Ten Pendle Defendants Executed at Lancaster in 1612
A record in The Hawthorn Archive, preserving folklore with its place, type and source context attached.
On 20 August 1612 ten people convicted at the Lancaster Assizes were hanged on the moors above Lancaster: Anne Whittle, Elizabeth Device, James Device, Alizon Device, Anne Redferne, Alice Nutter, Katherine Hewitt, Jane Bulcock, John Bulcock and Isabel Robey.
Elizabeth Southerns, known as Demdike, died in Lancaster Castle before trial. Jennet Preston, connected with the wider group of accusations, had already been tried at York and executed there.
The precise burial places of those executed at Lancaster are not known. Later identifications of individual graves therefore require particular caution.
Source trail: Thomas Potts (1613); Lancaster Castle; Lancashire County Council historical collections.
Related Journal record: The Pendle Witch Trials.