Witchcraft In The Olden Time.

WITCHCRAFT IN THE OLDEN TIME .

THE following article , from the pen of the veteran ex-Secretary of the Grand Lodge of Scotland Bro . D . Murray Lyon , a man not less distinguished for his services to Freemasonry than for his perseverance and industry in rescuing from oblivion the early history of the town of Ayr , will be read with much interest . ( It is about to

be printed for private circulation . ) Apart altogether from the personality of the writer , the subject dealt with is one that is still of considerable interest . Trials for witchcraft were extremely common all over Scotland . It may be doubted , we think , whether the whole truth concerning these trials is generally known : —

Though from wording of certain munutes of the Ayr Town Council there is ground for believing that a woman named Marion Grieve had been ourned in Ayr in the year 1595 for witchcraft , the Burgh Records did not contain conclusive evidence on the point , or of the infliction of death upon any other person convicted of the crime . In a subsequent examination of the Session Records we have discovered an entry showing that the Kirk Session had seen fit

to alter its day of meeting on account of the trial of Margaret Wallace for witchcraft—and further , that the said Margaret was condemned on the 9 th and burned to death on the morning of Tuesday , the 13 th October J 629 : "Apud Ayre ix Oct ., 1629 : All processis contenewad till ye nixt daye , in respect of the assyis to be haldin on Margrat Wallace suspect of witchecraft . Condemnit this daye , and burnt on the morne on Twysdaye 13 Oct . "

This memorandum of the Kirk Session of Ayr is valuable as being , so far as is known , the only authentic record of an execution for witchcraft having taken place in the burgh . And it is worthy of notice that this occurred at a time when the cure of the parish was served by an Episcopal minister , Mr . William Annand .

It appears from certain minutes of Presbytery , 1 643 an ^ 1650 , that the communities of Ayr and Newton-upon-Ayr were so greatly troubled with witches that applications for commissions to try these unfortunate persons were made to ' the Secret Council . The intended raid upon witches resident in Ayr and Newton , as ordered by the Presbytery , is thus referred to in their minutes : —

" This day ( March 22 , 1643 ) in respect of sundrie depositions given in before the Prbrie , against Susanna Shang spous to David Barcley burges of Ayr , wherin thair wer fund great presumptions of the sin of witchcraft , thairfore the Prbrie , considering heirof ordained a letter to be directed to the Lords of Counsell for purchasing ane wairand to try the said Susanna , qlk suld be subscrybed by the

moderator ( Fergushill ) and clerk in thair names . '' ... " ( May 1 . 1650 : present the two ministers of Ayr , Eccles and Adair , Lord Cathcart , etc . ) The Prbrie , taking-to there serious consideration the points of dittay presented to them by Gilbert Richard provist of Air and Gilbert ivfcAmount baillie there against Jonnet McGraine , Helene Girvan , Jonnet Smelly , all guiltie by there awn confessions

of that horrid and deveush sin of sorcerie , did judge the particular points conteand in the said dittayes against the saids persones a sufficient ground to obteane a commission for there tryall and condigne punishment , and therefore ordaned that a supplication might be drawne vp by the saids magistrats to the Lords of Secret Counsell to that effect . As lykwise the Prbrie , having maturely considered the

points of dittay against Jonnet Mores m Newtowne of Air , guiltie of witchcraft by her own confession , ordaned the judges of the said Newtowne to supplicat the saids Lords of Secret Counsell for a commission against the said Jonet Mores . " ... " ( May 15 , 1650 ) Mr . Hew Eccles modr . made report that he had written to the States

for a generall commission against witches , as also to the Baillies of Carrik to vse the lyke diligence against witches within there bounds . . . . The Pibre , having considered the points of dittay given in against Bessie McKallum in Newtowne of Air suspect of sorcerie , did judge the same ane sufficient ground fcr obteaning a commission against her . "

A WITCH'S DEAD BODY BURNT . Nothing is known of the result of these applications , and except in the case of Janet Smellie we are equally ignorant of the fate of the women against whom the warrants were sought . Smellie having in May 1650 died in prison , her body was burned at the foot of the gallows . A piece of ground adjacent to Mill Street now crossed by the railway was the then common place of execution . As a " filthie sklanderer & 'blasphemer , " this woman was a standing . pest to the

town for more than thirty years . Innumerable were her appearances in the juggs at the Fish Cross with the spur in her mouth : a . considerable portion of her time was spent in the "woman housse , " a dungeon under the tolbooth stair : and often banished the town , she as often returned . , Her love of " stark [ strong ] drink " is apparent from the wording of one of the sentences passed upon her by the Kirk Session : —

" Comperit Jonnet Smellie ( 1613 ) being convict of filthie & sclandrous speiches itowardis hir neighbours was ordanit to be cairtit to the Fish Croce and the spurr to be put in hir mouth , according to ane former act given out aganes hir , ... Comperit ( 1621 ) and granted her vnchrdstian raylingis aganis Johne Power and submitted herselff humblie to the Sessiouns will , ordanit to paye xxs and satisfie heeche [ in the most exposed part of ' the kirk ] , and ye

minister yat receaves her to shawe yat she was convicted for intending to poysvn herselff qn put into ye bradzean and spurr for blaspheming , imprisoned diverse tymes for numerous misbehaviouris to sindrie persones , quhairwpone banischment was concluded aganis her & that riowe shee should satisfie for ye said raylings and the same to be particularlie laid to her chairge . . . ( 1628 ) For great injuries

done to her haill nyghtbors and contempt vsed aganes ye Sessioun . . . to be apprehendit instantlie and put into ye woman housse wnder the tolbuith staire , and remaine thair for the space of fourteine dayes vpon bread & water in . ye meanest sort , and quha presumes to transgres . e yis ordinance in given her ayall or vvyne or onye wther stark drink to paye fyve libs and be in the Sessiouns will . "

Witchcraft In The Olden Time.

In the end of 1629 she was remitted to the magistrates by the Session , as an incorrigible offender ; and , according to the Burgh Records , was , in March 1630 , tried " on suspitioun of witchcraft and sorcerie , " and banished the sheriffdom of Ayr . In an entry in their

books of corresponding date , the Session are represented as referring to the Council " the hinderris of the executioun of Janet Smeallie /' This is suggestive of her having been sentenced to death , but that the severity of her sentence having excited the public sympathy she had been released from the gibbet , to undergo the milder punishment .

• MAGGIE OSBORNE . The burning of this person at the Market Cross for witchcraft about the middle of the 17 th century is the subject of local tradition . According to this authority it was through her familiarity with the devil that Maggie Osborne had accomplished the erection of a house in the High Street of Ayr in the course of one night , and by her incantations had effected * the loss of many a ship . Her infernal cantrips were believed to be pursued under various transformations

—as a cat upon her own house-top , as a black cow upon the kirk rigging , as a cock , a crow , a bumbee , and a spider . The terror of the town ' s-people , she was often put into ward , and as often , according to the tradition in question , escaped by the keyhole of her prison . On the suggestion of the parish minister , she was unshod , and-the spell being thus broken ( the compact between her and the prince of darkness being kept in her bauchels ) she confessed to having been in league jvkh the devil , and was afterwards burned as a witch .

" . . . Scorch'd to deyth like a deid cinder , Black as a sheep-heid they singed her : Doun tae the Cross then Satan flew , Up frae the flames her body drew , Then wi' a yell and horrid laugh , Tae hell he wi' his prize flew aff . "

No record exists , either local or national , of the trial or execution of any such person at Ayr . But this need not be wondered at , nor can it be held as showing that the tradition is a fiction , for it is only through an incidental notice in one of the preceding minutes that we are made aware of an assize ever having been held at Ayr for the trial of a witch . The house Nos . 76 and 78 High Street , nearly opposite

the site of the Fish Cross , has beyond the memory of any now living been pointed to as that with the building of which tradition has associated the name of Maggie Osborne . In the writer ' s researches for material for the present article , he has found in a minute of the Town Council of 28 th March 1626 , what may be held as confirmatory of the fact that a house was built at this place by Margaret

Osbornea point that has hitherto escaped observation . ' This house seems to have been built on the site of an older one , whose boundary had been overstepped , so that the foundation of the new erection encroached upon the public street . In these circumstances Maggie went to the Town Council , and acknowledging their powers and putting herself " in their will" in the matter of indemnification , was allowed to proceed with the erection of her house on the line she had chosen : —

" The qlk day comperit Mergaret Osburne ye spouis of Johnne Rankene merchand burges of vis burt , quha becume in ye will of ye provest baillies and counsale yrof in ye name & behalf of hir said spouis anent ye bigging and setting furt be hir and hir said spouis of yr tenement in ye flesche mercat of yis burt ferder furt vpoun ye hie streit yrof nor ye auld foundatioun of ye auld wallis of ye samen

qlk she hes now in bigging , and anent quhat satisfactioun ye said Mergaret and hir said spouis sail gif ye saids provest baillies and counsale for ye licence yrto ... ye said Mergaret for hirself and hir said spouis faytfullie promeist to abyd yrat vnderly & fulfill ye samen in all pointis bot ony dirogatioun or revocations aganis ye samen . "

Margaret seems to have had a capacity for business ; and by means of the bustling energy which your practical managing woman often possesses , she may have urged on the work with an expedition which to the slow-moving minds of our ancestors may have appeared

" uncanny . " The story talked of for years and gradually magnified may at length have created the belief that the house was built by the aid of the devil . What was pointed out as Maggie Osborne ' s grave has disappeared with the feuing of that portion of the Fort which two hundred and fifty years ago embraced the parish kirkyard .

WITCH-FINDERS AND FORTUNE-TELLERS . The employment of a professional witch-finder by the Kirk Session of Straiton was in 1644 disallowed by the Presbytery , on the ground that the practice had been condemned by the General Assembly : " A letter preysented from Mr . Johne McQuorne minister at Straton , wherin he requyred the Prbries advyse whither or not a young woman in Galloway called Jeane McMurran might be consulted with for tryell of sundrie persones suspect of witchcraft in his

paroche , in respect the said Jeane took wpon her the discoyerie of witches throw the countrey . Mr . James Bonner declared that the late Generall Assemblie holden in Edr . had condemned and discharged the foirsd practise in all tyme comming , wherwitho the Prbrie did condiscend . " The only other recorded proceedings of the Presbytery in connection with witchcraft have reference to the flight from Tarbolton to Auchinleck of a witch and her husband , who seem to have been hunted out of the county .

In a case before the Session in 1630 , the charge of suspected witchcraft was supported by the statement that the accused on one occasion had " folowed her nytbours kye with a cogge full of blood . " It was then a common practice for men and women of all ranks to seek " charms" from reputed witches . Half a century nearer our own time the Session found it necessary to undertake a crusade against persons " pretending to tell fortunes and find things lost . " Well on in the nineteenth century the burgh afforded shelter and means of support to more than one professional spaewife , whose patrons wer § tiot confined to the humbler ranks . — " North British Daily Mail , "