Witches Receive Pardon

Matilda Omonaiye/

Thousands of women accused of witchcraft in Scotland are set to be posthumously pardoned after almost 300 years, according to MailOnline.

Their crimes range from causing hangovers and turning into an owl to meeting with the Devil and conjuring up storms to sink the ships of King James VI. 

Now, as a result of a petition, those accused of being witches under the Witchcraft Act between 1563 and 1736 are to have their names cleared. 

Of the approximate 4,000 people accused, over half were executed. And more than 85 per cent of those convicted were women or girls.

A members’ bill in the Scottish parliament has gained the support of Nicola Sturgeon’s administration after a two-year campaign.

The petition had been instigated by Ms Claire Mitchell QC, who leads Witches of Scotland, a group campaigning for a pardon, a government apology and an official monument for the victims. 

Mitchell was partly inspired by the case of Lilias Adie.

After confessing, under duress, to the crimes of casting malicious spells and having sex with the Devil, Ms Adie, from Torryburn, Fife, Adie died in 1704.

She had been sentenced to be burnt to death but died in prison, possibly by suicide. 

Her body was buried on the village’s foreshore under a large stone.

In recognition, Torryburn villagers and members of the ‘Fife Witches Remembered’ Facebook gathered at her grave on September 1, 2019, and laid wreaths.

The event also commemorated the thousands of Scottish men and women prosecuted and killed for allegedly practising witchcraft in the 16 to 18th centuries.

The fear of ‘witches’ centuries ago was fuelled by religion. The Catholic Church had decreed that heretics and witches should be burned at the stake. 

Witchcraft laws passed by James IV of Scotland led to a nationwide search for witches that became known as the Great Scottish Witch Hunt of 1597.

It was in fact the second of five national witch hunts in Scottish history. 

Like the others it was conducted under the supervision of Royal Commissions.

But it is one of the most poorly documented of the Great Scottish Witch hunts as it was not documented centrally.

Instead, local authorities were left to record the accusations and outcomes of trials. 

Around 200 ‘witches’ are believed to have been killed in the 1597 witch hunt.

The other Great Scottish Witch Hunts took place in 1590-91, 1628-1631, 1649-59 and 1661-62.

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