Witch-Finder, Matthew Hopkins (seventeenth century). In 1645 he hanged sixty witches in his own county (Essex) alone, and received 20s. a head for every witch he could discover.
Has not the present parliament
Mat Hopkins to the devil sent,
Fully empowered to treat about,
Finding revolted witches out?
And has not he within a year
Hanged three score of them in one shire?
S. Butler, Hudibras, ii. 3 (1664).
Witch of Atlas, the title and heroine of one of Shelley’s poems.
Witch of Balwer´y, Margaret Aikens, a Scotchwoman (sixteenth century).