The Ruin of All Witches

The Ruin of All Witches reconstructs a witch-hunting episode in Springfield, Massachusetts, in 1651, where illness, failing livestock, spoiled food and missing property fuel suspicion. Reports of fits, disturbing dreams, visions and children’s deaths deepen the community’s fears, while accusations of witchcraft and heresy begin to circulate.

At the centre are Hugh Parsons, a prickly brickmaker, and his troubled wife, Mary, whose struggle to establish a home becomes entangled with neighbourhood resentment and denunciation. Drawing on neglected historical sources, Malcolm Gaskill places their story within the religious, social and material pressures of Puritan New England. The book presents witch-hunting as part of a fragile colonial society shaped by belief, hardship, fear and conflict.