Wilsone,Christiane
Case Reference: C/EGD/383
Case Summary
| Case Ref | C/EGD/383 |
|---|---|
| Accused | Christiane Wilsone |
| Case Start Date | 10/6/1661 |
| Case Date | 3/8/1661 |
| Common Name | Wilsone,Christiane |
|---|
Characterisation
| Type | Primary | Secondary |
|---|---|---|
| Maleficium | — | ✓ |
| Implicated by Another | — | ✓ |
| Neighbourhood Dispute | — | ✓ |
| Elphane/Fairyland | — |
|---|---|
| Food/Drink | — |
| Verbal Formulae | — |
| Ritual Acts | — |
| Familiars | — |
| Shape Changing | — |
|---|---|
| Dreams/Visions | — |
| Unorthodox Religious Practice | — |
| Sympathetic Magic | — |
| Riding Dead | — |
Shape Changing
| Type | Details |
|---|---|
| Animal | grey cat |
| Phantom | Rat |
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: threatened that a woman would remain childless; confessed to killing her brother saying that she was worthy of death for that reason, fall outs, cursing, death
- Social slight
- Revenge for being called a witch
- Failed business interaction
- Sorcery
- Charming
| Name | Title | Involvement | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| John Biggar | Major of Womett | Commissioner | |
| Alexander Calderwood | Investigator | ||
| Robert Dobie | of Stanehill | Commissioner | |
| John Kincaid | Witch-pricker | ||
| William Murray | Sir of Newton | Investigator | |
| Robert Porteous | Investigator | ||
| James Rutherford | Sir of Smeaton | Commissioner | |
| William Scott | Investigator | also commissioner | |
| Walter Scott | of St Leonards | Commissioner | also investigator |
| Patrick Scott | of Langshaw | Commissioner |
| Source | Reference | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Books of Adjournal | JC2/11; JC2/10 fos. 10v-17v | JC2/11 and JC2/10 have exactly the same text! Except the sederunt in JC2/10 doesn't say that the trial happened in Dalkeith. Also found in the High Court Record Index, no. 1 for 3/8/1661, this index did not distinguish between circuit and high court cases. This list of names was added in the margins with a modern hand, no indication of where the person got the list. |
| Books of Adjournal | JC2/11; JC2/10 fos. 34r-41r | mentioned |
| High Court Process Notes | JC26/27/9 item 2 | ItÔÇÖs a preliminary report with witness testimony, a preliminary dittay. |
| High Court Process Notes | JC26/27/9 item 4 | Draft of the JC2 trial |
| High Court Process Notes | JC26/27/9 item 7 | similar content as JC26/27/9 item 4, only with better hand writing |
| High Court Process Notes | JC26/27/9 item 20 | witnesses, bad handwriting, mostly repeat of info in other docs. Seems to be a draft of the Books of Adjournal text. |
Trials (2)
Case Notes
The main issue in her case was that she killed her brother, for which she expressed extreme remorse and thought she should die (lots of witnesses testified to this). She seemed to have lived with her brother at the time, more likely she lived just next door, perhaps in a semi-attached kind of house. She had many conflicts within her immediate family, her brother and a nephew.