ipl-logo

Pendle Witch Trial Research Paper

491 Words2 Pages

The Pendle Witch Trials are part of the most famous witch trials in English history and are also some of the best recorded of the 17th Century. The first twelve witched accused all lived in the area around Pendle Hill in Lancashire, England. A man called Roger Nowell was the the local Justice of the Peace. In 1612, he was required to compile a list of the recusants in the area (people who refused to attend the English Church and to take communion, at this time it was a criminal offence). At the same time, a claim was brought by John Law, a Halifax peddler, against Alizon Device of Pendle, accusing her of causing a stroke by witchcraft. Alizon freely confessed that she had sold her soul to the Devil and also appeared to be convinced of her own powers to injure. …show more content…

In the end, twelve people from Pendle were accused: Alizon Device, Elizabeth Device, James Device, Elizabeth Southerns, Alice Gray, Jennet Preston, Anne Whittle, Anne Redferne, Alice Nutter, Katherine Hewitt, John Bulcock and Jane Bulcock. They were all charged with the murders of ten people by the use of witchcraft, and ten of the twelve were tried at Lancaster Assizes in August 1612. This was because Jennet Preston was tried at York, and Elizabeth Southerns 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 Alice Gray was the only one found not guilty. Nine-year-old Jennet Device was a key witness for the prosecution (she gave evidence against members of her own family), this would not have been permitted in many other 17th Century criminal trials, but King James had made a case for suspending the normal rules of evidence for witchcraft trials in his “Daemonologie”. Several years later, Jennet Device found herself accused of witchcraft as

Show More
Related
553 Words | 3 Pages

Salem Witch Trials http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/salem.htm The Trial of Martha Corey In March of 1692, a young woman that had recently became a member of the congregation, was accused of witchcraft. Other women of the church accused Martha Corey of being a witch, and Corey’s sarcastic response to the accusations winded her up arrested.

Read More
583 Words | 3 Pages

The Salem Witch Trial is a historically located incident stirred by the accusations of an Indian slave woman, named Tituba, who confessed to the practice of witchcraft under the pressure and physical force of colonial slave owners in 1692. She escaped execution, unlike many accused women, because of her ability to acclimate to the culture and society of her oppressors. In Breslaw’s portrait of Tituba’s life starting with her ambiguous Amerindian-Caribbean roots, she shows how Tituba’s first step in acclimating to British-colonial society was to force her mother tongue to take a backseat to the language introduced and enforced by English colonizers who captured “American Indians to sell as slaves in Barbados” for the purpose of providing slave labor to British colonies in

Read More
286 Words | 2 Pages

Throughout the 1940s and 50s America was overwhelmed with concerns about the threat of communism growing in eastern Europe and China. Paranoia ensued. Salem was established as a religious community in the midst of evil. The people of Salem considered the forest the domain of the devil, and as you could guess, they were surrounded by it; Paranoia ensued

Read More
502 Words | 3 Pages

The Wurzburg Witch trials started in a territory around the city in 1626. Julius Echter von Mespelbrunn (the Prince Bishop of Wurzburg) gave the consent needed for the trials to begin. They reached climax under Philipp Adolf von Ehrenbuerg; the nephew and successor of Julius. The Wurzburg Witch Trials took place during a witch hysteria that resulted in a series of trials.

Read More
1920 Words | 8 Pages

The North Berwick trials in the 1590s were kickstarted by David Seaton, which historian Suzannah Lipscomb argues was due to the sexual dominance and ownership he felt over Gilly Duncan. Duncan herself was simply caught leaving late at night and captured and tortured by Seaton, who believed she was a witch. Her torture included wrenching and searching where Duncan was severely violated upon the whims of a man who wanted to demonstrate the power he held on Duncan’s life. Duncan’s confession of being a witch, along with the names of eight other witches, snowballed into 100 – 200 being accused and tried of witchcraft. Throughout these trials, James VI became personally involved in the investigations such as the trial of Agnes Sampson and was so caught up in the idea of witchcraft and evil entering Scotland, he essentially gave convictions and torture the “Stamp of royal approval”.

Read More
616 Words | 3 Pages

The Civil Rights Movement and The Salem Witch Hunts “Only in the darkness can you see the stars.” - Martin Luther King Jr. In both the 1690’s Salem Witch Trials and the 1960’s Civil Rights Movement there were groups of people who were mistreated and faced dark times. Leading up to the protests in The Civil Rights there was enormous tension in the USA between African-Americans and their oppressors due to the history of slavery and discrimination against the minority. African-American citizens, like those accused of witchcraft in The Crucible, suffered from the inability to work, they were more likely to be assaulted or a victim of a violent crime, and were segregated from the public.

Read More
1032 Words | 5 Pages

On June 15, 1692, a group of ministers including Mather wrote to at the time Governor Phips urging that special caution be taken in the use of evidence in the trials. The court next met on June 29 and heard the cases of five more accused women. When the jury tried to acquit accused witch Rebecca Nurse, William Stoughton sent the jury back to deliberate, and returned with a changed verdict from innocent to guilty. Ultimately, all five of the women were hanged on July 19, 1692; at this time the witchcraft hysteria had spread out of the Salem border to Andover. When the hysteria reached the Corey household for the second time, Martha’s husband Giles

Read More
576 Words | 3 Pages

They thought she had befriended the devil herself and basically saw him as her master when she was just wrongly

Read More
1142 Words | 5 Pages

She stated that she was sorry, and felt as though she was taken by satan. She said, "I desire to be humbled before God for that sad and humbling providence that befell my father's family in the year about ninety-two; that I, then being in my childhood, should, by such a providence of God, be made an instrument for the accusing of several people for grievous crimes, whereby their lives was taken away from them, whom, now I have just grounds and good reason to believe they were innocent persons; and that it was a great delusion of

Read More
574 Words | 3 Pages

The Salem witch trials took place early 1692 to mid 1693 held in the Old Colony State, Massachusetts. The trials first took place due to a group of girls acting strange, which caused a scene in front of the town of Salem. The town doctor concluded that this was an act of witchcraft. At the time this was considered a great sin to the Puritan town, this ultimately led to the creation of the witch trials that America knows today. The history of the infamous trials explores cultural beliefs, societal, and political factors that contributed to the dark part of history that is called the Salem witch trials.

Read More
1599 Words | 7 Pages

What was going through people's mind when testifying? Bad luck! We all have felt it at one point that we have had bad luck, but to blame it on witchcraft would just be wrong. At the end, she had no chance and was found guilty. It wasn't a fair trial.

Read More
451 Words | 2 Pages

Our topic, on the Salem Witch Trial, was chosen because we were inspired by a lesson taught by our 7th-grade social studies teacher, Mr.Wong. He had discussed the Salem Witch Trial as part of the 7th-grade curriculum; we were fascinated by this topic that we wanted to learn more about this event. What captured our interest? It was mostly due to the fact that this topic involved witchcraft since at this day it would most likely not be accepted. We found that the Salem Witch Trial was significant to the US’s history since it foretold the fragility of the US’s society in the past when reacting to a magical threat.

Read More
953 Words | 4 Pages

Although the beginning of witchcraft cannot be dated, it was believed to be a very real thing by many, even arguably all civilizations. Throughout history many horrendous trials have been focused on witches/wizards. Historically one of the most well know trails was the one that took place in Salem. The Salem Witch Trails occurred in 1692, this conflict caused death, the downfall of a community, and diminished the trust of 100’s of people. Many religious beliefs, mixed with fear of witchcraft, and a lack of knowledge resulted in 200 accused and 19 permanently suffering.

Read More
721 Words | 3 Pages

Bridget Bishop, a resident of Salem, was the first person to be tried as a witch. Surprisingly, Bishop was accused of witch craft by the highest number of witneses. After Bishop, more than two hundred people were tried of practicing witchcraft and twenty were executed. Many of these accusations arose from jealous, lower class members of society, especially towards women who had come into a great deal of land or wealth. Three young children by the names of Elizabeth, Abigail, and Ann were the first three people to be “harmed” by the witches.

Read More
1546 Words | 7 Pages

In a matter of time five people were hanged in July. One was Rebecca Nurse. Her execution was a pivotal moment in Salem Witch Trials. Nurse was a well-respected and well-loved member of the community. When first arrested the community signed a petition for her release.

Read More

More about Pendle Witch Trial Research Paper

Related Topics

Open Document