52.
The session of Culross raised the issue at the end of July. The minutes note that due to an Act of the General Assembly these women may not take communion. Benson, South-West Fife, App. 2, 268.
53.
Cunningham (1454). The duplicate record in the SBSW (1456) has been deleted. Jonet Erskine (1455). Source is the RPC 2nd ser. vol. 8, 101–103.
54.
RPC 2nd ser. vol. 8, 101.
55.
Ibid.
56.
Ibid. This information comes from the Committee of Estates, from the same day, recorded on 13. Mary and her daughter are here referred to as a ‘gentleweemen’. See also, RPC 2nd ser. vol 5, 103. RPC 2nd ser. vol 8, 37–38, 101–103, 105. Benson, South-West Fife, App. 2, 269.
57.
Some of the references to cases in the years following, clearly relate back to these years. The SBSW had Marg Donald listed in 1645, as case 2523. This comes from the fact that reference to payments made to her date from 1645. There is also a notation giving information on procedures for ‘watching the landward witches’! It seems clear, that not only she, but others were still being imprisoned at this time. Benson, South-West Fife, App. 2, 269. Henderson, Extracts from the Kirk Session, 16.
58.
Benson, South-West Fife, App. 2, 269.
59.
Case 2535. The quote is taken from Henderson, Extracts from the Kirk Session, 27. Also see Henderson, Annals, 317.
60.
Benson, South-West Fife, App. 2, 269. Dunfermline Presbytery, CH21051,51.
61.
Dunfermline KS CH25921 f76. The session record notes that he was warded for five days before he confessed. A minister and the watchers seem to have been present. It then states, ‘some few days thereafter he was brunt’. Benson, South-West Fife, App. 2, 270. Henderson, Extracts, 27.
62.
Brewer (3197). Benson, South-West Fife, App. 2, 270.
63.
Gordon Donaldson, James V-James VII, 338–339.
64.
There is no case in the SWHDB related to this rather cryptic reference as it is unclear whether this occurred in early 1649 or had occurred prior to this. Presbytery minutes of Dunfermline, CH21051, 74. Benson, South-West Fife, App. 2, 270.
65.
Case 3198. SYNFIFE, 208. What is fascinating is the context: surrounding this are all kinds of actions against celebrating Yule, attending holy wells, etc.
66.
CH21051, 83. Benson, South-West Fife, App. 2, 270.
67.
Maxwell (3199). William Ross, Glimpses of Pastoral Work in the Covenanting Times: A Record of the Labours of Andrew Donaldson, A.M. Minister at Dalgetty, Fifeshire 1644–62 (Edinburgh: Andrew Elliot, 1877), 194. Benson, South-West Fife, App. 2, 270.
68.
Ibid., 194.
69.
Dunfermline kirk session, CH25921 f89. Murdoch is case 2540. He was accused by the ‘warlock of Dalgety’. The magistrates were ordered to ‘put a watch on him’. See also, Benson, South-West Fife, App. 2, 270. Henderson, Extracts from the Kirk Session, 31.
70.
May 6, 1649. Dunfermline kirk session, CH25921 f96. Benson, South-West Fife, App. 2, 270.
71.
Smythe (3201) minute of May 13, 1649 & May 20, 1649. CH25921 f90. Benson, South-West Fife, App. 2, 270. This page of the kirk session book is variously notated as f90 or f96.
72.
Case 3200. Dunfermline Presbytery CH21051, 87. Benson, South-West Fife, App. 2, 270.
73.
J.C.R. Buckner, Rambles in and around Aberdour and Burntisland (Edinburgh: J. Menzies, 1881), 46, mentions that Isobell Kellock had been accused by those executed at Aberdour.
74.
Dunfermline Presbytery CH21051, 89. Benson, South-West Fife, App. 2, 270.
75.
Peacock (2541); Wilson (2542). Dunfermline kirk session minutes CH25921. The notation includes the note that the watch should be from the ‘Landwart’ area of the parish and that they be incarcerated by the ‘landbaillie’. It seems both women were from the rural parts of the parish. See also, Benson, South-West Fife, App. 2, 270. Henderson, Extracts from the Kirk Session, 31.
76.
Kelloch (2543) Also named were Margaret Orrock (3202) of whom not much is known and Issobell Scogian (3224) who confessed to consulting Kelloch in order to have a pain healed. Benson, South-West Fife, App. 2, 271.
77.
Case 3203. Added by Benson, South-West Fife, App. 2, 271. Bennet is noted as being ‘this long time under an ill report’.
78.
The original source of this information is the session records of Dalgety, which are cited in various sources. The most accessible is J.C.R. Buckner, Rambles, 44–46. Ross, Pastoral Work in Covenanting Times, 203–204. Benson, South-West Fife, App. 2, 270 and Neale, West Fife, 13–14.
79.
There is a notation in the Acts of Parliament of Scotland dated June 27 that some witches were being sought in certain parishes, including Dalgety and Aberdour. case 1934. APS, vol. 6 p2, 498. Christian Garlick (3205); Isobell Glenn (3206), Benson, South-West Fife, App. 2, 272. Further commissions were granted in July, on both the 12 and 21. APS vol. 6, p2, 479 (case 3083) and Ibid. Benson also notes that in mid July the session records of Dalgety record one suspect fleeing, as well as concerns being raised about the cost of the trials.
80.
Dunfermline Presbytery CH21051, 89. Benson, South-West Fife, App. 2, 270.
81.
Transcription as in Benson, South-West Fife, App. 2, 271. Dunfermline Presbytery CH21051, 91.
82.
Dunfermline Presbytery CH21051, 92, 93. Benson, South-West Fife, App. 2, 271.
83.
Dunfermline Presbytery CH21051, 93. Benson, South-West Fife, App. 2, 271.
84.
The phrase is important. In fact, the phrase is ‘confessing [dying?] witches’. The word between confessing and witches is unclear. CH21051, 93. Benson, South-West Fife, App. 2, 271. At the next meeting, on July 2, the same request is made. This time the phrase ‘confessing witches’ is used. CH21051, 94. Benson, App. 2, 271. Presbytery did not meet during the crucial month of July. The next minute is dated August 15, 1649.
85.
Issobell Leitch (187); Margaret Aytoune (171); Issobell Guthrie (172); Christine Thomsone (169); Rossina Ossit (170); Barbara Chattow (177); Joannet Grege (180); Hellen Douglas (173); Emie Angus (179); Katharine Smyth (176) Margaret Blaikburne (174); Joannet Smetoune (184); Marjorie Fergie (183) Bessie Wilson (182); Mart Greg (181); Hellane Stanhouse (178); Katharine Grieve (186); Margaret Mairtine (185); Issobell Mitchell (175). The source of these commissions is the Justiciary Records, JC2613. Names of other accused individuals known from other sources also appear in these confessions.
86.
JC 26135. July 10, 1649. The confessions of Margaret Mairtine, Katharin Grieve, and Issobell Leitch.
87.
JC 26135
88.
Case 2600. Mr John Lamont’s Diary, 12. Also APS vol, 6, p2, 490. Benson, SouthWest Fife, App. 2, 274. The quote is from Benson. Lamont gives details regrading the suicide.
89.
Case 1941. APS vol. 6 p2, 510. Benson, South-West Fife, App. 2, 272.
90.
Mortoun (3207); Phillip (3208). Dunfermline KS CH25921, f98. Benson, South-West Fife, App. 2, 272.
91.
Wife of Stanehouse (3213) wife of Smith (3214). The source for this information is Benson, South-West Fife, App. 2, 272–273. Little other information is known as the minutes of the Aberdour kirk session records CH231 are very brief.
92.
Case 1944 and 3085. APS vol. 6 p2, 538. Benson, South-West Fife, App. 2, 273.
93.
Smith (3211); Douglass (3209); Durie (3210). CH2
1051, 94–95. Benson, SouthWest Fife, App. 2, 273. A commission was issued against a Marion Durie (2063) on August 28. The source is PA 118, 135. It is unclear whether these are two individuals, or the same individual. Because of the uncertainty, they are listed as separate cases in the SWHDB.
94.
Margaret Currie (3212). Benson, South-West Fife, App. 2, 3212. The reference to dying witches comes from the Presbytery record of August 22 CH21051, 95–96. Benson, App. 2, 273.
95.
Dunfermline Presbytery CH21051, 97. Another woman, Jonet Matheson (3216), was put to trial on September 19. CH21051, 101. Benson, South-West Fife, App. 2, 273.
96.
Benson, South-West Fife, App. 2, 273.
97.
PA 118134v
98.
Dunfermline Presbytery CH21051, 98. Benson, South-West Fife, App. 2, 273.
99.
PA 118 157r-157v
100.
PA 118 157v.
101.
Ibid.
102.
Benson, South-West Fife, App. 2, 273. Dunfermline Presbytery, CH21051, 100.
103.
Dunfermline Presbytery CH21051, 107, 108, 109, 122.
104.
December 31, 1649; January 7, 1650; January 30, 1650; Benson, South-West Fife, App. 2, 240. CH21051 107, 108, 109. The minister of Inverkeithing, Walter Bruce, again found himself in difficulty both in regards to this matter and Robert Brown. May 1, 1650. Benson, App. 2, 241. CH21051, 122.
105.
Dunfermline KS November 6, 1649. CH25921, f102. Benson, South-West Fife, App. 2, 274.
106.
Dunfermline KS December 18, 1649 CH25921, f104. Benson, South-West Fife, App. 2, 274.
107.
Case 3217. Culross KS CH2772. November 3, 1649, 64. November 6, 66, and December 4, 1649, 69. Benson tells a slightly different story, South-West Fife, App. 2, 273–274.
108.
Case 2659. Ross tells this story well in Aberdour and Inchcolme, 325–28. He also notes that nine years later Janet is asking for a letter of standing, on which the session insisted on noting that she was once accused as a witch. Benson, South-West Fife, App. 2, 274–275.
109.
Case 2657. Culross KS CH2772, 85–87.
110.
Marion Cunningham (2661). Dunfermline KS CH25921, f111. Also, Henderson, Extracts of the kirk session, 33.
111.
Ibid.
112.
Case 3221. Benson, South-West Fife, App. 2, 275.
113.
Benson, South-West Fife, has a good discussion of Bruce’s role, 184–190. He argues that ministers of all theological stripes took part in this hunt. At the same time, he sees that Bruce benefited strongly from the crises: ‘His prestige and authority were enhanced by the scare’. (189) William Ross, in Aberdour and Inchcolme, sees Bruce as an avid witch-hunter, indeed ‘the greatest witch-finder of the seventeenth century’ within Dunfermline Presbytery (338). What needs to be remembered is that the Inverkeithing hunt happened in the one parish which had already witnessed a massive serial hunt a generation before. However we interpret the role of Walter Bruce, that factor must be part of our consideration.
114.
Case 2738. Ross, Aberdour and Inchcolme, 329. The SBSW lists several other cases at this period, but this is a misreading of Ross. It seems that the session’s wishes were seen to in 1661 when Cant and others were brought to trial.
115.
Case 207. The source of this information noted in the SBSW, the Proc. S.R.O. List, could not be located in the Scottish Record Office.
116.
Case 2748. J. Nicholl, A Diary of Public transactions and other occurrences chiefly in Scotland, from January 1650 to June 1667 (Edinburgh, 1836), 175. This is the last known case with any connection to Inverkeithing. Thus the area of Fife which saw the most intense witch-hunting, experienced all of its cases in a 35 year period (1621–56), and almost all of these in two intense hunts.
117.
Case 2841. Beveridge, Culross and Tuliallan vol. 1, 288–290. Some very interesting details in this case. Even General Monk was sought while in Edinburgh, in an attempt to get the commission. Elspeth was apparently warded for three months before being released in August.
118.
Currie (2825); Robertson (2824). Ross, Aberdour and Inchcolme, 329. It is not clear which ‘dying witches’ had named them. The best guess would be that it dated back to the 1649–50 hunt.
119.
Minutes of July 1661, 3 August and August 6, 1661. Aberdour KS CH231 gives some details, especially relating to the concern regarding ‘watching’ Katherine Robertson and Margaret Cant.
120.
Margaret Cant (2826); Janet Bell (2740); Susanna Alexander (2739). Ibid., 329–330. This case will be discussed further in chapter 8.
121.
Case 2841, Beveridge, Culross and Tuliallan vol. 1, 318.
122.
Case 2873. MacKenzie, The Laws and Customs of Scotland, 98.
123.
The unnamed witch is case 2873. Mackenzie, Laws and Customs, 98. Eliot (2939) is referred to in G. Sinclair, Satan’s Invisible World Discovered (Edinburgh, 1685), 207–208. The information is contained in a letter back to Sinclair approving of the first edition of his book. The author claimed to have seen this execution and the spot where Helen Eliot ‘fell’. As the story is told, she became frightened while flying and cried out ‘O God,’ causing her fall.
124.
Elspeth Guild (1841); Margaret Cowie (1848); Agnes Broun (1847) Cristian May (1846); Margret Horne (1845); Grissel Anderson (1844); Margaret Dobie (1843). RPC 3rd ser. vol. 2, 192. The name Grissel Anderson (2981) and that of Euphan Stirt (2983) appear in the SBSW in connection with Torryburn in 1703. The source for this information is the tract ‘Minutes and Proceedings of the Session in Torryburn . . . Lillias Adie’, Webster, Rare Tracts, 138. However, the other records do not list Grissel or Euphan. It seems possible they might have been executed in the period around 1666.
125.
The SBSW had case 2875 in Dunfermline in 1667. The source is Henderson, Annals of Dunfermline, 338–339 in which Henderson quotes the Kirk Session Records of the West of Fife, as noting alarm among the ministers and sessions of the area, especially Dunfermline and Torryburn, about witches and warlocks.
126.
Andro Currie (2906); Margaret Douglas (2907). Henderson, Extracts from the Kirk Session, 70. Gilmore, Witchcraft and the Church of Scotland, 233.
127.
Case 2936. Ross, Aberdour and Inchcolme, 332.
128.
Sands (609) was the only one married. Isobell Ingis (611); Jonet Hendrie (610); Agnes Hendrie (609). These records were duplicated in the SBSW as 2987–2900, the source for this reference being J.E. Simpkins, Examples of Printed Folklore concerning Fife . . . County Folklore. Vol. VII. (London: Sidgwick & Jackson, 1914). Justiciary Court Record JC214, 346–354.
129.
Ibid., 351.
130.
Ibid., 350.
131.
Ibid., 351.
132.
The burgh records note the great expense in prosecuting and executing them and took steps to make sure all of their goods were seized in order to meet these costs. It is unclear how much was involved, or who the claims were against, but the burgh did spend some effort trying to recoup some of its costs. These records are quoted in Beveridge, Culross and Tuliallan vol. 1, 350.
133.
Historians have assumed that sabbats would be common features of Scottish witchcraft accusations. Larner, Enemies of God, 135–136, noted that sabbats were a common feature of confessions. Quaife, Godly Zeal, 60. For discussion of the elite notion of witchcraft in Scotland see Cowan, ‘Darker Vision’.
134.
Ibid., 350.
135.
Lillias Adie (2987). Torryburn session, CH23552 meeting of June 30, 1704. Others heard slightly different versions of the call. How much Jean Bizet drank was a matter of some dispute, although it seems those who stated she was drunk were probably close to the truth as the next day Jean was complaining ‘of an sore head and in a sweat and she seemed not right’. This information is also excerpted in the witchcraft pamphlet ‘Minutes and Proceedings of the Session of Torryburn . . .’ in Webster, Rare Tracts, 129.
136.
Torryburn KS CH23552. meeting of July 29, 1704 ‘Minutes and Proceedings’, 135–136. Elspeth Williamson (2986).
137.
Ibid. July 31, 1704.
138.
The latter is quoted from ‘Minutes and Proceedings’, 140. Meeting of August 19. Torryburn KS CH23552. Mary Wilson (2991).
139.
Carmichael (3230); Callender (3229); Currie (3228); Whyte (2992).
140.
August 29 meeting. Torryburn KS CH23552, 76. ‘Minutes and Proceedings’, 142. Agnes Currie is listed along with several accused witches from Pittenweem as being released on a bond of caution. JC26D245.
Witches of Fife Page 18
