Post by Elly on Oct 30, 2005 22:01:36 GMT 10
Burn the Witch!
Agnes Sampson, in Keith, a grave matron-like woman,
of a rank and comprehension above the vulgar,
was accused of having renounced her baptism,
and of having "...received the devil's mark, and raising
storms to prevent the Queen's coming from Denmark..." ,
and also, of being at "the famous" meeting at North Berwick,
where six men and ninety women, witches, were present,
dancing to one of their number, who played to them on a Jew's harp.
It was charged in the indictment, that the devil was present at this meeting,
and started up in the pulpit, which was hung round with black candles:
that he called them all by their names, and asked them if
they had kept their promises, and been good servants,
and what they had done since the last meeting:
that they opened up three graves, and cut off the joints
from the dead bodies fingers; "...and that the prisoner got
for her share, two joints, and a winding sheet to make powder of, to
do mischief" : that the devil was dressed in a black gown and hat,
and that he ordered them to keep his commandments, which were
to do all the ill they could. She was condemned and burned.
Euphan M'Calzeane, daughter of Lord Cliftonhall,
one of the senators of the college of justice
(his death, in 1581, spared him from the disgrace and misery
of seeing his daughter fall by the hands of the executioner),
who was married to a gentleman, by whom she had three children,
was accused of treasonably conspiring the king's death by
enchantments; particularly by framing a waxen picture of the king
g James VI); "... of raising storms to hinder his return
from Denmark" ; and of various other articles of witchcraft.
She possessed a considerable estate in her own right;
was heard by counsel in her defence; was found guilty by the jury,
which consisted of landed gentlemen of note; and was "burnt alive",
and her estate confiscated.
Her children, however, after being thus
barbarously robbed of their mother, were restored by the act of
parliament, against the forfeiture. The act does not say the sentence
was unjust, but the king was " touched in honour and conscience"
to restore the children. But, tomove his majesty's conscience,
the children had to pay five thousand merks to the donator of
escheat, and relinquish the estate of Cliftonhall, which the king
gave to Sir James Sandilands of Slamanno.
The Witch of Irongray
"In the reign of James the VI of Scotland, or under the early government
of his son Charles, traditions tells of a woman that was burned as a witch
in the parish of Irongray, about seven miles west from Dumfries.
In a little mud-walled cottage, in the lower end if the Bishop's Forrest,
and nigh the banks of the water of Culden, resided a poor widow woman,
who earned her bread by spinning with a pole, and by weaving stockings
from a clue of yarn depending from her bead-strings.
She lived alone, and was frequently seen on a summer's eve,
sitting upon a jagged rock, which overhung the Routing burn,
or gathering sticks, late in a November evening, among the
rowan-tree roots, nigh the dells which signalize the sides
of that romantic stream.
She had also, sometimes, lying in her window a black-letter Bible,
whose boards are covered with the skin of a fumart,
and which two grotesque clasps of brass to close it when she chose.
Her lips were sometimes seen to be moving when she went to church,
and she was observed to predict shower or sunshine at certain periods,
which predictions often came to be realised...."
"The Bishop of Galloway was repeatedly urged to punish this witch;
nd lest it should be reported to the King that he refused to punish witches,
he at last caused her to be brought before him, nigh on the spot.
She was rudely forced from her dwelling, and several neighbours
of middle or of old age were sited to declare all the wicked things she had done."
"She was sentenced to be drowned in the Routing burn,
but the crowd insisted she should be shut up in a tar-barrel
and hurled into the Culden. Almost against the Bishops consent,
this latter death was consummated. The wretched woman was
enclosed in a barrel, fire was set to it and it was rolled in a blaze,
into the waters of the Culden."
James VI's beliefs were also those of the Presbyterian church
and the General Assembly kept the hysteria inflamed by passing
their Condemnatory Acts against witches in 1640, 43, 44, 45 and 49
which caused the second peak in Scottish witch-hunting.
The third peak commenced a little early in Galloway, when, in 1659,
no less than nine witches were strangled and burned in one day
on the banks of the Nith at Dumfries.
The sentence was that they
"...be taen upon Wednesday come eight days to the ordinar place
of execution for the burghe of Dumfries and ther, betuing (between)
and 4 hours of the afternoon, to be strangled at staikes till they be
dead, and thereafter ther bodyes to be burned to ashes, and all ther
movable goods to be esheite."
Witch-hunting began to decline everywhere towards the end
of the 17th century, but the rate of decline varied from country to country.
The last recorded witch-hanging in England was in 1685, but the last
recorded case of witch-burning in Galloway, Scotland, was 1698.
Elspeth MacEwen was pronounced guilty of "... a compact and
correspondence with the devil, and of charms and of accessation to malefices."
The Witch of Bogha
"Elspeth lived in a solitary house in the farm of Cubbox, called Bogha.
As appears from the evidence of two gentlemen who visited her in jail
at Kirkcudbright, she was a person of superior education.
Still, however, her neighbours were tormented with her, and every
calamity that befell themselves or their cattle was attributed to
Elspeth's witchcraft.
If a cow fell ill, it was Elspeth's doing.
It was, also, currently reported and believed that if eggs were
wanted (scarce) at New-Galloway, application had only to be made
to the old wife of Bogha, and the market was well supplied.
But the worse cantrip that she played on the wights of
Balmaclellan was the following.
She had a pin in her kipplefoot (part of a roof beam),
and when she pleased, could, by taking out that pin,
draw milk from her neighbors cows! At length complaint
was made to the Sessions, and the Beadle, M'Lambroch, was sent
off with the minister's mare to bring her to the session.
Elspeth, after expressing great wonder at this usage from the
minister, consented to go. Tradition states that the mare was
dreadfully frightened, and, at a rising hill near the manse,
since called the 'Bluidy Brae', sweat great drops of blood.
Witch Trial
After undergoing an examination (with torture), she
was sent off to Kirkcudbright, and confined there for
about two years. Her imprisonment was rendered so
wretched by her tormentors, that the miserable woman
implored them to terminate a life so full of suffering.
She was condemned, taken to prison, and burned to
death in the neighbourhood of Kirkcudbright.
The next two cases in Galloway, in 1703, did not receive
the punishment of burning; but in the new and enlightened
age of the eighteenth century were banished to Ireland for life.
Nevertheless, it was in 1722 that the last witch-burning
in Scotland took place. This was in Sutherland, but there may
have been later cases in the extreme north where the records
are far from complete. It must not be assumed, however, that
that was the end of burning people in Britain. Those convicted
of Petty Treason -- for example, a woman murdering her husband --
were punished by burning at the stake until 1790 when the Act was repealed.
Agnes Sampson, in Keith, a grave matron-like woman,
of a rank and comprehension above the vulgar,
was accused of having renounced her baptism,
and of having "...received the devil's mark, and raising
storms to prevent the Queen's coming from Denmark..." ,
and also, of being at "the famous" meeting at North Berwick,
where six men and ninety women, witches, were present,
dancing to one of their number, who played to them on a Jew's harp.
It was charged in the indictment, that the devil was present at this meeting,
and started up in the pulpit, which was hung round with black candles:
that he called them all by their names, and asked them if
they had kept their promises, and been good servants,
and what they had done since the last meeting:
that they opened up three graves, and cut off the joints
from the dead bodies fingers; "...and that the prisoner got
for her share, two joints, and a winding sheet to make powder of, to
do mischief" : that the devil was dressed in a black gown and hat,
and that he ordered them to keep his commandments, which were
to do all the ill they could. She was condemned and burned.
Euphan M'Calzeane, daughter of Lord Cliftonhall,
one of the senators of the college of justice
(his death, in 1581, spared him from the disgrace and misery
of seeing his daughter fall by the hands of the executioner),
who was married to a gentleman, by whom she had three children,
was accused of treasonably conspiring the king's death by
enchantments; particularly by framing a waxen picture of the king
g James VI); "... of raising storms to hinder his return
from Denmark" ; and of various other articles of witchcraft.
She possessed a considerable estate in her own right;
was heard by counsel in her defence; was found guilty by the jury,
which consisted of landed gentlemen of note; and was "burnt alive",
and her estate confiscated.
Her children, however, after being thus
barbarously robbed of their mother, were restored by the act of
parliament, against the forfeiture. The act does not say the sentence
was unjust, but the king was " touched in honour and conscience"
to restore the children. But, tomove his majesty's conscience,
the children had to pay five thousand merks to the donator of
escheat, and relinquish the estate of Cliftonhall, which the king
gave to Sir James Sandilands of Slamanno.
The Witch of Irongray
"In the reign of James the VI of Scotland, or under the early government
of his son Charles, traditions tells of a woman that was burned as a witch
in the parish of Irongray, about seven miles west from Dumfries.
In a little mud-walled cottage, in the lower end if the Bishop's Forrest,
and nigh the banks of the water of Culden, resided a poor widow woman,
who earned her bread by spinning with a pole, and by weaving stockings
from a clue of yarn depending from her bead-strings.
She lived alone, and was frequently seen on a summer's eve,
sitting upon a jagged rock, which overhung the Routing burn,
or gathering sticks, late in a November evening, among the
rowan-tree roots, nigh the dells which signalize the sides
of that romantic stream.
She had also, sometimes, lying in her window a black-letter Bible,
whose boards are covered with the skin of a fumart,
and which two grotesque clasps of brass to close it when she chose.
Her lips were sometimes seen to be moving when she went to church,
and she was observed to predict shower or sunshine at certain periods,
which predictions often came to be realised...."
"The Bishop of Galloway was repeatedly urged to punish this witch;
nd lest it should be reported to the King that he refused to punish witches,
he at last caused her to be brought before him, nigh on the spot.
She was rudely forced from her dwelling, and several neighbours
of middle or of old age were sited to declare all the wicked things she had done."
"She was sentenced to be drowned in the Routing burn,
but the crowd insisted she should be shut up in a tar-barrel
and hurled into the Culden. Almost against the Bishops consent,
this latter death was consummated. The wretched woman was
enclosed in a barrel, fire was set to it and it was rolled in a blaze,
into the waters of the Culden."
James VI's beliefs were also those of the Presbyterian church
and the General Assembly kept the hysteria inflamed by passing
their Condemnatory Acts against witches in 1640, 43, 44, 45 and 49
which caused the second peak in Scottish witch-hunting.
The third peak commenced a little early in Galloway, when, in 1659,
no less than nine witches were strangled and burned in one day
on the banks of the Nith at Dumfries.
The sentence was that they
"...be taen upon Wednesday come eight days to the ordinar place
of execution for the burghe of Dumfries and ther, betuing (between)
and 4 hours of the afternoon, to be strangled at staikes till they be
dead, and thereafter ther bodyes to be burned to ashes, and all ther
movable goods to be esheite."
Witch-hunting began to decline everywhere towards the end
of the 17th century, but the rate of decline varied from country to country.
The last recorded witch-hanging in England was in 1685, but the last
recorded case of witch-burning in Galloway, Scotland, was 1698.
Elspeth MacEwen was pronounced guilty of "... a compact and
correspondence with the devil, and of charms and of accessation to malefices."
The Witch of Bogha
"Elspeth lived in a solitary house in the farm of Cubbox, called Bogha.
As appears from the evidence of two gentlemen who visited her in jail
at Kirkcudbright, she was a person of superior education.
Still, however, her neighbours were tormented with her, and every
calamity that befell themselves or their cattle was attributed to
Elspeth's witchcraft.
If a cow fell ill, it was Elspeth's doing.
It was, also, currently reported and believed that if eggs were
wanted (scarce) at New-Galloway, application had only to be made
to the old wife of Bogha, and the market was well supplied.
But the worse cantrip that she played on the wights of
Balmaclellan was the following.
She had a pin in her kipplefoot (part of a roof beam),
and when she pleased, could, by taking out that pin,
draw milk from her neighbors cows! At length complaint
was made to the Sessions, and the Beadle, M'Lambroch, was sent
off with the minister's mare to bring her to the session.
Elspeth, after expressing great wonder at this usage from the
minister, consented to go. Tradition states that the mare was
dreadfully frightened, and, at a rising hill near the manse,
since called the 'Bluidy Brae', sweat great drops of blood.
Witch Trial
After undergoing an examination (with torture), she
was sent off to Kirkcudbright, and confined there for
about two years. Her imprisonment was rendered so
wretched by her tormentors, that the miserable woman
implored them to terminate a life so full of suffering.
She was condemned, taken to prison, and burned to
death in the neighbourhood of Kirkcudbright.
The next two cases in Galloway, in 1703, did not receive
the punishment of burning; but in the new and enlightened
age of the eighteenth century were banished to Ireland for life.
Nevertheless, it was in 1722 that the last witch-burning
in Scotland took place. This was in Sutherland, but there may
have been later cases in the extreme north where the records
are far from complete. It must not be assumed, however, that
that was the end of burning people in Britain. Those convicted
of Petty Treason -- for example, a woman murdering her husband --
were punished by burning at the stake until 1790 when the Act was repealed.
