So much is known about the Pendle Witches because the proceedings of the Lancashire trial where recorded by the clerk of the court Thomas Potts and published in the book: The Wonderful Discoverie of Witches in the Countie of Lancaster.

The majority of the evidence came from the confessions of just four of the accused: Alizon Device, her brother James Device, their grandmother Demdike, and their enemy Chattox. 

Nobody knows what possesed Alizon and James Device, Demdike and Chattox to make the extrodinary statements that they did. Torture was not used in England to extract confessions from witches as it was on mainland Europe. Towards the end of the trial the prisoners would have confessed in the hope of receiving mercy, but the most important confessions were given pre-trial and seemingly under very little duress.

The Pendle Witches incriminated each other, perhaps in the hope of saving themselves, but also gave remarkable accounts of their own activities. Had they remained silent there would very probably have been no trial and no executions.

Alizon Device gave here first damning account of witchcraft quite voluntarily, and seems to have genuinely believed in her own guilt and that of her family's.

Some suspected witches did protest their innocence to the end and others where aquited when evidence against them was found to have been fabricated. The trials however dubious by today's standards were not a forgone colusion.

NB: Modern witches or 'Wiccans' do not worship the devil, who they do not believe exists, and their code of conduct forbids them from working harmful magic.