August 18: Today is anniversary of the witch trials of Pendle, one of the most famous trials in English Lancaster witches, tried in the criminal courts of Assizes, in the year of 1612.

Two of the accused witches, Anne Whittle (Chattox) and her daughter Anne Redferne. Illustration from William Harrison Ainsworth’s 1849 novel, The Lancashire Witches.

The trials of "witches of Pendle", in 1612, were the most famous witch trials in English history. The twelve accused witches lived in the area around Pendle Hill in Lancashire, northwest England.

Statue of Alice Nutter in Roughlee, a village in Pendle, Lancashire, England. 

With twelve "witches" who were accused of murdering ten people through the use of "witchcraft", they were accused.

Title page of the original edition published in 1613.

Out of Twelve, ten had a trial on August 18, 1612, along with other "witches" of Samlesbury.

Pendle-witch-trials.

Ten witches were hanged publicly. That was repeated in Salem, Massachusetts, between February 1692 and May 1693. That is, 80 years after the Pendle injustice, in Lancashire, England.

Pendle witches hanged.

Many of the charges were allegations of members of the Chattox and Demdike families and made against each other.

Pendle Witches 1612.

Perhaps, they were competing by trying to make a living out of healing, begging, and extortion.

A Twisted Tale Of The Pendle Witches by Dave Alton The true lasting legacy of Lancashire's infamous witch trial.

That was a way to "clean" the streets of homeless to "English".

The uprising of witchcraft around Pendle may have demonstrated the extent to which people could make a living by posing as witches.

Pendle 1612 remembering the Pendle Witches. Pendle Hill marked with the date 1612 on the 400th anniversary of the trials.