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''The Wonderfull Discoverie of Witches in the Countie of Lancaster'' is the account of a series of English witch trials that took place on 18–19 August 1612, commonly known as the Lancashire witch trials. Except for one trial held in York they took place at Lancaster Assizes. Of the twenty men and women accused – amongst them the Pendle witches and the Samlesbury witches – eleven were found guilty and subsequently hanged; one was sentenced to stand in the pillory, and the rest were acquitted. Thomas Potts, the clerk to the Lancaster Assizes, was ordered by the trial judges Sir James Altham and Sir Edward Bromley to write an account of the proceedings, making them some of the most famous and best recorded witch trials of the 17th century. Potts completed the work on 16 November 1612, and submitted it to the judges for review. Bromley revised and corrected the manuscript before its publication in 1613, declaring it to be "truly reported" and "fit and worthie to be published". Historian Stephen Pumfrey has suggested that Bromley and Altham worked closely with Potts in the writing of ''The Wonderfull Discoverie'' "to manipulate the extraordinary records into an account that would protect and advance their careers". Potts' book has been called the "clearest example of an account (a witch trial ) obviously published to display the shining efficiency and justice of the legal system". Although written as an apparently verbatim account, Potts was not reporting what had actually been said during the trials; he was reflecting what had happened. ==Thomas Potts== The author of ''The Wonderfull Discoverie'', Thomas Potts, was brought up in the home of Thomas Knyvet, the man who in 1605 was credited with apprehending Guy Fawkes in his attempt to blow up the Houses of Parliament and thus saving the life of King James I. At the time of writing his book, Potts was lodging in Chancery Lane, in London. Potts was employed as a clerk of the peace for the East Riding of Yorkshire in about 1610–11, and was an associate clerk on the northern assize circuit in the summer of 1612, when the Lancashire witch trials took place. Although he had sufficient legal training to be able to advise Justices of the Peace, he had not received a university education. The normal career progression for a man in his position would have been a slow promotion to Clerk of the Assize, but only a few years after the publication of his book Potts began to receive "considerable royal favour", suggesting that his account of the trials met with the king's approval. King James was keenly interested in the breeding of hounds, and in 1615 Potts was rewarded with "the keepership of Skalme Park ... for the breeding and training of hounds". Three years later he was granted "the office of collecting the forfeitures on the laws concerning sewers, for twenty-one years", a position that gave him the authority to appoint deputies. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「The Wonderfull Discoverie of Witches in the Countie of Lancaster」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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