The matter was brought to the attention of local magistrate Roger Nowell and Alizon was soon arrested.įurther arrests would follow after Alizon confessed and implicated neighbours ad members of her own family. It was claimed that she had put a curse on him and he soon collapsed, and was paralysed and unable to speak.įrom the medical knowledge we have today, it's more likely that he had suffered a stroke, but the community believed that Alizon had used withcraft to deliberately hurt John. Rare blue moon will appear over Lancashire on Halloween - the best time to seen itĪlizon asked John for some metal pins, but he refused her request and walked away.The spookiest place in Lancashire has been named based on paranormal sightings, cemeteries and abandoned homes.The event that is said to have sparked the case happened on March 18 of that year, when one of Demdike's granddaughters Alizon Device was out begging.Īs she was travelling to Trawden Forest in Pendle, she would cross paths with a man called John Law, who was a peddlar from Haifax. They lived by begging and on their reputation as wise women who claimed to have the power to remove curses and to heal.īut what would lead to August 1612 where 12 people were accused of witchcraft? It's a tale of imprisonment and execution and at the centre of it were two families - the Demdikes and and the Chattoxs - better known as the Pendle Witches.īoth families were headed by elderly widows - Elizabeth Southerns aka Old Demdike and Anne Whittle, known by the nickname of Old Chattox. People were living in wretched fear and poverty and witch hunting had almost become a sport across Europe, but it was the Lancashire Witch Trials that were the most famous and notorious in history. It's thought the text may have even inspired William Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Tempest, but the most damaging aspect was that it instilled a fear of witches amongst all levels of society. The king's own Magnum Opus, Daemonologie, published in 1597 fuelled the fire and included arguments claiming there was biblical proof of witchcraft, black magic, how demons were on earth and a guide on how to spot witches.

The monarch had not long survived the Gunpowder Plot of 1605 and it's fair to say there was a royal obsession and fear of black magic.

King James VI of Scotland became the first monarch to unite the kingdoms of England and Scotland in 1603 when he succeeded his aunt, Queen Elizabeth I.

The year was 1612, James I was king and England was rife with religious persecution and superstition - and Lancashire was no different.

Witch Child by Elizabeth Lloyd