Introduction to Scottish Witchcraft

By Julian Goodare, Lauren Martin, Joyce Miller and Louise Yeoman, January 2003.

How many witches were there in Scotland?

The database identifies 3,837 people who were accused of witchcraft in Scotland. 3,212 of these are named and there are a further 625 unnamed people or groups.

Earlier estimates suggesting 4,500 or 30,000 cases relied on speculation rather than rigorous investigation. The researchers emphasise that inflated figures, particularly those claiming execution numbers, perpetuate misconceptions. European witch-hunting resulted in approximately 60,000 executions, not the frequently cited 9 million.

How complete is the database?

The survey acknowledges unavoidable gaps due to missing historical records. While the 3,837 cases represent most documented accusations, the database likely remains incomplete.

For many cases, minimal information survives beyond confirming the accused person's existence. Trial authorisation records exist more commonly than execution confirmations, making actual execution counts difficult to determine. However, detailed cases provide rich information about accusers, family dynamics, occupations, and contemporary beliefs regarding supernatural forces.

How many witches were executed?

Among 3,212 named individuals, we know the sentence of a trial in only 305 cases. 205 of these were to be executed, 52 were acquitted, 27 were banished, 11 were declared fugitive, 6 were excommunicated, 2 were put to the horn (outlawed), 1 person was to be kept in prison and 1 person was to be publicly humiliated.

This suggests approximately 67% execution rates, though the researchers caution this figure lacks precision. The 305 cases represent less than 10% of total accusations and skew toward central court trials, which reportedly acquitted higher proportions than local courts where most prosecutions occurred.

How many were women?

84% were women and 15% men. The sex is not known for 1% of those accused.

Were they old?

Age distribution among the accused shows:

• 7% under 20 years old
• 8% aged 20–30
• 22% aged 30–40
• 22% aged 40–50
• 31% aged 50–60
• 7% aged 60–70
• 4% over 70

Approximately half were over 40 when accused, notable given lower life expectancies. However, many individuals lived with their reputation for a long time — twenty or even forty years — before formal accusations, suggesting they acquired witchcraft reputations while younger.

Were they widowed?

Among women whose marital status was documented, 78% were married and 19% were widowed. However, marital status data exists for only a small percentage overall. The bias toward recording married women's status likely skews these figures, as husbands' legal interests motivated documentation.

Where did they come from?

Geographic distribution shows:

• 32% from the Lothians
• 14% from Strathclyde and the west
• 12% from Fife
• 9% from the Borders
• 7% from Grampian including Aberdeen
• 6% each from Tayside and the Highlands and Islands
• 5% from Caithness, Orkney and Shetland
• 2% from Central region

The concentration in Scotland's central belt is striking compared to more dispersed early modern population distribution. Haddingtonshire (East Lothian) led in witch-hunting activity.

When were the prosecutions?

Operating between 1563–1736, witchcraft prosecution experienced five major peaks: 1590–1, 1597, 1628–30, 1649, and 1661–2. These episodes emerged from localised activities rather than coordinated national campaigns, particularly in the Lothians. Other Scottish regions experienced varied chronological patterns.

Were the witches midwives or healers?

Only 9 individuals whose occupation was recorded as being a midwife, and 10 people where midwifery practices were included as part of the accusations. Folk healing appeared in accusations against roughly 4% of cases.

Most accused witches lacked these professions, though beliefs underlying folk healing connected closely with witchcraft concepts — magic could theoretically heal or harm.

Were they poor?

Of those individuals whose status was indicated the majority fell into the middle range — 64%. The total of those who came from lower socio-economic categories accounted for 29%, with upper, lairds and nobility accounting for 6%.

Status information exists for only a minority, so these percentages may not reflect the complete picture, but suggest accused witches typically occupied moderate economic positions.

How does Scotland compare to England and the rest of Europe?

Scotland's gender ratio of approximately 85% women aligns with most Continental Europe. However, regions including Estonia, Russia, Finland, and Iceland showed comparable or higher percentages of male accusations, with Icelandic male executions reaching 90%.

Scotland resembles mainland European patterns more closely than politically and culturally distinct areas like France or German regions, where major witch trials concentrated. Scandinavian comparisons reveal substantially different patterns.

Were the witches tortured?

Yes. Torture was used to exact confessions — though we don't know how often. Theoretically requiring state authorisation, in reality it would seem that torture was frequently used without any official permission. Even after 1661–2 privy council restrictions, torture persisted through at least 1704.

What kinds of torture were used?

The most common form was sleep deprivation — a very effective way of obtaining confessions, because it leads to hallucination. Authorities rarely classified this officially as torture before 1662.

Physical tortures appeared occasionally, particularly during the 1590–1 North Berwick panic involving treason accusations against King James VI. The pamphlet Newes from Scotland (1591) describes these methods, though such brutal practices remained unusual.

What about the swimming test?

This method was hardly ever used in Scotland, though it was in some other countries. The traditional narrative — witches float if guilty, sink if innocent — misrepresents the actual practice involving safety ropes.

Swimming tests occurred in 1597 with unknown frequency but became discredited afterward, with no evidence that it was ever used again.

What evidence was used in the trials?

Four primary evidence types appeared:

1. Confession evidence, frequently extracted through torture. Confessions typically involved Devil pacts and maleficent witchcraft claims against neighbours, though sometimes one element was omitted.
2. Neighbours' testimony describing quarrels with suspects followed by subsequent misfortune, typically avoiding Devil references.
3. Other witches' testimony naming accomplices during interrogation, effectively expanding suspect pools during intense witch-hunting periods.
4. Devil's mark detection through body searches identifying visible blemishes or insensitive spots discovered via pin-pricking by interrogators or approximately 10 known itinerant professional witch-prickers.

Was it a rapid process from accusation to execution?

Timeline variation proved substantial. Some individuals maintained witchcraft reputations for a long time — twenty or even forty years — before formal investigation, while church authorities might investigate suspects multiple times before witchcraft charges.

Other cases progressed rapidly through prosecution. Outcomes varied significantly, including acquittals, prison escapes, and deaths from natural causes or suicide.

What courts were involved?

Multiple court types participated in witchcraft cases:

1. Local church courts (kirk sessions and presbyteries) received complaints, interrogated suspects, and gathered evidence but lacked execution authority.
2. Privy council, committee of estates or parliament issued commissions of justiciary authorising trials without conducting them directly.
3. Court of justiciary, the highest criminal court, typically sitting in Edinburgh and trying numerous witches.
4. Circuit courts provided travelling versions of the court of justiciary for local witch trials.
5. Regular local courts (sheriff and burgh courts) typically lacked jurisdiction over witchcraft as a serious crime.
6. Local criminal courts under commissions of justiciary operated as ad hoc tribunals trying individual witchcraft cases. Most Scottish witches were tried in such courts. Few of their records survive.

How were witches executed?

Those convicted were almost always strangled at the stake and then their dead body was burned. Of 141 documented execution sentences, 120 were for strangling and burning.

Of 17 burning-only sentences, many likely involved prior strangulation, though a small number were burned alive. Beheading (3 cases) and hanging (1 case) accompanied other crimes beyond witchcraft.

Who profited financially from witch-hunting?

Hardly anyone. Though courts confiscated witches' goods, poverty typically made this unprofitable and rarely covered prosecution costs.

Primary beneficiaries included low-level official servants — jailers and executioners — plus a few witch-prickers. Conversely, most of the people involved in witch-hunting gave up time and money to do it. They did so because they believed in what they were doing.

Did witches meet in groups of thirteen?

No. While some confessions described communal meetings, the numbers involved varied greatly: from 2 to over 100, and in one case 2,400.

Most of these meetings were probably invented by suspects under heavy pressure to confess. The stereotype coven of 13 is a modern invention. The idea derives largely from Isobel Gowdie's confession, which contains so many fantastic elements that it cannot represent literal fact.

Did they worship the Devil?

No, though they were believed to. Descriptions of meeting the Devil and entering a relationship or pact with him feature in the majority of our records.

This Devil relationship proved crucial for establishing legal guilt. 90% of those whose records show demonic features were women. Many people were tortured into confessing to Devil-worship. The researchers found no evidence of an organised witchcraft cult.

Did they have drug-induced hallucinations?

No. Recent television promotions of ergotism theory — attributing witchcraft accusations to ergot fungus-contaminated rye consumption — originated explaining 1692 Salem events and has largely been discredited there with minimal success elsewhere.

There is certainly no evidence for it in Scotland, where very little rye was eaten.

What did witches look like?

Despite Continental woodcuts depicting grotesque witches, there is little evidence for what those accused of witchcraft looked like or wore. Probably they were much the same as everyone else.

Did they fly on broomsticks and own cats?

Limited evidence exists for shape-shifting and flight, but in Scotland they did not claim to use broomsticks — this is a Continental idea.

Familiar animals, particularly cats, remain mainly found in England rather than Scotland. There are only 9 cases where we have identified what could categorically be defined as a familiar, so this does not seem to have been an important aspect of Scottish witchcraft.

How did witch-hunting come to an end?

Central court lawyers increasingly questioned whether standard evidence proved guilt. The validity of confessions made under torture was questioned, and pricking for the Devil's mark came to be seen as fraudulent.

Major panics, notably 1661–2, exposed justice system failures, tightening procedures. Post-1689 Glorious Revolution state secularisation reduced governmental need to demonstrate godliness through executions. Local prosecutions continued sporadically, with the last in 1727.

The Scottish Witchcraft Act was repealed in 1736 when the British Parliament decided to repeal the parallel English act. The 1736 Act abolished the crime of witchcraft and replaced it by a new crime of ‘pretended witchcraft’ with a maximum penalty of one year's imprisonment.

This is fascinating, where can I find out more?

The database itself provides searchable information with detailed case studies. Readers should consult books for comprehensive understanding, as internet resources often contain poor-quality or misleading witchcraft information. See our Further Reading section for scholarly sources.