In 1682, three women from Bideford were hanged for witchcraft. They were the last women in England to be executed for this crime.

Unfortunately, it wasn't all that unusual in the 17th century for elderly widows or single women who didn't 'fit in', to be accused of witchcraft. These allegations were usually then compounded if the women happened to be around when something dire happened, as they usually became the prime suspect.

The three Bideford women, Mary Trembles, Temperance Lloyd and Susannah Edwards, were convicted of witchcraft at the Exeter Assizes.

At the Assizes, Temperance was accused of making a wax image of Grace and pricking it with pins, Grace foolishly admitted that she had pricked a piece of leather nine times. To make things worse, a magpie had settled on Grace's window ledge, which was obviously the Devil in disguise, sent by a witch. The Devil is supposed to have appeared in various forms to these three women, and somehow they admitted it might have been so. All lived in Bideford and little is known about them beyond their arrests, trial in Exeter Castle and their execution by hanging at Heavitree, just outside of the city.