Great Scottish witch hunt of 1649–50
Political and religious turmoil was caused by defeat for the Scottish army in the Second English Civil War and the rise to power of the radical Kirk party, who attempted to create a "godly society", rooting out witches and other offenders.
Most of the trials were initiated by the local minister and his session or consistory, who aimed to obtain proof or a confession from the accused person.
[2] In 1648 the Scottish Covenanter regime had been defeated by the forces of the New Model Army under Oliver Cromwell at the Battle of Preston in the Second English Civil War.
The Kirk party was unwilling to compromise on Covenanter principles and aimed to purge Scotland to create a "godly society".
[4] Through the 1640s the General Assembly and the Commission of the Kirk lobbied for the enforcement and extension of the Witchcraft Act 1563, which had been the basis of previous witch trials.
The Covenanter regime passed a series of acts to enforce godliness in 1649, which made capital offences of blasphemy, the worship of false gods and for beaters and cursers of their parents.
[5] In July 1650 Cromwell led an army of 16,000 over the border at Berwick and moved towards Edinburgh, taking control of the Lowlands and eventually winning the decisive victory at Dunbar in September that brought the rule of the Kirk party to an end.
[8] There is one surviving and dated accusation for February 1649, a brewer in Dunfermline who successfully defended himself against a charge of using magic, perhaps to enhance his beer.
[15] The hunt spilled over into northern England, where a cluster of trials took place in the towns of Newcastle-upon-Tyne and Berwick-upon-Tweed as well as in the surrounding villages in Northumberland, in which Scottish witch hunters were involved.
[25] Most of the hunts were initiated by the local minister and his session or consistory, who aimed to obtain proof or a confession from the accused person.
The expense and difficulty of managing witch trials meant that local authorities often asked for help from the government, as the overwhelmed presbytery of Dunfermline did in 1649.
[29] Scottish witchcraft trials were notable for their use of pricking,[30] in which a suspect's skin was pierced with needles, pins and bodkins as it was believed that they would possess a Devil's mark through which they could not feel pain.
such as John Kincaid from Tranent, who was active in finding marks on Patrick Watson and Manie Halieburton at Dirleton Castle before June 1649.
There he was again arrested and later executed, having admitted to having caused the death through fraudulent means of 220 women accused of witchcraft in Scotland and England.
[39] In 1652, after the English occupation, it was reported in England that six witches had been whipped, their feet and heads burnt with lighted candles while they were strung up by their thumbs with their hands behind their backs.
[40] B. P. Levack argues that torture was more common in "panic years" like 1649, leading to a growth of hunts as confessions and the names of other potential witches were obtained.
