Katarzyna Paprocka

Katarzyna Paprocka (born in Chełmno, died in 1638 in Bydgoszcz) was a Polish victim of a conspiracy based upon accusations of witchcraft.

Witch trial
Paprocka was a wife of fisherman called Daniel Nasalski and she was living in Rybacy in Chełmno. After becoming a widow, she married a tailor named Adam Zawarciński from the city of Bygdoszcz. The married couple gathered sizable wealth, but soon after Zawarciński got ill and died. After that, Katarzyna got a marriage proposal from a friend of family, tailor Adam Paprocki, with whom she got married yet again. This was heatedly opposed by both the family of Paprocki and the family of his dead wife.

Katarzyna Paprocka then sold a house she built together with Zawerciński to a master tailor Tomasz Koles, who was to repay her in a few instalments. When Paprocka tried to regain her money, Koles was withdrawing the payment. He then decided to accuse her of being a witchcraft. The death of Popracka would liberate him from the necessity of paying for the home he bought from her, and at the same time, he would get ride of a rich competitor.

Tomasz Koles together with Joachim Byszewski burried at the treshold of the home a pot with earth and cow's bones. In the citi's tawern they talked with people about their plan to get rid of Paprocka.

On 15 March 1638 Koles accused Paprocka of witchcraft - because of her magic she was supposed to kill her second husband and force Paprocki to marry her. A proof was an "accidentally" found pot with bones. The judge at the trial was mayor Wojciech Łochowski, and the public prosecutor was Joachim Byszewski, an accomplice of Tomasz Koles.

A neighbor of Katarzyna Paprocka, Jadwiga Pędziwiatrowa, was witnessing against her, alongside the family of Paprocki, members of tailors guild, and even members of the court and a wife of public prosecutor and conspirator, Regina Byszewska. Adam Paprocti was witnessing in support of the woman. Her legal defender presented witnesses, who heard Koles, who was bragging in a tavern about his willigness to prepare "evidence" against Katarzyna Paprocka. The defender also undermined the truthfulness of the witnesses presented by the prosucotor and presented a positive opinion about Katarzyna Paprocka, written by the city council of Chełmno.

Still, the court has made a decision about arresting Katarzyna Paprocka and [torture| torturing] her. Her defender demanded an appeal from the court and starosta Jerzy Ossoliński from Tęczyn, which suspended the court prodecings until 16 July. However, soon the city council of Chełmno cancelled their poitive opinion about Katarzyna Paprocka, because on of the women from Chełmno, accused of being a witch, said during tortures that Paprocka was attending sabbaths on Bald Mountain (pol. Lysa Góra). The appeal was lost, and Paprocka, who claimed to be innocent, was tortured for the first time on 31 July. She was tortured by burning her body, breaking bones from her joints and crushing her feet. Paprocka started to give evidence about her magical practices, but she claimed to not kill Adam Zawarciński. She claimed to have loved her husband and wanting to bring him back to health. The next series of tortures was planned to occur on 16 September, but it was not conducted because of the poor health of the woman.

The legal documents of Paprocka were sent in 1640 to Warsaw (possibly to the Assessor's Court), but it was already too late - Katarzyna Paprocka apparently died in a jail before the verdict. According to Małgorzata Pulaszek, the case of Paprocka is one of the 2 known cases in Poland in which there was an appleal during a withc trial where the city court ruling could be overcome with a verdict of a noble court. The protocol from the case describes in detail the actions of the court and legal arguments of both sides. The accused, with help of her legal representative and her husband, protested the truthfulness of witnesses (for example, Pędziwiatrowa was a well-known drunk) and demanded an appeal, claiming the libel, that the evidence of her guild were fabricated, and the court is not objective (the judge was also a witness of the prosecutor).

Other witch trials in Bygdoszcz
The courts over witches were also held in Bygdoszcz in 1630, 1657-1658, 1668 and 1669-1670. In the first case 2 women were accused, a mother and a daughter - the verdict is unknown. It is known, however, that the mothr was tortured, during which she admitted to having contacts with the devil. In the second trial, accused was a wife of a local baker (she died in jail), and in 1668 a wife of a Bygdoszcz surgeon called Jakub Milde. In the next year, accused of casting spells was a baker called Jan Biały. According to the court, he was to add to his bread pieces of human bones. The accusation was shown to be untrue - in 1670 the court sentenced the author of the libel, a baked Jan Frowerek, and he had to pay the fine.

In literature
The story of Katarzyna Paprocka was shown in a literary form in a book Czarownice z Pomorza i Kujaw (pol. Witches from Pomerania and Kujawy) Anna Koprowska-Głowacka. According to the short story, the first husband of the woman was Daniel Nosowski, and the court documents, which were transported to Warsaw, caused a great strife. No proof of guilt of Katarzyna Paprocka was found in there.