——Ravillat Redivivus: being a Narrative of the tryal of Mr. James Mitchell a Conventicle-preacher, who was executed the 18th of January last, for an attempt which he made on the sacred person of the Archbishop of St. Andrews. London: Henry Hills, 1678.
——Sadducismus Debellatus or a true Narrative of the sorceries and witchcrafts exercised by the Devil and his Instruments upon Mrs. Christian Shaw, Daughter of Mr. John Shaw, of Bargarran in the County of Renfrew in the West of Scotland, from Aug. 1696 to Apr. 1697. London: for H. Newmann, 1698.
——The Lawes against witches and conivration . . . London: Printed for R.W., 1645.
——The Trial of William Coke and Alison Dick for Witchcraft Extracted from the Minutes of the Kirk-Session of Kirkcaldy, A.D. 1636 in D. Webster A Collection of Rare and Curious Tracts on Witchcraft and the Second sight; with an original Essay on Witchcraft. Edinburgh: for D. Webster, 1820.
——Witch-craft Proven, Arreign’d and Condemn’d in its Professors, Professions and Marks . . . Glasgow: Robert Saunders, 1697.
Ady, Thomas. A Candle in the Dark: shewing the Divine Cause of the distractions of the whole nation of England and of the Christian World. London: 1655.
Forbes, William. The Institutes of the Law of Scotland. Vol II. Edinburgh, 1730.
Hutchison, Frances. An Historical Essay concerning Witchcraft . . . London, for R. Knaplock, 1718.
Kirk, Rev. Robert. An Essay of the nature and actions of the Subterranean (and, for the most part,) Invisible People, heeretofoir going under the Names of Elves, Faunes, and Fairies, or the lyke, among the Low-Country Scots . . . Edinburgh: James Ballantyne, 1815. (orig Ms 1691)
Kirkton, James. A History of the Church of Scotland 1660–79. c. 1693. Published in 1817 under the title The secret and true history of the Church of Scotland 1660–79. Edited by Ralph Stewart. Lewiston, N.Y.: Edwin Mellen, 1992.
Mackenzie, Sir George. The Laws and Customs of Scotland in matters Criminal. 1678. (Edinburgh, 1834).
Millar, J. A History of the Witches of Renfrewshire. (1809) A new edition. Paisley, Alex. Gardner, 1877.
Paterson, James. A Belief in Witchcraft unsupported by Scripture. Aberdeen: D. Chambers & Co., 1815.
Sinclair, G. Satan’s Invisible World Discovered. Edinburgh, 1685.
Spottiswoode, History of the Church of Scotland. 1655; reprint, Edinburgh, 1851.
Reference Works
Scott, Hew. Fasti Ecclesiae Scoticanae: The succession of ministers in the Church of Scotland from the Reformation. New edition. Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd, 1915.
Robertson, Maira. ed. The Concise Scots Dictionary: The Scots Language in one volume from the first records to the present day. Aberdeen: Aberdeen University Press, 1987.
APPENDIX A
A regional study of the Scottish witch-hunt: method and approach
In order to do a regional study, it is first necessary to choose a region: the next step is to locate all of the cases within that particular region. A researcher could begin by trying to read the appropriate local records. This would not be very effective in terms of time and resources as it would be possible to read court records for the entire period without discovering a single case. As well, the area of study would of necessity be very limited so that at the end of the study one would be asked the inevitable question of how this particular locality related to the broader Scottish witch-hunt. As the shape of the hunt in Scotland has not been adequately mapped, this is a very valid question. Fortunately, we already know of over three thousand cases of suspected witches from throughout Scotland thanks to the Sourcebook of Scottish Witch-craft. The difficulty lies in the fact that A Sourcebook listed these cases chronologically by the court level (High Court of Justiciary, Privy Council, Committee of Estates, etc.) from which the document originated. Primarily concerned with the central government records, the Sourcebook had not standardized its geographic references. (For a detailed discussion of the Sourcebook, in particular the process of standardizing the geographic references, see Appendix B.) It was thus necessary, after re-entering the data in a computer database, to list the cases by shire, and wherever possible village or parish. The result was not only an ability to give some shape to the hunt throughout Scotland, but also a way of locating all of the cases in the Sourcebook which originated from a particular region.
After discovering which cases belonged to the region under study, in this case Fife, it was then necessary to locate and read each of the individual records and to track the reference back to its source in order to get more detailed information. This represented not only a challenge, but also a different way of approaching the subject. Much of how Scottish history is written seems to arise out of the sources themselves: someone studies a particular document, then reports what he or she has found. This, in part, may be explained by the difficulty of the palaeography (handwriting) within manuscript sources from the seventeenth century. Each ‘hand’ is distinct and can be very difficult to read, thus making it realistic, once having discovered how to read a particular hand, to continue working on that document. While clearly valid for many topics, a regional study required a different understanding and approach to the primary sources. The computer database was used as a way ‘in’ to a particular source, which was then essentially mined for information on the known case or cases. In dealing with these sources many other cases were discovered; however, it is important to recognise that this was not the primary intent of the study. There are other cases in Fife where accusations of witchcraft were made which remain buried in kirk session, presbytery, or burgh records. This is a reality that needs to be admitted and which will not be easily overcome.1 This regional study represents an attempt to interpret the cases we know, not discover all of the cases that exist.
A study of Fife as a whole would have been impossible without the work of past generations of historians, in particular local historians. With four distinct presbyteries, a synod, and over sixty parishes, no one individual could begin to study a phenomenon like witch-hunting which spanned a century and a half were it not for the fact that local historians have transcribed session, burgh and other records. The long section in the bibliography entitled, ‘Published Primary Sources’ demonstrates clearly how extensive and valuable these sources are. The work of several scholars deserves particular note: William Stevenson, The Presbyterie Booke of Kirkcaldie and Mark Smith’s A Study and Annotated edition of the Register of the Minutes of the Presbytery of St. Andrew’s, volume 12 each represent complete and accurate transcriptions of the records in question and are of great value to scholars. It should also be stated that without Richard Benson’s careful study of session and presbytery records in his thesis South-West Fife and the Scottish Revolution and his decision to list all cases of witchcraft and charming in an appendix to his thesis, we would know less about what occurred in this important area of Fife. That the current study was able to deal with all of Fife, rather than having to choose a particular region within the shire as was originally thought, is a result of the work of these and many other scholars and local historians.
By using a variety of sources from the central government and from the individual communities, a picture of the witch-hunt in Fife began to emerge. The records of the various sessions and presbyteries, of the synod of Fife, of the burghs, of the Privy Council, of the Justiciary Court, and of the Committee of Estates were consulted, wherever feasible in the original manuscripts. Printed sources which excerpted main documents, for example Selections from the Minutes of the Presbyteries of St. Andrews and Cupar, were checked with the original documents to see whether what was being excerpted was the particular record itself or the selection of which records to include (in the case of this volume, the selection process affected which records were chosen). Some central government sources, such as the Records of the Privy Council and the Acts of the Parliament of Scotland were used only in their printed form.
The intent was to do a wide-ranging study, weaving together as much as could be gleaned from these sources into a coherent picture of the witch-hunt in Fife.
The problem of what sources are available and the kinds of information they can give is one that always haunts the historian. We tend to not only be bound to and by the sources that are available, but also often come to see the events through the ‘lens’ of the source we are using. In the case of the witch-hunt in Fife, this is ameliorated, somewhat, by the variety of sources that we have noted. On the whole however the main sources that have been used in this study have been those produced by the various levels of church courts – kirk session, presbytery and synod minutes. The difficulty with these records is in part one of survival. There are some frustrating gaps, situations where one would long to know how these events would be recorded by the local session. To cite only one example, the kirk session records of Inverkeithing (which, as we saw, experienced a major witch-hunt in 1649–50) do not exist prior to 1688. Of equal importance are some of the questions that are naturally raised. Were there witch-hunts in other parishes, only no records have survived which cover this period and thus we remain ignorant of the cases? And, does our reliance on these records tend to overemphasize the role played by the church in the witch-hunt? These are questions to consider as we investigate witch-hunting in Fife.
While there are problems with these, and indeed any, sources the broad range of materials consulted in this study gives us the opportunity to see not only the major hunts but also the more minor incidents of witchcraft that seem to have been a feature of life in seventeenth century Fife. This blend of central government and local records allow us to not only map out the large scale hunts and do some (admittedly limited) quantification, but also explore the more qualitative aspects of accusations of witchcraft.3 At the same time, it is hoped that those familiar with the intense regional studies such as those done on Salem4 will not be too disappointed. The historical literature on sixteenth and seventeenth Scotland does not allow for this kind of detailed analysis. There are simply too many basic facts which remain unknown including the population of the various parishes. Still there is a wealth of local histories and some solid regional studies of Fife.15 With the assistance of these resources, the information obtained from the documents can be placed in some kind of overall context.
This study is essentially an historical enquiry. The Sourcebook and later the computer database tempted one to move into a statistical study. Yet, the data are simply not adequate (beyond some very simple comparisons based upon gender) for these findings to have much merit. It would be wonderful to know how many people were executed in Scotland, or even Fife, yet we do not. Moreover, the fact that there are more individuals for whom we have no idea as to their fate (those categorized as ‘not knowns’ by the Sourcebook) makes any conclusions based upon the scattered information we do have uncertain. This was unfortunate and somewhat disappointing. Where the information was strong was in terms of the geographical place and the date when an accusation was made. This information was used as a basis to generate chronological and geographic patterns – the historical geography (the when and where) of the witch-hunt.
To proceed in the study various approaches had to be incorporated. Studies of the witch-hunt are by their very nature inter-disciplinary. Historical geography was only one of the methodologies that had to be borrowed in the course of the study. Theology, sociology, politics, and information about the legal system of Scotland all proved important. Still, it is important to remember that it was indeed a ‘borrowing from’; using insights, information, concepts from a specific discipline, while all the time being involved in an historical enquiry. This is not intended to discredit or dismiss any of these disciplines, but to clearly state the overriding approach taken in his study. This is an historical enquiry concerned with time and place, with when and why. Whereas a sociologist would want to determine which model best explains the witch-hunt, an historian is less interested in the model and more concerned about the particular details.6 It was still necessary, however, to focus and ask what kind of history was this to be? Clearly in terms of method, the writing has been greatly influenced by Peter Burke and other historians of popular culture. Conceptually, I came to stop thinking of this as only a study of witches but under the much broader umbrella of a study of persecution. Why are some individuals targeted for persecution? Why does this occur at particular times? To this end, R.I. Moore’s The Making of a Persecuting Society and Norman Cohn’s Europe’s Inner Demons, were influential, if not in their conclusions, at least in the questions they posed and the shape they gave to the subject.
Notes
1.
John Di Folco, in his study on only part of Fife – central and North Fife – stated that it ‘was physically impossible to work through all of those [unprinted church records] for the course of a century’. Aspects of Seventeenth Century Social Life, iv. Michael Graham, The Uses of Reform, includes references to cases from Anstruther Wester some of which appear to be unknown, 220–239. These cases were discovered in an unlikely source, the Anstruther Wester Parish Register, housed in the New Register House.
2.
William Stevenson, ed. The Presbyterie Booke of Kirkcaldie. Mark C. Smith, A Study and Annotated edition of the Register of the Minutes of the Presbytery of St. Andrew’s, volume 1.
3.
J.A. Sharpe, Crime in Early Modern Europe 1550–1750, 36, uses this phrase. The contrast between how central government and local government sources can be used, is effectively dealt with by Sharpe.
4.
Boyer and Nissenbaum, Salem Possessed. Godbeer, Devil’s Dominion. The range of complementary studies on Massachusetts society which can be drawn upon makes one envious. We do not know occupations, or village tensions (as shown by court records), or many of the other aspects of village life which have been studied in New England.
5.
The wealth of local histories can be seen in the section in the Bibliography ‘Secondary Sources: Fife & local history’. It should be noted that the books included in this section include only those which make some reference to the witch-hunt. Local histories, guide books, etc. which made no mention of the subject were generally not included.
6.
J.I. (Hans) Bakker, ‘The Hindu-Javanese World View in Java: The Structural Roots of the Pancasila State’ in Managing Changes in Southeast Asia: Local Idenities, Global Connections, eds. Jean DeBerhnardi et. al., 189–205, demonstrates how sociological models can be used. Also, James C. Hackler, ‘Strain Theories’; Ronald Hinch, ‘Conflict and Marxist Theories’; Robert A. Stebbins, ‘Interactionist Theories’; and, Rick Linden, ‘Social Control Theories’ in Criminology: A Canadian Perpective 2nd edition, ed. Rick Linden (Toronto: Harcourt Brace Janovich, 1992). Each of these lenses has a value. For example, functionalist models explain the need for deviants. Interactionist theories could be used to explain why a woman might use the label of witch to her advantage. This thesis is primarily concerned with the picture, not the specific lens which can be used in interpretation.
APPENDIX B
A Source Book of Scottish Witchcraft and the creation of the Scottish Witch-Hunt Data Base
The publication in 1977 of A Source Book of Scottish Witchcraft was an important milestone for researchers into the history of the Scottish witch-hunt. This appendix will discuss the nature and strengths of the Source Book, some of the short-comings which have become clear as a result of using it extensively, and the creation of the Scottish Witch-hunt Data Base.
The Source Book focused on the central records, in the words of the compilers ‘partly because they had never been used systematically before, partly because in the early days of the research project we assumed, wrongly, that in this way we could collect all the executions’. (Christina Larner, et. al, Source Boo
k, vi) The compilers discussion of their use of source materials is worth reading (Ibid., vi-ix). For our discussion, several points should be noted. The first is that more cases may exist at the national level than were discovered by this project. The compilers are clear about this. There may be more cases in the unindexed boxes of pretrial material from the High Court of Justiciary. There is also unindexed material from the Privy Council: ‘This has been left unexplored by this research team. They cannot be used cost-effectively for individual cases until they have been surveyed by the archivists.’ (Ibid., vii) The gaps in information were also noted. The fate of the accused is often unknown. There is also the fact that the documents do not report details of the initial interrogations: ‘Never, even in the processes, do we get an account of the type of questions asked, and the way in which confessions are extracted has to be inferred.’ (Ibid., viii) One final difficulty is that these records are incomplete. As noted above, the theory was that all cases after 1597 should have at least some reference to all of those accused of witchcraft and local records should have included only initial concerns or minor cases: ‘In fact it is clear that an unknown number of witches were executed without going through the ‘legitimate’ channels’. (Ibid., viii) This section of the introduction closed with suggestions as to what information the local records might contain.
The Source Book made the case that local materials were simply too difficult to assess at the time of the project, a conclusion fully supported by this author. Larner, Lee and McLachlan wrote:
So far as the local material goes we have covered only samples. Our view is that while it would probably be possible to add considerably to the list of witches by intensive work on small areas, it would again probably not be cost-effective, unless the researcher were to concentrate on the major years of persecution . . . So far as other years go, however, it would be possible to read a manuscript kirk session register extending over a considerable period and find less than half a dozen cases which had any connection with witchcraft or charming. (Ibid., ix)
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