A HISTORY Ol LANCASHIRE 



had changed out of her companion grey hound, into 

 a white hor^e, whereupon she set Robinson and 

 carried him to Hoarstones, distant about a quarter of 

 a mile. There he saw other \vitchej on horseback 

 arriving, to the number of threescore, and presently 

 followed them to an adjoining barn, where six of 

 them kneeling upon the floor pulled at six several 

 ropes fastened to the roof ; upon which, into the 

 informer's sight, came smoking flesh, butter in lumps, 

 and milk, as it were, syleing (i.e. straining through a 

 sieve) from the ropes, which fell into basins. And 

 so like these six did others in turn until the witness 

 took fright and fled. He was chased by some of 

 them to a place in the highway called Boggart Hole, 

 where they desisted, on two horsemen being met 

 with, but not before he had identified them." 



Upon this and similar evidence seven inhabitants 

 of the forest were found guilty of witchcraft and 

 remitted to Bishop Bridgeaian of Chester for exami- 

 nation. He reported on 15th June 1634 that of 

 the seven three had died in prison at Lancaster, 

 where another lay sick beyond hope of recovery. 

 Margaret Johnson, alias the penitent witch, a 

 widow sixty years of age, made a formal confession," 

 ' often acknowledging that she was a witch but 

 more often faulting in the particulars of her actions 

 as one having a strong imagination of the former but 

 of too weak a memory to retain or re!.ite the other.' 

 M.iry Spencer of Burnlej', aged twenty, in her con- 

 fession utterly denied any knowledge of witchcraft, 

 'and prays God to forgive Nicholas CunlifFe, who 

 having borne malice to her and her parents these 

 five or six years has lately wrongfully abused them.' 

 Her father and mother had been condemned last 

 assizes for witches and had since died and been 

 buried. Frances Dickonson, wife of John Dickonson, 

 husbandman, also denied all knowledge of witchcraft. 

 She had been wrongfully accused by the son of 

 Edmund Robinson alias Rough, and by Edmund 

 •Stevenson of Stainscomb, who maliced her upon 

 bargains of butter, but in the audience of ]ohn 

 Nutter, steward of Blackburn Hundred, John Har- 

 greaves of Higham, and John Radcliffe of the 

 Heyhouses in Pendle confessed that he knew nothing 

 of her but well.'' 



A month later the boy Edmund Robinson, being 

 examined by a Middlesex justice by command of 

 Chief Secretary Windebank, admitted his evidence 

 before the judges at Lancaster, but confessed that all 

 that tale was false and feigned, being framed out of 

 his own invention from tales and reports about a 

 witches' feast kept at Malkin Tower in Pendle Forest 

 about twenty years before ; he wished to cover his own 

 delinquencies in neglecting to bring home his father's 

 kine through staying to play with other children. 

 Having once invented the tale he persisted in it until 

 he came to the king's coachman at Richmond, to 

 whom he declared the truth. He had been with his 



father at Hoarstones at the time he was building it 

 for Thomas Robinson to dwell in." 



On 29 June the Council directed his Majesty's 

 surgeons to make choice of midwives to inspect and 

 search the bodies of the women sent up by the sheriff 

 of Lancaster as indicted for witchcraft. They were 

 then staying at the Ship Tavern at Greenwich. The 

 king's surgeons with five others and ten midwives 

 returned their certificates on 2 July from Surgeons' 

 Hall, Mugwell Street, London ; they stated that 

 they had inspected the bodies of Jenct Hargrcavcs, 

 Frances Dickonson and Mary Spencer, and had found 

 nothing unnatural nor anything like a teat or mark ; 

 there was nothing on the body of Margaret Johnson 

 inconsistent \vith a well-known disease." Bishop 

 Bridgeman measures the truth of these charges in the 

 following words : ' Conceit and malice arc so powerful 

 with many in those parts that they will easily afford 

 an oath to work revenge upon their neighbour.' " 



Turbary in Red Moss and a parcel of land in 

 Goldshaw, probably part of the Bull Hole estate, were 

 surrendered by Edmund Stevenson in 1562 for a 

 term of twenty-nine }ears to Christopher Whittilles," 

 supposed to be a connexion of the above-named 

 Anne Whittle alias Chattox. John Nutter of the 

 Bull Hole occurs several times in the witch trials. 

 Another John Nutter, of this district, became Dean of 

 Chester and has been noticed as rector of Sefton and 

 ofAughton. He died in 1602. Richard Nutter of 

 the Hall in Sabdcn was in 1 67 1 the surviving trustee 

 of Christopher Bulcock of Barley.'" 



Stainscomb, standing in a picturesque ravine 

 between two spurs of the Craggs, was formerly the 

 habitation of one of the Stevenson families and was 

 sold by Nicholas Stevenson of Admcrgill early in the 

 18th century to John Haydock of Heysandforth, by 

 whom it was in 1732 conveyed to James Matthews, 

 curate of Burnley, and his successors as an augmenta- 

 tion for the curacy. The purchase money, ^^400, 

 was derived half from Queen Anne's Bounty and half 

 from the benefaction of the Rev. Edmund Townlcy 

 of Royle. Several parcels of the estate were named 

 doles, such as Stainscomb Dole. Right of common 

 upon Whinberry Clough was included in the 

 surrender." 



In I 5 16 an inquiry was made as to the division 

 between Goldshaw Booth and Pendleton, when it was 

 decided that the tenants of the former should have 

 all the land and turbary within bounds beginning 

 at Goldshaw Booth and proceeding by the ditch 

 beginning at Heyhouses at the foot of Stirkclough, 

 along the west side of Calf Hill to Abbotsgate ; by 

 metes and signs then fixed to Wimberclough Brook." 

 Pendle Forest, by the county lay of 1626, con- 

 tributed ^^7 IS. y^J. when j^ioo had to be raised 

 from Blackburn Hundred."" 



The Forest is subordinate to the manor of Ighten- 

 hill and the courts are held at Higham." 



" Whitaker, op. cit. i, 301. 



'•• Cul. S. P. Dcim. 1634-5, pp. 77-8. 



's Ibid. 79. 



^^ Ibid. 141, 144, 152. He heard 

 Edmund Stevenson say that he was much 

 troubled with Frances wife of John 

 Dickonson in the time of his sickness. 

 He heard Robert Smith say that his wife 

 Iving upon her death-bed accused Jenet 

 wife of Henry Hargreaves to be the cause 

 of her death. He heard Willam Nutter 1 



wife say that Jenet Dev'.s and William 

 Devys her half-brother had bewitched 

 her, and that it was generally spoken that 

 Beawse's wife, who went abegging, was a 

 witch. He heard Sharpee Smith say 

 that the wife of John Loynd laid her 

 hand upon a cow of his, after which it 

 never rose again. 



'Mbid. 98, 129. 



''Ibid. 78. 



'-' Clithcroe Ct. R. 4;, 



23- 



'» T. Grimshaw's D. 63. 



»i MSS. of Mr. O. Fold< 



2» Add. MS. 32107 (GG1, no. 964. 



'^ Gregson, Fragmtna (ed. Harland), 

 3- 



^ A list of the tenants of Pendle in 

 1443 is printed in W. Farrer's Clithtroi 

 Ct. R. i, 506. It shows that families 

 conspicuous later were already settled 

 there, as Blakey, Bulcock, Grimshaw, 

 Hargreaves, Nutter, Tattcnall, &c. 



516 



