7 Deadly Witch Trials That Didn’t Take Place In Salem

Published October 24, 2023
Updated October 26, 2023

England’s Notorious Pendle Witch Trials

Drawing Of The Pendle Witches

Public DomainTwo of the accused witches during the Pendle Hill witch trials.

As the Basque witch trials raged in Spain, another, smaller witch trial was taking place in England. Unlike many other witch trials, however, the Pendle trials included people who readily agreed they were witches.

At the time, many in England were on high alert for witches. James VI — now James I of England — had written a creed against witchcraft after his “brush” with witches in New Berwick, and local authorities had their eye out for any sign of witchcraft. In Pendle Hill, a Catholic stronghold in Protestant England, this led to an investigation into a woman named Alizon Device.

In 1612, a peddler named John Law accused Device of cursing him and causing him to have a stroke after he refused to give her some of his wares. Swiftly put on trial, Device confessed that she had asked the Devil to attack Law. Then Device claimed that her grandmother was a witch as well and that members of the Chattox family (who happened to be rivals of Device’s family) were also members of the occult.

Lancaster Castle

Tom Oates/Wikimedia CommonsLancaster Castle, where some of the Pendle Hill witch trials took place.

From here, accusations of witchcraft began to fly in Pendle Hill. Not only were Device’s family and the Chattox family accused of being witches, but so were six other people. The accused witches went through sensational trials, during which Device stuck to her story about cursing Law. She even fell to her knees when he entered the courtroom, confessed again, and burst into tears.

In the end, 12 people were accused of killing 10 people using witchcraft. Just 11 of them went to trial — one, Device’s grandmother, died after being imprisoned in a dank cell — and 10 were found guilty. They were subsequently hanged for this “crime.”

Though the witch trials of Pendle Hill were not as expansive as those in the Basque territory or even those in New Berwick, they stand as some of England’s most notorious and best documented. They were intricately recorded by Thomas Potts, the clerk of the court, in The Wonderfull Discoverie of Witches in the Countie of Lancaster.

author
Kaleena Fraga
author
A senior staff writer for All That's Interesting since 2021 and co-host of the History Uncovered Podcast, Kaleena Fraga graduated with a dual degree in American History and French Language and Literature from Oberlin College. She previously ran the presidential history blog History First, and has had work published in The Washington Post, Gastro Obscura, and elsewhere. She has published more than 1,200 pieces on topics including history and archaeology. She is based in Brooklyn, New York.
editor
Jaclyn Anglis
editor
Based in Brooklyn, New York, Jaclyn Anglis is the senior managing editor at All That's Interesting, where she has worked since 2019. She holds a Master's degree in journalism from the City University of New York and a dual Bachelor's degree in English writing and history from DePauw University. In a career that spans 11 years, she has also worked with the New York Daily News, Bustle, and Bauer Xcel Media. Her interests include American history, true crime, modern history, and science.
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Fraga, Kaleena. "7 Deadly Witch Trials That Didn’t Take Place In Salem." AllThatsInteresting.com, October 24, 2023, https://allthatsinteresting.com/witch-trials. Accessed July 26, 2025.