The Witches of Pendle
The
story of the witches of Pendle begins with a feud between two families, both
headed by old women with a notorious reputation for witchcraft:
Old Demdike (Elizabeth
Sowthern)
I
Elizabeth Device
I
--------------------------------------------------
I I
I
Alizon Device
James
Jennet
Old Chattox (Anne Whittle)
I
-------------------------------------
I I
Elizabeth Whittle
Anne Redfern
In early 1612, Elizabeth Whittle steals from the house of Demdike
and is arrested.
*1. She accuses Alizon Device of witchcraft.
Alizon herself now curses the pedlar John Law, who suffers a
stroke, and she is interrogated by local Justice of the Peace Roger Nowell as a
possible witch.
*2. Nowell now accuses Alizon and her family of witchcraft. By
April, he has launched a full-scale investigation.
*3. Under further interrogation, Demdike confesses to being a
witch with a familiar, and implies that she had been guilty of the death of the
child of Richard Baldwyn.
*4. Chattox tries to get out of trouble by accusing Demdike of
witchcraft, and of murdering Robert Nutter. Later, Ann Redfern would be charged
with killing Christopher Nutter
At the start of April, the magistrate jails Alizon, Demdike and
Chattox, together with Ann Redfern
On Good Friday (April 10) 1612, the two rival clans held a feast
at Malking Tower to try and find a solution, possibly involving breaking their
relations out of jail. They are assisted by Yorkshire witch Jennet Preston.
This makes the crimes seem all the more serious, as there is now an apparent
element of conspiracy and even a "witch's sabbat". Nowell now strikes
again and seizes several of the participants, including the remaining members
of the Device family. Nowell interrogates them, together with fellow magistrate
Nicholas Bannister.
*5. Elizabeth Device confesses to killing three people by
witchcraft and the use of clay images. Her squint is taken as a witch's mark.
Demdike now dies in prison. (At the same time, incidentally,
Lancaster Castle is holding the alleged participants in the Salmesbury
witchcraft plot).
The witches are tried at the 1612 Summer Assizes in Lancaster,
under Sir Edward Bromley. The main evidence is the "confessions and mutual
denunciations" of the last few months. Crucial to the prosecution is the
evidence of nine-year old Jennet against her whole device family. James,
Elizabeth and Jennet Device are responsible for implicating others. In the end,
the following were executed:
James Device Alizon
Device Elizabeth
Device
Jennet Preston Isabel
Robey Katherine
Hewit
John and Jane Bulcock Old
Chattox Anne
Redfern
Alice Nutter - wife of Christopher Nutter and mother of Robert
Most of the sentences were carried out on the single day of August
20, 1612. (Jennet Device lived on to suffer as a witch in the second great
Lancashire trials of 1634)
In summary, please note several points here:
1. Witchcraft charges often arose from among the common people
themselves, and were not simply imposed by the elite.
2. Some people really did believe that they themselves might have
the powers of witches, whether they wanted them or not
3. But a few highly active justices and administrators could
transform a handful of rash charges into a major prosecution. Roger Nowell is
key to the whole affair
4. Charges often arise as a kind of plea bargaining, as accused
individuals offer to throw blame onto some other person for the far more
serious crime of witchcraft. However, the more charges are thrown around, the
more the atmosphere of panic grows.
5. As this is England, note that the Church appears to play little
or no part in the whole process. These are secular trials for secular crimes.
6. With the possible exception of the Good Friday meeting, there
is no hint here of "ritual" witchcraft. Everyone involved is accused
of causing murder or physical harm by supernatural means
7. Ultimately, the convictions hinge on the courtroom testimony of
a child, two senile women and a mentally defective laborer. But this is enough
to cause the deaths of ten people.
8. It may be that the charges against Alice Nutter reflect a
cynical attempt to steal the property of this woman, the only one of the group
to be a person of wealth and social status.
1542 -first attempt
to pass a Witchcraft Act
1563 -Elizabethan
Witchcraft Act
1566 -first known
prosecution, in Essex
1582 -St. Osyth case
in Essex
1584 -Reginald Scot, Discovery
of Witchcraft
1604 -new witchcraft
Act reinforces that of 1563
1612 - great Lancashire trials
1645ff -Matthew
Hopkins campaign in eastern England
1645 -19 executed at Chelmsford trials; great trials at Bury St Edmunds. Parliamentary Commission forbids swimming test
1649-1650 - Newcastle witch-hunters.
1665 - Bury St Edmunds cases under Sir Matthew Hale
Somerset
witch trials at Wincanton and Brewham
1681 -Joseph
Glanvill, Sadducismus Triumphatus
1692 - Salem witch trials in Massachusetts Bay colony
1736 -repeal of the
Witchcraft Act
1951 -final repeal of
vestiges of Witchcraft Act