Witch
The Royston Witches
A chest of bones and a painted heart condemned them, if they existed.
Stand where it happened
- What's there
- The town centre; their house is unknown
- Legend from
- 1600s
- Tone
- Dark history
Royston, coming up, is the home town of Johane and Anne Harrison, hanged as witches in 1606, if the pamphlet that tells their story can be believed.
A pamphlet of 1606 told how Johane Harrison of Royston and her daughter Anne were hanged at Hertford for murder by witchcraft. It described farmers falling ill after insulting Johane, a baby killed when its cradle collapsed after Anne was splashed with washing water, and a drunkard cursed in an alehouse. Searchers were said to have found a chest of human bones, hair and a parchment painted with a heart and the joints of a man, which Johane confessed she used with the help of two spirits. Yet the Hertford assize records for that summer make no mention of the Harrisons, so they may never have existed.