Pen

Pueden co-existir a veces la magia de la pluma, y el sentimiento noble, con la brujería sediciosa, desalmada y criminal?

Pendle witch trials

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Pendle witch trials of 1612 are among the most famous witch trials in English history, and some of the best recorded of the 17th century. The twelve accused lived in the area around Pendle Hill in Lancashire, and were charged with the murders of ten people by the use of witchcraft. All but two were tried at Lancaster Assizes 17–19 August 1612 along with the Samlesbury witches and others, in what became known as the Lancashire witch trials. One was tried at York
Assizes on 27 July 1612, and another died in prison. Of the eleven
individuals who went to trial – nine women and two men – ten were found
guilty and executed by hanging and one was found not guilty.

The Lancashire witch trials were unusual for England at that time in
two respects: the official publication of the trial proceedings by the clerk to the court , Thomas Potts, in his The Wonderfull Discoverie of Witches in the Countie of Lancaster,
and in the number of witches hanged together: ten at Lancaster and one
at York. It has been estimated that in all of the English witch trials
between the early-15th and late-18th centuries, fewer than 500
suspected witches were executed, so this one series of trials over
three days in the summer of 1612 accounts for more than 2% of that
total.

Six of the Pendle witches came from one of two families, each headed
by a female in her eighties at the time of the trials: Elizabeth
Southerns (aka Demdike), her daughter Elizabeth Device, and her
grandchildren James and Alizon Device; Anne Whittle (aka Chattox), and
her daughter Anne Redferne. The others accused were Jane Bulcock and
her son John Bulcock, Alice Nutter, Katherine Hewitt, Alice Gray, and
Jennet Preston. The outbreaks of witchcraft in and around Pendle may
demonstrate the extent to which people could make a living by posing as
witches. 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, trying to make a living from healing,
begging and extortion.