Chapter IV: Part 4

Margaret Wallace[24] was tried before the Court of Justiciary. The Duke of Lennox, the Archbishop of Glasgow, and Sir George Erskine of Innerteil, sat as assessors to the judges, and an eminent counsel was heard in behalf of the prisoner. She was accused of inflicting and of curing diseases by inchantment; but it was not specified what spells she employed. It was libelled against her, that on being taken suddenly ill she sent for one Christian Graham, a notorious witch, who afterwards suffered a capital punishment, and that this witch transferred the disease from the prisoner to a young girl: That the girl being thus taken ill, her mother was advised by the prisoner to send for Christian Graham, who answered, that her confidence was in God, and she would have nothing to do with the Devil or his instruments: The prisoner replied, "That in a case of this sort Christian Graham could do as much as God himself; and that without her aid there was no remedy for the child:" But the mother not consenting, the prisoner without her knowledge sent for Christian, who muttered words, and expressed signs, by which she restored the child to health, &c. Her counsel urged, that the indictment was much too general: That it ought to have been specified, not simply that she did enchant, but also by what kind of spells she performed her incantations: That supposing Christian Graham to have been a witch, and that the prisoner when taken ill consulted her, still he was entitled to plead that the prisoner consulted her on account of her medical knowledge, and not for her skill in sorcery: That as to blasphemous expressions however well they might found a trial for blasphemy, they by no means inferred the crime of witchcraft; and he quoted many authorities from the Civil and Canon laws. He farther challenged one of the assizers, because one of the articles charged against the prisoner was her having done an injury to his brother-in-law.--The whole defences were repelled by the judges; and the jury found the prisoner guilty.

1629.

_Isobel Young._

Isobel Young in East Barns was accused of having stopped by enchantment George Sandie's mill twenty-nine years before; of having prevented his boat from catching fish while all the other boats at the herring-drave, or herring fishery, were successful; and that she was the cause of his failing in his circumstances, and of nothing prospering with him in the world: That she threatened mischief against one Kerse, who thereupon lost the power of his leg and arm: That she entertained several witches in her house, one of whom went out at the roof in likeness of a cat, and then resumed her own shape: That she took a disease off her husband, laid it under the barn floor, and transferred it to his nephew, who when he came into the barn saw the firlot hopping up and down the floor: That she used the following charm to preserve herself and her cattle from an infectious distemper, viz. to bury a white ox and a cat alive throwing in a quantity of salt along with them: That she had the Devil's mark, &c.

Mr Laurence Macgill and Mr David Primrose appeared as counsel for the prisoner. They pleaded, that the mill might have stopped, the boat catched no fish, and the man not prospered in the world, from--natural causes; and it was not libelled by what spells she had accomplished them: That as to the man who had lost the power of his leg and arm, first, she never had the least acquaintance with him; secondly, she offered to prove that he was lame previous to the threatening expressions which she was said to have used: That the charge of laying a disease under a barn floor was a ridiculous fable, taken probably from a similar story in Ariosto; and that two years had elapsed between her husband's illness and his nephew's: That what the prosecutor called the Devil's mark was nothing else than the scar of an old ulcer; and that the charge of her burying the white ox and the cat was false.

The celebrated Sir Thomas Hope, who was counsel for the prosecution, replied, that these defences ought to be repelled, and no proof allowed of them, because contrary to the libel; that is to say, in other words, because what was urged by the prisoner in her defences contradicted what was charged by the public prosecutor in his indictment.--The defences for the prisoner were overruled.--Is it needful for me to add that she was convicted, strangled, and burned?

FOOTNOTES:

[14] Rec. of Just. 18th May 1588.

[15] In the original it is Queen of Elfland.

[16] Good Neighbours was a term for witches. People were afraid to speak of them opprobriously, lest they should provoke their resentment.

[17] Records of Justiciary, 7th August 1590.

[18] Ibid, 26th December 1590.

[19] Rec. of Just. Jan. 27. 1590. A story is told of this woman in Spottiswood's Hist. p. 383. which is nowise confirmed by the record. His fable is absurd; and seems to have been invented by some zealous believer in the divine right of Kings.

[20] Rec. of Just., 8th May 1591.

[21] Unprinted Acts, A.D. 1592. No. 70.

[22] He who obtains a gift of the forfeiture.

[23] "Johnstoni Historia Rerum Britannicarum," p. 172.

[24] Records of Justiciary, March 20. 1620.

THE END.

Transcriber's Note.

Variable spelling and hyphenation have been retained. Minor punctuation inconsistencies have been silently repaired.

Corrections.

The first line indicates the original, the second the correction.

Volume I.

p. 10.

a particular star contsrolled the natal hour of everyone.
a particular star controlled the natal hour of everyone.

p. 12.

of illimitable wealth and endlesss life.
of illimitable wealth and endless life.

p. 30 (Note 3).

The ong windows of the silk-weavers' houses
The long windows of the silk-weavers' houses

Volume II.

p. 16.

so thorougly masters their mind that they fear
so thoroughly masters their mind that they fear

p. 18 (Note 7).

nterponed frae the said Censures
interponed frae the said Censures

p. 27.

they are all to be found in the Nuns of of Loudun,
they are all to be found in the Nuns of Loudun,

p. 34.

that an example convinces a whole asembly.
that an example convinces a whole assembly.

p. 34 (Note 11).

have occasioned her rhaphsodies
have occasioned her rhapsodies

p. 37.

without the slighest increase of pulsation
without the slightest increase of pulsation

p. 39 (Note 11).

female suspected and accused of withcraft
female suspected and accused of witchcraft

p. 40 (Note 11).

to be burned or oherwise executed to death
to be burned or otherwise executed to death

p. 41 (Note 11).

No special act of withcraft was
No special act of witchcraft was

p. 42 (Note 11).

fouud these articles proved,
found these articles proved,

Volume III.

p. 18.

who had been connected wilh the affair
who had been connected with the affair

p. 34.

soldiers quarterted in his house were soundly beaten
soldiers quartered in his house were soundly beaten