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Palgrave Historical Studies in Witchcraft and Magic Series Editors Palgrave Historical Studies in Witchcraft and Magic Series Editors: Jonathan Barry, Willem de Blécourt and Owen Davies The history of European witchcraft and magic continues to fascinate and challenge students and scholars. There is certainly no shortage of books on the subject. Several general surveys of the witch trials and numerous regional and micro studies have been published for an English-speaking readership. While the quality of publications on witchcraft has been high, some regions and topics have received less attention over the years. The aim of this series is to help illuminate these lesser known or little studied aspects of the history of witchcraft and magic. It will also encourage the development of a broader corpus of work in other related areas of magic and the supernatural, such as angels, devils, spirits, ghosts, folk healing and divination. To help further our understanding and interest in this wider history of beliefs and practices, the series will include research that looks beyond the usual focus on Western Europe and that also explores their relevance and influence from the medieval to the modern period. Titles include: Jonathan Barry WITCHCRAFT AND DEMONOLOGY IN SOUTH-WEST ENGLAND, 1640–1789 Jonathan Barry RAISING SPIRITS How a Conjuror’s Tale was Transmitted across the Enlightenment Edward Bever THE REALITIES OF WITCHCRAFT AND POPULAR MAGIC IN EARLY MODERN EUROPE Culture, Cognition and Everyday Life Ruth Bottigheimer MAGIC TALES AND FAIRY TALE MAGIC From Ancient Egypt to the Italian Renaissance Alison Butler VICTORIAN OCCULTISM AND THE MAKING OF MODERN MAGIC Invoking Tradition Willem De Blécourt (editor) WEREWOLF HISTORIES Johannes Dillinger MAGICAL TREASURE HUNTING IN EUROPE AND NORTH AMERICA A History Julian Goodare (editor) SCOTTISH WITCHES AND WITCH-HUNTERS Julian Goodare, Lauren Martin and Joyce Miller (editors) WITCHCRAFT AND BELIEF IN EARLY MODERN SCOTLAND Lizanne Henderson WITCHCRAFT AND FOLK BELIEF IN THE AGE OF ENLIGHTENMENT Scotland, 1670–1740 Ronald Hutton (editor) PHYSICAL EVIDENCE FOR RITUAL ACTS, SORCERY AND WITCHCRAFT IN CHRISTIAN BRITAIN A Feeling for Magic Jonathan Roper (editor) CHARMS, CHARMERS AND CHARMING Alison Rowlands (editor) WITCHCRAFT AND MASCULINITIES IN EARLY MODERN EUROPE Rolf Schulte MAN AS WITCH Male Witches in Central Europe Laura Stokes DEMONS OF URBAN REFORM Early European Witch Trials and Criminal Justice, 1430–1530 María Tausiet URBAN MAGIC IN EARLY MODERN SPAIN Abracadabra Omnipotens Robert Ziegler SATANISM, MAGIC AND MYSTICISM IN FIN-DE-SIÈCLE FRANCE Louise Kallestrup AGENTS OF WITCHCRAFT IN EARLY MODERN ITALY AND DENMARK Forthcoming: Andrew Sneddon WITCHCRAFT AND MAGIC IN IRELAND Liana Saif ARABIC INFLUENCES ON EARLY MODERN OCCULT THOUGHT Palgrave Historical Studies in Witchcraft and Magic Series Standing Order ISBN 978–1–403–99566–7 Hardback 978–1–403–99567–4 Paperback (outside North America only) You can receive future titles in this series as they are published by placing a standing order. Please contact your bookseller or, in case of difficulty, write to us at the address below with your name and address, the title of the series and the ISBN quoted above. Customer Services Department, Macmillan Distribution Ltd, Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS, England Witchcraft and Folk Belief in the Age of Enlightenment Scotland, 1670–1740 Lizanne Henderson University of Glasgow, UK WITCHCRAFT AND FOLK BELIEF IN THE AGE OF ENLIGHTENMENT Copyright © Lizanne Henderson, 2016 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2016 978-0-230-29438-7 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission. In accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6–10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. First published 2016 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN The author has asserted her right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of Nature America, Inc., One New York Plaza, Suite 4500, New York, NY 10004-1562. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. ISBN: 978-1-349-59313-2 E-PDF ISBN: 978–1–137–31324–9 DOI: 10.1057/9781137313249 Distribution in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world is by Palgrave Macmillan®, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress A catalogue record for the book is available from the British Library Typeset by MPS Limited, Chennai, India. For Ted, who allowed me to imagine the past WITCHCRAFT, a kind of sorcery, especially in women, in which it is ridiculously supposed that an old woman, by entering into a contract with the devil, is enabled, in many instances, to change the course of nature; to raise winds; perform actions that require more than human strength; and to afflict those who offend them with the sharpest pains, &c. In the times of ignorance and superstition, many severe laws were made against witches, by which great numbers of innocent persons, distressed with poverty and age, were brought to a violent death; but these are now happily repealed. Encyclopædia Britannica (First Edition, Edinburgh, 1771) Contents List of Illustrations, Figures and Tables viii Preface ix Acknowledgements xii List of Abbreviations xiv Introduction: Following the Witch 1 1 Fixing the Limits of Belief 11 2 The Idea of Witchcraft 58 3 Demons, Devilry and Domestic Magic: Hunting Witches in Scotland 92 4 Darkness Visible 126 5 Bemused, Bothered and Bewildered: Witchcraft Debated 150 6 “Worshipping at the Altar of Ignorance”: Some Late Scottish Witchcraft Cases Considered 190 7 The Survival of Witch Belief in South West Scotland: A Case Study 241 8 The Persistence of Witch Belief 298 Conclusion 321 Appendix I: The Scottish Witchcraft Act, 4 June 1563 329 Appendix II: The Witchcraft Act, 1735 330 Bibliography 332 Index 367 vii List of Illustrations, Figures and Tables Illustrations 1.1 “The Witches’ Ride” (1909), by John Copland 28 2.1 “A Witch-Brew and Incantation” (1909), by John Copland 66 2.2 “The Witches of Delnabo,” by James Torrance 71 4.1 The Jougs, Moniaive Town Hall 143 6.1 Bargarran House 205 6.2 Pittenweem Harbour 214 6.3 Pittenweem Church 215 6.4 Pittenweem Harbour 223 6.5 The Witch’s Stone, Littletown, Dornoch 239 7.1 Kirkcudbright Tolbooth 260 7.2 Balmaclellan 263 7.3 “The Burning of the Nine Women on the Sands of Dumfries, April 13 1659” (1909) 271 7.4 Dumfries Bridge and Whitesands, 1789 271 7.5 A portrait of Bell M’Ghie 293 8.1 Dunskey Castle, 1789 303 Figures 3.1 Number of accused in Scotland 100 3.2 Witchcraft cases in Scotland, 1663–1736 101 7.1 Number of accused in Dumfries 253 7.2 Number of accused in Kirkcudbrightshire 253 Tables 3.1 Gender ratios, 1660s to 1730s 102 7.1 Minimum number of witchcraft cases in Dumfries, Kirkcudbright and Wigtown, 1563–1736 254 viii Preface On 18 May 1671, Jonet McMuldritche, having been brought to trial at a Circuit Court and found guilty of witchcraft, was executed in the south- west market town of Dumfries. As was the normal method of dispatching of witches, she was strangled and her body burned to ashes, denying her a Christian burial. In order to recoup some of the expenditures of her trial and execution, possessions of any value were forfeited to the state, an action that put her surviving family at an economic disadvantage. Jonet lived at Airds on the shore of Loch Ken, Kirkcudbrightshire, where her husband was a ten- ant farmer and thus, potentially, a man of some moderate means. When the local bailie of the estate seized some of Jonet’s livestock for unpaid rent she vowed to do him an “evil turn.” When his cow and a calf died she indicated there was worse to come. After his child died he accused her of being a witch of long standing. Soon others joined in the chorus of slander and recrimina- tions. One man’s calves and his horse expired. Another man died after she cursed him. One farmer lost fifteen cattle, three horses and his wife. A child drowned in a peat bog. Other animals succumbed, neighbours fell ill – all, apparently after some altercation had taken place with Jonet. The details of her desperate case suggest that a series of unexplained mis- fortunes and tragedies were laid at Jonet’s door resulting in her execution. The high number of complaints against her, ranging from theft, straying animals, sickness and murder, suggests she was a highly unpopular local resident with no defenders; one might even go so far as calling her a scape- goat for community ills. It was repeatedly said by her detractors that she had been a witch “under evil report” for some considerable time, which could imply a certain level of community toleration of some duration. Her forthright character led her into numerous disputes and arguments, and she was not afraid to challenge male authority, including the bailie who initiated legal action against her. Indeed, men were her primary accusers. Elsewhere, it has been argued, such quarrels were typically between women of equivalent social status.
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