The Chilling True Story of the Pendle Witch Trials

[Music] at the start of 1612 there was nothing especially remarkable about this area of Pendle in Lancashire it was a beautiful rural landscape marked by small villages people's lives hadn't changed much for hundreds of years and they had no reason to suspect this wouldn't continue yet in 1612 something suddenly went terribly wrong by the end of the summer a number of people in this community most of them women were left Swinging From The Gallows as a large crowd gathered to watch their final excruciating moments their alleged crime was witchcraft so what on Earth happened here how had things gone so wrong in society that this could happen under the rule of law that these people struggling to eat out a living became the subject of such Fierce and condemnatory scrutiny and convicted without any solid evidence in this film I'm going to get to the heart of it all this is the story of the Pendle witch trials [Music] foreign as we might think of them today it's a story a tragedy really of Ordinary People mainly impoverished women living ordinary lives and it all started right here on the 21st of March 1612. on this very Road between Trojan forest and the market town of cone a local woman named Alison devise was begging as she so often did a man a peddler John law passed her by but something happened between them on this road an incident and it was this incident which set off a string of terrible events to find out what happened I'm meeting local historian and tour guide Simon Entwistle so Simon you've brought me here in the shadow of Pendle Hill why are we here then well this pathway would have looked exactly the same as it would have done in 1612 the cone to Chardon Road beneath the shadow of Pendle Hill so Alison devise and John Law met on this road can you tell me exactly what happened there she had a confrontation with John Law the Halifax Peddler she begged some pins off him he refused to take his pack off because he knew she had no money she begged again just a few pins sir all of a sudden this huge black dog came from nowhere the dog sat next to Alison and the dog talked what would thou want me to do to him I can lame him Lane him she screamed law felt this terrible pain on his left side and collapsed in agony on the pathway between Cohn and trodden okay so it appears that John Law had been cursed but what really happened do you think it's very likely he had a stroke but in those days it would be classed as witchcraft so what happened to John Law after this he was taken to an Old Ale House he was in a table state for a good three days when his voice returned he screamed out that he'd been cursed by this young girl in the forest of Pendle with a dog and asked letters to be sent home to his family in Halifax which they were his eldest son Abraham made his way to Cone and saw his father in this twisted and contorted State father what's happened to you I've been cursed lad go into the woods find this young girl called Alison device she's cursed me find her bring her here reverse the curse Abraham went into fights the pendulum found her brought her back to the old Ale House where she made eye contact with John Law law looked up for his sick bed it's you you're the witch you've cursed me she burst into tears and begged and begged forgiveness she had no idea she had just admitted to a state capital offense of Witchcraft and strangely enough John Law the Halifax Peddler was about to forgive her but not his son Abraham he went to the local magistrate Roger Knoll and in doing so he opened what we now call the Pendle Witch Trials of 1612. Alison devised along with her mother and brother were summoned to appear before Roger Knoll where she once again confessed her crimes apparently convinced of her own powers when questioned about another local family who had also been tainted by accusations of Witchcraft Alison saw an opportunity to settle scores in a bitter neighborly Feud at the heart of this story are two families they lived a short distance from each other and their paths must have crossed on a regular basis they were remarkably similar both only just putting bread on the table making a living out of begging or doing odd jobs for better off Neighbors both were headed by a matriarch which was an unsettling concept for people in the 17th century at the head of one family was Elizabeth Southerns known as old Dem duck by 1612 she was frail and blind at the head of the second family was Anne Whittle known as old chattuks old chattuks like old Dem Dyke was a widow she was probably in her 80s by 1612. now these two families had a long-held rivalry old Dem Dyke and old chatoks must have known each other all their lives probably being girls together married raised families and were now in old age but it was a mutual distrust bordering on hatred a rivalry which was always there to add fuel to the fire with several members of both families now awaiting trial for witchcraft on the orders of Roger Knoll the authorities were on high alert so when a large Gathering of people was organized at the home of the demdikes on Good Friday 1612 an investigation began many historians believe that this very area we are now in was indeed the home of the device family at Malkin time convinced that the meeting had been called for sinister purposes everyone who attended no matter what their connection was to the family was implicated Knoll ordered the arrest of a further eight people on charges of witchcraft the accused were made to walk 40 miles from Pendle to Lancaster to be imprisoned here at Lancaster castle where they spent several months awaiting trial the original courtroom no longer exists although there was a new courtroom built on the same site later on which is still in use to this day the cell where they were held however has survived the ravages of time to show me around is the museum manager of Lancaster Castle Dr Colin penny foreign wow so Colin this is it this is the cell where you think that the the Pendle witches were held yep tradition has it that they were they were kept down here can you tell me a bit about what the conditions would have been like down here Dreadful um I mean it's July now it's cold down here and they were in prison from April when it would have been very wet probably raining a lot uh water would have been running down the Walls there's no sanitation down here and uh you were eating your food in absolute filth and I've noticed these rings on the floor are they something to do with suggested that people might have been chained to them if they were being particularly disruptive now of course they would have been down here those two rival families together I mean they they didn't get on when they they weren't in the same room I mean you can imagine that when they were thrown together down here each having accused the other one they were going to have a fair few ding dong arguments but they probably didn't last that long because the conditions would have taken their toll they would have probably become quite poorly and we know old them died died can you just tell me a bit more about what happened there well she was in her 80s the conditions they were awful and prison populations were decimated by illnesses such as a typhoid cholera and something known as jail fever which was typhus that was caused by the bites from body lice so it's quite possible that she taught one of those illnesses and uh and he actually passed away down here so people would have been down here in the darkness for months on end in these horrific conditions and then taken up outside into the bright light and taken to court and could you just tell me a bit about what that experience would have been like first thing is they would have been able to see probably for some time it may very well have given them headaches and things like that and then they're supposed to go into court and and and plead their case you know they wouldn't have been any any condition if you think about James device he was a young man and when he entered the castle he was fit by the time he got into the court he could barely walk and talk one of the women accused of Witchcraft has gained more attention than most perhaps because she was comparatively well off I've traveled to the Village she lived in to learn more about her story so Alice we're in the village of roughly this is the statue of probably the most famous of all the Pendle witches Alice Nutter oh Alice Nutter but of course she's not part of the chatterx family or the demdic family so how does she get involved in this she was a very wealthy lady and she was totally different to the rest of the so-called witches and the fact that she would not need to beg there's a lot of speculation that she may have known Roger Knoll and had a land dispute with him and won that land dispute Noah thought I need to get rid of this woman how the little girl Jeanette device who testified in the courts at Lancaster that she had been at Malkin tower on Good Friday 1612. so that's really interesting isn't it that Roger Knoll had a vested interest in Alice's fall very much so her story is shrouded in mystery but certainly in potts's book he mentions that she made a plea of not guilty and many people myself included believe she was totally innocent of the crimes against her it's strange isn't it how Alice Nutter is the only one who's really remembered you know she's got a statue here and people seem to know her name they want to be connected to her why do you think that is do you think it's anything to do with the fact that you know she was completely separate she was the wealthy one and everyone else was kind of impoverished it was the evidence against it which I find really hard to take in she's found guilty of aiding Dem Dyke analysis device in the murder of Henry Mitten a man who lived in this Village for a penny she wouldn't need to beg and it's weak evidence but on the evidence of that little girl Jeanette she was found guilty of his murder and aiding those two other so-called witches so why were there quite so many accused of Witchcraft in Lancashire at this time well although no one could have predicted the events of 1612 there are several long-term factors which created a perfect setting for such accusations to flourish let's wind back the clock to the mid 15th century the development of the printing press in Europe allowed many new ideas to spread fast one publication which was immensely popular was the malleus maleficarum or the Hammer of the witches the malleus was effectively a manual for hunting and persecuting witches it was first published in 1486 predating James the first demonology by quite some time and the malleus went much further than James the first later text it was created by two Dominican Friars Heinrich Kramer and Jacob Springer and it has been described by the historian Christine Goodyear as a deeply misogynistic text she explains that Kramer in particular believed that women were the weaker sex not just physically but morally too he considered them tools of the devil lustfully attempting to ensnare men leading them away from their righteous path so potent were some of these ideas that some believe that it was this book which was largely responsible for the large numbers of deaths during the European witch craze in the 15th 16th and 17th centuries foreign [Music] of Sunday the 16th of August two judges arrived tired and Dusty at Lancaster Castle to preside over their size Court they were Sir James of them and Sir Edward Bromley the trial began one by one the accused emerged from the darkness of their prison filthy disheveled and Confused they were brought before a judge and a jury of 12 men chosen from the middle ranks of local society and scrutinized first came and Whittle that's old chatix an elderly lady who was weak and frail Anne was accused of the murder of a man Robert Nutter to which she pleaded not guilty the event in question had happened two decades previously and the evidence given was that her family were commonly reputed to be witches and that milk turned sour at their touch it was flimsy evidence at best but faced with an onslaught of evidence against her old chatterx broke down with weeping tears she humbly acknowledged the evidence to be true and cried out unto God for mercy and forgiveness of her sins and humbly prayed my Lord to be merciful unto Anne Redfern her daughter next came Elizabeth devised the daughter of old demdike who was charged of three counts of murder Elizabeth was known as squinting Lizzy because she had one eye set above the other it was a detail that the clerk of the court Thomas Potts was Keen to draw attention to describing it as a Preposterous Mark of nature but Elizabeth was about to face a vicious accusation a witness of her own flesh and blood it was her nine-year-old daughter Janet the moment Elizabeth saw Janet enter the court she began to scream in such a fearful manner it was recorded as all the court did not a little Wonder at her and so amazed the child as with weeping tears she cried out unto my Lord the judge and told him she was not able to speak in the presence of her mother and so Elizabeth was removed from the dock and her daughter Janet was placed on a table in full view of the court and there she told the court how her mother was a witch with a familiar Spirit a brown dog named ball and with these Powers she had on three occasions being guilty of murder the trial took just two days judge Bromley read out the verdict on Wednesday the 19th of August he said it only remains I pronounce the Judgment of the courts against you by the king's Authority which is you shall go hence to the castle from whence you came from thence you shall be carried to the place of execution for this County where your bodies shall be hanged until you be dead and God have mercy upon your souls the Pendle Witch Trials resulted in 10 people being sentenced to death on the basis of evidence that would not be admitted in regular courts even in the 17th century eight women and two men would face a public hanging [Music] only one woman Margaret Pearson was allowed to live her punishment she was placed in the pillaries on the market day at four different towns her crime was written on a piece of paper and fastened to her head one of these towns was clitheroe where we are now and around this spot is where she would have been she was constrained While She Was Then taunted and pelted with objects and after this she was returned to the tower at Lancaster castle and forced to endure a year longer imprisoned in those terrible conditions The Condemned were taken up to a site known as Gallows Hill on the outskirts of Lancaster as they headed up the slope they may have glanced back to see one of the most magnificent views in England that of Morecambe having lived their entire lives in land it's possible that this was the first time those men and women had seen the sea for those condemned a priest was arranged to tend to them and advised them to repent and pray for forgiveness then on Thursday the 20th of August they were piled into a cart and taken here what is now Williamson Park a hill just outside the city we aren't sure exactly where the Gallows were but it would have certainly been in a prominent Place possibly where this Ashton Memorial now stands a large crowd gathered as the cart was brought to a stop it was death by strangulation and their final moments would have been excruciating [Music] Pendle was once a largely inaccessible part of the country yet today people flock it they come to see what happened to those famous witches there are witch themed shops and witches Brews to be bought but the problem with this is that it puts these events in the realm of magic of Make-Believe of fantasy whereas actually this is a story a tragedy of ordinary people generally women often at the lowest levels of society women who like many others clung onto the superstitions and folklore of the day and were known to dabble in divination and spell casting maybe as a desperate attempt to stay above water in a tough world that they lived there were women like this up and down the country of course but the difference was here in Pendle was that they were subject to ferocious scrutiny scapegoated for random ills in society by the heavy hand of the law all of which was driven by a complex web of external forces and personal motivations [Music] it wasn't until 1684 over six decades after the Pendle trials that the last execution for witchcraft took place in England by then over 500 people had been killed by the state James the first statute on witchcraft was eventually repealed in 1736 by George II finally bringing an end to that dark period in the nation's history thanks for watching this video on the history Hit YouTube channel you can subscribe right here to make sure you don't miss any of our great films that are coming out or if you are a true history fan check out our special dedicated History Channel History hit dot TV you're gonna love it

Channel: History Hit

Views: 112,242

Keywords: history hit, history hit youtube, pendle witches, witch trials, lancashire witches, pendle witch child, pendle hill, jennet device, pendle witch trials, pendle hill witches, the pendle witch trials, witch trials in england, witch trials story, the pendle witch trial, pendle witch trials of 1612, history hit alice loxton, history hits youtube, witch trials in england 1600s, the trials of the pendle witches, pendle hill witches england, pendle witches film, alice nutter

Id: Wegs_uHDZiE

Length: 20min 26sec (1226 seconds)

Published: Fri May 19 2023