Isbuster,Helen
Case Reference: C/EGD/2264
| Case Ref | C/EGD/2264 |
|---|---|
| Accused | Helen Isbuster |
| Case Start Date | 5/8/1635 |
| Case Date | 23/8/1635 |
| Common Name | Isbuster,Helen |
|---|
| Type | Primary | Secondary |
|---|---|---|
| Demonic | — | ✓ |
| Folk Healing | ✓ | ✓ |
| Maleficium | — | ✓ |
| White Magic | — | ✓ |
Notes: This one is all about folk healing and the fallout after failed or backfired healing attempts.
| Type | Text |
|---|---|
| Sex | with a black man |
Devil Appearances
| Type | Text |
|---|---|
| Male | black man |
| Elphane/Fairyland | — |
|---|---|
| Food/Drink | — |
| Verbal Formulae | — |
| Ritual Acts | ✓ |
| Familiars | — |
| Shape Changing | — |
|---|---|
| Dreams/Visions | — |
| Unorthodox Religious Practice | — |
| Sympathetic Magic | ✓ |
| Riding Dead | — |
Notes: She was accused of charming the 'meisses' [mice?] of Saba into going into a stack of corn where they all died. She orchestrated a wedding against a man's will and then his wife wouldn't lay with him. He consulted her mother and Helen who prescribed a ritual involving half a bannock bread placed under his left arm and water sprinkled in his bed. It didn't work, the man reproved her so she damaged his goods. She also gave a man a blue thread for protection. He also seems to have performed a diagnosis and unbewitching ritual that the dittay calls healing.
Ritual Objects
- Bannock
- Water
- Thread
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: She made cows run mad. She damaged a man's goods after a failed white magic attempt.
Property Damage Types
- Whole Estate
White Magic
- Love magic
- Protective
- Revenge
- Charming
- Superstition
- Counter-magic
| Source | Reference | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| private papers | D20/2/16/1 | See also J G Dalyell 'The Darker Superstitions of Scotland' Edinburgh, 1834, pp. 270, 307. The project did not check Larner's reference to this printed secondary source as part of the research. |
| private papers | D23/14/8 |
| Trial Ref | Date | Year | Verdict | Sentence | Execution |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| T/LA/1408 | 23/8/1635 | 1635 | No |