich, and it was here that Mother Lakeland suffered on September 9th. Although no doubt he was prominent in securing her conviction, he could not actually have been present at the execution, since we know that on September 8th he was much occupied in collecting evidence at Aldeburgh, a town he again visited on December 20th and January 7th.
At Stowmarket he must have made an exceptional haul, since he was paid no less than £23, a very considerable sum for those days. He also had the satisfaction of hanging two witches, Dorothy Lee and Grace Wright, at King’s Lynn. Whilst he himself hurried from town to town it seems probable that the smaller villages were visited by his subordinates acting under his directions.
During the first months of 1646 he arrived in Cambridgeshire. Here the witches are said to have taken elaborate
