The Aberdeen annalist tells a wild story of a complex murder which
befell to-day. The young Laird of Calder was married to a daughter
of the Laird of Cromarty, who, having no pleasure in him, prepared a
potion for his destruction. Hutcheon Ross of Auchincloch and two other
gentlemen, visiting the house this evening, ‘were made welcome, supped
merrily, and were all three found dead in their beds on the morn,’
having through some mistake received the poison meant for young Calder,
‘who by his friends was hastily removed out of that place, and never
more tried.’
* * * * *
[Sidenote: FEB.]
[Sidenote: 1643.]
Whilst the first battles of the Civil War were causing universal
excitement, some further rumours of prodigies were circulated in
the country. It was stated that a battle was seen at the hill of
Manderlee, four miles from Banff; and so strongly did the vision
impress itself on the beholders, that many ran to bury their valuables
in the earth. At Bankafair and Drum, touking of drums was heard. Mr
Andrew Leitch, minister of Ellon in Aberdeenshire, sitting at supper
one night, ‘heard touking of drums vively, sometimes appearing near at
hand, and sometimes far off. On the 7th of February, it was written
here to Aberdeen, that Kentoun battle at Banbury,[94] wherein his
majesty was victorious, has in vision been seen seven sundry times
sin-syne.’--_Spal._ On the 12th, about eight in the morning, being a
misty day, ‘visions seen at the hill of Brimman, within four miles
of Aberdeen. William Anderson, tenant in Crabstone, told me he saw
ane great army as appeared to him, both of horse and foot, about
eight hours in the morning, being misty, and visibly continued till
sunrising; syne vanished away in his sight with noise, into ane moss
hard beside. Likewise in the muir of Forfar, armies of men seen in the
air. Whilk visions the people thought to be prodigious tokens, _as it
fell out over true_.’--_Spal._
The same minister of Ellon, happening to step out of his manse one
night between twelve and one o’clock, ‘did see the sun to shine,
as if it had been mid-day, and, much astonished at so fearful a
prodigy, he called up his bedral to see it also; and, lest the truth
hereof should not win belief, he caused the bedral to raise a number
of the neighbours from their beds, all which did testify the same,
when the preacher was questioned about it by the committee sitting
at Aberdeen.’--_Pa. Gordon._ To make up for this unusual solar
demonstration, the sun by day ‘was seen in divers parts to shine with
a faint beam, yielding a dim and shadowy light even in a clear heaven,
and sometime did shew like a deep and large pond or lake of blood.’
[Sidenote: 1643.]
We learn from the same authority, that ‘at Rethine, in Buchan, there
was about the time of morning-prayer, for divers days together heard
in a church a choir of music, both of voices, organs, and other
instruments, and with such a ravishing sweetness, that they were
transported, which in numbers resorted to hear it.... The preacher
one day being much taken with the harmony, went, with divers of his
parishioners into the church, to try if their eyes could bear witness
to what their ears had heard; but they were no sooner entered when,
lo! the music ceased with a long note or stroke of the viol di gambo;
and the sound came from ane upper loft, where the people used to hear
service, but they could see nothing.’
Gordon adds an account of a prodigious noise which was heard all over
the kingdom at the moment when Alaster Macdonald landed with his Irish
in the west of Scotland, to join Montrose in behalf of the king--that
‘warning piece shot from heaven as the last signal that should be given
us of our near approaching punishment; this I am sure the whole kingdom
can testify, since the report did ring in the ears of every man,
woman, and child throughout the kingdom, as if it had been levelled at
themselves, as well in the houses as the fields, not only in one day
and one hour, but at one moment of time.’
When we read the history of two centuries ago, we little reflect on the
mental condition and furniture of the principal actors, or the manner
in which the public at large was prepared to receive and treat events.
Yet it cannot be doubted that history must have in a great measure
taken its bent and character from these circumstances. In reviewing
the events of the Civil War, it is most essential to keep in view the
style of religious convictions under which men acted, and even their
superstitions.
[Sidenote: 1643.]
The Diary of Sir Thomas Hope, the king’s advocate under Charles I.,
and a leader in all the proceedings of the Covenanters, shews us that
Sir Thomas, in most affairs of difficulty, accepted the thoughts which
occurred to his mind after prayer as a divine impulse to the right
course of action.[95] It reveals not merely the generally devout
life of the man, his frequent prayers and communions, and his entire
resignation to the divine will, but his being subject to superstitions
at which a child would now smile. He has frequently such entries as the
following: ‘June 24, 1643.--This night I thought that a tooth (whilk
was loose) fell out of my gums, and that I took it up in my hands and
kep it; and it seemed so real that while [till] I awakit, I thought it
really true, and could scarcely believe it otherwise when I had awakit.
Thir repeated dreams portends some calamity to me or mine; but I have
resolved to submit myself to my good Lord, and to adore his providence;
and the Lord give me grace to bear it patiently.’ ‘June 25.--At night
I dreamed that while I was pulling on my left buit, both the tongues
of it brake. This fell out really on the 26 September thereafter....
God prepare me. The Lord prepare me, for I look certainly to suffering
in such way as my Lord pleases.’ ‘April 8, 1644.--This night a dream
occurrit, whilk carries some fear with it; but I wait on the Lord. It
was, that the rod wherewith I walk was broken in pieces, and nothing
left of it but the silver head.’
* * * * *
[Sidenote: APR.]
‘Horribly uncouth and unkindly weather at this time ... marvellous to
see in April! Fishes, fowls, and all other commodities scarce gettable
in Aberdeen. White meal at nine pound ... the boll.’ Merchants,
expecting still greater prices elsewhere, bought up and exported all
the grain they could collect, ‘to the wreck of our country,’ and not
without ‘the country people’s malison.’ Spalding, who relates these
circumstances, tells us that this malison was ‘heard;’ for on the 29th
of May, a ship loading with meal in the Ythan river in Aberdeenshire,
slipped a plank, so as to let in the salt water and destroy the cargo.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: NOV.]
‘There came to Aberdeen ane Doctor Pont[hus], who had some stage plays,
whilk drew the people to behold the sport; syne, upon the stage sold
certain balms, oils, and other physical ointments, whereof he made
great gain. Thereafter he went north to other burghs, and did the
like.’--_Spal._
* * * * *
[Sidenote: 1643.]
If it were allowable to use the language of the day, we might say that
the devil had at this time broken out in unusual activity. Accordingly,
the public authorities had not only to prepare an army for the aid of
the parliament against the king in England, and make vigorous crusades
in Strathbogie and other over-loyal districts, but to meet the powers
of darkness with all the terrors of the criminal law. The number of old
women who suffered for offending at once against the 18th chapter of
Deuteronomy and the 73d act of the ninth parliament of Queen Mary,[96]
in Fife alone, was thirty.[97] One noted case was that of Agnes Finnie,
a poor woman dealing in small articles at the Potterrow Port in
Edinburgh, who was convicted and burned in 1644. Mr Charles K. Sharpe
has presented us with the articles of her dittay, and as they afford a
highly characteristic picture of the acts then attributed to a witch,
and give some curious glimpses of the private life of the period, I
make no apology for transferring them to these pages.
‘Having threatened Mr William Fairlie’s son to send him halting hame,
because, going by her door, he, in a nickname, called her _Annie
Winnie_, he within twenty-four hours after, lost the power of his left
side by her witchcraft, and languished in so incurable a disease, that
the whole physicians called it supernatural, and the haill substance of
his body ran out at his cute [ankle]; and the boy laid the whole wyte
[blame] of his death constantly upon the panel.
‘She laid upon Beatrix Nisbet a fearful disease, so that _she lost the
power of her tongue!_ because she paying the said Agnes two dollars
owing her by her father, would not give her annual rent [interest]
therefor. She laid a grievous sickness upon Jonet Grinton, whom ye
threatened that she should never eat more in this world, because she
had brought again two herring she had bought from you, they not being
caller [fresh], and sought back her eight pennies [two-thirds of a
penny sterling], and of which she died, without eating or drinking
conform to your threatening.
‘Ye came in to visit John Buchanan’s bairn, being sick of a palsy,
and bade the father and mother go ben the house [remove to the inner
apartment] a while and pray to God for him; and in the meanwhile ye
stayed with him, and when they returned, they fand him violently sick
that he could neither stir hand nor foot, and that by your devilry; and
fand on his right buttock about the breadth of one’s loof, the same so
sore as if a collop had been ta’en out of it; and he died in eight days
in great dolour.
[Sidenote: 1643.]
‘Falling a scolding with Betty Currie, the said bairn’s mother, about
the changing of a sixpence which ye alleged to be ill, ye, in great
rage, threatened that ye should gar [cause] the devil tak a bite of
her. Ye laid a grievous sickness on her husband, John Buchanan, that
he burned a whole night as if he had been in a fire, for taking his
wife Betty Currie’s part against you, and boasting [threatening] to
cast you over the stair, and calling you a witch; whereon ye threatened
to make him repent his speeches; and for taking the same off him, he
coming the next day and drinking a pint of ale with you, and telling
you that if you tormented him so another night, he should make all the
town hear tell of it; whereon he was weel. The said John being offended
at you because ye would not trust his wife a twelvepenny cake [penny
roll], ye bade him go his way, and as he had begun with witches, so he
should end; after which threatening, he straight contracted a long and
grievous sickness, whereof he was like to melt away in sweating.
‘In your scolding with Euphame Kincaid, ye calling her a drunkard, and
she calling you a witch, ye replied: “That if ye was a witch, she and
hers should have better cause to call ye so;” accordingly, a great
joist fell on the said Euphame’s daughter’s leg, being playing near
your house, and crushed the same, and that by your sorcery.
‘Ye, ending an account with Isobel Acheson, and because ye could not
get all your unreasonable demands, bade the devil ride about the town
with her and hers; whereupon, the next day, she brake her leg by a fall
from a horse, and ye came and saw her, and said: “See that ye say not
that I have bewitched you, as other neighbours say.”
‘Robert Watt, deacon of the cordwainers, having fined Robert Pursell,
your son-in-law, for a riot, ye came where he and the rest of the craft
were convened, and cursed them most outrageously, whereon Robert Watt
broke the cap upon your head; since which time he fell away in his
worldly means, till long after, he being in your good-son’s house,
where ye likewise was, ye asked “if he remembered since he broke the
cap on your head? and that he had never thriven since, nor should,
till you had amends of him;” whereon, he being reconciled with you, he
prospered in his worldly state as before.
‘The laying on of a grievous sickness on Christian Harlaw, for sending
back a plack’s worth of salt which ye had sent her, it being too
little; ye having threatened her that it should be the dearest salt
that ever she saw with her eyes, and then, at her entreaty, ye came to
her house, and she became presently weel; whereon Christian said, that
“if ought ailed her thereafter, she should wyte [blame] you.” Christian
Simpson being owing you some money, and because she craved only eight
days’ delay to pay it, ye threatened in great rage, that “she should
have a sore heart ere that day eight days;” according whereto, the said
Christian’s husband broke his leg within the said eight days.
[Sidenote: 1643.]
‘John Robison, having called you a witch, you, in malice, laid a flux
on him by your sorcery. Appearing to John Cockburn in the night, when
both doors and windows were fast closed, and terrifying him in his
sleep, because he had discorded with your daughter the day before.
Causing all William Smith’s means to evanish, to the intent he might
never be able to relieve some clothes he had pawned beside you, worth
an 100 lb., for 14 merks Scots only. Onlaying a grievous sickness
on Janet Walker lying in childbed; and then ye being sent for, and
the said Janet’s sister begging her health at you for God’s sake, ye
assented, and she recovered of her sickness presently by your sorcery.
‘Being disappointed of having Alexander Johnston’s bairn’s name, ye, in
a great rage and anger, told him, that “it should be telling him 40 lb.
betwixt and that time twelvemonth, that he had given you his bairn’s
name;” whereon he took a strange sickness, and languished long; and at
length, by persuasive of neighbours, he came to your house, and after
he had eaten and drunken with you, ye with your sorcery made him whole.
_Item_, the child whose name ye got not was past eleven years ere he
could go.
‘Having fallen in a controversy with Margaret Williamson, ye most
outrageously wished the devil to blow her blind; after which she by
your sorcery took a grievous sickness, whereof she went blind. Laying
a madness on Andrew Wilson, conform to your threatening, wishing the
devil to rive the soul out of him (which words, the time of his frenzy,
were never out of his mouth), and that because he had fallen in a
brawling with your daughter. _Item_, for taking off it.
‘Bearing company with the devil these twenty-eight years by-past; for
consulting with him for laying on and taking off diseases, as weel on
men as women and bestial; which is notourly known.’
[Sidenote: 1643.]
It clearly appears that this woman had, at the utmost, been guilty of
bad wishes towards her neighbours, and that if these had any effect, it
was only through their superstitious apprehensions. We may suppose such
to be the type of a class of cases--the _simply maledictory_. It is
fairly presumable, however, that, while the community was so ignorant
as to believe that malediction could have positively injurious effects,
it _would occasionally have these effects by its influence on the
imagination_, and consequently become an active evil. In this we can
see a possible cause of the long persistence of the belief in witches.
The ignorant, seeing an effect, and not observing the influence of the
imagination in the case, would of course find no objection to laying it
all to the account of witchcraft. The enlightened, again, disbelieving
witchcraft, but at the same time ignorant of the influence of
imagination, would have no alternative but to deny the facts; and this
unreasoning and unsound scepticism, being contrary to the experience of
the ignorant, would fail to disabuse them of their superstitions.
In this year (December 31, 1643) is an entry in the parish register
of Markinch, Fifeshire--‘Compeared Janet Brown, and being posed
if she used charms, she confessed that she did charm two several
persons--viz., James Hullock and Janet Scott, but no moe. The words of
the charm are these:
“Our Lord forth raide,
His foal’s foot slade:
Our Lord down lighted,
His foal’s foot righted;
Saying: Flesh to flesh, blood to blood, and bane to bane,
In our Lord his name.”
Being posed who learned her the foresaid charm, answered, ane man in
the parish of Strathmiglo.’[98]
There is reason to believe that this is a charm of great antiquity for
the healing of bruises and sprains.[99]
[Sidenote: 1643.]
The faith in necromantic power being wholly a part of the religious
earnestness of the time, it is only to be expected that the clergy
should appear deeply interested in prosecutions of this class, and
sedulous that suspected persons should be duly tried and the guilty
brought to punishment. In October 1644, Margaret Young, spouse of
William Morison, merchant in Dysart, described herself, in a petition
to the Privy Council, as having lain miserably in prison for ten weeks,
in consequence of a false accusation got up against her as ‘a consulter
of spirits,’ by a few neighbours acting under a feeling of ‘spleen
and envy,’ ‘albeit she is ane honest young woman, of good reputation,
without any scandal or blot, and never knew nothing of that is put to
her charge.’ She had petitioned the Privy Council to have the bailies
and ministers of Dysart summoned before them, and ordained to set
her at liberty; and on an appointed day, one of the ministers came
forward, and craved to have a longer time ‘to see if any dittay sould
be given in against her.’ Even that time was now expired, and yet,
with no charge against her, she continued to languish in her wretched
imprisonment. The lords agreed to liberate Margaret, on her husband
giving security to the extent of five hundred merks, that she would
compear if afterwards called upon.--_P. C. R._
In the ensuing month--so frequent were accusations of witchcraft at
this time--one Margaret Thomson, wife of Alexander Gray in Calder,
complained before the same tribunal, against the Tutor of Calder and
the minister of that parish, for ‘waking her the space of twenty days
naked, and having nothing on her but a sackcloth,’ under a charge of
witchcraft. She had been ‘laid in the stocks, and kept separate from
all company and worldly comfort;’ nor could she ‘see any end of her
misery by lawful trial.’ The lords, having the woman’s husband before
them, and also the tutor and minister, and no regular charge being
forthcoming, ordained her to be liberated upon security.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: 1644.