Understanding the origins of British magical

practices improves alongside the increase in

literacy, where contemporaneous documentation
of popular thought, culture, and beliefs are more
readily produced. Pottery containing libations or
animal bones2, and at times human sacrifices3,
beneath structures provide evidence for
foundational rites, in practice throughout Celtic
and Roman times. Celtic sacrificial rituals,
particularly of the human variety, were noted by
Julius Caesar to be a group’s offering the gods a
Figure 1. Hobart Town, Van Diemen’s Land, by G.W Evans 1828.
substitute for themselves in times of peril4.
Far from the explorers and conquistadors who Modern Wicca
sought out strange lands, many early Tasmanian practitioners claim
settlers and convicts were farmers, paupers, the hexafoil, or
tradespeople, and bureaucrats. They managed to daisy wheel,
bring their British society, agriculture, and originates from
urbanisation to a new land whilst trying to cope druidry’s ancient
with famine, disease, the unfamiliar environment, sun symbol5, but
bushrangers, and perhaps the transition from the origins and
convict to citizen. Recent attention to a pervasive direct meaning of
series of carved symbols, clusters of burn marks, many apotropaic
and peculiar objects hidden in the foundations of symbols, however,
colonial-era homes have likely connections to remain a mystery. Figure 3. Hexafoil/Daisy Wheel

protective magic practices – known as apotropaic

magic – has sparked a new chapter in Australia’s By the 15th century, many practitioners of British
social history, one told solely through the secret magic are documented as ‘cunning-folk’, derived
practices of those struggling to survive in the from the Anglo-Saxon word, cunnan, that means,
colonies. In research initiated by historian Dr Ian ‘to know’6. Their craft was popular magic: a
Evans in 20101, a significant connection can be culmination of traditions from pre-Christian
found with similar, and older, practices from the religions, superstitions and the veneration of local
British Isles. Importantly, apotropaic magic may saints and relics from Catholicism, and later the
have been a way for colonists to cope in the face addition of Protestantism7. Christian Britain had
of hardship, fear, and isolation. long feared
witchcraft – the
conjuring of spirits
and causing harm
via magic – and
classed it a moral
crime, punishable
by death8. While
early-modern
physicians treated
bewitchment, the
cunning-folk could
not only
‘unbewitch’ the
afflicted, but also
deal in protective
charms, and even
identify the Figure 4. Witches brewing a spell in
Figure 2. Burn marks in the Nant Mill & Distillery barn. offending witch9. a cauldron, c.1508
Testimonies from the 16th century cunning- convicts to experience prosperity previously
women Cowdale of Maidstone and Margaret Hunt unknown: lack of business and trade competition,
detail their healing rituals that meld a series of new land ownership for farming, and the
Catholic prayers with herbal remedies10. Cunning- advantage of convict labour21. The incentive to
magic remedies were often familiar, affordable, stay in Tasmania was great, but they would also
and less invasive than orthodox medicine that have to make do, somehow.
focused on balancing the physical body11 through
trepanation, crude surgeries12, blood-letting and
violent purging13.

Figure 6. Hobart Town Chain Gang, c.1831.

Surviving in the alien landscape of antipodean

seasons, flora, and fauna was impacted by violent
weather22, deadly illness23, and diseased
livestock24. Conflict between colonists and the
Indigenous population – the Palawa – was overtly
brutal. Retaliation and massacres would follow for
decades. Land clearing by farmers destroyed
Palawa hunting grounds, with farmers attacking
Figure 5. The Grete Herball, 1529 herbology guide. hunters for taking sheep for food25; Palawa
women and girls were abducted and abused as
17th century publications, such as Daemonologie ‘wives’ for Bass Strait sealers26. Bands of escaped
by King James I,14 and sermons by puritanical convicts survived as bushrangers, attacking both
preachers failed to sway popular opinion to their rural colonists and Palawa27.
claim that cunning-magic was as much aligned
with the devil as malevolent witchcraft15. Both For many, the familiar
secular and church court systems had been largely rituals from home
dismissive of cunning-magic accusations16. In time, may have offered a
the Witchcraft Act of 173617 and the Vagrancy Act sense of comfort, a
of 182418 ended the legal stance of popular magic connection to those
being in league with the devil: rather, the accused they left behind, and a
were committing fraud by pretending to use way to gain a sense of
magic. This legislation has, in turn, provided court control in their
documents that evidence the continuation of unpredictable new
cunning-magic into the 20th century19. It is unlikely 28
life . Amongst the
that such pervasive, and clearly adaptive, practices earliest known sites
had simply been forgotten in transit to the containing apotropaic
colonies. magic is Glen Derwent,
built in 1808 and
For convict and settler alike, coming to the expanded in the
Australian colonies meant leaving behind the 29
1820s . A concealed
country and customs they had always known. shoe and burn marks
Around 45 percent of all Australian convicts served in the wooden horse
time in Tasmania, numbering about 75,00020. They stalls at Glen Derwent Figure 7. Glen Derwent burn
provided an inexpensive labour force for settlers, marks and shoe
encapsulate some of
many of which had invested their life savings into the typical apotropaic practices found in barns and
their emigration. This new society, however, stables. Engraved hexafoils, or daisy wheels, have
presented the chance for settlers and freed
been commonly found in domestic or interior Daemonologie warning against evil spirits entering
settings. The stables of Tedworth, built in 1833, the home through doorways, windows, and
display burn marks, whilst hexafoils have been chimneys34. In analysing the presence of hexafoils
found on the mantelpiece of Tedworth’s watch in various locations – a judge’s courthouse rooms,
house30. Fieldwork by Dr. Evans with the desks, barns, mantles – Dr. Evans has deduced the
Tasmanian Magic Project has revealed a direct involvement of cunning-folk35. Their
relationship between concealed objects in presence in Australia’s relatively short colonial
building foundations, and the presence of history is limited, but the almanac of William
tradespeople31. This includes carpenters, masons, Allison and the somewhat dubious dealings of
plasterers, and roof tilers. Similarly, apotropaic Benjamin Nokes are some known examples. Both
practices in stables, barns, and mills were also the publicans, Nokes ran the Albemarle Inn, popular
work of associated trades, particularly horsemen with former and current convicts, whilst dealing in
and blacksmiths. healing remedies as a self-proclaimed, but
unlicensed, ‘doctor’36. Allison had previously been
the overseer to Lieutenant Arthur Davies before
taking over the British Hotel in Hobart. His 1811
almanac, ‘Vox Stellarum’, or, ‘Voice of the Stars’,
documents his collection of recipes and
procedures from a cunning-man in Durham37,
prior to Allison’s arrival in the colonies.

Figure 8. Concealed shoes by carpenters, Hobart.

The practice of concealing shoes in buildings is

lacking in written record, despite their common
occurrence in both England and its former
colonies. A potential meaning behind their
concealment, proposed by historian June Swann,
may relate to sacrificial offering32. A highly
personal item, leather molds to the wearer’s foot
Figure 10. Almanac of William Allison, c.1811.
and can be indicative of age, occupation, and
gender. These factors may make shoes ideal for Concealed in a suburban Newcastle chimney, a
foundational rites. woman’s shoe from the early 1930s extends the
tradition into the 20th century. How many more
A single Tasmanian have been found and not understood? The
Devil skull was absence of these practices in the Australian
recovered from historical record implies that the use of magic was
Morningside, a secretive one. Concealed shoes and animals
Maquarie River: within building foundations. Their placement
having only the around entryways also suggests the continuation
skull concealed in a of Celtic and Roman traditions through the
subfloor space by Figure 9. Concealed Tasmanian Devil evolution of human sacrifice and foundation
an entrance to the skull. offerings. Investigation into the subject, in both
building strongly suggests its use its ritual magic, Australia and abroad, offers insight into the reality
whilst also being the first example of native fauna of early colonial life - a new window into life from
to be used in these practices33. The association the working class, and some of the ways colonists
with entryways and protective measures harkens sought to adapt to a new world.
back to the superstitions of King James I, his
1
Ian J. Evans, ‘Touching Magic: Deliberately Concealed Objects in Old Australian Houses and Buildings’, Ph.D. thesis (University of
Newcastle, 2010), 10.
2
Ralph Merrifield, The Archaeology of Ritual and Magic (London, B.T. Batsford Ltd, 1987), 49.
3
Ralph Merrifield, The Archaeology of Ritual and Magic (London, B.T. Batsford Ltd, 1987), 50-51.
4
Ralph Merrifield, The Archaeology of Ritual and Magic (London, B.T. Batsford Ltd, 1987), 23.
5
Champion, Matthew, ‘Magic on the Walls: Ritual Protection Marks in the Medieval Church’ in Ronald Hutton (ed.), Physical
Evidence for Ritual Acts, Sorcery and Witchcraft in Christian Britain (New York: Palgrave Macmillan 2015), 22.
6
Owen Davies, Cunning-Folk: Popular Magic in English History (London: Hambledon and London, 2003), VIII.
7
Bonzol, J., ‘The Death of the Fifth Earl of Derby: Cunning Folk and Medicine in Early Modern England’, Renaissance and
Reformation/Renaissance et Réforme, 33/4, (2010) 83.
8
Owen Davies, Cunning-Folk: Popular Magic in English History (London: Hambledon and London, 2003), 7.
9
Owen Davies, Cunning-Folk: Popular Magic in English History (London: Hambledon and London, 2003), 103.
10
Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1971), 179.
11
Bonzol, J., ‘The Death of the Fifth Earl of Derby: Cunning Folk and Medicine in Early Modern England’, Renaissance and
Reformation/Renaissance et Réforme, 33/4, (2010) 89.
12
Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1971), p. 9.
13
Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1971), p. 14.
14
Ralph Merrifield, The Archaeology of Ritual and Magic (London, B.T. Batsford Ltd, 1987), p. 161.
15
Bonzol, J., ‘The Death of the Fifth Earl of Derby: Cunning Folk and Medicine in Early Modern England’, Renaissance and
Reformation/Renaissance et Réforme, 33/4, (2010) 82.
16
Owen Davies, Cunning-Folk: Popular Magic in English History (London: Hambledon and London, 2003), 17.
17
Owen Davies, Cunning-Folk: Popular Magic in English History (London: Hambledon and London, 2003), 20.
18
Owen Davies, ‘Cunning-Folk in England and Wales during the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries’, Rural History, 8/1 (1997),
91-107.
19
Ian J. Evans, ‘Touching Magic: Deliberately Concealed Objects in Old Australian Houses and Buildings’, Ph.D thesis (University
of Newcastle, 2010), 19-20.
20
Maxwell-Stewart, Hamish, ‘Convicts’, in Alison Alexander (ed.), The Companion to Australian History (Hobart: Centre for
Tasmanian Historical Studies, 2005), 415.
21
Maxwell-Stewart, Hamish, ‘Convicts’, in Alison Alexander (ed.), The Companion to Australian History (Hobart: Centre for
Tasmanian Historical Studies, 2005), 498.
22
‘The Weather’, Tasmanian and Australian Advertiser, 10 Jul. 1838, 7, in Trove [online database], accessed 16 Sep. 2018.
23
‘The Influenza’, Port Phillip Gazette, 5 Jan. 1839, 3, in Trove [online database], accessed 16 Sep. 2018.
24
‘Van Dieman’s Land’, Port Phillip Gazette, 1 Dec. 1838, 4, in Trove [online database], accessed 16 Sep. 2018.
25
Ros Haynes, ‘Van Diemen’s Land’, in Alison Alexander (ed.), The Companion to Tasmanian History, (Hobart: Centre for
Tasmanian Historical Studies, 2005), 501.
26
D. J . Mulvaney, The Axe Had Never Sounded: Place, People and Heritage of Recherche Bay, Tasmania (Canberra: ANU E-Press,
2007), 93.
27
Ros Haynes, ‘Van Diemen’s Land’, in Alison Alexander (ed.), The Companion to Tasmanian History, (Hobart: Centre for
Tasmanian Historical Studies, 2005), 497.
28
Ian J. Evans, ‘Touching Magic: Deliberately Concealed Objects in Old Australian Houses and Buildings’, Ph.D thesis (University
of Newcastle, 2010), 16.
29
Tasmanian Magic Research Project, Report of the First Field Season: March 13-26 2017,
<https://www.academia.edu/34894136/Tasmanian_Magic_Project_Report_of_the_First_Field_Season>, 17, accessed 14 Oct.
2018.
30
Tasmanian Magic Research Project, Report of the First Field Season: March 13-26 2017,
<https://www.academia.edu/34894136/Tasmanian_Magic_Project_Report_of_the_First_Field_Season>, 20, accessed 14 Oct.
2018.
31
Tasmanian Magic Research Project, Report of the Second Field Season: January 6-27 2018,
<https://www.academia.edu/36996265/Tasmanian_Magic_Research_Project_Second_Field_Season>, 2, accessed 14 Oct. 2018.
32
June Swann, ‘Shoes Concealed in Buildings’, in Ronald Hutton (ed.), Physical Evidence for Ritual Acts, Sorcery and Witchcraft in
Christian Britain (New York: Palgrave Macmillan 2015) 128-129.
33
Tasmanian Magic Research Project, Report of the Second Field Season: January 6-27 2018,
<https://www.academia.edu/36996265/Tasmanian_Magic_Research_Project_Second_Field_Season>, 26, accessed 14 Oct.
2018.
34
I. J. Evans., ‘Seeking Ritual in Strange Places: Dead Cats, Old Shoes and Ragged Clothes’, Academia [online article], (2015),
<https://www.academia.edu/14950999/SEEKING_RITUAL_IN_STRANGE_PLACES_DEAD_
CATS_OLD_SHOES_AND_RAGGED_CLOTHING._DISCOVERING_CONCEALED_MAGIC_IN_THE_ANTIPODES>, 1, accessed 16 Sep.
2018.
35
Tasmanian Magic Research Project, Report of the Second Field Season: January 6-27 2018,
<https://www.academia.edu/36996265/Tasmanian_Magic_Research_Project_Second_Field_Season>, 3, accessed 14 Oct. 2018.
36
Tasmanian Magic Research Project, Report of the Second Field Season: January 6-27 2018,
<https://www.academia.edu/36996265/Tasmanian_Magic_Research_Project_Second_Field_Season>, 4, accessed 14 Oct. 2018.
37
Tasmanian Magic Research Project, Report of the Second Field Season: January 6-27 2018,
<https://www.academia.edu/36996265/Tasmanian_Magic_Research_Project_Second_Field_Season>, 4, accessed 14 Oct. 2018.

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 Figure 2. Tasmanian Magic Research Project, Report of the First Field Season: March 13-26 2017,
<https://www.academia.edu/34894136/Tasmanian_Magic_Project_Report_of_the_First_Field_Sea
son>, 24, accessed 14 Oct. 2018.

 Figure 3. Tasmanian Magic Research Project, Report of the First Field Season: March 13-26 2017,
<https://www.academia.edu/34894136/Tasmanian_Magic_Project_Report_of_the_First_Field_Sea
son>, 39, accessed 14 Oct. 2018.

 Figure 4. Ulrich Molitor, Witches brewing a spell in a cauldron, c.1508, in Bridgeman Images [online
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 Figure 5. Stannard, Jerry, ‘Medieval Herbalism and Post-Medieval Folk Medicine’, Pharmacy in
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 Figure 6. Bruce, Charles, ‘Hobart Town Chain Gang’, c. 1831, in Bridgeman Images [online database],
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 Figure 7. Tasmanian Magic Research Project, Report of the First Field Season: March 13-26 2017,
<https://www.academia.edu/34894136/Tasmanian_Magic_Project_Report_of_the_First_Field_Sea
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 Figure 8. Tasmanian Magic Research Project, Report of the First Field Season: March 13-26 2017,
<https://www.academia.edu/34894136/Tasmanian_Magic_Project_Report_of_the_First_Field_Sea
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 Figure 9. Tasmanian Magic Research Project, Report of the Second Field Season: January 6-27 2018,
<https://www.academia.edu/36996265/Tasmanian_Magic_Research_Project_Second_Field_Seaso
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 Figure 10. Libraries Tasmania: Online Collection, NS261-1-1, Almanac of William Allison (1811).
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England’, Renaissance and Reformation/Renaissance et Réforme, vol. 33, no. 4, pp. 73-100.

 Champion, Matthew, ‘Magic on the Walls: Ritual Protection Marks in the Medieval Church’ in Ronald
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 Davies, Owen, Cunning-Folk: Popular Magic in English History (London: Hambledon and London,
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 Merrifield, Ralph, The Archaeology of Ritual and Magic (London, B.T. Batsford Ltd, 1987).

 Mulvaney, D. J ., The Axe Had Never Sounded: Place, People and Heritage of Recherche Bay,
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 ‘The Influenza’, Port Phillip Gazette, 5 Jan. 1839, 3, in Trove [online database], accessed 16 Sep. 2018.

 ‘Van Dieman’s Land’, Port Phillip Gazette, 1 Dec. 1838, 4, in Trove [online database], accessed 16 Sep.
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 Swann, June, ‘Shoes Concealed in Buildings’, in Ronald Hutton (ed.), Physical Evidence for Ritual Acts,
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 ‘The Weather’, Tasmanian and Australian Advertiser, 10 Jul. 1838, 7, in Trove [online database],
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 Tasmanian Magic Research Project, Report of the First Field Season: March 13-26 2017,
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