Elizabeth Device (Ingham)

To the further detriment of the family reputation, her daughter Elizabeth Device appears to have followed suit. Elizabeth married John Device in 1590, and together they had three children; James, Alizon, and Henry, who died in childhood. John Device seems to have died in 1600 and, in the same year, Elizabeth gave birth to another daughter, Jennet. Whilst it is mathematically possible (just) for Jennet to have been John’s child, it does seem more likely that the child was the product of an extra-marital affair; certainly, this seems to have been the prevalent belief amongst their neighbours. When questioned by the local Justice of the Peace, Roger Nowell, in spring 1612, Elizabeth confessed that she had bewitched John Robinson to death because ‘the said Robinson had chidden and becalled [her] for having a bastard-child with one Seller’.

"Whores and Witches": The Women of the Pendle Witch Trials, by Sarah L. King (22nd April 2016)