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the-hexorcist: The Pendle Witch Child was a young girl named Jennet Device who was famously allowed to give key evidence in a witchcraft trial, and subsequently had her entire family hanged. In 1612, England, a rash of witchcraft hysteria had spread across England, encouraged by King James I - himself an avid witch-hunter. Two feuding families lived in the shadow of Pendle Hill, Lancaster. The widowed matriarchs of each were Elizabeth Southerns (known locally as “Old Demdike”) and Anne Whittle (Mother Chattox). Jennet Device was the nine-year-old illegitimate granddaughter of Demdike. She lived with her mother Elizabeth, her grandmother, and her elder, legitimate siblings Alizon and James.  In March, 1612, Alizon was hauled before the magistrate on counts of witchcraft. The young beggar woman had reportedly cursed a man who had refused her alms. For unknown reasons, Alizon confessed to the curse, and claimed to have a relationship with the Devil. Alizon then also accused her grandmother Demdike, as well as two members of their beggar rivals - Chattox and her daughter, Anne Redferne. Anne, Chattox and Demdike all confessed to witchcraft. Demdike claimed that she met with the Devil, who took the shape of a little boy named Tibb, and who drank her blood. (Anne and Chattox, pictured below, from The Lancashire Witches) The initial feud is beliveved to have began when a member of the Chattox family broke into the Demdike home, Malkim Tower, and stole £1 worth of goods. The animosity escalated, and John Device, Alizon and James’ father (although not Jennet’s), blamed Old Chattox for his illness on his deathbed. Members of the Demdike family emerged to make more accusations against Alizon, and Jennet’s mother Elizabeth held a large gathering at Malkim Tower for support  - a gathering which was promptly labelled a coven. Eight attendees were arrested, bringing the total of imprisoned accused witches to twelve. The trials were held in August, by which time Old Demdike had already died in the dungeons. The star witness was Jennet Device, only nine, the youngest person to ever give witness at a trial. Special allowances were made for her testimony, given her age, as law stated a witness could be no younger than fourteen. Calm and innocent, Jennet climbed up to stand on a table accused her own villagers, people who had attended the gathering at her home, and finally, her own mother, sister and brother. Elizabeth Device was forcibly removed from the courtroom, screaming curses at her daughter. Alizon fainted, and soon made more confessions; a weeping Chattox pleads mercy for her daughter Anne. Jennet’s brother James also accused their mother, and tried to side with Jennet, but she claimed to have seen his spirit kill people, and he followed Elizabeth’s fate.   Three days later, the Pendle witches were hung - Chattox and Anne, Elizabeth, James and Alizon Device, as well as party guests Alice Nutter, Katherine Hewitt, Jane Bulcock and her son John. Historians and expects, while unsure of Jennet’s ultimate motivation, agree that the available information paints her as an intelligent, articulate but malicious child, who resented her siblings for being born in wedlock, and also her familial situation. Both the Demdike and Chattox families worked as magical healers, shunned for the most part by the town, an occupation that was naturally exploited as further evidence in the witchcraft trials. She also seemed to genuinely believe the accusations she had made, including the statement that her mother had a devil familiar in the shape of a brown dog, called Ball, who spoke to her mother and assisted her murders. Jennet’s testimony had an enormous influence on criminal trials. Her testimony created a benchmark which would later be exploited at the Salem witch trials, where the accusers were also young children. In courts today, a child of any age can be subsequent called upon to give witness, providing that they can be proved competent and credible. Twenty years after the Pendle Witch Child caused uproar on the slopes of Pendle Hill, Jennet Device was herself accused of witchcraft by a ten-year-old boy named Edmund Robinson. She and sixteen others were found guilty, but spared the gallows, she is believed to have lived out her days in the dungeons her family had been consigned to. The last record of Jennet was in 1636, three years after her trial. Her burial place is unknown.
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rebanach: Fugazi.
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kiteskies: Have Heart
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ex0-tic: YES
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gingerpub3s: Tigers Jaw
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