did the guide tell you about the pendle whitches who were imprisoned there
[pendle hill isnt far from lancaster]
He told us a bit about it, but also explained that it was a pretty complicated story with politics involved too - I don't remember the specifics, but a local lord or somethign was trying to win the favor of the king, and some shenanigans involved with the courtroom if I remember right.
Tell me the story of the Lancashire Witches
The year was 1612, a turbulent time in England’s history, an era of religious persecution and superstition. James I was King, and feared rebellion having survived the Gunpowder Plot of 1605.
His fear and anger brought with it harsh penalties for anyone keeping the Catholic faith and his suspicious nature led to an obsession with witchcraft.
Local magistrates looking to find favour with King James became zealous in their pursuit of witchcraft. When the Pendle Witches were put on trial, a London clerk Thomas Potts recorded the trial and sent it around the country as a warning and a guide on finding evidence of witchcraft.
Despite the trial being one of the best documented in the world, mystery still surrounds how the Lancashire villagers came to be found guilty of witchcraft.
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A Tale of Mystery and Murder...
Forget black pointy hats and paranormal events, the real story of the 1612 Lancashire Witch trial takes us back to a time when religious persecution was rife and people lived in wretched fear and poverty...
In August 1612 ten people were executed on the moors above Lancaster, having been found guilty of witchcraft at Lancaster Castle.
The crimes for which they died included causing madness, making clay images, and more importantly using witchcraft to murder sixteen people over a period of nearly twenty years.
The evidence given against them was based on memories, hearsay and superstition, and would not even be considered in a modern court. But things were very different four hundred years ago, and in 1612 this was sufficient to ensure that, in most cases, those convicted ended up at the rope’s end.
The majority of the defendants came from the Pendle area and from among these defendants five were from two families.
At the head of each were two women in their eighties: Elizabeth Southern who was also known as Old Demdike, and Anne Whittle, known as Old Chattox.
They lived by begging and on their reputation as wise women. They claimed the power to remove curses and to heal and seem to have been bitter rivals for this type of work in their neighbourhood.
The event which sparked the case took place on 18 March 1612 when one of Demdike’s granddaughters, Alizon Device was out begging. She encountered John Law, a peddlar from Halifax and asked him for some pins.
When he refused she supposedly cursed him using the help of her familiar spirit who appeared to her in the form of a dog.
The curse appeared to take immediate effect and John collapsed, paralysed and unable to speak.
It seems clear that John Law had suffered a stroke, but everyone who heard the story believed that Alizon had used witchcraft in order to harm him.
The matter was brought to the attention of the local magistrate Roger Nowell, and Alizon was arrested. She confessed to what she had done and then went on to implicate neighbours and members of her own family.
More arrests followed.
A supposed Witches Sabbat was held on Good Friday at Malkin Tower, home of Old Demdike, where among other things a plot was supposedly hatched to blow up Lancaster Castle.
The authorities acted swiftly and in total nineteen people, including a group of suspects from Samlesbury, spent the next four months in the dungeon below the Well Tower of the castle, awaiting trial.
The trials began on 18 August and the key evidence was given by another of Demdike’s granddaughters, nine year old Jennet Device. By the end of the next day ten people had been found guilty.
Among them were Alizon, her brother James and their mother Elizabeth, as well as Old Chattox and her daughter Anne Redfearne. Also condemned were Alice Nutter, John and Jane Bulcock, Katherine Hewitt and Isobel Robey, who came from Windle near St Helens. Old Demdike died before she could stand trial, and one other defendant, Margaret Pearson, (known locally as the Padiham Witch) was sentenced to pillory and imprisonment for a year.
[pendle hill isnt far from lancaster]