Margaret Harkett
English woman executed for witchcraft

Margaret Harkett (d. 19 February 1585 at Tyburn) was an English woman executed for witchcraft.
She was a sixty-year-old widow from Stanmore at the time she was arrested. She was accused of having bewitched two of her neighbors to death. She was given a death sentence.
She was executed by hanging at Tyburn. She was the first person executed for Witchcraft in the city of London after the introduction of the Witchcraft Act of 1563.
Her case was publicized in the pamphlet The Several Facts of Witchcraft approved and laid to the charge of Margaret Harkett (1585).
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Margaret Harkett” as english woman executed for witchcraft. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as english woman executed for witchcraft. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 12, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q113000071. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1585 and 1563.
Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Margaret Harkett”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Margaret Harkett primary sources, Margaret Harkett archive and Margaret research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Margaret Harkett”?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Margaret Harkett” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.