[92], A life-size statue of Alice Nutter, by sculptor David Palmer, was unveiled in her home village, Roughlee. Lancaster County's special trees are separated into 11 categories (a single tree might fall in more than one category). SOME OF THE "FAMOUS" WITCH TRIALS IN PENNSYLVANIA. … The prosecution alleged that she, together with Demdike and Elizabeth Device, had caused Mitton's death after he had refused to give Demdike a penny she had begged from him. Neighbors told of curses Mummey put on them and their livestock and said they lived in fear of the powers of the “Witch of Ringtown Valley.”, Source: ‘Witch’ murdered in Pennsylvania Dutch country over hex – NY Daily News. On 27 April 1612, an inquiry was held before Nowell and another magistrate, Nicholas Bannister, to determine the purpose of the meeting at Malkin Tower, who had attended, and what had happened there. Jordan Bush is a Lancaster County based Photographer and Writer. Dec 20, 2012 - A collection of columns, photos and stories about Berks County folklore, history and culture. She also said her mother had a familiar called Ball, who appeared in the shape of a brown dog. The trials of the Pendle witches in 1612 are among the most famous witch trials in English history, and some of the best recorded of the 17th century. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); → Mike Argento: A witness to the Hex murder passes - The York Daily Record Jeannette Harvey's father was friends with Nelson Rehmeyer, the victim in the infamous 1928 Hex murder in southern ... Catharine Eberth, who died at age 77 in 1903, was a well-known practitioner of powwowing. [65] She was found guilty. It was against this background of seeking out religious nonconformists that, in March 1612, Nowell investigated a complaint made to him by the family of John Law, a pedlar, who claimed to have been injured by witchcraft. One year after James acceded to the English throne, a law was enacted imposing the death penalty in cases where it was proven that harm had been caused through the use of magic, or corpses had been exhumed for magical purposes. The Switch Witch is a crafty and cunning little fairy. [34] Only one of the accused, Alice Grey, was found not guilty. 525 GoggleWorks Center for the Arts Reading, PA 19601. [7], In early 1612, the year of the trials, every justice of the peace (JP) in Lancashire was ordered to compile a list of recusants in their area, i.e. Blake Morrison published a volume of poetry, A Discoverie of Witches.[96]. lift, stump grinder, tireman (for power equipment), machines similar to above including remote control equipment. [81], In modern times the witches have become the inspiration for Pendle's tourism and heritage industries, with local shops selling a variety of witch-motif gifts. Six of the Pendle witches came from one of two families, each at the time headed by a woman in her eighties: Elizabeth Southerns (a.k.a. May 27, 2015 - There are many points of interest near our communities in Berks County. It (and Agnes's surname) come from from the names of Pendle witches. [31], The Pendle witches were tried in a group that also included the Samlesbury witches, Jane Southworth, Jennet Brierley, and Ellen Brierley, the charges against whom included child murder, cannibalism; Margaret Pearson, the so-called Padiham witch, who was facing her third trial for witchcraft, this time for killing a horse; and Isobel Robey from Windle, accused of using witchcraft to cause sickness. [13] The event that seems to have triggered Nowell's investigation, culminating in the Pendle witch trials, occurred on 21 March 1612. The appellation "Demdike" derives from "demon woman", suggesting that she was "feared and loathed within the community". [82] Pendle Hill, which dominates the landscape of the area, continues to be associated with witchcraft, and hosts a hilltop gathering every Halloween. One was tried at York Assizes on 27 July 1612, and another died in prison. Gallows Hill is on the moors close to the site of present-day, The Wonderfull Discoverie of Witches in the Countie of Lancaster, An Act Against Conjurations, Enchantments and Witchcrafts, "The witch trial that made legal history", "Oddly, no. VIDEO | ‘Hex Hollow’ documentary to hit screen in York, Pa. Hex murder victim’s granddaughter carries on powwow legacy, Mountain Folklore: Finding Mountain Mary’s grave, Old tradition of powwow quietly survives in Berks County, Sigal Museum to host PA Dutch Pow-wow and music cultural talks, “Powwowing in Pennsylvania: Healing Rituals of the Dutch Country”, History columnist Richard L.T. Historian John Swain has said that the outbreaks of witchcraft in and around Pendle demonstrate the extent to which people could make a living either by posing as a witch, or by accusing or threatening to accuse others of being a witch. The meal was handed over annually until the year before John's death; on his deathbed John claimed that his sickness had been caused by Chattox because they had not paid for protection. [6] James was, however, sceptical of the evidence presented in witch trials, even to the extent of personally exposing discrepancies in the testimonies presented against some accused witches. A half-dog, half-deer, half-human is also said to live in the woods and will chase or harm any person who creeps too far into its territory. An official record dated 22 August 1636 lists Jennet Device as one of those still held in the prison. [27], The committal and subsequent trial of the four women might have been the end of the matter, had it not been for a meeting organised by Elizabeth Device at Malkin Tower, the home of the Demdikes,[28] held on Good Friday 10 April 1612. Early Witch Trial in Pennsylvania.--To illustrate the extremely fortunate circumstances in having so few witch trials in Pennsylvania, we bring to you reference to the first reported case (which turned out to be not much of a case at all), in which William Penn sat in judgment--and let it speak for itself. [78] In that series of trials the chief prosecution witness was a ten-year-old boy, Edmund Robinson. [47][49] Jennet was placed on a table and stated that she believed her mother had been a witch for three or four years. [45] She pleaded not guilty, but the confession she had made to Roger Nowell--likely under torture--was read out in court, and evidence against her was presented by James Robinson, who had lived with the Chattox family 20 years earlier. This demanded the death penalty, but only where harm had been caused; lesser offences were punishable by a term of imprisonment. [15] Seventeenth-century metal pins were handmade and relatively expensive, but they were frequently needed for magical purposes, such as in healing – particularly for treating warts – divination, and for love magic, which may have been why Alizon was so keen to get hold of them and why Law was so reluctant to sell them to her. Burnley's Moorhouse's produces a beer called Pendle Witches Brew, and there is a Pendle Witch Trail running from Pendle Heritage Centre to Lancaster Castle, where the accused witches were held before their trial. It was alleged that the Pendle witches had hatched their own gunpowder plot to blow up Lancaster Castle, although historian Stephen Pumfrey has suggested that the "preposterous scheme" was invented by the examining magistrates and simply agreed to by James Device in his witness statement. Chattox broke down and admitted her guilt, calling on God for forgiveness and the judges to be merciful to her daughter, Anne Redferne. Rather than let crops go to waste, ... Jacob Boehm was one of them, emigrating from Germany in 1740 to what is now Berks County, which was once a part of Lancaster County. In 1618, he was given responsibility for "collecting the forfeitures on the laws concerning sewers, for twenty-one years". Welcome to Celtic Myth and Moonlight! The main witness against Device was her daughter, Jennet, who was about nine years old. [66], Almost everything that is known about the trials comes from a report of the proceedings written by Thomas Potts, the clerk to the Lancaster Assizes. A witch is a witch and is up to no good. The outbreaks of witchcraft in and around Pendle may demonstrate the extent to which people could make a living by posing as witches. All the other accused lived in Lancashire, so they were sent to Lancaster Assizes for trial, where the judges were once again Altham and Bromley. Anyone with a moral agenda is a healer and a Braucher, not a witch." The evidence against her was considered unsatisfactory, and she was acquitted. The Virtuoso (film) Blue Valentine (film) The Trouble with Cali; That Championship Season (1982 film) Playing for Keeps (1986 film) ‘’Wanda (1970 film) ‘’ Lancaster County [70] It may therefore be significant that Potts dedicated The Wonderfull Discoverie to Thomas Knyvet and his wife Elizabeth; Knyvet was the man credited with apprehending Guy Fawkes and thus saving the King. I c. 16). [23] Alizon accused Chattox of murdering four men by witchcraft, and of killing her father, John Device, who had died in 1601. [46], Elizabeth Device was charged with the murders of James Robinson, John Robinson and, together with Alice Nutter and Demdike, the murder of Henry Mitton. Notorious Doan Outlaws leave behind $2 million in Berks County. All but two were tried at Lancaster Assizes on 18–19 August 1612, along with the Samlesbury witches and others, in a series of trials that have become known as the Lancashire witch trials. Demdike claimed that she had given her soul to the Devil 20 years previously, and Chattox that she had given her soul to "a Thing like a Christian man", on his promise that "she would not lack anything and would get any revenge she desired". The Berks County Conservancy owns nearly 500-acres of Nerversink that connects trails from one end of the mountain to the other. Powwowing: A Persistent American Esoteric Tradition. "First, you must understand that the Dutch (PA Dutch) define a witch differently. [28], Friends and others sympathetic to the family attended, and when word of it reached Roger Nowell, he decided to investigate. Potts does not provide an account of Alice Grey's trial, simply recording her as one of the Samlesbury witches – which she was not, as she was one of those identified as having been at the Malkin Tower meeting – and naming her in the list of those found not guilty. Old tradition of powwow quietly survives in Berks County Posted on July 17, 2014 by visitpadutchcountry → The secret healers: Old tradition of powwowquietly survives in some corners of Berks County EQUIPMENT RENTALS SALES USED EQUIPMENT RESOURCES CONTACT. [25] Although Anne Redferne made no confession, Demdike said that she had seen her making clay figures. Church records such as those included here are among the best sources for information on births, marriages, and deaths for the period of time before widespread civil registration of vital statistics. Berks, which obviously is … [31], Altham continued with his judicial career until his death in 1617, and Bromley achieved his desired promotion to the Midlands Circuit in 1616. Berks County Living 201 Washington St., Ste. Population : 2,279 (2010 U.S. Census Bureau) Municipal building … The others accused were Jane Bulcock and her son John Bulcock, Alice Nutter, Katherine Hewitt, Alice Grey, and Jennet Preston. James Device also gave evidence against his mother, saying he had seen her making a clay figure of one of her victims, John Robinson. The king was head of the judiciary, and Bromley was hoping for promotion to a circuit nearer London. Despite the abbey's closure, and the execution of its abbot, the people of Pendle remained largely faithful to their Roman Catholic beliefs and were quick to revert to Catholicism on Queen Mary's accession to the throne in 1553. Pre Prohibition Grain Ledger from Historic Bomberger's Distillery. The practition of “Pow-Wow” is almost as old as Berks County itself. [29] To feed the party, James Device stole a neighbour's sheep. [14] The X43 bus route run by Burnley Bus Company has been branded The Witch Way, with some of the vehicles operating on it named after the witches in the trial. Of the eleven who went to trial – nine women and two men – ten were found guilty and executed by hanging; one was found not guilty. ... * Please call us for any questions on our trenchers in Lancaster PA, Lebanon PA, Reading PA, Lancaster County, Berks County and surrounding areas. Such a scenario existed during the 18th and early 19th centuries. [48], James Device pleaded not guilty to the murders by witchcraft of Anne Townley and John Duckworth. Prior to the 1830s, the cost of paint meant that most barns were unpainted. [21] When questioned about Anne Whittle (Chattox), the matriarch of the other family reputedly involved in witchcraft in and around Pendle, Alizon perhaps saw an opportunity for revenge. As of the 2020 general election, Lancaster County’s Republican registration was about 179,000, compared with 114,000 Democrats. January 2014) (Learn how and when to remove this template message Uniquely among the accused, Alizon was confronted in court by her alleged victim, John Law. Bromley revised and corrected the manuscript before its publication in 1613, declaring it to be "truly reported" and "fit and worthie to be published". [72] Court records show that Lancashire was unusual in the north of England for the frequency of its witch trials. BERKS, CARBON, LANCASTER, LEHIGH and NORTHAMPTON COUNTIES Rates Fringes ... ditch witch type trencher, second class driller, forklift truck under 20ft. Potts was given the keepership of Skalme Park by James in 1615, to breed and train the king's hounds. [77] The charge against her was the murder of Isabel Nutter, William Nutter's wife. [61] She was the wife of a clothier from Colne,[62] and had attended the meeting at Malkin Tower with Alice Grey. Photo by Jordan Bush from December 2018 Issue of Lancaster County Magazine "Whether or not you’re a whiskey drinker, it’s difficult to imagine Lancaster’s countryside filled with rye fields and dotted with distilleries. The twelve accused lived in the area surrounding 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 on 18–19 August 1612, along with the … According to the evidence given by James Device, both Hewitt and Grey told the others at that meeting that they had killed a child from Colne, Anne Foulds. There's none of this "good witch" and "bad witch" nonsense. "THREE KILL MAN AS WITCH" read the front-page headline of the Harrisburg Telegraph on Nov. 30, 1928. Witchraft Road in Berks County. The accused witches lived in the area around Pendle Hill in Lancashire, a county which, at the end of the 16th century, was regarded by the authorities as a wild and lawless region: an area "fabled for its theft, violence and sexual laxity, where the church was honoured without much understanding of its doctrines by the common people". [58], Alice Nutter was unusual among the accused in being comparatively wealthy, the widow of a tenant yeoman farmer. Pa. man with ‘hunting humans’ DVD charged with killing co-worker [50] Elizabeth Device was found guilty. [20], Alizon Device, her mother Elizabeth, and her brother James were summoned to appear before Nowell on 30 March 1612. Contact Us The writer and poet Blake Morrison treated the subject in his suite of poems Pendle Witches, published in 1996, and in 2011 poet Simon Armitage narrated a documentary on BBC Four, The Pendle Witch Child. Vice President. [64], Alizon Device, whose encounter with John Law had triggered the events leading up to the trials, was charged with causing harm by witchcraft. [26] Based on the evidence and confessions he had obtained, Nowell committed Demdike, Chattox, Anne Redferne and Alizon Device to Lancaster Gaol, to be tried for maleficium – causing harm by witchcraft – at the next assizes. Preston lived across the border in Yorkshire, so she was sent for trial at York Assizes; the others were sent to Lancaster Gaol, to join the four already imprisoned there. [22] The Demdikes are believed to have lived close to Newchurch in Pendle, and the Chattox family about 2 miles (3.2 km) away, near the village of Fence. [33], Some of the accused Pendle witches, such as Alizon Device, seem to have genuinely believed in their guilt, but others protested their innocence to the end. Police at first labeled the murder as nothing more than the outcome of yet another “hillbilly mountain feud.” In Mummey’s case, though, there was something more sinister. Three witch sisters once lived in a small house atop Chiques Hill. Alizon confessed under torture that she had sold her soul to the Devil, and that she had told him to lame John Law after he had called her a thief. [84][85] Ten years later another petition was organised in an attempt to obtain pardons for Chattox and Demdike. United States of Berks is a recurring feature and will highlight municipalities throughout the county. Witnesses were called to testify that Anne was a witch "more dangerous than her Mother". A woman with that name was listed in a group of 20 tried at Lancaster Assizes on 24 March 1634, although it cannot be certain that it was the same Jennet Device. The official publication of the proceedings by the clerk to the court, Thomas Potts, in his The Wonderfull Discoverie of Witches in the Countie of Lancaster, and the number of witches hanged together – nine at Lancaster and one at York – make the trials unusual for England at that time. She had already appeared before Bromley in 1611, accused of murdering a child by witchcraft, but had been found not guilty. Altham was nearing the end of his judicial career, but he had recently been accused of a miscarriage of justice at the York Assizes, which had resulted in a woman being sentenced to death by hanging for witchcraft. Spotted Lanternfly. Church Records: Adams, Berks, and Lancaster Counties, Pennsylvania, 1729-1881. ... which some theorize spurred on the Salem Witch Trials. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pendle_witches", "Good Omens: How Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman's friendship inspired their comic masterpiece", "New statue gives Pendle 'witch' the respect she deserves", "Pendle hosts record-breaking gathering of witches", "World record for biggest group of people dressed as witches in one place set on 400th anniversary of the Pendle witch trials", "Blake Morrison: under the witches' spell", Margaret Aitken (the great witch of Balwearie), Witchcraft and divination in the Old Testament, A Dialogue Concerning Witches and Witchcrafts, Treatises on the Apparitions of Spirits and on Vampires or Revenants, Ss John Fisher and Thomas More RC High School, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Pendle_witches&oldid=1002360341, Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 24 January 2021, at 01:43. The judges may have been uncertain whether the best way to gain the King's favour was by encouraging convictions, or by "sceptically testing the witnesses to destruction". [51][52], The trials of the three Samlesbury witches were heard before Anne Redferne's first appearance in court,[50] late in the afternoon, charged with the murder of Robert Nutter. Local lore had cast the old farm woman as a practitioner of a dark art known in Pennsylvania Dutch country as Hexerei. [34], Jennet Preston lived in Gisburn, which was then in Yorkshire, so she was sent to York Assizes for trial. [54] But she refused to admit her guilt to the end, and had given no evidence against any others of the accused. → The secret healers: Old tradition of powwowquietly survives in some corners of Berks County. From 1559 assize courts tended to deal with the more serious criminal offences, although this was not always the case. An old building foundation is said to be the old home of a witch, and another house is said to be a home populated by little people who will chase visitors. Her brother, James, stated that his sister had also confessed to bewitching a local child. [94] The Bishop of Burnley, the Rt Rev John Goddard, expressed concern about marking the anniversary on the side of the hill. Nine of the accused – Alizon Device, Elizabeth Device, James Device, Anne Whittle, Anne Redferne, Alice Nutter, Katherine Hewitt, John Bulcock and Jane Bulcock – were found guilty during the two-day trial and hanged at Gallows Hill[43][b] in Lancaster on 20 August 1612; Elizabeth Southerns died while awaiting trial. Its screening and subsequent distribution is sure to bring widespread attention to this case, ... → Mike Argento: Hex murder victim's granddaughter carries on powwow legacy - The York Daily Record Although the blame for Rehmeyer's death ultimate rests on the souls of the three men ... → Mountain Folklore: Finding Mountain Mary's grave | Reading Eagle → Or try first link of search results to read the article. [55] Anne Redferne was found guilty. The twelve accused lived in the area surrounding Pendle Hill in Lancashire, and were charged with the murders of ten people by the use of witchcraft. Form and use. The prosecutor was local magistrate Roger Nowell, who had been responsible for collecting the various statements and confessions from the accused. [3] In 1562, early in her reign, Elizabeth passed a law in the form of An Act Against Conjurations, Enchantments and Witchcrafts (5 Eliz. [35] According to a statement made to Nowell by James Device on 27 April, Jennet had attended the Malkin Tower meeting to seek help with Lister's murder. 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, both trying to make a living from healing, begging, and extortion. SLF feeds on the plant sap of many different plants including grapevines, maples, black walnut, and other important plants in PA. By the early 1590s he had become convinced that he was being plotted against by Scottish witches. That, and the evidence presented against him by his sister Jennet, who said that she had seen her brother asking a black dog he had conjured up to help him kill Townley, was sufficient to persuade the jury to find him guilty. Wallace Nutting, a nationally known photographer, was taken with the colorful folk paintings on barns in the Berks County area while working on his book, Pennsylvania Beautiful, in 1924. [63], Alice Grey was accused with Katherine Hewitt of the murder of Anne Foulds. [35] Jennet was charged with the murder by witchcraft of a local landowner, Thomas Lister of Westby Hall,[36] to which she pleaded not guilty. The most damning evidence given against her was that when she had been taken to see Lister's body, the corpse "bled fresh bloud presently, in the presence of all that were there present" after she touched it. These are: (1) Age , in that the tree is at least 150-200 years old, or at least old for its species if the species is generally short-lived; He learned they were known as stunna blumma (Pennsylvania Dutch for flower bloom ) or hexafoos — literally translated as witch’s foot. She claimed that her father had been so frightened of Old Chattox that he had agreed to give her 8 pounds (3.6 kg) of oatmeal each year in return for her promise not to hurt his family. [87] The Lancashire Witches is the only one of his 40 novels never to have been out of print. David W Kriebel, Ph.D. Powwowing, or brauche in the Pennsylvania Dutch dialect, is a magico-religious practice whose chief purpose is the healing of physical ailments in humans in animals, although it has had other aims as well, such as conferring protection from physical or spiritual harm, bringing good luck, and revealing … This article needs additional citations for verification. [80] These later Lancashire witchcraft trials were the subject of a contemporary play written by Thomas Heywood and Richard Brome, The Late Lancashire Witches. [59] Alice may have called in on the meeting at Malkin Tower on her way to a secret (and illegal) Good Friday Catholic service, and refused to speak for fear of incriminating her fellow Catholics. [75] There may have been bad blood between the Demdike and Chattox families because they were in competition with each other, trying to make a living from healing, begging, and extortion. Many of the Nutter family were Catholics, and two had been executed as Jesuit priests, John Nutter in 1584 and his brother Robert in 1600. [57] Both denied that they had attended the meeting at Malkin Tower, but Jennet Device identified Jane as having been one of those present, and John as having turned the spit to roast the stolen sheep, the centrepiece of the Good Friday meeting at the Demdike's home. [11], One of the accused, Demdike, had been regarded in the area as a witch for fifty years, and some of the deaths the witches were accused of had happened many years before Roger Nowell started to take an interest in 1612. Elizabeth was more reticent, admitting only that her mother, Demdike, had a mark on her body, something that many, including Nowell, would have regarded as having been left by the Devil after he had sucked her blood. [10], It was perhaps difficult for the judges charged with hearing the trials – Sir James Altham and Sir Edward Bromley – to understand King James's attitude towards witchcraft. Both Demdike and Chattox were by then blind and in their eighties, and both provided Nowell with damaging confessions. Pa. man with 'hunting humans' DVD charged with killing co-worker Neighbors told of … Neighbouring Cheshire, for instance, also suffered from economic problems and religious activists, but there only 47 people were indicted for causing harm by witchcraft between 1589 and 1675, of whom 11 were found guilty. It has been estimated that all the English witch trials between the early 15th and early 18th centuries resulted in fewer than 500 executions; this series of trials accounts for more than two per cent of that total. Under cross-examination in London, Robinson admitted that he had fabricated his evidence,[77] but even though four of the accused were eventually pardoned,[79] they all remained incarcerated in Lancaster Gaol, where it is likely that they died.