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The Witch Craze in Britain, Europe and North America, c1580–c1750

The context of the Pendle witch trials

  • 3 things to know
  • Paper 3

Overview

Recall questions on the poverty of the Pendle area, Lancashire's reputation for recusancy, the 1604 statute, charity refusal, and the position of cunning folk.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Your recallNot started
Key term

What was the economic condition of the Pendle area?

Key term

Who was Roger Nowell?

Who and when

How did family rivalry shape the Pendle case?

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    Around which Lancashire hill did the accused live?

    Model answer

    Pendle Hill.

  2. 2

    What was the economic condition of the Pendle area?

    Model answer

    Poor and remote: upland pastoral farming, marginal soils, and a population living close to subsistence where begging and charity refusal were common.

  3. 3

    Why was Lancashire regarded as religiously suspect?

    Model answer

    It was the most Catholic county in England, with strong recusancy, so the government treated it as disorderly and wanted evidence of vigilance.

  4. 4

    What was the significance of the 1604 statute?

    Model answer

    It made it a capital felony to invoke evil spirits or use a corpse in magic, even without harm done, which lowered the threshold for a death sentence.

  5. 5

    How did charity refusal generate accusations?

    Model answer

    When a beggar was turned away and misfortune followed, the guilt of the refuser was easily converted into a belief that the beggar had cursed them.

  6. 6

    What was cunning folk's role in village life?

    Model answer

    They provided healing, love charms, and the finding of lost goods, and the same skills that made them useful made them vulnerable when things went wrong.

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AThe government admitted 96 dead and 333 wounded.
BOther estimates run to several hundred dead.
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