View source for Alice Nutter (alleged witch)

{{Short description|English woman accused of witchcraft (died 1612)}}
{{Infobox person
| name                      = Alice Nutter
| image                     = Alice Nutter Statue.tif
| caption                   = Statue of Alice in [[Roughlee]], [[Lancashire]]
| birth_date                = {{circa|1560s}}
| birth_place               = [[Roughlee]], [[Kingdom of England]]
| death_date                = 20 August 1612
| death_place               = Gallows Hill, [[Lancaster, Lancashire|Lancaster]], Kingdom of England
| death_cause               = Hanged
| known_for                 = Accused as a Pendle witch
| relatives                 = 
| signature                 = 
| website                   = 
| footnotes                 = 
| nationality               = English 
}}
'''Alice Nutter''' (died 20 August 1612) was an English [[Recusant]] noblewoman accused and hanged as a result of the [[Pendle witches|Pendle witch hunt]]. Her life and death are commemorated by a statue in the village of [[Roughlee]] in the Pendle district of Lancashire.

== Life ==
{{Further|Pendle witches}}
Unlike many accused of witchcraft, Alice was a member of a wealthy and noble family who owned land in [[Borough of Pendle|Pendle]].<ref>{{Cite ODNB|id=67763|title=Pendle witches Lancashire witches (act. 1612)}}</ref>

She was accused of being present at a witch's [[coven]] on [[Good Friday]], 1612, and later causing the death of Henry Milton. Her principal accuser was a nine-year-old girl called [[Jennet Device]]. Nutter protested her innocence<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lancashire-19028459 |title=Statue to Pendle Witch unveiled |date=28 July 2012 |work=BBC News |access-date=17 February 2018}}</ref> although others pleaded guilty.

Nutter's trial began at [[Lancaster Castle]] on 18 August where the accused were denied access to lawyers or the right to call witnesses. She was subsequently hanged at Gallows Hill in Lancaster on 20 August 1612. The others hanged were Anne Whittle ("Old Chattox"), Ann Redfearn, Elizabeth Device ("Squinting Lizzie"), Alison Device, James Device, Katherine Hewitt, Jane Bulcock, John Bulcock and Isobel Robey.

== Legacy ==
Alice Nutter is one of the main characters in [[William Harrison Ainsworth]]'s Victorian Gothic novel ''[[The Lancashire Witches]]''.

In 1982, one of the members of the music group [[Chumbawamba]] changed her name to [[Alice Nutter (writer)|Alice Nutter]] by [[deed poll]], feeling "an affinity" to the historical figure. Since the band's breakup, one of her writing projects is a play based on the same [[Pendle witches|Pendle Witch Trials]].<ref>[http://endeacott.com/interviews/alice-nutter-interview/ Alice Nutter interview]</ref><ref>{{Citation |url=https://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/music/no-seriously-chumbawamba-has-a-storied-anarchist-past-6609637 |title=No, Seriously: Chumbawamba Has A Storied Anarchist Past |date=19 July 2012 |work=Roughlee Village |access-date=19 November 2019}}</ref>

The 1990 novel ''[[Good Omens]]'' by [[Terry Pratchett]] and [[Neil Gaiman]] (later [[Good Omens (TV series)|adapted for television]]) features several witch characters named after the original Pendle witches, including Agnes Nutter, a prophet burned at the stake, and her descendant Anathema Device.<ref name=GaimanTweet2016>{{cite tweet |last=Gaiman |first=Neil |author-link=Neil Gaiman |user=neilhimself |number=760904314680438784 |date=2016-08-03 |access-date= 2020-09-04 |title=Oddly, no. It (and Agnes's surname) come {{sic|from f|rom|hide=y}} the names of Pendle witches.}}</ref><ref name=Telegraph2020>{{cite news |last= Chivers |first= Tom |date=2020-01-15 |title=Good Omens: How Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman's friendship inspired their comic masterpiece |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/what-to-read/good-omens-terry-pratchett-neil-gaimans-friendship-inspired/ |work=[[The Daily Telegraph]] |location=[[London]] |access-date=2020-09-01 }}</ref>

In 2012 a statue of Nutter was unveiled in Roughlee by local celebrity [[Bobby Elliott]]. The statue was commissioned following a campaign led by a local councillor. Local artist David Palmer researched local history and the fashion of Nutter's times to create the statue, which is made from steel and brass.<ref>{{Cite news |url=http://www.roughlee.org.uk/roughlee-commemorates-alice-nutter/ |title=Alice Nutter – Roughlee Village |date=26 February 2017 |work=Roughlee Village |access-date=17 February 2018}}</ref>

In the same year, [[Jeanette Winterson]] published her novella ''The Daylight Gate'' whose main character is Alice Nutter. The book is about the events, but Winterson is keen to point out that her character is not the Alice Nutter of history.<ref name="Winterson2012">{{cite book |author=Jeanette Winterson |title=The Daylight Gate |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DyJJcRWis54C |date=16 August 2012 |publisher=Random House |isbn=978-1-4464-9232-1}}</ref>

In 2018, it was reported that the [[Knights of St Columba]] had made a ruling that Alice Nutter, a [[Recusant]] during the [[religious persecution]] of the [[Catholic Church in England]], was in reality a Catholic [[martyrdom in Christianity|martyr]]. According to the Knights, Nutter had in reality been attending a secret and illegal [[Tridentine Mass|Mass]] at the time of the alleged [[Good Friday]] witches' coven and her prosecution was a [[frameup]] by a corrupt judge who coveted the Nutter estate, but who could not prove that Nutter was a Catholic. Accusing Nutter during the [[Pendle witches|Pendle witch hunt]], according to the Knights, was an easy alternative.<ref name="Times">{{cite web | last=Collins | first=David | title=Knights of St Columba rule on fate of Pendle witch Alice Nutter | website=[[The Times]] & The Sunday Times | date=2018-08-11 | url=https://www.thetimes.com/uk/religion/article/knights-of-st-columba-rule-on-fate-of-pendle-witch-alice-nutter-fhmsh2kjt | access-date=2024-08-12}}</ref>

English author [[Joseph Delaney]] in his books series ''[[Spook's]]'', incorporated a character named Alice Deane, who is a witch.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Delaney |first=Joseph |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HUg9CFBULjgC |title=Spook's: Alice |date=2013-06-06 |publisher=Penguin Random House Children's UK |isbn=978-1-4090-2425-5}}</ref>

== References ==
{{reflist|25em}}

== Further reading ==

* {{Cite book |last=Lumby |first=Jonathan |title=The Lancashire Witch Craze: Jennet Preston and the Lancashire Witches, 1612 |publisher=Carnegie Publishing |year=1995 |isbn=978-1-85936-025-5 |edition=1st |location=Preston}}
* {{Cite book |last= |first= |title=The Lancashire Witches: Histories and Stories |publisher=[[Manchester University Press]] |year=2002 |isbn=978-0-7190-6203-2 |editor-last=Poole |editor-first=Robert |edition=1st |location=}}
{{Magic and Witchcraft in the British Isles}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nutter, Alice (witch)}}
[[Category:Year of birth unknown]]
[[Category:1612 deaths]]
[[Category:17th-century Roman Catholic martyrs]]
[[Category:Catholic martyrs of England and Wales]]
[[Category:English people executed for witchcraft]]
[[Category:Executed people from Lancashire]]
[[Category:Executed English women]]
[[Category:History of Catholicism in England]]
[[Category:Lancashire folklore]]
[[Category:People executed by the Kingdom of England by hanging]]
[[Category:People executed by Stuart England]]
[[Category:People from the Borough of Pendle]]
[[Category:Recusants]]