On 21 March 1612, Alizon Device, who lived just outside the Lancashire village of Fence, near Pendle Hill, met John Law, a pedlar from Halifax. She asked him for some pins, which he refused to give to her, and a few minutes later Law suffered a stroke, for which he blamed Alizon. Along with her mother Elizabeth and her brother James, Alizon had to appear before local magistrate Roger Nowell on 30 March 1612. Based on the evidence and confessions he obtained, Nowell sent Alizon and ten others to Lancaster Gaol, to be tried for "maleficium"—causing harm by witchcraft.