ulcock.

R 1 _b_. "_The names of the Witches at the Great Assembly and Feast at
Malking-Tower, viz. vpon Good-Friday last, 1612._"] In this list of
fourteen individuals, Master Potts has omitted "the painful steward so
careful to provide mutton," James Device, who made up the number to
fifteen. Of these persons seven were not indicted: Jennet Hargraves,
the wife of Hugh Hargraves, of Barley under Pendle; Elizabeth
Hargraves, the wife of Christopher Hargraves; Christopher Howgate, the
son of Old Demdike; Christopher Hargraves, who is described as of
Thurniholme, or Thornholme, and as Christopher o' Jacks, and was
husband of Elizabeth Hargraves; Grace Hay, of Padiham; Anne Crunkshey,
of Marchden, or more properly, Cronkshaw of Marsden; and Elizabeth
Howgate, the wife of Christopher Howgate. The two Howgates were, it
may be, the "one Holgate and his wife," mentioned in Robinson's
deposition in 1633. Alice Graie, or Gray, included in the list, was
indicted, though no copy of the indictment is afforded by Potts, and,
singular as it may seem, acquitted. Richard Miles' wife, of the Rough
Lee, stated to have been present in some of the depositions, (G 3
_b_,) was, beyond doubt, Alice Nutter, so called as the wife of
Richard and mother of Miles Nutter.

It may afford matter for speculation, whether any real meeting took
place of any of the persons above enumerated, which gave occasion for
the monstrous versions of the witnesses at this trial. It is far from
unlikely, that on the apprehension and commitment of Old Demdike, Old
Chattox, Alizon Device, and Anne Redfern to Lancaster, a meeting would
take place of their near relations, and others who might attend from
curiosity, or from its being rumoured that they were themselves
implicated by the confessions of those apprehended, and who by such
attendance sealed their dooms. In all similar fabrications there is
generally some slight foundation of fact, some scintilla of homely
truth, from which, like the inverted apex of a pyramid, the
disproportioned fabric expands. It is possible that, from the simple
occurrence of an unusual attendance at Malking Tower on Good Friday,
not unnatural under the circumstances, some of the witnesses, ignorant
and easily persuaded, might be afterwards led to believe in the
existence of those monstrous superadditions with which the convention
was afterwards clothed. However this may be, there must have been at
hand for working up the materials into