Britain's Witchcraft Act of 1735 repealed previous laws that treated witchcraft as real and punishable by death, instead making it a crime to claim magical powers or practice fortune-telling. This legislation reflected Enlightenment skepticism and marked the official end of witch hunts in British law.

The 1735 Act's transformation of witchcraft from supernatural crime to fraudulent pretense influenced literary depictions, encouraging more ironic or satirical treatments. Writers like Fielding and later Romantic poets explored the tension between official skepticism and persistent folk beliefs, using witchcraft themes to examine credulity, deception, and cultural memory.