Cragie,Katherine

Case Reference: C/EGD/1278

Case Summary
Case RefC/EGD/1278
AccusedKatherine Cragie
Case Start Date17/6/1640
Case Date22/7/1643
Common NameCragie,Katherine
Characterization
TypePrimarySecondary
Unorthodox Religious Practice
Folk Healing
Maleficium
White Magic

Notes: interesting case, two dittays survive in the RPC and she had a unique way of diagnosing disease by discovering which spirit was 'lying upon' her victim and then curing it with the usual stones in water.

Elphane/Fairyland
Food/Drink
Verbal Formulae
Ritual Acts
Familiars
Shape Changing
Dreams/Visions
Unorthodox Religious Practice
Sympathetic Magic
Riding Dead

Notes: She pronounced an illness was due to Kirk spirits. She put hot stones on the threshold and then into water and used the water to wash a sick person to get rid of the Kirk spirits. Did the ritual three times. She was seen doing things around a loch. Said she could get someone's husband home from sea through a storm. She was accused of divining the future of when people would die and whether or not they would recover. She also caused an illness by placing a bundle of grasses with a woman's spinning.

Ritual Objects
  • Stones
  • Water
  • Herb
  • Cloth
Religious Motifs
  • Three

Harm
Human Illness
Human Death
Animal Illness
Animal Death
Female Infertility
Male Impotence
Methods
Aggravating Disease
Transferring Disease
Laying On
Quarreling
Cursing
Poisoning
Healing / Other
Removal of Bewitchment
Recognised Healer
Healing Humans
Healing Animals
Midwifery
Property Damage
Weather Modification

Disease Notes: Caused a huge boil to disfigure a woman's face after she told people about her healing techniques.

White Magic
  • Protective
  • Love magic
  • Prophesy

  • Revenge

  • Superstition
  • Divination

NameTitleInvolvementNotes
William Dick Sir of BraidInvestigator

SourceReferenceNotes
RPC2nd S, v7 pp. 474-477its in the miscellaneous papers section and it references a trial held in Kirkwall. Also in Abbotsford Club Misc. p. 32-48.
RPC2nd S, v8 p. 63, 64, 65-70summoning of witnesses for the trial, depositions and dittay. The dittay added some charges from the v7 version.
Trials (2)
Trial RefDateYearVerdictSentenceExecution
T/LA/1012 17/6/16401640 Not Guilty No
T/LA/1014 11/7/16431643 GuiltyExecution Yes
Case Notes
The first dittay and report of trial was from 1640, the second in RPC v8 was from 1643.