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SEPTEMBER 2008

SCOTTISH PARLIAMENT PETITION

Early in 2008 we raised the following petition with the Scottish Parliament, along with our petition for   Helen Duncan.

The grant of a posthumous pardon to all persons convicted in Scotland under all Witchcraft legislation

Petition by Ewan Irvine, on behalf of Full Moon Investigations, calling on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to take necessary action to grant a posthumous pardon to all persons convicted in Scotland under all Witchcraft legislation.

In March 2008 the petition was heard by the Petitions Committee in the Scottish Parliament and a decision was taken to obtain more information from various bodies on the subject.

Since that date a number of articles have been forwarded to the committee . It does appear that in practice, to pardon all those accused and prosecuted of witchcraft would be very difficult. Each would probably have to be looked at on an individual basis and historically, we do not know every single person who was prosecuted.

One very interesting suggestion that has been proposed is the building of a national memorial in a public area in Scotland that would lay testament to all those accused and prosecuted of witchcraft and offer an apology in what could be termed as Scotland's darker history.

We hope this will be taken forward and we hope to be at the forefront of this in the months to come.

The petition will be heard in Parliament on Tuesday, September 9th 2008.

Scottish Witchcraft

In Scottish history around 4,000 individuals were accused of being a witch.

Around 85% were women. 32% of named accused witches came from the Lothians. Strathclyde and the west produced 14%, and 12% were from Fife, 9% from the Borders, Grampian including Aberdeen produced 7%, Tayside and the Highlands and Islands produced 6% each, 5% were from Caithness, Orkney and Shetland, and 2% from Central region. The top county for witch-hunting was Haddingtonshire (East Lothian). T

he Witchcraft Act was in force between 1563 and 1736. Between these years there were five episodes that stand out as periods of high level accusation and prosecution of witches: 1590-1, 1597, 1628-30, 1649 and 1661-2.

These episodes of high level accusation were not national but were the result of a number of local or regional activities, particularly the Lothians. Prosecution in other parts of Scotland was more varied and many areas follow a very different chronological pattern to that of the Lothians.

Torture was used to exact confessions—though we don't know how often, as the records that survive in most cases aren't the kinds that mention it. In theory, torture was only to be used with the permission of the state; however in reality it would seem that torture was frequently used without any official permission.

It was not until after the 1661-2 period of high level witch accusations that the privy council issued a declaration that torture was only to be used with its permission. Despite this, torture continued to be used in many cases, even as late as 1704.

 In court, evidence could be presented as follows : Confession evidence, often extracted under torture. Typically if a suspect was interrogated they would be expected to confess to making a pact with the Devil and to harming their neighbours by maleficent witchcraft, though one or other of these was often omitted. Neighbours' testimony. Statements by neighbours usually ignored the Devil. They usually described quarrels with the suspect followed by misfortune they had suffered. Other witches' testimony. When witches were interrogated they were sometimes asked about their accomplices.

The people they named could then be arrested and interrogated. This was an effective way of increasing the numbers of suspects; it seems mainly to have happened during short periods of intense witch-hunting.

The Devil's mark. The Devil was believed to mark his followers at the time when they made a pact with him, as a parody of Christian baptism. A physical search of the suspect's body could find this mark—either a visible bodily blemish or an insensitive spot. The insensitive spot was discovered by pricking with pins, sometimes by the interrogators themselves and sometimes by itinerant professional witch-prickers (of whom about 10 are known to have acted in Scotland).

The length of time between initial accusation, or denunciation, to trial and possible execution was not set and could vary greatly. Some individuals appear to have had a long reputation before they were investigated or may have been in trouble with the church authorities a number of times before they were investigated for witchcraft. In some cases there may have been some investigation decades before the official date of prosecution. On the other hand some cases appear to have been processed very quickly.

 There were also numerous acquittals, as well as other occasional outcomes—escape from prison, or death in prison either from natural causes or from suicide. Several types of court were involved, often with their own specialised roles. More than one could be involved in the same case at different stages. Local church courts (kirk sessions and presbyteries). These were often the bodies to which people complained about witchcraft; they interrogated suspects and gathered evidence from neighbours. But they had no criminal jurisdiction; they couldn't execute witches. So they had to pass the case on to one of the following: Privy council, committee of estates or parliament. These were central bodies that didn't hold trials themselves, but they did issue commissions (known as 'commissions of justiciary') authorising people to hold trials. See no. 6 below.

Court of justiciary. The highest criminal court, held usually in Edinburgh. Tried numerous witches. Circuit courts. Travelling versions of the court of justiciary that occasionally visited the localities. Often tried witches when they were held. Regular local courts (sheriff courts, burgh courts).

 Witchcraft was a serious crime, normally beyond their jurisdiction. Local criminal courts held under commissions of justiciary (issued by the bodies listed in 2 above). These were usually ad hoc courts convened to try just one person for one crime. Most Scottish witches were tried in such courts.

Few of their records survive, though we do usually have a record of the issue of a commission. Those convicted were almost always strangled at the stake and then their dead body was burned. As time went on, the lawyers in charge of the central courts gradually became less convinced that the usual kinds of evidence could prove guilt. The validity of confessions made under torture was questioned, and pricking for the Devil's mark came to be seen as fraudulent.

 During some of the major panics, notably in 1661-2, there were miscarriages of justice which led to tightening up of procedures. After the Glorious Revolution of 1689 the state became more secular and no longer needed to prove its godliness by executing witches.

A trickle of local prosecutions continued—the last was in 1727. The Scottish Witchcraft Act was repealed in 1736 when the British Parliament decided to repeal the parallel English act. The 1736 Act abolished the crime of witchcraft and replaced it by a new crime of 'pretended witchcraft' with a maximum penalty of one year's imprisonment.

Many of today’s professions have their roots in tradition and what could be seen as mystical  wisdon. Professions such as mediumship, herbalists, midwifery, reiki and many alternative therapies, to name just a few.

These details were provided by : Julian Goodare, Lauren Martin, Joyce Miller and Louise Yeoman, 'The Survey of Scottish Witchcraft', http://www.arts.ed.ac.uk/witches/