Today we have one of my good friends stopping by to take over blogging duties! Catherine Cavendish has written some amazing novels and novellas, and her latest, The Malan Witch, is no exception. She's a queen of the ghostly and trove of information about the supernatural.
The Samlesbury Witches
My new novella – The Malan Witch – features two of the most evil witches you could ever (not) wish to encounter. They were burned for heresy and, in reality, they were not alone. Up and down the length and breadth of the country, in the 17th century, witches were being tried, sentenced and executed – one way or the other. Most (if not all) were innocent of the crimes for which they were convicted. One infamous case concerns three women who happened to share a court date with an even mor4 famous group of Lancashire citizens.
At the same Lancaster Assizes, on 19th August 1612, that saw the conviction and hanging of the 10 Lancashire – Pendle – Witches, three women from the nearby village of Samlesbury were also tried.
As with their hapless counterparts, the Samlesbury witches were in court largely as a result of the accusations and testimony of a young girl. Grace Sowerbutts, variously reported as being thirteen or fourteen years old at the time, was somewhat older than Pendle’s infamous Jennet Device, but - because of her - Jane Southworth, Jennet Bierley and Ellen Bierley faced the distinct possibility of conviction and hanging. Lancaster hanged more witches than any other Assizes in the whole of the UK outside of London. As with the Pendle witches, their trial was faithfully recorded by clerk of the court, Thomas Potts, who published it in his The Wonderfull Discoverie of Witches in the Countie of Lancaster – the book that found its way across the Atlantic to the town of Salem, Massachusetts where it proved a convenient handbook for trials there in 1692.
The women stood accused of child murder and even cannibalism. Jane Southworth was the widow of John Southworth, eldest son of the owner of Samlesbury Hall – Sir John Southworth, a staunch Catholic who had been imprisoned on a number of occasions for refusing to renounce his faith. When Jane’s husband converted to the Protestant faith, his father disinherited him and apparently avoided Jane wherever possible, believing her to be a witch who would inevitably cause his son’s death. In fact, the Southworth family was firmly split along religious lines.
Sir John died in 1595 and Jane’s husband died (of natural causes) in 1612. She had been a widow for just a few months when she was arrested - along with Jennet and Ellen Bierley - for using, "diverse devillish and wicked Arts, called Witchcrafts, Inchauntments, Charmes, and Sorceries, in and upon one Grace Sowerbutts".
At the trial, Grace claimed that Jennet and Ellen Bierley (her grandmother and aunt) had transported her up to the top of a hayrick by her hair, and ‘haunted and vexed’ her for years. They could transform themselves into dogs, she said, for which they needed the body of a baby they killed. Thomas Walshman’s baby to be precise. Grace said her aunt and grandmother had taken her to the Walshmans’ house, stolen the baby and sucked its blood. The next day, the child died and was buried in Samlesbury Church, but Ellen and Jennet dug up the body, took it home, cooked and ate part of it and used the rest to aid their fiendish shapeshifting.
Grace also claimed her aunt and grandmother attended sabbats with Jane Southworth twice weekly, at which dancing, feasting and sex with ‘foure black things, upright, and yet not like men,’ took place.
Thomas Walshman confirmed that his child had died of unknown causes and said he had found Grace Sowerbutts collapsed in his father’s barn, a condition from which she didn’t recover until the following day.
The trial of the Samlesbury Three didn’t go as did the trials of the Pendle witches. Under questioning by the Judge, the witnesses began to quarrel with each other and eventually admitted that Grace had been ‘coached’ by a Catholic priest named Thompson. The defendants sank to their knees and begged Grace to withdraw her accusations. The Judge ordered two JPs to question her. They did so and, sure enough, Grace admitted her story was untrue. She said she had been told what to say by Jane Southworth’s uncle by marriage– Christopher Southworth, a Jesuit priest. As Jesuits were being persecuted at the time, he was in hiding. He had been chaplain at Samlesbury Hall – and probably still was, secretly. His motive in causing Grace to accuse Jane and the Bierleys appears to have been simply because of their religion.
The judge ordered the jury to find the three women not guilty, describing Grace as ‘the perjuring tool of a Catholic priest.’
The last words on this surely belong to Thomas Potts as he concluded his account of the trial of the Samlesbury Witches:
"Thus were these poore Innocent creatures, by the great care and paines of this honourable Judge, delivered from the danger of this Conspiracie; this bloudie practise of the Priest laid open".
Naught remained of their bodies to be buried, for the crows took back what was theirs.’
An idyllic coastal cottage near a sleepy village. What could be more perfect? For Robyn Crowe, borrowing her sister’s recently renovated holiday home for the summer seems just what she needs to deal with the grief of losing her beloved husband.
But behind those pretty walls lie many secrets, and legends of a malevolent sisterhood - two witches burned for their evil centuries earlier. Once, both their vile spirits were trapped there. Now, one has been released. One who is determined to find her sister. Only Robyn stands in her way.
And the crow has returned.
You can The Malan Witch here:
About The Author
Following a varied career in sales, advertising and career guidance, Catherine Cavendish is now the full-time author of a number of paranormal, ghostly and Gothic horror novels, novellas and short stories. Cat’s novels include The Garden of Bewitchment. The Haunting of Henderson Close, the Nemesis of the Gods trilogy - Wrath of the Ancients, Waking the Ancients and Damned by the Ancients, plus The Devil’s Serenade, The Pendle Curse and Saving Grace Devine.
In addition to The Malan Witch, her novellas include The Darkest Veil, Linden Manor, Cold Revenge, Miss Abigail’s Room, The Demons of Cambian Street, Dark Avenging Angel, The Devil Inside Her, and The Second Wife
Her short stories have appeared in a number of anthologies including Silver Shamrock’s Midnight in the Graveyard and her story The Oubliette of Élie Loyd will appear in their forthcoming Midnight in the Pentagram, to be published later this year.
She lives by the sea in Southport, England with her long-suffering husband, and a black cat called Serafina who has never forgotten that her species used to be worshipped in ancient Egypt. She sees no reason why that practice should not continue.
You can connect with Cat here:
Thank you so much for hosting me today, JG!
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