Brown,Jean
Case Reference: C/EGD/2453
| Case Ref | C/EGD/2453 |
|---|---|
| Accused | Jean Brown |
| Case Start Date | 29/1/1706 |
| Case Date | 3/9/1706 |
| Age at Case | 41 |
| Common Name | Brown,Jean |
|---|
| Type | Primary | Secondary |
|---|---|---|
| Unorthodox Religious Practice | — | ✓ |
| Demonic | — | ✓ |
| Fairies | — | ✓ |
| Maleficium | — | ✓ |
| Other | ✓ | ✓ |
| White Magic | — | ✓ |
Other details: Blasphemy
Notes: Unusual case to characterise. Fairies included as she mentioned spirits although she denied they were fairies. This is also a late case so quite unusual. The presbytery seem to have been most concerned with her blasphemy, which for a time they felt were delusions. However, after she escaped from prison the charges against her refer to devilrie, blasphemy and other particulars of witchcraft.
Brown confessed that the spirits came to her at any time and conversed with her.They were not visible, but she could feel them and they lay with her 'carnally as men and women do'. She told the presbytery the spirits were God because they could cure sickness, that they were her maker and were the Father, Son and Holy Ghost. She also said she was married to them and that the spirits would take her to Heaven. Later described how when she was younger 3 young, pretty men came to her mother's house and offered the family a piece of paper (?some form of contract) which she took and thereafter always knew more than other people.
| Type | Text |
|---|---|
| Sex | |
| Tacit pact |
Devil Appearances
| Type | Text |
|---|---|
| Spirit | non-visible spirits |
| Elphane/Fairyland | — |
|---|---|
| Food/Drink | — |
| Verbal Formulae | ✓ |
| Ritual Acts | ✓ |
| Familiars | — |
| Shape Changing | — |
|---|---|
| Dreams/Visions | ✓ |
| Unorthodox Religious Practice | ✓ |
| Sympathetic Magic | ✓ |
| Riding Dead | — |
Notes: She confessed that they were good spirits, but did not refer to them as fairies, and they told her the world would be destroyed. Witnesses claimed she used charms, including a belt which had a tourner (a copper coin, not legal tender after 1707) and 3 pickles of wheat in it but she denied this. The spirits showed her a vision of the day of judgement, when the heavens were as thunder and fire.
Ritual Objects
- Water
- Belt
- Wheat
- Coin
Religious Motifs
- Eschatology
- Trinity
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: Claimed that her spirits had caused the death of a man after Brown had quarrelled with his wife. Also confessed that she had cast water over a sick child and the child had recovered. Denied that she had quarrelled with a woman who hit her after shearing.
White Magic
- Prophesy
- Blasphemy
Notes: Main accusation according to presbytery was blasphemy and devilish delusions which later became devilry, blasphemy and witchcraft.
| Name | Title | Involvement | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thomas Kerr | Mr | Minister | sent to Edinburgh to request commission from Queen's Advocat. |
| Robert Rowan | Mr | Minister |
| Source | Reference | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Truckell, A E 'Unpublished list of witchcraft cases in Galloway and Dumfriesshire' in 'Transactions of the Dumfriesshire and Galloway Natural History and Antiquarian Society', 1975. The project did not check Larner's reference to this printed secondary source as part of the research. | ||
| Wigtown Presbytery records | CH2/373/1, pp. 220-230. |
| Trial Ref | Date | Year | Verdict | Sentence | Execution |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| T/JO/1077 | Guilty | Excommunicated | No |