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Seeking revenge, Bessie made accusations
of witchcraft at the enquiry involving Old Demdike. The
only member of Demdike's family present was her Grandaughter
Alizon Device, and, probably under interrogation from Nowell,
Alizon implicated her Grandmother.
Five days later, on March 18th,
fate dealt a cruel blow. Alizon was making her way through
Colne when she tried to beg from a pedlar, John Law of Halifax.
Receiving nothing, she allegedly cursed him for his lack
of charity. Law almost immediately collapsed (the symptoms
being reminiscent of having suffered a stroke), and was
taken to a local inn.
On March 29th, Alizon Device was
taken to the inn to see John Law by his son Abraham. He
accused Alizon of having caused the illness to his father
by witchcraft, and Alizon, no doubt in ignorance and wracked
with fear, confessed.
Alizon was called before the magistrate
Roger Nowell the very next day at Read Hall, appearing with
her Mother Elizabeth and brother James. She again confessed
to bewitching the pedlar with a curse, and also that she
had met with the Devil in the shape of a black dog. Her
brother, an uneducated and possibly backward man who also
eked out a living as a beggar, was called to the stand.
Under probable provocation from Nowell, James said that
he had known Alizon to perform acts of witchcraft. Elizabeth
then implicated her own mother, saying that Demdike had
a witchmark on her left side, regarded at the time as sure
proof of a witch. Alizon also made many accusations against
Old Chattox, including the murder of four men, one of them
being Alizon's father.
On April 2nd, Demdike, Chattox and
her daughter Anne Redfearne were brought before the magistrate
at Fence. The two old women, both 80 years of age, blind
and quite possibly of unsound mind, made damning confessions.
Redfearne, even when faced with several people giving evidence
against her, denied all charges. However, all three, along
with Alizon Device, were sent to Lancaster gaol to await
the judges at the August assize.
Within a week of their imprisonment,
on Good Friday April 6th, a meeting took place of the Demdike
and Chattox families and friends at Malking Tower. There
is no record of what actually took place, but Nowell the
magistrate believed it to be a witches coven, and ordered
the arrest of those present. Several of them were brought
before an enquiry in Altham on April 27th, the rest having
fled. James Device was again asked to give evidence, along
with his sister Jenet, a girl of nine. They said that the
meeting had indeed been one of witches, reciting many old
rumours about those present and making numerous wild and
conflicting reports about what had taken place, including
that the witches had planned to release the prisoners by
blowing up the gaol and killing the governor.
As a result of the evidence a further
seven people, including James Device himself, were sent
to Lancaster gaol, the others being Elizabeth Device, Alice
Nutter, Katherine Hewitt, Alice Gray and John and Jane Bulcock,
with one Jenet Preston going instead to York gaol.
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