Roger Nowell's Role and the 1612 Pendle Witch Trials

Roger Nowell of Read Hall was the Justice of the Peace who took the first statements in the Pendle case on 30 March 1612 and examined the accused before the trials. Without his examinations there would have been no prosecution as we know it. Why he pursued the case, the sources do not say.

Key Facts

• Roger Nowell was a Justice of the Peace of Read Hall in Lancashire. He took statements from Alizon Device and members of her family on 30 March 1612, and went on to examine others in the following weeks.
• The case began with the meeting between Alizon Device and the pedlar John Law on 18 March 1612 (some sources say 21 March). Law collapsed after Alizon asked him for pins and he refused.
• Alizon Device, James Device and Anne Whittle (Old Chattox) all confessed to Nowell before the trial, and their examinations were read out at Lancaster in August.
• Early in 1612 every Lancashire JP was instructed to compile a list of recusants. That is context for the year. It is not evidence of Nowell's motive.
• The Malkin Tower gathering of Good Friday, 10 April 1612, was presented by the prosecution as a meeting of witches. The location of Malkin Tower is unknown.
• Twelve people were accused and ten were executed. Sir James Altham and Sir Edward Bromley presided at the Lancaster trials on 18 and 19 August 1612.

Study note: the Lancashire witches of 1604 to 1613 form a depth topic in Edexcel A-level History, Paper 3, Option 33 (The Witch Craze in Britain, Europe and North America, c1580 to c1750).

Roger Nowell is often described as the architect of the Pendle trials. That is too neat. What the sources show is a magistrate who did what a magistrate of his time was expected to do: he took complaints, examined the people named and sent the case on to the assizes. What they do not show is why he pursued it so far, and claims about his ambition go beyond the evidence. For the full story of the case, see the account of the Pendle witches.

A Magistrate in Jacobean Lancashire

A Justice of the Peace in 1612 was a local gentleman with wide powers. He could receive complaints, take examinations, commit suspects to gaol and send cases on to the assizes. James I's Daemonologie (1597) and the 1604 Witchcraft Act formed the background to any witchcraft case, but they did not tell a magistrate what to do in a particular one.

Early in 1612 every Justice of the Peace in Lancashire was instructed to compile a list of those who refused to attend church. That instruction is often cited as the political backdrop to the case, given the county's large Catholic minority. It is context, and nothing in the record connects it directly to what Nowell did in March and April.

The Encounter on the Road

The case began when Alizon Device met the Halifax pedlar John Law near Colne on 18 March 1612 (some sources say 21 March). She asked him for pins, he refused, and he collapsed soon afterwards. Modern readers often suggest that Law suffered a stroke, but that is a modern reading and the record gives no medical detail. In 1612 the collapse was blamed on witchcraft, and Alizon herself is recorded as confessing to it.

On 30 March 1612 Nowell took statements from Alizon and from members of her family. Over the following weeks he examined others, including Anne Whittle (Old Chattox), Elizabeth Device and James Device. Those examinations were read out at the trials, and they supplied much of the prosecution's case.

The Examinations and the Feud

The examinations drew out a long-running quarrel between the Demdike and Chattox families, including John Device's agreement to give Chattox eight pounds of oatmeal (about 3.6kg) a year in return for her promise not to harm his family. Nowell's examinations gave the two families' grievances a legal form. The accused had no lawyers, and they were examined by the magistrate who was building the case, in a system with no right to silence. That does not make their statements false, but it does make them weak evidence. The record does not show what pressure, if any, was applied.

Some modern writers say that Nowell coached the accused or led them. The surviving examinations do not settle that, and it is better described as an interpretation than as a fact. What can be said is that he took the statements, and that the prosecution relied on them.

Malkin Tower

The gathering at Malkin Tower on Good Friday, 10 April 1612, became the centrepiece of the prosecution. It was presented as a meeting of witches to plan the destruction of Lancaster Castle. A plainer reading is a gathering of relatives and friends after the arrests of the family. The evidence for the plot came from statements taken by Nowell, including the evidence of the child Jennet Device. Malkin Tower's location has never been firmly identified, and the University of Central Lancashire has run a project to search for it.

At the Assizes

The trials at Lancaster took place on 18 and 19 August 1612 before Sir James Altham and Sir Edward Bromley. The prosecution used the pre-trial examinations, together with the evidence of witnesses, and the court accepted the evidence of Jennet Device, aged about nine, against her mother and brother. Potts reports her evidence in the third person, so the wording is his. Nowell's precise role at the trials is not recorded in detail, and it should not be assumed that he acted as the prosecutor.

The legal mechanics of the case, including the 1604 Act and the rules of evidence, are examined in the judicial audit of the trials. Alice Nutter, a comparatively wealthy widow of a yeoman farmer, was convicted alongside the poorer accused, and the sources do not explain why she was accused at all.

Potts and the Record

Almost everything we know about Nowell's role comes from the account by Thomas Potts, the clerk of the court, who was instructed by the trial judges to write it. Potts's book is partisan, and its picture of Nowell as a diligent and upright magistrate should be read with that in mind.

Conclusion: What We Can and Cannot Say

Nowell took the statements, examined the accused and sent the case to the assizes, and ten people were executed. His motive is not established. Modern accounts that present him as a career-driven schemer are interpretation, and a more cautious reading is that he acted as a Jacobean magistrate in a county under pressure, working with a legal framework that had just been widened. The tragedy of 1612 lies in what that framework allowed.

People Also Ask

Who was Roger Nowell and why is he significant to the 1612 Pendle witch trials?

Roger Nowell of Read Hall was the Justice of the Peace who took the first statements from Alizon Device and her family on 30 March 1612, and who examined the accused before the trials. His examinations supplied much of the prosecution's case. His motives are not recorded, and claims about his ambition go beyond the sources.

How did the encounter between Alizon Device and John Law lead to the trials?

On 18 March 1612 (some sources say 21 March), Alizon Device asked the pedlar John Law for pins, and he refused. He collapsed soon afterwards, and the collapse was blamed on witchcraft. Nowell took statements from Alizon and her family on 30 March, and the case grew from there.

Did Roger Nowell use torture?

No torture is recorded at Pendle. Nowell took the examinations himself, from frightened prisoners, and the accused had no lawyers. That makes the statements weak evidence, but the record does not show what pressure was applied.

What was the Malkin Tower gathering?

It was a gathering at the home of Elizabeth Southerns (Old Demdike) on Good Friday, 10 April 1612. The prosecution presented it as a meeting of witches planning to destroy Lancaster Castle. The tower's location is unknown, and the evidence for the plot rests on statements taken by Nowell.

Was Nowell linked to the recusant lists of 1612?

Early in 1612 every Lancashire JP was instructed to compile a list of recusants. That is context for the year, but nothing in the record proves that it shaped Nowell's handling of the Pendle case.

Are the Pendle witch trials included in Pearson Edexcel A-Level History?

Yes. They form part of Paper 3, Option 33: The Witch Craze in Britain, Europe and North America, c1580 to c1750, within the depth topic on the Lancashire witches of 1604 to 1613. Students study the background to the trials, the 1604 Act, the conflict between the Device and Chattox families, Roger Nowell's investigation, the Lancaster assizes, Jennet Device's evidence, and Thomas Potts's account.

Where can I buy books about the Pendle witch trials?

The Pendle Witch Conspiracy is available on Amazon in paperback and on Kindle. An Investigated History digital download is available exclusively from Histories and Castles.

Primary Sources and Further Reading

• Thomas Potts, The Wonderfull Discoverie of Witches in the Countie of Lancaster (1613): Project Gutenberg edition
• King James I, Daemonologie (1597): Project Gutenberg edition
• Lumby, Jonathan (1995), The Lancashire Witch-Craze: Jennet Preston and the Lancashire Witches, 1612, Carnegie Publishing: a scholarly account of the investigation and prosecution.
• Poole, Robert, ed. (2002), The Lancashire Witches: Histories and Stories, Manchester University Press: an academic collection examining the trials and their long afterlife.
• Lancaster Castle: official heritage site
• The Search for Malkin Tower (University of Central Lancashire): project page

Where this article discusses motive, it offers interpretation, not settled fact. Readers should distinguish that from the embellishments and folklore that have grown up around the Pendle story since 1612.

This article is part of the Pendle Witch series.

Deepen Your Understanding

• Pendle Witches: The Real Story Behind England's Most Notorious Witch Trials: the full account of the 1612 trials, from a pedlar's collapse to the gallows at Lancaster.
• Jennet Device: The Child Witness of the 1612 Pendle Witch Trials: the nine-year-old whose evidence was central to the Lancaster convictions, and what became of her.
• Thomas Potts and the 1612 Pendle Witch Trials: the court clerk whose 1613 account is the main source for the case.
• The Law of Fear: A Judicial Audit of the 1612 Lancashire Witch Trials: the legal mechanics of the prosecution, from the 1604 Act to the evidence heard at Lancaster.
• The 1612 Lancashire Pendle Witch Trials: A Systemic Judicial Failure: what happened after the verdicts and the case's legal aftermath.
• The Pendle Witch Trials: Surprising Truths: the myths that popular retellings still repeat.
• Witchcraft in the Middle Ages: Myths, Fears and Trials: the older beliefs about witches that shaped the world of accusers and accused.
• The Witch’s Familiar: From Demonic Imps to Beloved Pets: how belief in animal helpers grew in England, including the familiars named in the Pendle case.
• Trial by Water: The Dark History of Witch Ducking and Other Ordeals: the ordeals used to test suspected witches.

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