We hope that Daughters of Pendle will soon be published. If you have an interest in it, please register this with us directly via our feedback page.
In writing Daughters of Pendle we have used Pott's account of the event. We are also very much indebted to "The Trials of the Lancashire Witches" by Edgar Peel and Pat Southern. This book is also based very strictly on Potts, but its modern language makes somewhat easier reading than the archaic language and lettering of the original.
Daughters of Pendle is based on a series of events which took place in the Forest of Pendle in the year 1612.
It is a familiar story, especially to the people of Lancashire, largely because two novelists, Harrison Ainsworth and
Robert Neill used it as a basis for their novels, "The Lancashire Witches" and "Mist over Pendle". Both these novelists, however
(in particular Harrison Ainsworth), used the known facts very loosely as a basis around which to weave stories of their own inventions.
This is unfortunate because it means that many people have a mistaken impression of the events that took place and the
people who were involved in them.
In fact very little is known about what really took place. The only historical evidence which has survived is "A wonderful Discovery of Witches" which is an account of the trial written in November 1612 by Thomas Potts, a Clerk to the judges at Lancaster. This account is undoubtedly the reason why these trials are so well known while others are completely forgotten. Nevertheless Potts is not a great help in discovering what really happened, partly because much has been left out by the writer and partly because he himself was so biased, swayed of course by the thinkings of his own times.
The basic facts were as follows: On 18th March, 1612, Alizon Device was begging on the road to Trawden, near Colne. She met John Law, a pedlar, and asked him for some pins. He refused to give her the pins and she became angry with him. He had no sooner parted from her than he fell to the ground lame. Shortly after this she, her immediate family and some neighbours were arrested and questioned by Roger Nowell, the local magistrate and squire who lived in Read Hall. Some were released, some detained, and on 4th April Alizon, Demdike (her grandmother) and Chattox (a neighbour) were sent to Lancaster to await trial on a charge of witchcraft. On 10th April, Good Friday, a group of people, many known to be relatives and neighbours of those arrested, met at Malkin Tower, the home of Alizon Device and her family. On 27th April all those present at Malkin Tower on that day were arrested and questioned by Roger Nowell and other local magistrates. On August 18th and 19th, all were tried at the Assizes in Lancaster. On 20th August, ten, having been found guilty, were taken from the castle and hanged.