In a poignant and distressing example of the fear that gripped 16th-century Scotland, Meg Dow, a mere child of nine years, fell victim to the witch trials that swept through the country. She was among the youngest to be accused, a stark reminder of the indiscriminate nature of these purges. Residing in Gilmerton, a village near Edinburgh, Meg was brought to trial on the 28th of April, 1590. The historical record, although imperfectly transcribed, unmistakably marks her young age, creating a jarring image of innocence subsumed by the era's paranoia.
Meg was first questioned on the 14th of April, and again on the 20th, leading up to her trial. The judicial process was swift and unforgiving, driven by the prevailing climate of suspicion and fear of witchcraft. On that fateful April day in 1590, she was found guilty and sentenced to an execution that took place at Castle Hill, a common site for such grim proceedings in Edinburgh. The method was both strangulation and burning, reflecting the severity with which such cases were often handled.
Her name arises again in connection with another trial, that of Janet Pook, though the exact nature of this reference is lost to time, noted only that she was somehow mentioned. This connection, whatever it may have been, intertwines Meg's fate with the broader tapestry of the trials surrounding her. Meg Dow's execution at such a tender age stands as a tragic episode, capturing the indiscriminate reach of the witchcraft hysteria that enveloped early modern Scotland.