Guernsey’s Last Witch Trial
It was high drama for Guernsey – ‘Sorcery and Witchcraft’ read the headline in the local press – with crowds outside the police court expecting a sensational trial. Aimee Lake, a pregnant single mother, stood accused of ‘disorderly conduct and carrying on the trade of fortune-telling and witchcraft’. The year?1914. Maybe the date will surprise a few people, but the Channel Islands has long held the rather dubious reputation as the ‘witch-hunting capital of Europe’, and well into the 20th century there are accounts of wise women, witches and wizards making a livelihood from the casting and lifting of spells (‘unbewitching’ being as serious a business as the actual ‘bewitching’.)
Aimee Lake, the last woman to stand trial as a witch in Guernsey, defended herself in court, arguing that people came to her for advice, that she provided a service, that she was only trying to help. One client, a Mrs Houtin, said otherwise, claiming Aimee had told her she’d die if she didn’t pay her the sum of £3. Aimee had previously given Mrs Houtin salt to throw at her enemies and magic powders to bury in the garden. When this mysterious powder was dug up it was found to be mostly cornflour – leading to laughter in the courtroom – and soon other witnesses came forward, people who had previously sought out Mrs Lake for counsel and now accused her of extortion.
Despite this high profile case, a belief in magic and the ‘Dark Arts’ persisted, and the outbreak of the Great War might have even fuelled it. My new novel, The Stranger’s Companion, is set on Sark in 1923 and 1933, a period where people were recovering from one war but bracing for another. It tells the true story of the disappearance of a young couple from the cliffs, a real-life mystery that caught the public imagination.
Sark was often called ‘the most backward and isolated’ of all the Channel Islands, and when two sets of neatly folded clothes are found abandoned on a remote stretch of the south coast, the island constable wants to believe it’s a hoax or a trick, but is something more sinister afoot? Sark was, after all, an island where all the houses had to be built with a witches’ seat, and where half the coast was said to be haunted. With a large number of Island men dead or missing after the war, it’s up to the island women to solve the mystery. In this, they are lead by the formidable Elise Carey, the island postmistress, who may or may not be a witch. I was thinking of Aimee Lake when I created the character of Elise. A single mother, more feared than liked, Elise takes on a certain role in the community because of her presumed powers. She, like Aimee, fills a void and supplies a need. Aimee Lake only served eight days in prison. Mrs Houtin didn’t pay her any money but also didn’t die, and as the judge observed, cases of witchcraft were difficult to prove. Maybe that explains its abiding appeal. Put simply, the power of any witch is about the power people place in her.
The Stranger’s Companion is published by Baskerville
