An Historical Essay Concerning Witchcraft. With Observations Upon Matters of Fact; Tending to clear the Texts of the Sacred Scriptures, and confute the vulgar Errors about that Point. And Also Two Sermons: One in Proof of the Christian Religion; the other concerning Good And Evil Angels. The Second Edition, with considerable Additions.

London: Printed for R.Knaplock and D.Midwinter, 1720. Second Edition. Hutchinson’s interest in the history of witchcraft was piqued during his tenure as a minister and perpetual curate at St. James Parish in Bury St. Edmunds, which had been the location of a number of famous trials including that of Jane Wenham in 1712 which Hutchinson witnessed firsthand. In the present work, first published in 1718, Hutchinson carefully examined witch-hunting and the witchcraft prosecutions in East Anglia and other parts of England, as well as at Salem, Boston, and Andover in New England, and “applied a consciously rational approach to the phenomenon”. (T.Barnard, Oxford DNB) The treatise is “full of valuable historical details, with many particulars collected by personal inquiry from survivors.” (Rev. A.Gordon, DNB) In A History of Witchcraft in England from 1558 to 1718 (1911), Wallace Notestein pronounced the book "epoch-making" and declared that with it “Hutchinson levelled a final and deadly blow at the dying superstition.” However it took another thirty-seven years before the hunting and execution of witches in Great Britain was finally abolished with the passage of the Witchcraft Act in 1735. European Americana 720/126. Sabin 34063. Wellcome III p. 321. 8vo. pp. 15 p.l., 336. lacking half-title. woodcut headpiece & initial. modern calf (bit rubbed, marginal browning to outer leaves, occasional spotting). elala5698