In Pendle Forest, a wild tract of land on the borders of Yorkshire, lived
an old woman about the age of fourscore, who had been a witch for fifty
years, and had brought up her own children, and instructed her
grandchildren, to be witches. "She was a generall agent for the Deuill in
all these partes;" her name was Elizabeth Southernes, usually called
Mother Demdike; the date of her arraignment 1612. She was the first tried
of this celebrated "coven," twenty of whom stood before Sir James Altham
and Sir Edward Bromley, charged with all the crimes lying in sorcery,
magic, and witchcraft. Old Mother Demdike died in prison before her trial,
but on her being taken before the magistrate who convicted them all, Roger
Nowell, Esq., she made such a confession as effectually insured her due
share of execration, and hedged in the consciences of all who had assailed
her from any possible pangs of self-reproach or doubt.
About fifty years ago, she said, she was returning home from begging,
when, near a stone pit in the Pendle Forest, she met a spirit or devil in
the shape of a boy, with one half of his coat brown and the other half
black, who said to her, if she would give him her soul, she should have
all that she might desire. After a little further talk, during which he
told her that his name was Tibb, he vanished away, and she saw him no more
for this time. For five or six years Mother Demdike never asked any kind
of help or harm of Tibb, who always came to her at "daylight gate"
(twilight); but one Sabbath morning, she having her little child on her
knee, and being in a light slumber, Tibb came to her in the likeness of a
brown dog, and forced himself on her knee, trying to get blood from under
her left arm. Mother Demdike awoke sore troubled and amazed, and strove to
say, "Jesus, save my child," but could not, neither could she say, "Jesus,
save myself." In a short time the brown dog vanished away, and she was
"almost starke madde for the space of eight weekes." She and Tibb had
never done much harm, she said; not even to Richard Baldwin, for all that
he had put them off his land, and taken her daughter's day's work at his
mill without fee or reward, and when she, led by her grandchild Alison
(for she was quite blind), went to ask for pay, gave them only hard words
and insolence for their pains, saying, "he would burn the one, and hang
the other," and bidding them begone for a couple of witches--and worse.
She confessed though, after a little pressing, that at that moment Tibb
called out to her, "Revenge thee of him!" to whom she answered, "Revenge
thou either of him or his!" on which he vanished away, and she saw him no
more. She would not say what was the vengeance done, or if any. But if she
was silent, and not prone to confession, there were others, and those of
her own blood, not so reticent. Elizabeth Device her daughter, and Alison
and James and Jennet Device, her grandchildren, testified against her and
each other in a wonderful manner, and filled up all the blanks in the
most masterly and graphic style.
Alison said that her grandmother had seduced her to the service of the
devil, by giving her a great black dog as her imp or spirit, with which
dog she had lamed one John Law, a petit chapman or pedlar, as he was going
through Colnefield with his pack at his back. Alison wanted to buy pins of
him, but John Law refused to loose his pack or sell them to her; so Alison
in a rage called for her black dog, to see if revenge could not do what
fair words had failed in. When the black dog came he said, "What wouldst
thou have me to do with yonder man?" To whom she answered, "What canst
thou do at him?" and the dog answered again, "I can lame him." "Lame him,"
says Alison Device; and before the pedlar went forty yards he fell lame.
When questioned, he, on his side, said, that as he was going through
Colnefield he met a big black dog with very fearful fiery eyes, great
teeth, and a terrible countenance, which looked at him steadily then
passed away; and immediately after he was bewitched into lameness and
deformity. And this took place after having met Alison Device and refused
to sell her any pins. Then Alison fell to weeping and praying, beseeching
God and that worshipful company to pardon her sins. She said further that
her grandmother had bewitched John Nutter's cow to death, and Richard
Baldwin's woman-child on account of the quarrel before reported, saying
that she would pray for Baldwin himself, "both still and loud," and that
she was always after some matter of devilry and enchantment, if not for
the bad of others then for the good of herself. For once, Alison got a
piggin full of blue milk by begging, and when she came to look into it,
she found a quarter of a pound of butter there, which was not there
before, and which she verily believed old Mother Demdike had procured by
her enchantments. Then Alison turned against the rival Hecate, Anne
Whittle, _alias_ Chattox, between whom and her family raged a deadly feud
with Mother Demdike and her family; accusing her of having bewitched her
father, John Device, to death, because he had neglected to pay her the
yearly tax of an aghen dole (eight pounds) of meal, which he had
covenanted to give her on consideration that she would not harm him. For
they had been robbed, these poor people, of a quarter of a peck of cut
oatmeal and linens worth some twenty shillings, and they had found a coif
and band belonging to them on Anne Whittle's daughter; so John Device was
afraid that old Chattox would do them some grievous injury by her
sorceries if they cried out about it, therefore made that covenant for the
aghen dole of meal, the non-payment of which for one year set Chattox free
from her side of the bargain and cost John's life. She said, too, that
Chattox had bewitched sundry persons and cattle, killing John Nutter's cow
because he, John Nutter, had kicked over her canfull of milk, misliking
her devilish way of placing two sticks across it; and slaying Anne Nutter
because she laughed and mocked at her; slaying John Morris' child, too, by
a picture of clay--with other misdeeds to be hereafter verified and
substantiated. So Alison Device was hanged, weeping bitterly, and very
penitent.
James Device, her brother, testified to meeting a brown dog coming from
his grandmother's about a month ago, and to hearing a noise as of a number
of children shrieking and crying, "near daylight gate." Another time he
heard a foul yelling as of a multitude of cats, and soon after this there
came into his bed a thing like a cat or a hare, and coloured black, which
lay heavily on him for about an hour. He said that his sister Alison had
bewitched Bullock's child, and that old Mother Chattox had dug up three
skulls, and taken out eight teeth, four of which she kept for herself and
gave four to Mother Demdike; and that Demdike had made a picture of clay
of Anne Nutter, and had burned it, by which the said Anne had been
bewitched to death. Also she had bewitched to death one Mitton, because he
would not give her a penny; with other iniquities of the same sort. He
said that his mother, Elizabeth Device, had a spirit like a brown dog
called Ball, and that they all met at Malking Tower; all the witches of
Pendle--and they were not a few--going out in their own shapes, and
finding foals of different colours ready for their riding when they got
out: Jennet Preston was the last: when they all vanished. He then
confessed, for his own part, that his grandmother Demdike told him not to
eat the communion bread one day when he went to church, but to give it to
the first thing he met on the road on his way homewards. He did not obey
her, but ate the bread as a good Christian should; and on the way he met
with a thing like a hare which asked him for the bread; but he said he had
not got it; whereupon the hare got very angry and threatened to tear him
in pieces, but James "sained" himself, and the devil vanished. This,
repeated in various forms, was about the pith of what James Device
confessed, his confession not including any remarkable betrayal of
himself, or admission of any practical and positive evil. His young sister
Jennet, a little lassie of nine, supplied the deficiencies. She had
evidently been suborned, says Wright, and gave evidence enough to have
hanged half Lancashire. She said that James had sold himself to the devil,
and that his spirit was a black dog called Dandy, by whom he had bewitched
many people to death; and she confirmed what he had said of Jennet
Preston's spirit, which was a white foal with a black spot in its
forehead. And then she said that she had seen the witches' meetings, but
had taken no part in them; and that on Good Friday they had all dined off
a roasted wether which James had stolen from Christian Swyers; and that
John Bulcocke turned the spit. She said that her mother Elizabeth had
taught her two prayers, the one to get drink and the other to cure the
bewitched. The one to get drink was a very short one, simply--"Crucifixus,
hoc signum vitam eternam, Amen;" but this would bring good drink into the
house in a very strange manner. The other, the prayer to cure the
bewitched, was longer:--
"Vpon Good Friday, I will fast while I may,
Vntill I heare them knell,
Our Lord's owne Bell,
Lord in his messe
With his twelve Apostles good,
What hath he in his hand?
Ligh in[115] Leath[116] wand:
What hath he in his other hand?
Heauen's doore key.
Open, open, Heauen doore keyes,
Steck, steck, hell doore.
Let Crizum[117] child
Go to it Mother mild.
What is yonder that casts a light so farrandly?[118]
Mine owne deare Sone that's nail'd to the Tree,
He is nail'd sore by the heart and hand,
And holy harne Panne.[119]
Well is that man
That Fryday spell can,
His Childe to learne
A Crosse of Blewe, and another of Red,
As good Lord was to the Roode.
Gabriel laid him downe to sleepe
Vpon the grounde[120] of holy weepe;
Good Lord came walking by,
Sleep'st thou, wak'st thou, Gabriel?
No, Lord, I am sted with stick and stake,
That I can neither sleepe nor wake:
Rise vp, Gabriel, and goe with me,
The stick nor the stake shall neuer deere[121] thee,
Sweete Jesus our Lorde. Amen."
On such conclusive testimony as this, and for such fearful crimes, James
Device was condemned for "as dangerous and malicious a witch as ever lived
in these parts of Lancashire, of his time, and spotted with as much
Innocent bloud as euer any witch of his yeares." Poor lad!
"O Barbarous and inhumane Monster, beyond example; so farre from sensible
vnderstanding of thy owne miserie as to bring thy owne naturall children
into mischiefe and bondage, and thyselfe to be a witnesse vpone the
gallowes, to see thy owne children, by thy deuillish instructions, hatcht
vp in villanie and witchcraft, to suffer with thee, euen in the beginning
of their time, a shamefull and untimely Death!" These are the words which
Thomas Potts addresses to Elizabeth Device, widow of John the bewitched,
daughter to old Demdike the "rankest hag that ever troubled daylight,"
and mother of Alison and James the confessing witches; mother, also, of
young Jennet of nine, their accuser and hers, by whose testimony she was
mainly condemned. Elizabeth was charged with having bewitched sundry
people to death, by means and aid of her spirit, the brown dog Ball,
spoken of by James; also she had gone to the Sabbath held at Malking
Tower, where they had assembled to consult how they could get old Mother
Demdike, their leader, out of prison, by killing her gaoler and blowing up
the castle, and where they had beef and bacon and roasted mutton--the
mutton that same wether of Christopher Swyers' of Barley, which James had
stolen and killed; with other things as damnable and insignificant. So
Elizabeth Device, "this odious witch, who was branded with a preposterous
marke in Nature even from her Birth, which was her left Eye standing lower
than the other, the one looking down the other looking up," was condemned
to die because she was poor and ugly, and had a little lying jade for a
daughter, who made up fine stories for the gentlefolks.
Anne Whittle, _alias_ Chattox, was next in influence, power, and age to
Mother Demdike, and she began her confession by saying that old Demdike
had originally seduced her by giving her the devil in the shape and
proportion of a man, who got her, body and soul, and sucked on her left
ribs, and was called Fancie. Afterwards she had another spirit like a
spotted bitch, called Tibbe, who gave them all to eat and to drink, and
said they should have gold and silver as much as they wanted. But they
never got the gold and silver at all, and what they ate and drank did not
satisfy them. "This Anne Whittle, _alias_ Chattox, was a very old
withered, spent, decrepid creature, her Sight almost gone; A dangerous
Witch of very long continuance; always opposite to old Demdike; For whom
the one fauoured the other hated deadly: and how they curse and accuse one
an other in their Examinations may appear. In her Witchcraft always more
ready to doe mischiefe to men's goods than themselves; Her lippes ever
chattering and talking; but no man knew what. She lived in the Forrest of
Pendle amongst this wicked Company of dangerous Witches. Yet in her
Examination and Confession she dealt always very plainely and truely; for
vpon a speciall occasion, being oftentimes examined in open Court, she was
neuer found to vary, but alwayes to agree in one and the selfe same thing.
I place her in order next to that wicked Firebrand of mischiefe, old
Demdike, because from these two sprung all the rest in order; and even the
Children and Friendes of these two notorious Witches."
Nothing special or very graphic was elicited about old Chattox. She had
certainly bewitched to death sundry of the neighbourhood, lately deceased;
but then they all did that; and her devil, Fancie, came to her in various
shapes--sometimes like a bear, gaping as though he would worry her, which
was not a pleasant manner of fulfilling his contract--but generally as a
man, in whom she took great delight. She confessed to a charm for blessing
forespoken drink; which she had chanted for John Moore's wife, she said,
whose beer had been spoilt by Mother Demdike or some of her crew:--
"Three Biters hast thou bitten,
The Hart, ill Eye, ill Tonge;
Three Bitter shall be thy boote,
Father, Sonne, and Holy Ghost,
a God's Name
Fiue Paternosters, fiue Auies,
and a Creede,
For worship of fiue woundes
of our Lord."
Of course there was no help or hope for old Chattox if she said such
wicked things as these. The righteous justice of England must be
satisfied, and Anne Whittle was hung--one of the twelve who sorrowed the
sunlight in Lancaster on that bloody assize.
Her daughter, Ann Redfearne, was then taken, accused of making pictures of
clay and other maleficent arts; and she, too, was hanged; and then
well-born, well-bred, but unfortunate Alice Nutter--a gentlewoman of
fortune living at Rough Lee, whose relatives were anxious for her death
that they might come into some property, out of which she kept them while
living, and between whom and Mr. Justice Nowell there was a long-standing
grudge on the question of a boundary-line between their several
properties--Alice Nutter, whom one would have thought far removed from any
such possibility, was accused by young Jennet of complicity and
companionship, and put upon her trial with but a faint chance of escape
behind her. For Elizabeth Device swore that she had joined with her and
old Demdike in bewitching the man Mitton, because of that twopence so
fatally refused; and young Jennet swore that she was one of the party who
went on many-coloured foals to the great witch meeting at Malking Tower;
and so poor Alice Nutter, of Rough Lee, the well-born, well-bred
gentlewoman, was hanged with the rest of that ragged crew; and her
relations stood in her place, quite satisfied with their dexterity.
Then there was Katherine Hewitt, _alias_ Mouldheels, accused by James
Device, who seemed to think that if he had to be hanged for nothing he
would be hanged in brave company, and, by sharing with as many as could be
found, lessen the obloquy he could not escape; and John Bulcocke, who
turned the spit, and Jane his mother, for the same crimes and on the same
testimony; for the added crime, too, of helping in the bewitching of
Master Leslie, about which nefarious deed other hands were also busy; and
Margaret Pearson, delated by Chattox as entertaining a man spirit
cloven-footed, with whom she went by a loophole into Dodson's stable, and
sat all night, on his mare until it died. She was also accused by Jennet
Booth, who went into her house and begged some milk for her child;
Margaret good-naturedly gave her some, and boiled it in a pan, but all her
reward was, that Jennet accused her of witchcraft, for there was, said
she, a toad, or something very like a toad, at the bottom of the pan when
the milk was boiled, which Margaret took up with a pair of tongs and
carried out of the house. Of course the toad was an imp, and Jennet Booth
was quite right to repay an act of neighbourly generosity by accusation
and slander. Margaret got off with standing in the pillory in open market,
at four market towns on four market days, bearing a paper on her head
setting forth her offence written in great letters, about which there
could be no mistake; after which she was to confess, and afterwards be
taken to prison, where she was to lie for a year, and then be only
released when good and responsible sureties would come forward to answer
for her good behaviour.
And there was Isabel Roby, who bewitched Peter Chaddock for jilting her,
and in the spirit pinched and buffeted Jane Williams, so that she fell
sick with the impression of a thumb and four fingers on her thigh; and
Jennet Preston, she who had the white foal spirit, and who was afterwards
hung at York for the murder of Master Thomas Lister--for Master Thomas in
his last illness had been for ever crying out that Jennet Preston was
lying on him, and when she was brought to see the body it gushed out fresh
blood on her, which settled all doubts, if haply there had been any. So
the famous trial of the Pendle Witches came to an end; and of the twenty
who were accused twelve were hanged while the rest escaped only for the
present, many of them meeting with their doom a few years afterwards.