Matthew Hopkins (1620 - August 12, 1647) was an English witchhunter. He claimed to hold the office of Witchfinder General, although that title was never bestowed by Parliament. His witch-finding career began in March 1644 and lasted until his retirement in 1647.He is believed to have been responsible for the deaths of 300 women. He used sleep deprivation to extract confessions from his victims. He would also cut the arm of the accused with a blunt knife, and if she did not bleed, she was a witch. His most infamous method was the swimming test. Suspects were tied to a chair and thrown into water, and those who floated were witches. He also looked for the Devil's mark, a mark that all witches or sorcerers were supposed to possess that was dead to all feeling and would not bleed, usually a mole, birthmark or an extra nipple or breast. He died in 1647, probably of pleural tuberculosis, at the age of 27.