Pittenweem Priory (5)
More information on Pittenweem's witches is available from the Old Statistical Account:
"The town seems to have been very much troubled with witches at various times, and the last of them caused a great commotion in 1705, when several poor women were, at the instigation of a hysterical boy, imprisoned and placed at the mercy of a guard of "drunken fellows, who, by pinching and pricking some of them with pins and elsions, kept them from sleep for several days and nights together. 'Under this gentle treatment some of them became 'so wise as to acknowledge every question that was asked them.' One of them, Janet Corphat, was put in the prison under the steeple - probably the cell that still remains - but escaped by the low window, and got away to Leuchars.
Sent back by the minister of that parish, she was set on by a rabble, 'who fell upon the poor creature and beat her unmercifully, tying her so hard with a rope that she was almost strangled; they dragged her through the streets and alongst the shoar by the heels' till they were disturbed by one of the magistrates.
Gathering again, however, they 'streach'd a rope betwixt a ship and the shoar to a great height, to which they ty'd her fast; after which they swing'd her to and fro from one side to another, in the meantime throwing stones at her from all corners until they were weary. Then they loos'd her, and with a mighty swing threw her upon the hard sands, all about being ready in the meantime to receive her with stones and staves, with which they beat her most cruelly. They laid a heavy door upon her, with which they prest her so sore that she cried out to let her up for Christ's sake and she would tell the truth. But when they did let her up, what she said could not satisfy them, and therefore they again laid on her the door, and with a heavy weight of stones on it prest her to death; and to be sure it was so, they called a man with a horse and a sledge, and made him drive over her corps backward and forward several times.'
These and other particulars of similar brutal behaviour may be read in the pamphlets published at the time in connection with the case, which excited a great deal of attention, and led to legal proceedings against the magistrates, which must have led some of them at least to wish for no more witches in the neighbourhood.
Pittenweem Priory (5)
More information on Pittenweem's witches is available from the Old Statistical Account:
"The town seems to have been very much troubled with witches at various times, and the last of them caused a great commotion in 1705, when several poor women were, at the instigation of a hysterical boy, imprisoned and placed at the mercy of a guard of "drunken fellows, who, by pinching and pricking some of them with pins and elsions, kept them from sleep for several days and nights together. 'Under this gentle treatment some of them became 'so wise as to acknowledge every question that was asked them.' One of them, Janet Corphat, was put in the prison under the steeple - probably the cell that still remains - but escaped by the low window, and got away to Leuchars.
Sent back by the minister of that parish, she was set on by a rabble, 'who fell upon the poor creature and beat her unmercifully, tying her so hard with a rope that she was almost strangled; they dragged her through the streets and alongst the shoar by the heels' till they were disturbed by one of the magistrates.
Gathering again, however, they 'streach'd a rope betwixt a ship and the shoar to a great height, to which they ty'd her fast; after which they swing'd her to and fro from one side to another, in the meantime throwing stones at her from all corners until they were weary. Then they loos'd her, and with a mighty swing threw her upon the hard sands, all about being ready in the meantime to receive her with stones and staves, with which they beat her most cruelly. They laid a heavy door upon her, with which they prest her so sore that she cried out to let her up for Christ's sake and she would tell the truth. But when they did let her up, what she said could not satisfy them, and therefore they again laid on her the door, and with a heavy weight of stones on it prest her to death; and to be sure it was so, they called a man with a horse and a sledge, and made him drive over her corps backward and forward several times.'
These and other particulars of similar brutal behaviour may be read in the pamphlets published at the time in connection with the case, which excited a great deal of attention, and led to legal proceedings against the magistrates, which must have led some of them at least to wish for no more witches in the neighbourhood.