Maidstone Council Seeks Pardons for Executed Women

Efforts to address centuries-old miscarriages of justice are gaining momentum in Maidstone, England, where local councilors are seeking official pardons for women executed for witchcraft approximately 400 years ago. The initiative aims to secure recognition from the British government and King Charles III for victims of historical witch hunts.

Historical records indicate that more than 20 women convicted of witchcraft were hanged in Maidstone. Across England and Scotland, approximately 5,000 women accused of witchcraft were executed, either by hanging or burning, during the period of widespread persecution.

The Maidstone Borough Council initiative includes lobbying the UK government and plans to petition King Charles III for official pardons covering the town's convicted women. Council member Claire Kehily is among those leading the campaign.

Kehily explained that social vulnerability made certain women particularly susceptible to accusations during the witch hunts.

"They were usually single women, spinsters, or widows, usually without a man to stick up for them," Claire Kehily, a member of the Maidstone Borough Council, told CBS News.

She added that their circumstances made them easier targets for accusations and prosecution.

"They were easier to target," Kehily said.

Kehily said the proposed pardons would recognize the fundamental injustice suffered by the women, who faced accusations they had no meaningful opportunity to challenge.

"It matters because it was a miscarriage of justice," Kehily said.

She emphasized that the legal proceedings denied many accused women any realistic chance of proving their innocence and connected the historical cases to continuing problems involving scapegoating.

"The crimes they were accused of they couldn't have been guilty of. And they had no way of being found innocent in many of the cases. This is 400 years ago.

But there are still miscarriages of justice. There are still, to these days, people being scapegoated for things," Kehily said.

Historical evidence from the town also illustrates how accusations emerged. Samantha Harris, collections manager at Maidstone Museum, presented CBS News with an official record documenting a witch trial held in Maidstone in 1652.

Harris explained that communities frequently searched for individuals to blame when confronted with unexplained events.

"There had to always be someone to blame," Harris said.

She described how livestock deaths and other misfortunes could trigger accusations against vulnerable women.

"Death of pigs, cattle," Harris said.

Harris also described the broader pattern of persecution behind these accusations.

"We were scapegoating and blaming people that were often quite vulnerable," she said.

For Harris, the campaign also carries personal significance because independence and unmarried status could expose women to suspicion.

"Being single, being independent, these are things that would have been seen as threatening," Harris said.

She reflected on how easily women with similar circumstances could have become victims of the historical persecution.

"I probably would've been targeted absolutely as a witch at the time … If we don't learn from the past, what's to say things won't be recurring again in the future? There's a lot to learn from history," Harris said.

The campaign also highlights a difference between British and American efforts to address historical witchcraft convictions. The Salem witch trials in Massachusetts took place during the 1690s, and those falsely accused in the cases have since received pardons.

By contrast, no person convicted of witchcraft in the United Kingdom has been officially exonerated. Maidstone's proposed petition seeks to address that historical record through formal recognition of the injustice suffered by the town's victims.