#hew draper

[dailyunsolvedmysteries]

In 1561 an innkeeper called Hew Draper was imprisoned in the Tower of London for sorcery. Whilst incarcerated he made these carvings in the walls which displayed astrological symbols and numbers.

[ducissatenebrarum]

'Hew Draper of Brystow made this spheere the 30 day of Maye anno 1561' Bristol innkeeper Hew Draper was held in the Salt Tower in 1561, accused of sorcery, and while imprisoned carved this amazing astrological sphere in his cell wall  Sadly we don't know whether he survived.

[the-gay-cryptid]

One of the cooler things I saw at The Tower of London today was a couple of carvings in the salt tower by Hew Draper.

I was intrigued by the carvings because they sit amid simplistic or even crude carvings of names, prayers, and crosses (since quite a few people were thrown in for being catholic). 

Draper’s carvings, however, are super ornate, clean, and related to astronomy/the occult.

I did some research on him when I got back to our flat and there’s a strange lack of information on him. Here’s what I was able to learn:

He was a wealthy innkeeper, imprisoned on charges of sorcery (cool, right?). He was accused by a neighbor and the neighbor’s wife of using magic against them. Draper, interestingly, didn’t deny these claims in their entirety. Instead, he claimed that he had practiced magic, but that it had been years ago, never on a third party, and that he’d burned his books on the subject a long time ago. 

All that is weird, interesting, and just generally kinda cool. What makes this fun is the fact that we don’t actually know what happened to him. 

We know he was imprisoned, we know the time of his imprisonment he appeared to have been physically attacked. But that’s it. There’s no record of if he died, escaped, or was released. 

We Dont Know What Happened

[untamedtravellers]

Zodiac sphere and planetary grid created by Hew Draper of Bristol in the Tower of London while being accused of sorcery.