THERE has been an increased interest in the Scottish witchcraft trials of the 16th and 17th centuries in recent months, with campaigns ongoing for an apology, a pardon and a national monument.
Much has been written about the numbers accused – about 3837 – the role of the Kirk and the courts, and the beliefs of both the church and the accusers. But what of the women who were accused? What was the experience of those taken in for questioning?
Those accused of witchcraft were predominantly women – 84%. They were Christian but also said to be practitioners of magic. These magical powers might have been innate, inherited from a mother or grandmother, or they might have been gifted by the fairies.
These powers could be used to help heal a sick child, find lost property or gain a husband. Those with a reputation for being a witch might well be tolerated within a community – and indeed welcomed by some – for a time until external pressures caused the community to turn against them.
The turbulence of the Reformation and the wars of the Three Kingdoms were the two main pressures communities faced at that time. For John Knox, the father of Scottish Calvinism, power was unnatural to women therefore any woman who had power could only have derived it from an evil source – Auld Nick, meaning the Devil.
With that mentality added to the command “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live” in the King James version of the Bible, magical practitioners came under threat.
When an accusation was first made, these women were taken from their homes and dragged in front of the Kirk minister and elders to face an aggressive interrogation.
The moral leaders of their community castigated them as evil, wicked and in thrall to the Devil. Physically, there might be several men crowding round them, roaring and bellowing in their faces about their black, sinful soul. They were scared and disoriented – and expected to confess to the very worst of crimes. Torture might be used to force that confession.
Trial records note that accused women were tortured by “hanging them up by the thombes and burning the soles of their feet at the fyre”.
Hellbound and Down 