P 2 a 1. “Being examined by my Lord.”] She had evidently learned her lesson well; but this was, with all submission to his Lordship, if adopted as a test, a mighty poor one.  Jennet Device must have known well the persons of the parties she accused, and who were now upon their trial, as they were all her near neighbours.

P 2 a 2. “Whether she knew Iohan a Style?”] His Lordship’s introduction of this apocryphal legal personage on such an occasion is very amusing.  Had he studied Littleton and Perkins a little less, and given some attention to the Lancashire dialect, and some also to the study of that great book, in which even a judge may find valuable matter, the book of human nature, he might have been more successfull in his examination.  Jack’s o’ Dick’s o’ Harry’s would have been more likely to have been recognised as a veritable person of this world by Jennet Device, than such a name as Johan a Style; which, though very familiar at Westminster, would scarcely have its prototype at Pendle.  But Jennet Device, young as she was, in natural shrewdness was far more than a match for his lordship.

P 3 a. “Katherine Hewit, alias Movld-heeles.”] Of this person, who comes next in the list of witches, our information is very scanty.  She was not of Pendle, but of Colne; and as her husband is described as a “clothier,” may be presumed to have been in rather better circumstances than Elizabeth Southernes or Anne Whittle’s families.  She made no confession.

P 4 a 1. “Anne Foulds of Colne.  Michael Hartleys of Colne.”] Folds and Hartley are still the names of families at and in the neighbourhood of Colne.

P 4 a 2. “Had then in hanck a child.”] The meaning of this term is clear, the origin rather dubious.  It may come from the Scotch word, to hanck, i.e. to have in holdfast or secure, vide Jamieson’s Scotch Dictionary, tit. hanck, or from handkill, to murder, vide Jamieson, under that word; or lastly, may be metaphorically used, from hanck, also signifying a skein of yarn or worsted which is tied or trussed up.

Q 2 a. “Iohn Bulcocke, Iane Bulcocke his mother.”] The condition of these persons is not stated.  It may be conjectured that they were of the lowest class.

Q 3 a 1. “At the Barre hauing formerly confessed.”] Why is not their confession given?

Q 3 a 2. “Crying out in very violent and outrageous manner, even to the gallowes.”] The latter end of these unfortunate people was perhaps similar to that of Isobel Crawford, executed in Scotland the year after for witchcraft, who, on being sentenced, openly denied all her former confessions, and died without any sign of repentance, offering repeated interruption to the minister in his prayer, and refusing to pardon the executioner.

Q 4 a. “Master Thomas Lister of Westby.”] See note on p.  Y a.