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Malkin Tower, sometimes called Malking Tower or Mocking Tower, was the home of Elizabeth Southerns, also known as Demdike, and her granddaughter Alizon Device, two of the chief protagonists in the Lancashire witch trials of 1612.

On Good Friday, 6 April 1612, Malkin Tower was the venue for perhaps the most well-known alleged witch's coven in English legal history. Eight of those who attended were arrested and tried for causing harm by witchcraft, seven of whom were found guilty and executed. The house was demolished shortly after the trials and forgotten. The only firm evidence of its location comes from the official account by the clerk to the court, Thomas Potts, who says simply that it was in the Forest of Pendle. Despite several archaeological excavations in the area, no confirmed remains have been discovered.

Several explanations have been suggested for the origins of the word "Malkin", but despite its name Malkin Tower was likely to have been a simple cottage.

History

Toponymy

Malkin's Tower, a little cottage where
Reporte makes caitive witches meete to swear
Their homage to ye devil.

The name "Malkin" has several possible derivations: it was a familiar form of the female name "Mary", or "Maud", and a term for a poor or shabby woman; the similar "mawkin" was a word used to describe a lower-class woman or slut. "Malkin" was also used as a term for a cat, particularly an old cat, as in "grimalkin" or "grey malkin", and was an old northern English name for a hare, into which witches were said to be able to transfigure. It has also been suggested that the name was a combination of "mal" and "kin" as a slight to the residents of Malkin Tower, which local historian Arthur Douglas considers unlikely owing to the poor education of people in the area at that time. Another possibility is a corruption of malt kiln, which is supported by Alizon Device's claim that the family of Anne Whittle (also known as Chattox) had broken into their "fire house".

Authors have speculated on a range of buildings that could account for the "Tower" title. It may have incorporated a Norman peel tower, built as defence from Scottish raiders or possibly a disused poacher lookout. It is more likely, however, that despite its name, Malkin Tower was a simple cottage. Historian W. R. Mitchell suggests that it was originally a small farm building, perhaps a shelter for fodder or livestock, which was converted into poor-quality living accommodation. Poverty was not uncommon among the residents of the Forest of Pendle, hence the building was likely to have been no more than a hovel, and "tower" may therefore have been a sarcastic name given by local residents. It is almost certain that Southerns and Device did not own Malkin Tower but were tenants.

Association with witches

As a consequence of a chance encounter Alizon Device had on 21 March 1612 with John Law, a pedlar from Halifax, she and her grandmother were summoned to the home of local magistrate Roger Nowell on suspicion of causing harm by witchcraft; Law had collapsed shortly after meeting Alizon, and his son had accused her of being responsible. Both she and her grandmother were subsequently arrested and detained in Lancaster Gaol, along with two other women. Friends of the Demdike family met at Malkin Tower on 6 April 1612, allegedly to plot the escape of the four gaoled women by blowing up Lancaster Castle. When Nowell learned of the meeting he concluded after examining Alizon Device's "mentally sub-normal" brother, James, that Malkin Tower had been the scene of a witches' coven, and that all who attended were witches. Eight were subsequently accused of witchcraft and committed for trial, seven at Lancaster Assizes and one at York.

Location

The location of Malkin Tower is uncertain. It may have been demolished shortly after the 1612 trials, as it was common at the time to dismantle empty buildings and recycle the materials. The building may also have been destroyed to eradicate the "melancholy associations" of the place. The account of the trials written by Thomas Potts, clerk to the court, in his The Wonderfull Discoverie of Witches in the Countie of Lancaster mentions Malking Tower many times, but only describes it as being in the Forest of Pendle, a former royal forest that covered a considerable area south and east of Pendle Hill, extending almost to the towns of Burnley, Colne and Padiham.

One contender is in the civil parish of Blacko, on the site of present-day Malkin Tower Farm; old masonry found in a field wall is said to be from the remains of the building. Local folklore in the parish holds that the remains of Malkin Tower are buried in a field behind the nearby Cross Gaits Inn public house; the tower used to be featured on the inn's sign. The primary evidence supporting this location seems to be that a hollow in the hillside east of the farm is known as Mawkin Hole. It is suggested that this is the same place mentioned in the 16th-century halmote court records for the manor of Colne as Mawkin Yarde, described as being "in the north of Colne", but anywhere inside the manor of Colne would have been outside the Forest of Pendle. The site is also several miles from any of the traceable locations mentioned at the trial.

Another possible location is somewhere near the village of Newchurch in Pendle. Douglas claims there is "persuasive" evidence that an area near Sadler's Farm (now known as Shekinah Christian Centre) was the site of Malkin Tower; there were numerous alleged sightings of witchcraft in the area, and it was in the vicinity of other locations named during the trial, such as Greenhead, Barley and Roughlee. Others related to the trials were also known to have lived in the area; alleged witches Jane and John Bulcock resided at Moss End Farm in Newchurch, while John Nutter, whose cows were claimed to have been bewitched, lived at the neighbouring Bull Hole Farm. Southerns' son Christopher Holgate also lived nearby. However, neither the deeds of Sadler's Farm, which date back to the 17th century, nor contemporary maps of the region mention Malkin Tower or any fields in which it may have stood.

Archaeological excavations have been undertaken in several locations in the Pendle Forest area, including Newchurch, but nothing has been found. A potential candidate for the lost Malkin Tower was announced in December 2011, after water engineers unearthed a 17th-century cottage complete with a mummified cat sealed in the walls, close to Lower Black Moss reservoir near Barley.

References

Notes

1. "Demdike" is derived from "devil woman", suggesting that Elizabeth Southerns was "feared and loathed within the community".
2. The building accommodated only Alizon Device and her grandmother; Alizon was hanged and her grandmother died in prison awaiting trial. The other members of the family lived in a smallholding that had belonged to John Device, Elizabeth Device's deceased husband.
3. Spelt variously: Malkynyerd, Malkenyerd, Malkynyerde, Mawkyn-yarde, Mawkin Yarde
4. The spirits of dead cats were believed to protect household food supplies from vermin such as rats and mice.

Citations

1. Froome 2010, p. 37
2. Poole 2002, p. 13
3. Clayton 2007, p. 204
4. ^ Froome 2010, p. 38
5. "Executions – Lancaster Castle", Lancashire County Council http://www.lancastercastle.com/html/history/executions.php, retrieved 16 November 2009 {{citation}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
6. ^ Bennett 1993, p. 22
7. Clayton 2007, p. 273
8. ^ Froome 2010, p. 39
9. ^ Catlow 1986, pp. 13–14
10. ^ Douglas 1978, pp. 47–48
11. "Rambles by the Ribble", The Preston Chronicle and Lancashire Advertiser, no. 2680, p. 4, 23 May 1863
12. ^ Clayton 2007, p. 268
13. Peel & Southern 1985, p. 154
14. ^ Fields 1998, p. 60
15. Morrison, Blake (20 July 2012), "Blake Morrison: under the witches' spell", The Guardian, retrieved 15 August 2012
16. ^ Mitchell 1984, p. 25
17. Eyre 1986, p. 13
18. ^ Peel & Southern 1985, p. 155. Cite error: The named reference "FOOTNOTEPeelSouthern1985155" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
19. Bennett 1993, p. 10
20. Bennett 1993, p. 16
21. Bennett 1993, pp. 16–18
22. Peel & Southern 1985, p. 156
23. Peel & Southern 1985, p. 157
24. ^ Clayton 2007, p. 286
25. Davitt 2006, p. 22
26. Clayton 2007, p. 279
27. Farrer 1897, pp. 237, 266, 241, 458, 466
28. Froome 2010, p. 161
29. "'Witch's cottage' unearthed near Pendle Hill, Lancashire", BBC News, 8 December 2011 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lancashire-16066680, retrieved 17 July 2012 {{citation}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= and |date= (help); Missing or empty |title= (help)

Bibliography

• Bennett, Walter (1993), The Pendle Witches, Burnley: Lancashire County Books, OCLC 60013737
• Catlow, Richard (1986), The Pendle Witches (3rd ed.), Hendon Publishing, ISBN 0-902907-82-4
• Clayton, John A. (2007), The Lancashire Witch Conspiracy (2nd ed.), Barrowford Press, ISBN 978-0-9553821-2-3
• Davitt, Jacqueline (2006), Witches and Ghosts of Pendle and the Ribble Valley, Tempus, ISBN 0-7524-4063-2
• Douglas, Arthur (1978), The Fate of the Lancashire Witches, Countryside Publications, ISBN 0-86157-001-4
• Eyre, Kathleen (1986), Witchcraft in Lancashire (2nd ed.), Dalesman Books, ISBN 0-85206-854-9
• Farrer, William (1897), The Court Rolls of the Honor of Clitheroe in the County of Lancaster Vol 1, Manchester: Emmott & Co {{citation}}: External link in |title= (help)
• Fields, Kenneth (1998), Lancashire Magic and Mystery: Secrets of the Red Rose County, Sigma, ISBN 978-1-85058-606-7
• Froome, Joyce (2010), A History of the Pendle Witches and Their Magic: Wicked Enchantments, Palatine Books, ISBN 978-1-874181-62-0
• Mitchell, W. R. (1984), The Lancashire Witches, Dalesman Books, ISBN 0-85206-776-3
• Peel, Edgar; Southern, Pat (1985), The Trials of the Lancashire Witches (3rd ed.), Hendon Publishing, ISBN 0-86067-099-6
• Poole, Robert, ed. (2002), The Lancashire Witches: Histories and Stories, Manchester University Press, ISBN 0-7190-6204-7

External links

• The Wonderfull Discoverie of Witches in the Countie of Lancaster at Project Gutenberg (1613)

• History of Lancashire