Summary
Summary of Discovery of Witches
Discovery of Witches at a glance
Summary: 8 min to read
- Reading time
- About 5 h 35 min4 h 25 min fast, 6 h 40 min slow
- Length
- 80,000 words
- Library level
- Challenging long sentences, a rich vocabulary
- First published
- 1613by Thomas Potts
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
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Key ideas
Key idea 1
The record defends the judges
Thomas Potts sits through the Lancaster trials as a court clerk, then writes their official account at the judges’ request. He believes witchcraft is real and wants the verdicts to look just. His praise of the judges and harsh descriptions of the accused make his position clear.
Yet he also preserves sworn statements and follows the proceedings step by step. That creates a tension at the heart of the book: the papers meant to defend the court also allow its reasoning to be questioned.
Key idea 2
A family feud becomes a case
In Pendle Forest, charms and wise women belong to daily life.
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Key idea 3
A confession follows familiar stories
Demdike tells Nowell that a spirit named Tibb offered her anything she wanted in exchange for her soul.
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Key idea 4
Confession takes the place of proof
Chattox pleads not guilty, but the court then hears her own confession.
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Key idea 5
A child speaks against her family
Elizabeth Device denies her earlier confession and shouts in court.
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Key idea 6
A feast becomes a conspiracy
A Good Friday gathering at Malkin Tower gives the accusations a wider reach.
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Key idea 7
One question exposes a coached witness
In the separate Salmesbury case, Grace Sowerbutts accuses three women of terrifying acts.
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Key idea 8
Recognition cannot prove the accusation
Alice Nutter does not fit Potts’s picture of the accused.
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Key idea 9
The two voices invite different judgments
Potts presents the proceedings as justice carried out in order.
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Who it’s for
Readers who love true crime, courtroom drama and the folklore of northern England, and anyone who wants to hear the real voices of 1612, from the accused to the judge.
What this book is
A nine-year-old girl stands on a table in a Lancaster courtroom in August 1612. Her mother shouts curses at her from the bar, so loudly that the judge has the woman led away. The child then names her own mother, her brother and her neighbours as witches. Within days, ten people are hanged.
This book is the record of those trials. Thomas Potts, a clerk of the court, wrote The Wonderful Discovery of Witches in the County of Lancaster, and it was printed in London in 1613. The judges ordered it. You get sworn statements, confessions and sentences, plus James Crossley's doubting notes of 1845.
In this summary
- 1The record defends the judgesFree
- 2A family feud becomes a case
- 3A confession follows familiar stories
- 4Confession takes the place of proof
- 5A child speaks against her family
- 6A feast becomes a conspiracy
- 7One question exposes a coached witness
- 8Recognition cannot prove the accusation
- 9The two voices invite different judgments
A court clerk writes the official record
Thomas Potts was a clerk at the Lancaster assizes in 1612, and he sat through the trials he describes. The judges, Sir James Altham and Sir Edward Bromley, gave him the task of writing them up. Bromley says he went through the text himself so that it held only facts established by the record.
So the book is not neutral reporting. Potts shares the bench's belief that witchcraft is real, and he praises the judges at every turn. He calls the accused wretches, furies and monsters. He writes as a lawyer who wants the verdicts to look just.
Yet he sets down long sworn statements in the plain speech of the witnesses, and he follows the court step by step. You can watch a witch trial run, from indictment to sentence. His account is meant to defend the court, and its own papers let you judge it.
That’s 1 of 9 key points.
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Check yourself
Why should Potts’s account not be treated as neutral reporting?
Right. “He writes as a lawyer who wants the verdicts to look just.”Not quite. “He writes as a lawyer who wants the verdicts to look just.”
How does Crossley interpret the gathering at Malkin Tower?
Right. “Relatives and neighbours of the arrested women may simply have gathered, some from worry and some from curiosity.”Not quite. “Relatives and neighbours of the arrested women may simply have gathered, some from worry and some from curiosity.”
What does questioning reveal about Grace Sowerbutts’s accusations?
Right. “It comes out that a priest taught Grace the accusations.”Not quite. “It comes out that a priest taught Grace the accusations.”
Go deeper: the whole of Discovery of Witches
About 5 h 50 min to read.Start freePaperback, hardcover and large print, printed for you at cost, are on their way.Email me when it is printed
About this edition
Every format is free to start, and print and large print are at cost.
- LengthAbout 80,000 words
- Reading timeAbout 5 h 35 min
Questions about Discovery of Witches
What is Discovery of Witches about?
It is the official record of the 1612 Lancashire witch trials. It follows the Pendle accused, the Salmesbury women and Jennet Preston through confessions, witness statements, verdicts and sentences, as written by the court clerk Thomas Potts.
Who were the Pendle witches?
They were poor and some better-off people from the Forest of Pendle, led in the evidence by two old women, Elizabeth Southerns, called Demdike, and Anne Whittle, called Chattox, with their families and neighbours.
What happened at Malkin Tower?
Witnesses said about twenty people met there on Good Friday 1612 for a feast. They were accused of planning to free prisoners, kill the gaoler and blow up Lancaster Castle. Critics later doubted the account.
Who was Jennet Device?
She was a girl of about nine, granddaughter of Demdike. Her statements and her pointing out of prisoners in court formed the main evidence against her mother, her brother and several neighbours.
Cite this edition
Potts, Thomas. Discovery of Witches. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/discovery-of-witches.
Potts, T. (2026). Discovery of witches. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/discovery-of-witches (Original work published 1613)
Potts, Thomas. Discovery of Witches. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/discovery-of-witches.
@book{potts2026discovery,
author = {Potts, Thomas},
title = {Discovery of Witches},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/discovery-of-witches},
note = {First published 1613}
}
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