'Devilische Wordis': Speech As Evidence in Scotland's Witch Trials
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‘Devilische Wordis’: Speech as Evidence in Scotland’s Witch Trials, 1563-1736 by Sierra Dye A Thesis presented to The University of Guelph In partial fulfilment of requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History Guelph, Ontario, Canada © Sierra Dye, June 201 ABSTRACT “DEVILISCHE WORDIS”: SPEECH AS EVIDENCE IN SCOTLAND’S WITCH TRIALS, 1563-1736 Sierra Rose Dye Advisor: University of Guelph, 2016 Professor Elizabeth Ewan This dissertation examines the links between speech and witchcraft during Scotland’s witch- hunting period in the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries. As this thesis argues, verbal performances were a key feature in many definitions of witchcraft, from the curses and quarrels of maleficent witches, to the healing prayers of charmers, to the verbal pacts of diabolical witches. While witches in general were believed to possess a wide variety of powers, it was their utterances that most often brought them to the attention of the kirk and community, and which most often formed the majority of the evidence filed against them in their trials. Indeed, it was in the context of the court room that contested definitions of witchcraft found common ground in the words of witches. Consequently, speech should be seen as a unifying factor in popular, religious, and judicial definitions of witchcraft. This research draws on a wealth of printed and manuscript sources on Scottish witch- hunting, in particular, the process notes of the Justiciary Court and the kirk session and presbytery records. This material is supplemented by transcripts of additional trial material, sermons, demonological tracts and treatises, and other sources. The majority of the dissertation focuses on the legal evidence sought and submitted in the trials, demonstrating how local and central judges determined what constituted proof of witchcraft. While other historians have pointed out the connection between witches and words, this has generally been seen as a characteristic of popular folk belief rather than judicially-defined witchcraft: witches were accused of cursing, but convicted of having served the Devil. Alternately, the relationship has been explained as a consequence of the gendered stereotype of witchcraft, rather than an important feature in its own right. By focusing on speech as the commonality, however, we can better understand why women were most often accused of this crime, as well as revealing how witch-hunting was part of a larger concern and anxiety over speech in early modern Scotland. iv Acknowledgments There are many people, colleagues, and institutions without whom this project could not have been accomplished. First I would like to thank my advisor, Elizabeth Ewan, for her unceasing support and efforts on my behalf. She has been my strongest advocate from day one, spending two hours on an international call with a Master’s student in Arizona who was thinking of moving to Canada to pursue a degree in Scottish History. In the following years, she has continued to set me up with countless opportunities and connections, offering me support when I needed it while also pushing me to be the best scholar I could be. Honestly, I cannot thank her enough. I would also like to thank my committee members for their generosity in feedback, time, and effort: David Smith, who always pushed me to confront the uncomfortable omissions in my argument; Peter Goddard, who has been helping me to improve the focus of my writing since my first year at Guelph; and Greta Kroeker who generously agreed to come on board for this project and helpfully offered many insights and suggestions for future directions for my research. I am also deeply grateful to my external examiner, Michael Graham, for his very productive and insightful feedback, and whose enthusiasm and interest in this thesis has been most gratefully received. In addition to my committee and supervisors, there have been many others who have helped to influence the direction of this thesis through numerous meetings, discussions, emails, and more. Specifically, I would like to thank Julian Goodare, who has encouraged me and offered many helpful suggestions since the first time I contacted him during my MA, as well as during subsequent research trips to Edinburgh. I would also like to thank the many others who listened patiently to the early and later stages of my thesis development, and offered helpful advice and suggestions, especially Christopher Smout, Liv Helene Willumsen, Michael Wasser, v and Stuart Macdonald. I am especially grateful to Professor Macdonald, whose proximity and connection with the Centre for Scottish Studies has resulted in numerous impromptu and enthusiastic discussions of Scottish witch-hunting. I am also indebted to the many conference attendees and panel participants who have offered their feedback over the years, particularly Cynthia Neville, who served as panel chair during a paper presented at the NACBS, and whose enthusiasm for my project was wildly encouraging. I am also very grateful to the St Andrews Societies of both Montreal and Toronto for their generous support and research funding, as well as the College of the Arts and Humanities, and the Centre for Scottish Studies at the University of Guelph for research and travel awards which allowed me to research and present my findings at international confereces. I would also like to thank both the Centre and Women’s History Scotland (WHS) for their enthusiastic reception of my early work on witchcraft and encouragement in publication. And thank you to the staff in the History Department at Guelph, whose timely assistance and involvement have been crucial at many stages of this thesis. Last but not least I would like to thank my family, especially my sister and father, whose support has helped me to persevere and succeed, even while far away from home. And many, many thanks to all my friends, in Canada and elsewhere, who have cheered me on and sustained me throughout the PhD in both good times and bad. There are too many to name all of you, but thanks especially to Katie McCullough, Kate Zubczyk, and Heather Parker, who have all been fantastic about offering both feedback and friendship to keep me afloat and enjoying life. However, the MVP award must go to my friend, cheerleader, and roommate, Alice Glaze, whose constant willingness to listen, give feedback, and offer positive encouragement and/or sympathy has made all the difference. Thank you for motivating me and letting me talk at you until my vi argument finally fell into place; I couldn’t have done this without you. And to the many others who have supplied me with hope, encouragement, and happiness over the years: you know who you are. Thank you. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract……………………………………………………………………………………………ii Acknowledgements……………………………………………………………………………....iv List of Figures…………………………………………………………………………………….ix Abbreviations……………………………………………………………………………………...x Introduction: “How to Do Things with Words”…………………………………………………..1 Methodology, Sources, and Structure…………………………………………………….6 How to Hold a Witch Trial………………………………………………………………10 Chapter 1: Debates and Divisions in Scottish Witchcraft Historiography………………………20 Early Trends in Witchcraft Historiography and their Impact in Scotland……………….23 Top-Down or Bottom-Up?: The Politics of Witchcraft………………………………….27 Narratives and Belief: Social Meaning in the Trial Records…………………………….31 Popular vs. Elite Belief…………………………………………………………………..37 Gender and Witchcraft: Cause or Effect? ……………………………………………….42 Speech and Witchcraft: A Wider Perspective……………………………………………53 Answering the Questions, Crossing the Divide………………………………………….60 Chapter 2: A Reputation for Witchcraft: The Witch in Popular Belief………………………….61 Flyters, Quarrelers, and Scolds…………………………………………………………..64 Verbal Acts of Witchcraft: Cursing, Spell-casting, and other Execrable Utterances……74 Charming, Healing, and Prayer…………………………………………………………..82 Charming or Witchcraft?: What Difference Words Make……………………………….91 Words and Texts…………………………………………………………………………98 What Shall ‘Come to Pass’: Prophecy and Divination…………………………………102 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………...106 Chapter 3: ‘What Wordis They Spake’: Evidence of Witchcraft, Part 1……………………….110 Suspicious Speech………………………………………………………………………113 Proving (or Disproving) Witchcraft…………………………………………………….123 viii Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………...139 Chapter 4: Confessing Witchcraft: Evidence of Witchcraft, Part 2…………………………….141 Constructing a Confession……………………………………………………………...143 Interrogation: Questions, Answers, and Conformity…………………………………...146 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………...168 Chapter 5: Trial Procedure: Prosecution and Defense………………………………………….171 Jeane Scott and Jonet Galbraith, 21 March 1650……………………………………….174 Advocates and Arguments: Witchcraft in the Central Courts………………………….181 Isobel Young, 1629……………………………………………………………………..183 Agnes Finnie, 1644-5…………………………………………………………………...189 Margaret Hutchison, 1661……………………………………………………………...193 Janet Cock, 1661………………………………………………………………………..196 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………...199 Chapter 6: The Devil on Trial: Speech and Diabolical Witchcraft……………………………..202 Debating the Devil: Satan in Scottish Witchcraft Historiography……………………...205 The Devil in Scotland: From Arrival to Integration……………………………………209 Servants of the Devil: Religious and Judicial Definitions of Witchcraft………………214 Defining the [P]act: Speech as Evidence of the Pact…………………………………...221 Absence of the Pact……………………………………………………………………..227 Conversing