Jennet Device
Jennet was from a poor family; she was Elisabeth Device’s daughter,
Elisabeth Southerns’ granddaughter, and Alison Device’s sister. She
never knew her father that’s the reason why she felt different and
she was isolated. In fact, she grew up believing she was “the bastard
daughter of the house” and that she was somehow cursed.
At the beginning of the story, Jennet was 9 years old. She was used to
testify against ten people accused of witchcraft including her own
family.
At that time, Jennet wasn’t conscious of what she was doing because
she was too young.
Therefore, the magistrate exploited the situation to brain wash
Jennet into accusing her own family:
King James I allowed children to testify in court to fight against
witchcraft. That’s why Jennet was brought to testify against her
whole family. She must have been urged to do so, probably by the
magistrate named Roger Nowell…
After that, every member of Jennet’s family was sent to prison in
Lancaster Castle except her. She had spent 4 months somewhere,
most likely under the protection of the magistrate.
During the trial, Jennet talked about prayers, witch practices and
other strange things. She was articulate, calm and rather convincing,
as a consequence, she sounded impressive. But it looked as if she did
not understand what she was really doing because she was not
affected by accusing the members of her own family.
We don’t know what happened to Jennet Device after the execution
of the members of her family.
Thanks to Potts’ account, Jennet’s influence travelled far beyond
Lancashire because she was one of the first children under 14 to be
used as a witness during a trial. Before that event, they were not
considered as credible witnesses because they could not swear under
the oath. Jennet’s story was quoted in other witch trials and other
children were also used as witnesses.
In November 1633, twenty years later, Jennet herself will fall victim
to the same law judgment, namely witchcraft. She was accused of
being a witch by a child called Edmund Robinson, who explained how
he had been bewitched while he was picking berries. Therefore, he
was taken by his father from village to village and pointed out among
the crowd, people he considered being witches, among whom
Jennet.
In February 1634, twenty people were imprisoned and put on trial.
Some of the prisoners were sent to London but Jennet stayed in the
castle of Lancaster where other prisoners had already died of “jail
fever”.
A more scientific approach was used towards those accused witches
to prove that they were not witches. Today we would call that
forensic science.
Finally, at the end of the trial, Edmund cracked and admitted that he
made up the whole story. Consequently, Jennet and the other
prisoners were acquitted but Jennet’s stories lived on and other
children were used as witnesses in witch trial, like Salem’s trial
(1692).
Nowadays, it would be impossible for a child to testify in so far as he
can give false evidence.
The question we may ask ourselves is: were the witches of 1612
innocent? Today, we understand that they must have been victims
but we cannot deny the fact that people living in Lancaster in the
XVIIth century believed in witchcraft and tried to use it for their own
interest…
Sarah Ielissof,
Cyrielle Vial,
Julie Jaudon
2nde 10