1649 which the devil sealed her as one of his, by a mark on. the right arm, into which Mr. James Wilson, minister of Dysart, in presence of Mr. John Chalmers,* minister at Auchterderran, thrust a long pin of wire into the head, and she was insensible of it. And the like experiment was tried in presence of Mr. Dalgliesh, minister at Cramond, &c. The prisoner, and two other women, were convicted, condemned, and executed, in one day.

Within a few days after, other three miserable women arrived at the last stage of a common journey in those days of superstitious ignorance, viz. from the parson of the parish to the criminal judges, and from the criminal judges to the executioner. They were arraigned before the same tribunal, on the hacknied charge of meeting with the devil. One of them, Isobel Bairdie, was accused of taking up a stoup, i. e. a flaggon, and drank, and the devil drank to her, and she pledging him, drank back again to him, and he pledged her, saying, Grammercie, you are very welcome.' In each of the three indictments, it is added, that the prisoner had confessed, in presence of several ministers, baillies, and elders. And it appears from the verdict of the jury, that these inquisitors were produced before the Court, to prove the extrajudicial confessions of the miserable prisoners, who had already been har rassed, perhaps out of their senses, or rendered

* Two of these reverend inquisitors, Wilson and Dalgliesh, were turned out of their churches, A. D. 1663, for not submit. ting to the act of parliament re-establishing Prelacy.

† Wodrow's History of the Sufferings of the Church, vol. 1. Appendix, No. 37.

weary of life, by the persecutions of brutish igno- 1649 rance, and diabolical cruelty.

The jury found the prisoners' guilty of the said 'crime of witchcraft, and that they deserve to die therefore, but referring the manner of their death, and time and place of their execution to the said 'judges their determination.'* The judges ordained them to be taken that same afternoon to the place of execution, at the and there to be

strangled at a stake and burned.

Major Weir.

The noted Major Weir, who was accused of hav- 1670 ing exceeded the common depravity of mankind, →→→ was dreaded for his sorceries, and admired for his gift of prayer. He confessed crimes that it was possible for him to have committed, as well as the absurd imputation of witchcraft. Yet he qualified his confession by answering to the articles of the indictment, that he thought himself guilty of the foresaid

crimes, and could not deny them.'t The Lord Ad. vocate then led a distinct proof of his extrajudicial confession, which was marked with circumstances that convince me he was in many respects acknowledging the truth. Indeed his sister swears to his guilt in one of the articles libelled. I must observe, at the same time, that one of the witnesses to his confession was the minister of Ormestone, who swore that the Major had sent for the witness to prison, in order to confess his sins to him, which con

In these trials mention is made of several wizards and witches who had lately suffered at Aberdour.

+ Rec. of Just. April 9, 1670.

1670 fession the minister gave in evidence* against him when tried for his life: and that I am convinced of the prisoner's having been delirious at the time of his trial. I decline publishing the particulars of this case.†

1678

Isobel Elliot, and nine other women.

Isobel Elliot and nine other women were tried for witchcraft in one day. The articles of indictment against all of them were pretty much the same. Those exhibited against Isobel Elliot were as follow: that about two years ago she staid at home from the kirk at the desire of her mistress, who was a witch, when the devil had a meeting with the prisoner, her mistress, and two other witches; that he kissed the prisoner, baptised her on the face with an waff of his hand like a dewing, and offered to lie with her, but forbore because she was with child;

* In countries where the Roman Catholic religion is professed, the priest who betrays what is communicated to him in confession is (I am told) burned alive. When the Reformed clergy renounced the errors of Popery, they were too wise to reject, in practice, so powerful an instrument in the hands of the priesthood, as auricular confession. I leave it to casuists in religion to determine as to the efficacy of auricular confession in the salvation of the soul; but I cannot help thinking, that for a priest to reveal this confession in a criminal court, to the destruction of the body, deserves to be placed nigh the top of the scale of human depravity.

+ So great was the horror entertained for Major Weir, so general was the belief that his house was possessed by devils, that almost for a hundred years no person would inhabit it. At this minute it is not occupied as a dwelling-house, but as a smith and woolcomber's shop.

Records of Justiciary, Sept. 13, 1678,

that after she was kirked the devil often met her, 1678 and had carnal copulation with her. The prisoner and the other nine miserable women underwent all the legal forms incident to their unhappy situation among that deluded and barbarous people. They had been prosecuted by his Majesty's Advocate; they judicially acknowledged their guilt, were convicted by the jury, condemned by the judges, and burned by the executioner,-for having had carnal copula tion with the devil.

Impostor of Bargarran.

Some years after, an impostor appeared, in the 1697 character of a person tormented by witches, Christian Shaw, daughter of John Shaw of Bargarran, a gentle man of some note in the county of Renfrew. She is said to have been but eleven years of age. And although it is probable that hysterical affections may in part have occasioned her rhapsodies to proceed from real illusion, as well as accounted for the contortions which agitated her body; yet she seems to have displayed an artifice above her years, an address superior to her situation, and to have been aided by accomplices, which dulness of apprehension, or violence of prejudice, forbade the by-standers to discover.

This actress was abundantly pert and lively; and her challenging one of the house-maids for drinking, perhaps for stealing, a little milk, which drew on her an angry retort, was the simple prelude to a complicated and wonderful scene of artifice and delusion, of fanaticism and barbarity.

1697 In the month of August, 1696,* within a few days after her quarrel with the house-maid, the girl was seized with hysterical convulsions, which in repeated fits displayed that variety of symptoms which characterise this capricious disease. To these, other appearances were speedily added, which could only be attributed to supernatural influence, or to fraud and imposition. She put out of her mouth quantities of egg-shells, orange-pill, feathers of wild, and bones of tame fowl, hair of various colours, hot coal-cinders, straws, crooked pins, &c.

1

Having by those sensible objects impressed the public with the most complete and fearful conviction of her being grievously vexed† with a devil,' she found herself capable to command the implicit assent of the spectators, in matters that were repugnant to the evidence of their own senses. For this purpose, she fell upon the device of seeming to possess the faculties of seeing and hearing, in a manner opposite to that of the rest of mankind. She would address some invisible beings as if actually present; at other times, in her conversations with those invisible beings, she would rail at them for telling her that persons actually present were in the room; protesting that she did not see them, yet at the same time minutely describing their dress. For instance, she spake as follows to the chief of her alledged tormentors, Catherine Campbell, with whom she had the quarrel, and who, to use the language of those times. was not discernibly present: thou sittest with a

True narrative of the sufferings and relief of a young girl. Edinburgh, printed by James Watson, 1698.

St. Matthew, c. 15. v. 22.