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Background of Lancashire County
Seventeenth century Lancashire County was one of the dark corners of the English realm. Far from London and all its diversities, Lancashire was a place of tradition and the people relied heavily upon their superstitions and practiced ways. It was a Catholic stronghold, where villagers believed they would not see their neighbors in the afterlife because of religious differences. G.B. Harrison, in his 1929 introduction to the trial records of the Lancashire witches, described the county saying; "the churches were empty, the people refused instruction, preachers were few, and unlearned ministers were being thrust with livings; drunkenness and bastardy were rife; marriages and baptisms were celebrated by Catholic priests in secret." (Harrison, Intro, xli)
Pendle Forest
The belief that Lancashire was a Catholic stronghold corresponds with the amount of superstition still being practiced by the people of the county. An editor of the Lancashire trial records, James Crossley, in 1843, described the county and Pendle Forest by writing that, "The parting genius of superstition still clings to the hoary hill tops and rugged slopes and mossy water sides, along which the old forest stretched its length, and the voices of ancestral tradition are still heard to speak from the depth of its quiet hollows, and along the course of its gurgling streams. He who visits Pendle will find that charms are yet generally resorted to amongst the lower classes. (Harland and Wilkinson, 203) The prevalence of superstitions made the county ripe for witchcraft accusations, but the involvement of a local Justice of the Peace and two London judges turned a few complaints into a massacre.
Map of 17th Century Lancashire County
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