The Pendle Witch Trials

The Pendle Witch Trials started in the town, Pendle of Lancashire. There were two families that were involved in this witch trials, and they were known as the Demdikes or Device and the Chattox. At the trial there were 10 people among these two families that were convicted of witchcraft. The reasons for the conviction was from cursing someone with death, not attending church on Good Friday, and using items to evoke evil or witchcraft.
One of the victims from the Pendle Witch trials was a man named John Law. He stated about an incident he had with a girl named Alizon Device, who was the suspect of witchcraft. Law was walking through a forest, and Alizon Device asked him for pins. However, he refused and the girl cursed him. Later that day John Law fell ill and blamed it on Alizon Device for cursing him, and that she was a witch. 
For people who were convicted for any of these acts of sorcery, they were placed in a cell in Lancaster Castle until the day the judge comes up with the verdict on their lives. A clerk of the council, known as Thomas Potts, tried to prove the suspects as witches. In order for Potts to prove his theory, he was supported by a girl named Jeannette Device. Jeanette was a 9 year old girl and became the eye witness. In the end, she was able to prove that all 10 of the suspects participated in witchcraft. Jeanette was Potts’ star witness, and she identified the suspects who had committed the acts of evil that signified as witches. She even accused her own mother of witchcraft.
At the end of the trial, the judged ended the decision stating that the court finds the 10 accused suspects guilty for performing witchcraft. The punishment that was given to the convicted was to be hanged on Gallow’s Hill in front of an audience. This way it will enforce the power of the law among the people. Although the guilty were hung, family and friends of the convicted would try to speed up their death by pulling on their legs.