The Lancashire Witches (1848) - Ainsworth

One of Ainsworth's best-known novels, set in the North of England, is based on Potts's Discovery of Witches in the County of Lancaster (1613), which was loaned to the author by Crossley, and it's one of the fundamental texts which began the still-thriving 'witch industry' in the Pendle area. The novelist transformed Potts’s factual and rather dry account into a gothic tale of huge proportions, with chilling accounts of  midnight meetings in desolate ruins of Whalley Abbey and Hoghton Tower There are curses, spells, charms and diabolical incantations to be found, and Potts himself puts in an appearance as a scheming and self-serving lawyer of  a type which might have been familiar to both Crossley and Ainsworth.  The historical background is outlined at the beginning of the book, recalling the Pilgrimage of Grace in 1536-7 when there arose ‘a formidable rebellion in the Northern counties of England’ in protest against the dissolution of the monasteries, and subsequent land enclosures. The Lancashire Witches is the only one of Ainsworth’s novels still in print, and copies can be obtained at various points on the ‘witch trail’, which tourists can take across Pendle to Lancaster.

                              The Lancashire Witches - Crossley

Potts’s Discovery of Witches in the County of Lancaster (Old Series, 6, 1845), proved to be one of the most important and influential publications of the Chetham Society, transcending purely local interest to become source material for many subsequent works (both fiction and non-fiction) on the subject of witchcraft.

 Thomas Potts was a London court clerk, who was sent to Lancaster, charged with the task of making a record of the witchcraft trials, to serve as a guide to others who might prosecute such cases. The resulting report, originally published in 1613, was chosen by Crossley as his first editorial project for the Chetham Society. When introducing the book to the members, Crossley modestly added: ‘such notes and preliminary observations as seemed to be required, without overstepping the bounds of just and necessary illustration have been appended by the editor.’ In fact, the editorial work comprises an introductory essay of seventy-six pages, plus fifty-one pages of notes at the end of the volume. The scrupulous and painstaking scholarship not only reveals the extent of Crossley's knowledge of the subject, but gives a glimpse of the magnitude of his personal collection of manuscripts and early editions of relevant material. The footnotes to the introduction demonstrate the editor's extraordinarily wide reading in the fields of witchcraft and demonology, and at the same time make it clear that the sources referred to are rare editions and manuscripts in his possession. In one instance, Crossley even provides the name of the previous owner, and the lot number in the sale at which he bought the item, which is described as 'perhaps the rarest of the English tracts relating to witchcraft.' This may seem strange to the present-day reader, but it must be remembered that Crossley was addressing the nineteenth-century antiquarian community, many of whom would be extremely interested in the provenance of his source material.  In an age when many valuable manuscripts were in private hands, one of the functions of the publishing society was to provide information on the whereabouts of interesting and unusual works.