Belief in the supernatural is integral to our historical understanding of the past. In the early modern period, magical and occult beliefs were not ‘superstitious’ beliefs held by a credulous, uneducated minority. The presence of enigmatic, powerful forces – both benevolent and malign, and across domestic, communal, and global environments – was fundamental to an intricate and pervasive worldview held by people from all levels of early modern society. At the same time, supernatural beliefs, particularly beliefs in witchcraft, were unstable, inconsistent, and contested.

Micro-history is essential to gleaning insights into the lives of women embroiled in conflicts surrounding witchcraft and medical practice. This close study of some court records from early seventeenth-century England, concerning women in domestic environments, facilitates the study of medical practice by women. Cunning folk were an essential part of their communities to whom most people turned when their health was threatened. Regarded as potent healers, especially of illnesses believed to be caused by witches, cunning women existed in a liminal space between harming and healing. The boundary between harming and healing, between black and white witchcraft, was indeed capricious and insecure, especially for women, when the distinction between healer and witch was protean and erratic.