The Pendle Witches

"Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.” King James Bible, Exodus 22:18

Recently, on a rare non-rainy day in Lancashire, here in the north of England, we did a 6-mile walk called, “The Pendle Witches Loop.”

The Pendle Witch trials of 1612 are notorious in English history, as infamous as the Salem Witch trials in America 80 years later. The 12 who were accused, 10 women and 2 men, lived in the area surrounding Pendle Hill, a 45-min drive from where I live. Mostly from relatively feral and impoverished backgrounds they were accused of maleficium – malevolent sorcery causing harm, including murder, by witchcraft. Ten were found guilty of murder by witchcraft and hanged.

^ Along the walk; Pendle Hill in the distance

It was an unusual trial in that it was documented in an official publication, The Wonderfull Discoverie of Witches in the Countie of Lancaster, by the clerk of the court, Thomas Potts. (Wonderful?)

Lancashire was regarded as a wild and lawless place 400 years ago, and superstition was part of everyday life. The devil and his agents were real, and a constant danger. Charms and incantations for both protection and harm were bought and sold. Self-described witches were village healers who practiced herbology and magic. Though marginalized outcasts, witches were often sought out to cure ailments as well as to exact revenge.

In England, at that time, paranoia was rampant. James l, who commissioned the King James Bible, was on the throne. The king had a reputation as an avid witch-hunter and wrote a book called Daemonologie. (Demonology)

“Add in the ingredients of ignorant prejudice against the few who are manifestly different from the majority, with a generous dose of religious fear and bigotry, and your cauldron of malice is bubbling away nicely.” - from A Bit About Britain, 2023

🔼Witches commemorated in sculpture along the walk

Here are the weirdly fascinating and definitely biased stories of the 12 accused, taken from the record of the court’s clerk:

1. Elizabeth Sowthernes, known as Old Demdike, possibly meaning “demon woman,” the matriarch of her family, was 80 years old and blind as a bat. She was described, none too objectively by the court clerk as, “a rankest hag that ever troubled daylight.” A self-confessed witch, known locally as such for 50 years, she admitted to selling her soul to the devil. Sequestered in the dungeon of Lancaster Castle (a medieval fortress) awaiting trial, she died there in horribly unsanitary, dark and overcrowded conditions.

   Entrance to HM Prison, Lancaster Castle 🔽

   

   2. Elizabeth Device, known as “Squinting Lizzie” was Demdike’s daughter and was disfigured with one eye lower than the other, pointing up, and the other pointing down. She was described in Discoverie of Witches as “a barbarous and inhuman monster.” She was said to have been ignorant, unstable, unlovable and subject to fits. (My heart kind of goes out to her.) HANGED

2. Alizon Device, 18, daughter of Squinting Lizzie, granddaughter of Demdike, was a beggar who claimed that “a thing like unto a black dog” appeared to her, spoke to her, asked for her soul and sucked at her breast. She confessed to cursing a peddler who suffered the symptoms of a stroke soon thereafter. HANGED

3. James Device, 14, sister to Alizon, was reputed to have been “mentally retarded,” simple or not very bright. He was also known as a beggar and a thief. (How else was he supposed to eat?) The court report said he “comes across as nasty, generally useless.” Confessed to 2 murders. HANGED

4. Anne Whittle, alias Mother Chattox because of her habit of constantly muttering to herself, was also in her eighties and blind. She and Demdike were probably rivals and competed for business. Described by the clerk as “a very withered, spent and decrepit creature,” she confessed, likely under torture, that the devil had come to her, commanded her to call him “Fancy,” and she sold her soul to him. HANGED

5. Anne Redferne, Chattox’s daughter, did not confess to witchcraft but had been seen making clay figures, which were thought to be used for evil sorcery. HANGED

6. Katherine Hewitt, 92, also known as Mould Heels, was accused of murdering a child and was sentenced to death based solely on the testimony of the developmentally challenged lad, James. HANGED

7. Jane Bulcock, 72, daughter of Mould Heels, was found guilty of murder by witchcraft by virtue of being in the wrong place at the wrong time; a gathering of witches and neighbors on the night of Good Friday. HANGED

8. John Bulcock, 40, son of Jane, was also found guilty based on his presence at the Good Friday gathering. HANGED

9. Alice Nutter, around 50, was different from the others in that she was from a wealthy and noble family who owned land in Pendle. Accused of being present at the Good Friday gathering, which was deemed a witch’s coven, and also of causing a villager’s death, Alice, a widow, protested her innocence. HANGED

   In 2012, the 400th anniversary of her death, a statute of Alice (opening photo also) was erected in her home town of Roughlee, one of the pretty little villages we walked through, to commemorate the victims of the 1612 Pendle Witch trials. 🔽

   

   11.Jenet Preston, 40-something, was also at the Good Friday gathering and was accused of murdering her previous employer “through wicked and devilish arts.” HANGED

   12.Alice Grey was also accused of being at the Good Friday gathering but was acquitted.

Jenet Device, 9 years old, the daughter of Squinting Lizzie and sister to Alizon and James, was the star witness at the trials. Standing on a table in court she gave her testimony:

“My mother is a witch and that I know to be true. I have seen her spirit in the likeness of a brown dog, which she called Ball. The dog did ask what she would have him do and she answered that she would have him help her to kill.”

Jenet also identified all the suspected witches at the Good Friday gathering at her mother’s house. Based on her testimony, her mother, sister, brother and 7 of her neighbors were all sentenced to death. Twenty years later, Jenet was accused of witchcraft and subsequently lived out her days in prison.

The sentences of the 10 convicted are believed to have been carried out the day after the trial ended, on Gallows Hill just outside the town. In 1612, this was a patch of moorland; desolate, windswept, lonely – and terrifying. They would have been taken to the gallows by cart. Once there, they were probably made to stand in the cart as nooses were placed around their necks and the cart would then have been pulled away.

All laws regarding witchcraft were finally repealed in 1735. By the end of Britain’s witch-hunting era some 500 so-called witches were executed in England and 4,000 in Scotland. Close to 90% of the executed were women.

🔼 The year “1612" painted on the side of Pendle Hill in Lancashire, England to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the Pendle Witch trials in 2012.

It’s peaceful and bucolic around Pendle Hill in these times, thankfully. Although sobered by the stories of the tragic victims, we found evidence of good magic lurking in the woods and dales there.

And a few good pubs for welcome refreshment!

There is evil and injustice in our world, without doubt, but there is also beauty, goodness, enchantment, fun and laughter. May you stumble upon a portion or potion of your own that spells delight.