This article was written by Scott in 2002, back when I first said I was going to do a webzine. See, told you I would!

Sources

Mysterious Wimbledon by Ruth Murphy and Clive Whichlow, Enigma Publishing, 1994

More Mysterious Wimbledon by Ruth Murphy and Clive Whichlow, Enigma Publishing, 1995

Enigma Publishing, 51 Cecil Road, Wimbledon, SW19 1JR

1995 Evening Standard London Pub Guide, Pavilion Books, 1994

Scott Wood is a member of the folklore society and a freelance writer of no reputation whatsoever, though he started life as a puppet on telly's "Rainbow". E-mail him on: guesswheregeoffreysh@ndis

 I don’t know who is doing rituals on the common, but I hope they carry on unmolested. In 1569 a Wimbledon woman by the name of Jane Baldwyn was accused of witchcraft. A baby died in the village and the father was one of two men to accuse Jane of ‘bewitching’ the one year old child. Then William Walter lost four pigs and he accused Jane. April the 12^th 1569 and Helen Lingard died after giving birth to her 13^th child. Her husband again accused Jane of causing the death.

 At her trial Jane pronounced her innocence to the deaths of the pigs and an earlier death, one Elizabeth Bonham, but she agreed she was responsible for the deaths of Helen Lingard and one year old Richard Hollings. Perhaps she’d convinced herself that she was, in some way, responsible. Witches were never burnt at the stake in England, we saved that for heretics, so Jane Baldwyn was sentenced to death by hanging. This one commuted to a year’s imprisonment and an order to stand in pillory for a number of consecutive days. Her husband, John Baldwyn died in 1583, of Jane there is no more record. I hope she lived happily ever after.

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