Report of the 1780 Bexhill witch trial, Morning Post and Daily Advertiser, 28 January 1780

Morning Post and Daily Advertiser, Friday 28 January 1780, in a typed extract prepared by Barry Lucas. The paper reports that two women living in the neighbourhood of Beck's Hill, Sussex, were supposed by their neighbours to be witches. No one would go near them or employ them, and the butcher would not sell them anything to eat, so that they were reduced until they could scarce crawl. A woman with more feeling than the rest advised them to go to the parson at Hastings and ask to be tested. The parson, the mayor and the lawyer disputed the method; the lawyer was for swimming them, the other two for weighing. The women were weighed against the church Bible, outweighed it, were given a certificate, and were received back by the parish with open arms. Bexhill Museum item 014. Bexhill Museum collection. Shown in UNSEEN: The Alex Sanders Archive at Bexhill Museum, Part One, The Town That Was Already Listening (9 August 2026), presented by Julian Porter of Bexhill Museum and hosted by Sharon Day for Alexandrian Witchcraft. Report of the 1780 Bexhill witch trial, Morning Post and Daily Advertiser, 28 January 1780. (1780). Bexhill Museum collection. Alexandrian Witchcraft Timeline & Archive. https://www.alexandrianwitchcraft.com/archive/bexhill-museum-014-1780-bexhill-witch-trial-report