ECONOMY AND SOCIAL CONTEXT OF PENDLE

the economy of pendle:

• pastoral economy

• limited arable farming

• big cloth industry

cattle and the witch trials:

• cows were £3 at a market

• suspects were accused of damaging livestock as well as people

• old chattox accused of bewitching cattle of hugh moore

inflation:

• fixed rents and entry fines introduced (a fixed sum paid to the owner of a tenant)

• rents increased by 39%

• copyholders benefited through increased profits

• increase in enclosure - constant threat of eviction

the impact of population growth:

• death rates decreasing because of the decreasing incidences of the plague

• as population increased, food needed to be produced more efficiently, and the religious needs of the population catered for

clashes with the duchy of lancaster:

• lawyers for the duchy questioned the validity of copyholders estates

• in reality the duchy hoped to gain money for the crown from the copyholders

• all of this added to the economic tensions that already existed within the community

• 1609 - copyholders had to pay 12 years worth of rent in a lump sum in order to confirm their rights and privaledges

• residents of pendle would be less inclined to offer charity

copyholders, subtenants and squatters:

• copyholders had to pay rents 25 times higher than the rent paid by the copyholders in the first decade of the 17th century

• it is likely that many of the suspected witches lived in properties acquired by this arrangement