32. Alice Nutter hanged on the evidence of a 9-year-old child
If you thought Agnes Waterhouse was unlucky, wait until you hear who accused Alice Nutter of Roughlee, Lancashire. In March, 1612, a pedlar fell ill immediately after refusing to give an old woman some pins. The pedlar’s son accused the woman, Alizon Device, of witchcraft, and soon a whole coven was ‘discovered’. One of the accused, 9-year-old Jennet Device, was scared into implicating the other Pendle Witches. Jennet accused Nutter of killing Henry Mitton through black magic after he refused to give another witch a penny. Two days after her trial started in August, 1612, Nutter was hanged at Lancaster.