See also: European witchcraft Pendle Hill from the northwest. On the right is the eastern edge of Longridge Fell, which is separated from Pendle Hill by the Ribble valley. The committal and subsequent trial of the four women might have been the end of the matter, had it not been for a meeting organised by Elizabeth Device at Malkin Tower, the home of the Demdikes, [30] held on Good Friday 10 April 1612. [31] To feed the party, James Device stole a neighbour's sheep. [30] The novel Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman (later adapted for television) features several witch characters named after the original Pendle witches, including Agnes Nutter, a prophet burned at the stake, and her descendant Anathema Device. Gaiman confirmed the homage in a 2016 tweet. [94] [95]

The Lancashire Witch trials of 1612 were the basis for this story. We have a young puritan girl, Margery, sent to her cousin Roger Nowell because her family doesn’t know what to do with her (she is distinctly un-puritan) and nobody can provide her with a dowry to marry her off. Roger’s way of life is more to Margery’s taste and, freed of the restrictions her upbringing had imposed on her, we see her blossom into an intelligent young woman. She accompanies her cousin, a Justice of the Peace, on his investigations into increasingly frequent accusations of witchcraft, soon becoming an integral part of the inquiries, her actions leading to at least one incidence of romance and several incidences of execution. Wilson, Richard (2002), "The pilot's thumb: Macbeth and the Jesuits", in Poole, Robert (ed.), The Lancashire Witches: Histories and Stories, Manchester University Press, pp.126–145, ISBN 978-0-7190-6204-9 Swain, John (2002), "Witchcraft, Economy and Society in the Forest of Pendle", in Poole, Robert (ed.), The Lancashire Witches: Histories and Stories, Manchester University Press, pp.73–87, ISBN 978-0-7190-6204-9 Chivers, Tom (15 January 2020). "Good Omens: How Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman's friendship inspired their comic masterpiece". The Daily Telegraph. London. Archived from the original on 12 January 2022 . Retrieved 1 September 2020.Margery is a young woman of uncommon intelligence, raised in penury by a strict Puritan family which views her as disobedient and dangerous. Sent away to live with her distant cousin Roger in Pendle, Margery soon becomes Roger's partner in investigation, as a series of hideous desecrations force Roger to look further into the rumours of witchcraft. Richards, Jeffrey (2002), "The 'Lancashire novelist' and the Lancashire witches", in Poole, Robert (ed.), The Lancashire Witches: Histories and Stories, Manchester University Press, pp.166–187, ISBN 978-0-7190-6204-9 For some reason, it's just never interested me......sooooooo tell me why you enjoyed the book 'Mist Over Pendle' so much? What's the fascination? Robert Neill's novel is a classic tale of witchcraft set in a wild inaccessible corner of Lancashire and in a time when the ancient fear of demons and witches was still a part of life... and death. Read more Details

Access-restricted-item true Addeddate 2021-07-19 03:04:43 Boxid IA40174613 Camera USB PTP Class Camera Collection_set printdisabled External-identifier The trials of the three Samlesbury witches were heard before Anne Redferne's first appearance in court, [52] late in the afternoon, charged with the murder of Robert Nutter. The evidence against her was considered unsatisfactory, and she was acquitted. [55]The only negative aspect I found was that it was getting a little bogged down in the beginning with the descriptions of the area. I found that a little tedious but it was obviously meant to set the scene and introduce the different locations in the story. Scholar Catherine Spooner argues in an article for Hellebore magazine that with the 400-year anniversary of the Pendle witch trials, the notion of the witches as folk heroes caught the popular imagination. With new cultural productions revisiting the witches' story (Mary Sharratt's Daughters of the WItching Hill (2011) or Jeanette Winterson's The Daylight Gate (2012)), Spooner argues that the Pendle witches have been transformed from "folk devil to folk heroes", and that "their history has become a model of resistance for the disenchanted and disenfranchised". [88]

The Project Gutenberg eBook of Discovery of Witches, by Thomas Potts". gutenberg.org . Retrieved 31 August 2022.

Lumby, Jonathan (1995), The Lancashire Witch-Craze: Jennet Preston and the Lancashire Witches, 1612., Carnegie Publishing, ISBN 1859360254 New statue gives Pendle 'witch' the respect she deserves", Lancashire Telegraph, 30 July 2012 , retrieved 3 August 2012 Anne Redferne was not so fortunate the following day, when she faced her second trial, for the murder of Robert Nutter's father, Christopher, to which she pleaded not guilty. Demdike's statement to Nowell, which accused Anne of having made clay figures of the Nutter family, was read out in court. Witnesses were called to testify that Anne was a witch "more dangerous than her Mother". [56] But she refused to admit her guilt to the end, and had given no evidence against any others of the accused. [57] Anne Redferne was found guilty. [58]

Mullett, Stephen (2002), "The Reformation in the Parish of Whalley", in Poole, Robert (ed.), The Lancashire Witches: Histories and Stories, Manchester University Press, pp.88–104, ISBN 978-0-7190-6204-9It was perhaps difficult for the judges charged with hearing the trials – Sir James Altham and Sir Edward Bromley – to understand King James's attitude towards witchcraft. The king was head of the judiciary, and Bromley was hoping for promotion to a circuit nearer London. Altham was nearing the end of his judicial career, but he had recently been accused of a miscarriage of justice at the York Assizes, which had resulted in a woman being sentenced to death by hanging for witchcraft. The judges may have been uncertain whether the best way to gain the King's favour was by encouraging convictions, or by "sceptically testing the witnesses to destruction". [12] Events leading up to the trials [ edit ] Elizabeth Southerns' family [13] Anne Whittle's family [13]