Pendle Hill witches
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Random blog day boo yah. As you should know Fridays is random blog day were we talk anything and everything and pretty much run with it. Today's blog is on The Pendle Witches.
The 1612 Pendle witch trials are amongst the most famous witch trials in English history and are some of the best recorded coming from the 17th century. The twelve accused witches lived in the area of Pendle Hill in Lancashire and were charged not only with witchcraft but with the murder of ten people. One accused died in prison, ten were tried with the Samlesbury witches on the 18th and 19th of August 1612 and the twelfth was tried in York on July 27th 1612. of the 11 who went to trial ten were executed by hanging, one was found not guilty.
Pendle Hill is in Lancashire, a county in the north of England. At the end of the 16th century, it was regarded by authorities as a wild and lawless region, an area “Fabled for its theft violence and sexual laxity, where the church was honoured without much understanding of its doctrines by the common people” The People of Lancashire remained faithful to the Roman catholic faith, when on King Henry the 8th's orders The Cistern abbey at Whalley was dissolved. When Mary the 1st, Henry the 8th's daughter came to the throne in 1553, many were happy to revert to Catholicism. When Elizabeth the 1st came to the throne in 1558, Protestantism once again became the countries main religion and catholic priests once again went into hiding. Within four years Elizabeth passed the 1562 Witchcraft act, which demand the death penalty if you used witchcraft for murder and lesser offences were punishable by jail time.
James the 1st of England and 6th of Scotland ascended the English throne in 1603. James was heavily influenced by the Scottish Separation of church and state during the Scottish reformation. James was intensely interested in Protestant theology with much of his curiosity on the theology of Witchcraft. By the 1590 he attended a witch trial in Scotland after being convinced Scottish witches were plotting against him, having been convicted of sending a storm to kill both James and his new wife Anne when sailing back from Denmark. By 1597, James had written Daemonologie, a book which instructed all who read it that they must denounce and prosecute any supporters and practitioners of Witchcraft. Within a year of becoming king of England, James passed a law allowing the death penalty for anyone found guilty of doing harm by witchcraft. Luckily James did have a sceptical side when it came to evidence of magic, so much to the extent of personally exposing discrepancies in presented testimonies against some accused witches.
In 1612 during a requested compilation of Recusants in the Lancashire area (Those who refused to go to church and take communion - a criminal offence at the time), Roger Nowell of Read Hall, the JP (Justice of the Peace) of the time had been made aware of a complaint by the family of John Law a pedlar that, John Law had been harmed via Witchcraft by local individuals. However due to the rural area, many village healers practised “Magic” in exchange for payment and was generally accepted in 16th century England. One of the accused, Elizabeth Southern's also known as Demdike had been considered a witch in the area for near fifty years, with several deaths the witches were accused of taking place witch the years before Roger Nowell took interest. The Pedlars report triggered Norwells investigation and the subsequent trials one of which occuring on March 21st 1612.
On her Travels Alizon Device crossed paths with John Law, a peddler from Halifax begged for some pins. 17th century pins were expensive due to being handmade. pins were frequently used for magical purposes which is why Alizon begged for them and why Law was reluctant to give them to Alizon. Wither or not she was willing to pay as Alizon claimed, Law would not agree to the transaction and made to leave, causing Alizon to curse him. After a few minutes after the encounter, Alizon saw Law stumble and fall, apparently lame. When Laws son Abraham brought her to his father a few days later Alizon supposedly confessed to being a witch and asked for forgiveness. On March 30th, Alizon along with her mother and brother Elizabeth and John Device were summoned before Nowell. After said meeting Alizon, where she once again confessed to witchcraft, was arrested and sent to Lancaster Gaol.
On April 2nd 1612, Demdike, Chattox and Anne Redferne – Chattox's daughter were summoned to meet with Nowell, due to allegations Alizon made. Both Demdike and Chattox who were blind and well into their eighties, provided Nowell with damaging confessions although Anne made no confession, Despite Demdike stating she'd seen Anne make clay figures. Another witness seen by Nowell that day, Margaret Crooke claimed her brother had fallen sick and died, after having a disagreement with Redferne and he frequently blamed her for his illness. Based on the information and confessions obtained, Nowell had Demdike, Chattock and Anne Redferne arrested and join Alizon Device in Lancaster Gaol, to be tried for Maleficium (Causing harm by witchcraft) at the next Assizes.
The committal and subsequent trial of the original four women would have been the end of the matter if Elizabeth Device hadn't arranged a meting at Malkin Tower for the 10th of April 1612, Good Friday. Elizabeth's son stole a neighbour's sheep to feed the crowd sympathetic enough to the family to attend. When word got to Roger Nowell he investigated alongside magistrate Nicholas Bannister to determine what the meeting was about on April 27th, as a result 8 people were accused of witchcraft and committed to trial. The people were Elizabeth and John Device, Alice Nutter, Katherine Hewitt John and Jane Bullcock, Alice Grey and Jennet Preston. Preston lived across the county boarder in Yorkshire as such she ended up being sent to the York Assizes for trial, everyone else joined the original four in Lancaster Gaol. At the trial, the star witness was Jennet Device, the youngest daughter of Elizabeth. Her testimony condemned both families and those who joined at the Good Friday celebration resulting in their convictions.
It's been estimated that all the English witch trials between the early 15th and early 18th centuries resulted in no more than 500 executions, with the Pendle witch trials in July and August of 1612 accounting for more than 2% of that total. Court records show that Lancashire was unusual in the North of England for its frequency of having witch trials, though even the neighbouring Cheshire county suffered similar economic problems and religious activism. But there were only 47 indictments for causing harm via witchcraft between 1589 and 1675, only 11 of whom were found guilty. Whilst Pendle was part of the parish of Whalley, It was too large a space for people to be effectively listening to the preaching and teaching of the doctrines of the church of England. Many of the accusations made in the Pendle witch trials resulted from the families of Chattox and Demdike alike. The situation was once described as “A trial in which one family destroyed the other then turned suicidally on itself, with children betraying siblings and parents” by one Historian. Demdike and her family lived neat Newchurch in Pendle with the Chattox family living two miles away near the village of Fence.
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