the infamous Matthew Hopkins.

In the Annual Register for 1760, an instance of the belief in
witchcraft is related, which shows how superstition lingers. A dispute
arose in the little village of Glen, in Leicestershire, between two old
women, each of whom vehemently accused the other of witchcraft. The
quarrel at last ran so high that a challenge ensued, and they both
agreed to be tried by the ordeal of swimming. They accordingly stripped
to their shifts--procured some men, who tied their thumbs and great
toes together, cross-wise, and then, with a cart-rope about their
middle, suffered themselves to be thrown into a pool of water. One of
them sank immediately, but the other continued struggling a short time
upon the surface of the water, which the mob deeming an infallible sign
of her guilt, pulled her out, and insisted that she should immediately
impeach all her accomplices in the craft. She accordingly told them
that, in the neighbouring village of Burton, there were several old
women as "much witches as she was." Happily for her, this negative
information was deemed sufficient, and a student in astrology, or
"white-witch," coming up at the time, the mob, by his direction,
proceeded forthwith to Burton in search of all the delinquents. After a
little consultation on their arrival, they went to the old woman's
house on whom they had fixed the strongest suspicion. The poor old
creature on their approach locked the outer door, and from the window
of an upstairs room asked what they wanted. They informed her that she
was charged with being guilty of witchcraft, and that they were come to
duck her; remonstrating with her at the same time upon the necessity of
submission to the ordeal, that, if she were innocent, all the world
might know it. Upon her persisting in a positive refusal to come down,
they broke open the door and carried her out by force, to a deep
gravel-pit full of water. They tied her thumbs and toes together and
threw her into the water, where they kept her for several minutes,
drawing her out and in two or three times by the rope round her middle.
Not being able to satisfy themselves whether she were a witch or no,
they at last let her go, or, more properly speaking, they left her on
the bank to walk home by herself, if she ever recovered. Next day, they
tried the same experiment upon another woman, and afterwards upon a
third; but, fortunately, neither of the victims lost her life from this
brutality.