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The Witch's Heart

DrPaulLee

DrPaulLee

Justified & Ancient
Joined
Aug 7, 2002
Messages
2,230
I'm writing a book on the ghosts of King's Lynn and West Norfolk and one section deals with the legends of the town.

One story concerns a heart shaped marking on a window of a building in the Tuesday Market Place. The story is that the heart of a woman who was being executed (usually a witch but not necessarily so) flew from her body leaving the mark.

I know it's hokum and the story has been added to over the years and while there is now probably not way of knowing how the myth arose, I am wondering if anyone knows when the story first appeared in print?
There are a couple of very old history books on the town on archive.org and none mention it. There's a newspaper article from 1962 and I *think* Marc Alexander mentions the story in his book on Haunted Inns in 1973, and I know it's been referred to since then, but I suspect there are earlier tellings of this tale that I don't know about.
 
How much have you developed so far on the legend itself?

Have you been digging on the label "Diamond Heart" in addition to "Witch's Heart"? The modern mark (a stylized heart within a 'diamond' trapezoidal border) is commonly referred to by that name.

Was this among the old history books you've reviewed?

The History and Antiquities of the Flourishing Corporation of Kings Lynn, Benjamin Mackerell (1738)
 
Yes, I've read that book and going through a few others (including a two volume history by a chap named Hillens).

So far I've just gone through a discussion on the executees (is that a word), but there's next to nothing on them.

I hadn't heard "diamond heart" before, I shall look it up!
 
It's not something like this is it?
heart.jpg
 
DrPaulLee said:
Yes, I've read that book and going through a few others (including a two volume history by a chap named Hillens).

So far I've just gone through a discussion on the executees (is that a word), but there's next to nothing on them.

I hadn't heard "diamond heart" before, I shall look it up!
Click to expand...
I had a look about what Hillens wrote earlier, he doent seem to mention the 'heart' but does talk about witches and the witchfinder general in general terms, as well as mentioning some of the 'witches' that were tried.
 
Yes, a lot are mentioned in the book EnolaGaia mentioned. Apart from one (Margaret Read in 1590, who was burnt), all the witches were hanged. The heart symbol has also been attributed to the unnamed maid, boiled alive in 1531 for poisoning.
 
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I think I have a memory of a "witch's heart" being an m-shape at the top and the bottom point being curved to one side. It's often used as part of a luckenbooth heart image.
 
The name most commonly associated with the burning and mark is Margaret Read. There were two women of that name documented in the area as of 1590. Relevant baptismal records can be seen at:

https://norfolkrecordofficeblog.org/2018/10/31/the-witches-of-lynn/

One would have only been 22 years old as of 1590. The other (perhaps more likely given the profile of usual suspects) was an older woman (Margaret / Margrett Hammond Read). The older one seems to be the one most accounts attribute to the legend.

Some accounts claim the 1590 woman's name was Reed rather than Read, and there were families with the name Reade in the area as well. I also saw a version that suggested the 1590 Margaret Read was conflated with an earlier executed woman named Mary Smith. I don't know whether this alleged earlier woman was executed as a witch and / or was the one who was boiled alive.

Another variation I noticed is that some retellings suggest or claim it was a jet or gobbet of blood that was ejected to hit the building rather than the woman's heart.
 
Having looked at it I'd like to see the rest of the building and the date of it!
 
It would be interesting to ask local schoolkids .
 
Frideswide said:
to find out if the legend has currency with them- or if it is now only spread amongst people like us :)
Click to expand...
And if it has spread to the younger generation, it may have mutated into another form completely. There's some currency in writing about the mutation of local tales, going as far back and as close to the original DNA of the story as possible and then tracking forwards.
 
DrPaulLee said:
you could do your own ghost tour with my book. I've compiled dozens of tales that had never been in print before.
Click to expand...

Link to the place that gives you the most money please!
 
Good to see it in the wild, as it were :) I'm disappointed that it's top centre on a building with aspirations to grandeur.
 
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