The story started on the road between Colne and Trawden, when a pedlar named John Law met Alizon Device. These days she would probably be called Alison Davies. Alizon asked him to sell her some pins, but he refused to undo his pack for such a meagre request and she lost her temper with him. No sooner had they parted company than he seems to have had a stroke and was carried into a nearby ale-house. He blamed his illness on her and accused her of being a witch. This was what started the whole witch hunt in the area. Later Alizon was to confess to a magistrate that she had bewitched John Law. She said that just after she had left him a black dog came to her and asked her what she would have him do to the pedlar. She asked what the dog could do and he said that he could lame him, which she asked the dog to do. After he had only gone about two hundred yards the pedlar had collapsed. She said that she went to look at him and then she went on her way.
Alizon returned home eventually that day to her family (and what a family they were!). Her mother, Elizabeth Device, was UGLY! In fact she was so UGLY that she was UGLY AND A HALF! She had a face that would probably have stopped a clock! The man who chronicled the case later at Lancaster was so struck by her appearance that he mentioned it in his recording of the case. The unfortunate woman had one eye lower in her face than the other, so that one of her eyes looked up, whilst the other one looked down! Her appearance was probably one which fitted in pretty well with most people's idea of a witch. It cannot have helped her case when they eventually ended up in court accused of witchcraft. Elizabeth Device was probably in her late forties, whereas Alizon must have been about nineteen. Confusingly, both Alizon's mother and grandmother (who was nicknamed 'Demdike') were called Elizabeth. The grandmother was called Elizabeth Southerns, whilst Alizon's mother had married John Device and so all the rest of the family were called Device. Alizon also lived with her sister, Jennet (who was nine years old), and her brother, James. Little Jennet became one of the key witnesses against the rest of her family and must have been very persuasive, because she seems to have convinced everyone who listened to her. Alizon's brother, James, was mentally retarded and some of his evidence, which was used to help convict the accused, made little sense. They all lived together at Malkin Tower. Nobody now knows exactly where Malkin Tower was.
The Devices had some pretty weird neighbours, too! The head of their family was an old woman known as 'Chattox', but no-one now knows why she was nicknamed this. She was at least 80 years old and at the trial her lips were said to be constantly moving, as though she was constantly talking to someone, so perhaps she got the nickname through constantly chattering, or perhaps it was a corruption of "Chadwick" which might have been her maiden name. Her real name was Anne Whittle. She lived near the Devices with her daughters Anne and Bessie and Anne's husband, Thomas Redfearne (therefore Anne was called Anne Redfearne).
Rumours were rife in the district that, years before, Chattox and her daughter had been responsible for the death, by witchcraft, of their landlord's son (Robert Nutter) and then the landlord himself (Christopher Nutter). The landlord's son fell ill and blamed Chattox for his illness, saying that he was bewitched. He told his father this and asked for him to evict Chattox and her family. Christopher, the father, refused to do this, saying that he did not think that Robert was bewitched. Robert was going on a journey to north Wales and told Chattox's family that on his return he would make sure that they were evicted. He died on his way back from Wales and so was never able to make good his threat. Shortly afterwards his father fell ill, saying he was bewitched, although he never said who he thought was bewitching him, and subsequently died of his illness. These deaths were during the 1590s and well before Alizon's cursing of the pedlar started the investigations into witchcraft in the area.
Shortly after the deaths of Chattox's landlord and his son there was a burglary at Malkin Tower. Among the articles stolen was a cap which belonged to Alizon. Later Alizon saw one of Chattox's daughters wearing the cap. The families must have had an argument about this and John Device must have had some fear of Chattox because of the rumours about the deaths of her landlord and his son. He tried to appease her by saying that he would give her a gift of a quantity of meal each year. The first year that he missed this payment, he died. I don't know why John Device should be in such terror of Chattox as the Devices were also supposed to be involved in witchcraft, unless it was before the Devices were supposed to have taken up black magic.
Just after Alizon cursed the pedlar, Jennet Preston was tried at York for allegedly killing a child by witchcraft. She was found not guilty of this, but was immediately accused of the murder of a neighbour, Thomas Lister, whom she is supposed to have killed by witchcraft five years earlier. Her accuser, as in the trial of which she had been acquitted, was the son of Thomas Lister (the son was also called Thomas). She was charged with the murder of Thomas Lister (the elder) and was immediately released to stand trial later in the year for this.
Here is where her second trial and that of the rest of the 'Pendle witches' overlap. John Law's son, Abraham, who, like his father, lived in Halifax in Yorkshire, received a letter telling of his father's indisposition at Colne and went to visit him there. His father told him of how he had met Alizon Device on the road and how she had cursed him. Abraham went to see Alizon Device and then he had Alizon and her family questioned by a magistrate. All the people who were later tried at Lancaster were first questioned by a magistrate a few months before and statements were taken from them which were later produced at the trials
During the questioning both Jennet (Alizon's nine year old sister) and James, her brother, told of a meeting of about twenty people at Malkin Tower. They said that the purpose of the meeting was, amongst other things, to help Jennet Preston (who was present at the meeting, about a week after her first trial) to kill by witchcraft Thomas Lister (the younger) because Jennet Preston said that her powers were not as strong as they once were. Another purpose of the meeting was, they said, to name Alizon Device's familiar spirit (the black dog she had met on the road) because Alizon was new to witchcraft.
It was also during this questioning that Alizon admitted to having lamed John Law by witchcraft. She also make some allegations about Chattox and her daughter, Anne Redfearne. Alizon said that in about 1610 she had been in Anthony Nutter's house with Anthony's daughter, Anne. Chattox had seen them and accused them both of laughing at her. She said that she would be even with one of them and less than three weeks later little Anne was dead. Alizon said that she thought that Chattox had been responsible for little Anne's death through witchcraft.
Alizon also told a story of how John Moore had accused Chattox of turning his ale sour. Chattox had threatened to be even with him and soon afterwards his son became ill and eventually died. Alizon said that while he was ill she saw Chattox sitting in her own garden with a clay doll. The old woman tried to cover it, but Alizon had already seen it. Alizon said that her mother had told her that it would probably have been an image of John Moore's child.
Alizon's grandmother (Demdike) was also questioned by the magistrate, and it is difficult to imagine why these women were admitting what they were saying in their statements. Why did they say what they did? They must have known that the penalty for witchcraft was death, but they do not seem to have tried to deny it in their initial confessions. There is no mention of torture being used to extract the confessions, but it is known that torture was used in later witchcraft interviews in England. Elizabeth Southerns (Demdike) said that for twenty years she had had a familiar spirit called Tibb. He had manifested himself to her on seperate occasions as either a brown dog, a black cat or a hare. She went on to describe the best way to harm someone with witchcraft which seems to have been pretty much identical to the way that people practicing voodoo in the Caribbean now try to harm others by sticking pins into or burning a likeness of them. Demdike said that the best thing to use was a clay image of the person. I wonder, cats, if that is why Alizon wanted the pins?
Demdike also said that shortly before Robert Nutter's death she had caught Chattox and her daughter, Anne Redfearne, sitting outside making three 'pictures' of clay. 'Pictures' are what Demdike called the clay dolls. She says that Tibb came to her in the shape of a black cat and told her that they were the 'pictures' of Robert Nutter, Christopher Nutter, and Robert's wife, Marie. She said that Tibb had told her to go and help Chattox and her daughter, but she had refused whereupon Tibb had pushed her into the ditch and she had spilt the milk that she had been carrying.
Because of Alizon and her grandmother's allegations the magistrate thought that there was enough evidence to investigate Chattox and her family for witchcraft.
After this Jennet Preston went to York to be tried for the murder, by witchcraft, of Thomas Lister (senior). At the trial two witnesses said that they saw Jennet Preston touch the body of Thomas Lister and the corpse had bled. In those days it was believed that if a witch touched the body of someone whom she had killed by witchcraft the body would try to give a sign to indicate the murderer by bleeding. It was thought that this was the only way that the dead person could accuse the murderer. There was also evidence given from James Device to say that she had been at Malkin Tower for the meeting previously mentioned. Although Jennet Preston pleaded 'Not Guilty', she was found guilty of witchcraft and was hanged at York on July 29th, 1612, two weeks before the trials of the others began at Lancaster.
It is strange, that although the group has come to be known as the 'Lancashire witches' the first of them to be executed lived (and therefore was tried and executed) in Yorkshire. Since some fairly recent boundary changes, though, Gisburn is now part of Lancashire.