The Trial of the Lancaster Witches, 1612

by G.B. ed. Harrison

This volume contains the Old English manuscript of the wonderful discovery of witches in the county of Lancaster, with the arraignment and trial of nineteen notorious witches at the Assizes and general Gaole deliuerie, held at the Castle of Lancaster in August 1612, before Sir James Altham, and Sir Edward Bromley, knights; Barons of his Majesty's Court of and Justices of Assize, Oyer and Terminor, and general Gaole deliuerie in the circuit of North Parts. Together with the arraignment and trial of Jennet Preston, at the Assizes held at the Castle of Yorke with her execution for the murder of Master Lister by witchcraft.

Genres: Witchcraft

188 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1926

Reviews

[Mel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read two very different but both very good novels about the Lancaster witches, the first was a 19th century gothic novel, the 2nd a 21st century lesbian novel. It was interesting to go back and read the "evidence" against them for which they were convicted, which mostly was other people saying they'd seen them plotting and heard they were witches. Startling to think that such things could lead to people's deaths.

This is a beautiful 1929 copy of the original 1612 book. Ironically the introduction from 1929, unlike the books from several centuries earlier, does in fact believe in witches and mentions all the things that witches were supposed to get up to in previous centuries, pacts with devils, etc. and talks about the popularity of the “witch cult”. All of which has since been disproved, and gone back to show the older scholars were correct. The examples from the Bible include all the incorrect translations which the 18th century writers complained about. Though it does go on to mention some of the books from the period which did and didn’t support the idea of witches.
The reproduction itself is beautifully done and wonderfully laid out, it looks just like the original. In fact I liked it so much that I went ahead and bought myself a copy of this edition on ABE so I can read through it properly.