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History Coursework, Witches

Hi, I was wondering if anybody would be able to help me. I've just started gathering information for my a level history Coursework, I'm planning on doing the witch craze in Britain and Scotland but I'm really struggling to find historians and sources , does anyone have any credible websites or resources where I'd be able to find some?

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Have you had any luck with this? I'm thinking of doing witchcraft too
Original post by l.eah2
Hi, I was wondering if anybody would be able to help me. I've just started gathering information for my a level history Coursework, I'm planning on doing the witch craze in Britain and Scotland but I'm really struggling to find historians and sources , does anyone have any credible websites or resources where I'd be able to find some?
i did OCR history and my unit 3 exam was on witchcraft!
some great info can be found in:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Revision-Notes-level-Witchcraze-Centuries/dp/1510416447/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=witchcraze+ocr&qid=1563133014&s=gateway&sr=8-1
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Access-History-Witchcraze-16th-Centuries/dp/1471838382/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_2?keywords=witchcraze+ocr&qid=1563133014&s=gateway&sr=8-2-fkmr0
(they can probably be found much cheaper elsewhere, i got the second one for £3 on ebay)

Brian Levack is a great historian to look at for witchcraft, he has a sourcebook ( https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=nJX1JN-GyMoC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false , this is only a preview on googlebooks, but you could buy it if you wanted more). it also credits the original sources so you could look them up online to find other sources etc . he also has a few other books on witchcraft which could be great for secondary sources/interpretations.

george fraser has a book on witchcraft events in scotland https://www.worldcat.org/title/calendar-of-cases-of-witchcraft-in-scotland-1510-1727/oclc/2232591 which is in most Uni libraries, and as its summer, i found my Local uni was willing to allow me access to these kinds of books, you can always photocopy the bits you need.

im pretty sure James Sharpe was a few books/journal articles on witchcraft.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/20175215?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents this is a pretty good journal article to start with (and there is a ton of witchcraft journals on Jstor, and on google)
Reply 4
Original post by sophielouiseok
i did OCR history and my unit 3 exam was on witchcraft!
some great info can be found in:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Revision-Notes-level-Witchcraze-Centuries/dp/1510416447/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=witchcraze+ocr&qid=1563133014&s=gateway&sr=8-1
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Access-History-Witchcraze-16th-Centuries/dp/1471838382/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_2?keywords=witchcraze+ocr&qid=1563133014&s=gateway&sr=8-2-fkmr0
(they can probably be found much cheaper elsewhere, i got the second one for £3 on ebay)

Brian Levack is a great historian to look at for witchcraft, he has a sourcebook ( https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=nJX1JN-GyMoC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false , this is only a preview on googlebooks, but you could buy it if you wanted more). it also credits the original sources so you could look them up online to find other sources etc . he also has a few other books on witchcraft which could be great for secondary sources/interpretations.

george fraser has a book on witchcraft events in scotland https://www.worldcat.org/title/calendar-of-cases-of-witchcraft-in-scotland-1510-1727/oclc/2232591 which is in most Uni libraries, and as its summer, i found my Local uni was willing to allow me access to these kinds of books, you can always photocopy the bits you need.

im pretty sure James Sharpe was a few books/journal articles on witchcraft.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/20175215?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents this is a pretty good journal article to start with (and there is a ton of witchcraft journals on Jstor, and on google)


I completely forgot that I'd posted on here so sorry for the late reply, thank you so much!!! Actual life saver, I have some of my inform now but I'm definitely going to look into all of these, thank you!!!
Have you found and good historians/sources? I’m doing the witch craze too for mine. I’ve watched suzannah lipscombs two part documentary but I can’t find anything else.
Reply 6
Original post by carla4044
Have you found and good historians/sources? I’m doing the witch craze too for mine. I’ve watched suzannah lipscombs two part documentary but I can’t find anything else.

Anne Barstow is a historian for misogyny but I haven't had much luck to be honest
Hmm it’s a difficult one. I’ve narrowed my question down to the causes of the witch trials in Britain form 1597 to 1717 (1717 was the last trial I think?). 1597 was when James published daemonologie so I’ll write a bit about that and also how Matthew Hopkins was able to go about hunting witches due to a lack of law enforcement from civil war. As for sources I’ve found PDF’s of James’ book, Mathew Hopkins’ book and the court clerks accounts of the Pendle witch trials.
Reply 8
I'm doing my coursework on the witchcraze in Britain too! I am using Brian Levack, Thurston, Robin Briggs and a few contemporary sources.
how are you finding the resources!?
Original post by millieodno1
how are you finding the resources!?

For mine I remember googling the topic and reading through a bunch of websites which named key figures and their work etc. I then googled those and read through them (I found PDFs of Daemonologie, Thomas Pott's account of the 1612 Pendle Witch Trials and Matthew Hopkins work) to help come up with an argument. Historians were harder to find but I had quite a few when I had finished the research stage. I usually found them as I was reading through articles etc but sometimes I did search the topic and add 'historian' to the end so it's worth trying that if you're struggling to find any.
Original post by carla4044
For mine I remember googling the topic and reading through a bunch of websites which named key figures and their work etc. I then googled those and read through them (I found PDFs of Daemonologie, Thomas Pott's account of the 1612 Pendle Witch Trials and Matthew Hopkins work) to help come up with an argument. Historians were harder to find but I had quite a few when I had finished the research stage. I usually found them as I was reading through articles etc but sometimes I did search the topic and add 'historian' to the end so it's worth trying that if you're struggling to find any.

Thank you! What did you get in the end? I’m trying to aim for an A/A* but I have no idea what to do for it :smile:
Original post by millieodno1
Thank you! What did you get in the end? I’m trying to aim for an A/A* but I have no idea what to do for it :smile:

I got 30/40 which was an A, I got 15/20 for knowledge, 9/10 for source analysis and 6/10 for historiography. My teacher took last years a level ground boundaries and applied those to our coursework which meant I was 1 mark off an A* if that's any help at all. I'd say make sure you've got lots of research before you start planning and then have an in-depth plan before you start writing which makes it easier for you to identify any gaps in your research. I always find that the more in depth my plan is the easier it is to write the actual essay etc.
historians - levack and briggs, they have opposing views so it will help your arguments.

sources - daemonologie, thomas potts discoveries of witches in the county of lancashire, and anything written by the witch finder general. there is a great revision guide for witchcraft (think it’s OCR but it doesn’t matter the exam board it just gives sources and info - i did AQA and still used it) that you can get for ~£10 that will give events, timeline, historians and sources
Original post by carla4044
Hmm it’s a difficult one. I’ve narrowed my question down to the causes of the witch trials in Britain form 1597 to 1717 (1717 was the last trial I think?). 1597 was when James published daemonologie so I’ll write a bit about that and also how Matthew Hopkins was able to go about hunting witches due to a lack of law enforcement from civil war. As for sources I’ve found PDF’s of James’ book, Mathew Hopkins’ book and the court clerks accounts of the Pendle witch trials.

Can I ask how you got on with this topic question? Did you find good sources or did you struggle to write the coursework piece?
Original post by Feleena13
Can I ask how you got on with this topic question? Did you find good sources or did you struggle to write the coursework piece?

I ended up narrowing my date range down to 1580-1680 and found that worked quite well. I found plenty of sources, I used Newes from Scotland, Daemonologie, accounts of the Pendle witch trials, images from pamphlets and Matthew Hopkins' work although I didn't do an in depth analysis for all of those. I also found a small handful of historians as well to help create a debate. I actually really enjoyed writing my coursework and it was much easier to do because of how detailed my plan was. Mine was focused on Britain so if you're thinking of doing that as well I recommend watching Suzannah Lipscomb's two part documentary series for context.
Original post by carla4044
I ended up narrowing my date range down to 1580-1680 and found that worked quite well. I found plenty of sources, I used Newes from Scotland, Daemonologie, accounts of the Pendle witch trials, images from pamphlets and Matthew Hopkins' work although I didn't do an in depth analysis for all of those. I also found a small handful of historians as well to help create a debate. I actually really enjoyed writing my coursework and it was much easier to do because of how detailed my plan was. Mine was focused on Britain so if you're thinking of doing that as well I recommend watching Suzannah Lipscomb's two part documentary series for context.

Thank you! I will definitely check out the sources you mentioned
Original post by carla4044
I ended up narrowing my date range down to 1580-1680 and found that worked quite well. I found plenty of sources, I used Newes from Scotland, Daemonologie, accounts of the Pendle witch trials, images from pamphlets and Matthew Hopkins' work although I didn't do an in depth analysis for all of those. I also found a small handful of historians as well to help create a debate. I actually really enjoyed writing my coursework and it was much easier to do because of how detailed my plan was. Mine was focused on Britain so if you're thinking of doing that as well I recommend watching Suzannah Lipscomb's two part documentary series for context.

Hi
I know this was ages ago, but could you show me how you wrote your plan?
Thanks
Reply 18
Original post by Disko0207
Hi
I know this was ages ago, but could you show me how you wrote your plan?
Thanks

It's really important that you cover the whole period, you should have an event or something to talk about for each decade in your time period. It doesn't have to be in chronological order but it might help you if it is, I appreciate this is difficult though if you are structuring your essay by theme. I can't remember how many themes I did but I know I definitely did religion, misogyny and the monetary gain from witch hunting and how political figures benefitted from witch hunting.

Make sure you put your argument in your introduction! State this straight away so the examiner knows how you're arguing , and you should have the same argument in your conclusion. I would also introduce your themes, historians and primary sources in your introduction.

Have 3 sources, one for each theme, but make sure you have at least two different type of source, e.g. a religious manuscript and a wood carving.

Make a separate document for a checklist to make sure you've covered the time period, you've included sources and source analysis, historian and historian analysis. It just makes it easier for you to keep track of where your at, this was really helpful for me because I didn't write my essay in order, I wrote my themes before I even started writing my introduction.

Also have another document for your bibliography, any website or book you find information from make sure you put it on there and then when your finalising your essay you can go through it and take out anything you haven't used.

It's super important to be organised because it's such a big essay and you can be overwhelmed with it very easily unless you can physically see everything you have done/need to do and it will help you keep on top of it better.
Good luck :smile:
Original post by l.eah2
It's really important that you cover the whole period, you should have an event or something to talk about for each decade in your time period. It doesn't have to be in chronological order but it might help you if it is, I appreciate this is difficult though if you are structuring your essay by theme. I can't remember how many themes I did but I know I definitely did religion, misogyny and the monetary gain from witch hunting and how political figures benefitted from witch hunting.

Make sure you put your argument in your introduction! State this straight away so the examiner knows how you're arguing , and you should have the same argument in your conclusion. I would also introduce your themes, historians and primary sources in your introduction.

Have 3 sources, one for each theme, but make sure you have at least two different type of source, e.g. a religious manuscript and a wood carving.

Make a separate document for a checklist to make sure you've covered the time period, you've included sources and source analysis, historian and historian analysis. It just makes it easier for you to keep track of where your at, this was really helpful for me because I didn't write my essay in order, I wrote my themes before I even started writing my introduction.

Also have another document for your bibliography, any website or book you find information from make sure you put it on there and then when your finalising your essay you can go through it and take out anything you haven't used.

It's super important to be organised because it's such a big essay and you can be overwhelmed with it very easily unless you can physically see everything you have done/need to do and it will help you keep on top of it better.
Good luck :smile:

Thank you so much for the useful info!
May I ask how you planned your essay? And are there any specific sources that would support the argument that religion was the reason?
Again, thank you

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