Jane Rebecca Yorke

Jane Rebecca Yorke (born c. 1872, date of death unknown) was a medium who was the last person convicted under the Witchcraft Act of 1735.

A longstanding medium from Forest Gate, East London, she was prosecuted by police because of reports that she was defrauding the public by exploiting wartime fears. During séances with Yorke, undercover police were told various lies about non-existent family members, such as one officer's supposed brother being burned alive on a bombing mission. Yorke’s alleged spirit guide was a Zulu and she also frequently claimed to summon Queen Victoria. She was witnessed terrifying a hysterical woman, who had supposedly just seen the spirit of her dead brother, by warning her that her husband might also be killed. Yorke predicted the war would end in October 1944.

She was arrested in July 1944. At her trial at London's Central Criminal Court in September 1944 she was found guilty on seven counts against the Witchcraft Act of 1735. She was fined £5 and placed on good behaviour for three years, promising to hold no more séances. The light sentence was due to her age of 72. [ Malcolm Gaskill, Hellish Nell: the Last of Britain's Witches, Fourth Estate (2001), 323-4 ]

The case demonstrated that, following the earlier trial of Helen Duncan, the Director of Public Prosecutions had decided that the Witchcraft Act was still useful in dealing with cases involving mediums. Although the Act was used as a threat in several subsequent cases, the last being in 1950, this was the last in which someone was actually convicted under it. [ Malcolm Gaskill, Hellish Nell: the Last of Britain's Witches, Fourth Estate (2001), pg 344 ]

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