Alice Nutter (alleged witch)

Alice Nutter (died 20 August 1612) was an English woman accused and hanged as a result of the Pendle witch hunt. Her life and death are commemorated by a statue in the village of Roughlee.

Alice Nutter
Statue of Alice in Roughlee
Born1500s
Roughlee
Died20 August 1612
Gallows Hill, Lancaster
Cause of deathHanged
NationalityKingdom of England
Known foraccused as a Pendle witch

Life
Further information: Pendle witches

Unlike many accused of witchcraft, Alice was a member of a wealthy family who owned land in Pendle.[1]

She was accused of being present at a witch meeting on Good Friday in 1612 and of later causing the death of Henry Milton. Her principal accuser was a nine-year-old girl. Nutter protested her innocence[2] although others pleaded guilty.

Nutter's trial began at Lancaster Castle on 18 August where the accused were denied access to lawyers or the right to call witnesses. She was subsequently hanged at Gallows Hill in Lancaster on 20 August 1612. The others hanged were Anne Whittle ("Old Chattox"), Ann Redfearn, Elizabeth Device ("Squinting Lizzie"), Alison Device, James Device, Katherine Hewitt, Jane Bulcock, John Bulcock and Isobel Robey.

Legacy

In 1982, one of the members of anarchist music group Chumbawamba changed her name to Alice Nutter by deed poll, feeling "an affinity" to the historical figure. Since the band's breakup, one of her writing projects is a play based on the same Pendle Witch Trials.[3][4]

Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman's novel Good Omens (and its later TV adaptation) features several witch characters named after the original Pendle witches, including Agnes Nutter, a prophet burned at the stake, and her descendant Anathema Device. Gaiman confirmed the homage in a 2016 tweet.[5][6]

In 2012 a statue of Nutter was unveiled in Roughlee by local celebrity Bobby Elliott. The statue was commissioned following a campaign led by a local councillor. Local artist David Palmer researched local history and the fashion of Nutter's times to create the statue, which is made from steel and brass.[7]

In the same year, Jeanette Winterson published her novella The Daylight Gate whose main character is Alice Nutter. The book is about the events, but Winterson is keen to point out that her character is not the Alice Nutter of history.[8]

Alice Nutter is one of the main characters in William Harrison Ainsworth's Victorian Gothic novel The Lancashire Witches.

In 2001, Joseph Delaney, in his books series The Wardstone Chronicles, incorporated a character named Alice Deane. The young girl was from the Deane village surrounding the Pendle Hill: Roughlee.

References
  1. "Statue to Pendle Witch unveiled". BBC News. 28 July 2012. Retrieved 17 February 2018.
  2. Alice Nutter interview
  3. "No, Seriously: Chumbawamba Has A Storied Anarchist Past", Roughlee Village, 19 July 2012, retrieved 19 November 2019
  4. Gaiman, Neil [@neilhimself] (3 August 2016). "Oddly, no. It (and Agnes's surname) come from from the names of Pendle witches" (Tweet). Retrieved 4 September 2020 – via Twitter.
  5. Chivers, Tom (15 January 2020). "Good Omens: How Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman's friendship inspired their comic masterpiece". The Daily Telegraph. London. Retrieved 1 September 2020.
  6. "Alice Nutter – Roughlee Village". Roughlee Village. 26 February 2017. Retrieved 17 February 2018.
  7. Jeanette Winterson (16 August 2012). The Daylight Gate. Random House. ISBN 978-1-4464-9232-1.
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