Chapter LXI

The Demon of Jedburgh--Recruiting Sergeant--Captain
Douglas--An Apparition--Witch Shot in the form of a
Cat--Isobel Gowdie, an Auldearne Witch--Sabbath
Meetings with Satan--Poor Farmer
Breadley--Disinterring Unbaptised Children--Strange
Mixture--Singularly-constructed Plough--An equally
singular Team--Attempt to shoot a Minister--Bessie
Hay's Attempt to slay Harie Forbes--The
Borrowstounness Witches--Their Trial and Sentence--A
Pittenweem Witch--An Unearthly Horse--Merciful View of
a Witch's Case--A Perthshire Witch--Water of Ruthven
Well--A Changeling.

"The demon of Jedburgh" caused considerable annoyance in 1752. In that year Captain Archibald Douglas was on recruiting service in the town of Jedburgh. He had a sergeant under him, who asked permission to change his quarters, on account of the house in which he resided being haunted by a spirit of frightful form. The captain laughed at the inferior officer, and ordered him to stay in the lodgings appointed him.

At their next meeting the sergeant declared he had again seen an apparition, which threatened his life. Moved by a dream and the sergeant's statements, Captain Douglas resolved to inquire into the matters that so disturbed the non-commissioned officer. The latter told his superior that during the night a frightful spectre stood by his bed-side, that it changed into the shape of a black cat, jumped out at the window, and flew over the church steeple. Moreover, the sergeant informed the captain that he had learned the landlady was a witch, and the landlord possessed the faculty of second sight.

At night Captain Douglas accompanied the sergeant, and lay down beside him, leaving his sword and firearms near them. At midnight the captain was wakened by a noise, and, on looking up, observed a large black cat flying through the window. Presently the captain fired his pistol at the creature, and shot away one of its ears. Next morning the commissioned officer stepped into the kitchen to see what was going on there, when in came the landlady, and swooned away in a pool of blood. On removing her head-dress, he discovered a pistol-shot wound on one side of her face, and observed that one of her ears was gone. The officer swore he would bring her before the magistrates to have her tried as a witch. She and her husband entreated him to refrain from giving information to the authorities, and he, like a generous man, promised to keep silence, on the condition that they would abandon their wicked ways.

Isobel Gowdie, one of the Auldearne witches, was baptised by the devil, with whom she had many "Sabbath meetings." She and other witches appropriated Farmer Breadley's corn to themselves, and left him nothing but weeds. To secure the grain, they at one time disinterred an unbaptised infant, which, together with parings of their nails, ears of corn, and colewort leaves, they chopped and mixed together. At another time, to accomplish a similar object, a plough, having a colter and sock of rams' horns, was prepared, and a yoke of toads, instead of oxen, with dog-grass traces, made to draw it twice round the farmer's fields. The agricultural implement was held by the devil, and John Young, a warlock, goaded the team, while a band of witches followed, beseeching the ploughman to do his work effectually.

An attempt was made by the gang of witches to which Isobel Gowdie belonged, to shoot Harie Forbes, the minister of Auldearne, with elf arrows, shaped by the devil, and sharpened by his imps. Notwithstanding all this, the arrows missed the mark. Charms and incantations were next resorted to with the view of depriving the parish of a good useful parson, who had been instrumental, both in and out of the pulpit, in making Satan tremble. The flesh and gall of a toad, a hare's liver, barley grains, nail parings, mashed in water, were put into a bag. Bessie Hay, a celebrated witch, being intimate with Mr. Forbes, went into his room to slay him with the compound, but the good man was proof against infernal acts, and so escaped injury.

Certain witches--Annaple Thomson, Margaret Pringle, Margaret Hamiltown, relict of James Pollwart, William Craw, Bessie Wicker, and Margaret Hamilton, relict of Thomas Mitchell, sadly tormented Borrowstounness and other parts of Linlithgowshire, in the seventeenth century. Having entered into a paction with Satan, they did divers acts of wickedness, for which they were tried before Commissioners of Justiciary, specially appointed for the purpose by the Lords of His Majesty's Council. The indictment charged that:

"Ye, and ilk ane of you, are indytted and accused,
that where, notwithstanding, be the law of God,
particularly sett down in the 20 chapter of Leviticus,
and eighteen chap. of Dewtronomie, and be the lawes
and actes of parliament of this kingdome, and constant
practiq thereof; particularlie be 73 act, 9
parliament, Q. Marie, the cryme of witchcraft is
declared to be ane horreid, abominable, and capitall
cryme, punishable with the paines of death and
confiscatiown of moveables; never the less it is of
veritie, that you have committed, and ar gwyltie of
the said cryme of witchcraft, in swa far ye have
entered in pactiown with the devill, the enemie of
your salvatiown, and have renownced your baptizme, and
have given your selffes, both soulles and bodies, to
the devill, and have bein severall meetings with the
devill, and wyth swndrie witches in diverse places:
and particularlie, ye the said Annaple Thomsone had a
metting with the devill the tyme of your weidowhood,
before yow was married to your last husband, in your
cwming betwixt Linlithgow and Borrowstownes, where the
devill, in the lykness of ane black man, told yow that
yow wis ane poore puddled bodie, and had ane evill
lyiff, and difficultie to win throw the world; and
promesed, iff ye wald followe him, and go alongst with
him, yow should never want, but have ane better lyiff:
and, abowt fyve wekes therefter, the devill appeired
to yow when yow wis goeing to the coal-hill abowt
sevin o'clock in the morning. Having renewed his
former tentatiown, yow did condeschend thereto, and
declared yowrselff content to follow him, and becwm
his servant: and ye, and each persone of yow, wis at
several mettings with the devill in the linkes of
Borrowstownes, and in the howss of yow Bessie Vickar,
and ye did eatt and drink with the devill, and with
ane another, and with witches in hir howss in the
night tyme; and the devill and the said Wm. Craw
browght the ale which ye drank, extending to abowt
sevin gallons, from the howss of Elizabeth Hamilton;
and yow the said Annaple had ane other metting abowt
fyve wekes ago, when yow wis goeing to the coal-hill
of Grange, and he invitted yow to go alongest, and
drink with him in the Grange pannes. And yow the said
Margaret Pringil have bein ane witch thir many yeeres
bygane; hath renownced yowr baptizme, and becwm the
devill's servant, and promised to follow him; and he
tuik you by the right hand, whereby it was, for eight
days, grevowslie pained; but having it twitched of new
againe, it imediatelie becam haill. And yow the said
Margaret Hamiltown has bein the devill's servant these
eight or nyne yeeres bygane; and he appered and
conversed with yow at the toun-well at Borrowstownes,
and several tymes in yowr awin howss, and drank
several choppens of ale with yow; and the devill gave
yow ane fyve merk piece of gold, whilk a lyttill efter
becam ane sklaitt stane. And yow the said Margaret
Hamiltown, relict of James Pullwart, has bein ane
witch, and the devill's servant thertie yeeres since,
hath renwncid yowr baptizme, as said is. And ye, and
ilk ane of yow, wis at ane metting with the devill and
wther witches at the croce of Murestaine, above
Kinneil, upon the threttin of October last, where yow
all danced, and the devill acted the pyiper, and where
yow endeavored to have destroyed Andrew Mitchell, sone
to John Mitchell, elder in Dean of Kinneil."

Then followed the order and warrant for burning the witches named in the indictment, couched and signed as follows:--

"Forsameikle as Annabil Thomson widdow in
Borrowstownes, Margaret Prinkle relict of John
Campbell ther, Margaret Hamiltown relict of James
Pollwart ther, William Craw indweller ther, Bessie
Wicker relict of James Pennie ther, and Margaret
Hamiltown relict of Thomas Mitchell ther, prisoners in
the tolbuith of Borrowstownes, are found guiltie be
ane assyse, of the abominable cryme of witchcraft
committed be them in manner mentioned in their
dittayes, and are decerned and adjudged be us under
subscryvers (commissioners of justiciary speciallie
appoynted to this effect) to be taken to the west end
of Borrowstownes, the ordinar place of execution ther,
upon Tuesday the twentie-third day of December
current, betwixt two and four o'cloack in the
efternoon, and there be wirried at a steack till they
be dead, and thereafter to have their bodies burnt to
ashes. These therefoir require and command the baylie
principal off the regalitie of Borrowstownes, and his
deputts, to see the said sentence and doom put to dew
execution in all poynts, as yes will be answerable.
Given under our hands at Borrowstownes the nynteenth
day of December 1679 years,

"W. DUNDAS.
"RICH. ELPHENSTONE.
"WA. SANDILANDS.
"J. CORNWALL.
"J. HAMILTON."

Beatrix Laing, a Pittenweem witch, became a most resentful woman. Because a young lad refused to give her a few nails, she, by means of putting burning coals and water into a wooden vessel, cast a grievous sickness on the young man, which made him swell prodigiously. For this she was cast into prison, pricked, and kept without sleep for five nights and days, to make her confess her dealings in charms and witchcraft generally. After considerable delay, a confession of guilt was extracted from the woman. Among other things, she told of a big black horse that had come to her with five packs of wool. Beatrix gave the animal to her husband, but the good man soon desired to get rid of the beast. It did not look like any other horse he had ever seen; neither whip nor stick would drive it away. Under the peculiar circumstances, the poor man consulted his wife as to what was best to be done. Long deliberation was uncalled for. "Go," said Beatrix, "cast his bridle on his neck, and you will get rid of him." The docile and alarmed husband did as instructed; and lo, the black horse flew off with a great noise. Repeated attempts were made by the magistrates of Pittenweem to induce the Privy Council to bring Beatrix to trial. The Earl of Balcarres and Lord Anstruther, members of the Council, looked on her as a dreamer, and obtained her discharge after five months incarceration. This act of clemency filled the Pittenweem people with rage: they drove her from home and habitation. Hungry and cold, she wandered about for many days, till death ended her sufferings.

A Perthshire witch cured little children by various charms. A cake made of meal obtained from nine several women was an infallible medicine, when eaten by a little sufferer; and a decoction of certain herbs, infused in water from the well of Ruthven, carried by one going to and returning from the spring, silently and alone, was an invaluable preparation. A neighbour, named John Gow, had a changeling left in his house in place of a beautiful infant, belonging to him, stolen by the fairies. The sickly-looking creature proved a source of great annoyance to him and his spouse, but, thanks to a witch, it was got rid of: a dose of her medicine administered to the disguised fairy proved sufficient to despatch it to fairyland, or to some other unknown place.