Pendle Witches
by Sarah Rigg03 May 2012
Four hundred years ago ten Lancashire folk were hanged for crimes of witchcraft. In the first of a three part series Northern Life tells the extraordinary story of The Pendle Witches.
“The fearefull aboundinge at this time in this countrie, of these detestable slaves of the Devil, the Witches or enchaunters. Such assaults of Satan are most certainly practised, and that the instrument thereof merits most severely to be punished.” King James I of England
During a recent family dinner a row broke between my cousin Nicola, a holistic therapist and a family friend; who had just retired from his long-standing post as the village GP.
Nic was arguing the case for alternative therapies which prompted much eye-rolling and retorts of “hocus pocus” from our doctor friend.
Had that row taken place 400 years earlier, the good doctor could well have marched my wretched wench of a cousin to Lancaster Castle to be hanged for crimes of witchcraft.
Even today many alternative treatments; aromatherapy, reiki, acupuncture and herbal healing, to name a few, are viewed suspiciously by sections of the medical profession; at best for being nonsense and at worst for being tricks of confidence on the most vulnerable.
To truly grip the case of the Pendle Witches though, and the misunderstanding between their ways and those of the local gentry/authorities, we need to paint a picture of the way things were back in the 17th century.
Under the reign of witch-culling fanatic King James I, medicine was in its infancy and the people of Pendle – as elsewhere in the UK – relied on old-fashioned beliefs, potions and charms to treat their sick family members.
The two main families in this historical case – the Chattox and Demdike clans – were most probably happy for locals to believe they held these supposed supernatural powers.
Their ‘gifts’ earned those much-needed coppers and food - and the warring rivals were in fierce competition for those rewards.
However their potions and spells were less likely fashioned from eyes of newts or wings of bats, but from the herbs and plants growing in and around the forest of Pendle Hill.
As we will reveal later in our series – herbalists are still using these plants to treat many ailments today.
It was Good Friday – April 10th 1612 – when members of the two rival broods gathered at Malkin Tower in what has been described as a booze-fuelled and rowdy rendezvous.
Eight days earlier two elderly members of each family had been arrested on charges of witchcraft - Elizabeth Southern known as ‘Old Demdike’ - and Anne Whittle, nicknamed ‘Old Chattox’.
Their capture sparked the start of what is still today one the most mysterious, yet conversely, well-documented witch trials recorded anywhere in the world.
Christine Goodier is a former manager of Lancaster Castle, historian and tour guide.
She says: “Witchcraft is a term which is open to endless interpretation. What it means in any given society and at any given time is a key factor in how anyone accused of being a witch is treated.
“In some cultures the witch is revered and respected. In others they are vilified and outcast – even murdered – for their supposed powers.
“What is very clear is that by 1612 the perception of what constituted witchcraft had undergone a fairly recent and radical transformation. It was no longer ignored by the authorities as it had once been, which was extremely unfortunate for the accused.”
Many thoughtful and brilliant books have been written about the Pendle or Lancashire Witches – each with their varying theories and views.
However the starting point of most research is with Thomas Potts’s account in 1613 - ‘The Wonderful Discoverie of Witches in the Countie of Lancashire’.
Potts was clerk to the court at Lancaster during the witch trials and most of what we know about the Pendle witches today, we know because of him.
What can be said with certainty is that in the spring and summer of 1612, twenty witches were imprisoned and committed for trial at Lancaster. Nineteen survived to be tried, mostly from the Pendle area but also from Padiham, Samlesbury and Windle, near St Helens. Of these nineteen, three were declared completely innocent, five were acquitted but bound over, and eleven were found guilty, ten of whom were hanged.
Elizabeth ‘Old Demdike’ Southern of Pendle, is added to the death toll, as she died in prison awaiting trial.
Potts’ work has been immortalised and modernised by historian Robert Poole, in his book of the same title -‘The Wonderful Discovery of Witches in the County of Lancashire’.
It is a fascinating read, retaining all of the original detail, but retold in a more accessible voice.
Moore tells how the affair of the Lancashire witches began on March 21st 1612 when Halifax cloth dyer Abraham Law received an unexpected letter urging him to ‘come to his father, John Law, who lay in Colne speechless, and had the left side lamed all save his eye’.
John Law was a peddler and on his way to Colne to trade when he claimed to have been struck down by Alizon Device after refusing to hand over some pins.
This is how Moore recounts the incident, given five months later in court.
‘About the eighteenth of March last past, he being a pedlar, went with his pack of wares at his back through Colne Field: where unluckily he met with Alizon Device, now prisoner at the bar, who was very earnest with him for pins, but he would give her none: whereupon she seemed to be very angry. And when he was past her, he fell down lame in great extremity; and afterwards by means got into an alehouse in Colne, near unto the place where he was first bewitched.
And as he lay there in great pain, not able to stir either hand or foot; he saw a great black dog stand by him, with very fearful fiery eyes, great teeth and a terrible countenance, looking him in the face; whereat he was very sore afraid: and immediately after came in Alizon Device, who stayed not long there, but looked on him and went away.
After which time he was tormented both day and night with Alizon Device, and so continued lame, not able to travel or take pains ever since that time.’
Moore believes that had John Law recovered from what was probably a stroke; the matter would have ended there.
But John Law did not recover and soon a dramatic domino effect of accusations and claims, counter claims and fantastic stories led to the unravelling of this Lancashire coven.
When questioned, Alizon blamed her grandmother Elizabeth ‘Old Demdike’ Southern for conjuring up the evil dog and persuading her in the ways of the devil. Elizabeth Southern, we know, was frail, blind and lame.
Witnesses say, when out begging, she regularly leant on the arm of one of her grandchildren, who were the offspring of her daughter Elizabeth Device, whose husband John died in 1600.
Elizabeth had three children (four including Henry 1595-1599) – a son James and two daughters, Alizon and Jennet, who was aged at least eleven, probably 12 at the time of the trials.
Southern had an illegitimate child as well – a son, Christopher Howgate – of whom very little is known.
Ann Whittle was also an old woman by the time the trials started, possibly in her late seventies.
She had two daughters – Anne, and Elizabeth, known as Bessie.
Anne was the wife of Thomas Redfearne and had one daughter, Mary.
It seems that they rented West Close, owned by the Gawthorpe estate in 1612 (not owned by the Nutters as reported elsewhere) – with whom they had an uneasy and acrimonious relationship – while Old Demdike lived at Malkin Tower, which we know now was probably in the area of Barley.
Pefectly summing up the the mood and conditions of the time is John Clayton, local historian and a leading authority on the subject of the Pendle Witches and the Pendle Forest landscape. John is also a researcher and broadcaster and a member of the Institute for Archaeologists.
In his latest book ‘The Pendle Witch Fourth Centenary Handbook’ he provides a detailed account of the witch story that is as accurate and up to date as possible.
John reveals that a number of factors affected the lives of the accused; the demonisation of the Catholics in favour of Protestants, poor crop yields causing high food prices and a population increase resulting in severe social pressures. The supply of land became an issue and, when coupled with the previous fifty years of religious upheaval - attitudes to the landless poor took a turn for the worse.
Many of the allegations resulted from accusations that members of the Demdike and Chattox families made against each other, perhaps because they were in competition, both trying to make a living from healing, begging, and extortion.
After the fateful meeting between Alizon Device and the peddler John Law, her mother Elizabeth and brother James were summoned to appear before Roger Nowell on 30 March 1612. Nowell, of Read Hall, was the Justice of The Peace for Pendle.
Alizon, perhaps terrified and broken by interrogation, told him she’d sold her soul to the devil, then cursed John Law
after he had called her a thief.
Her brother, James, stated that his sister had also confessed to bewitching a local child. Elizabeth was more cautious, admitting only that her mother, Demdike, had a mark on her body that was commonly known as a witch mark.
From this Nowell provided written evidence that on Good Friday 1612, a “diabolical” meeting of witches had taken place at Malkin Tower – the main purpose of which was to plan blowing up Lancaster Castle and freeing their incarcerated relatives.
In his book The Pendle Witch Handbook, John Clayton explains: “Each year, on the fifth of November, we fill the skies with thousands of pounds worth of fireworks and a good time is had by all.
“However, it is fair to say that the majority of revellers on Bonfire Night will never have given a thought to the fact that, without the Gunpowder plot of 1605, the Pendle witch trials might never have taken place.
“The fanciful statements taken by Nowell do not reflect the reality of the situation. It is highly probable the Good Friday meeting at Malkin was no more than a gathering of friends, family and neighbours with the intention of discussing the worrying situation of the arrests.”
Nowell, then, was a member of the new Protestant gentry - offspring of former Catholic landowners and, like all reformers, had a chip on their shoulders.
They were constantly seeking new ways to impress their superiors and it is apparent that the lives of those less well off than themselves were considered to be nothing other than game-pieces to be played with as and when the opportunity arose.
“Nowell was not about to let the truth stand in the way of excellent propaganda,” adds John.
He concludes: “The Pendle witches were ordinary people who happened to belong to a sub-culture whose priorities were to stave off malnutrition and keep a fire burning in the hearth.
“They were not concerned with the niceties of society – the social machinations of the gentry did not concern them. These diverse sub-cultures had managed to avoid any meaningful interaction for a long time but they had now collided head-on. There was to be, of course, only one loser.
“Under the authority of Roger Nowell, the frail and the old; men, women and children, mothers and sons were rounded up from their cottages, manipulated into providing unbelievable testimony regarding a new Gunpowder plot, and thrown into the dungeons of Lancaster Jail.
“It was perfectly clear to the authorities that the unspeakable conditions within the jail often led to the deaths of prisoners long before their trials had even begun. And so it proved with Elizabeth Southern who died in her new dungeon home only a few weeks into her incarceration.”
The Pendle Witch Fourth Centenary Handbook, by John A Clayton - see the April/May edition of Northern Life to read our review and see how you can win a copy.
Article from Northern Life issue 43 April/May 2012.
To order this issue go to the Northern Life online store.