The story of the 1612 Lancashire Witch Trials is well known. Eight women and two men were found guilty and executed for heinous crimes involving witchcraft, often accused by each other, their own families or convicted on the testimony of a little girl. Their names still resonate today – Old Chattox, Old Demdike, Mouldheels, Squinting Lizzie…
However, the story of Old Mother Cuthburt and her two daughters is largely forgotten. It appeared in a pamphlet published probably in the 1780s called The History of the Lancashire Witches, and it’s a mix of fantasy, folklore and fiction, bearing very little in common with the unfortunates of 1612. It shows just how much attitudes had changed over the decades, with this family of witches portrayed as mischievous folk heroines enjoying a series of bawdy adventures and supernatural jolly japes.
So here is their story. The other Lancashire witches…
How Old Mother Cuthburt Became a Witch
Mother Cuthburt and her two lusty daughters lived at the bottom of a bleak hill known as Wood-and-Mountain-Hill – perhaps a reference to Pendle Hill. The family were very poor, but all this would change when Mother Cuthburt was walking through the forest and saw a rabbit run out in front of her. The rabbit then transformed itself into a hound and then a man. The old woman was terrified and frozen to the spot, but the man only pressed some coins into her hand and told her to come back the next day.
She returned home and told her daughters what had happened, and they advised her to go back the next day.
As she entered deep into the forest, she saw a tree rise out of the ground and move towards her and then surrounded her by turning into a thick wood. She feared she would be lost, but then heard music and followed it to a house where a matron invited her inside.
She found herself in the middle of a wild party, with men and women dancing and the tables groaning with food and drink, and when the dancing stopped Mother Cuthburt was invited to partake of the banquet, which being very hungry, she did.
After the feast, the matron who had welcomed Mother Cuthburt struck the floor with a wand and summoned a host of witches’ familiars – demons in animal form that do witches’ bidding. The matron, a witch from Wales named Mother Crady, began clanging out a demonic tune by beating a griddle with some metal tongs, and all the cats, bears and apes danced around the palatial hall to the merriment of all who saw it.
Mother Crady invited Mother Cuthburt to join their company and anointed her breast with some ointment, and gave her some more to take home with her. She uttered some magic spells and gave her a small box with a little imp in the form of a mole-like creature inside. Then all the gathered witches jumped on coal staffs and flew away, leaving Mother Cuthburt to wonder what she had seen.
It’s interesting that these witches eschewed the more traditional broom, opting instead for coal staffs, a long, pole-like implement for carrying coal – something more associated with the urban than the rustic.
But now Old Mother Cuthburt had the power to get up to all kinds of mischief…
Old Mother Cuthburt and the Mayor of Lancaster
Some years prior, Old Mother Cuthburt had stolen the Mayor of Lancaster’s wooden pail and used it for firewood in the depth of a frozen winter. She had subsequently been whipped for the crime her poverty had driven her to. With her newfound magical powers, the witch vowed to get revenge on the Mayor.
She went to the Mayor’s grand house where he was revelling with his rich friends and sent him a note. When the Mayor read it, he suddenly told his guests that he needed to run a race and stripped off all his clothes. He then took a whip and lashed himself through the streets of Lancaster and none could stop him. When he came to his senses, he found himself in the middle of the city, stark naked and bloodied from head to foot. He later said that he had thought he was riding in a horse race.
Old Mother Cuthburt could play tricks on your mind.
Old Mother Cuthburt Righting Wrongs
One interesting aspect of the Old Mother Cuthburt stories in the History of the Lancashire Witches is that rather being portrayed as evil, the witch is more of a folkloric heroine, perhaps like a female Robin Hood.
On one occasion Mother Cuthburt came across a party of officers carrying a poor man to Lancaster prison for the crime of being unable to pay his debt. When the witch asked the officers what the man’s crime was, they rudely pushed her out of the way.
Mother Cuthburt then pulled out a magic pipe that Mother Crady had given her, told the prisoner to cover his ears, and began to play. Pied Piper-like, she led the officers, who were magically compelled to follow, through hedges, briars and deep dirty ditches, finally leaving them bruised, scratched and bloody in the middle of a stinking pond.
The prisoner, meanwhile, made his escape.
Another time, Mother Cuthburt overheard some thieves bragging about how much they’d stolen and recited some magic words that made the robbers’ horses stumble. Then the thieves heard the clamour of what they took to be an angry mob rapidly approaching, yet their horses refused to move. They had no choice but to dump their loot and flee on foot.
Of course, there was no angry mob only Mother Cuthburt and her magical mind games. She returned the loot to the poor people it had been stolen from.
Well, at least she returned some of it…
Epilogue
I’ve spent the last couple of years researching and writing a book on the history of demonic possession in Lancashire, so this little pamphlet with its comical and sceptical tone was nice contrast to those written by the zealous Puritan exorcists I’ve been reading.
Stay tuned for the amorous adventures of Mother Cuthburt’s witchy daughters, Margery and Cecily, and Margery’s doomed love for the splendidly named Roger Clodpate…
Paul Weatherhead 