lancashire witches 4

Pendle

Well that was early in the seventeenth century

Harrison Ainsworth wrote The Lancashire Witches in 1848

Was access to all of the available records as easy 

for  Ainsworth as it would be today.

Here is the Gutenberg australia issue

The story is downloadable off the web, from Gutenberg.

Front page of first edition

He first released the story in the Sunday Times in 1848. 

I believe that his source 

was an antiquarian frind, 

James Crossley, president of the Chesham society, 

and a  source book "The wonderfull discoverie of Witches 

in the countie of Lancaster"

Written by Thomas Potts, clerk to the court, in 1613,

 so it would have been fresh in his mind.

I like to be as clear as i can on sources of these tales.