‘The whelk ye freely confessed’ : The Witch Trials in Crook of Devon 3

In the Crook of Devon trials all the women (and the single man) who were convicted, had confessed to making a pact with Satan. He had asked them to be his servant, often promising that ‘they should not want’ or promising gifts of bread and ale. The accused would place their hand on their head and on the sole of their foot, to signify that everything in between was now belonging to the devil. All forsook their baptism, some received a new name and a few got a witches’ mark. They would meet with the devil, often in the presence of others, also delated in the processes. Most had sexual intercourse with the devil, commenting on the ‘coldness’ of his body.

The emphasis on a pact with the devil is an interesting phenomenon. The concept of a powerful Satan sits uneasily with the concept of an all powerful God. Satan and God could not be equal and opposing powers; but at the same time, the power of Satan should not be underestimated. Many pamphlets, published in the 17th and 18th century, emphasised the existence of ghosts and the devil, as an indirect means of proving the existence of God.

Throughout the history of witch-hunts in the Early Modern period, there seems to have been a distinction between popular witchcraft beliefs and the beliefs of the cultural elite. Peasants in rural communities were (understandably) more concerned with the malefice (bad acts) done by witches than by the pact with the devil. Therefore we often see in witch trials that the witch-hunting process started with a long-standing reputation of having done evil acts. Once the authorities became involved, they searched for the defining proof of witch craft, which was the Diabolic Pact.
In the Crook of Devon trials, the interrogators were particularly interested in details about the devil. There was not much agreement about these: to Isabel he appeared as a man with a blue bonnet and grey clothes. Bessie had also seen the blue bonnet, but to her the devil appeared as a ‘bonny young lad’. According to Robert Wilson he was on a horse, wearing a Spanish cape, Bessie Neil saw him wear dun-coloured clothes; Margaret said his clothes were grey. Margaret Huggon found him an ‘uncouth main wearing black clothes and a hood’. Janet Brugh had to call him ‘Watt Mahoun’.
Agnes Murie is a case typical for all those tried in Fossoway. She was accused of laying on an illness on Henry Anderson and harming cattle and horses. She was also accused of meeting the devil at Martinmas (November) in 1661. He promised her enough silver to buy corn to last her till Lammas (1st of August), if Agnes would be his servant. Agnes forsook her baptism and he gave her a new name: Rossina. She then had sexual intercourse with him. On another occasion she met him again; others were present: Robert Wilson from Crook of Devon, his wife Gilles Hutton, Agnes Allene and Margaret Duncan. Agnes ‘freely confessed all this in the presence of the minister, Mr Alexander Ireland and Mr Robert Alexander’. Others were also implicated in Agnes’ confession: Agnes Sharp, Janet Paton and Janet Paton from Kilduff. They had been present during meetings with the devil, which took place at Turfhills, about 6 miles from Crook of Devon.

Agnes Murie, Bessie Henderson and Isabel Rutherford were the first to die. The convicted women had given the Session several names of others involved. It is difficult to give a definite number, because the spelling of names varies from document to document; there is also little variation in surnames and first names. A Janet Paton is mentioned several times, as is Agnes Brugh.
A ‘delation’ from a convicted witch was very serious indeed, and the Kirk Session followed it up with more imprisonment and gathering of evidence. Janet Brugh from Crook of Devon saw it coming; she was delated by many of the accused preceding her and fled. However, she was apprehended and confessed, like the others.

When reading the legal proceedings of her and the other trials, the uniformity of the confessions is obvious. At various times it is reinforced that the accused confessed voluntary: ‘the whelk ye freely confessed’. However, reading these dittays with modern eyes, it is fairly obvious that leading questions were asked in and before the trial and that the confessions were obtained through coercion.
The business of witch trials was an expensive one. In most cases the community was supposed to finance the imprisonment of the witch, the cost of the trial and, if the accused was found guilty, the execution. More often than not, families were thus paying for the execution of one of their own, although the assets of executed witches were also used to cover these costs. Between the beginning of March 1662 and October the same year the Fossoway community would have paid for the imprisonment and trial of 13 people and the execution of 11. In 1628 it cost over £13 to imprison, try and execute Janet Boyd in Dumbarton. A man would receive £7 for his work during one harvest period, so the trials in Crook of Devon could well have cost the equivalent of 25 men working one harvest; a sizeable sum for a small community. This would only be beneficial if the convicted witch was perceived to be a real danger to the community.

As the Kirk Session could not hand out the death penalty, which was the standard penalty for witchcraft, they sought a commission from the Privy Council. What may have happened
in the case of the Crook of Devon trials is that the Laird of Tullibole, William Halliday, wanted the commission to try the witches himself. Often, local lairds wanted the commission, perhaps because they knew that a local trial resulted more often in convictions and executions. Maybe some had ulterior motives for wanting the witches executed. However, by this time the Privy Council wanted to have more influence in the handling of witchcraft cases. They were cautious in giving out commissions and often only granted one when the trial was presided over by a legal professional from Edinburgh. In this case Mr Alexander Colville of Blair was appointed. Colville was Justice General Depute and an experienced judge. He had been presiding over witchcraft cases for several decades all over Scotland. During a different trial, in June 1662, he cautioned that allegations of co-accused need not always be true: ‘because the devel can mak appeirances false.’ He also cautioned against the witches’ mark being firm proof, knowing that there are parts of the body that can have less feeling in them.
Given that they were presided over by such an experienced and –at least partly- sceptical judge, the outcome of the Crook of Devon Witch trials is puzzling. It must have been obvious to Colville that at least some of the evidence presented was illegally obtained; pricking for the witches’ mark was all but prohibited after April 1662. The uniformity of the confessions is also troubling; to us it is clear that coercion played a part in getting the accused to confess. Is it really possible that in the cause of all five trials he presided over, Colville did not notice this? Perhaps he did but was still unable to influence the outcome of the trials. The Assize and the local dignitaries involved may have been displeased with the fact that they could not arrange the trial themselves, that someone from Edinburgh was sent to preside over them. On the other hand, confronted with a full confession, the Assize may not have had much choice but to find the defendants guilty. And once a guilty verdict was delivered, Colville may not have had any other choice than to pronounce the statutory penalty for witchcraft, which was death. Though the question remains what actually happened during and especially before the trial, it is obvious that the accused met with rough justice.

The trials started with setting out the legal framework, referring to the Witchcraft Act and to the infamous passage in Exodus: ‘thou shalt not suffer a witch to live’. The next step was to present the proof, starting with the ‘free’ confessions about having made a pact with the devil, sometimes receiving the witches’ mark, a new name and often having sexual intercourse with him. Finally there was a record of meetings with the devil and the delation of others who were present at those meetings. It was recorded to whom these confessions were made. Some names are mentioned several times: Alexander Ireland, Minister of Fossoway and Tullibole, Robert Alexander, Baillie of Tullibole, William Halliday, Laird of Tullibole, and Robert and William Livingstone, from the Cruick Mill in Crook of Devon.

The Assize or jury was fifteen strong and consisted of men who were of a higher social and economical status than the accused. They came from Carnbo, Cleish, Kinross, Crook of Devon and around. Some of them must have been acquainted with the accused, perhaps even related. In such a small community it is impossible that accused and Assize would have been total strangers.