The Witches of Pendle. Rowena Akinyemi

      The Witches of Pendle

      THE WITCHES OF PENDLE

      In England in the 1600s many people believed in witches. A witch could be an old woman, or a young woman – sometimes even a man or a boy. But they were usually women, and everybody was very afraid of them. Because a witch could kill you – just with a curse.

      In 1612, near Pendle Hill in Lancashire, lived a girl called Jennet Device. She was nine years old then, poor, thin, and hungry. She had no shoes, no coat, and sometimes nothing to eat for days. Life was not easy for Jennet Device.

      And her grandmother, Old Demdike, was a witch. Her mother Elizabeth was a witch, and her sister Alizon. Even her poor stupid brother James was a witch … Or that is what the villagers believed.

      This is Jennet’s story of her family. It begins in 1634, when Jennet is a prisoner in Lancaster Castle …