1
‘Florence Newton’s trial for witchcraft, Cork, 1661: Sir William Aston’s transcript’,
Royal Society, London, RB 1/37/5, fols 96r-102v. The Boyle Papers.
Edited by Dr Andrew Sneddon, Ulster University.

I
Ireland avoided the ravages of later medieval, early modern, European witch-hunting
that claimed around 50, 000 lives, the overall proportion of whom were women,
around 80 percent. In the early modern period, Scotland executed 1500 people for
witchcraft, England hanged 500, while Wales put five witches to death.1 Ireland
hosted only four witchcraft trials under the dictates of the 1586 Irish Witchcraft Act,
involving: Marion Fisher, 1655; Florence Newton, 1661; and the nine ‘Islandmagee
Witches’, convicted respectively at the Lent and Summer Assizes held at
Carrickfergus, Co. Antrim in 1711.2 The Boyle papers in the library of the Royal
Society, London contain a transcript of witness testimonies given at Florence
Newton’s trial for witchcraft at Cork Assizes in September 1661 and signed by……