The Bute witches were six Scottish women accused of witchcraft and interrogated in the parish of Rothesay on Bute during the Great Scottish Witch Hunt of 1661–62.[1] The Privy Council granted a Commission of Justiciary for a local trial to be held and four of the women[2] – believed by historians to be Margaret McLevin, Margaret McWilliam, Janet Morrison[a] and Isobell McNicoll[4] – were executed in 1662;[2] a fifth may have died while incarcerated.[5] One woman, Jonet NcNicoll, escaped from prison before she could be executed but when she returned to the island in 1673 the sentence was implemented.
![black and white engraving showing old castle and tolbooth](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0b/Rothesay_Castle_%26_tollbooth.jpg/300px-Rothesay_Castle_%26_tollbooth.jpg)
Background
editThe early modern period saw the Scottish courts trying many cases of witchcraft[6] with witch hunts beginning in about 1550.[7] Prior to the fervent activity in 1662, generally the numerically small, tightly-knit, population of islanders on Bute did not encounter the scale of witch hunting experienced throughout the rest of Scotland.[8] Records indicate the only instances of formal witch persecution on the island took place between the 1630s and 1670s although the documents may be incomplete.[8] In 1630 after a group of women – their names and the exact number are not known – confessed to witchcraft, they were confined in the dungeon of Rothesay Castle without food or water and starved to death.[8]
A strong belief in fairy traditions and folklore persisted in Scotland during the seventeenth century despite being subjected to nearly a hundred years of vigorous oppression.[9] The Kirk session in Rothesay heard a complaint against Jeane Campbell in 1660 as it was claimed she went with the fairies who had instructed her how to make spells; she was also accused of applying "a salve to rub on her breast, which was good for comforting the heart against scunners [afflictions]."[10] It was discovered she suffered from indigestion so the local minister allayed the fears of his congregation regarding her involvement in witchcraft.[11] The following year she was brought before the session again after she used the cure on others; she was discharged but informed she would be deemed a witch if she repeated the offence.[11] Ten years earlier, in 1650, another woman, Finwell Hyndman from Kingarth, was interviewed as she went missing for a day every three months; when she returned she had such a repugnant smell no one could approach her and it seemed she had been on a long journey.[12] As she offered no adequate reason for her absence, she was "bruted for a witch or (as the commone people calls it) being with the fayryes".[12][b]
In common with other European witch trials, major Scottish witch hunts occurred in batches;[14] historians offer differing opinions as to why this should happen but generally agree that military hostilities and political or economic uncertainty played a part coupled with local ministers and landowners determined to seek convictions.[15] The execution of King Charles I took place in 1649 and an extensive witch hunt started that year.[16] Charles II was declared the monarch of Scotland in 1660; most historians connect the Great Scottish Witch Hunt of 1661–62, the last but most severe wave of prosecutions, with the Restoration.[17] The hunt started in small towns and villages near Edinburgh during April 1661[18] spreading to Bute with a succession of accusations and trials beginning in early 1662.[19] Some of the charges, including those against Margaret McWilliam, concerned events that had happened over twenty years before.[20]
Events leading up to the trials
editThe series of events on the island in 1662 were initiated following disagreements between neighbours, a common scenario for the instigation of witchcraft cases.[21] John McFie accused his neighbour Margaret McWilliam of witchcraft.[21] He alleged she caused him to suffer pains resembling those of giving birth; the ailment started shortly after he had an altercation with her and continued for three months.[21] McFie also claimed she was responsible for the sudden death of one of his children a few hours after the child became ill.[21] McWilliam had been regarded as a witch by the community for more than thirty years;[22] the women who confessed to witchcraft that starved to death in Rothesay Castle in 1630 claimed she was a witch and she had been imprisoned in 1631.[23]
Investigation
editThe first recorded statement given by any of the accused women was from Janet Morrison at her home on 15 January 1662.[24]
Aftermath
editJonet NcNicoll escaped from the tolbooth in Rothesay during 1662 and fled to Kilmarnock where she lived for the next twelve years.[25] She returned to the island in 1673 and was executed for the 1662 conviction alongside another woman, Mary NcThomas, who had been found guilty of incest and charming.[19] These two executions were the last recorded cases of witch persecution on the island.[19]
References
editNotes
editCitations
edit- ^ Willumsen (2011), p. 536
- ^ a b Henderson (2008), p. 105
- ^ MacPhail (1920), p. 3
- ^ Scott (2007), p. 279
- ^ Scott (2007), p. 280
- ^ Levack (2008), p. 1
- ^ Goodare (2001), p. 644
- ^ a b c Henderson (2012), p. 151
- ^ Henderson & Cowan (2001), p. 134
- ^ Henderson (2016), p. 112
- ^ a b Hewison (1895), p. 264
- ^ a b c Henderson & Cowan (2001), p. 213
- ^ Hewison (1895), p. 262
- ^ Wilby (2010), p. 30
- ^ Wilby (2010), pp. 30–31
- ^ Levack (2008), p. 55
- ^ Levack (2008), pp. 81–82
- ^ Levack (2008), p. 81
- ^ a b c Henderson (2012), p. 152
- ^ Sutherland (2009), p. 64
- ^ a b c d Henderson (2012), p. 155
- ^ Henderson (2012), p. 154
- ^ MacPhail (1920), p. 14
- ^ Willumsen (2011), p. 539
- ^ Willumsen (2011), pp. 555–556
Bibliography
edit- Goodare, Julian (2001), "Witch-hunts", in Lynch, Michael (ed.), The Oxford Companion to Scottish History, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-211696-7
- Henderson, Lizanne (2008), "Witch-Hunting and Witch Belief in the Gàidhealtachd", in Goodare, Julian; Martin, Lauren; Miller, Joyce (eds.), Witchcraft and Belief in Early Modern Scotland, Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 95–118, ISBN 978-0-230-50788-3
- Henderson, Lizanne (2012), "The witches of Bute", in Ritchie, Anna (ed.), Historic Bute, land and people, The Scottish Society for Northern Studies, pp. 151–161, ISBN 978-0-9535226-4-4
- Henderson, Lizanne (2016), Witchcraft and Folk Belief in the Age of Enlightenment Scotland, 1670–1740, Palgrave MacMillan, ISBN 978-1-137-31324-9
- Henderson, Lizanne; Cowan, Edward J. (2001), Scottish Fairy Belief: A History, Tuckwell, ISBN 1-86232-190-6
- Hewison, James King (1895), The Isle of Bute in the olden times, vol. 2, William Blackwood and Sons
- Levack, Brian P. (2008), Witch-hunting in Scotland: law, politics and religion, Routledge, ISBN 978-0-415-39943-2
- MacPhail, James R. N. (1920), Highland Papers, vol. III, Scottish History Society
- Scott, William (2007), The Bute Witches, Elenkus, ISBN 978-0-9521910-7-0
- Sutherland, Alex (2009), The Brahan Seer: The Making of a Legend, Peter Lang, ISBN 978-3-03911-868-7
- Wilby, Emma (2010), The Visions of Isobel Gowdie: Magic, Witchcraft and Dark Shamanism in Seventeenth-Century Scotland, Sussex Academic Press, ISBN 978-1-84519-179-5
- Willumsen, Liv Helene (2011), "A Narratological Approach to Witchcraft Trial: A Scottish Case", Journal of Early Modern History, 15 (6), BRILL: 531–560, doi:10.1163/157006511X600837