Anne was a woman from Keswick, England who lost her husband and eldest son to disease in the late 1600s. She had three young daughters to raise, her other sons were at sea, they were massively in debt and one of the neighbors had his eye on the family farm. She made a deal with a traveling peddler: in exchange for magical power, she promised her soul -- but with the proviso that she could buy it back with Grace. The power and debt could both be passed on to her elder female descendants, up to seven times; if by the seventh generation the debt had not been repaid, the Peddler would get not only the souls, but also everything else they had amassed.