Stage 1 Carre Hall
Malarkey Gawthorpe Hall Greenhead Manor Nutters Stage 2 Ashlar House
Embedded Files
Trial Trail starts here
Trial Trail starts here
Come off M65 Motorway @ Junction 13 and turn immediate left, along Barrowford Rd.
Look out for Carr Hall Lane on left after about half a mile. Old Carr Hall, demolished in 1954. Nice lawn!
(I can find no trace of the Hall now for some extra points)James Device was a regular visitor. On Easter Sunday 1610 he paid a visit to the kitchen where he often managed 'to wangle a bun or two from the maids'. He knew to keep clear of the mistress Anne Townley who had accused him and his mother, Elizabeth, of stealing peat turves. On this occasion she ordered him out, giving him a hard push, and told to not come back. Within two weeks Anne was dead and her husband, Henry Townley, was convinced that James had bewitched his wife
(Extracted from 'The Road to Malkin Tower)
This is where the story starts....and much of this story involves 'land'.
Carre Hall
Carre Hall
Sir John Townley of Burnley, head of a famous Catholic family, enclosed nearby lands and had their inhabitants evicted. The areas affected included Hapton and Rowley, and what is now the favourite park in Burnley - Townley Park.
One of the people displaced from Hapton by the Townleys (see Background) was James Device. He came to Pendle Forest as this area was still not enclosed.
James Device may have been a peasant (with a bit of land catching rabbits and growing few crops), but more likely an 'assarter' (what we now call a squatter).
James Device was later accused of being a Pendle witch. He had previously been accused by Mrs Townley, a member of a branch of the landed family living near Barrowford, of taking turf from Carre Hall. It is hard to see any value in taking turf. Was the taking of the turf a gesture against his injustice?
But according to Jennet Device's testimony (left) there was more to it.. According to the 9yr old old Jennet Device, who giving evidence against her brother at the trial, she accused 'the Examinate' - ie James Device (her brother) of witchcraft.
King James 1 introduced a new Witchcraft Act in 1604 that made it easier to charge a person with 'keeping a familiar' than to accuse them of murder.
That if any person or persons, after the said Feast of St. Michael the Archangell next coming, shall use, practise, or exercise any invocation or conjuration of any evil and wicked spirit: or shall consult, covenant with, entertaine, imploy, feed, or reward any evil and wicked spirit, to or for any intent or purpose; or take up any dead man, woman, or child, out of his, her, or their grave, or any other place where the dead body resteth; or the skin, bone, or any other part of any dead person, to be imployed, or used in any manner of Witchcraft, Sorcery, Charme, or Inchantment, or shall use, practise, or exercise, any Witchcraft, Incantment, Charme or Sorcery, whereby any person shall be Killed, Destroyed, Wasted, Consumed, Pined, or Lamed, in His or Her body, or any part therof; that then every such Offender, or Offenders, their Ayders, Abettors, and Counsellors, being of the said offences duly and lawfully Convicted and Attainted, shall suffer paines of death as a Felon or Felons, and shall lose the priviledge and benefit of Clergy and Sanctuary.A fine statue depicting 'Dandy' was erected outside Booth's Clitheroe in 2024. What a load of malarkey!
The plaque says he confessed to having a 'familiar' or spirit dog. But he did NOT confess. "he pleaded thereunto not guiltie: and for his Triall put himselfe vpon God and his Countrey, &c." [C2a]
It was his 9yr old sister's confession - on his behalf (above) - that was more incriminating
See summary of cases as to main issues featuring in the trial. And how 'property' features in five.
Throughout this tale, there is an issue of land. This was the period of enclosures, where lumps of public land were taken over by the wealthy. More on 'Inclosures' by Simon Fairlie
It was only a few years later (in 1649) that the most famous digger, Gerald Winstanley (from a wealthy Lancashire family) took over St George's Hill to protest about land ownership. More Dick Gaughan sings World Turned Upside Down "In 1649, to to Georges Hill a ragged band they called the diggers came to show the peoples' will..." Another bunch of 'Diggers' - the Grindletonians, came from the other side of Pendle Hill.
More on Gawthorpe Hall Greenhead Manor Nutters
Before moving on to Stage 2 Ashlar House
Google Sites
Report abuse