Nearly 4,000 people were accused of witchcraft during the Scottish Witchcraft Trials.
84% of them were women
I'm trying to remember them
Bessie Gibson
The investigation into Bessie and 35 others began on the 6th November 1649. The committee of estates who ordered the investigation stated that no torture was to be used.
Katherine Sands
Her mother was executed for witchcraft in the 1640s. She confessed to getting a white powder from the devil to poison her brother and professed her willingness to die for her sin. Katherine was tried alongside 3 other women from Culross (Agnes Hendrie, Jonet Hendrie, and Isobelle Inglis). They all confessed twice in Culross and twice again in Edinburgh. All 4 women were found guilty and were strangled to death and then burnt at the Gallow Lea at 4pm on the 29th July 1675.
Mary Cunningham
A child estimated that Mary was around 50 years old. Mary was tried twice, once in Culross and once in Edinburgh by the Lord Advocate. Mary managed to get someone to authorise her and her daughter’s release on caution.
Helen Erskine
One of 6 people arrested on 1st December 1613. They were all charged with using witchcraft, consulting witches, and poisoning to kill. Tried in Edinburgh on the 22nd June 1614. Helen was originally sentenced to be executed by beheading at Mercat Cross alongside her sisters Annas and Issobell Erskine and brother Robert Erskine. But because of the remorse she showed the Privy Council comminuted her sentence to banishment on the 22nd of March 1615 .
Issobelle Erskine
One of 6 people arrested on 1st December 1613. They were all charged with using witchcraft, consulting witches, and poisoning to kill. Tried in Edinburgh on the 22nd June 1614. She was executed by beheading at Mercat Cross alongside her sister Annas Erskine and brother Robert Erskine (although Robert was charged with witchcraft he was executed for poisoning to kill).
Annas Erskine
One of 6 people arrested on 1st December 1613. They were all charged with using witchcraft, consulting witches, and poisoning to kill. Tried in Edinburgh on the 22nd June 1614. She was executed by beheading at Mercat Cross.
Mary Keill
Mary lived in Ferintosh in Ross and Cromarty. The Investigation into accusations against Mary began on the 28th July 1699. She was found not guilty on the 2nd of January 1700.
Margaret Stewart
Margaret was a widow with a son who was accused by other ‘witches’ in 1598. The privy council ordered that she should either be released or tried centrally in Edinburgh.
Lilias Adie
Lilias was a woman in her 60s who lived in Torryburn. She was arrested on the 28th July 1704, and she was imprisoned for over a month. During this time she was interrogated and tortured and this led to her confession. Lilias died in prison before she could be sentenced and was buried under a sandstone slab in the intertidal zone of Torryburn beach - so that she could not rise from the dead. Her grave was robbed in 1852. In 1938 her skull was exhibited at the Empire Exhibition in Glasgow - it has been missing ever since.
Margaret Alexander
The privy council began their investigation into the accusation that Margaret was a witch in November of 1629. They wanted her to be brought to Edinburgh to confront her accuser Alexander Hammiltoun. On the 1st of April 1630 the privy council requested that she be arrested but Margaret had died prior to this date.
Issobelle Watsonne
Issobelle was 23 years old and from Glendevon. She was imprisoned at the Tolbooth in Stirling where she made 2 confessions. One on the 21st April 1590 and the other 12th May 1590. She confessed to meeting the fair folk and the devil (who appeared as an angel) and claimed to have healed a man of the worm using a rowan tree and a bit of a dead persons finger. There is no information about what happened to her after the trial.
Janet Paton
Janet was a 60 year old married woman from the Crook of Devon. She was tried on the 5th April 1662. Janet confessed to copulating with Satan as well as renouncing her baptism and being given the new name Nans Mahoun. Janet was executed the same day as her trial, between four and five o’clock in the afternoon.
Bessie Mortoun
Bessie was arrested in December 1649 and it was requested that the witch pricker John Kincaid come and search her for a witches mark