Authors: Dulcinea Norton-Smith
The
warm September breeze blew across my skin; soothing the tick bites and stroking
my shaved scalp. I tried to enjoy the feeling and savour it but my calm had
dissolved and the panic was clawing back into my stomach. I took a deep breath.
Though the air smelt like sewerage and disease I didn
’
t want to waste one of my last
breaths. I felt a rising panic which started in the pit of my stomach then
built and built until I
felt like I
would vomit or faint. I felt my breaths come faster and faster until I felt
dizzy. I fought to control them but I couldn
’
t. Every fibre in my body screamed
for me to run but the shackles at my ankles held me fast. The wooden planks of
the stage thudded beneath my feet and the crowd roared its approval. The body
of the dancing corpse had been released from its rope and lay heavy and limp at
my feet.
The
hangman turned me and smiled. I felt a tight grip on my arms as I was dragged
to the end noose. The last three witches were lined up next to me. I felt the
rough scratch of the rope as it was placed around my neck. I blocked out the
noise of the crowd and listened to my own heartbeat drumming in my ears. I felt
the warmth of the amber sun on my face and shining through my eyelids; like in
my dream. Perhaps that was Heaven, what was waiting for me.
I
opened my eyes for one last look at the world. Still no Gabe. I looked past the
sea of faces and saw one spot of clean, colourful cloth at the back. Nettie
stood still between her new Mam and Dad. Each had a hand on her shoulder. Mr
Nowell stood by but when I looked to him he couldn
’
t meet my eye. Nettie did though and
she was still smiling. I blinked away my tears and saw a figure between her and
Mr Nowell; a young beautiful man, barely more than a boy, wearing a dress coat
which was half black and half brown. Mr Nowell did not notice him.The man bent
slightly to kiss the top of Nettie
’
s head. Her smile widened.
I
looked away; I couldn
’
t bear to watch any more. I stared upwards at the clouds,
the birds high in the sky and the bright golden sun. I took a deep breath and
tried to conjure up the smell of the garden from my dreams and then I heard a
thud and the world disappeared from beneath my feet.
So
how much of this tale was true? Unfortunately a lot of it. Alizon Device did
indeed live in Pendle in 1612 and was the youngest of the Pendle witches to go
to the gallows. The main witness against her was her younger sister Jennet
Device; our little Nettie. So for those of you wanting to get to the heart of
Alizon
’
s tale here are the real facts.
The Devices and the Chattox
’
s
There
were two
“
witch
”
families which made up the majority of the witch community
in and around the area of Pendle in Lancashire. The Device family was headed up
by the matriarch and widow, Elizabeth Southerns, otherwise known as Demdike.
The other members of the family, as they were in 1612, were Elizabeth Device
(Demdike
’
s daughter) and her three children; James, Alizon and
Jennet. The Chattox family were actually named
“
Whittle
”
and was made up of another matriarch
and widow, Anne Whittle (Old Chattox) and her daughter Anne Redfearn. These two
families had a long standing history of arguments, most likely born of a
rivalry between Chattox and Demdike to be the wise woman who was acknowledged
as the best and therefore the one who villagers would seek and pay for the help
of.
It
was believed that Chattox and her daughter were behind the death of the father
of Alizon, James and Jennet after he refused to pay them a yearly sum which he
had previously paid them in exchange for keeping him and his family safe from
harm. It is also believed that Chattox and Anne were responsible for a theft of
clothing and food from the Device family.
With
no patriarchs in the families they made money from occasional work, begging and
the usual village
“
witch craft
”
of healing sick people and animals and making various
cures.
Alizon Device
So
our poor protagonist, Alizon. Shocking that a sixteen year old should suffer
such a life and die in this way. Even more shocking that she was not actually
sixteen as she is in this book but rather was thought to be around the age of
eleven at the time of her death.
Alizon
was begging on the road to Colne when a peddler, John Law, refused to sell her
some pins. Suddenly a black dog appeared and she ordered it to lame the peddler
which she believed it did as he fell to the ground, numb on the left side. Many
historians now put this down to the peddler having a stroke rather than witch
craft.This began a chain of events which led to thirteen Pendle witches being
sent to trial.
At
trial Alizon said that two years earlier her grandmother convinced her to let a
familiar, in the form of a black dog, suck blood from her. He could then give
her unlimited power in exchange for her soul. Alizon then accused her
grandmother, Demdike, of several crimes including; causing the death of a cow
belonging to John Nutter, using witchcraft to turn milk into butter, causing
the death of the daughter of Richard Baldwin and two other deaths. Alizon then
went on to talk about various deaths caused by Chattox. Alizon Device was
hanged at Lancaster Gaol on 20
th
August 1612. The main witness
against her, and her family, at trial was her younger sister Jennet Device.
Demdike and Tibb
Elizabeth
Southerns had been known to villagers as a witch for fifty years at the time of
her death. Demdike died in gaol awaiting trial so never saw the gallows.
Demdike
’
s story was that she met a devil in the shape of a boy when
she was on the way home from begging. His coat was half brown and half black.
He told Demdike that she could have anything she wished if she gave him her
soul. The spirit told her that his name was Tibb. Unlike in our story, however,
Demdike claimed that she held out for five years before finally being tricked
into Tibb, as a dog, sucking blood from her. She also claimed to have just
enough time to cry
“
Jesus save my child
”
about the infant Elizabeth she held
on her knee.
Demdike
also admitted to suspecting Tibb of causing the death of Richard Baldwin
’
s at her behest. In keeping with
their long time grudges Demdike then went on to incriminate Chattox in all
manner of crimes. Demdike also explained about the practice of making figurines
from clay which was then dried and parts of the figuring pricked with a pin or
snapped off to cause illness or injury to the person that the figuring
represented. This is the practice which led me to name this book
Blood and Clay
.
Jennet Device
Jennet,
in this story Alizon
’
s precious little Nettie, was actually aged around nine
when she gave testimony against her family and gave enough evidence to Justice
Roger Nowell to ensure their hanging. Whether this was done because of naivety,
for attention or because she was led by Justice Nowell is unclear. The
interesting twist to Jennet
’
s tale is that she herself was also sent to the gallows as
a witch many years later.
Roger Nowell
Though
there are theories that Roger Nowell
’
s hunt for the Pendle Witches had a
political aim, he did seem to genuinely believe in witchcraft. There is no
evidence that he ever used any tortures to elicit confessions (though tortures
were used by many across England). In fact it seems that many of the
confessions, Alizon
’
s and Jennet
’
s in particular, were given to him
quite freely. There have been speculations, however, that Jennet Device was led
by Roger in her testimony and her youth and wanting for attention made her a
more than eager witness. Roger Nowell did not usually work alone, as he did in
this novel, but with another local magistrate called Nicholas Bannister to
oversee the large and small legal issues that occurred in the county.
Thomas Potts
Who?
Thomas Potts? I don
’
t remember that name. Wait.... before you start to scour
this book for that name let me reassure you that you only met him in passing.
Thomas Potts only makes a fleeting appearance in Blood and Clay yet without him
the book would not exist. The trial of the Pendle Witches could have
disappeared un-noticed like so many other trials had it not been for the
unusual occurrence of his court notes being published.
Thomas
Potts was the clerk of the court during the witch trials and his notes were
published in a book called
The Wonderful
Discoverie of Witches in the Countie of Lancaster.
Without these trial notes we would not have
known the rich amount of information about the Pendle Witches which we know
today. In Blood and Clay the offences and the descriptions of the Device family
come straight from the notes of Thomas Potts.
King James I
King
James was the son of Queen Mary I, Mary Queen of Scotts. He ascended to the
throne in 1603. In 1605 a man named Guy Fawkes was arrested whilst trying to
blow up Parliament. This reinforced King James
’
fear and oppression of English
Catholics. This fear radiated into all areas of King James
’
s life and encouraged him further in
the hunt for and execution of witches.
In
1597, before he became King, James published his book
The Daemonologie
which was a study of witchcraft. Following the
Gunpowder Plot the drive to hunt down witches increased and perhaps had some
impact upon the Pendle Witch Trials. Many scholars think that the paranoia of
King James lent some inspiration to the witches scene in
Macbeth.
Gabriel
Unfortunately
Gabriel never existed and was invented purely for this book. As Alizon was
thought to be just eleven years old at the time of her death it is unlikely
that romance ever crossed her mind.
The
Lancashire Witches, William Harrison Ainsworth, Publisher: Alan Rodgers Books
(1 Nov 2006), ISBN-10: 1598183494
The
Wonderfull Discoverie of Witches in the Countie of Lancaster, Thomas Potts,
Publisher: Carnegie Publishing Ltd; Facsimile of 1612 ed edition (10 May 2007),
ISBN-10: 1859361005
The
Lancashire Witch Craze: Jennet Preston and the Lancashire Witches, 1612,
Jonathan Lumby, Publisher: Carnegie Publishing Ltd; New edition edition (10 Feb
1995), ISBN-10: 1859360254
Mist
Over Pendle, Robert Neill, Publisher: Arrow Books Ltd; New edition edition (Mar
1981), ISBN-10: 0099067803, ISBN-13: 978-0099067801
One
Guy From Barlick,
http://oneguyfrombarlick.co.uk/
The
Pendle Witches,
http://www.pendlewitches.co.uk/
Pendle
Heritage Centre, Barrowford, Lancashire
Witches
Galore, Newchurch in Pendle, Pendle, Lancashire, BB12 9JR
Pendle
Witch Experience Tour, Lingmoor Drive, Burnley, Lancashire, BB12 8UY
Judges'
Lodgings in Lancaster, Church Street, Lancaster, Lancashire, LA1 1YS
St
Mary's Parish Church, Sunnymede, Newchurch-in-Pendle, Lancashire, BB12 9JH
Dulcinea
can be found at
http://www.dulcineanortonsmith.co.uk
where you will also find links to
her work both online and in print.