IN 1612, travelling salesman John Law was walking along a quiet road in Lancashire when a young woman stopped him and asked for some pins from his pack. She had no money, and Law refused her. A few yards on, the history books say, he “fell down lame in great extremity”. He managed to get to a nearby alehouse where Law claimed a huge black dog visited him on his sickbed with “fearful, fiery eyes, great teeth and a terrible countenance”. But the old man had lost his speech, and could only cry out in fear. The dog disappeared, replaced by the young beggar he’d seen on the path — Alizon Device, who pleaded for his forgiveness. Had John Law recovered from what was clearly a stroke, both would have been on their way with no questions asked. But he did not, and his son Abraham decided his father must have been a victim of malicious witchcraft for refusing Alizon some pins. In doing so, the cloth dyer from Halifax inadvertently set in motion the Pendle witch trials, which would see ten people found guilty of witchcraft and hanged. I researched the witch trials for my novel The Familiars. The… Read full this story
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