That, and the evidence presented against him by his sister Jennet, who said that she had seen her brother asking a black dog he had conjured up to help him kill Townley, was sufficient to persuade the jury to find him guilty. She also firmly appears to have believed she came from a long line of powerful witches. Elizabeth Device - Demdikes daughter. sufficient breath to cool her own pottage. The most damning evidence given against her was that when she had been taken to see Lister's body, the corpse "bled fresh bloud presently, in the presence of all that were there present" after she touched it. flew by night over the field on mischief bent. His 1597 book Daemonologie was intended to convince people of the existence of witchcraft, but also to inspire the persecution of witches with new fervour. Potts was instructed to write his account by the trial judges, and had completed the work by 16 November 1612, when he submitted it for review. [62], Katherine Hewitt (a.k.a. On the edge of the Pennines, it was a stark, remote area of hills and moorland, dotted with farms and small towns dedicated to the wool trade. So happy you enjoyed the post! Only two years after his ascension, he very nearly lost his life when disgruntled Catholics, disappointed by continued legislation against their religion, tried to blow up the King and Parliament in what became known as The Gunpowder Plot. [36] Only one of the accused, Alice Grey, was found not guilty. Im so glad you found my post useful. All of the Samlesbury Witches were acquitted, as was Alice Grey. Ive ways thought that those for were actually witches or practised witchcraft would be able to escape before standing trial. Of those eleven, ten were hung the next day. History of the 'Old North' of Britain. His daughter fell ill and died within the year. [6] After a visit to Denmark, he had attended the trial in 1590 of the North Berwick witches, who were convicted of using witchcraft to send a storm against the ship that carried James and his wife Anne back to Scotland. One was tried at York Assizes on 27 July 1612, and another died in prison. Living on the periphery of the community, this family made for an easy target during the Witch Hunt hysteria of the early 17th century. [97] In August, a world record for the largest group dressed as witches was set by 482 people who walked up Pendle Hill, on which the date "1612" had been installed in 400-foot-tall numbers by artist Philippe Handford using horticultural fleece. Thomas Baines. Thanks for sharing this, Thank you so much Danelle for your lovely comment! Pendle witches Lancashire witches (act. Some of them appear to have genuinely believed in their own guilt, and probably did indeed consider themselves to be witches, in the sense of being village healers who practised magic, probably in return for payment (such men and women were common in 16th and 17th Century rural England, and an accepted part of village life). But this didnt stop the supposed witches from pointing the finger to accuse each other of many different crimes by witchcraft, including murders that had happened years before (such as the murder of John Device, Alisons father), cursing innocent villagers, making clay models (like voodoo dolls) and even having marks on their bodies from the devil. xxx. Many of the Nutter family were Catholics, and two had been executed as Jesuit priests, John Nutter in 1584 and his brother Robert in 1600. Alice Nutter was hanged along with 9 others (including the Devices) at Gallows Hill, Lancaster on 20 August 1612. Youll find out later). Now I find myself googling the pendle witch trials on a Saturday night and came across your blog. The Act provided that anyone who should "use, practise, or exercise any Witchcraft, Enchantment, Charm, or Sorcery, whereby any person shall happen to be killed or destroyed", was guilty of a felony without benefit of clergy, and was to be put to death. Of the eleven individuals who went to trial (nine women and two men) ten were found guilty and executed by hanging, and only one (Alice Gray) was found not guilty. Despite the abbey's closure, and the execution of its abbot, the people of Pendle remained largely faithful to their Roman Catholic beliefs and were quick to revert to Catholicism on Queen Mary's accession to the throne in 1553. These women were casually referred to as witches, as they were the accepted village healers, dealing with herbs and medicines. The trials of the Pendle witches in 1612 are among the most famous witch trials in English history, and some of the best recorded of the 17th century. The twelve accused lived in the area surrounding Pendle Hill in Lancashire, and were charged with the murders of ten people by the use of witchcraft. [61] Alice may have called in on the meeting at Malkin Tower on her way to a secret (and illegal) Good Friday Catholic service, and refused to speak for fear of incriminating her fellow Catholics. [68], Almost everything that is known about the trials comes from a report of the proceedings written by Thomas Potts, the clerk to the Lancaster Assizes. Margaret Crooke, another witness seen by Nowell that day, claimed that her brother had fallen sick and died after having had a disagreement with Redferne, and that he had frequently blamed her for his illness. Here, they were hanged. It (and Agnes's surname) come from the names of Pendle witches", "Good Omens: How Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman's friendship inspired their comic masterpiece", "The Familiars review: Trials and tribulations in a bewitching debut novel", "New statue gives Pendle 'witch' the respect she deserves", "Pendle hosts record-breaking gathering of witches", "Pendle Witch Trials hillside artwork: Bishop of Burnley speaks out", "Blake Morrison: under the witches' spell", Witchcraft and divination in the Old Testament, A Dialogue Concerning Witches and Witchcrafts, Treatises on the Apparitions of Spirits and on Vampires or Revenants, Ss John Fisher and Thomas More RC High School, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Pendle_witches&oldid=1152766202, Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 4.0, This page was last edited on 2 May 2023, at 05:32. The official publication of the proceedings by the clerk to the court, Thomas Potts, in his The Wonderfull Discoverie of Witches in the Countie of Lancaster, and the number of witches hanged together nine at Lancaster and one at York make the trials unusual for England at that time. After the news of the arrests reached the Demdike family, a meeting was organised at the Demdikes family home, Malkin Tower. Until its dissolution, the spiritual needs of the people of Pendle and surrounding districts had been served by nearby Whalley Abbey, but its closure in 1537 left a moral vacuum. I live reading about stuff like this. [citation needed]. Of these 12 people, 9 were sentenced to death after being found guilty of performing witchcraft. Including an eerie photo and some chilling EVPs. [57] Anne Redferne was found guilty. It would appear as though Alison Device believed herself to be a witch. Alice Grey, another of the accused, was found not guilty. These two families were headed by two elderly widows called Elizabeth Southerns, known as Old Demdike and Anne Whittle, known as Chattox. She claimed she was present at the witches meeting and accused Alice of participating in the coven. Jennet Device also picked Katherine out of a line-up, and confirmed her attendance at the Malkin Tower meeting. I still can believe it. Witchcraft was a primary concern of his. and Thomas Potts, the clerk of the court, was directed by the judges of assize, [5][6], In 2012 a statue of Nutter was unveiled in Roughlee by local celebrity Bobby Elliott. The writer and poet Blake Morrison treated the subject in his suite of poems Pendle Witches, published in 1996. [37] Jennet was charged with the murder by witchcraft of a local landowner, Thomas Lister of Westby Hall,[38] to which she pleaded not guilty. a vast place, fit for her profession: What she committed in her time, no man knows. By the early 1590s he had become convinced that he was being plotted against by Scottish witches. Margaret was found guilty of witchcraft but was not sentenced to death. I have performed a number of paranormal investigations on Pendle Hill (the area where the Pendle Witches lived). Nine-year-old Jennet Device was a key witness for the prosecution (giving evidence against members of her own family), something that would not have been permitted in many other 17th Century criminal trials, but King James had made a case for suspending the normal rules of evidence for witchcraft trials in his Daemonologie. A peculiar individual, or family, who dont quite adhere to the social conventions of the time. These were: The Samlesbury Witches Another group accused of witchcraft, this time from Samlesbury. [69], Although written as an apparently verbatim account, The Wonderfull Discoverie is not a report of what was actually said at the trial but is instead reflecting what happened. They were sentenced to death and were walked across the city of Lancaster from Lancaster Castle - where they were imprisoned - to the moors above the city. However as one died in custody and one was tried in York, only ten made it to the trial in the Lancaster Assizes. Alison believed that she was the cause of the affliction. Les procs des sorcires de Pendle en 1612 font partie des procs de sorcires les plus clbres de l' histoire anglaise, et sont parmi les mieux documents du . The most infamous witch trials in England took place in Pendle Lancashire. Set against the Pendle Witch Trials of 1612, this rich and compelling novel draws its characters from historical figures as it explores the lives and rights of seventeenth-century women, ultimately raising the question: Is witch . The meal was handed over annually until the year before John's death; on his deathbed John claimed that his sickness had been caused by Chattox because they had not paid for protection. The hamlet contains the Nutter family grave where Alice may have been secretly interned. Of the eleven who went to trial nine women and two men ten were found guilty and executed by hanging; one was found not guilty. [60], Alice Nutter was unusual among the accused in being comparatively wealthy, the widow of a tenant yeoman farmer. Gaiman confirmed the homage in a 2016 tweet. Accused of witchcraft. Her brother, James, stated that his sister had also confessed to bewitching a local child. An in-depth and complete evaluation of Magic & Healing Crystals, Metals, and Gemstones, Witchcraft Across the World Near and Middle East, The Witch Trials Pendle Witch Trials (England, 1612 1634). Both Demdike and Chattox were by then blind and in their eighties, and both provided Nowell with damaging confessions. [83], In modern times the witches have become the inspiration for Pendle's tourism and heritage industries, with local shops selling a variety of witch-motif gifts. The young girl was from the Deane village surrounding the Pendle Hill: Roughlee. James Devices confessed to attending this meeting and identified those who attended. It had resisted the dissolution of its local Abbey at Whalley, which provided work and support for many people in the area and eagerly returned to Rome on the ascension of Mary I. [16] Seventeenth-century metal pins were handmade and relatively expensive, but they were frequently needed for magical purposes, such as in healing particularly for treating warts divination, and for love magic, which may have been why Alizon was so keen to get hold of them and why Law was so reluctant to sell them to her. In her witchcraft, always more ready to do mischief to mens goods, than themselves. Did the ship founder at sea? -Devon Allen Preston lived across the border in Yorkshire, so she was sent for trial at York Assizes; the others were sent to Lancaster Gaol, to join the four already imprisoned there. [87][88] Ten years later another petition was organised in an attempt to obtain pardons for Chattox and Demdike. [67] She was found guilty. I will head over to Facebook to find the group you refer to. Whether Alison had begged for the pins or had offered to buy them is not clear. [14] The event that seems to have triggered Nowell's investigation, culminating in the Pendle witch trials, occurred on 21 March 1612. Anne Whittle (Chattox) was an old enemy of Demdike. For the next three centuries, the people of England held witch trials to try to rid their towns and villages of people they felt were working for the devil. In 1982, one of the members of the music group Chumbawamba changed her name to Alice Nutter by deed poll, feeling "an affinity" to the historical figure. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. Twelve women were accused of witchcraft, and while one died, eleven went to trial. The following people were all friends of the Demdike family who were accused of witchcraft after attending a meeting at Demdikes home, Malkin Tower. At the assizes at Lancaster in the autumn of 1612, twenty persons, of whom sixteen were women of various ages, were committed for trial, and most of them tried for witchcraft. Alisons mother, Elizabeth Device and her brother, James were later summoned. This book stipulated that it was the duty of every loyal subject of the monarch to denounce witchcraft wherever they might find it. This nest included members of two local families and an eclectic selection of their neighbors and associates. The heaviest evidence against the accused witches came from 9 year old Jennet Device, Elizabeth Devices youngest child. It was believed Demdike had trained her daughter and grandchildren in the art of witchcraft. [99], Publications in 2012 inspired by the trials include two novellas, The Daylight Gate by Jeanette Winterson and Malkin Child by Livi Michael. Some of the witches implicated themselves in crimes over several decades, including illness, misfortune, and murders by magic. She was undoubtedly put under an enormous amount of pressure to do so. [18] According to the 1613 tract "Potts Discovery of Witches", the Devil appeared in the likeness of a black or brown dog with fiery eyes; which Jennet Device later claimed was a spirit familiar of her grandmother named Ball; which spoke twice in English offering to lame him. Apparently, her neighbours had long been believed her to have been a witch (for some 50 years!) Stacey spells her Grey as Gray as she cannot tie the former tried in 1912 to the other gentry characters in her wonderful exciting work of fiction. Anyway thank you for sharing it Demdike[a]), her daughter Elizabeth Device, and her grandchildren James and Alizon Device; Anne Whittle (a.k.a. Scooping the Poop in the Augean Stables, Who Tried To Assassinate Queen Victoria? Not only was it well documented in a publication titled The Wonderfull Discoverie of Witches in the Countie of Lancaster, it was also the first example of the witness testimony of a child accepted in a trial. [12], One of the accused, Demdike, had been regarded in the area as a witch for fifty years, and some of the deaths the witches were accused of had happened many years before Roger Nowell started to take an interest in 1612. [79] The charge against her was the murder of Isabel Nutter, William Nutter's wife. [30], Friends and others sympathetic to the family attended, and when word of it reached Roger Nowell, he decided to investigate. This precedent on the use of child witnesses was later used in America, leading to the hysteria in Salem. [17] Whether she meant to buy them, as she claimed, and Law refused to undo his pack for such a small transaction, or whether she had no money and was begging for them, as Law's son Abraham claimed, is unclear. [58], Jane Bulcock and her son John Bulcock, both from Newchurch in Pendle, were accused and found guilty of the murder by witchcraft of Jennet Deane. instructed her grand-children, and took great care and pains to bring them up to be In the summer of 1612, 12 people from Pendle in Lancashire were accused of witchcraft and imprisoned at Lancaster Castle. [26], On 2 April 1612, Demdike, Chattox, and Chattox's daughter Anne Redferne, were summoned to appear before Nowell. Nowell summoned Alison for questioning. Lancashire, where the trial was held, was always seen as a lawless area by those in the South, as the people retained Catholic values (they reverted to Catholicism on the return of Queen Mary Tudor). Uneducated people who were driven by religion wanted to see the power of the devil behind those crimes. They were not therefore executed, and remained incarcerated in Lancaster Gaol, where it is likely they died. These were Alice Nutter, Katherine Hewitt, John and Jane Bulcock, Elizabeth and James Device, Alice Gray, and Jennet Preston. The others hanged were Anne Whittle ("Old Chattox"), Ann Redfearn, Elizabeth Device ("Squinting Lizzie"), Alison Device, James Device, Katherine Hewitt, Jane Bulcock, John Bulcock and Isobel Robey. She had also turned milk into butter without touching it. in their examinations, may appear. In total, 9 of the 12 people who were arrested were found guilty of witchcraft at Lancaster Castle: Elizabeth Device, Alison Device, James Device, Chattox, Anne Redfern, Jane Bulcock, John Bulcock, Katherine Hewitt, and Alice Nutter. The incident began when Alison Device publicly cursed a travelling man after he refused to sell her some pins. Unlike many accused of witchcraft, Alice was a member of a wealthy family who owned land in Pendle.[1]. The trial lasted three days in August of 1612, with 9 year-old Jennet Device being the key witness. Of the eleven who survived to go to trial, all were found guilty. Bromley revised and corrected the manuscript before its publication in 1613, declaring it to be "truly reported" and "fit and worthie to be published". On Good Friday in 1612, when Protestants would have been in church taking communion, a group met at Malkin Tower. but no man knew what. Jennet was not accused of witchcraft and in fact gave evidence against her own family members in their trial. in the County of Lancaster, 1613 Pins were rather expensive and often used, or believed to have been used in magical spells. or her furies, that ever gave them any occasion of offence, Perhaps the most intriguing Alice was Alice or Alison Device. One day as Alison Device travelled through Trawden Forest, she encountered a peddler named John Law. Nutter protested her innocence[2] although others pleaded guilty. I havent come across this book Ill have to read it myself! The book is about the events, but Winterson is keen to point out that her character is not the Alice Nutter of history. [60] Alice Nutter was found guilty. The saga of the Pendle Witches began on March 18, 1612, when a peddler had an unsettling encounter with a local woman. Since the band's breakup, one of her writing projects is a play based on the same Pendle Witch Trials. Six of the Pendle witches came from one of two families, each at the time headed by a woman in her eighties: Elizabeth Southerns (a.k.a. According to Laws son, Abraham, Alison came to visit his father confessing to placing a spell on his father and to ask for his forgiveness. Chattox broke down and admitted her guilt, calling on God for forgiveness and the judges to be merciful to her daughter, Anne Redferne. But we must understand these trials against the backdrop of early 17th century England. Thus lived she securely for many years, brought up her own children, Unusually for England at that time, the trial proceedings were officially published by the clerk to the court, Thomas Potts, in his The Wonderfull Discoverie of Witches in the Countie of Lancaster. Both were headed by elderly widows living in poverty: Elizabeth Southerns, known as Old Demdike, and Anne Whittle, better known as Mother Chattox. Jennet Preston originally from Yorkshire (why does this matter? In the summer of 1612, 12 people from Pendle in Lancashire were accused of witchcraft and imprisoned at Lancaster Castle. and other documents connected with the trial, [66], Alizon Device, whose encounter with John Law had triggered the events leading up to the trials, was charged with causing harm by witchcraft. Roger Nowell, the local Justice of the Peace, was required in 1612 to compile a list of recusants in the area (those who refused to attend the English Church and to take communion, which was then a criminal offence) and, at the same time, a claim was brought by a Halifax peddler named John Law against Alizon Device of Pendle, accusing her of causing a stroke by witchcraft.