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This petition was submitted during the 2010 to 2015 Parliament

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Closed petition Pardon Temperance Lloyd, Susannah Edwards, Mary Trembles - The "Bideford Witches"

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We ask HM Government to Pardon Temperance Lloyd, Susannah Edwards and Mary Trembles of Bideford for the crime of Witchcraft.

They were hanged on August 25th 1682 at Heavitree, Exeter, convicted for actions they could not have committed, under a law that no longer exists.
They were convicted on hearsay evidence under the 1604 Statute against Witchcraft devised under King James I - who believed his cousin had tried to assassinate him by raising a storm at sea using witchcraft.
Leading theologians abetted their conviction by defining the "Attributes of Witches" and by declaring "to deny witchcraft is to deny God".
The assizes Justices did not believe them guilty but responded to an angry mob that called for a hanging.

Pardoning the "Bideford Witches" would acknowledge their innocence and that of over 450 others executed in the name of good government.

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    This petition will stay open until 24 August 2013.